First Tuesdays Presents Peter Marra

When: September 3, 2019
Where: Espresso 77 Café, 35-57 77th Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372.
Time: 7:00 — 8:30 PM (open-mic sign up at 6:30)
Cost: $5 minimum purchase at the food counter.
More Information: Richard Jeffrey Newman

Originally from Gravesend Brooklyn, Peter Marra lived in the East Village, New York from 1979 to 1993 at the height of the punk — no wave music era. Peter’s writings explore alienation, addiction, the misuse of love, the curse of secrets, the pain of victimization and the impact of obsessions. He has been scarred by his past quests into the pits of Rock n’ Roll, sin and flesh in NYC’s East Village and Pre-Disney Times Square and he has been manipulated by trash culture and fine art. He is the bastard child of the films of Roger Corman and Russ Meyer, as well as the works of the Symbolists and the retro-warhol-underground.

Peter has had over 300 poems published either in print or online in over 25 journals. His published works include approximate lovers (downtown materialaktion) (Bone Orchard Press), Peep-O-Rama: Sins of the Go-Go Girls (Hammer & Anvil Books) and Vanished Faces (a performance of occult infections) (Writing Knights Press). His latest poetry collection is Random Crucifixions: Obsessions, Dolls and Maniac Cameras (Hammer & anvil Books). 2019 will see the release of the hyper-realistic transgressive giallo novel, A Naked Kiss from a Broken Doll to be published by Hammer & Anvil Books.

Here’s a Poem From Peep-O-Rama:

Confessions of a Wind-Up Doll
(True Burlesque)

There is always beauty in the hissing sounds.
The alternating camera speeds reveal a long-lashed woman; touching experimental films, she has a forceful birth
to destroy Hollywood
a local documentary,
a psychodrama,
and a spectacle of
piano crashes –
so dramatic
in the cinema on King’s Highway in Brooklyn
3 prostitutes wear clear vinyl dresses
comparing themselves to each other.
a purple keeper of her soul knows this:
that every girl wants the music
that every girl wants the sounds
knees on the seat but no relief

she heard through the door
a notorious incident occurred during dinner:
a vomiting was responsible the biggest blushes yet.

her flesh paled after jumping a film actress,
that girl, whose five inch heels burned
as she tongued her legs. just rock & roll

true burlesque. the cracks and the faces spied.

This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.