Here's the event information written up by Michael Joseph for the Children's Poetry Panel that will be reading on December 7th, 2009 at Rutgers New Brunswick's Alexander Library:

Children’s Poetry Reading

The Rutgers University Libraries are pleased to present a group poetry reading on December 7, 2009 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Archibald S. Alexander Library.

The reading is highly informal – an opportunity for people who like reading and hearing children’s poetry to get together and share favorites – and audience members are invited to bring one or two poems to read. Reading is optional, of course, and individuals who want to attend just to hear the spoken word are very welcome. (There will be anthologies available!)

Readings will be held in the Teleconference Hall on the fourth floor of the Alexander Library, 169 College Avenue in New Brunswick. RSVP Michael Joseph ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). This event is free of charge and all are welcome to attend (even children).

Readers

Cheryl Clarke: Campus Dean of Students; poet and author of numerous books of poetry, including Humid Pitch (1989); Living as a Lesbian (1986); and Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1983);

Wally Hastings: Visiting Professor, SCI; poet;

Michael Joseph: Rutgers University Libraries Rare Book Librarian; poet;

Ian Khadan: poet;

Susan Miller: Russell Teaching Fellow at Writer's House,
Rutgers Department of English; poet;

Lara Saguisag: Ph. D. candidate, Childhood Studies Program; poet author of Two Seasons: Poems for Young People (Anvil) and co-editor of Nine Supernatural Stories (University of the Philippines Press);

Jeffery Triggs: Rutgers University Libraries Scholarly Communications Center; poet and author of numerous scholarly articles on English poetry.

Refreshments will be served at intermission and after the program!

So if you've been following along you know that Connor Dooley and I recently went on a Massachussetts tour and there were a lot of people have a lot of nice things to say with beaming faces, here's what Steve Subrizi had to say about us, he also happens to be one of our closest friends - go figure:

"These two guys [Ian Khadan and Connor Dooley] did a double-feature at Cantab last night, and they put on a really good show. It wasn't "rag-tag"; it was "rough-and-tumble." They managed to charm the audience without wasting time with too much banter. You could just tell how much they enjoyed performing together, and how much they enjoyed performing for our venue. I said on the mic, and it proved very true, that Ian and Connor don't play "good cop/bad cop," they play "suckerpunch cop/kick-to-the-gut cop." They brought a little bit of the funny and a lot of the heartache, and now they're touring the country, and anyone who doesn't see them should feel very sorry for missing the chance."

With that, I give you a snippet of one of the bad reviews that I'm aware of from our venture, this review from Samantha Shokin came after our feature performance at Brandeis University:

"The featured slam performers at the Brandeis Open Mic Series, or B.O.M.S. on Tuesday night were certainly entertaining. The duo consisted of long-time slammers Ian Khadan and Connor Dooley, both hailing from New Jersey. Dooley’s style was heavily satirical. In most of his pieces, however, I either failed to see the humor or always managed to miss the punch line. [...] The other half of the duo, Ian Khadan, had a style that was quintessentially slam; that is to say, it sounded a lot like other stuff I’d heard countless times before. So he’s either doing something right or the exact opposite. I was overwhelmed by his imagery; I never knew there could be such a thing as “overabundance of metaphors,” but his flowery language was so profound that I ended up not having a clue what he was talking about half the time."

You can read the rest of this review here.

Needless to say, tour was a blast, and clearly we were received differently by everyone we performed for but we'd like to think for the most part that we did an exceptional job for all of our feature performances on the tour.