Poet Jack Freedman opened the vast world of Staten Island arts to us last night with a couple of invitations book-ended around two excellent works.  Can’t get enough mic time?  Visit Martini Red (372 Van Duzer) every Sunday night 8-10PM for their open mic.

Jack’s first work, ”Stigma Busters,” pronounced a manifesto of the mentally ill, inspired by Jack’s own work with the people served by the Baltic Street Mental Health Board.  If you’re interested in working with great people to break stigmas, talk to Jack about Psyche In The Light, a performance group dedicated to this task.

Mixing wit with brutality, “Suicide Bomber” plunged us into the family and anatomy of a particular warrior bent on bringing messy death to the West.  This piece is from the collection Serotonin Seas [amazon | bn] which, based on what I heard at the Vibe is highly recommended (support local arts!).  Want to be published too?  Jack is building a Staten Island anthology tentatively titled “Trails Through The Greenbelt,” featuring anything in written form: poetry, short stories, essays, rants, etc. (but get ‘em in by April 1).

All this and more is available by visiting Jack’s myspace: http://www.myspace.com/el_capitan_jack.  The Vibe is interested in promoting the living arts across the broad spectrum of our community.  If you would like to announce an event, opportunity, or something related to your work, or if you would like to be featured on this site, just contact Ben at ben [at] thetruthtree.com.  We’d love to get you and your work (visual arts, written works, music, etc.) some attention.