About

(Updated December 2020)

Readings

St. Rocco’s Poetry Collective hosts an invitational reading series featuring a mix of visiting and local writers. Our main event is St. Rocco’s Readings for the Dispossessed, which features 3 (sometimes 4) readers. This is our original series, launched in September 2016. This series has moved around to various locations in the Capital District of NY. Our (outdoor) Summer-Fall 2020 series is located at People’s Park on Grand Street in Albany, NY. St. Rocco’s Poetry Collective also organizes a series of special annual readings including:

  • Zhivago Slog and Open Mic on Themes of Woe (annually on a Saturday close to Valentine’s Day) (Read about it)
  • Midwinter Day Marathon with Bernadette Mayer (annually close to December 22)
  • Dispossessed for the Dispossessed (annually on 3rd Saturday of May) (Listen to 2020 marathon)
  • STREAM Salon: St. Rocco’s annual Electronic Art & Music night (See photos of 2019 salon)

For two years, we presented the KNOW Readings, created to feature “one writer reading one work for one hour.” That program was put on hiatus in 2019, but will return after the pandemic is over (without the “reading from one work” part of the formula.)

Broadcasts

St. Rocco’s Poetry Collective presents a bi-weekly radio show on WCAA 107.3 FM in Albany. Visit the Broadcast page for more information.
We organize broadcasts of marathon readings and specials whenever possible.

Who we are

St. Rocco’s Poetry Collective was founded in September 2016 as a writers’ workshop-cum-reading series, by founding members Alexis Bhagat, Aimee Harrison, Kenning JP Garcia, Michael Peters, dgls.n.rthschld and Alifair Skebe. Albany writer Brandon Tankersley was also a member of the workshop in the first year.

St. Rocco’s Poetry Collective is currently Alexis Bhagat, Kenning JP Garcia, and dgls.n.rthschld.

Thank you

Thank you above all to Aimee Harrison for hosting the very first readings and workshops in your apartment!

Thank you to Anton Pasquill at the Hudson River Coffee House (r.i.p.), Hassan Elminyawi at Urban Aftermath, and Jay Bowers at the Excelsior Pub for sheltering and supporting our series. Thank you also to Adam Tedesco, The Local 217, and Stacks Espresso in Albany, PostContemporary in Troy, Arts Letters Numbers in rural Rensselaer County, and Fahrenheit 451 House and Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill for hosting nomadic readings.

Thank you to Galen Joseph-Hunter and Wave Farm and to Paul Smart and WCAA-FM for supporting broadcasts.

Thank you to local poets Rone Shavers, Adam Tedesco, Matthew Klane, Cat Tyc and Dan Nester for your support in planning individual readings. Thank you to Philip Good for making Midwinter Day a tradition, to Rone Shavers and the English Department at St. Rose for Zooming the 2021 Midwinter Day, and to Sarah Steadman for help with the 2021 Midwinter Day roster.

Thank you to Ellen White Rook for helping to put our disparate contact lists into a coherent history and email list. Thank you to Danica Smith for the first index of our audio archives.

Thank you to Professor McKenna and the English and Journalism Internship Program at University at Albany. And thank you especially to our English interns: Rosier Cade (Spring 2020), Julie Prisco (Summer 2020), and Leticia Lekos (Spring 2021).