Speak Easy Makes its Long-Awaited Return
The smell of popcorn in the air, the clinking of ice cubes in old-fashioned glasses, and the free-flowing poetry and prose could only mean one thing: Speak Easy is back. After a 21-month hiatus due to the uncertainties of a pesky pandemic, Rochester Spoken Word resurrected its regional reading event this past Sunday (12/12/2021) to an enthusiastic audience who let us know that we were missed. The seating was reduced, but thanks to the magic of video streaming, a record number of people were able to enjoy the performances of our ten readers who included four first-timers to the Speak Easy stage. There were tears; there was laughter, but mostly there was a feeling of joy and relief that something so long absent from the Rochester scene had returned.
The show was dedicated to Rob Siegel who unexpectedly passed away in September at the age of 69. Rob was one of our early readers back in August of 2017 and (along with his wife, Lise Kunkel) was a big supporter of Rochester Spoken Word and Speak Easy. He was a regular attendee and was always a pleasure to talk to. We will miss his smiling face.
9/17/1952 – 9/25/2021
Next Up: It’s the Speak Easy Birthday Party! Come celebrate our 5th birthday on Sunday, January 9, and hear a selection of stories from our first-ever short story contest read by the authors. There will be cake! Check out our website for more info and tickets.
Lineup for Speak Easy No. 38, Sunday 12/12/2021 at Cheshire:
- Grief Poems — Lise Kunkel
- Sitting Bedside Vigil — Rylie Day
- An excerpt from Confessions of a Professor Turned Call-Girl — Theresa Charlebois
- Sub Rosa — Robert Shelton
- Pretty.Hurt — Walt Way
- Grandpa’s Cinnamon-Sugar Toast — Scott Seifritz
- Untitled — Love Nicholson
- BMW — Sean Mulligan
- From Memory: A Recitation — Evvy Fanning
- Roasted Yuletide Pigs — Taylor Terrance
Special thanks to Tony Ruffo for all his technical wizardry and mad production skills, Rob Shelton for camera work and door opening, Kevin Watt for capturing our souls, Ekendra Dasa for our awesome theme, and Tara Shelton for popcorn and door duty!
Download the program from this show here.
Click on the pictures below to enlarge them.
Speak Easy No. 38! 
It’s nice to see this view again. 
The bar is filling up! 
Our camera man, Robert Shelton. 
Roc Spoke co-founder Scott Seifritz starts the show. 
The always colorful Roc Spoke co-founder Evvy Fanning introduces the first reader. 
Lise Kunkel kicks off the Act I readers. 
Lise shares her Grief Poems. 
The crowd listens intently. 
This was Lise’s fifth time on our stage. 
First-time reader Rylie Day is up next. 
Rylie reading Sitting Bedside Vigil. 
Rylie was a cast member of the 2020-2021 Listen to Your Mother show. 
The lovely Cheshire staff waiting to attend to your needs. 
Up next, Theresa Charlebois. 
Theresa reading excerpts from Confessions of a Professor Turned Call-Girl. 
This was Theresa’s first time on the Speak Easy stage. 
Filling in last minute is Speak Easy regular Robert Shelton. 
Robert reading Sub Rosa. 
The crowd is always attentative when Robert reads. 
Robert also was a 2020-2021 cast member of Listen to Your Mother. 
The present and future of Speak Easy. 
Crowd favorite and FormerLovePoet Walt Way takes the stage. 
Walt reading Pretty.Hurt. 
Walt is yet the third recent cast member of Listen to Your Mother. 
Intermission! Time to refresh those drinks. 
Evvy and Scott prepare of Act II. 
Evvy begins Act II. 
First up is Rochester Spoken Word co-founder Scott Seifritz. 
Scott reading his parody of online recipes, Grampa’s Cinnamon-Sugar Toast. 
Scott gets some laughs. 
Scott is happy to have an audience to read to again. 
First-time reader Love Nicholson is up next. 
Love reading her untitled poem. 
Love made the drive in from Syracuse for her performance. 
Our third reader of Act II is Sean Mulligan. 
Sean reading excerpts from his story. 
Sean was our forth first-time reader of the day. 
Tony Ruffo making the magic happen for the online viewers. 
Rochester Spoken Word co-founder is next to read. 
Evvy reading From Memory: A Recitation. 
Now it’s back to the other side of the bar! 
We finish up with another crowd favorite, Taylor Terrance. 
Taylor never fails to leave them laughing. 
Taylor reading Roasted Yuletide Pigs. 
Taylor was a past cast member and is now a producer of Listen to Your Mother. 
It’s Q&A time! 
Taylor answers a question. 
Walt talks about why he’s the FormerLovePoet. 
Rylie offers insight into her writing. 
Lise talks about how writing helped her grieve. 
Evvy has something to say. 
The audience enjoys the banter. 
Robert gives his input. 
That’s all for this time! See you in January!
