Next week brings two favorite cultural festivals back to Palm Beach County — the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, now in its 12th year, and the Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival, which is in its 26th year. Each brings its own perspective and interpretation to two different but similar art forms — contemporary poets and their oeuvre and contemporary filmmakers and … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Poetry Festival again inspires versifiers from all over
Outside the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach’s Old School Square, Cara Nusinov posed for a photograph by the sculpture she designed to pay homage to poetry. “Art makes poetry touchable,” she said as she stood by the Polka Dot Poetry Peacock, which she created for an art-in-public-spaces project in Coconut Grove. “I imagine people enjoying the poems affixed to the peacock and … [Read more...]
Pianist Perez persuasive in music of Albeniz, Villa-Lobos
In an ambitious and wide-ranging recital Saturday night at the Steinway Gallery in Boca Raton, pianist Vanessa Perez brought poetry and power to music from Mozart to Villa-Lobos. It was in the music of South America and Spain that Perez, a native of Venezuela, made the strongest impact, though in the six years since I last saw her at the Steinway Gallery, she has become a more … [Read more...]
Pinsky brings message of poetry’s endurance to Delray festival
As America’s only three-time poet laureate, Robert Pinsky would appear perfectly suited to deliver a “State of the Nation”-style disquisition. Who better to survey the role of poetry in contemporary life -- the challenges (and opportunities) presented by the digital revolution, the rise of spoken-word and hip-hop, the advent of the amazing shrinking attention span? Pinsky, … [Read more...]
Poets gear up for next week’s national slam in West Palm
Slammed by syntax. Pummeled by a poem. The world heavyweight championship of words delivered with attitude is headed for West Palm Beach in the form of the 20th annual National Poetry Slam Aug. 4 to 8. And yes, fans, this is a competition every bit as heated as baseball or boxing. "This is blood, sweat and tears poetry delivered live inches from your … [Read more...]