I imagine it would be a difficult to live a life where your environment, actions, words and even your sexuality is controlled by an omnipotent force; in this case J.K. Rowling. The Best-Selling author reveled that Dumbledore, the headmaster character in “Harry Potter”, is gay. Rowling reveled that the character was gay in some detail to an auditorium full of children at New York City’s Carnegie Hall stating, “I always saw Dumbledore as gay.” She went on to say, “Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald…. Don’t forget, falling in love can blind us. [He] was very drawn to this brilliant person. This was Dumbledore’s tragedy.”

There is no doubt that the most exposure poetry has had in recent years is through Russell Simmons’ “Def Poetry Jam,” (now known simply as ‘Def Poetry ‘) which has been airing on HBO since 2001. The show is now entering its 6th season and it has maintained an audience by featuring both established hip hop artists a

nd up-and-coming poets which share their verse on a stage before a demanding and animated audience. For those who haven’t seen the show, think: the Apollo meets spoken word (without the clown).

Howard Camner is a poet out of hell with an unquenchable thirst to discredit all things sacred. He is the author of 16 books of poetry and his vices, along with his erratic actions, are said to be both his muse and his undoing. With all this in mind, Camner’s readings are not the type of events to be taken lightly. At these events, audiences may experience cases of dizziness with mild forms of grandeur; self-consciousness, motivation and deprecation; Ying and possibly some yang.  

Camner, The New Times Poet of the Year, will be leading off an evening of poetry, music, and visual arts with the theme “When I was Young” on Friday, October 12^th at 7:30 p.m. MiArte Gallery will be hosting this special event, which will feature a collaboration of music, poetry and art. The occasion will be preceded by a cocktail reception and will welcome other South Florida poets and performers such as Mia Leonin, Jonathan Rose, Kristoff Skalet and Shamele Jenkins. The performers will collaborate with visual artists MANO and George Rodez, as well as classical guitarist Luis Martinez. The event is free and open to the public.

The gallery walk in Wynwood’s art district happens every second Saturday of the month, and this Saturday, October 13^th, is no different. The gallery crawl will coincide with several exhibit openings including Pan American Art Projects (2450 NW 2^nd Ave., Miami), which will feature photographs by Santiago Porter, video art by Andrea Cote, and graphite-n-canvas pieces by Lopez Pardo. For more information on the Pan American Art Project, you can visit them at http://www.panamericanart.com/