Nicky Beer: Real Phonies & Genuine Fakes, an exploration of our divided selves

Persona poetry is taking on a voice that isn’t yours and finding a way to speak your truths through that voice….to pursue a voice that isn’t necessarily heroic or very nice; it allows you to be transgressive in ways that you don’t feel comfortable speaking as yourself. It’s an incredible vehicle for play in poetry as well as the theatre.

I’m a displaced poet from Long Island living in Denver, writing with the hope that I’ll help other folks feel less alone. I celebrate all things queer, creepy, comic, disturbing, and tentacular in my work. Jon Cryer retweeted me once. 

Nicky Beer is a bi/queer writer, and the author of Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes (Milkweed, 2022). Her first two books, The Diminishing House (Carnegie Mellon, 2010) and The Octopus Game (Carnegie Mellon, 2015), were both winners of the Colorado Book Award for Poetry. She has received honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, the Poetry Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

She is an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver, where she is as a poetry editor for Copper Nickel.

Nicky Beer’s latest collection of poems is a “labyrinthine academy specializing in the study of subterfuge; Marlene Dietrich, Dolly Parton, and Batman are its instructors. With an energetic eye, she thumbs through our collective history books—and her personal one, too—in an effort to chart the line between playful forms of duplicity and those that are far more insidious.” Lambda Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Book of March 2022

What is illusion—a deception, or a revelation? What is a poem—the truth, or “a diverting flash, / a mirror showing everything / but itself”?

Through delicious japery, poems that can be read multiple ways, and allusions ranging from Puccini’s operas to Law & Order, Beer troubles the notion of truth. Often, we settle for whatever brand of honesty is convenient for us, or whatever is least likely to spark confrontation—but this, Beer knows, is how we invite others to weigh in on what kind of person we are. This is how we trick ourselves into believing they’re right. “Listen / to how quiet it is when I lose the self-doubt played / for so long I mistook it for music.”

Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes asks us to look through the stereoscope: which image is the real one? This one—or this one, just here? With wisdom, humility, and a forthright tenderness, Nicky Beer suggests that we consider both—together, they might contribute to something like truth.

To purchase: Click on this link

Twitter: @nbeerpoet

Website: nickybeer.com

#LGBTQ #RealPhoniesandGenuineFakes #MilkweedPress #Poetry #Poet #ArtsAdvocacy

The Calamari Sisters: A Recipe for Coping with the Coronavirus

Feeling trapped during the COVID-19 self-quarantine? Here’s a pair of Italian Sisters, Delphine and Carmela, cooking up concoctions that will soothe your soul. Listen to their hilarious spin of how The Arts (and food) can cure what ails ya! 

The Calamari Sisters bill themselves as the only all-singing, all-dancing, all-cooking cooking show around.  Delphine & Carmela Calamari are two plus size Italian sisters from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn that began touring the country in 2009 with their stage shows.  Their irreverent comedy and outrageous kitchen antics have had people in stitches from California to Florida to Chicago to New York for the past decade.  They are currently in lockdown together and are looking forward to being with a live audience again.

Our new dinner show – THE CALAMARI SISTERS ON BROADWAY – is making the rounds:

April 23rd at Drifters on Owasco in the Finger Lakes of Central NY

May 14th at the Arlington Sons of Italy in the Boston area

June 4th at Galdo’s in Philly

July 23rd at the JCC of Rochester, NY

Other dates include –

A MUSICAL COOKING LESSON WITH THE CALAMARI SISTERS

May 21st at the Rex Theatre in Manchester, NH

June 11th at the Barrow-Civic Performing Arts Center in Franklin, PA

June 27-31 at the Bucks Country Center for the Performing Arts

CALAMARI SISTERS’ CLAM BAKE

July 7-16 at the Auburn Public Theater in Auburn, NY

All ticketing links and info are on our website – www.CalamariCookware.com

Calamari Sisters with dog
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Adopt a Nurse

Adopt A Nurse Campaign: Click on the link

Venmo:  @Delphine-Calamari

Paypal:  Email us at CalamariCookware@gmail.com telling us how many nurses you want to “adopt” and we’ll send you a PayPal request using that email address.

Facebook

Instagram:  @thecalamarisisters

Website: www.calamaricookware.com

First Online With Fran’s There’s No Place Like Art podcasts are produced by

March Hare Media + Wheatsheaf Studio Productions marchharemedia.com

The Vagina Monologues 2013 at HERE Arts Center


One Billion RisingThe Vagina Monologues 2013 at HERE

“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” -Sarah Ban Breathnach

This February marks the 15th anniversary of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. On February 18th and 19th, 2013, at 7pm, a V-Day benefit production of Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues will be directed by Andrea Bertola at HERE in New York City, where The Vagina Monologues was first produced in 1996.

This V-Day production at HERE will benefit viBe Theater Experience, a non-profit performing arts/ education organization that produces original, free theater, music and videos about real-life issues written and performed by under-served teen girls. Each year community members and artists such as Andrea Bertola, join the V-Day Campaign to produce annual benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” and other artistic works by Eve Ensler to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.

This production joins activists around the world for ONE BILLION RISING, the largest call of action in the history of V-Day. ONE BILLION RISING began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. This coming February, V-Day’s 15th anniversary, we will join activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and women and men across the world as we express their outrage, demand change, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.

“When we started V-Day 14 years ago, we had the outrageous idea that we could end violence against women,” said Ensler. “Now, we are both stunned and thrilled to see that this global action is truly escalating and gaining force, with union workers, parliament members, celebrities, and women of all backgrounds coming forward to join the campaign. When we come together to demand an end to violence against women and girls it will be a truly global voice that will rise up.”

Why Donate?

We are inspired daily by viBe girls’ brave voices. We look forward to engaging generations of girls in healthy, self-esteem building activities that encourage them to prepare for the future by engaging in academics and providing them with creative outlets for addressing the issues that impact them most. With your support, we hope to increase our capacity for freeing, shaping and celebrating their voices. By becoming involved with viBe and V-DAY, you become part of a rich and viBrant tapestry that we hope will continue to grow for years to come.

Your donation will directly impact the continued existence of viBe programs, performances, publications, recordings and workshops.



Your donation of:

$4 puts a binder, pen and blank paper in the hands of a viBe Girl—her palette to share her words with the world.

$14 covers an hour of rehearsal where viBe Girls shape their performances while building self respect and confidence.

$44 gives a viBe Girl a field-trip ticket where she can learn about theater by seeing a professional production.

$74 provides a transportation scholarship for viBe Girls who need extra funding to come to their viBe rehearsals and performances.

$104 buys costumes and props for one viBe Girl performing her one-girl-show.

$244 puts 100 “Girls Life Adventure” books in the hands of girls across NYC where they can learn information about important girl issues including sexuality health and justice through shared writing and experiences of other teenage girls.

$400 rents a theater space for an afternoon remount of a viBe Production where a new audience of teenagers can hear the voices of their peers and re-imagine their potential!

$1,400 funds production of 500 viBe CDs where viBe Girls write and compose their own unique melodies that TimeOut New York describes as “sending small waves of uncommon jubilation through the seen-it-all local set!”

The Vagina Monologues at HERE

2/18/13 and 2/19/13 at 7pm.

2/19 at 9:30pm.

HERE is located at 145 6th Ave. (Enter on Dominick, 1 Block South of Spring).

For Tickets & Information, visit here.org or call 212-352-3101.

The results are in! 2,939 Views and Counting!

Here are some of the comments about the pilot episode of First Online With Fran:

Nancy Martinez This video was very inspirational loved it great job Frances McGarry!!
Nancy Martinez My daughter is actually looking to get into performance arts and theater ! So this is really nice to hear
Al Rios Great job! Really love all this! Wow great concept and I am sooo happy you are spreading the word about the arts and how we have to stopping cutting it out!!! Loved it, looking forward to the next one!
Christine Fuchs. So far I absolutely LOVE the interview!! You are so relaxed and engaged. Love the editing, love the dialogue between you & Angelina. I feel like I’m in your living room. Post this repeatedly!!!
Cynthia Shaw Simonoff I saw it and loved it. Passed it on to a friend!
Marie Michalopoulos Warren. Congratulations. What a wonderful, organic interview!!! Wishing you success in your endeavor. Xo
Joanne Dorian • Really enjoy your interview style, Fran! It was wonderful to listen to Angelina’s enthusiasm and passion for the Cherry Lane Theatre, and what it has meant to her as founder and Artistic Director.
Rachel Towers I hope you make it. You have an amazing personality!
I salute you Fran =)
Christen Madrazo Jan 10, 9:26 pm Great interview! Thanks, Fran! ~Christen (Dramatic Adventure Theatre)