Swishing through Harlem in a green cab over to the Upper West Side, the streets not exactly awash with bust open fire hydrants, but surely close to with this heat, the Ellington offers respite with its welcome and the air conditioning. The place has become a hub for Irish American Writers & Artists’ salons in New York City these last two years, a home away from our own, full of friends.
The host tonight, Aug. 18, is writer and educator Mary Lannon, who has a roster of talented wordsmiths to present but first has a few of her own in honor of Kathleen Walsh D’Arcy, our much-missed matriarch and longtime board member. We have lost a few comrades recently and we feel it keenly.
The salons go on.
Our very own John Munnelly kicks us off with two self-penned electric blues tunes. He is “emblazered” in a neon graffitied jacket and chops away like Jack White, all dissonant chords and angular lyrics. “Boo hoo hoo! Who’s gonna love you… now I’m gone?” It’s a rip-roaring start with John embracing Leo Fender’s legacy of amplified tension. Hot sauce! We’ll see more of John later.
Next up is Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons. A first-time reader at IAW&A salons, Kelly Jean is a professional storyteller, and it shows. Her projection is pitched perfectly and has the audience rooting for her teenage self in a tale of puppy love and “sci-fi highs.” Passion in high school is pure and sweet when informed by the Star Trek universe. “Kelly Jean is a hottie!” and you can find out more about her stories and productions at noyoutellit.com -“a nonfiction series that brings storytellers together to trade tales.”
Joseph Aquino has written his life story, “Memoirs of a Watch Salesman – a Real Estate Story” that has been reviewed in illustrious publications and tonight he gives us a slice of it. It’s a serendipitous trip down memory boulevards involving reunions and new unions by way of a soothsayer. It’s all true, and very moving. Joe has been married to his wife now for 24 years and the woman who predicted their meeting is in the audience. However, a twist, those two have not seen each other since that prediction - until tonight! Hot damn!
After a brief intermission Jenifer Margaret Kelly presents a scene from her new work “Baggers.” A potential tv pilot set in a suburban grocery store. Marika Daciuk, Jillie Simon, Shawn Belapano, Mark Christopher Gordon and John Munnelly act as employees and co-workers finding themselves trapped inside the store after a comical cosplay security alert and consequent police lockdown. Tempers get hot, and nerves are a jangle! Find out more at jenifermargaretkelly.com.
Poet Bernadette Cullen’s words are beguiling as they use natural imagery that is always somehow twisted. The senses are in a whirl of light and texture, yet something is not quite right in the world as “flesh slips” too easily off the “white bones” of us. Bernadette’s delivery is soft and questioning. She is a cooling, thoughtful respite to the hurly burly.
Mark Butler, “consummate showman,” knows how to turn up the heat. His monologue and poems of modern angst bellow the everyday tribulations of ranting New Yorkers. From street noise to smart phones to ordering pizza, Butler finds the comedic in the angry and the poetic in the mundane. Look out for more from Mark Butler as he develops a new podcast, “A Certain Kind of Crazy,” interviewing fellow artists about their reasons for doing what they do.
Judith Rodgers is a novelist but tonight gives us a very personal, emotional essay. The relentless ongoing deportations of immigrants comes to affect her grandchildren and herself with the threat to someone they all love. Judith is a fine writer, and the audience shares her anger, feels the quiet heat of her rage at only having words at the moment.
Which brings us back to John Munnelly and a final song that punks the president with irreverence. You might get sued if you print the title or the refrain. Let’s just say it was a rowdy anthem that got the crowd fired up as they joined in the chorus.
Passions ran high, as always, there’s a lot of love in the room. Kathleen would have loved it, too.
BOLD
Anthony C. Murphy writes at anthonycmurphy.substack.com.
