Interview with 3Po3try NYC Poet Phillip Giambri AKA The Ancient Mariner

Phillip Giambri aka “The Ancient Mariner” will be one of the featured poets in Hot House: A Summer Poetry Extravaganza on Thursday, July 31 @ Organic Modernism in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, produced by 3Po3try NYC (https://www.facebook.com/3po3trynyc).

Giambri obtained his deviant perspective on life listening to Jean Shepherd on WOR radio back in the ‘50s. Fleeing Philly at seventeen, he served in the military, has been an actor, hairstylist, stoner, janitor, writer, drifter, recording engineer, hired hand, poet, traveling salesman, barfly, banker, biker, bronco buster, announcer, mail-order minister, photographer, and “Computer Guru." He arrived in NY City in ’68, joined the Hippie pilgrimage to St. Marks Place, and never left. He’s attended too many schools to mention, studying nearly everything, without ever attaining a degree in anything. He produces and hosts a popular monthly spoken word/poetry event, Rimes of The Ancient Mariner as well as special collaborative events with other artist/performers; most recently the very successful, Barflies & Broken Angels. His website “Ancient Mariner Tales” offers bored web surfers a glimpse into his futile search for self-discovery and meaning. He can be found in downtown NYC, regularly spinning yarns and telling tall tales anywhere that will tolerate him.

The following is our quick interview with Phillip:

What’s your definition of poetry?

Painting pictures with words that are absorbed and felt in the heart or the gut rather than the head.

What’s your favorite place to write?

My cabin in the Catskills.

Does your poetry have a central theme? And if so, what is it?

My work is either reflections on childhood memories or stories of my adult life in dive bars, recording relationships and encounters in that environment.

What one word describes your writing style?

Nonintellectual.

What's your idea of the perfect poem?

An easily communicated story, with universal appeal, told in as few words as possible.

What's your best writing moment?

My best work has come to me during that “twilight time” when I’m almost but not quite asleep. Stories, memoirs, and visual film-like images appear in these moments.

What's your worst writing moment?

When I try sitting at the computer to meet some imagined writing deadline, stare at the screen for long periods, and nothing happens.

If you could steal one line from any poem, what would it be?

“To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free” - Bob Dylan

What time of the day do you mostly write?

Sunday afternoons.

What do you do to get into your writing sessions?

Have a drink or two, play background music that reflects the mood of the piece I’m working on, or pick a piece of music that will bring out the words I’m looking for.

What's the weirdest place you ever wrote?

500 feet underwater on a submarine.

What's the weirdest thing you ever wrote on?

My hand and arm, when a bar napkin wasn't available.

What book changed your writing forever?

A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

What poet, dead or alive, would you like to be friends with?

Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

What comes easy to you with poetry?

Nothing with poetry. But technical writing and intellectual comedy or cynical writing are a breeze; that stuff comes from my head easily. Writing from the gut is much harder for me.

What are you hoping to accomplish with your poetry?

Effectively communicate my view of the world, people, and relationships, bypassing intellect and pushing directly for an emotional connection.

To purchase advance tickets to Hot House: A Summer Poetry Extravaganza, go to http://3po3trynycsummer.eventbrite.com.

Photo credit: Jay Franco (http://jayfranco.co/).

Debut! The Inspired Word All-Star Showcase - Comedy, Music, Poetry, Storytelling - June 20!

The Inspired Word series presents the start of new All-Star Showcase - the best of the best of our comedians, poets, musicians, and storytellers from our open mics.

Our debut night features a super-hot lineup: comedian Petey DeAbreu, rock band LTrain (Crystalla Gonzalez & Gabriel Castellar), actress/poet Michelle Seabreeze, singer/songwriter Janna Pelle, and storyteller Phillip Giambri aka The Ancient Mariner. Hosted by comedian Mike Brown.

When: Thursday, June 20, 2013

Where: Bareburger (East Village)
2nd Floor 85 Second Avenue (@ 5th Street), Manhattan, New York
Phone: (212) 510-8610

By subway, take the F train to Second Avenue and exit the 2nd Avenue side or the 6 train to Bleecker Street or Astor Place.

Doors open @7pm

Show starts @ 7:30pm

Cover charge: $10 for general admission, $12 for 2nd row reserved, $15 for front row reserved

You can purchase advance tickets online via Eventbrite:

http://inspiredwordallstars.eventbrite.com/

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Feature Bios:

Singer/Songwriter Janna Pelle is the lovechild of Sean Lennon and Fiona Apple with the alter-ego of Lady Gaga. Combining her classical influences with her love of pop, Janna creates piano-based electronic music that is quirky and danceable without sacrificing depth. Janna graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in advertising, which she is applying wholeheartedly to her music career. Her brand, "Makeshift Popstar," is a clothing line including shirts, shoes and jewelry, as well as an attitude and mindset demonstrated by her low-budget high-creativity YouTube music video series, making Janna the world's first DIY-indie popstar. Her debut album, "Shameless Self-Promotion," is available on http://jannapelle.com/ as well as iTunes and Spotify. If you love pop music, you'll love her. If you hate pop music, you'll hate that you love her.

Michelle Seabreeze is an actress and poet, as well as a model, dancer, and choreographer. She has won slams at the world famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe and written theatrical poetry with the New Street Poets Collective. Her theatre credits include Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom, Henry V, Third and Indiana, and Measure for Measure. Her Film credits include Edge City (Feature), and Whisper Lolo(Short). She began acting at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, and then continued her training in NYC at Marymount Manhattan College where she earned a B.F.A. in Acting. For more info, please visit her site @ http://www.michelleseabreeze.net/.

A product of the streets of South Philadelphia, 70-something storyteller/poet Phillip Giambri aka The Ancient Mariner obtained his deviant perspective on life listening to Jean Shepherd on WOR radio back in the ‘50s. Fleeing Philly at seventeen, he served in the military, has been an actor, hairstylist, stoner, janitor, writer, drifter, recording engineer, hired hand, poet, traveling salesman, barfly, banker, biker, bronco buster, announcer, mail-order minister, photographer, and “Computer Guru.” He arrived in NY City in ’68, joined the Hippie pilgrimage to St. Marks Place, and never left. He’s attended too many schools to mention and blown several scholarships, studying nearly everything but without ever attaining a degree in anything. His self-published websites “Ancient Mariner Tales” and “Confessions of A Repeat Offender” offer bored web surfers a glimpse into his futile search for self-discovery and meaning. He can be found in downtown NYC, regularly spinning yarns and telling tall tales at The Inspired Word, Barnes & Noble, Black & White Bar, Kairos Poetry Café, Pianos, and anywhere else that will tolerate him. For more info on Phillip, please visit https://www.facebook.com/AncientMarinerTales.

LTrain are native New Yorker's caught up in a romance with NYC. It's members, Crystalla Gonzalez (Vocals), and Gabriel Castellar (Guitar/Vocals) are of various ethnicities and cultures, and grew up on various genres of music like from Heavy Metal to Funk and from Jazz to Punk. This enabled them to blend all the different styles and cultures from people that can be found traveling through the NYC Subway. LTrain began in January of 2011 with a song called "On The Train" and a dream; A dream to make a funky rock band with a punk attitude, in which they interpreted as describing the spirit of NYC. "On The Train" was a song that Gabriel and Crystalla wrote as a project for Gabriel's creative writing class at his University (BMCC), which led to a vision about making music which described the sights, sounds and stories of people who rode the LTrain. LTrain began the NYC bar/venue circuit in March of 2011. In July of that year, both David and Chris became permanent members and by December of that year had already played in venues like The Knitting Factory, Don Pedro's, Trash Bar, The Bitter End, Gramercy Theatre and many more. L Train believes in spreading the message of love, understanding...and the funk. For more info on LTrain, please visit https://www.facebook.com/LTrainBand.


Repping the tough streets of the BX, Petey DeAbreu is a fast-rising star on the New York City comedy scene. He's a 3-time winner of The Inspired Word's LOL! Comedy Slam and has appeared at the Greenwich Village Comedy Club, Broadway Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club, and EastVille Comedy Club. He recognized the power of humor at an early age, using it as a pre-emptive strike to keep from getting beaten up at school and around his 'hood. With his unique view of the world, influenced by comedy legends Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and Woody Allen, Petey loves to take crowds on unexpected journeys and believes his feel-good style cuts through prejudice and provokes laughter without boundaries.


Host Bio:

Mike Brown is a standup comic and writer based in New York. In 2012, He was named one of Rooftop Comedy’s Comics to Watch, Caroline’s Best of New Talent and a semi-finalist in NY Funniest Stand Up competition presented by JetBlue. Along with featuring at various comedy festivals (New York Comedy Week, The San Francisco Sketchfest, The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival) Mike Brown regularly hosts/co-produces the monthly stand up comedy showcase COMEDY OUTLIERS featured in Time Out NY. He also hosts the COMEDY OUTLIERS podcast available on iTunes. For more info on Mike, please visit http://www.ohthatmikebrown.com/.

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For info on Inspired Word events, please visit http://inspiredwordnyc.com/.

Performance Poet Laura E.J. Moran Headlines + Poet Phillip Giambri + Open Mic - Oct. 10

The Inspired Word presents one of the most riveting performance poets around, Laura E.J. Moran + poet Phillip Giambri aka The Ancient Mariner + our amazing 20-slot open mic open to all types of artists. Hosted by comedian Mike Brown.

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BIOS:

Laura E. J. Moran is a performance poet who, over the past twenty years, has toured the USA, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, and in June 2012, Romania. An interview with Laura by poet Jeffrey McDaniel can be found The Poetry Foundation’s “Harriet the Blog” (April 2011.) She is the author of several collections of poetry: Improper Joy (2006, Stockport Flats,) Live Bait (CD, Great Divide, 2005,) and three one-woman poetry shows entitled Inhibition Exhibition (2006,) Improper Joy Live (2008,) and Eden: The Dark Side of Paradise (2010.) She is currently finishing a full-length play entitled Last Words and a hybrid novel entitled Jump the Snake. She was the 1992 Providence Poetry Slam Grand Champion,the 1995 Seattle Grand Slam Champion and she performed on national slam teams in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998. New York State Council on the Arts, The Center for Book Arts in NYC, and Poets & Writers have supported her work. Laura is the 2011 Beverly Hiscox Scholar at Wilkes University Creative Writing Graduate Program where she earned her MA in June 2011 and her MFA in June 2012. Laura Moran is also the curator of the First Fridays Contemporary Author’s Series in Narrowsburg, NY now in its seventh season. She lives with sculptor John Roth in Pennsylvania near the Delaware River where the north and south branches of Calkins Creek meet.

Check out Laura's site @ http://www.lauraejmoran.com.

"LAURA MORAN is a hot poet at the top of her game. She is risking everything by sofa-surfing the USA - seeing her is like taking the temperature of the Age." - Bob Holman, editor of United States of Poetry and founder Bowery Poetry Club.

"One of the most beautifully lyrical poets ever to bridge the space between page and stage." - Taylor Mali, national award winning poet, performer, educator.

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A product of the streets of South Philadelphia, 71-year-old poet Phillip Giambri aka The Ancient Mariner obtained his deviant perspective on life listening to Jean Shepherd on WOR radio back in the ‘50s. Fleeing Philly at seventeen, he served in the military, has been an actor, hairstylist, stoner, janitor, writer, drifter, recording engineer, hired hand, poet, traveling salesman, barfly, banker, biker, bronco buster, announcer, mail-order minister, photographer, and “Computer Guru”. He arrived in NY City in ’68, joined the Hippie pilgrimage to St. Marks Place, and never left. He’s attended too many schools to mention and blown several scholarships….studying nearly everything, without ever attaining a degree in anything. His self-published websites “Ancient Mariner Tales” and “Confessions of A Repeat Offender” offer bored web surfers a glimpse into his futile search for self-discovery and meaning. He can be found in downtown NYC, regularly spinning yarns and telling tall tales at The Inspired Word, Bar 82, Barnes & Noble, Black & White Bar, Kairos Poetry Café, Pianos, and anywhere else that will tolerate him.

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Produced by: Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word

http://inspiredwordnyc.com/

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When: Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012

Where: 116
116 MacDougal Street
(between Bleecker Street and Minetta Lane)
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (917) 703-1512

Doors open for open mic sign-up @ 7pm

Show starts @ 7:30pm

Cover Charge: $10

NO AGE LIMIT.


"It's not just a series...it's a movement."