Writing the Apocalypse

In 2014, I began writing a cultural column for The Villager (an umbrella for all of its subsidiary papers.) When it was sold to a corporation whose views I did not share, I followed my editor, Scott Stiffler, to a new venture, https://chelseacommunitynews.com/, and continued to cover events, interview people, etc. The only difference is that it was Chelsea based, rather than a general downtown paper.

Then, the pandemic. No events, no people to meet with. On March 25th, 2020, I began my column, Writing the Apocalypse, with a poem titled "In the Apocalypse." I also included my photos, and, eventually, some photos by others, turning it into a sort of poem/photo essay, for a lack of a new term.

https://chelseacommunitynews.com/2020/03/25/in-the-apocalypse-a-poem-by-puma-perl/

I've written a new poem every week since, and, since 9/2020, have also been able to write a few articles. This is a listing of everything to date, followed by a few photos.

https://chelseacommunitynews.com/page/1/?s=puma+perl+writing+the+apocalypse

November Morning, 2020

Man Singing on East River, August, 2020

View from Window, September, 2020

 04/23/2021

Over one year has passed since my last post on this blog.

The pandemic year.

Our last pre-pandemic show as Puma Perl and Friends was at the historic Café Bohemia, located at 15 Barrow Street.  From 1955-60, the club hosted jazz legends and poets. Charlie Parker lived across the street at the time, with poet Ted Joans, and had offered to play in order to attract other musicians and patrons.  The club was closed until 2019, and then reopened with the same intimate venue.

Puma Perl and Friends were honored to kick off what was to be a new series, West Village Word, hosted and curated by John Pietaro. We played to a full house on Wednesday, 02/26/21, joined by guest saxophonist Seaton Hancock. The second featured act was Lindsay Wilson $ Human Hearts.

Photo by Sherry Rubel. L-R, Joe Sztabnik, Dave Donen, Puma Perl,  Joff Wilson, and Danny Ray.