Moonstone Arts Center

Virtual Poetry Reading: National Haiku Poetry Day Anthology
2021-04-17 14:00 (America/New_York) | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: National Haiku Poetry Day Anthology
Observed annually on April 17, National Haiku Poetry Day encourages all to try their hand in creativity. Haiku poetry is a form of Japanese poetry that is non-rhyming and usually consists of 3 lines with a syllable pattern of 5-7-5. Usually, an element of nature, a season, moment of beauty, or an individual experience inspires haiku poems. Sensory language is used to capture a feeling, image or moment.
As one of the world’s oldest and most regularly used forms of poetry, many poets wrote many haiku. While the most well-known is Matsuo Basho, others we may recognize are William Blake, T.S. Eliot, Richard Wright and Maya Angelou. Try capturing an entire moment or emotion in 17 syllables and getting it right. English haiku does not always follow the strict syllable count found in Japanese haiku
Join us as the contributors to Moonstone’s Haiku Poetry Day Anthology read their work.
Not all contributors will be reading:
Fran Abrams
Carolyn Adams
Sandra Anfang
Fran Baird
Sunday Banks
Eben Bein
Miriam Ben-Yoseph
Willeena Booker
Sam Boone
Elizabeth Boquet
Chris Bray
Matilda Bray
Jill Bronfman
Grace Cavalieri
Eulinda A.
Clarke-Akalanne
J.J. Cole
Ava Compagnoni
Damien Cooper
Susan Cummings
John Davis
John DeBruicker
Kathryn Devlin
Elinor Donahue
Donatella du Plessis
Philip Dykhouse
Alfred Encarnacion
Cole Eubanks
Katherine Falk
Hugh Findlay
Philip Foster
Harvey Gardner
Valerie Gay
Linda goss
Paz Griot
Beejay Grob
Hanoch guy
Dagmar Holl
Judit Hollos
Joan Huffman
Maria James-Thiaw
Nageena Johnson
Irving Jones
Chris Kaiser
Sarah Karowski
Carl Kaucher J
ames Ph. Kotsybar
Ed Krizek
Resolute Lee
Frederick Lowe
Sean Lynch
Warren Longmire
Deirdre Maher
James Mancinelli
Linda Martin
Elinor mattern
Helen Mazarakis
Christina McIntire
Andrew McLean
Ann Michael
Drew Miller
David Mook
Christopher Moore
Mr. Mosolino
Leonard Niedermayer
Gloria Nixon-John
Diane Oesau
Ken Olson
Hermond Palmer
Joan Penn
Victoria Peurifoy
Kate Potter
Elijah Pringle
Larry Robin
Sonia Sanchez
George Schaefer
Jennifer Schneider
Naila Schulte
Fereshteh Sholevar
John Sime
Linda Simone
Noel Sloboda
Bob Small
Andrew Sorokowski
Lamont B. Steptoe
Carole stone
Sherry Stratton
Renee Szostek
Therese Taha
Catherine Trapani
Sarah J. Trembath
Sandra Turner-Barnes
Lois Villemaire
Sharon Wellons
Kelley White
Carol Williams
Shay Wills
Nellie Wong
Samantha Wright
Daniel Zehner
Larry Robin, Host. Open Reading Follows.

Virtual Poetry Reading: Moonstone International - From France in Association with Alliance Française de Philadelphia: Sojourner Ahebee, Lisette Lombré, Mathias Malzieu, Daria Nelson, Jacques Perry Salkow, Suzanne Rault-Balet, with Aaren Perry & Sonia Robin
2021-04-18 14:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Moonstone International – From France in Association with Alliance Française de Philadelphia
Sojourner Ahebee was born in Cote d’Ivoire to an American mother and Ivoirien father, Sojourner Ahebee writes stories about African diaspora identities and the eternal question of home and belonging. Her poems have been published in The Atlantic, Muzzle Magazine, For Harriet, Apiary Magazine and elsewhere. In 2013 she served as a National Student Poet, the nation’s highest honor for young poets presenting original work and was invited to the White House to garner her award. A graduate of Stanford University, she is a recipient of the MacDowell Fellowship, and author of Reporting from the Belly of the Night. Sojourner Ahebee est née en Côte d’Ivoire, d’une mère américaine et un père ivoirien. Elle écrit sur des sujets tels que les identités de la diaspora africaine ou encore la question d’appartenance. Ses poèmes ont été publiés dans le journal The Atlantic, les magazines Muzzle, For Harriet, Winter Tangerine Review, Apiary, et bien d’autres. En 2013, elle reçoit la plus haute distinction pour des jeunes poètes présentant un travail original: Le National Student Poet. Michelle Obama, alors première Dame des Etats Unis, l’a reçue à la maison Blanche cette même année pour lui remettre sa décoration. Elle est diplômée de l’Université de Stanford où elle a passé 4 ans à étudier le programme d’études africaines et afro-américaines. Son premier recueil de poésies, Reporting from the Belly of the Night

Lisette Lombé is Belgium and Congolese, a renowned figure of the slam scene in Belgium, she defends all minorities with passion. For her activism, she was awarded the distinction of citizen of honor of the city of Liège. Antiracists, feminists, queers, politicals, her poems are a vital need to denounce violence and injustices. Lisette Lombe also expresses herself through collages reflecting the turning points in the movements for rights for Black Americans. Photo credits: © Ed Alcock. Lisette Lombré née en 1978, est belgo-congolaise. Grande figure de la scène slam en Belgique, elle défend avec rage toutes les minorités. Elle a été nommée citoyenne d’honneur de la ville de Liège pour son activisme. Elle est l’autrice de Black words et Venus poetica (L’Arbre à paroles). Antiracistes, féministes, queers, politiques, les mots de Lisette Lombé font battre le pavé et le cœur du lecteur. Écrire est un besoin vital pour dénoncer les violences, les injustices, les crimes impunis, avec toujours la scène comme terrain d’exploration : le slam est conçu pour être dit, l’écriture rythmée, intense et expressive. Lisette Lombé s’exprime aussi à l’aide de collages, rappelant les grandes heures des combats pour les droits civiques des Noirs américains (Angela Davis, Martin Luther King…).

Mathias Malzieu started his poetic career in 1993, when he founded the rock band Dionysos. Ever since, his poetic world is shaped in books, records and movies. After two books translated in more than 20 countries and read by more than a million people, LE DÉRÈGLEMENT JOYEUX DE LA MÉTRIQUE AMOUREUSE is his first poetry book. Daria Nelson is a multidisciplinary artist. Born in Ukraine, she has been living in France since 2016. She was finalist at the Picto de la Jeune Photographie de Monde (Fashion Photography Awards) in 2016. Photo credits: © Ed Alcoc. Mathias Malzieu entame sa carrière d’homme poétique en 1993 en fondant le groupe de rock Dionysos. Depuis, il développe son univers sous forme de livres, de disques, de films. Après La Mécanique du cœur et Journal d’un vampire en pyjama, traduits dans plus de vingts pays et qui ont touché plus d’un million de lecteurs, LE DÉRÈGLEMENT JOYEUX DE LA MÉTRIQUE AMOUREUSE est son premier recueil de poèmes. Daria Nelson est une artiste plasticienne et photographe née en Ukraine. Elle vit en France depuis 2016. Elle a été finaliste du prix Picto de la Jeune Photographie de Mode en 2016.

Jacques Perry Salkow has two loves: music and words. Graduated from the Dick Grove School of music in Los Angeles (piano), he is also the author of many impish books, including: Les Dessous des mots d’amour, avec Frédéric Schmitter (Points-Seuil, 2010) ; Anagrammes renversantes ou le Sens caché du monde, avec Étienne Klein (Flammarion, 2011) ; Anagrammes à quatre mains, avec Karol Beffa (Actes Sud, 2018) ; Sorel Éros. Palindrome, avec Frédéric Schmitter (Rivages, 2020) ; Anagrammes dans le boudoir, avec Laurence Castelain (Actes Sud, 2020). He lives in Touraine, France. Jacques Perry-Salkow a deux amours, les notes et les mots. Pianiste de jazz diplômé de la Dick Grove School of Music de Los Angeles, il est aussi l’auteur de plusieurs livres malicieux dont Les Dessous des mots d’amour, avec Frédéric Schmitter (Points-Seuil, 2010) ; Anagrammes renversantes ou le Sens caché du monde, avec Étienne Klein (Flammarion, 2011) ; Anagrammes à quatre mains, avec Karol Beffa (Actes Sud, 2018) ; Sorel Éros. Palindrome, avec Frédéric Schmitter (Rivages, 2020) ; Anagrammes dans le boudoir, avec Laurence Castelain (Actes Sud, 2020). Il vit en Touraine. Photo credits © Natacha Giraldo.

Suzanne Rault-Balet is a french artist born in 1993. Author, performer, photographer, she has made her free and wandering way of life a main source of inspiration. Going back and forth with long poems and mesmerizing punchlines – which she also shares and sings on stage – Suzanne Rault-Balet questions her time, moves the lines of emotions, bodies and desires in an uncompromising style and draws up a sensitive and raw portrait of ultra-modern loneliness. Photo credits: © Ed Alcock. Suzanne Rault-Balet est une artiste Française née en 1993. Auteure, comédienne, photographe, elle a fait de l’errance son mode de vie et la source de son inspiration. Par une écriture libre et sans concession, alternant poèmes au long cours et punchlines troublantes, qu’elle interprète et chante désormais sur scène, Suzanne Rault-Balet interpelle son époque, bouscule et interroge les corps, les coeurs, les désirs et dresse un portrait sensible et cru de l’ultra-moderne solitude.

Aaren Perry & Sonia Robin, Hosts – In Association with Alliance Française de Philadelphia

Alliance Française de Philadelphie
1420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102

Virtual Poetry Reading: Ryan Eckes, Jake Syersak, Robert Zaller, with Larry Robin
2021-04-21 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Ryan Eckes, Jake Syersak, and Robert Zaller
Ryan Eckes is a poet from Philadelphia. His most recent books, Wet Money, Fine Nothing and General Motors, are available free online. Eckes has worked as an adjunct professor and labor organizer in education, and he co-edits Radiator Press.

Jake Syersak is a poet, translator, and editor living in Seattle, WA. He is the author of the recent poetry chapbook Vortex(t) (CoastNoCoast, 2020) and the full-length poetry collection Yield Architecture (Burnside Review Press, 2018). In 2021, Trembling Pillow Press will publish his newest full-length poetry collection, Mantic Compost. He is also the translator of several collections of poetry by Moroccan author Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine, including Proximal Morocco— (Ugly Duckling Presse, forthcoming 2023) and Resurrection of Wild Flowers (Oomph! Press, forthcoming 2021). With Pierre Joris, he co-translated Khaïr-Eddine’s hybrid novel, Agadir (Lavender Ink/Diálogos Press, 2020). He and Paul Cunningham currently co-edit Radioactive Cloud, a micro-press.

Robert Zaller, historian, critic, poet, and playwright, is Drexel Distinguished University Professor of History Emeritus. A scholar of Robinson Jeffers and of British constitutional history, his work includes seven books and chapbooks of poetry, most recently Speaking to Power and The Dresden Zoo. He is also the translator of the work of his late wife, Lili Bita, and with her of the Greek poet Nikiforos Vrettakos. His honors include a Guggenheim fellowship, and he is an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He lives in Bala Cynwyd.

Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading in Collaboration with Serotonin: Kristin Garth, Susan Triemert, Lucy Zhang, with Sean Lynch
2021-04-24 14:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading in Collaboration with Serotonin: Kristin Garth, Susan Triemert, and Lucy Zhang
Check out Serotonin Poetry @ serotoninpoetry.org
Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Rhysling nominated sonneteer and a Best of the Net 2020 finalist. Her sonnets have stalked journals like Glass, Yes, Five:2:One, Luna Luna and more. She is the author of 20 books of poetry including Candy Cigarette Womanchild Noir (Hedgehog Poetry Press), Flutter Southern Gothic Fever Dream (TwistiT Press), and Girlarium (Fahmidan Journal). She is the founder of Pink Plastic House a tiny journal and co-founder of Performance Anxiety, an online poetry reading series. Follow her on Twitter: (@lolaandjolie) and her website kristingarth.com

Susan Triemert holds an MA in Education and an MFA from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. Her essays, stories and poems have been published or forthcoming in various print and online journals, most recently North Dakota Quarterly, Gone Lawn, Boston Literary Magazine, and Ghost Parachute. She lives in St. Paul with her family, most of whom have fur. You can find her on Twitter at @SusanTriemert

Lucy Zhang writes, codes, and watches anime. Her work has appeared in Lost Balloon, New Delta Review, EX/POST, Jet Fuel Review, Third Point Press, and elsewhere. She is an editor for Heavy Feather Review and assistant fiction editor for Pithead Chapel. Find her at https://kowaretasekai.wordpress.com/ or on Twitter @Dango_Ramen.

Sean Lynch, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Catherine Bancroft, David Kertis, with Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook
2021-04-28 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Catherine Bancroft and David Kertis
Catherine Bancroft writes poetry, makes art, and sometimes combines them. She has read her poetry at Green Line Café, PAFA, Blue Marble Bookstore, Fergie’s Pub, and other local spots. Her visual art has appeared at Muse Gallery, 3rd Street Gallery, St Asaph’s Gallery, DaVinci Art Alliance, among others, and in one-woman shows at the Fackenthal-Pethick Gallery at the Baldwin School, and FireWorks Gallery in Camden. Her current “Ellis Island Series,” in conte crayon and acrylic, was inspired by photographs of early 20th century immigrants. Two Scottish Girls from her Ellis Island Series recently won Best Painting at Main Line Art Center’s 2020 Members Exhibition. Earlier in her life she taught English to high school and college students, and wrote book reviews for The Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Times, and Ms. Magazine. She is the co-author of two children’s books, including “Felix’s Hat.”
David Kertis, author of Word of the Day. was born in 1955 and grew up in northern New Jersey. He attended Oberlin College where he studied creative writing with David Young, and has lived in Philadelphia since 1978. He is married and works as a claims adjuster. In Philadelphia, he has studied with Leonard Gontarek and Eleanor Wilner. He has been published online in Frigate and Apiary and given a number of readings in the Philadelphia area. His book, Word of the Day, has recently been published.
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: International Jazz Day: aTONEment - Jazz Inspired Fables from Improvising Lives with John Lavin and Elijah Pringle
2021-04-30 20:30 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87964733385?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 879 6473 3385 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: International Jazz Day: aTONEment – Jazz Inspired Fables from Improvising Lives
A cross-genre poetry series melding musicians who play the notes with poets who take note!
This spotlight on Philly’s Art of Improvisation will witness Moonstone poet, Raheem Curry trading solos with singer and composer extraordinaire, Ella Gahnt. Also collaborating are jazz violinist, Derek Washington, and co-hosts: jazz percussionist, John Lavin and poet, Elijah B Pringle, III.

John Lavin & Elijah B. Pringle, III – Hosts
Want to hear more about what this event entails? Listen to the fifth episode in our podcast series where three interns talk to the hosts of this event, John Lavin and Elijah B. Pringle, to learn more!

Virtual Poetry Reading: International Workers' Day Anthology
2021-05-01 13:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: International Workers’ Day Anthology

May 1st is International Workers’ Day, a time of celebration and opposition throughout the world, except in the United States where it began. May Day commemorates the May 1st, 1886 nationwide protest for the eight-hour day and the following “Haymarket Affair,” a pivotal event in the history of workers’ and anarchist movements in which four labor organizers were hanged by the State in Chicago. May Day is also the ancient celebration of Spring and rebirth – the traditional time for planting new seeds in old ground.
Poets have long reflected on work. What is it to you? Is it a burden, a salve, a joy?
Donald Hall wrote a wonderful memoir called Life Work, not what you do for money but what you do with your life. The Poetry Foundation has a terrific article, Work Poems – Poetry about looking for jobs and working for a living. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69799/work-poems.
Read What Work Is by Philip Levine; Brass Spittoons by Langston Hughes; Shirt by Robert Pinsky.
We asked poets to send us a poem on work for a Moonstone anthology.
Join us as we celebrate International Workers Day with poetry and bring a poem.
Contributors (Not all will be reading):
Michele Belluomini
Miriam Ben-Yoseph
Byron Beynon
Sarah Bowden
Matilda Bray
R. Bremner
Grace Cavalieri
Terence Culleton
Steven Davison
Terry Dugan
Christine Ferrari
Strickland
Maria Gillan
linda goss
Beejay Grob
Steven Halpern
Barbara Hobbie
Joan Huffman
jack israel
Irving Jones
Chris Kaiser
Michael Levin
Karen Mandell
Emily Rose Miller
Liz Minette
Dennis Moritz
Anthony Palma
John Polier
David Radavich
Esther Ramos
joe roarty
George Schaefer
Jennifer Schneider
Bob Small
Sarah Trembath
Kelley White
Samantha Wright

Virtual Poetry Reading: Medicine Poetry - John Fox, Sean Lynch, Elizabeth Gordon McKim, with Aaren Perry
2021-05-02 16:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Medicine Poetry – John Fox, Sean Lynch, Elizabeth Gordon McKim
John Fox, founder of The Institute for Poetic Medicine, began work with poetry & healing in 1981, he is the author of Finding What You Didn’t Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity Through Poem-Making and Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making. In 2012 he started a training program for people to learn the art and practice of poetry-as-healer. His work has made a significant impact on professionals in medicine, psychology, education, pastoral care, Veterans, cancer support, hospice, drug and alcohol counseling, immigrant and refugee concerns and elder care. John taught poetry therapy for many years within the Expressive Therapy Department at the California Institute for Integral Studies, The Institute for Transpersonal Psychology/Sofia University and within the Arts & Consciousness Department at John F. Kennedy University.
Sean Lynch, he/him, is a poet and editor who lives in South Philadelphia. His poems have appeared in journals including Hobart, Meow Meow Pow Pow, and Drunk Monkeys. He’s on the editorial board of Moonstone Arts Center and serves as the Program Director of the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association. His Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor of choice is Citalopram.

Elizabeth Gordon McKim’s latest book is Lovers In The Free Fall. The Jazz Poet of Lynn and poet laureate of the European School, she offers the reader rich and diverse forms and shapes. Spoken word artist, editor, and teacher, she is the author of eight collections of poetry, and one teaching guide Beyond Words co-authored with Judith Steinbergh poet laureate of Brookline. McKim is a pioneer member of the Arts Institute for Expressive Therapy at Lesley University since 1974 under the direction of Shaun McNiff. She has read and performed her poetry in countless venues, locally and abroad. She loves to work improvisationally with musicians, dancers, visual artists, and she teaches from a multi-arts trans-cultural perspective.

Aaren Perry, Host – Open Reading Follows

Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM: Tom Garvey with Charles S. Carr
2021-05-04 18:30 | PA
2021 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series: Charles S. Carr talks with Tom Garvey, Author of The Secret Apartment: Vet Stadium, a surreal memoir
Watch the live broadcast at Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 | Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia | PhillyCAM TV: https://phillycam.org/watch
Tom Garvey, an Airborne, Ranger and Special Forces qualified officer, served as an A-Team Leader in Viet Nam in 1968 and returned home to mixed reviews about his stability and state of mind. Like many other Viet Nam Veterans, he found few who cared to hear about his time overseas. Now, with his wife Peggy and his wonderful family of five step children and their mates and two world class grandchild, he has finally come home. Life is good. Life is very good indeed.

If I overheard anyone telling this story in a bar or at a party, I wouldn’t believe it either. But I must confess, I’d probably “scooch” a little closer, eavesdropping, unable to walk away. I’d have to find out how this yarn unraveled. Let’s begin an implausible story with a seemingly simple yet complex question. If you were single, never married with no children or dependents, would you, if you had the opportunity, have lived “on the down low” in a secret apartment in Veterans Stadium? In this proposal we have an off the wall South Philly version of “The Phantom of the Opera,” but the larger notion this question begs could easily challenge the inner demons of sports fans anywhere. If you had an opportunity to live in a major sports stadium of a team you grew up loving, what would you have done? In my case: I could, so I did.

“Truth, always strange, is stranger than fiction.”~ Lord Byron
Charles S. Carr, Host

Virtual Poetry Reading: Quintin Collins, Meg Kearney, Iain Haley Pollock, with Larry Robin
2021-05-05 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Quintin Collins, Meg Kearney, Iain Haley Pollock
Quintin Collins (he/him) is a writer, editor, and Solstice MFA Program assistant director. His work appears in many print and online publications, and his first full-length collection of poems is The Dandelion Speaks of Survival (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2021). His second collection of poems, Claim Tickets for Stolen People, selected by Marcus Jackson as winner of The Journal’s 2020 Charles B. Wheeler Prize, is forthcoming from The Ohio State University Press/Mad Creek Books in 2022. See more of his work on qcollinswriter.com.

Meg Kearney’s All Morning the Crows, winner of the Washington Prize, is just out with The Word Works press. Meg is also author of An Unkindness of Ravens and Home By Now, winner of the PEN New England L.L. Winship Award; a heroic crown, The Ice Storm, published as a chapbook in 2020; and three verse novels for teens. Her award-winning picture book, Trouper, is illustrated by E.B. Lewis. Meg’s poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s “A Writer’s Almanac” and Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” series, and included in the 2017 Best American Poetry anthology (Natasha Tretheway, guest editor). She lives in New Hampshire and directs the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program in Massachusetts. Visit www.megkearney.com.
Iain Haley Pollock is the author of two poetry collections, Ghost, Like a Place (Alice James Books, 2018), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and Spit Back a Boy, winner of the 2010 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Individual poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, The Baffler, and The New York Times Magazine. Pollock teaches English at Rye Country Day School in Rye, NY, and is a member of the poetry faculty at the Solstice MFA program of Pine Manor College.

Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Regie Cabico, Israel Colon, Lucia Herrmann, with Sean Hanrahan
2021-05-12 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Regie Cabico, Israel Colon, Lucia Herrmann
Regie Cabico is the first Asian American and queer poet to win the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam. He has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TEDx Talk and NPR’s Snap Judgement. He received a New York Innovative Theater Award for his work with the New York Neo-Futurists’ Production of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. He produces Capturing Fire Festival and Press. He has been on faculty at Kundiman, Banff Spoken Word Arts & NYU’s Asian Pacific Studies Artist in Residence. Cabico is a founding Board Member of Split This Rock and a 2019 Le Maison Baldwin Fellowship Recipient.

Israel Colon, author of Icarus ($12.00, Toho Publishing) With inspired rhyme schemes and use of poetic forms, Icarus confronts Israel Colon’s struggles with trauma, religion, and relationships. Through a mercilessly honest approach to writing, Colon shines a light on the experiences of a man barely keeping it together. A Philadelphia-based father, poet, and business operations professional, Colon has a bachelor’s from Temple University and a master’s in industrial and organizational psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. His debut poetry chapbook chronicles his early life as an at-risk youth. “Icarus will send shivers down your spine. It will remind you of the power of poetry and leave you wanting to read it again.”? Andrs Cruciani, author of The Father and editor-in-chief of Toho Journal.

Lucia Herrmann is a Miami-raised and Philly-based artist and educator. She has been published by Apiary, Toho Journal, Defunkt Mag, and has two pieces forthcoming in Jai-Alai Books’ Waterproof collection. In 2019, Lucia was featured in two Philly FringeArts productions, and she is very much looking forward to when theaters and performance spaces can safely reopen. She is a workshop leader for Green Street Poetry, and a former poetry editor for Toho Journal. In the classroom and in her community, Lucia is dedicated to the transformative and unifying power of creative expression.

Sean Hanrahan, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices - Emerging Poets, Siduri Beckman, Kelly Thompson, DuPree Walker, with Larry Robin
2021-05-15 14:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices – Emerging Poets, Siduri Beckman, Kelly Thompson, and DuPree Walker
New Voices is a program designed for emerging poets under the age of 25.
Siduri Beckman is a lifelong Philadelphian. She served as the inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia where she was mentored by Poet Laureate Sonia Sanchez. She was published most recently in MSU Press’s 2019 collection, Undocumented: Great Lakes Poet Laureates on Social Justice. Siduri is passionate about the intersection of poetry, public education, and civic engagement. Siduri graduated from Yale University in 2020.

Kelly Thompson is a 23-year-old recent Temple graduate from Limerick, Pennsylvania. She loves writing fiction and poetry with fantasy and horror elements. You can find her poetry in Moonstone’s New Voices Anthology #4 and in the online journal Ariadne.

DuPree Walker is a graduating senior International Affairs, Spanish double major, English minor, from Anchorage, Alaska, pursuing her degree at Howard University. For as long as she can remember her creative side has been drawn to the art of language. This year, Moonstone Arts Center gave DuPree the amazing first opportunity to be a published poet. After graduation, DuPree plans on pursuing law school with the goal to practice international litigation and arbitration whilst also fostering her creative passion DuPree is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Nonsense Verse Anthology
2021-05-16 14:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Nonsense Verse Anthology
Nonsense Verse, a perfect way to look at today’s world.
It is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, establishing a new reality separate from this one. Creative use of distortion, fantasy, surrealism, the impossible, opposites, made-up language form tensions between illusion and truth, dreams, and logic, meant to test the meaning of language itself. All of us love language, what it says, what it doesn’t say, how can we get to the essence of the story we want to tell. Sometimes you need to go so deep that you come out the other side. From ‘Jabberwocky’ to ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ nonsense verse is not just for children. These poems can appeal to all age groups in their outlandish settings, invented words, and otherworldly characters. Personification, song, consistent rhyme schemes and metrical patterns, as well as aspects of storytelling, are all part of this genre of poetry. Lewis Carrol, Edward Lear, Spike Milligan, Mervyn Peake, Shel Silverstein, A.A. Milne, Ogden Nash. Moonstone celebrates Edward Lear’s birthday (May 12, 1812) with an anthology of Nonsense Poems written by poets today. Moonstone’s Nonsense Anthology ($10.00).
Join us as poets read their Nonsense Verse and bring your own.

Virtual Poetry Reading: 2021 Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners - Kyle Laws, Faith Paulsen, Paul Siegell
2021-05-19 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: 2021 Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners
First Prize:
Kyle Laws – author of the sea is woman
Kyle Laws is based out of Steel City Art Works in Pueblo, CO where she directs Line/Circle: Women Poets in Performance. She was born in Philadelphia and her family maintains a home there. Collections include Uncorseted (Kung Fu Treachery Press, 2020), Ride the Pink Horse (Stubborn Mule Press, 2019), Faces of Fishing Creek (Middle Creek Publishing, 2018), This Town: Poems of Correspondence coauthored with Jared Smith (Liquid Light Press, 2017), So Bright to Blind (Five Oaks Press, 2015), and Wildwood (Lummox Press, 2014). With eight nominations for a Pushcart Prize and one for Best of the Net, her poems and essays have appeared in magazines and anthologies in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Germany. She is editor and publisher of Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press.

Runner’s Up:
Faith Paulsen – author of we marry we bury we sing or we weep
Faith Paulsen’s work has appeared in One Art, Ghost City Press, Seaborne, and Book of Matches, as well as Thimble Literary Magazine, Evansville Review, Mantis, Psaltery and Lyre, and Terra Preta, among others. Her work also appears in the anthologies Is it Hot in Here or Is It Just Me? and 50/50: Poems & Translations by Womxn over 50. She has been nominated for a Pushcart, and her chapbook A Color Called Harvest was published in 2016. A second chapbook, Cyanometer, is expected in 2021. She lives just outside Philadelphia. She and her husband Barton Sacks are the proud parents of three sons, Paz, Seth and Gideon.

Paul Siegell – author of The Tongue They Shared
Paul Siegell is the 2021 Montgomery County Poet Laureate and author of Take Out Delivery, wild life rifle fire, jambandbootleg, and Poemergency Room. He’s an award-winning creative director at The Philadelphia Inquirer and was a senior editor at Painted Bride Quarterly from 2007-2019. In 2015, his work was selected for the Pennsylvania’s Center for the Book’s Public Poetry Project. A Pushcart nominee, Paul has contributed to American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Rattle, and many other fine journals.

Virtual Poetry Reading: 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium
2021-05-20 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87197922839?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 871 9792 2839 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium
“Traditional and radical, secular and holy, the poems in 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium come to us just as we need them. The poets here celebrate a culture and caution against hatred, all the while making incredible art. Silverman and Carlson have gathered a stellar and diverse group of poets and poetic visions.”–Denise Duhamel, author
With editors Nancy Naomi Carlson, a poet, translator, essayist, editor, & Matthew E. Silverman who teaches at Gordon State College and is editor of Blue Lyra Press. Plus Contributors:
Aliki Barnstone is the author of eight books of poetry, the most recent of which is Dwelling and the translator of The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy. Her awards include a Fulbright Fellowship in Greece and she served as poet laureate of Missouri .

Dan Bellm (Berkeley, California) has published four books of poems, most recently Deep Well (Lavender Ink, 2017). He teaches literary translation and poetry at Antioch University Los Angeles. Visit www.danbellm.com.

Nancy Naomi Carlson, poet and translator, has authored eleven titles (seven translated). An Infusion of Violets (Seagull, 2019) was named “New & Noteworthy” by The New York Times.

Erika Dreifus is the author of Birthright: Poems and Quiet Americans: Stories. An adjunct associate professor at Baruch College and a fellow in the Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute, she lives in New York. Visit her online at ErikaDreifus.com.

Joy Gaines-Friedler is the author of three books of poetry including Capture Theory (Finalist for the Eric Hopper Book Award). Joy teaches Creative Writing for non-profits in the Detroit area.

Diane Frank is author of poetry, fiction, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Himalayas. While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems, is forthcoming from Glass Lyre Press.

Janlori Goldman’s book, “Bread from a Stranger’s Oven,” was chosen by Laure-Anne Bosselaar for the 2016 White Pine Press Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, “My Antarctica,” is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.

Jeffrey Levine’s most recent book is At the Kinnegad Home for the Bewildered. He is the Founder, Artistic Director and Publisher of Tupelo Press.

Olga Livshin is a poet, essayist, and translator with publications in the Kenyon Review, Poetry International, and other journals. Her book A Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman came out in 2019. She lives outside Philadelphia.

Alicia Ostriker has published nineteen collections of poetry, most recently The Volcano and After: Selected and New Poems, 2002-2019. She received the National Jewish Book Award in 2010 and again in 2017.

E. Silverman is the author of The Floating Door (Glass Lyre Press) and The Breath before Birds Fly (ELJ Press) and edited 3 anthologies, including 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium with Nancy Naomi Carlson.

Melanie H.D. Sirof is a proud Bread Loaf alum and a recipient of the Academy of American Poets University Prize. Her work appears on Poets.org, and in Iron Horse Literary Review

Amy Small-McKinney is the author of two full-length books of poetry and two chapbooks. This year, she was nominated by a member of The Pushcart Prize Board of Contributing Editors. Visit. www.amysmallmckinney.com

Virtual Poetry Reading: Sonia Sanchez
2021-05-23 14:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Sonia Sanchez
Sonia Sanchez, poet, activist, scholar—was the Laura Carnell Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Temple University. She is the recipient of both the Robert Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry and the Langston Hughes Poetry Award. One of the most important writers of the Black Arts Movement, Sanchez is the author of sixteen books.
A representative collection of the life work of the much-honored poet and a founder of the Black Arts movement, spanning the 4 decades of her literary career. Gathering highlights from all of Sonia Sanchez’s poetry, this compilation is sure to inspire love and community engagement among her legions of fans. Beginning with her earliest work, including poems from her first volume, Homecoming (1969), through to 2019, the poet has collected her favorite work in all forms of verse, from Haiku to excerpts from book-length narratives. Her lifelong dedication to the causes of Black liberation, social equality, and women’s rights is evident throughout, as is her special attention to youth in poems addressed to children and young adults.
As Maya Angelou so aptly put it: “Sonia Sanchez is a lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly.”
“You have spoken for us . . . Written for us . . . Sung to us . . . How much in your debt we are.” —Toni Morrison
“This world is a better place because of Sonia Sanchez: more livable, more laughable, more manageable. I wish millions of people knew that some of the joy in their lives comes from the fact that Sonia Sanchez is writing poetry.”
“Only a poet with an innocent heart can exorcise so much pain with so much beauty.” —Isabel Allende
“The poetry of Sonia Sanchez is full of power and yet always clean and uncluttered. It makes you wish you had thought those thoughts, felt those emotions, and, above all, expressed them so effortlessly and so well.” —Chinua Achebe
“Her songs of destruction and loss scrape the heart; her praise songs thunder and revitalize. We need these songs for our journey together into the next century.” – —Joy Harjo

Virtual Poetry Reading: The Poet's Memoir - Elaine Terranova, Natasha Sajé, Spencer Reece, with Larry Robin
2021-05-24 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84569818367?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 6981 8367 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: The Poet’s Memoir
Elaine Terranova’s memoir The Diamond Cutter’s Daughter is due in May. Elaine grew up in a working-class neighborhood, worked as a factory worker, office temp, preschool teacher, and editor. She taught at Community College of Philadelphia, Temple University, University of Delaware, and in the Rutgers MFA program. She is author of seven collections of poetry and two chapbooks. Terranova’s first book, The Cult of the Right Hand won the 1990 Walt Whitman Award, Perdido, is her most recent book. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Pleiades, Ploughshares, and other magazines and anthologies. Her awards include a Pushcart Prize, the Margaret Banister residency, the Judah L. Magnes Gold Medal, and fellowships from the NEA and the Pew Center. (photo by Millie L. Berg)
Natasha Sajé is author of Red Under the Skin, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett prize; Bend, awarded the Utah Book Award in Poetry; Vivarium and her post-modern poetry handbook, Windows and Doors: A Poet Reads Literary Theory. Her most recent book is a memoir-in-essays, Terroir: Love, Out of Place, a finalist for Pen, Lambda, and Foreword awards. Honors include the Bannister Writer-in-Residence at Sweet Briar College, Alice Fay di Castagnola and Robert Winner Awards from the Poetry Society of America, the Campbell Corner Poetry Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship to Slovenia, a Camargo Fellowship in France, a Hermitage artist residency, and a 2020 Pushcart prize. Sajé teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts and Westminster College in Salt Lake City, where she directs the Weeks Poetry Series.
Spencer Reece’s first published book of poetry, The Clerk’s Tale, was selected by Louise Glück as the winner of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Bakeless Prize. The titular poem was adapted into a short film by James Franco in 2010. Reece is also the author of the poetry collection The Road to Emmaus, a finalist for the Griffin Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. For several years he lived in Madrid, where he was the national secretary to the Episcopal bishop of Spain. He currently lives in Jackson Heights, “the world’s most diverse neighborhood” according to The New York Times, where he is the interim priest in charge at St Mark’s.
Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Vernyce Dannells, Anis Mojgani, with Alina Macneal and Jennifer Hook
2021-05-26 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Vernyce Dannells and Anis Mojgani
Vernyce Dannells shares, with Anis, the world view of her jumbled origins and a disarmingly unvarnished response to the world. A graduate of the Radcliffe Publishing Course, she especially loved the years she reported for National Public Radio. Vernyce’s work has been featured in national & international literary publications, and her storytelling is sought around the world. Cadenza Press published her chapbook Temporarily Abated.

Anis Mojgani is the current Poet Laureate of Oregon. A two-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, Anis has performed at hundreds of universities across the US, and festivals around the globe such as the Sydney Writer’s Festival, Jamaica’s Calabash festival, and Seoul’s Young Writer’s Festival. His work has appeared on HBO, National Public Radio, and as part of the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series; and in the pages of the NYTimes, Rattle, Platypus, Winter Tangerine, Forklift Ohio, and Bat City Review, amongst others. The author of five books of poetry and the opera libretto, Sanctuaries, his first children’s book is forthcoming from Chronicle Books. Originally from New Orleans, Anis currently lives in Portland Oregon. Visit his website thepianofarm.com.

Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Jazz & Forgiveness: aTONEment - Contemporary Responses to James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones with Elijah Pringle and John Lavin
2021-05-28 19:00 - 21:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87964733385?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 879 6473 3385 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Jazz & Forgiveness: aTONEment – Contemporary Responses to James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones
Co-hosts Elijah B. Pringle, III & John Lavin welcome audience to the May Edition of aTONEment and share topic of how James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones has taught jazz to pray and to play in the context of this 1927 Harlem Renaissance poetic treasure. “As real today as 93 years ago.”
Reflection: Massimo Elijah (poet/artist), Carole Metellus (poet), Sandy Oasin (dancer), and Bethlehem (Vocussionist) share what gestures in God’s Trombones have moved them and how and why and what illustrations of those movements they can share by describing or performing their thoughts and feelings.
Jam Session: Raheem Curry, Michael Angelo to read passages verbatim from James Weldon John’s God’s Trombones: Derek Washington (Jazz Violinist), Bethlehem (Vocussionist), Justin Deutsch (Guitarist), Brent White (Trombonist) to CALL &; Respond to lines from God’s Trombones. Trombonist & Composer, Brent White to share compositions. Special Presentation by Massimo Elijah.
Reflection on how healing is made possible by God’s Trombones

Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM: Mike Cohen and Connie on Poetry & Humor with Charles S. Carr
2021-06-01 18:30 | PA
2021 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series: Charles S. Carr talks with Mike Cohen, Writer, and Connie

Watch the live broadcast at Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 | Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia | PhillyCAM TV: https://phillycam.org/watch
In the beginning, Mike Cohen started on his complete works, which remain a work-in-progress. Along the way, he discovered the wisdom of youth and its foolishness. He discovered the wisdom of age and its foolishness. He discovered young love and its foolishness. He discovered true love. He has meandered and stumbled and lurched and found no answers, but many, many satisfying ways to phrase the questions. Mike Cohen hosts Poetry Aloud and Alive at Philadelphia’s Big Blue Marble Book Store. His articles on sculpture regularly appear in the Schuylkill Valley Journal in which he is a contributing editor.

His colleague in these endeavors is also his constant companion, cohabitant, cohort, and confidante, Connie, who keeps Mike and his writing from going off-kilter. Mike’s wry writing has appeared in the Mad Poets Review, Fox Chase Review, and other journals. His poetic presentations feature humor and drama against a philosophical backdrop. Mike likes to bring poetry and audiences to life in cafes, libraries, book stores and venues including Princeton’s Café Improv, the Pen and Pencil Club, the Hedgerow Theatre, Fergie’s Pub, Harlem’s Apollo Theater, and neither least nor last, Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery.

People often ask about a poet’s process. Connie is integral to my process. My first reader, primary audience, she gives me invaluable feedback and insight on the potential reaction to my writing. She took an interest in poetry for my benefit. She attends the Philadelphia Writers Conference, she says, so she can better help me with my poems. She writes sparingly, but when I entered one of her poems in a contest at the conference, Connie won first prize in poetry. Her poem was not a humorous one, but poetry is a funny thing.
Charles S. Carr, Host

Virtual Poetry Reading: Terence Culleton, Ernest Hilbert, and Don Riggs with Larry Robin
2021-06-02 19:00 | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Terence Culleton, Ernest Hilbert, and Don Riggs with Larry Robin

Terence Culleton
Terence Culleton’s new book is A Tree and Gone, he is also author of A Communion of Saints and Eternal Life. He publishes in diverse magazines and reviews and reads widely throughout the Philadelphia region, as well as in northeastern PA and New York. His work has been featured on radio and cable TV shows in Pennsylvania and New York. and on NPR, and he has won a number of prizes and awards both for his poetry and his teaching. His work has also been set to music and recorded by Vermont composer Don Jamison for his book and CD Far Heaven, as well as by Darryl Harper and Onus for their CD Stories in Real Time. Terence lives in Langhorne PA, just outside Philadelphia, where he’s taught writing and literature for forty years.

Ernest Hilbert
Ernest Hilbert is the author of Sixty Sonnets, All of You on the Good Earth, Caligulan—selected as winner of the 2017 Poets’ Prize—and Last One Out. He lives in Philadelphia where he works as a rare book dealer and book reviewer for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. His poem “Mars Ultor” was included in Best American Poetry 2018, and his poems appear in Yale Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, Parnassus, Sewanee Review, Hudson Review, Boston Review, The New Republic, American Scholar, and the London Review. Visit him at www.ernesthilbert.com.

Don Riggs
Don Riggs has written verse since sixth grade. Influenced by the Beats and sonnet traditions, he integrates his drawing and words. Don has been writing a daily 14-line poem for over a decade now. “This focus on the purely formal allows my subconscious mind to feed me whatever inspiration it will; I go through my daily texts and cull the few that appeal to me, printing up only the best of those, and then selecting out of those the poems that I, at last, feel good about.” Don teaches first-year writing, Science Fiction, and related courses through Drexel University.

Larry Robin, Host — Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Sean Hanrahan, Michael Angelo Abreu, Valerie Little, and Valerie Nies with Elijah Pringle
2021-06-16 19:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: Sean Hanrahan, Michael Angelo Abreu, Valerie Little, and Valerie Nies with Elijah Pringle
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]

Sean Hanrahan
A Chapbook in 49 Days Workshop Facilitator, Sean Hanrahan, is the author of the full-length poetry collection Safer Behind Popcorn (Cajun Mutt 2019) and the chapbooks Hardened Eyes on the Scan (Moonstone Press 2018) and Gay Cake (Toho 2020). He is head poetry editor for Toho, serves on the Moonstone Press Editorial Board, writes poetry reviews for Mad Poets, and hosts a poetry series at Moonstone.

Michael Angelo Abreu
To read the Zen-like poetry of Michael Angelo Abreu is to fall in love with language again. Each line has the beauty and grace of a dragon fly’s delicate wing or a flower’s gentle petal. His poetry paces away from the noise of survival to the tranquility of living. His chapbook, Amor de Naturaleza, is forthcoming through Toho Publishing.

Valerie Little
Pennsylvania native Valerie Little’s non-fiction work has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and she has a forthcoming chapbook, Little Blue Primer, through Toho Publishing. She lives in Minneapolis where she is a violist and orchestra librarian with the Minnesota Orchestra.

Valerie Nies
Valerie Nies’ poetry is woven with vibrant imagery that transports you to “the then now” that created the poem. She writes with the surefootedness of a ledge-walker making a path along a cliff. She is scheduled to release a chapbook entitled Imaginary Frenemies through Toho Publishing.

Elijah Pringle, Host — Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Angel Hogan and Stephanie Durann with Alina Macneal and Jennifer Hook
2021-06-23 19:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: Angel Hogan and Stephanie Durann with Alina Macneal and Jennifer Hook
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]

Angel Hogan
Angel Hogan is an activist, poet and filmmaker pursuing an MFA in creative writing at Drexel University. She has performed as part of the Black Women’s Arts Festival, Literary Death Match, Moonstone Presents, First Person Arts and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. She worked with ArtWell, was a Contributing Editor to Philadelphia Stories, and a review panelist for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. Angel is interested in storytelling as a vehicle for visibility and community building. Her documentary, By Law, By Love: A Documentary about Family, Race and Identity, was completed in 2019. See more at: www.angelhogan.com.

Stephanie Durann
Stephanie Durann is a writer from Philadelphia, PA who has performed under various reading series, festivals, and cabarets in the city including Poets and Prophets, LadyFest Philly, and Black Women’s Arts Festival, She was also a participant in the National Book Foundation Summer Writing Camp in 2004. Stephanie has also worked as a freelance journalist, covering arts events in the city. As a devotee to music, Stephanie also works as a part-time live sound engineer and sound editor. One of her several dream jobs is to write and produce a podcast.

Alina Macneal and Jennifer Hook, Hosts — Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Remembering Lucille Clifton
2021-06-27 14:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: Remembering Lucille Clifton
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 – Passcode: [REDACTED]

Lucille Clifton (June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010)
Her first book of poems, Good Times (1969), was rated one of the best books of the year by the New York Times.
Lucille Clifton was the author of several other collections of poetry, including Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000, which won the National Book Award; Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; and Two-Headed Woman, also a Pulitzer Prize nominee as well as the recipient of the University of Massachusetts Press Juniper Prize. Clifton was also the author of Generations: A Memoir and more than sixteen books for children, written expressly for an African-American audience.
“In contrast to much of the poetry being written today—intellectualized lyricism characterized by an application of inductive thought to unusual images—Lucille Clifton’s poems are compact and self-sufficient…Her revelations then resemble the epiphanies of childhood and early adolescence, when one’s lack of preconceptions about the self-allowed for brilliant slippage into the metaphysical, a glimpse into an egoless, utterly thingful and serene world.” – Rita Dove
Send us a Praise poem or Tribute to Lucille Clifton
Deadline for submissions: June 18, 2021 | Click here to submit
Program: June 27, 2021

Virtual Poetry Reading: Samuel R. Delaney Reads Occasional Views Volume 1: "More About Writing" and Other Essays
2021-06-30 19:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: Samuel R. Delaney Reads Occasional Views Volume 1: “More About Writing” and Other Essays
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]

Samuel R. Delany
Samuel R. Delany is an acclaimed writer of literary theory, queer literature, and fiction. His “prismatic output is among the most significant, immense and innovative in American letters,” wrote novelist Jordy Rosenberg in the New York Times in 2019. Occasional Views: “More About Writing” and Other Essays is an anthology of essays, lectures, and interviews addresses topics such as 9/11, race, the garden of Eden, the interplay of life and writing, and notes on other writers such as Theodore Sturgeon, Hart Crane, Ursula K. Le Guin, Hölderlin, and an introduction to―and a conversation with―Octavia E. Butler. The first of two volumes, this book gathers more than 30 pieces on films, poetry, and science fiction. These sharp, focused writings by a bestselling Black and gay author are filled with keen insights and observations on culture, language, and life.

In 2016, Samuel R. Delany was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. He is the author of Babel-17, Nova, Dhalgren, Dark Reflections, Atlantis: Three Tales, the Return to Nevèrÿon series, an autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water, and the paired essays “Times Square Red / Times Square Blue”. Dark Reflections won the Stonewall Book Award for 2008, and in 2015 he won the Nicolas Guillén Award for Philosophical Literature, and in 1997 the Kessler Award for LGBTQ Studies. Delany has also won four Nebula Awards from the Science Fiction Writers of America and two Hugo Awards from the World Science Fiction Convention. In 2013, he was made a Grand Master of Science Fiction, following in the steps of Asimov, Heinlein, and Le Guin.

Virtual Poetry Reading: Jim Morrison, a Tribute with Leonard Gontarek, Daniel Nester, Catie Rosemurgy, and Host Jennifer Hook
2021-07-03 14:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: Jim Morrison, a Tribute with Leonard Gontarek, Daniel Nester, Catie Rosemurgy, and Host Jennifer Hook
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 – Passcode: [REDACTED]

Leonard Gontarek is the author of eight books of poems, including The Paris Poems Of Jim Morrison (Moonstone Press); Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket, Shiva; He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Needs; St. Genevieve Watching Over Paris; and, forthcoming in 2021, The Long Way Home.
Daniel Nester‘s most recent book is Shader, a memoir. Previous books include How to Be Inappropriate, God Save My Queen I and II, and The Incredible Sestina Anthology, which Nester edited. His recent work has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Collagist, Bennington Review, and Electric Literature.
Catie Rosemurgy’s poetry collections include The Stranger Manual (2010), My Favorite Apocalypse (2001), and the chapbook First the Burning (2018). Her poems have been featured in the anthologies Isn’t It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Young American Poets (2004), Poetry 30 (2005), and Best American Poetry (1997).

This event, Jim Morrison of The Doors dies in Paris July 3, 1971: A Tribute, will also feature readings from Arthur Rimbaud by Maxwell Gontarek and Léa Fougerolle and William Blake & The Eternals.
Jennifer Hook, Host

Moonstone Poetry @PhillyCAM: Research and Poetic Practice with Jena Osman, Orchid Tierney, and Host Charles S. Carr
2021-07-06 18:30 | Moonstone
Moonstone Poetry @PhillyCAM: Research and Poetic Practice with Jena Osman, Orchid Tierney, and Host Charles S. Carr
Watch the live broadcast: Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 | Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia | PhillyCAM TV: https://phillycam.org/watch

Documents in the Archive: Research and Poetic Practice
How and why do poets conduct research? In what ways do poets use the archive to write poetry? This discussion will explore archival research and how poets incorporate their findings into their work.

Jena Osman
Jena Osman’s books of poems include Motion Studies, Corporate Relations, Public Figures, The Network, An Essay in Asterisks and The Character, winner of the 1998 Barnard New Women Poets Prize. Osman was a Pew Fellow in the Arts and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Howard Foundation, and the Fund for Poetry. She founded and edited the award-winning and internationally recognized literary magazine Chain with Juliana Spahr for twelve years; Osman and Spahr now edit the occasional ChainLinks Book series together.

Orchid Tierney
Orchid Tierney is a poet and scholar from Aotearoa-New Zealand, now residing in Gambier, Ohio. Her chapbooks include Brachiation (Dunedin: Gumtree Press, 2012), The World in Small Parts (Chicago: Dancing Girl Press, 2012), Gallipoli Diaries (Gausspdf, 2017), and the full-length sound translation of Margery Kemp, Earsay (Trollthread, 2016). First collection, a year of misreading the wildcats, is out from The Operating System (2019). She received an MCW from the University of Auckland (2010), an MA from University of Otago (2013), and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania (2019). She is Assistant Professor of English at Kenyon College.

Charles S. Carr – Host

Virtual Poetry Reading: New Chapbook Spotlight with Chris Bullard, Hermond Palmer, Connie Scott, and Virginia Watts
2021-07-14 19:00 | Moonstone
Virtual Poetry Reading: New Chapbook Spotlight with Chris Bullard, Hermond Palmer, Connie Scott, and Virginia Watts
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]

Chris Bullard, author of Going Peaceably to the Obsidian Knife
Chris Bullard is a native Floridian who lives in Philadelphia, PA. He received his B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.F.A. from Wilkes University. His work has appeared in recent issues of Leveler, Muse/A Journal, The Woven Tale, Nimrod, American Journal of Poetry, and The Offbeat. Grey Book Press published his chapbook, “Continued,” in May of 2020.

Hermond Palmer, author of Aquarian Love Poems
Hermond Palmer is a poet, author, and songwriter who has performed his work at spoken-word venues in and around Harlem, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts & Sciences and the Wharton Graduate School of Business. He has published three books of poetry; Echoes from the Quiet that I Keep, Words to Fill the Light in You, and What the Ancestors Told Me and I Decided to Listen.

Connie Wasem Scott, author of Predictable as Fire
Connie Wasem Scott makes her home among the pine trees and maples in Spokane, WA, where she teaches writing and literature at Spokane Falls Community College and spends as much time as she can enjoying the outdoors with her Aussie-American husband. Her first full collection, I Come to Know Thirst, was recently accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press (publishing date TBA). Her most recent poems have appeared in American Poetry Journal, The Shore, Cirque, Streetlight, Wild Roof, and Citron Review.

Virginia Watts, author of The Werewolves of Elk Creek
Virginia Watts is the author of poetry and stories found in Illuminations, The Florida Review, CRAFT, Sunspot Literary Journal, Sky Island Journal, Permafrost Magazine, Bacopa Literary Review, Streetlight Magazine among others. Winner of the 2019 Florida Review Meek Award in nonfiction and nominee for Best of the Net Nonfiction 2019 and 2020, she has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize.

Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices: Emerging Poets with Aimee Schwartz, Taleen Postian, and Host Larry Robin
2021-07-17 14:00 - 17:00 | Moonstone
Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices: Emerging Poets with Aimee Schwartz, Taleen Postian, and Host Larry Robin
New Voices is a program designed for emerging poets under the age of 25.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 – Passcode: [REDACTED]

Aimee Schwartz
Aimee Schwartz is a poet, artist, and performer. Her poetry has been featured in Moonstone Arts Center’s New Voices and APIARY as well as Widener University’s publication Widener Ink. She has co-edited, contributed poetry, flash fiction, and artwork to an anthology for Widener’s English Department (she is a Senior Criminal Justice major and Psychology minor at Widener University). Her poetry is heavily influenced by Sylvia Plath and she will often write about mental health, bullying, death, and sexual harassment. She also loves to incorporate mythology into her work.

Taleen Postian
Taleen Postian is an Armenian American poet from New York. Her writing has fallen under the realms of scientific literature, journalism, poetry, and heartfelt birthday cards. You can read her poetry in Hyebred magazine as well as Moonstone Art Center’s New Voices anthology. You can write to her at taleen.postian@gmail.com. She thanks you for reading her work.

Larry Robin – Host
Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" Anthology
2021-07-18 14:00 | Moonstone
Virtual Poetry Reading: “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” Anthology
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]

Purhcase the Anthology
“liberty, equality, fraternity” the national motto of France
A legacy of the Age of Enlightenment, the motto “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” first appeared during the French Revolution. It was written into the 1958 constitution and is nowadays part of the French national heritage.
July 14 is the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, the turning point in the French Revolution. Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called Féte nationale “National Celebration” and commonly and legally le 14 juillet, “the 14th of July”
Potential Readers:

Byron Beynon
Willeena Booker
Jane-Rebecca Cannarella
Marie-Louise Eyres
Linda Goss
Steven Halpern
Kathleen Herrmann
Joan Huffman
Jones Irwin
Irving Jones
Rachel Kiskaddon
Resolute Lee
John Mason
Helen MIRKIL
Jonathan Pessant
Begonya Plaza-Rosenbluth
Peter Prizel
David Radavich
George Schaefer
Jennifer Schneider
Bob Small
Jose Trejo Maya
Eric Wittkopf
Samantha Wright

Click here for our liberté, égalité, fraternité Anthology ($10.00, 978-1-954499-20-1)
