Sunday July 30 – 2pm Eastern – VIRTUAL
Remembering Woody Guthrie
“Wherever little children are hungry and cry
Wherever people ain’t free
Wherever men are fightin’ for their rights
That’s where I’m a-gonna be, Ma
That’s where I’m a-gonna be”
Excerpt from Tom Joad by Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music whose work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired generations both politically and musically with songs such as “This Land Is Your Land,” written in response to the American exceptionalist song “God Bless America.” Woody’s empathy allowed him to insert himself into the stories of others, and he shared those narratives through music, prose, and artwork. Join us as poets continue this tradition.
Tuesday August 1, 2023 – 6:30pm – VIRTUAL
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM – Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Can be viewed on the Phillycam website Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30
Olga Livshin’s poetry and translations appear in the New York Times, Ploughshares, the Kenyon Review, and other journals. She is the author of A Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman (Poets & Traitors Press, 2019). Livshin co-translated A Man Only Needs a Room, a volume of Vladimir Gandelsman’s poetry, forthcoming from New Meridian Arts Books in 2022, and Today is a Different War by the Ukrainian poet Lyudmyla Khersonska, from Arrowsmith Press in 2023. She is a private creative writing teacher, working with children.
Hosted by Charles S. Carr
Wednesday August 2, 2023 – 7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub
AND
Sunday August 27, 2023 – 2pm – VIRTUAL
Winners of the 2022 Moonstone Chapbook Contest
Fergie’s Pub: 1214 Sansom Street
Host: Nathalie Anderson, Judge of the 2022 Moonstone Chapbook Contest, is author of Following Fred Astaire, Crawlers, Quiver, Stain, Held and Firmly Bound.
Chad Frame is the author of Little Black Book and Cryptid. He is Director of the Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program and Poet Laureate Emeritus of Montgomery County, the Poetry Editor of Ovunque Siamo, a member of the No River Twice poetry/improv performance troupe, and Founder of the Caesura Poetry Festival and Retreat. Leonard Kress, author of Living in the Candy Store and Other Poems, Walk Like Bo Diddley, The Orpheus Complex, Sappho’s Apples Thirteens, Braids & Other Sestinas, and The Centralia Mine Fire. His poetry, fiction, non-fiction, reviews, and translations have appeared in Missouri Review, Massachusetts Review, Iowa Review, American Poetry Review, and others. Alina Macneal, co-host of the Fourth Wednesday Moonstone poetry series, is a Philadelphia-based educator/writer/poet/translator/architect , whose poems have appeared in Apiary, Poems for the Writing, The World to Come, and Poetry 24. John Timpane is a former Commentary Page Editor and Books Editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com. His work has appeared in Sequoia, The Fox Chase Review, Apiary, Cleaver, Painted Bride Quarterly, and elsewhere. Karin Molde, who will only be joining for the virtual reading, feels at home in Ireland and Germany. She teaches languages and has published in magazines like Honest Ulsterman, Light Journal, The Blue Nib, Skylight 47, and in anthologies, e.g. Everything that can happen., Identity, Remembering Toni Morrison, “New Beginnings”, Ukraine War Special Edition.
Wednesday August 9, 2023 – 7pm
Moonstone Arts Center Presents: A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails
A reading of poetry dedicated to the war in Ukraine
Live at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom
1214 Sansom Street
Olga Livshin (Translator) – $18.00, Arrowsmith Press
Today is a Different War is a portrayal of life from inside war-torn Ukraine. No other volume of poems captures the duality of fear and bravery, anger and love, despair and hope, as well as the numbness and deep feeling of what it means to be. Lyudmyla Khersonska is a poet and translator from Odesa, Ukraine and was recently included in the list, “33 International Women Writers Who are Bold for Change” – Olga Livshin’s poetry and translations appear in The New York Times, Ploughshares, the Kenyon Review, and other journals.
In the Hour of War: Poetry from Ukraine. Indeed, we have heard the barrage on the 6 o’clock news, but now we engage the war’s most apt witnesses who command the human heart through images and rhythms of language. These poems written primarily in Ukrainian, and then translated into English, refuse to glorify gore, but instead render reflection. Have we grown numb to body counts? Poets of the Ukraine deliver a reckoning, and the souls of a people are laid bare. … Such surrealism bears not only blinding terror, but also moments of natural beauty..” -Yusef Komunyakaa, Pulitzer Prize winning poet. “We act like children with our dead,” Halyna Kruk writes as she struggles to come to terms with the horror unfolding around her: “confused,/ as if none of us knew until now/ how easy it is to die.” In poem after devastating poem, Kruk confronts what we would prefer not to see: “a person runs toward a bullet/ with a wooden shield and a warm heart…” Translated with the utmost of care by Amelia Glaser and Yulia Ilchuk.
A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails is a guidebook to the emotional combat in Ukraine.
Readers include David Acosta, Sibelan Forrester, Sean Hanrahan, Olga Livshin, Lynn Levin, and Warren C. Longmire
Wednesday August 16, 2023 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom
1214 Sansom Street
Mac Chandler is a recent graduate of The University Of The Arts. She has been published in HASH magazine, Rappahannock Review, and High Shelf Press. Mikey Franz is a writer & c omposer from the Philadelphia area who uses his work to explore the relationship between music & language. His debut chapbook, Terrestrial Sanctuaries was published by Moonstone. Faith Paulsen’s work has appeared in venues including Philadelphia Stories, Apiary, Ghost City Press, Book of Matches, One Art, Panoply, Thimble, Evansville Review, Literary Mama and Mantis.
Sunday August 20, 2023 – 2pm Eastern – Virtual
Remembering Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a prolific underground writer who used his poetry and prose to depict the depravity of urban life and the downtrodden in American society. A cult hero, Bukowski relied on experience, emotion, and imagination in his work, using direct language and violent and sexual imagery. Bukowski’s work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. He wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books during the course of his career. Join us in his rememberence!