One of New York City’s biggest literary events, featuring more than 170 scheduled performers, returns to the historic Nuyorican Poets Cafe on New Year’s Day. The 24th annual Alternative New Year’s Day Spoken Word / Performance Extravaganza took place on January 1, 2018. The year’s theme was Pa'lante a la Luz (Charge Into The Light ) . The Alternative draws an overflow crowd every year. The Alternative, which continues to be free to the public, features poets, prose writers, monologists, musicians, dancers and other performers in a 10-hour showcase that ranges from some of New York’s most seasoned talents to emerging stars. The lineup evolves each year to keep the event fresh and democratic. The audience is encouraged to donate paperback books to Books Through Bars (http: //booksthroughbarsnyc.org ) for people incarcerated in prison, and canned or boxed food or drink for City Harvest (https: //cityharvest.org), which provides for the hungry in New York. The Alternative began on New Year’s Day in 1995, and quickly became one of the most popular events on the city’s poetry and literary scene. Founder, Bruce Weber, is ably assisted by a staff of writers, designers and curators. Each year a fresh group of performers are plucked from all corners of the Tri-State area to enliven and transform The Alternative in unexpected ways. Adding to the mix, for the fifth consecutive year we’ve produced this anthology composed of featured writers, published by Rogue Scholars Press under the guidance of C. D. Johnson. We’re excited about our continuing effort to bring in new voices every year and touch all corners of the city. This year promises to be spectacular, said Mr. Weber of this year’s event. This volume features the work of: Austin Alexis. Joel Allegretti. Merissa Anderson. Madeline Artenberg. Carmen Bardeguez-Brown. Yael Baron. Steve Bloom. Peter Bushyeager. Natalie N. Caro. Patricia Carragon. Maria Fernanda Lara Chamorro. Tina Chan. Michael Collins. Lydia Cortes. Steve Dalachinsky. Pete Dolack. Gabriel Don. Bill Evans. Bonny Finberg. Jen Fitzgerald. Daniela Gioseffi. Barbara D. Hall. Patrick Hammer Jr.. Bob Heman. Aimee Herman. Ngoma Hill. Roxanne Hoffman. David Huberman. Kate Irving. IsatheIntrovert. Evie Ivy. C. D. Johnson. Icegayle Johnson. Larry Jones. Meg Kaizu. Lee Klein. Linda Kleinbub. Ron Kolm. Ptr Kozlowski. Annie Rachele Lanzillotto. Jane LeCroy. Linda Lerner. Toni Mergentime Levi. Mindy Levokove. Eleonore Ley. Tsaurah Litzky. Ellen Aug Lytle. Stan Marcus. Jesus Papoleto Melendez. Nancy Mercado. Alejandra Moreno. Dennis Moritz. KB Nemcosky. Yuko Otomo. Eve Packer. D.Bird el Palabrero. Puma Perl. Howard Pflanzer. Su Polo. Ron Price. Zero Prophet. Leslie Prosterman. Jill Rapaport. Carlos Manuel Rivera. Renato Rosaldo. Robert Roth. Thaddeus Rutkowski. K. Saito. Sarah Serrano. Ravi Shankar. Yuyutsu Sharma. Susan Sherman. John L. Silver. Joanna Sit. Angela Sloan. Miriam Stanley. Laurie Stone. Zelene Pineda Suchilt. Terese Svoboda. Alice B. Talkless. J M Theisen de Gonzalez. Tim Tomlinson. Edwin Torres. Ewan Turner. Claire Van Winkle. George Wallace. Phyllis Wat. Bruce Weber. Francine Witte. Jeffrey Cyphers Wright.