Reviewed: 3-1-2021 ...internationally performing and leading American poet... |
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"...so there is |
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poet musician singer writer |
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Ray McNiece |
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Ray McNiece is a Creative Workforce
Fellow. The Creative Workforce Fellowship is a program of
the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, made possible
by the generous support of Cuyahoga County citizens through |
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THE Collinwood |
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And read and see more at the
Collinwood Story Project BLOG
written and maintained by Maria
Dybzinski:
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Ray McNiece is in
charge of the |
COLLINWOOD STORY
PROJECT |
Explore... |
the many talents and facets... |
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Ray, on Ray......
"I've heeded the calling of inner voice married to outer world. I'm
blessed to be following a bliss that has carried me through college,
six books of monologues and poems and co-editing one anthology of
Buddhist poems, two solo stage shows, two
historical character creations, numerous theatrical collaborations,
several bands, and years of writing and performance workshops for
students from kindergarten to college. A writer is here to listen as
much as to speak, to learn as much as to teach, to give what has been
given via the word."
Ray's latest release. Contact ray
to get your copy...
What others have to say on Ray...
"...a born poet and a born performer..."
"Make no mistake, Ray McNiece is a patriot in the truest sense of the
word. He has America coursing through his veins, and his poems are an
open highway with a cool Midwestern wind blowing through them.
'Our Way of Life' is a cathartic journey, taking you from
meditations on the atrocious war in Iraq to homages to the nation's
great living poets, and ending in the nooks and crannies of a country
that, despite the heartache found permeating everything, is still alive,
vital and staggeringly beautiful in ways that are breathtaking to
behold."
“Where would we be without the voice of Ray McNiece? Who else would sing
of the migrations from Appalachia to Ohio, dance the Slovenian Polka,
wail the blues for broken New Orleans, mourn the destruction of our last
pristine land, rail against the corruption of corporate government, ache
for the victims of torture and war, then croon love songs to Cleveland?
Who else would connect us with what makes us human? Ray McNiece is our
Whitman, our bard, our bodhisattva, our conscience.”
"It's not enough for an artist to be angry. He also has to be good. And
Ray McNiece is good and angry in these poems (Our Way of Life)
that burn as hot and bright as the extinct blast furnaces of Ohio once
did. Whitman, whose ghost is everywhere in these lines, called America
"the greatest poem." And I am happy that Ray McNiece's passionate,
relentless voice will not stop until he has made us understand how much
we have lost."
It is a poet’s job to tell the truth. McNiece strips away the multiple
coats of yellowing varnish in Our Way of Life laying bare
a distressed yet solidly built realism. Rather than the usual pop
cynicism - these poems embrace an idealism of what should and could be
while invoking the language of a poet’s poet. Like a canary in a coal
mine he beckons us to come above ground and breathe deep – before it is
too late. __________________________
"Ray McNiece is an adept reader of his own
moving, clearly imaged poems, a skilled performer who does the English
language justice. "
The Edinburgh Scotsman reported, "McNiece's characters are acutely observed, the speech patterns and mannerisms perfectly caught. In a review in dialogue, arts in the Midwest, John Stickney wrote, "McNiece lends these victims a face with a voice and words, not full of pity but with individual dignity."
"McNiece smoothly blends fine writing with an
angry political conscience. His folksy but honed poems are drawn from
the heart of the working class."
"A warm, wise, gracious guide through an infirm
world, he teaches his leader how to love." See and learn more about...
...Ray in Russia touring with the legendary
Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, from Moscow to Zima Junction in
Siberia. What's New? See the news page...What's new, Ray?
NEW Blogs for Ray and for his band, Tongue in Groove, See What's new, Ray?
NEW Brochure summary of poetry education and poetry theater. See What's new, Ray?
NEW Program & flyer on US? Talking Across America. See What's new, Ray?
See photos...Go INSIDE Ray's Place, another part of Ray, another part of the website...
Read sample poems... at the poet & his
life, at Kerouac's, in the Books & CDs section, and INSIDE Ray's
Place... [ back to top ] |
Ray McNiece |
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poet musician singer writer |
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Telephone: 440-918-0878 |
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