Tribute Reading for Jimmy Cvetic
November 8, 2017
Jimmy Cvetic has
been writing and performing poetry all his life. A retired county police
officer and often described as 'Bukowski with a badge,' Jimmy for many years
was director of the Western Pennsylvania Police Athletic League, and
is founder and director of the Summer Poetry Series at Hemingway's Cafe in
the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. His poems have appeared in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, City
Paper and other publications. He appears in the film, Warrior,
and in 2012, he read his poetry at Beyond Baroque in Venice, CA
with his actor-friend and poet, Nick Nolte. In 2010, Jimmy's book of
poetry, The Secret Society of Dog was published by Awesome Books/Lascaux
Editions, and a second volume, Dog Unleashed, was also published by
Awesome Books in 2012. Jimmy, his boxing gym and trainers were recently
featured in the Esquire cable TV show, “White Collar Brawlers.” His most
recent book of poetry, Dog is a Love from Hell, was published in 2017 by
Lascaux Editions.
As Charles Deitch wrote in City Paper: He’s
a former police officer and detective. He’s a boxing trainer. He’s a poet. He’s
an artist. He’s the head of the Western Pennsylvania Police Athletic League, a
group that takes kids, mostly those at-risk, and gets them working out their
aggressions through sports instead of on the streets. Finally, for hundreds of
kids every year, he’s Santa. Cvetic, along with the other members of PAL,
spends his year collecting toys, and cash to buy toys, for underprivileged kids
at Christmas.
He knows everybody
and everybody knows him. And he does the things he does for others, not for
himself. Countless times over the years, he has asked not to be quoted or
photographed, instead asking that the attention go toward the volunteers he
works with, or the kids who are trying to make their lives better.
On November 8, 2017, we congregated at Hemingway's Bar to pay tribute to Jimmy's many accomplishments and contributions. First some photographs. Then, readings by the featured poets. The entire unedited recording will also be available at the bottom of the page.
Featured Readers
 |
| Click to Enlarge - Right-Click to Download |
Standing: Bob Ziller, Jimmy Cvetic, Gloria Sztukowski and S.A. Griffin
Seated: Adam Matcho, Joan Bauer, Lori Jakiela, Dave Newman and John Korn
Featured Readers Plus Reinforcements
 |
| Click to Enlarge - Right-Click to Download |
Back Row Leaning Forward: Scott Silsbe and Bob Pajich
Standing: Bob Ziller, Jimmy Cvetic, Gloria Sztukowski and S.A. Griffin
Front Row Crouched: Jason Baldinger
Seated: Adam Matcho, Joan Bauer, Lori Jakiela, Dave Newman and John Korn
Contentedly Cradled In Lori Jakiela's Lap: Sylvia Catello
Jimmy Cvetic Opens the Event
Jimmy Cvetic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download
Jan Beatty's fifth full-length book, Jackknife:
New and Collected Poems, was published in January, 2017 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Her last book, The
Switching/Yard, was named one of ...30 New Books That Will Help You
Rediscover Poetry by Library Journal. The Huffington Post named
her as one of ten women writers for "required reading." Other books
include Red Sugar, Boneshaker, and Mad River,
winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, all published by the University of
Pittsburgh Press. Beatty is host and producer of Prosody, a
public radio show on NPR affiliate WESA-FM featuring the work of national
writers. Beatty worked as a waitress for fifteen years, and as a welfare
caseworker, an abortion counselor, social worker and teacher in
maximum-security prisons. She directs the creative writing program at Carlow University,
where she runs the Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops and teaches in the
MFA program.
Jan Beatty - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download
S.A. Griffin
lives, loves and works in Los Angeles.
Author of Dreams Gone Mad With Hope (Punk Hostage Press) he is the
co-editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Firecracker Award) and
editor of The Official Language of Yes by Scott Wannberg for Viggo Mortensen's
Perceval Press. Father, husband, actor (Dramalogue Award, Kari Award), Carma
Bum, Poetry Bomb progenitor, Vietnam
era vet (USAF) and luckiest man he knows, S.A. is truly honored to be part of
this tribute reading for Jimmy Cvetic.
John Korn lives
in Pittsburgh.
He is the author of a book of poetry titled Television Farm which
can be purchased on amazon.com.
He has worked as a mental health social worker for many years now. He was
nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, one for his poem "14 young women"
and another for his poem "Yellow lamp shade head." He didn't
win either of these prizes and he is not even sure what those prizes are.
Adam Matcho was
formerly employed as a gas station attendant, sandwich artist, novelty shop
clerk, gold buyer, and obituary writer. Now, he tells people he is the poet
laureate of Johnstown.
His poems have been published in literary magazines and his books include:
“The Novelty Essays” (WPA Press), “Six Dollars an Hour: Confessions of a Gemini
Writer” (Liquid Paper Press) and “Love Songs From Flood City” (Low Ghost
Press).
Leslie Anne Mcilroy won the 2000 Word Press Poetry Prize for her full-length collection Rare Space. She also won the 1997 Slipstream Poetry Chapbook Prize for her chapbook Gravel, and first place in the 1997 Chicago Literary Awards judged by Gerald Stern. Leslie's poems are published in numerous journals and anthologies including American Poetry: The Next Generation, Connotation Press, Dogwood, Jubilat, The Mississippi Review, New Ohio Review, Nimrod International Journal of Prose & Poetry, Poetry Magazine, PANK and Pearl Magazine. Leslie serves as Managing & Poetry Editor of HEArt (Human Equity through Art) Online. She works as a copywriter in Pittsburgh, PA, where she lives with her daughter, Silas. Her second full-length book, Liquid Like This, was published by Word Tech in July 2008. Her third collection, SLAG was runner up for the 2014 Main Street Rag Publishing Company Book Prize and was released in December, 2014.
Leslie Anne Mcilroy - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download
Dave Newman is
the author of the novels Raymond Carver Will Not Raise
Our Children (Writers Tribe Books, 2012) and Please Don’t Shoot Anyone Tonight (World Parade
Books, 2010), and the poetry collection The
Slaughterhouse Poems.He’s worked as a truck driver, a book store
manager, an air filter salesman, a house painter, and a college teacher. More
than 100 of his poems and stories have appeared in magazines throughout the
world, including Gulf Stream, Word Riot, Smokelong Quarterly, Rattle,
Wormwood Review, Tears in the Fence (UK), and The New Yinzer. He
has been the featured writer and on the cover of both 5AM
and Chiron Review. Anthologies include Beside the City of Angels (World
Parade Books) and The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary
Poetry (Autumn House Press). Newman has won three chapbooks prizes.
In 2004, he received the Andre Dubus Novella Award. He lives in Trafford, Pennsylvania
with his wife, the writer Lori Jakiela, and their two children.
Through his writing, editing and teaching, Ed Ochester has
been a major force on contemporary letters for more than three decades. He
edits the Pitt Poetry Series and is general editor of the Drue Heinz Literature
Prize for short fiction, both published by the University of Pittsburgh
Press. From 1978 to 1998 he was director of the
Writing Program at the University
of Pittsburgh, and was
twice elected president of the Associated Writing Programs. He co-edited the
poetry magazine 5AM, and lives
in a rural county northeast of Pittsburgh.
His recent books include Snow White Horses: Selected Poems 1973-1988(Autumn
House Press, 2001), American Poetry Now: Pitt Poetry Series Anthology (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007),Unreconstructed:
Poems Selected and New (Autumn House Press, 2007) and Sugar Run Road (Autumn
House Press, 2015). Poems just published or forthcoming in: American
Poetry Review, Agni, Chiron Review, Great
River Review and Nerve
Cowboy.
Judith Vollmer's fifth full-length collection, The Apollonia Poems,
the 2016 Four Lakes Prize of the University
of Wisconsin Press was
released in March 2017. A recent volume, The Water Books, was
published in 2012 by Autumn House Press, and previous collections have received
the Brittingham, the Center for Book Arts, and the Cleveland State publication
prizes. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the
Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her essays and reviews are
included in The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire and
elsewhere. She was a founding editor of the literary journal 5 AM. Vollmer teaches in the low-residency MFA
Program in Poetry & Poetry in Translation at Drew University.
Lori Jakiela is
the author of four memoirs, including BELIEF IS ITS OWN KIND OF TRUTH, MAYBE,
which received the William Saroyan Prize for International Writing from
Stanford University and was named one of 20 Nonfiction Books Not to Miss in
2015 by The Huffington Post. Her most recent book is PORTRAIT OF THE
ARTIST AS A BINGO WORKER, a collection of essays about work and the writing
life, published in 2017 by Bottom Dog Press. Her work has been published in The
New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Vol. 1 Brooklyn,
LitHub, Electric Literature and more. In 2016, she received the City of Asylum Pittsburgh Prize, which sent her on a month-long
residency to Brussels, Belgium. She is also the author of
the poetry collection SPOT THE TERRORIST! and several limited-edition poetry
chapbooks. A native of Trafford,
PA, Jakiela now runs community
writing workshops in her hometown and lives with her husband, the author Dave
Newman, and their two children.
Joan E. Bauer
is the author of The Almost Sound of Drowning (Main Street Rag, 2008).
With Judith Robinson and Sankar Roy, she co-edited the international anthology,
Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami (Bayeux Arts and Rupa &
Co, 2005). For some years, she worked as an English teacher and
educational counselor and now divides her time between Venice, CA and
Pittsburgh, PA, where she co-hosts and curates the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry
Series with her friend Jimmy Cvetic.
According to its web site, Attack
Theater is "a company of artists, doers, thinkers, risk-takers,
dancers, administrators, entrepreneurs, and makers. We make dance. We engage
audiences. We inspire children. We interact with our surroundings. We crave
adventure, a good challenge, and achieving something just out of reach. And we
love the journey as much as the destination."
Here, they perform an
excerpt from their upcoming production of Jimmy's work titled In Defense of Gravity.
Jimmy Cvetic Closes the Event
Jimmy Cvetic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download
Full Length Recording of the Entire Event
Full Length Recording - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download
Mac users who lack a 2-button mouse may press Control-Click on the appropriate links to enable downloads.
