Another summer of readings at the gazebo in Oceanside

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Summer readings from published writers every Monday night at the Schoolhouse Green — now a longtime Oceanside tradition — are alive and well.

On July 16, another batch of published authors and poets turned up at the gazebo on Foxhurst Road for the Summer Gazebo Readings hosted by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Lloyd Abrams from Freeport, Nancy Lopez from Oceanside, Larry McCoy from Rockville Centre and Janice Adele Bowers, a snowbird, read their original works to a sizable crowd during the event.

The readings have been held each summer since 2007, and features four published authors and poets, both non-fiction and fiction, who read on a weekly basis for 10 minutes each. Additionally, the material read is never judged, as long it is appropriate. “Think basic cable, not HBO/Showtime,” said gazebo readings organizer Tony Iovino on the event’s official website.

Additionally, Iovino told the Herald that Oceanside is recognized as one of the centers of poetry in the New York metropolitan area. In the past readings this summer, listeners were treated to visits from the poet laureate from Oklahoma, Nathan Brown, poet Tanya Ko-Hong from California during her national tour and author, scriptwriter and playwright Richard Vetere, who was nominated for a Pulitzer multiple times and stops by every year.

Iovino noted that the series attracts around 100 to 125 people each night, with highs of over 200 and lows of around 60. And, the Kiwanis also raise money from sponsors, between $6,000 to 8,000 each summer, which the club uses to send underprivileged children to Kamp Kiwanis upstate.

“I’m very proud that we’re helping a lot of kids here in Oceanside and providing a very pleasant evening for the adults of the community,” Iovino said. “Come on down, bring your lawn chair and enjoy a different kind of evening.”

The Summer Gazebo Readings will run until September of this year, and start again next July.