*The videos below are in reverse order. Begin with number 11 or jump around as you please. Open in YouTube for the full playlist.

Well, it happened! Four years on from the original date, we made it from the far corners of the earth to give a once-in-a-lifetime reading in New York City at the Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village. The lineup was as follows: Barbara Crooker, Marc Alan Di Martino, Maria Lisella, Betsy Mars, Donna Masini, Aaron Poochigian, Bonnie Proudfoot and Alan Walowitz. (Please click the links to find out more about our poets and – most importantly – read their poems and maybe – yes, maybe! – even buy a book or three.)

I’m practically out of breath from this whirlwind week in my beloved New York, which I hadn’t seen in 19 years. My sister and I walked literally miles a day, from Chinatown through SoHo up to the High Line and way over to W. 47th to see the remains of Gotham Book Mart. We ate falafel at Kwik-Meal, bagels on Grand St., dumplings on Mott St. and japchae in Koreatown. We made new friends and saw old ones for the first time in decades. We reconnected with family. It was magical, as only New York can be at the right moments. It felt like I had never left. It was, in a word, serendipitous.

My deepest gratitude goes out to everyone involved in this project who chipped in their precious time and energy to make what began as an offhand proposal a granite-and-steel reality. Grazie!

***REMEMBER TO VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN THE TICKET ON NOVEMBER 5***