A visit to a poetry reading at Odessa

Odessa has been playing host to a literary reading series on Wednesdays in recent weeks.

Michael Graves, who started the Phoenix Reading Series in the West Village in the late 1990s, is the organizer at Odessa, the diner at 117 Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by last week's event, where Amy Barone, Ron Kolm and Karen Neuberg were the featured poets.

Stacie reports that they were a very supportive bunch of readers and authors (and listeners) ...


[Michael Graves]


[Amy Barone]


[Ron Kolm]


[Karen Neuberg]

The series, which takes place in the back of the diner (near the bar) on Wednesday evenings (from 6 to 8 or 9), features several guests as well as an open-mic portion. There's a suggested donation of $5 as well as a request to order something from Odessa ...