Chicago Stylist & Poet Ice Gayle Johnson Visits Rutherford NJ Birthplace of William Carlos Williams

June 4, 2012 - PRLog -- The William Carlos William Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County features poet, publisher, and entrepreneur Ice Gayle Johnson this Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 7:00 p. m. As usual the monthly program also features the words of William Carlos Williams and a brief talk about the Rutherford poet. An open reading concludes the program. The event is free and open to the public. No advanced registration is required and all poets and poetry lovers are invited to attend and participate in the open reading. The WCW Poetry Cooperative readings are held the first Wednesday of each month on the upstairs Terrace of Williams Center for the Arts (www.williamscenter.org) located at 1 Williams Plaza in Rutherford, New Jersey. The event is hosted by John J. Trause, Director or the Oradell Public Library. For more information, please contact the Rutherford Public Library at 201.939.8600.

Ice Gayle Johnson’s debut poetry collection, "The Key: Lady Grizzly & Sir Charles Otter” (Hoboken: Poets Wear Prada, 2012), 42 pages, ISBN-10: 0615606512, ISBN-13: 978-0615606514) shares her very personal experiences of love and loss, first the familial and then the romantic.

Creator of “The Five-point Cut,” “Graduated Bob” and “Fire Fly,” the Chicago-based stylist Ice, a member of Intercoiffeur, the international honorarium and organization for hairdressing professionals, served on Clairol’s Presidential Council with First Lady Nancy Reagan’s colorist. An accomplished photographer, she has been represented by the Ward Nasse Galley of New York, her photos appearing on Marcel Schulman Greeting Cards, Signature Greetings, and others.

As a co-founder and shaper of Uphook Press, Ice co-edited and contributed to its debut collection, “A Cautionary Tale: Peer into the Lives of Seven New York Performing Poets,” in 2008. Three other anthologies have followed: “you say. say.” (2009), “Hell Strung and Crooked” (2010), and “gape-seed” (2011). Ice Gayle Johnson has performed her poetry, coast to coast -- from the Bowery Poetry Club in New York to The Beat Museum in San Francisco. Her spoken word tracks have been featured by Stay Thirsty Media and Poetz.com. Eponymous CD and DVD are available at CDbaby and at DVD.com.

New Jersey poet John J. Trause, host of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative Readings, and Director of the Oradell Public Library, is the author of two poetry collections, "Inside Out, Upside Down & Round and Round" (Nirala Publications, 2012) and "Simply Serial" (Poets Wear Prada, 2008).

William Carlos Williams (1883 –1963) was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. A pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine her received a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He was born in Rutherford, New Jersey where he lived much of his life and died. He published his first book, "Poems," in 1909. In 1920, Williams was sharply criticized by many of his peers (like Hilda Doolittle, Ezra Pound, and Wallace Stevens) when he published one of his most experimental books, "Kora in Hell: Improvisations." Pound called the work "incoherent" and H.D. thought the book was "flippant." "Spring and All," which contained classic Williams poems like "By the road to the contagious hospital," "The Red Wheelbarrow," and "To Elsie" was published in 1923. He is also know for his modernist epic poem, "Paterson" (published between 1946 and 1958), an account of the history, people, and essence of Paterson, New Jersey.

“The Key: Lady Grizzly & Sir Charles Otter” by Ice Gayle Johnson (Hoboken: Poets Wear Prada, 2012), 42 pages, ISBN-10: 0615606512, ISBN-13: 978-0615606514, list price: $12.00, is available in paperback from Amazon Books and other popular booksellers.

Founded in 2006, Poets Wear Prada publishes beautifully designed, well-crafted poetry chapbooks from Sinatra’s hometown, the birthplace of professional baseball.

"Inside Out, Upside Down, & Round and Round Poems Selected & New" by John J. Trause (Nepal: Nirala Publications, 2012), cloth: 83pages, ISBN: 81-8250-049-4, list price: $20.00, is available from the publisher (www.niralapublications.com).

The Nirala Nepal Series is a series of contemporary writing.