—Readers of the weekly news and entertainment magazine, CONNECT SAVANNAH, in Savannah, Georgia, voted the author-poet Aberjhani as the city’s “Best Poet/Spoken Word Artist” in its 2006 Best of Savannah Reader’s Poll.

          Winners of the poll were announced in the May 17, 2006, edition of CONNECT SAVANNAH, available online at www.connectsavannah.com .

          “This is hugely ironic because I didn’t think I was even in the running for such an honor,” said Aberjhani. “Plus, when I got the news, I was actually preparing to interview last year’s winner, Clinton Powell of the Spitfire Poets, for a story on his group’s amazing achievements.”

          The CONNECT SAVANNAH special “Best of Savannah” edition identifies dozens of the city’s favorite personalities and places in various categories. Among many others, recognition also went to veteran jazz musician Ben Tucker as the best jazz artist, the Third Infantry Division as the best heroes, and Yancy & The Breakneck Quartet as the best hip hop group.

          “This is like a nano version of the People’s Choice Award,” said Aberjhani. “It’s got me smiling because I’ve been a runner up in the polls before and I’ve been a ‘critic’s pick’ before, but this is the first time I’ve won the readers’ votes. The fact that I was chosen in this category instead of the author’s category is also pretty phenomenal because I’ve done very little spoken word over the past couple of years, which to me just goes to show that what we put on the page as poets is still as important as what we perform at an open mic or record for a CD.”

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