Editor's pick: Poetry evening

A poetry slam master at Narrowsburg

Friday, August 4. 7:30 p.m. Tusten-Cochecton Branch of the Western Sullivan Public Library. Free. lmoran@rcls.org or 845/482-4350.

Def Poetry Jam and International Teachers Speaker Taylor Mali and Equinunk’s Lori Anderson Moseman will be featured at this Friday’s edition of the Western Sullivan Public Library’s new author series, “First Fridays: A Contemporary Writers Series.”

Mali is generally considered to be the most successful poetry slam strategist of all time, having led six of his seven national poetry slam teams to the finals stage and winning the championship itself a record four times before anyone had even tied him at three. He was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO original series “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.” He was also the “golden-tongued, Armani clad villain” of Paul Devlin’s 1997 documentary film “SlamNation,” which chronicled the National Poetry Slam Championship of 1996, the year of Mali’s first national team championship.

Mali is also a teacher. A native of New York City and vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching, Mali himself spent nine years in the classroom teaching everything from English and history to math SAT preparation. He received a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2001 to develop “Teacher! Teacher!” a one-man show about poetry, teaching and math that won the jury prize for best solo performance at the 2001 U. S. Comedy Arts Festival.

Equinunk’s Moseman is the author of two books of poetry (“Cultivating Excess” and “Persona”) and a chapbook (“Walking the Dead”). Currently, she teaches poetry for CUNY in Queens. Her poems have appeared in Harpur Palate, Passages North, Colorado Review, Bathyspheric Review, 8T3, Terra Nova, Phoebe, 13th Moon and The Little Magazine.

The evening starts with an open mic at 7:30 (signup is 7:00 p.m.), followed by Moseman at 8:00 and Mali at 8:30 p.m.