ArtsBeat

From its inception, Urban Epiphany--Buffalo's annual marathon poetry reading in celebration of National Poetry Month--has billed itself as "a community gathering of poets," with founder Celia White's vision focused on showcasing poetry as an instrument of civic awareness and cultural activism as well as a forum for the expression of individual voices and poetic forms.

Thanks the assiduous efforts of Buffalo based poet and media artist Josh Smith and his Twenty-Nine Cent Productions, that sense of community now extends from Buffalo's Elmwood Village to the global village of all those interested in poetry on the world wide web.  Smith, who recorded video of the entire 5 hours of Urban Epiphany 2008, recently uploaded to those files to YouTube.

You can view the readings and performances of all 78 participants in the April 27th event which took place at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Elmwood Avenue at West Ferry St. at  YouTube - Urban Epiphany 2008.  Each reader and/or performer is accorded his or her own video segment, none of which exceeds four and half minutes in length.  The order of appearances corresponds to that of the actual event.

As for the multitalented Josh Smith (he's reader #13 in the YouTube videos), you can catch him reading from his work live this coming Sunday afternoon (June 1st) at 4 p.m. as the featured reader at the Just Buffalo/Tru Teas Open Reading at Insite Gallery, 810 Elmwood Ave.

--R.D. Pohl