For both of us, this was a fabulous gala launch. Thanks to Belladonna and those at McNally Jackson Bookstore in Williamsburg.  Special thanks to Rachael Wilson for organizing, curating and making lovely broadsides (see below).

We were especially happy that Pamela Lawton brought and displayed the original artwork for the cover of our pamphlet, “Poets on the Road,” and she spoke about her process in making the covers.  She described the first time she ever made a cover for a poet was for a book of Lewis Warsh’s; she blew up lines from one of his poems and hung them around her studio; then she lived with those for a while and then began painting.  She mentioned how she originally became connected to our poetic community through her relationship with the poet Elio Schneeman. Here are a few photos her partner, Danny Licul, took at the event of Pamela and the books:

Some of those who attended were Ed Friedman, Patricia Spears Jones, Joel Lewis, Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Cheryl Fish, Lydia Cortez, James Polk, Sally Young, Cliff Fyman, Peter Busheyeager, Greg Masters, Hillary Keel, Christina Kelleger, Danny Licul, Phyllis Wat, Lewis Warsh, Jen Firestone, Toni Simon, Joanna Furman, James Loop, Elinor Nauen, Evelyn Reilly, Michah Saperstein, Rie Shimamura, KB Nemcosky, Jim Feast, Esther Hyneman, John Godfrey, Mark Nasdor, Ryan Nowlin, Judi and Bob Dumont and Annabelle Levitt.

The following photographs were taken by Peter Bushyeager:

Some photos by Barbara’s son, Michah Saperstein.  The second photos is of Cam from McNally Jackson and Rachael Wilson.  The third photo is a crowd photo with Ryan Nowlin, Lewis Warsh and Ed Friedman.

The following photo by Barbara is of Rie Shimamura and Michah; special thanks to Rie for developing our blog page.

Some photos we received a week after this post.   Because we really liked them, so we’re adding them.  They were taken by Belladonna’s James Loop:

Here are the broadsides that Rachel Wilson made for our reading:

And here is a link to our reading on Penn Sound:

http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Belladonna.php