Atlantic Bar and Grill – April 27th

by Dave Gecic

The recent Puddin’head Press celebration at the Atlantic Bar and Grill in Chicago was a good reading and a good memorial for many poets. I was the host. My name is Dave Gecic.

I feel I was a little over ambitious on the program and I ran short on time during the reading. It could have been better organized time-wise. However the audience seemed to enjoy the reading and lots of poetry happened. There were over 50 poems performed.

Planning

We originally planned to have JJ Jameson as a featured poet. JJ is also known as Norman Porter. He is the author of  Lady Rutherfurd’s Cauliflower. Unfortunately he was not able to come to Chicago due to legal readings. At the last minute we were forced to change to program. But we still were able to share some of JJ’s new poetry. It had never been heard in Chicago before or appeared in print.

Program

JB Pariah opened up the program with some excellent guitar music. He was playing as the crowd was arriving. JB will be playing in our upcoming Bloomsday in Chicago reading on June 16 at the Galway Arms. He also played in our Bloomsday last year at The Atlantic Grill.

We remembered several dead poets:

Sam  Blechman was the author of Through My Eyes published in 1990. He was the unofficial poet laureate of Forest Park Illinois. He would have been official if he had been in better health. Dave Gecic read his poem: “Gardener”.

Lawrence Tyler was the author of Prophecies.  Prophecies is a collection with three poems. Jerry Pendergast read several poems by Lawrence Tyler including some unpublished works.

Carol Anderson was the author of Ordinary  Several of her poems were read by Mr. Vito Carli. Vito knew Carol rather well when she was alive.

John Dickson was the author of Lake Michigan Scrolls -John was one of the best known poets in Chicago. He had over 500 poems published and was in Poetry Magazine 17 times. Several of his poems were read by poet and actor Michael Greco. And one was read by Dave Gecic. One of the poems read by Michael Greco was “Feeding the Neighbors Cat” which mentions “Felicia whats her name” which is a reference to Felicia Sue Kaplan, who was actually in the audience. I read John Dickson’s “Case History”.

Helen Degan Cohen was the author of Habry   Helen was one of the original editors of “Rhino” magazine. For many years she ran a workshop at the Evanston library. It was one of the most popular workshops there has ever been in Chicago. Her work was read by Elizabeth Marino the author of Debris: Poems and Memoir. She also shared some memories of Helen.

Gregory Curry was the author of Gently Broken. Dan Weinberg gave an excellent interpretation of one of his poems.

Tom Roby well known Chicago poet recently dies. Poet Bob Rashkow read some of his poems including Tom’s entertaining “breaking the sound barrier on roller skates” poem.

Here is a video of deceased poet Carol Anderson reading a tribute poem to deceased poet Lawrence Tyler.

JJ Jameson

We had a brief musical interlude by JB Pariah.

Jeff Helgeson author of  Thresholds  and several other books and well known Chicago playwright, read “The Ballad of JJ Jameson”. This was a poem written by poet and artist Daniel Cleary. JJ hopes to include this poem in an upcoming collection of his work. Jeff was backed up by the music of JB Pariah.

Shelley Nation Read new JJ Jameson Poetry.

Here is a video of Shelly Nation reading Waking Up Real Early on a Friday Morning by JJ Jameson.

Here is s video of Shelly Nation reading two more poems by JJ Jameson.

Vincent Lengerich who is often know as Vincent the Poet read a poem from JJ’s book. He did an excellent version of:  the poet reads JJ Jameson – Carpenter of Words

Josh Hogan from The Chicago Danzthertre Ensemble performed a piece from the upcoming production of The Waste Land.

Shelley Nation was our main feature. She did work about her Native American ancestry. Most of this will be collected in an upcoming poetry book.

Open Mic Readers at the Atlantic

There was a well attended open mic after the featured readers.

Vito Carli read at tribute to fallen poets, musicians and artists of the past.

Charles Stanfield who has not read in public for many years came out of retirement to read some of his poetry.

Eric Allen Yankee read poetry. Including some socialist inspired work.

Maureen Connelly usually known for her fiction work, read poetry.

Westley Heine author of the newly published: “Street Corner Spirits” and host of an upcoming regular open mic at The Gallery Cabaret read some of his work. He also had some copies of his book “Busking Blues” available.

Don Hargraves a poet from Northern Indiana who often attends open mics in Chicago read.

Heidi Bellile who was from a small town near Louisville, Kentucky read some poetry. She recently moved to Steger Illinois. Hopefully she can spend more time in the Chicago poetry scene now.

Felicia Sue Kaplan also known by her stage name “Saturn” and referred to as “Felicia Whats Her Name” in John Dickson’s poem “Feeding the Neighbors Cat”, read some poetry.

Vincent the Poet also know as Vincent Lengerich read some poetry.

Elizabeth Harper well known poet and MC.

Josh Hogan who is performing in the upcoming performance of “The Wasteland” by The Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble read some of his own poetry.

Kristen Dunn author of “Sun in My Eyes” read poetry.

Dan Weinberg read a work of fiction.

Elizabeth Marino author of Debris: Poems and Memoir, read some poetry.

Leonard de Montbruin, former host of poetry at The Hungry Brain and Robey’s poetry readings read some poetry.

Atlantic Bar and Grill

The Atlantic Bar and Grill is located at 5062 N. Lincoln Ave in Chicago. It has several items on its food menu and it is a step up or more from typical bar food. The drinks are more affordable than those at most other bars. At least more affordable than other bars which typically have literary and musical events.

The staff is very friendly and helpful. The back room has a stage and a great sound system. The lighting is fantastic. However the lighting is not good for digital photography as it adds a blue hue to photographs. There are video screens around the room so there are lots of options for multi-media productions.

I will return the The Atlantic Bar and Grill for further shows.

Some additional information about The Atlantic can be found here.

Final Thought

I was a little too ambitious in the program during this show. A show with that many moving parts and that many people involved is difficult to coordinate. Trying to take notes on individual performances while I was MCing the show was somewhat difficult. So I apologize if I missed anything. I also apologize for the brief descriptions of wonderful performances.

Dave Gecic
The Puddin’head Press