Woodstock Poetry Society
Featured Reading and Open Mike
Saturday, February 14th, 2026 at 2pm
Woodstock Library

Tina Barry
Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller

HYBRID: in-person and virtually via Zoom

Poet Tina Barry and storyteller Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller will be the featured readers, along with an open mike when the Woodstock Poetry Society meets in person and streamed via Zoom (and www.facebook.com/phillip.levine/) on Saturday, February 14th, 2026 at 2pm(eastern).

WPS meetings are held the 2nd Saturday (2pm) of every month.

Woodstock Library
10 Dixon Ave, Woodstock, NY 12498
(845)679-2213
www.woodstock.org

The Zoom app can be downloaded here: Zoom Download Center

To attend virtually: contact phillip@woodstockpoetry.com to receive Zoom info
If attending via Zoom, please indicate if you would like to be on the open mike. Thank you.

The reading will be hosted by poet Phillip X Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

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Features:

Tina Barry - Tina Barry sold towels at Bloomingdales and nuts at the Nut Shoppe at different malls in New Jersey. She’s worked as a secretary, a cocktail waitress (for one night), a textile and clothing designer, and is now a poet and short story writer, editor and teacher. Tina’s third collection I Tell Henrietta, with art by Kristin Flynn, was published in 2024. (Aim Higher, Inc.) Her writing can be found in Rattle, Verse Daily, ONE ART, The Best Small Fictions 2020 and 2016 and elsewhere. MFA in creative writing, Long Island University, Brooklyn. Tina has several Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best Microfiction nominations. She teaches at The Poetry Barn and Writers.com.



Because I was Lonely

in Eighties New York City, I placed
a personal ad, promised to be prettier,
more exciting than I am.

Because they were lonely,
I hauled a plastic bag full of letters
from the newspaper’s office,

subwayed beside its poking points,
already their girlfriend,
protective of their secrets.

Men auditioned in swirled script.
Postcards and Post-its. Quiet pages
translucent as shed skin.

One cooked a perfect Spanish omelet.
Another posed with three dachshunds,
offered a ready-made family.

A widower sent a list of everything
he missed about his wife. I stopped
reading at seven pages.

I dated a few. A sweet man who giggled.
A divorced dad who brought
his sullen teenage twins.

An inmate sent a letter, stamped
with a prison logo like a warning
tattoo. I let it sit

for a week. Inside, an old
black and white “Me. Ten years old”
scrawled at the bottom.

I ran a finger along its edge, worn
from handling, stared at the boy,
messy-haired, gangly in his Sunday suit.

How lonely he must have been to part
with it.

Tina Barry

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Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller - Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller is a Queer multimedia firecracker—storyteller, performer, percussionist, healer and mover—whose true stories spark laughter, solidarity, and the courage to survive turbulent times. She has lit up stages from the Kennedy Center, The Fine Line Actors Theatre, GALA Hispanic Theatre (DC) to WOW Café Theatre and Dixon Place (NYC), and across the Hudson Valley at Studio Theatre in Exile, Avant-Garde-Arama, Rosendale Theatre, The Lace Mill, and beyond. Woodstock audiences may recognize her at the Woodstock Drum Circle—maracas shaking, drums beating, body moving in trance-dance — joy unmistakable. Zelda is a TMI Storyteller of the Week and featured on their multi-award-winning Pride Stories Podcast. Her writing appears in The Washington Post, American Theatre magazine, Inside Arts, Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love, and Queeries Blog & Zine. Her acclaimed solo show, Que Será, Será: A Life’s Journey of Sexual Orientation & Gender Expression, streams at QueSeraSeraShow.com. She also offers performance coaching for poets and fiction writers. Follow Zelda on Facebook & Instagram @ArtistSoulSpeaks; ZeldaArtsManagement@gmail.com



A short clip from Zelda’s True Story “Savoir Faire.”


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WPS 2026 Schedule - now in-person at the Woodstock Library and via Zoom
All WPS Events: Events

01/January 10th - Ethan Sirotko; Janet Kaplan
02/February 14th - Tina Barry; Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller
03/March 14th - Michael Cohen; Rhonda Rosenheck
04/April 11th - Poetry Month Special Event - "Poetry as Resistance"
05/May 9th - Marianna Boncek; Richard Parisio
06/June 13th - Judith Kerman; William Seaton
07/July 11th - Allen Shadow; Carol Graser
08/August 8th - Cheryl Rice; Leslie Gerber
09/September 12th - Philip Pardi; Wendy Kagan
10/October 10th - Darcy Smith; Raphael Moser
11/November 14th - Denise La Neve; Robyn Hager
12/December 12th - Kemp Battle; Marnie Andrews and Annual Business Meeting

Follow the WPS on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WoodstockPoetry and why not become a 2026 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society?

Membership is a tax deductible $20 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Please include your email address. Or join online at: www.woodstockpoetry.com/become.html. Your membership helps pay for our upgraded Zoom account, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. Note that WPS is a registered 501c3 (and NYS Charity).

One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website. Numerous bios, poems, and pictures of past and present WPS members are available here: www.woodstockpoetry.com/members.html and here: www.woodstockpoetry.com/poems.html.

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