Hal Sirowitz (born 1949) is an American poet.
Sirowitz has a degree from
Hofstra in education.
He first began to attract attention at the
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Nuyorican is a portmanteau word blending "New York" (or "Nueva York" in Spanish) and "Puerto Rican," referring to Puerto Rican migration to New York City, Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, their culture, or their descendants (es ...
where he was a frequent competitor in their Friday Night
Poetry Slam
A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word, spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges.
Poetry slams began in Chicago in the 1980s, with the first slam competition designed to move poetry rec ...
. He eventually made the 1993 Nuyorican Poetry Slam team, and competed in the 1993
National Poetry Slam
The National Poetry Slam (NPS) was a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurred in early August every y ...
(held that year in San Francisco) along with his Nuyorican teammates
Maggie Estep
Margaret Ann "Maggie" Estep (March 20, 1963 – February 12, 2014) was an American writer and poet, best known for coming to prominence during the height of the spoken word and poetry slam performance rage. She published seven books and rel ...
,
Tracie Morris, and Regie Cabico.
Sirowitz would later perform his poetry on stages across the country, and on television programs such as MTV's ''Spoken Word: Unplugged''
[ ] and PBS's ''The United States of Poetry''.
He has written eleven books of poetry, including the volumes ''Mother Said'', ''My Therapist Said'' and ''Father Said''. He is the best-selling translated poet in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, where ''Mother Said'' has been adapted for the stage and turned into a series of animated cartoons.
Sirowitz is a 1994 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry
[ and is the former Poet Laureate of ]Queens
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
. He worked as a special education teacher in the New York public school system
The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (more commonly known as New York City Publ ...
for 23 years. He is married to writer Mary Minter Krotzer.
Bibliography
*''Girlie Pictures'', Long Island City, NY: Low-Tech Press, 1982.
*''Bedroom Wall'', New Brunswick, NJ: Iniquity Press/Vendetta Books, 1992.
*''Fishnet Stockings'', New York: Appearances, no. 20, 1993.
*''No More Birthdays'', Bristolville, OH: The Bacchae Press, 1993.
*''Happy Baby'', 1997. Bristolville, OH: The Bacchae Press, 1995.
*''Two Second Kiss'', Harvey, LA: Mulberry Press, 1995.
*''Mother Said'', New York: Crown, 1996.
References
External links
Hal Sirowitz performing "Chopped Off Arm" (podcast)
1949 births
American male poets
Living people
Jewish American poets
Performance art in New York City
Place of birth missing (living people)
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews
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