Bridget Talone, Joe Fritsch, and Leah Umanksy read for Underwater New York at the 2nd Annual New York City Poetry Festival on Governor's Island. To gear up for the reading, they each wrote us some new haikus. 

HAIKU BY JOE FRITSCH

1.
Round the river wound
’round round of land                    the earth there
soaked stones                   held summer

2.
Docking all and more
hull to shore comes close…….. Oh, BOAT!
I too hate water.

HAIKU BY LEAH UMANSKY

1.
Past the water’s lull
a seeming step to the past
where all things prosper

2.
All islands have charm
but is there a Caliban
off the shore of the City?
 

HAIKU BY BRIDGET TALONE

1.
When Doves Cry, Alt Version
[Prince Rogers Nelson]

This is what it sounds
like when Govs cry: Doo Doo
Doo. Doo Doo Doo Doo.

2.
6 Haiku from “Castle Williams Gets A Facelift”

Brainchild was a
three-story sleepover;
a prison donut

7-to-9 feet
thick. Brainchild was a ghost
[powdered sugar robe].

Like lawnmowers, we
likened him with our fans
into something shy

and walkable. Pig
and teen centers. Brainchild
waves to the public

with whiteout hands. He
is 200 years old and
still he licks his fin

-gers. I have offered
to paint his nails No One Was
Hurt. Red. A nice thought.

More than sixty people joined us on an exploration of New Dorp and Cedar Grove Beaches on Staten Island’s eastern shore, led by poet and longtime Cedar Grove resident and UNY contributing poet Jen Fitzgerald and historian Josh Jakob. Here are some of the photographs from that day! Read more about the beaches here and be sure to click over to the blog  We Heart NY and to BK Rabblerouser  to see more great documentation of the event.

Photographs by Dan Selzer and Nicole Haroutunian

Photos by Aimee Monko

On August 24, six phenomenal UNY contributing poets–Matthea Harvey, KC Trommer, Katie Naughton, Danniel Schoonebeek, Allyson Paty and Cate Marvin–shared their poems from the site, as well as a small, stunning selection of other work. Matthea Harvey read several poems she wrote about, and for, mermaids (she had just returned from a mermaid convention!), Cate Marvin revealed Staten Island’s dark side and KC Trommer changed the way we’ll think about “On the Waterfront” forever. We luckily caught Katie Naughton before she sails off for warmer waters (Thailand!) and were swept away by Danniel and Allyson’s “Torch Songs,” a series of poems they write, and read, together. More than sixty poetry fans assembled at beautiful Poets House, overlooking the Hudson River, for the event and many stayed afterwards to drink wine, peruse the library and celebrate. Big thanks to the poets, to the audience and to Poets House!

Here are a selection of photographs from the event: 

On the evening of July 20th, about fifty people assembled at Chelsea gallery PPOW to hear an amazing roster of Underwater New York contributing artists speak about their work.

Amy Jean Porter, whose show OF LAMB was up in the project room of the gallery, kicked off the event by tying the humpback whale she drew for UNY into a larger narrative of her exploration of the natural world versus human culture.

Elizabeth Albert took it from there, explaining how her research of NYC’s fringe shores such as Dead Horse Bay and Coney Island Creek was sparked, in part, by Underwater New York and piquing everyone’s interest in a waterway-themed exhibition she is curating for the fall of 2012.

Marie Lorenz made us all feel like we were traveling NYC’s waterways on her Tide and Current Taxi, being inspired equally by the objects we encountered, the people we met and the ebb and flow of the water itself.

George Boorujy closed out the event with a talk followed by a bottle toss into the Hudson River, all of which was luckily captured on video by the very talented Stacey Szewczyk of the blog Hudson River Stories. Watch her piece below and be sure to follow up to track the fate of George’s project NY Pelagic!

After leading an excursion to Dead Horse Bay for Obscura Day 2010, we were excited to team up with Atlas Obscura again this year. On April 9, 2011, we headed out to Coney Island Creek, a neglected inlet off Gravesend Bay, home to an improbable collection of ghost ships, a beached submarine and other haunting nautical detritus. Read more about the Creek’s history here, check out these photos from participants Farooq and Karolina, and send us any stories, art or music they inspire!

Photos by Farooq Ahmed

Photos by Karolina Waclawiak