Michael Lally: Poetry and Prejudice

Returning to Essex Ethical, much-published local poet, actor and author Mike Lally will be reading from recent works and sharing his very personal view of how the South Orange/Maplewood community has evolved from the 1940s to today.

Born in Orange NJ, 1942, youngest of seven in an Irish-American clan of priests, politicians, and cops; Michael Lally began Civil Rights activism and reading poetry in bars and coffee houses in 1959; in the military from 1962-66; in 1968 ran for sheriff of Johnson County, Iowa, on The Peace & Freedom Party ticket while at the U. of Iowa’s Writers Workshop on the G.I. Bill. Feminist and LGBQT+ activist since 1969. 30 books since 1970 including the latest, Another Way To Play: Poems 1960-2017 (Seven Stories Press 2018).