Maria Lisella

Nearing its 20th anniversary in 2024, the Rubin Museum of Art, based in Chelsea, New York City, celebrates its globally renowned collection of Himalayan art. Inspired by both Hinduism and Buddhism as they are aligned with ongoing research that links behavior, and the brain, the Museum offers innovative exhibitions and programs. It also serves as a space for reflection, education and meditation helping visitors to cultivate their own inner worlds.
Beyond its NYC walls, Project Himalayan Art – ...

NEW YORK – The conventional perception of a gemach is a drab, dusty basement with equally drab and dusty clothes.
However the Beautiful Memories gemach in New Hyde Park, New York, stands that stereotype on its ear and has become a magnet not just to help those in need, but for fashionistas from all over New York.
When my 103-year-old mother died in December, I wanted to honor everything about her and that meant not donating her clothes to a place that would toss them into a bin. I wanted her ...

Join us at Woodside Library for a fun-filled event with four terrific local poets, including Maria Lisella, the Poet Laureate of Queens! Each author will give a brief presentation of their work, followed by a group discussion chaired by our moderator, Eleni Traganas, head of Woodside Writers. Books will be available for purchase, and you can get them autographed by our authors!
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by Maria Lisella
Yoko Ono’s WishTree at the Museum of Modern Art, 1996.
UK’s Daily Mail broke the story last month of Yoko’s leaving New York City.
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… to raise cows on a 600-acre farm she & Beatles legend John Lennon purchased 45 years ago, outfitting it with a herd of 122 cows and 10 bulls … a dream to live on land as his father did with no plans of returning their attempt to create new lives, away from crowds, smog, love-ins and the ceaseless need to be THEM on West 72 St.—until 1980– shot...

What happens when we die?
Some people have clear ideas about the afterlife. Others fear it; still others seek paths of enlightenment, or second chances such as those depicted in the newest exhibit at the Rubin Museum, Death is Not the End that will remain on view through January 14, 2024.
Lined with fantastical beings, animals, hybrid figures, lost souls, and resurrections, this cross-cultural exhibition pairs artwork from Tibetan Buddhist and Christian frameworks for an assemblage of 58 obje...

Bio Note: A travel writer by trade, these past pandemic-era years have kept me "stilled" in local time; some of that stillness has been welcomed, the need not to be somewhere is very seductive. It came on the heels of the death of my poet-husband, Gil Fagiani whose work I continue to shepherd into existence: the latest being Soundtrack of a Life. "Just doing the work," is no longer an option, but a necessity.

Anointing

A sliver of the meadow in Central Park darkens

as the winter sky cools on...

Bringing Poetry to Paterson Since 1980
Passaic County Community College
THE 2022 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARD WINNERS
Proud to receive Honorable Mention for my poem Playback: Back-to-School Basics

For the past 12 years the Queens World Film Festival (QWFF) has wowed audiences and participating filmmakers with its power to tell stories from around the world in one of the most diversified corners of New York City: the Borough of Queens, and this year’s edition will not disappoint.
Festival directors, Katha and Dan Cato are like the perfect parents who know when to get out of the way when introducing brave, new and often young filmmakers. Former participant Laura Aguinaga confided, “No on...

Poetry Laureate of Queens, born and bred a New Yorker, interesting poetry and talk.
Copyright Grace Cavalieri

Host and author Grace Cavalieri with The Poet and The Poem series from the Library of Congress with Queens Poet Laureate and Academy of American Poets Fellow, Maria Lisella. The podcast can also be listened to on Apple.

Honored to find my work in this timely and timeless collection, among remarkable poets——who bring myriad of traditions, styles, and vital perspectives to pressing questions, such as how poetry can help us to overcome obstacles to empowerment, compassion, social change, and educational opportunity. Editors Carol Alexander and Stephen Massimilla have organized Stronger Than Fear into sudden and startling awareness. These poems arrive at their truths with insight and generosity, with courage and spirit.

Photo shoots may be the least invasive channel to allow others entry into a person’s soul, to transform the private realm and deliver it to the public in nuanced ways. This is what Betti Franceschi has been doing for much of her life as an artist, sculptor and now a photographer of dancers.
New York-based Franceschi is the eye behind the current exhibit, Ageless Dancers. Originally scheduled for the National Museum of Dance & Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs [temporarily closed], the installa...

Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly?– Frida Kahlo
To know her is to love her, is to imitate, and possess her, just a little. A visionary of art, culture, feminism and independence, Frida Kahlo was a complex and compelling figure who is now the subject of an unusual bilingual exhibition at the compact Hudson River Museum (HRM) in Yonkers, NY, through May 22.
This is Frida as you have never seen her before: filtered through the prisms of 75 contemporary artists who have immerse...

I went to Maria Lisella’s apartment in Queens, a walk from the train, the elevated N. She thoughtfully had prepared a meal for me, soup, bread, cheese, grilled vegetables. Her cooking like her poetry takes what is everyday and elevates it to an exceptionally rare place, the extraordinary—my that’s good!—and it’s universal too, meant just for you.

Before we ate, we recorded. I had first heard her read in NYC at a Bryant Park event back when she was Poet Laureate of Queens and her book, Thieves...