Photos from Reading at Sidewalk Cafe

I had so much fun reading at poet RA Araya’s birthday bash at the Sidewalk Cafe this past Sunday!! RA was such a great host and is so encouraging.  There were so many amazingly talented poets and musicians there.  I felt so honored to get to read with them.

I started off reading the beginning of Homer’s The Odyssey in Ancient Greek (bringing awareness to Greece’s cultural heritage as well as the plight of endangered languages) and then read a section from Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, the book that I’m coauthoring with Paul Maher Jr., while the flashbackpuppy band improvised a jazzy tune.

Here are some pictures RA took.

That’s me sitting next to poet Juan Valenzuela.  In the foreground is poet Miguel Algarin, who co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and knew Jack Kerouac back in the day.

Special thanks to my friends, who came out to support me.

Tags: Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek, Burning Furiously Beautiful, endangered languages, Flashbackpuppy, friends, Greece, Homer, Jack Kerouac, jazz, Juan Valenzuela, Miguel Algarin, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Odyssey, Paul Maher Jr., poetry, RA Araya, Sidewalk Cafe