Each year during the Rochester International Jazz Festival, BOA Editions collaborates with the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo) to bring Rochesterians and festival-goers a night of literature, jazz, and art.
Literature (poetry) and jazz have long walked hand-in-hand, so, naturally, we at BOA do our part to infuse the spirit of the Rochester International Jazz Festival with verse. This year marked our fifth “Poetry is Jazz” event, hosted at RoCo during its 6x6x2013 exhibit, the “international small art phenomenon.” Our featured BOA author was Douglas Watson, whose new debut fiction collection The Era of Not Quite was just released in May. Watson performed with the “4×4″ band featuring jazz musicians Mark Kellogg, Jim Doser, Chris Azzara, and Danny Ziemann.
As if literature and jazz aren’t enough, we also feature “live” painting each year to round-out the artistic feast. This year, acclaimed Rochester artist Cordell Cordaro created a stunning painting as event-goers watched, and it was completed by the end of the event. The painting will be auctioned off at BOA’s annual Dine & Rhyme celebration on Sunday, September 29. This year’s Dine & Rhyme event will feature renowned BOA poet Li-Young Lee with musical accompaniment by Chicago-based musician David Whetstone, with a reading event at the Memorial Art Gallery, followed by a reception and silent auction at Good Luck Restaurant.
Any event of this scope needs generous supporters to make it a success. For the third year in a row, “Poetry is Jazz” was sponsored by Lavin, O’Neil, Ricci, Cedrone, and DiSipio: Attorneys at Law, and we thank them for their generous support. Special thanks also to Mark Kellogg for organizing the musical performance, Bleu Cease at RoCo for being a gracious host, Cordell Cordaro for bringing his visual art to life before our eyes, and Douglas Watson for an engaging reading.
To see more photos from the event, visit our Facebook page.
