Virtual Poetry - New Voices Spring 2024
2024-05-12 14:00 (America/New_York)
Virtual Poetry on Zoom
New Voices Spring 2024: Emerging Poets
is a program designed for emerging poets under the age of 25. It aims to create a platform for younger poets by welcoming them into the larger Philadelphia poetry community and giving them the opportunity to share their work with a wider audience.
Join us on zoom for emerging poets from around the country

Live Poetry - New Voices Spring 2024
2024-05-14 17:30 | Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine St
Live Poetry at Parkway Central Library and on Zoom
New Voices Spring 2024: Emerging Poets
is a program designed for emerging poets under the age of 25. It aims to create a platform for younger poets by welcoming them into the larger Philadelphia poetry community and giving them the opportunity to share their work with a wider audience.
Join us live at the Central Library for emerging poet from Philadelphia
Zoom Link

Live Poetry - John Amen & Amy Small-McKinney
2024-05-15 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub
John Amen is the author of five collections of poetry, including Dark Souvenirs and Illusion of an Overwhelm, recipient of the 2021 Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, he founded and is managing editor of Pedestal Magazine. Amy Small-McKinney was the Montgomery County Poet Laureate. She is author of Walking Toward Cranes (won the Kithara Book Prize) and One Day I Am A Field, was written during COVID and her husband’s death.
Zoom Link

Virtual Poetry - May Day 2024 Anthology
2024-05-19 14:00 - 15:30 | virtual
Sunday May 19, 2024 – 2pm EDT – VIRTUAL
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvcOiqrTIuGtI4ZR23zt_f1C1FDbB5uk6U
May Day commemorating the historic struggles and gains made by workers and the labour movement, observed in many countries on May 1. In 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers, in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago (1886). Five years later, U.S. Pres. Grover Cleveland, uneasy with the socialist origins of Workers’ Day, signed legislation to make Labor Day—already held in some states on the first Monday of September—the official U.S. holiday in honour of workers.
We invited poets to reflect on the history of labor and the recent surges in the movement. You can purchase the anthology collection here.
Not All Poets Will Be Reading – Open Reading Follows
Featured Poets
Mary Anne Abdo
Byron Beynon
AJ Chilson
Craig Czury
Joan Donato
Steven Halpern
Jane Ellen Ibur
Jones Irwin
Nathaniel Krenkel
Mharlyn Merriitt
Leslie Perry
John Potter
Adam Rubin
Jennifer Schneider
Julia Robinson Shimizu
Stephani Twidwell
Gail Wasserman
Kelley White

Live Poetry - Christopher Childers and Ernest Hilbert
2024-05-22 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub
Christopher Childers, author of The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse, a book 14 years in the making. He received an NEA Translators’ Fellowship in 2018, and has published in venues including The Kenyon Review, the Yale Review, Agni, Literary Matters, and Smartish Pace. His translations have been included in several anthologies, including The Penguin Book of Elegy and The Poetry Pharmacy Forever. His poem “Miasma” is forthcoming from Best American Poetry 2023. Ernest Hilbert, author of the Sixty Sonnets, All of You on the Good Earth, Caligulan—selected as winner of the 2017 Poets’ Prize, Last One Out and Storm Swimmer, was selected by Rowan Ricardo Phillips as the winner of the 2022 Vassar Miller Prize. He lives in Philadelphia where he works as a rare book dealer and book critic for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Fine Books and Collections. His poem “Mars Ultor” was included in Best American Poetry
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook Hosts, Open Reading Follows
Zoom Link

Live Poetry - C.M. Crockford & Amber Renee
2024-05-29 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub
Since March 2022, House Poet has strived to bring together writers, dancers, djs and musicians alike. Join us in 2024 as we bring that energy to Moonstone’s Poetry Nights at Fergies, featuring an open reading, featured readers, live music and a soundtrack you can bounce to.
C.M. Crockford is an autistic/ADHD Philadelphia poet and the author of Birdsongs: Poems 2020-2023, co-hosted The Band: A Podcast About The Shield, published two chapbooks, and his work has been featured in dozens of magazines, journals, and websites. Amber Renee is a chronic writer, author of Thoughts on This Most Recent Episode, a Poetry-Picture book called i feel like i’m nothing, and In memory, energy Nothing / is Forever: a collection of sad & spiritual poems from my 20s. And featuring mixes by Shang, our local DJ highlight.
Warren C. Longmire Host, Open Reading Follows
Zoom Link

Live Poetry: S/He Speaks 2: Voices of Women, Trans & Nonbinary Folx
2024-06-01 13:00 - 15:00 | The Rotunda, 14014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Live Poetry: S/He Speaks 2: Voices of Women, Trans & Nonbinary Folx
Hosted at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street in Philadelphia
Also on Zoom:
S/He Speaks 2 is edited by Cassendre Xavier and Tom Daubert.
When we launched the S/He Speaks anthology in 2023, we noted that anyone likely to read it would already be well aware of the ongoing “Cold War” in the United States targeting the rights of women and transgendered people. Once again, this anthology comes in conjunction with an afternoon-long event at The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania, where writers who can attend will read from their works and discuss their writing. All the poems and short essays here come from people who take their writing seriously. Many are women. Some are transgendered, both male-to-female and female-to-male. Others define themselves as nonbinary. All have something meaningful and personal to say, inspired by our calls for short writing of this nature, whether about gender and transition issues, health and life experience, relationships — anything personal. We hope readers will find some inspiration here — and possibly as a result, begin their own writings.
Featured Contributors
Ashley Andrews
Philip Avilov
Mikey Bachman
Lainey Bechta
Janice F. Booth
Ariana Chavez
Taffeta Chime
Cathyann Cusimano
F. Daubert
Rebecca Dietrich
V. Eidson
Ellen Gannon
Kate Gardner
Melissa Gibson
Liora Hassan
Rosalie Hendon
Samantha Hollins
Zoe Mae Huot-Link
Erin Jamieson
Isabella Kaufman
Jess Kratzer
Amira Kravitz
Deborah LeFalle
Josephine LoRe
Betsy Merbitz
Mira Mookerjee
Beth S.K. Morris
Carlene Stegman Moskal
Gloria Nixon-John
Sophia Ogden
Emma Paris
Breanna Reyes
Adya Ryan
Yvette Santana
Jen Schneider
Zoe Katherine Shelley
Brian “Brie” Sheridan
Tanjanike “Tan” Shivers
Ellie Smillie
Megha Sood
Makani Speier-Brito
Laura Sweeney
Renée Szostek
Natalia Tola
Suzannah “Su” Van Gelder
Jamie C. Whitlow
Harley Woods
Morgan Wright
Cassendre Xavier
Alexis Young
ZQ

Virtual Poetry: Freedom Anthology
2024-07-14 14:00 - 15:00 | Virtual
Freedom 2024 Anthology Reading
Sunday July 14, 2024
2pm on Zoom
Zoom Meeting ID 829 9128 3645 – Passcode [REDACTED]
Registration Link – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkfuiqpjgsHtFxxxyjfTkHXjIJkgSPg2tA

Freedom
The United States celebrates Independence on July 4
France celebrates Bastille Day on July 14
The struggle for freedom and independence is universal.
What does Freedom mean to you?
It is used as a rallying call across the political spectrum
Our Poets Responded

Not All Poets Will Be Reading

Mary Anne Abdo
M. Tonita Austin
Sarwa Azeez
Susan Baer
Jeff Bien
A.C. Blake
Charles Briggs
Christopher Butters
Francisco Carrasco
AJ Chilson
Shaheen Dil
Elinor Donahue
Anna Dunlap

Sahar Fathi
Francis Flavin
Ana Fores Tamayo
Deborah Fries
William Galasso
Linda Goss
Pamela Haines
Annie Hartford
Kathleen Herrmann
Kayla Howe
Jones Irwin
Ralph La Rosa
Kelly Lynn
Dara Marsh
John Mason
Matt McGarvey
Aurora McKee
Mharlyn Merriitt
Leslie Perry
Claire Petersen
Nader Rahimi
Janet Restino
Linda Romanowski
Robert Eugene Rubino
Carla Schick
Evan Schneider

Jennifer Schneider
Ameerah Shabazz
Woody Shiflett
Miki Simic
Robert Lavett Smith
Karamo Muchuri Sulieman
Laura Sweeney
Eike Waltz
Gail Wasserman
Kelley White
Daniel Williams
Samantha Wright
Daniel Zehner

Live Poetry: Kate Carey, M. Elizabeth Hershey, & Miriam Kramer
2024-07-17 19:00 - 20:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Kate Carey, M. Elizabeth Hershey, & Miriam Kramer
Wednesday July 17, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on Zoom
Register for Zoom at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrdumsqDouGNAKNM1JQj7MAr8zap6egOwL
Kate Carey (she/her) is a fat queer polyamorous slut who sometimes spends whole days in bed crying because feelings are hard. Through deeply personal poetry and creative nonfiction, she touches on issues relating to trauma, fat liberation, mental illness and sexuality. December 2022’s Hot Poet in the Bullshit Lit x Olney magazine Hot Poets calendar and producer of Philadelphia’s Slutty Poems Night, you can find more about her & her work at https://www.katemcarey.com.
M. Elizabeth Hershey is a writer and artist based out of South Philadelphia where she has lived off and on for the last 20 years (but would never purport to be from Philly). She graduated from Brown University with a degree in Visual Arts where she cross-studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has published one chapbook, Look to the North and continues to write both poetry and prose in memoir form. Hershey grew up performing Shakespeare, reading V.C. Andrews in the dark, and worshipping the fellow Hoosier Kurt Vonnegut. She is a photographer by trade, loves a good Phillies game and has an active appreciation of jazz and blues music. Her most recent work centers around the ideas of addiction, grief, and the befuddling life of Tinder dates as one approaches middle age.”
Miriam Kramer is a queer, Jewish poet residing in New Jersey with her partner, daughter, and two cats. She majored in Creative Writing at Pacific University and currently works at an educational nonprofit. She was the winner of the 2023 Jack McCarthy Book Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Variant Literature, So to Speak Journal, FreezeRay Poetry, and others. She is the author of three chapbooks. Her debut full length collection, Built by Storms, was published by Write Bloody Publishing and nominated for The Lambda Literary Prize and The New Writers Award, Great Lakes College Association.
Sean Hanahan Host, Open Reading Follows

Moonstone Presents: Independence Day of Ukraine Poetry Reading
2024-08-24 15:30 - 17:30 | Barnes and Noble 1708 Chesnut St., 1708 Chesnut Street., Phildelphia, PA, 19122, United States
Wednesday August 24, 2024 – 3:30pm

Live at at Barnes & Noble, 1708 Chestnut Street
Julia Kolchinsky Dashbach is the author of 40 WEEKS, Don’t Touch the Bones, winner of the 2019 Idaho Poetry Prize, and The Many Names for Mother, winner the Wick Poetry Prize and finalist for the Jewish Book Award. She is currently working on a poetry collection as well as a book of linked lyric essays, both of which grapple with raising a neurodiverse child with a disabled partner under the shadow of the war in Ukraine, Julia’s birthplace. Her poems have appeared in POETRY, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, The Nation, and AGNI, among others.
Kateryna Derysheva is a Ukrainian poet from Kharkiv, co-founder and organizer of the kntxt literary project. Her poems and translations have been published in the journals: Plume, Zerkalo, Tlen Literacki, Literatur in Bayern, Literaturportal Bayern, Visions, Volga, SoFloPoJo, The Colon, Literature, Articulation, New Coast, Arion, Homo legens, Kreshchatik, and others. She is the author of the books Starting Point, There Will Be No Installation; co-author of the book Earth time. She was long-listed for the Arkadiy Dragomoshchenko Prize (2019) and is laureate of the Europa Mai Prize. Her poems and essays have been translated into 11 languages.)
Olena Jennings is the author of the poetry collection The Age of Secrets, the chapbook Memory Project, and the novel Temporary Shelter. She is a translator of collections by Ukrainian poets, Kateryna Kalytko, together with Oksana Lutsyshyna, Iryna Shuvalova, together with the author, and Vasyl Makhno. Her translation, together with the author, of Yuliya Musakovska’s The God of Freedom was released in May 2024 from Arrowsmith Press. She founded and curates the Poets of Queens reading series and press.
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. Livshin co-translated A Man Only Needs a Room, a volume of Vladimir Gandelsman’s poetry and Today is a Different War by the Ukrainian poet Lyudmyla Khersonska,. She is a private creative writing teacher, working with children.

Live Poetry: The Osage Poets
2024-08-28 19:00 - 20:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday August 28, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcudO-vqjouGNxLFi7snrqCmBG6MbFrG96_
The Osage Poets are a long-standing, informal collective, meeting in workshops led by poet Leonard Gontarek: Making Poems That Last and Gentle Warriors. With humor, insight, and a Zen teaching style, Leonard seeds a dynamic and varied poetic response. In pursuit of an authentic voice, spirituality of the ordinary, and an honest grappling with the world’s edges, the results are always relevant and surprising.
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook Hosts

Live Poetry: Elliott batTzedek, Steve Burke, Mabel Lee & Matt McGarvey
2024-09-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Elliott batTzedek, Steve Burke, Mabel Lee & Matt McGarvey
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom
Register for Zoom at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMudumurj0rHNXoqS0HzX_7ZJogkgqPa5Sy
Elliott batTzedek is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet/translator. Elliott’s work appears in various journals and is author of the enkindled coal of my tongue.
Steve Burke has read at many venues in the Philly area; has three chapbooks published by Moonstone Press.
Mabel Lee is a poet and educator from Philadelphia, where she participates in various literary groups and teaches middle school students.
Matt McGarvey, author of Alien Vestibule, is essentially a caffeinated replica of a stardom gone astray, that lives in an apartment by himself where he contemplates the severed state of himself and society. He is now currently interning at Moonstone Arts Center.

Live Reading: Justin Ryan, James Milanesi, Alexandra Naughton
2024-09-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Justin Ryan, James Milanesi, Alexandra Naughton
Wednesday September 11, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on Zoom
Registration Link https://us05web.zoom.us/j/82262171863?pwd=[REDACTED]
Justin Ryan Fyfe is a poet in Philly. He just got fired from his job. You can read all his poems online at fromfromfrom.tumblr.com.
James Milanesi was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. He is an interdisciplinary poet and bartender. He has previously written a chapbook titled Momentary Sweetheart (Bottlecap Press). He is the curator and founder of a collective of poets who call themselves, Poet’s Row.
Alexandra Naughton is a poet, novelist, publisher, and literary events producer based in Philadelphia. Her writing has been widely published on the web and in print, and she performs regularly. Naughton’s work straddles the line between fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry, and explores themes such as self-objectification, existentialism, the frailty of text-based communication, and capitalism. She is the founder of Be About It Press, established in 2010, and co-host of the Bring A Blanket reading series.
Amy Saul-Zerby Host – Open Reading Follows

Tribute to Sonia Sanchez
2024-09-15 14:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
Tribute to Sonia Sanchez
Sunday September 15th, 2024 – 2pm VIRTUAL
Registration Link https://us05web.zoom.us/j/83627572456?pwd=[REDACTED]
Happy 90th Birthday, Sonia
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.
Join us for a virtual reading to celebrate Sonia’s birthday and lifetime of contributions to poetry and the literary community, both in Philadelphia and world-wide. Contributors from our Tribute to Sonia Sanchez anthology will be reading their pieces and others inspired by her work.
“Let me wear the day
Well so when it reaches you
You will enjoy it.”
– Sonia Sanchez

Live Reading: David Ebenbach, Elayna Mae Darcy, Autumn Konopka, Sean Lynch, and Victoria Mier
2024-09-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry – Prose Night
David Ebenbach, Elayna Mae Darcy, Autumn Konopka, Sean Lynch, and Victoria Mier
Wednesday September 18, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Registration Required: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/82017815042?pwd=[REDACTED]
David Ebenbach is the author of ten books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, including his new novel Possible Happiness, which author Gary Eldon Peter calls “a coming of age love letter to Philadelphia in the late 1980s and to one young man’s journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance.” A Philly native, Ebenbach lives with his family in Washington, DC. You can find out more at davidebenbach.com
Elayna Mae Darcy (they/she) is a queer poet, YA author, and filmmaker from Philadelphia. They aren’t sure what they love more—writing, or their cat, Bean. (Ok yeah it’s definitely the cat.) She is the author of the short story, CONTINUUM and has had poems published in just femme & dandy, and Impostor Lit, among others. They are the author of a poetry duology that includes UNRAVELING LIGHT and DARKNESS UNDONE as well as the YA fantasy novel in verse, STILL THE STARS.
Autumn Konopka is a writer, runner, and trauma-informed teaching artist. A former poet laureate of Montgomery County, PA (2016), Autumn’s work has been published widely in literary journals, and her poetry chapbook, a chain of paper dolls, was published in 2014 by the Head & the Hand Press. Her debut novel, Pheidippides Didn’t Die (2023), has earned awards from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the Eric Hoffer Books Awards, and Writer’s Digest. Kirkus calls the book “a compelling adult romance that captures the complexities of trauma dynamics.” Autumn is a Book Reviews & Interviews Editor for Cleaver magazine and a volunteer and ambassador for Still I Run.
Sean Lynch is a writer and editor who’s published five books of poetry, the city of your mind (Whirlwind Press, 2013), Broad Street Line (Moonstone Press, 2016), 100 Haiku (Moonstone Press, 2017), On Violence (Radical Paper Press, 2019), and Halo Nest (Alien Buddha Press, 2024). He’s also the author of The Beast in the Pines, a psychological horror novel about the Jersey Devil.
Victoria Mier is a queer, disabled writer and suspected changeling. Her short fiction has been published in Del Sol SFF Review, Fifth Wheel Press, SORTES, and more. Earlier this year, she released her debut novel, Beyond the Aching Door, an urban fantasy set in Philadelphia. Learn more at victoriamier.com.
Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows

Banned Books Week 2024
2024-09-22 14:00 - 15:00 | virtual
Banned Books Week 2024
Sunday September 22, 2024
Virtual on Zoom – 2pm
Registration Required: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/86935252863?pwd=[REDACTED]
“This is a dangerous time for readers and the public servants who provide access to reading materials. Readers, particularly students, are losing access to critical information, and librarians and teachers are under attack for doing their jobs.” – Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom
Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. In a time of intense political polarization, library staff in every state are facing an unprecedented number of attempts to ban books. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom ALA documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans for more than 20 years ago. The unparalleled number of reported book challenges in 2022 nearly doubles the 729 book challenges reported in 2021. Of the record 2,571 unique titles targeted for censorship, most were by or about LGBTQIA+ persons and Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Coming from the book industry Larry, Robin’s Book Store, and Moonstone have always fought censorship. Join us as Poets respond to the issue of suppression and their right to write.
Over 30 poets shared their works to combat book banning for our anthology.
Featured Poets
not all contributors will be reading

Austin Alexis
Susan Baer
Anne Catharine Blake
Charles Briggs
Sharnta Bullard
AJ Chilson
Suzanne Cooke
Linda M. Crate
Amber Deamer

Joanne Durham
Ana Fores Tamayo
Beejay Grob
Steven Halpern
Jane Ellen Ibur
Jones Irwin
Mindy Kronenberg
Eelka Lampe

Kinard Lang
Scott Leff
Daphne M
Curtis Nelson
Faith Paulsen
Elijah Pringle
David Radavich
Janet Restino
Linda Romanowski

Kasey Ryman
George Schaefer
Jennifer Schneider
Kendall Snee
Ken Waldman
Eike Waltz
Kelley White
Samantha Wright

The Art of Inclusion: The Story of Larry Robin and Moonstone
2024-09-25 17:30 - 20:00 | The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Moonstone Poetry & the Free Library of Philadelphia present
Wednesday September 25, 2024, 5:30pm – LIVE
Free Library of Philadelphia Central Branch Skyline Room
1901 Vine Street
THE ART OF INCLUSION
THE STORY OF LARRY ROBIN
& MOONSTONE
A Celebration of the Arts and Free Speech!

Many of us have connections with Larry and Moonstone Arts Center. You may have gone to school at Moonstone’s Early Childhood Education Program, founded by Larry and Sandy Robin. You may be published by Moonstone Press. You may have participated in New Voices, the Annual Poetry Ink readings, Celebration of Black Writing, Festival Cubano, The Paul Robeson Festival, the Hidden Story Programs, the International Voices readings on Zoom, or another of Moonstone’s successful programs. You may have stood at an open mic at Fergie’s Pub and spoken your first poem in public¡ You might still have that copy of Tropic of Cancer you bought from Robin’s Book Store while they successfully defied the censorship ban on the book!

28th Poetry Ink: LIVE
2024-09-29 14:00 - 17:00 | The Rotunda, 14014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Moonstone Poetry & The Rotunda present
28th Annual Poetry Ink Reading LIVE
Sunday September 29, 2024, 2pm
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
We want you all: published poets, unpublished poets, academic poets, street poets, poets who write Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku, Ekphrastic Poems, Concrete Poems, Epitaph, Elegy, Epigram, Limerick, Ballad, Ode, Free Verse, and all other forms. Join us for our 28th year of presenting 100 poets reading in alphabetical order.
We are LIVE at the Rotunda at 2pm on Sunday, September 29.
If you live further away – we will be virtual on Monday, September 30 at 7pm via Zom
Register for the virtual event on Sept. 30th: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88202311343?pwd=[REDACTED]

28th Poetry Ink: VIRTUAL
2024-09-30 19:00 - 21:00 | virtual
Moonstone Poetry presents
28th Annual Poetry Ink Reading VIRTUAL
Monday, September 30th, 2024, 7pm
Online via Zoom, register here: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88202311343?pwd=[REDACTED]
We want you all: published poets, unpublished poets, academic poets, street poets, poets who write Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku, Ekphrastic Poems, Concrete Poems, Epitaph, Elegy, Epigram, Limerick, Ballad, Ode, Free Verse, and all other forms. Join us for our 28th year of presenting 100 poets reading in alphabetical order.
Buy your copy of the anthology here: https://moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/28th-annual-poetry-ink/491

Live Poetry: Mia Kang, Allayna Nofs, and Herman Beavers
2024-10-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Live Poetry
Wednesday October 9, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street and on Zoom
Register for Zoom access: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpceivqTIpHNL2TDUW4c3-ZEqlzjU3eIE9
Mia Kang is the author of City Poems, Apparent Signs and the winner of the 2023 Airlie Prize for All Empires Must. She lives in Philadelphia with two cats, is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Folklore Project. She holds a PhD in the history of art from Yale University, and she has taught at Hunter College, the Cooper Union, University of the Arts, and Yale College.

Allayna Nofs is the author of It’s not them, it’s me, a collection of poetry published in 2019. She is also the sorceress behind the poetry series, Blossoming, which runs (almost) monthly out of West Philadelphia. If she’s not at the park admiring the trees, she might be doing math homework by the river. A collection of her written words can be found on her Substack, at www.allaynanofs.substack.com.

Herman Beavers is Professor of English and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent poems have appeared in Cleaver Magazine, The American Arts Quarterly and been anthologized in The 2014 Anthology of Featured Poets and Obsession: Sestinas for the Twenty-First Century. He serves as an advisory editor for The African American Review, The Black Scholar, and Modern Fiction Studies.

Live Poetry: Courtney Bambrick, Hayden Saunier, and Jevon Simeon
2024-10-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry
Wednesday October 16, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on Zoom
Register here for Zoom access: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkcOqgrj0qEtf2cVm92zWRaL5QhY1ri2if

Courtney Bambrick teaches writing at Thomas Jefferson University’s East Falls campus in Philadelphia. She was poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories until 2024. Her own poems appear or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Mom Egg Review, Landlocked, Pinhole, Thimble, SWWIM Everyday, New York Quarterly, Invisible City, and more. Her chapbook World Without is available from Bottlecap Press.

Hayden Saunier is the author of six poetry collections including her new book, Wheel, (Terrapin: 2024). Her work has been published in 32 Poems, Beloit Poetry Journal, diode, Southern Poetry Review, The Sun, and VQR and featured on Poetry Daily, The Writer’s Almanac, and Verse Daily. Awards include a Pushcart Prize, Pablo Neruda Award, and Rattle Poetry Prize www.haydensaunier.com.

Jevon Simeon says “As I touch the pencil I start to remember I am a writer. I am a Juggernaut. My melanin is the exposition of art itself. I rise with the sun. I am the moon. Im just a Poet that tries to balance the dark and light within me, to find peace within myself I relinquish this into my poetry as it creates imagery to inspire people to see beauty in themselves. I’m a child of the sea with Caribbean blood running through my veins.
Sean Hanahan Host, Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Doris Ferleger & Lisa Grunberger
2024-10-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry
Wednesday October 23, 2 024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on Zoom
Register for Zoom access here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvf-6grzMoGNPJ5xjAbNU3zuz66tQya37z

Doris Ferleger, poet laureate emeritus of Montgomery County PA, and winner of the New Millennium Poetry Prize, New Letters Poetry, Songs of Eretz Prize, and AROHO CNF Prize, among others, is the author of five full-length poetry books, including Big Silences in a Year of Rain, As the Moon Has Breath, Leavened, As for the Kiss, and To Claim Loneliness and a chapbook entitled When You Become Snow. Her work has been published in numerous journals including Cortland Review, Delmarva Review, and Poet Lore. Her sixth book, entitled when the night is near as a bird was a finalist for the four-way prize. Ferleger holds an MFA in Poetry and a Ph.D. in Psychology and maintains a private therapy practice. Aliki Barnestone writes: Ferleger’s memorable poems keep singing with their insistent beauty.

Lisa Grunberger is a first-generation American writer, author of I am dirty and Born Knowing, lyrical reflections on life as a woman, a mother, and a daughter of Holocaust survivors. For the Future of Girls was nominated for an Eric Hoffer Independent Press Award, Almost Pregnant, is her play about infertility and assisted reproductive technologies.
Whether it is the aging woman’s body, the infertile body, the body ravaged by war and trauma, all her work addresses human embodiment in a philosophical, spiritual, tender and satirical voice. Lisa’s poems have been translated into Slovenian, Russian, Spanish and Yiddish. Lisa teaches Yoga and Writing workshops and lives with her family in Philadelphia. Her website is www.Lisa-Grunberger.com.
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook Hosts, Open Reading Follows

Virtual Reading: Remembering Dylan Thomas
2024-10-27 14:00 - 15:00 | virtual
Virtual Reading: Remembering Dylan Thomas
Sunday October 27, 2024 – 2pm EST – VIRTUAL
Register for Zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpdu6hqDMsGdZRzlthm1ZEK-xUGy30g20b
Remembering Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “And death shall have no dominion”, as well as the “play for voices” Under Milk Wood. He also wrote stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child’s Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became widely popular in his lifetime and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then, he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a “roistering, drunken and doomed poet”.
Poets will be reading their work from our latest anthology honoring Dylan Thomas’s legacy.

Live Poetry: William Hazard & Ari Villeda-Martinez
2024-10-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry
Wednesday October 30, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom
Use this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlceyhrj4uGdcKVBmb7dFEdUot8n6Ea8AL
William Hazard makes poems with computers. Recent work can be found in Voicemail Poems, Bring a Blanket Zine, Ghost Proposal, Beloved Radio, Audio Flare Gun, and on GitHub. He teaches at Temple University. He hangs out at llllllll.co

A Latinx poet, educator, and general transgender menace, Ari Villeda-Martinez (she/they) is a performer and artist who thrives in the seemingly liminal space between the seat and the stage. She is a maker most interested in how an audience creates their own tether to a spoken narrative and can breach the wall to the page. Her work is intimate, precise, and at its best, devours.

Aaron Gadbury & Lindsay Hargarve Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Reading: Our State of the Union
2024-11-03 14:00 - 15:00 | Virtual
DID YOU VOTE? The State of The Nation – Get Out The Vote
Sunday November 3, 2024 – 2pm EST – VIRTUAL
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqfuuhrz0vE9NAdRMQxqD0VzHTSKiDCQts
THIS ELECTION IS IMPORTANT
Things you can do to increase participation: • Remind those in your life to vote and invite them to voter education events like debates. • Ask them to visit www.VOTE411.org to find their polling place and learn what will be on their ballot. • Ask about their voting plan for Election Day. Research shows that by asking voters whether they have an Election Day plan (how will they get to the polls? At what time?), you will increase their chances of participating. • Keep it brief and friendly! • Be helpful. Have election dates, polling locations, and other information at your fingertips so that you can help address any questions.
Join us as poets reflect on the election, voting, and raising the voices of the people.

Post-Election Opening Reading
2024-11-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Post-Election Open Reading
Wednesday November 6, 2024 – 7pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
and on Zoom
Register for Zoom access: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIucOivqzwpE9Y9pjEDMm49e2mnxwyCipMH
Election 2024 Open Reading
Whatever happened yesterday
poets will have something to say
Join us to cheer or moan.

Philly Loves Poetry: Eileen D'Angelo
2024-11-12 18:30 - 19:30 | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Philly Loves Poetry: Eileen M. D’Angelo
Tuesday November 12, 2024 – 6:30pm – VIRTUAL
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM – Watch on the Phillycam website
Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 – In Philadelphia.
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Eileen M. D’Angelo, twice nominated for a Pennsylvania Governor’s Award in the Arts, she received two Pushcart Prize / Best of the Small Press nominations from Verse Magazine and Schuylkill Valley Journal. Her poetry, essays and book reviews have been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, the News of Delaware County, Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century, Manhattan Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, Drexel Online Journal, Wild River Review, Philadelphia Stories, Philadelphia Poets, The Independent Review, Negative Capability, One Trick Pony, Odessa Poetry Journal, The Aurealean, Bookends, and others. Charles S. Carr, Host

Live Poetry: Thomas Devaney, Joanna Fuhrman, & Lauren Russell
2024-11-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry with Thomas Devaney, Joanna Fuhrman, & Lauren Russell
Wednesday November 13, 2024 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
And on Zoom – Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAlcuygqTIjHdP11BPGj4EeBp6GLWDFSkDJ
Thomas Devaney is a poet, facilitator, and educator based in Philadelphia. He is a Pew Fellow in the Arts with a focus on city building and community engagement. He wrote and co-director the film Bicentennial City with Green House Media (2020). Devaney is the author of Getting to Philadelphia (Hanging Loose Press, 2019) and You Are the Battery (Black Square Editions, 2019). His work is featured in Best American Poetry 2019. He teaches creative writing at Haverford College and also works for the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University.
Joanna Fuhrman is the author of Freud in Brooklyn; Ugh Ugh Ocean; Moraine; Pageant, winner of the Kinereth Gensler Prize from Alice James Books; The Year of Yellow Butterflies; and To a New Era. Her poetry is humorous and surreal, mining references from pop and high culture. Writing about Fuhrman’s work for BOMBLOG, Susie DeFord observed that Fuhrman “takes the best of the surrealist and narrative poetry, weaving social and personal stories with extreme wit, imagination.” She has been poetry editor for Boog City and curator of the reading series for the Saint Mark’s Church Poetry Project in New York.

Lauren Russell is the author of A Window That Can Neither Open nor Close; Descent, winner of the Poetry Society of America’s 2021 Anna Rabinowitz Award; and What’s Hanging on the Hush. Russell has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and residencies from Millay Arts, Ucross, Yaddo, and MacDowell, among others. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, the New York Times Magazine, Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. She is an assistant professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and lives in Baltimore with her cats, Cat Jeoffry and Lady Day.

Virtual Reading: New Voices Fall 2024
2024-11-17 14:00 - 15:00 | virtual
Virtual Reading: New Voices Fall 2024
Sunday November 17, 2024 – 2pm EST – VIRTUAL
Register to access Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIocu6tpzotGNe7ciI7XVSoht8wYC9CkeMW
New Voices Anthology – Fall 2024 – A series for emerging poets between the ages of 10 and 25.
A monthly reading series and a bi-annual publication which strives to bring together younger poets from
various communities. We tend to gather in our own communities. There is nothing wrong with that
except we begin to sound alike, look alike, think alike. New Voices is our attempt to expand everyone’s
experience, to introduce other ways of everything and to give a platform to the young writers of this
generation.
We will also host a live, in-person reading on November 21st.

Live Poetry: Anisha Bhat, Jiordan Castle, & Alison Lubar
2024-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry with Anisha Bhat, Jiordan Castle, & Alison Lubar
Wednesday November 20, 2024 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street Philadelphia
And on Zoom: Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0lduGsrjgrHNCcGHTb5NF348kiwGXgbFsk
Anisha Bhat, originally from Chicago, Illinois, is a writer and staff member at Temple University where she directs research and creative programs for undergraduates. She has an MPhil in World History from the University of Cambridge and an MA in History from Northwestern University. In her free time she can be found buying too many books at used book stores, eating at the same five restaurants in South Philly, or working on her first poetry chapbook.
Jiordan Castle is the author of Disappearing Act, a memoir in verse. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Rumpus, The Millions, and elsewhere. Her poetry and nonfiction are forthcoming in the anthologies Best New Poets (2024) and What My Father and I Don’t Talk About (2025). She received her MFA in poetry from Hunter College and currently lives in Philadelphia with her husband and their dog.
Alison Lubar teaches high school English by day and yoga by night. They are a queer, nonbinary, mixed-race femme whose life work (aside from wordsmithing) has evolved into bringing mindfulness practices, and sometimes even poetry, to young people. Their work has been nominated for both the Pushcart & Best of the Net, and they’re the author four chapbooks: Philosophers Know Nothing About Love (Thirty West Publishing House, 2022), queer feast (Bottlecap Press, 2022), sweet euphemism (CLASH!, Spring 2023), and it skips a generation (Stanchion, Fall 2023). You can find out more at http://www.alisonlubar.com/ or on Twitter @theoriginalison.
Sean Hanrahan, Host – Open Reading Follows
