Video: Poet Sridala Swami Reads at Jazz Poetry 2013

On September 7 the Indian writer and poet Sridala Swami came to Pittsburgh to read at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s 2013 Jazz Poetry concert. Making a spot-lit entrance on a balcony over Sampsonia Way, Swami read three poems as she walked down the street, backed by a jazz band featuring Oliver Lake, Dee Alexander, Miguel De La Cerna, Harrison Bankhead, and Ernie Adams.

In this video Swami reads her poems “Ten Eleven,” “Cryogenic,” and “Redacted Poetry is a Message in a Bottle.”

Sridala Swami‘s debut poetry collection, A Reluctant Survivor, was short-listed for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award in 2008. Her second poetry collection, Escape Artist, is forthcoming. Her creative and critical work as been published and anthologized in Wasafiri, The South Asian Review, VIDA, and The Harper Collins Book of English Poetry, among others. Swami has curated photography exhibits as well as the radio program, “The Poetry Hohalla.” She is also the author of three children’s books.