Working Gal Rock and Roll Poet: notes of my appearances this fall

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

notes of my appearances this fall

I have a few New York and Texas appearances.
My play ONE WAY TO HEAVEN will be read at a benefit to fight AIDS at the annual GILDA FUNDRAISING BENEFIT sponsored by 7 Records at The Bermuda Triangle, San Antonio, Texas on October 8. (for more info on the benefit: www.7recordsmusic.com).
This summer the play was part of the HOWL! Festival, and everyone there autographed the script for the auction at this benefit to fight AIDS.

I’m working at the CATFANCY booth for the Cat Show at Madison Square Garden, New York City on Oct. 9 and 10 from 2 to 5 PM. I’ll be showing folks how to rescue and find homes for cats along with representatives from Precious Paws and Kitty Kind.

On October 16 at approx. 3 PM I’m on the publicity and promotions panel-Getting the Word Out, DIY-Style for the DIY Convention with Chris DeWolfe from www.myspace.com, Razor & Tie’s Mary Elizabeth Carter, Ariel Hyatt from Ariel Publicity and The Syndicate’s Rev. Moose. The website is www.diyconvention.com.

And finally the final, absolute release date for my book, USING YOUR ART & THE MEDIA TO COMFORT PEOPLE is March 27th. Promotional copies of the book will be early early November.

My book is called THE LEIGHTON EXPLOSION, which is a title I've played with throughout my entire adult life. It's based on The Music Explosion who rocked with a favorite song, "A Little Bit Of Soul." It's optimistic, and self-empowering, which is a quality I love in art... Three things have been constant in my life—- writing, music, and animals. Likewise, I've adapted the words to Frank Sinatra’s hit, “That’s Life.” I sing, “I’ve been a poet, a pauper, a publicist…. up and down…..” My poetry book, The Leighton Explosion (Soul Asylum, Canada) shows my range of emotion and different interests, especially rock music. My publisher Ken Cowle says I “made him laugh.” Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson, who writes the book’s foreword, praises my “lilt” and “personality” in an encouraging note. While I usually work as a music publicist with musicians including Jethro Tull, Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius, Sharon Katz & The Peace Train, and Michael Veitch, I've also made money from my poetry. This includes the Grammy-nominated album, Healthy Food for Thought: Good Enough to Eat, (Audio & Video Labs) with me reading my poem “Feed Your Parents Well.” My poems have been published in The Indie Collaborative’s “Holiday Program,” “The Literary Parrot Anthology,” “Elephant Journal,” “BOG GOB,” “Powerline,” “the Aquarian,” and “Nickel.” I've performed live at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Peter Max’s Studio. Some of my plays have been performed live—one by the Poets Repertory Theatre of Long Island and another by the San Antonio Living River Church, and at New York City’s Howl Fest. My other books are Paws For Thought: How to Understand What Your Cat is Thinking (Rockwell Books, UK), Using Your Art & the Media to Comfort People (Free To Run Books, West Hills, CA), and the self-published e-book, Get the Gig (Common Sense Career Consulting). I recently started producing pop music singles, which can be heard at soundcloud.com/leightonmedia/sets/anneleightonsongs.