Dana Maisel was born with an innate love for nature. From a young age, her fascination with nature’s delicate balance and her love of all living things became the foundation upon which her poetry would later blossom. Her work explores the profundity of both the most ordinary, and the most exceptional aspects of the world. For Dana, poetry was a tool with which to decode the world. A way to name the unnamable. She says:

“I follow poetry as if it had my answers, only it brings me more questions and a thousand new ways to perceive something to be learned. I follow, needlessly, and at times, hopelessly, in search of giving beauty a name, a word, a thing - to remember.”

With a keen sense for sound and imagery, her paintbrush-like pen both invites and eludes readers. It causes one to pause, reflect, and reconnect with oneself. In her own words she describes her poems as:

“highly stylized and written in a language abstracted to draw out the reader’s own imagination and intellect. The principle for this is to illuminate the importance of a reader’s attention and time in a poem. For one does not need a reader to write poetry, but to complete the poem, a reader is essential.”

Dana’s gift goes beyond the written word. Her kindness and warmth touched the hearts of everyone she met. She believed that compassion is a bridge connecting souls. This compassion fosters a sense of community and belonging amongst her readers.

Her enthusiasm for exploration, both within the world and within herself, was boundless. A free spirit with an infectious zest for life, she lived by the mantra that every day is a new adventure waiting to be embraced. She finds inspiration in the most unexpected places and encourages others to do the same.

In Dana Maisel, we find a poet who captures the essence of nature’s beauty, a lover of life who spreads kindness wherever she went, and a spirited soul who reminds us to embrace the wonder that surrounds us every day. Through her poetry, Dana invites us to join her on a journey of self- discovery, and a deeper connection to the world around us.

wake! program

The word WAKE is the poetic knot at the heart of our event. In one sense, we encounter a word meaning alertness or holding vigil, and in another, the artifacts trailing behind a person or idea. 

WAKE! takes its inspiration from the late co-founders of Issue Project Room, Suzanne Fiol and Dana Maisel. As curators, their devotion to a diverse and multi-generational space, promoted an ever-broadening sense of community. A community that strove to dissolve divisions by the undefinable rituals of experimental art making.

Our event draws direct inspiration from the Poet’s Dinner(s), organized by Dana Maisel, which were celebrated in conjunction with the 2005-2006 literary season New Language. These dinners brought poets and audience members together “to converse and inspire, [where] all are welcomed to come and feast”. And, Ruminations (2006), an evening of poetry and sound that assures us that “Yes there are eternal things to fight for”. 

The scale of this event blurs the lines between artists and their offerings. Anonymity though, is not the loss of self, it is acknowledging unseen influences as they move through us. It is the interaction of past and present through living artists, projecting future worlds, hazy-edged and eternally out of focus. 

RUMINATION

Have we not tired out the old game of Sherlock & Charade?
What good is a mirror to a man who is blind.

How many times can I blame the knife for having cut my finger,
Before it is me who must cut off where I'm going?

-Dana M Maisel

6pm

Ronan McKinnon Ensemble
featuring Carina Geist, Celine Kang, & Sean Lawson

When was the last time you cried? by Julie Kim
featuring Che Buford, Rocío Díaz de Cossío, & Ana Luisa Diaz de Cossío

Tavis
Travis Bliss, Shane Simpson, Priya Carlberg, Jon Starks, Alex Quinn, Andres Abenante

7pm

Anthony Coleman & Yoona Kim

Heather Lynn Johnson

2 films by Frances Arapia
Luck Be a Lady Tonight
I Put On the Glasses But I Still Could Not See, in 3D with a live score by Diaphanous Ensemble (Che Buford & Aimée Niemann) 

8pm

Readings of work by Dana Maisel

Eloquent Vulgar
Steve Long & Kalli Mathios
featuring Carlo Costa, Erica Dicker, & Nikita Manin 

Eternities
Bob Bellerue & Katie Porter

9pm

Nepenthae
Zach Layton, Henry Fraser, & Raf Vertessen

Webb Crawford

10pm

River Ramirez

Hourglass by Zach Paul 
featuring Jeremiah Cymerman, & members of the Brooklyn Chamber Players

11pm

Selba
Concetta Abbate & Hannah Selin

Truth Ritual
presented by Peter BD, Gabby Beans, Goddess Earth, Noel Heroux, Jessica Zambri, & Kate Eberstadt