An Uptown Salon
by Mary Leonard

A literary salon in Uptown Kingston, New York? I began to romanticize a time travel capsule back to nineteenth-century France, Madame de Stael greeting us at Coppet, her villa near Lac Leman, and Lord Byron swooping down to read some of his poetry. But this is Kingston, the Stockade area, in the twenty-first-century. I have met Marilyn Stablein, the co-owner of the Uptown Café, and she does not remind me of Madame de Stael. She is a savvy contemporary writer and performance artist. Yet, on the first Sunday of every month, she hosts a literary salon at the Café where anyone is invited to join her in discussions of poetry, art and music for a fee of five dollars, which includes dessert. She co-hosts this with Sparrow, a displaced East Village writer, who has published a chapbook, Yes, You are A Revolutionary.

The Uptown Café, next to the Alternative Bookstore on North Front Street, was launched last August and has hosted events most nights of the week centering on the literary scene as well as music and performance art. Gary Wilkes, owner of the bookstore and co-owner of the Café, said that when the old London department store went up for sale, he and Marilyn bought it, hoping for a more accessible space for their books and readings. Since their move from a dark basement space on John Street, they have been sponsoring all kinds of events. Even well known poets like Ed Sanders and Robert Kelly have read at "The Gathering Place." Besides the literary salon and individual readings, they also host the Hudson Valley Publishing Network once a month. When Gary spoke about the store and the Café, he mentioned "hand selected." That made me think that we have very few business ventures using that term . . . and how "hand selected" works with his choice of books, which must be "relevant and useful" . . . and with his selection of writers, who he hopes will read from pieces that "have a significance, now."

Another "hand selected" venue is a new publication, Prima Materia, edited by Brent Robison. Brent published two volumes in 2002, the latest in December. Brent and some of his fellow fiction writers have already read at the Uptown Café, but they will be reading elsewhere up and down the Valley. I bought my copy of Prima Materia at the Alternative Bookstore and am still thinking about my first read, Barbara Brooks' story, "Girls and Women Half-Naked." Brooks raises the question of how, in our culture of divorce and stepchildren, we can forge a new definition of family and connections. Even though the writers have the commonality of living in the Valley, the stories are set all over the world, and range from flash fiction and the experimental to realistic inquiries on the question of what is the modern family.

In his introduction, Brent Robison tells us that the ancient philosophers believed the universe consisted of earth, air, fire and water, and a fifth element. This prima materia was the invisible, or what he calls "the right stuff." He told me that he noticed that the Hudson Valley had many forums for poets, but none for fiction writers and that, in a sense, they were invisible. Although his original hope was to publish twice a year and in 2002, he did do that, he might not be able to keep up that pace of publishing. However, he will continue, expanding Prima Materia to include essays and memoir.

Of course, many other places exist for readings. Celia Bland, friend and fellow poet, told me she has read at the Woodstock Poetry Festival, the Omega Institute, on WDST, and even in living rooms in the Hudson Valley, through a grant from the NY State Council for the Arts. Celia's book of poetry, Soft Box will be available soon through Cavan Kerry Press. Her reading voice is both sweet and hypnotic, adding an interesting tension to her sensual and surprising poetry. One poem, "Chalk Lines for Our Catechism, I. Mathematics," begins, "7 was a woman dangerous to 6, even/ cannibalistic. She would flatten his belly into her brainy linearity."

Who needs dessert with the richness of that language? So powder your wigs and put these addresses in your books: alterna@ulster.net to get the monthly calendar for the Uptown Café, and www.brentrobison.com for a list of readings for Prima Materia, Volume II.