Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: You're listening to the Mistress of None podcast with Erin Harks.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Mistress of None. This is Erin Harks. Very excited to be here today. We have a guest today that is a former Metroland staffer that we are bringing back to help us take care of some of the poetry happenings in the Capital Region.
We are also looking for more ways that people can contribute to make sure that we are getting as much good stuff out there and as much information to the public. So I had a nice interview today with RM Engelhardt, who we have some really great ideas for things that we can do for the poetry scene moving forward in the Capital Region and talk a little bit about what he's done before. And I will let the interview speak for itself because I got to do. All right, guys, thanks for listening. And we'll be right back with RM Englehart.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: You're listening to the Mistress of None podcast with Aaron Harks.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Mistress of None. This is Aaron Harks. Hope everyone is doing well today. Thank you for tuning in. My guest today is RM Engelhardt.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Hey there.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Hi. Nice to have you.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Nice to be here.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Just realize I turned up the wrong channel, so I want to make sure you're a little more soft spoken than I am, so.
Which is not hard to be. But it's nice to have you. Thank you so much.
We are talking mostly today about poetry.
You reached out a while back when the Metroland thing got started and are going to end up luckily adding a very needed component to what we are trying to do, which is a nice poetry section spot where we can feature what's going on in the poetry community. And you are probably the best person for this job because you used to do it for the former Metroland.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I have this deja vu feeling. But I did actually do the poetry section for the old Metrolin in The probably early 2000s, I would say, and I didn't really do it for that long. It was probably about maybe two years.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: But we were able to publish local poets and have discussions about poetry on there. And we had Metroland back then full of poetry events and all sorts of poetry articles. So it was a great time for the Albany poetry scene and around the area.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Very cool. And I'm taking it from how you're saying that that it has shifted a little bit since that time.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: A little bit.
Poetry in Albany, particularly Albany, City of Albany, used to be something that was huge.
Back in 1999, I came up with this idea for a thing called Albany Poets.
And it was, well, this is dating me. But the Internet was something amazing and new back then. So what we did was we created the first big poetry website in the area and we created events around that with the group Albany Poets that we named Albany Poets.
And we made a lot of things happen. There was me, there was Tom Francis, Mary Panza, Dan Wilcox, a whole bunch of poets who are still around today doing stuff in the community.
And so, well, what happened was back then we had even an over explosion of poetry, which wasn't really a bad thing. We had a lot of poetry readings in the area, especially in downtown Albany. I did one at Valentine's called the School of Night. There are other ones that came along and then something kind of happened over time that's kind of unexplainable. It's almost like maybe it. There were too many or it burnt itself out or slam came into the scene and it kind of changed perception of poetry and poetry. Open mics, like contest stuff, things like that. There's no real answer in that regard. But what happened was poetry readings became less karaoke and trivia nights started becoming extremely popular.
And then all of a sudden, even though there were some die hards like myself and others that kept running their readings, it just kind of drifted off.
So now after all these years, in 2024, suddenly there seems to be a resurgence of poetry in the area. It's. It's starting to come back a little bit slowly, but coming back in a good way.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: That's great.
I think a lot of things are kind of coming back in like reflections of days of, you know, the early Audies. Anyway, like I'm seeing some resurgence of things, not Metroland notwithstanding, but I remember going to a lot of open mics during that time. The time that you were mentioning and as a musician and seeing that there was always a good representation of. It was just, it was very common to just have a poet get up and read. And I, now that you're saying it, of course I didn't really recognize it at the time because I was only really thinking about myself. But I noticed that they, they just weren't coming. Even when I started to host open mics, it was. They just stopped coming out, I guess. So.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Well, there's so many places that you could go to read that people I think just started saying, oh, you know, I, I'm not going to go to this reading tonight, maybe I'll go to that one next week or whatever. And then eventually there's the trickle Down Theory, where everything just pretty much kind of started disappearing.
A lot of places started closing up and not supporting music, let alone poetry or anything else. They just closed. And for a while, the fuse box, before it became the fuse box, was closed. And that was kind of when it was the QE2, way back in the early 90s. It was like the big place for poetry. You would get huge crowds at the QE2 reading that was run by Tom Natal back then. And that's where I started. That's where a whole bunch of area poets started. And it was just.
To this day, you can't beat it. Yeah, you know, it's just. It was. It's a matter of time. It was just a matter of what was then and what is now.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Yeah, and I think that that's true of anything, unfortunately. I mean, it's. It's almost like a. I always compare it to when I was a freshman in college, and college seemed like the greatest place on Earth, and everybody seemed so cool, and we were having the time of our lives, and I would meet these, like, jaded upperclassmen who were talking about how much they hated it or, like, you know, having problems with all these different things. And you were like, but this is the best. And they were like, nah, you'll see. And then you get to be the senior, and you're like, okay, I get it now. You just kind of. You burn out from certain things. I know it would never be the same, but do you hope that you could get some sort of community kind of poetry thing happening again in the Capital Region?
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Well, what I think is that there are still, you know, obviously there's still readings, there's still literary events in the area. There's.
Whether they're academic or they're run by people who are running just like, at a coffee shop or something like that on their own.
A lot of them are in Troy. A lot of activity. Hudson Valley Writers Guild has a whole list of literary events calendar every single month. And that is, like, an amazing source of being able to find readings in your area. But in this particular area in Albany, well, we. I think we've lost a lot. I think we've lost a lot of the music scene. I think we've lost a lot of the poetry scene. And. And we've also lost even just, you know, coffee houses. I mean, there's like, one. No, actually two. Two coffee houses on Lark Street.
There's a huge amount of places, though, to do poetry readings as well as music.
Especially down on Broadway area. Yeah, like, that now. So I think the reoccurrence of all these things isn't necessarily going to be in the same area.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Oh yeah. It will never be the same. But there's. There's something that can come and take its place.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Can you hold on for just one second? So back in the day, you were like, helping to cultivate this poetry scene and running events and making sure that the events were promoted properly. Do you think with help of, you know, the Metroland coming back, we could possibly see a resurgence?
[00:09:48] Speaker A: I think there could be a big resurgence. I think Metroland had a huge effect on all the scenes. Music, poetry, art, particularly art. There was so much going on. Like the UAG had their place on Lark street and everything. And I think we need more of that, whether it's new or old. Some of these groups coming back and being able to basically do what they did, you know, a couple years ago, and everybody talks about it. We don't like to really sometimes dwell on it in conversations, but it feels like we lost a lot in this area and that no amount of promotion or anything will help it, etc. Etc. So we want to really try to make all these scenes what they were and just hopefully get people out. Yeah, and that's the big thing. People. People weren't. Because of COVID a couple years ago and things. People weren't coming out. We're hoping that they'll. They'll make a return to these places and share their work or play music or do something like that.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I think it was interesting when Covid was like a few months after, when they were starting to allow people to come back out. Um, people came out obviously in droves and then it balanced out a little bit. And now it's. It's almost like, you know, we're coming up on five years of when that started and now it's almost like the complete opposite. Like, to get people to come out has been like, ridiculously tough for like, like across the board, any type of event. And so that's part of what I'm trying to study and trying to figure out. Like what, what do we do to get people to come back out?
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Free stuff.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
Well, the poetry is usually are free events, from what I can remember. And you mentioned the coffee houses, like, even on Large street. And they're great coffee houses, but they're not like the coffee houses that we had back in the day where it was also a performance space.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Yeah, there's not enough room in a lot of them.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: You know, you Sit there. And that's the only space you have the sitting there we are.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Yeah. I think it would be interesting to just. I think you might have better luck doing like a coffee house night at a not traditional coffee house or something, because, I mean, yeah, the spaces are. It's just not big enough to hold. I mean, I think of the places when I first started in the area. I remember, like Mother Earth's Cafe.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Wow. That just hit me like a ton of bricks.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: There was poetry there when I was starting out, and I used to love that place. I used to love going there for just coffee because I'm a coffee addict. And.
Yeah, it's now all these places. Well, where are the spaces for art? Where are the spaces for poetry? Where are the spaces for bands and music? Yeah, so.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Well, I mean, that's one of the things, you know, I'm naively hoping to help a little bit in the area. What would be. What do you think, other than that would be the best way to get these people back out?
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Well, I think it would probably be word of mouth, actually. Social media. Social media like Facebook events and things like that used to work at first, when, of course, we're talking over nine years now. And then all of a sudden it was like you'd receive a ton of events in, you know, your email or whatever. Like, after a while, I think people just.
And there's just too much social media. So I think it's easy to promote on social media, but I think that we really have to. If you want any. Anybody to come out to your events, if you want to promote your events, you also are promoting yourself. You're taking flyers, you're going to other people's events and making that happen. And I'll be honest, I have been on the sidelines a lot over the last few years because of a number of things, including my back and all sorts of fun. I'm not old. I'm just, you know, saying that, you know, there's just things in life that keep you from doing the things you love and getting out there and making things happen. So now I'm back.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Good. Well, welcome back and we are looking forward to working with you to make sure that, you know, poetry has its place. And you and I had already talked about doing a fun, like, beatnik poetry night. I'll bring in my. My bandmates to do some, like.
Did I say it wrong?
[00:14:35] Speaker A: The Beat Generation night.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: No, no, it's. It's perfect beach. And that's what we used to.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Was beatnik wrong Though.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Oh, no, beatniks are.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: Well, that's the termage Beat poetry. I'm sorry, not beatniks.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: We used to have a Beat Generation night a long time ago when we did it at Valentine's and I had a bass stand up bass player and a saxophone player, and those were some of the best times ever. And we used to do the Beat Generation night and there were people who'd even come dressed up kind of like Kerouac or something like that. It was, it was a lot of fun. And.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Well, I'm already getting my guys on board, the guys in my band.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: It. We definitely need to do that.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: It's gonna be. I think it's gonna be great. I think it could be really funny. I mean, obviously I think about the movie like, so I married an axe Murderer Harriet. Yeah, I might have to like do that part just to open things up, just to loosen everybody up a little bit, because that would be a lot of fun for me. And then we can move it over to the serious poets. But besides that event, which we are going to do, which is going to be amazing, what else is coming up in the area that you're particularly excited about?
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Well, I took my reading, my poetry reading that I run for the open mics. I took that to a brand new venue and I'm really excited about that. I did my first reading last week. Well, excuse me, last month, game talk today. And it went really well. A great crowd came out. It's at the Bull and Bee meadery and tasting room on Hamilton Street. And we run it on the third Wednesday of each and every month. And it's called Invocation Albany. And we believe poetry is for everybody. Come on out, read whatever style, whatever, even, even comedy is welcome if you want to come out and do that.
It, it's, it's a lot of fun. And so we're hoping that with the help of the BO&BE and Dan, who basically runs the place. Awesome guy, that we are able to just keep on bringing people in, even in cold weather and sharing their work, having fun.
And that's about it for that, that event. And then there's. There's a lot of other events of course, coming up that are on the Hudson Valley Writers Guild calendar there that you can see if you're in those areas, like you live in Troy or Schenectady.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: So Hudson Valley Writers Guild encompasses the.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Capital region pretty much. They. They're out of Troy. Hudson Valley.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Okay, so see, I think Hudson Valley, I think south of here. So that's good. Information. That's good to know, but we're going to add those dates to our calendar, too. So until we get there, you can look them up. What's the link?
[00:17:29] Speaker A: I believe just have to go to the website. It's just the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: And you throw that in the computer. I don't have the definite link on me right now, but pretty easy to find.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: All right. No, you sent it to me. We'll make sure that it gets listed. And also the third Wednesday at the Bullenbee, we'll make sure that that gets properly listed. And we're really excited to work with you on making sure that poetry is promoted in the capital Region.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Well, I'm definitely excited to be doing this again. This is the last thing I expected, to be honest, that I would basically be promoting and writing about local poets, helping the poetry scene again and that even Metroland was going to come back from somewhere. So I'm very surprised. So thank you, Aaron.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. No, thank you for reaching out. And we again, we're really excited to have you for for two reasons. One, because of your mainstay, your hold in the poetry arena and also with your Metroland pass, it seems like the perfect fit. So we're happy to have you and we will have more information posted that you can look up. This has been RM Engelhardt. How can people find out more about you?
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Well, all you have to do is go to the site ww gentlemenoutsider, all one word gentlemenoutsider.com and also I run a small press for poetry around here for independent poetry called Dead Man's Press, Inc. And the links for Dead Man's Press Inc. Are through my website. There is tons and tons of stuff, of course, with social media and everything you can find.
You just put the name in computer or poetry in Capital District and it'll all pop up. It's right there for you.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for meeting with us today.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Thank you for inviting me. This is great.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: We will definitely be talking again. This has been Aaron Harks with the Mistress of None. My guest today has been RM Engelhardt. Thank you again. And we will be right back.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: You're listening to the Mistress of None podcast with Aaron harks.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: That was R.M. engelhardt. Thanks once again for tuning in.
You can find all the information on the Metroland site for how to reach him and for what's going on. TheMetroland.com you can find out a little bit about me and what's going on. If you are in Saratoga I will be performing tonight at UPH for my Women Aren't Funny show, which is very funny. And I think after this week, we could all use a laugh.
I mean, I'm recording this Monday, so I'm saying tonight so I don't see in the future, but I feel like everything's gonna be just fine.
But then again, I am very naive. So we'll see. Come on out tonight. Either way, I'm pretty sure you need some comedy so you can do that. UPH tickets are on my website, aaronhurst.com. this is the Mistress of None, and we will see you soon. Be nice to one another, love thy neighbor, all that bs like listen, follow, share, and lati Da. We'll see you soon.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: Bye.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: You're listening to the Mistress of None podcast with Erin Harks.
