BACK AT THE PARKSIDE LOUNGE!

Featuring Gordon Gilbert and Judith Lee Herbert

Hosted by Jerry T. Johnson

Plus open mic

21+

$3 suggested donation. Two drink min, alcoholic or non

A long time NYC west villager, Gordon Gilbert writes not only poetry, but also short stories, monologues, short fiction and a play (Monologues from the Old Folks Home), with eight productions over the years at various Manhattan venues. Over the last dozen years, Gordon has hosted over a dozen programs celebrating the beat generation and other writers. A member of Irish American Writers and Artists, he occasionally hosts their salons. Most recently, Gordon has co-hosted three programs with Robert Gibbons celebrating the poetry and lives of Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Currently he is hosting one open mic poetry program on ZOOM and providing technical assistance on another. During the pandemic, Gordon has found solace and inspiration in walks along the Hudson River, photographing and writing about the wildlife, flora and river traffic as the seasons change. It gives him hope in these terrible times, but he knows that is not enough. Change only comes when we act to make it so.

A graduate Cum Laude in English Literature from Columbia University, Judith Lee Herbert returned to poetry after a successful career in another field. Her chapbook, Songbird, published in 2019 by Kelsay Books, was a finalist in the 2017 Blue Light Poetry Chapbook Competition. Her poems have been placed in the String Poet Contest, the Nassau County Poet Laureate Society Contest, and Mid-Island Y Poetry Contest. Her poetry also appears in publications including Long Island Quarterly, These Fragile Lilacs, First Literary Review East, The Ekphrastic Review, and Silver-Tongued Devil Anthology. She enjoys reading her poems at venues in New York City and Long Island.