If you live in New York City, I have news items for you:
1) It is hot.
2) The third annual Popsickle literary festival is taking place this Saturday, at a place called the Paper Box NYC, beginning at noon, and you should attend.
Popsickle is an all-day affair of reading and performance, organized by the people behind some of Brooklyn's most exciting young reading series and presses. This year, participants have been culled by the organizers of Fireside Follies, Hatchet Job, Stain of Poetry, Belladonna, and others. A full list of contributors, as well as a schedule of performances, can be found on Popsickle's website. Here are a few readers whom you should make every effort to see, before they hit the big time (which, in this scene, probably means moving to a slightly bigger apartment, maybe in West Crown Heights or something).
Ryan Doyle May (reading at noon) is on some tenth-wave New York School shit. He wrote the chapbook The Anatomy of Gray (The Corresponding Society Press) and has acted in a movie. I strongly suggest listening to this.
Paul Legault (reading at 2PM) was recently featured in a new Huffington Post poetry series for his English-to-English translations of Emily Dickinson, which will soon be published in full by McSweeney's. He also had a book published by Fence last year. His strangeness is accessible, and his accessibility is strange.
Ariana Reines as performed by Abdul Nasser (reading at 3PM). Ariana Reines wrote one of the best books that came out last year, but she's in Haiti or something, so Abdul Nasser (?) will be reading her poems.
Andrew Durbin and Ben Fama (both reading at 4PM) are behind the exciting new press Wonder (which I already predict will bring us some of our favorite things of 2012). Ben Fama ran the Supermachine press and series until last year, and Andrew Durbin works on O'Clock Press. I saw them both read at a weird loft once where I didn't know anybody and it was worth it even though it was about twenty degrees outside. I can honestly say they're two of the best young poets in New York.
Justin Bieber and his Dirty Wo(rm)man Band (at 5PM), because duh.
This is a moment, and it is happening to you right now. Are you just going to let it pass you by? If you live in NYC, just go to Bushwick on Saturday. (and yes, I know Ghostface is playing for free in Prospect Park. But did I mention this event will include day-drinking?)
