Tuesday's Talent: Ilene Kristen

Ilene Kristen of One Life to Live has always been there for the POZ Team. She has performed and attended all of our events. She is the first to step up and it is POZ's good fortune to count her as a friend. A New Yorker through and through Ilene has lived just about everywhere there.

She found herself living on the Upper West Side for some of her formative years. As many an urban child, especially of that era, she and her sister were given directives regarding which streets could be travelled. One street that had 100% permission for her young adventures was Broadway, which served as inspiration for the luminous and joyous noise she gave forth in a duet of "Boogaloo Down Broadway" after her show one evening at the Triad where she often performs.

Ilene's shows are full of reminiscences in which she relates to her audience as if they were in her living room. She herself says so. Nonetheless her music is sultry, smooth and funky at one and the same time. Still this smoothness wraps itself around complex and sensitive lyrics in her original material. "Hold on to the earth with your own two hands and never say goodbye" are the lyrics she wrote in response to The World Trade Center tragedy and the loss of her good friend Nancy Addison from Ryan's Hope. The song is the memorable and poignant, "Flesh and Blood."

She has lost many friends to AIDS and is very much impacted by the disease which has now ravaged the world for over twenty five years. It's no wonder that this vibrant, diminutive powerhouse is always eager to lend a hand, clearly one of the most generous spirits alive. To know her is to love her

It can't be said often enough--check out the event: www.pozevent.com