HOLIDAY HOURS

12/24 : 11am - 7pm or so

12/25 : 11am - 12pm Walser Walk Start

12/26 : closed

12/27 : 11am - 11pm (back to normal hours)

 Dear Devotees of the Muse-

 Please, join us as our protean houseband introduces 3 essential poets this Thursday, November 17th, at 8:00pm.

Once again, Unnameable (615 Vanderbilt Ave , near the corner of St. Marks) Books is our gracious host . We'll join with the bushes, fencing, lights, concrete and avian luminaries to enjoy 3 terrific poets & the opening music of Downtown Girls with special guest Tetya Motts:

Brenda HillmanKnows what to say as she grabs a pen or reaches for a keyboard as the loose sugar pours from her fingers onto the page or the screen creates a space for the letters to assemble & jockey for meaning often hidden in the ashes left by the fire of creation

Evelyn Reilly  incorporates an anthropocene bent to use the plastic nature of styrofoam to stave off the impending Apocalypse like a mad yo yo on hiatus, walking the dog in the eternity of the spinning omniverse


Elinor Nauen- Hails from a state that features not one but five famous figures carved into the granite peaks and does quite bit of her own metaphysical carving in the pomes & prose of her career tossing a mean fastball along with a few curves to catch us in life's levity
 
Other Arc Enesmble listens to the streams of one another as if multiple rivers conjoin to form a ring around the hands that bind, the keys that find, the cicatrix that keeps us playing, the notes as sutures to heal the wound, salve for the day's ailments, hoozah.

This event is free. The meet n greet begins at 8:00 as the band plays with the call & response of the wind & ambient street / sky noise. We plan to commence the series at 8:30 sharp with a quick hello, followed by the introduction to the 1st poet/ performer.

Please keep in mind that this Thursday November 17th bodes for a chilly evening with temperatures in the 40's!  Dress with long johns, head coverings, gloves & scarves in mind as we see if the bookstore can source some heating lamps for the Muse's return.

There is limited seating in the new backyard (about 30 seats). There is no basement reading space - so if the weather turns to rain we will have to huddle inside - or cancel - more on that if it becomes a necessity; As always we look forward to seeing old & new faces.

Listen for the bang of the drum or the rattle-shake of the chekere.

X's to your O's,
Jeffrey Joe

GREETINGS 11/10/22 7:00 PM

Dear No Longer Deer in the Headlights: Please join us as our protean houseband introduces 3 wonderful poets this Thursday, November 10th, at 7:00pm.


Once again, Unnameable (615 Vanderbilt Ave , near the corner of St. Marks) Books is our gracious host . We'll join with the bushes, fencing, lights, concrete and avian luminaries to enjoy 3 terrific poets & the opening music of Downtown Girls with special guest Tetya Motts:


Cliff Fymanpratices the life of the pome everyday whether driving the cab or watching the knickerbockers, the park across the way, the falling leaves, the way a syllable lodges in the throat, nylon sunlight against the wall with the sun at its strongest when the ground is covered in leaves or snow or poems.
Garrett CaplesKnows about the extrasensory wires that connect us beyond the ying & yang of politics or genetics, a poet equally at home with the Faces as he is the many faces of hip-hop visiting from the area of the Bay to flip the switch on the city of lights


Wendy Xu- Like many of us, is a charter member of the past forming into the present moment, an acknowledgment that both she & us are not dead but becoming a somewhere quicker than the wind can wipe our name off the surface of the river


The Dan Veksler Experience has been known far & wide to ford rivers, cross mountains, echo philosophical brickbats across great divides, bandy randy tales around campfires, inflate dirigibles and stop prude technocrats in mid keyboard strike - yezzzz, so bring yr evening attire & leave yr galoshes at home as Dan brings his wry wit & geetar to the Greetings whet stone

Drunken Lovers of Tomorrow are a band of troubadour poets who translate their poems into long jams both ethereal & gnostically inclined like a bean curd sandwich inside a deli's plate glass facade each of them musically omnivorous like Galactus without the superpowers each one a grain of sand in the overall schema of future cocktails like skates on the ice of lovers


This event is free. The meet n greet begins at 7:00 as the band plays with the call & response of the wind & ambient street / sky noise. We plan to commence the series at 7:30 sharp with a quick hello, followed by the introduction to the 1st poet/ performer.


Please keep in mind that this Thursday November 10th calls for lots of sun (64 during the sunshine) but it will get chillier especially as the day turns to the magic hour and evening's cloak falls over our shoulders.. So don't be afraid of your Autumn Sweaters or come without shirt sleeves, the backyard does not discriminate tho 54 is predicted for the evening!


There is limited seating in the new backyard (about 30 seats). There is no basement reading space - so if the weather turns to rain we will have to huddle inside - or cancel - more on that if it becomes a necessity; however the cast of the fore bodes well for night lows to mid 50's so dress as you see fit. As always we look forward to seeing old & new faces.


Listen for the bang of the drum or the rattle-shake of the chekere.


X's to your O's,
Jeffrey Joe

GREETINGS 11/3/22 7:00 P.M.

 

Dear Coping With New World-Old World Feelings Surge::

Please join us as our protean houseband introduces 3 wonderful poets this Thursday, November 3rd, at 7:00pm. 

Once again, Unnameable (615 Vanderbilt Ave , near the corner of St. Marks) Books is our gracious host . We'll join with the bushes, fencing, lights, concrete and avian luminaries to enjoy 3 terrific poets & the opening music of Downtown Girls with special guest Tetya Motts:

Annabel Lee:  innovation comes naturally for this titan of the small press printing & publishing world, who’s done extensive traveling in both the greater & lesser vehicle, the train that doth ride, carrying so many readers to the shores of satori & back

 John Yau Appreciates the glimmer of the ephemeral, as his pomes & prose have attested to long live life’s little moments; his poetry is as prolific as his art criticism and we heard tell he can play a mean set of drums as well

Christie Towers  - drops us right into the world we left several centuries ago hoping we'd come back in a more benevolent form & whether that be true or not we'll just have to sit tight and bend our ears so that her visions travel down the auricular path to settle upon our brain

Ghost Shepherds: travel the roads between cloud & sand, grassy knoll & glass shards scattered over rough concrete of city sidewalk streets, not necessarily a sheep they herd but thoughts turned into music notes run deep down the slope past the wolf's den to pool about the base of mountains forming streams of connectivity the willing may sup from & thus become revitalized 

This event is free. The meet n greet begins at 7:00 as the band plays with the call & response of the birds. We plan to commence the series at 7:30 sharp with a quick hello, followed by the introduction to the 1st poet/ performer. 

Please keep in mind that this Thursday November 3rd calls for lots of sun (68 during the sunshine) but it will get chillier especially as the day turns to the magic hour and evening's cloak falls over our shoulders.. So don't be afraid of your Autumn Sweaters or come without shirt sleeves, the backyard does not discriminate.

There is limited seating in the new backyard (about 30 seats). There is no basement reading space - so if the weather turns to rain we will have to huddle inside - or cancel - more on that if it becomes a necessity; however the cast of the fore bodes well for night lows to mid 55's so dress as you see fit. As always we look forward to seeing old & new faces. 

Listen for the bang of the drum or the rattle-shake of the chekere. 

X's to your O's,

Jeffrey Joe

 

Dear Somewhat More Open Beings::

Please join us as we convene to ring in this Thursday with 4 wonderful poets this Thursday, October 20th, at 7:00pm. 

Once again, Unnameable (615 Vanderbilt Ave , near the corner of St. Marks) Books is our gracious host . We'll join with the bushes, fencing, lights, concrete and avian luminaries to enjoy 3 terrific poets & the opening music of Downtown Girls with special guest Tetya Motts:

Alex Tatarsky: understands the Theatre is not closed! All the actors may be sick, but the clown did not go home, instead they had a good idea & got excited and so here we waiting for the shoe to drop when out comes a revolution!

 Basie Allen tests the fabric of the paper, the tensile pull of the muse to pick up the pen or the brush & excavate from raw experience & feeling the object we shall see & hear, the idea come actually to physical space to fruit & inhabit the space & places between our ears

Karen Weiser  chips away the layers upon layers to discover the kernel made when we were 3 or 6 or 9, now forming a logic that is unconscious and knows no bodily bounds

Marko Pogacar - is a brother in a storm as he listens in a canary suit below the wind howling as we will listen to him tonite illuminated, set aglow by residue of a Neon South dogging his most pleasurable trail

The Red Kremlin: are really a group of guys who never took the opportunity to be communists so the music may morph into something other than it usually does or maybe not! That's the beauty of jazz Psych improvisation, it goes where the evening & players takes it, so take your seat & listen as the tunes lace into early evening bird call.

This event is free. The meet n greet begins at 7:00 as the band plays with the call & response of the birds. We plan to commence the series at 7:30 sharp with a quick hello, followed by the introduction to the 1st poet/ performer. 

Please keep in mind that this Thursday October 20th calls for lots of sun within the high fifties but it will get chillier especially as the day turns to the magic hour and avian cousins get chirpy... So don't be afraid of your Autumn Sweaters or come without shirt sleeves, the backyard does not discriminate.

There is limited seating in the new backyard (about 30 seats). There is no basement reading space - so if the weather turns to rain we will have to huddle inside - or cancel - more on that if it becomes a necessity; however the cast of the fore bodes well for night lows to mid 55's so dress as you see fit. As always we look forward to seeing old & new faces. 

Listen for the bang of the drum or the rattle-shake of the chekere. 

X's to your O's,

Jeffrey Joe

Jed Shahar

Email Newsletter

 You can now sign up for our emailed Events Newsletter via tinyletter, 

https://tinyletter.com/unnameablebooks

which will be sent out roughly once a month with info on all upcoming readings, though they may occasionally also be posted here,

thank you

 EVENTS CALENDAR

 

Dear Believers in Second Chances:

Let us gather as spring turns to summer to celebrate the passing now in all its ephemeral beauty, why just sit at home & watch paint dry when you can journey into Brooklyn's magic hour & watch the poetry get wet beneath the first blurry stars of evening this Thursday, June 9th, 2022 at 7:00pm.

Unnameable has a slightly new location (615 Vanderbilt Ave , near the corner of St. Marks) and a new backyard. We'll join with the bushes, fencing, lights & concrete to continue making a go of our new home-space, in this new spring with these 3 terrific poets & the opening music of The Ghost Shepherds:

Chuks Ndulue: Knows that a Sunday Morning Christian is more than you can hope for when 3 Cheers for the Good Guys brings the devil round the bend. Of course once you hear his pomes you'll Fall to Pieces, Busted with A Little More Time you can Take It & Go, glad to know you left the Chokin Kind behind. So don't let Too Many Rivers stand in your way of experiencing the unexpected results of Chuk’s words for yourself - & don't be surprised if On Your Way Down he picks you right up!

Emma Wippermann: has been a traveling round this planet for some time. One of her last stops was visiting razorback country where the Ozarks meet the mountains, where visions have been reported by one J of A, born anew into a vegan French Onion sloop, moving through the waters of life one oar stroke at a time, with a gusto & patience that makes each of her pomes an incredible taste bud experience.

Matvei Yankelevich - Is not one to scratch any old itch, no siree this poet, who's family struck the itch from their name long ago & only recently had to deal with the itch coming back, like a bounty hunting poetry boomerang, knows what the nose knows, that here & forever after the pome begins in Winter to be thawed in Spring and thus bloom slightly late in Summer, that golden chime ringing clear like a trumpet selecting notes with the cares of M. Dewey Davis through a Cherry Blackwell headboard.

The Unnameable Ambassadors: guide us through the second to last days of now before the burghers of the Hill displace us into patches of exburb boogieland with special trumpet guest!

This event is free. The meet n greet begins at 7:00 as the house band will be playing. We plan to commence the series at 7:30 o'clock sharp with a quick hello, followed by the introduction to the 1st poet/ performer.

Please keep in mind that this Thursday June 9th calls for rain during the day but bodes clear skies in the evening. So don't let the sight of rain early dismay ya - we gots hope for the riders to beat the clouds out to Berry town & beyond before the show starts.

There is limited seating in the new backyard (about 25 seats). There is no basement reading space - so if the weather turns to rain we will have to huddle inside - or cancel - more on that if it becomes a necessity; however the cast of the fore bodes well for nigh 50's to mid 60's so dress appropriately. As always we look forward to seeing old & new faces.

Listen for the bang of the drum.

 GREETINGS READINGS 5/26 7PM


Dear Believers in This World:


Let us gather in the midst of May's slightly thawing spring as the month approaches her last hurrah & so indulge in the beautifully wrought wreckage of this world to hear the permutations of the word this Thursday, May 26th, 2022 at 7:00pm.


Unnameable has a slightly new location (615 Vanderbilt Ave , near the corner of St. Marks) and a new backyard. We'll join with the bushes, fencing, lights & concrete to continue making a go of our new home-space, in this new spring with these 3 terrific poets & the opening music of The Ghost Shepherds:


Anna Gurton-Wachter: Knows the child is now a child. The mother is now a mother. The poet is both King & Queen with a crown of words borne into the digisphere, the press, the mouth. A paper-mache pigeon coos as if it were a morning dove. The morning dove & the pigeon both become the muse as we listen.


Farnoosh Fahti: Holds the ritual dear. Each of us shall go round in our minds tonight with the words she utters & choose a line we feel is ripe & therein we’ll grow a small garden, imagining just the type of fruit we’ll like, just the kind of vegetable that will turn out to be the hero of our lives, while the villains run off with Monopoly money to dig their ditches with gold-tipped picks.
Yuko Otomo - Understands implicitly that things fall where they lie, whether they be downtown NY’s subterranean spirit or the port of Sasebo where art & life mingle like two long companions walking arm in arm down cobblestone street. What does painting give to poetry, what does poetry give to painting? It is no coincidence that both arts have the ability to move us to change our lives.



The Ghost Shepherds: guide us through the hills & dales past the wolves of our daily grind as we take a nap in the hay wagon as electro acoustic impulses throb into the intros of collaged grass patches.


This event is free. The meet n greet begins at 7:00 as the house band will be playing. We plan to commence the series at 7:30 o'clock sharp with a quick hello, followed by the introduction to the 1st poet/ performer.


There is limited seating in the new backyard (about 25 seats). There is no basement reading space - so if the weather turns to rain we will have to huddle inside - or cancel - more on that if it becomes a necessity; however the cast of the fore bodes well for nigh 50's to mid 60's so dress appropriately. As always we look forward to seeing old & new faces.


Listen for the bang of the drum.


X's to your O's,
Jeffrey Joe
Jed Shahar

STEPHEN HOUSEWRIGHT / BLANK FORMS


WEDNESDAY 5/25 7pm

In celebration of Blank Forms Editions’s 2021 publication of Partners, a memoir by Stephen Housewright, please join Lawrence Kumpf and Tyler Maxin, curators of “Jerry Hunt: Transmissions from the Pleroma,” for a conversation with the author at Unnameable Books in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn on Wednesday, May 25, at 7pm.

Partners concerns Housewright’s relationship with his widow, the Texas-born composer and artist Jerry Hunt. The couple met in the eighth grade and were together until Hunt took own life in 1993 following a battle with lung cancer. This intimate book, dubbed “a striking act of care” by the Brooklyn Rail, was originally self-published in a small edition in 1995 and distributed to the couple’s friends and family. A trove of information, it includes correspondence with and thrilling anecdotes about Hunt’s peers spanning new music and experimental video hubs across Texas, the US, and Europe. Here, it has been revised and given a new introduction by the artist Karen Finley, a friend of the couple who collaborated with Hunt toward the end of his life (together, they were subjects of a Republican-led “decency” campaign over National Endowment for the Arts funding in the ’80s). Partners is an essential introduction to Jerry Hunt, and one that only Housewright could share.

Stephen Housewright was born in Dallas in 1942. He studied liberal art at St. John’s College in Santa Fe and English and Greek at the University of Houston and in graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin. After teaching for almost ten years at Cistercian Preparatory School in Irving, near Dallas, he earned a Master of Library Science and became a librarian in the humanities division of the Central Dallas Public Library. He and his husband Hal Bennett live in Texas and divide their time between Canton and Garland.

 

 

 

Friday 5/20 7 PM

GREETINGS READING 7pm 5/19/22

Dear Fellow Devotees of the Muse:


Let us gather in the midst of May's slightly thawing spring as the month approaches mid-stride to once more hear the permutations of the word this Thursday, May 19th, 2022 at 7:oopm.

Unnameable has a slightly new location (615 Vanderbilt Ave , near the corner of St. Marks) and a new backyard. We'll join with the bushes, fencing, lights & concrete to continue making a go of our new home-space, in this new spring with these 2terrific poets & the opening music of The Downtown Gurls:


Emily Simon: Quite truthfully, tends to gravitate to Sunken Meadow island, officially no longer it’s own island, but retaining a strong residue of the past, an island that goes to parties whenever it is asked, an island that no longer has a back or a front, but like a poem stands up when read, if only for a moment, learning in a sense by being spoken, the words articulated into persona for you dear to assimilate on your town terms


Tilghman Goldsborough: knows each of us at certain points in our lives is not much more than throbbing gristle. In the genesis of porridge a mass of meat quivers, a sponge of absorbed water emitting electrical impulses, trails crumbs the muse picks up on. T.G.’s verse signals to us across the bird bedazzled backyard. Orange-yellow lights twinkle in a constellated burst residing just across the tracks of Atlantic, Fulton into the beating heart of Bedstuy .


The Downtown Gurls: drop a load of musical love on your lap as they hitch our wagon to electro acoustic impulses throbbing into the intros of secret clouds


This event is free. The meet n greet begins at 7:00 as the house band will be playing. We plan to commence the series at 7:30 o'clock sharp with a quick hello, followed by the introduction to the 1st poet/ performer.


There is limited seating in the new backyard (about 25 seats). There is no basement reading space - so if the weather turns to rain we will have to huddle inside - or cancel - more on that if it becomes a necessity; however the cast of the fore bodes well for nigh 50's to mid 60's so dress appropriately. As always we look forward to seeing old & new faces.


Listen for the bang of the drum.


X's to your O's,

Jeffrey Joe

Jed Shahar

         Eugene Ostashevsky and Genya Turovskaya 6pm

Poetry reading in the backyard

Genya Turovskaya was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and grew up in New York City. She is the author of The Breathing Body of This Thought (Black Square Editions) as well as numerous chapbooks. She is also an award winning translator of contemporary Russian poetry by Aleksandr Skidan, Elena Fanailova and Arkadii Dragomoshchenko.

Eugene Ostashevsky is a poet and translator based in NY and Berlin. He will read from his upcoming book of poems, The Feeling Sonnets (Carcanet and NYRB). His previous titles include The Pirate Who Does Not Know the Value of Pi (NYRB). He is the translator of Lucky Breaks, a book of short stories by Yevgenia Belorusets, as well as many volumes of Russian avant-garde and experimental poetry.

In-person Book Launch Event for Chelsea Abdullah's The Stardust Thief at 7pm

 

                                                          

               

Dear Believers in Words:



Let us gather in the midst of May's slightly thawing spring as the month approaches mid-stride to once more hear the permutations of the word this Thursday, May 12th, 2022 at 7:oopm.

Unnameable has a slightly new location (615 Vanderbilt Ave , near the corner of St. Marks) and a new backyard. We'll join with the bushes, fencing, lights & concrete to continue making a go of our new home-space, in this new spring with these 3terrific poets & the opening music of Other Arc Ensemble:

Harris Schiff: The ineluctable Harris Schiff has been dodging fame’s bullet ever since he escaped from the Bronx & headed to the Mesa to find the real meaning of the secret hand band – (was it really the special cotton or was it a sign from thee mysterious stranger?); a hungry tension flowed thru him & out came the poems, the muse like a river flowing over the broken rocks of desert landscape now long island, inland prophet of verse the long & the short with staples or without.

Anselm Berrigan: Known by many names An of the Selm keeps the trade winds at his back as he sails the waters ‘tween Manhattan, Brookyn & the nebulous forests of upstate where he may be secretly the scout for a clandestine Yankee’s farm team of poets turned knuckle ballers, switch-&-clutch hitters, ace relief pitchers & utility infielders. Yes, indeed his keen eye has recruited many a po-em for the pages of the railyard’s cultural dissection of much to do about art so have a nice day but be careful where you put that donut.

Claire Devoogd: Knows a good scrutinium device when she comes across one. This machine able to parse the restricted anatomy of language is like a mirror enclosing the world much like Claire’s poems which when fit to the eye with an ocular nostrum distort the contingencies of our reality just right, as if our semi-permeable membranes were being exposed to the language of the poet, drinking up the language of the muse as if from a silver cup & so do not worry about the hazards of unspeakability, as Claire is here to unwind the intangible rot from our brains.

This event is free. The meet n greet begins at 7:00 as the house band will be playing. We plan to commence the series at 7:30 o'clock sharp with a quick hello, followed by the introduction to the 1st poet/ performer.

There is limited seating in the new backyard (about 25 seats). There is no basement reading space - so if the weather turns to rain we will have to huddle inside - or cancel - more on that if it becomes a necessity; however the cast of the fore bodes well for nigh 50's to mid 60's so dress appropriately. As always we look forward to seeing old & new faces.

Listen for the bang of the drum.


X's to your O's,

Jeffrey Joe

Jed Shahar

 MAY EVENTS

Thursday 5/12: Greetings Readings 7pm
    Claire Devoogd, Anselm Berrigan, Harris Schiff with music by Easy             Streets

Friday 5/13: Dennis Nurkse and Jessica Greenbaum 6pm

 

Sunday 5/15: Eugene Ostashevsky and Genya Turovskaya 6pm

 

Monday 5/16: Chelsea Abdullah 7pm

 

Thursday 5/19: Greetings Readings 7pm
    Tilghman Goldsborough, Emily Simon with music            by Other Arc Ensemble

 

Friday 5/20: Peach Kander and Nancy Huang 7pm

 

Saturday 5/21: Belladonna Reading 7pm
    Krystal Languell, Chia-Lun Chang, Asiya Wadud 

 

Thursday 5/26: Greetings Readings 7pm
    Farnoosh Fathi, Anna Gurton-Wachter, Yuko Otomo with music by                Ghost Shepards

 

Friday 5/27: Brandan Griffin, Alan Felsenthal, Farnoosh Fathi 7pm

Sunday 5/30: Conor Bracken, Yerra Sugarman, David Tomas Martinez 7pm --- CANCELLED TO BE RESCHEDULED LATER IN SUMMER
 

 4/30 at 7pm: Lynn Xu release party / reading for And Those Ashen Heaps That Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight from WAVE BOOKS, Joshua Edwards reading for The Double Lamp of Solitude from RISING TIDE PROJECTS / CANARIUM BOOKS

 
APRIL EVENTS AT UNNAMEABLE BOOKS 615 VANDERBILT

4/13 at 7pm: Book Launch for Zane Koss, Harbor Grids, published by Invisible Publishing also reading will be Urayoán Noel, MC Hyland, and Louise Akers


4/16 at 6pm: Susan-Berger Jones will be reading with Gale Batchelder, Judson Evans and Duy Doan --- CANCELLED


4/30 at 7pm: Lynn Xu release party / reading for And Those Ashen Heaps That Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight from WAVE BOOKS, Joshua Edwards reading for The Double Lamp of Solitude from RISING TIDE PROJECTS / CANARIUM BOOKS

 GREETING READINGS RETURN
TO UNNAMEABLE BOOKS 615 VANDERBILT, BACKYARD SPACE

all events start at 7pm, and end by 9:30

April 14^th:            Uche Nduka, Joey Yearous-Algozin &  Alexandria Tatarsky with music  by Downtown Girls

 

April 28^th:             Caitlyn Tella, Ted Reese, Filip Marinovich & Vlad Nahitchevansky with music by Black Hole Conspiracy

 

May 12^th:              Claire Devoogd, Anselm Berrigan, & Harris Schiff with music by Easy Streets 

^{May 19th}:               Jeremy Hoevenaar, Tilghman Goldsborough & Emily Simon with music by Other Arc Ensemble

 

May 26th:              Farnoosh Fahti, Anna Gurton-Wachter & Yuko Otomo with music by Ghost Shepherds

 

June 2^nd:                Nora Treatbaby, Chuks Ndulue, Matvei Yankelevich, & Carol Mirakove with music by Penultimate       

 

June 16^th:              David Brazil, Kendra Sullivan, Zoe Tuck & Rebecca Positively Posner with music by Other Arkestra

 

June 30th.              Greetings Jam

JENNY BITNER READING 6:00 PM March 31th 2022