“Ivan Taub’s poems ride the rhythm rails from Blake to Whitman,Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Hip Hop. Illuminating the angels lurking in the El train, exposing the beauties in the broken glass and the hypocrisies of the fat ass class. Lovers should turn off their phones and sing them to each other.”
– Mike Neff, painter and Temple University professor
“Ivan Taub has always been a vibrant, exhilarating, slightly exotic presence. I knew that he was multi-talented – a musician, a dramatist, an impresario, a poet, a pedagogue – but reading his latest book of poems brings me into intimate contact with Ivan the man. The San Francisco hipster, bee-bop, Beatnik scene of the 1950’s redivivus in the twenty-first century gentrified urban blight that is contemporary Philadelphia; a Dionysian reveler in the whispering groves of academe; an avant-garde psychic, psychedelic mystic tripping on the post 9/11 absurdity of the mummified military/industrial complex that is post-Reaganite democracy; a lively sense of the ridiculous transcended in the clear light of the void so eagerly sought after by the likes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Elie Wiesel – all that and ore. Even for those who have never met him – or especially for them – reading his poetry will be a thoroughly worthwhile experience.”
– Frank Leib, author of Fierce Companions
About the Poet
Ivan Taub, born and bred in Philadelphia, has publication and artistic credits as a writer/editor, playwright, author, poet, recording artist, record producer, band leader, performer, and as a presenter of theatre, music, and dance. His play State of Grace was a finalist in the 18th Maxim Mazumdar International Playwriting Competition, his spiritual fiction novel The Messenger was published by AuthorHouse, and his newest play The Show was recently given a special workshop performance (November 2014) at the Luna Theatre in Philadelphia.
Donations accepted by Paypal or Check
Send Check, Payable to: Moonstone Arts Center, 110A S. 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Taub is an assistant professor in the Intellectual Heritage Program at Temple University, where he has been a recipient of a Sam S. Shubert Fellowship in Playwriting, nominated for Faculty of the Year by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and recently received a 15 Years of Service Anniversary Commendation; he holds a BA in religion, an MFA in theatre, a Ph.D. in humanities, and has held teaching and administrative posts in the United States and Canada in both the liberal arts and the performing arts.