Moonstone Arts Center

Moonstone Presents: A Tribute to J.C. Todd, Chapbook Release Party
2019-01-27 14:00 (America/New_York) | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
For some strange reason we tend to wait until someone dies before we express our gratitude for what they have done. We have memorials where people get up and say how important the person was to them and what they had accomplished. Why wait? Why not have a party honoring the person with praise poems while they are still alive and can enjoy it? Join us in honoring J.C. Todd.

J.C. Todd is a Fellow of the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and winner of the Rita Dove Poetry Prize. Author of The Damages of Morning, What Space This Body and co-author of the artist books, On Foot/By Hand and FUBAR, she has received fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Leeway Foundation, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The Hambidge Center, Ragdale, Ucross and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has taught in the MFA Program at Rosemont College and the Creative Writing Program at Bryn Mawr College and holds an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Contributors will read their poems from the Chapbook
A Tribute to J. C. Todd
($10, The Moonstone Press)

Moonstone & Apiary Magazine Present: HIVE NIGHT
2019-01-30 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
HIVE NIGHT is Apiary Magazine’s showcase and open mic celebrating every stripe of literary artist the city has to offer. Come to hear voices from Philadelphia writing tribes old and new, spanning Apiary’s decade-long history. Stay to share your own work in a laid back, inclusive space, whatever the form, genre or mood, to a crowd hungry for diverse voices.
Featuring:

Michael O’Hara is the author of The Year With No Holidays and The Fine Art of Selling Out.

Nicole Steinberg is the author of Glass Actress, Getting Lucky, and several chapbooks, including Fat Dreams.

Sekai’afua Zankel is author of Behind These Eyes /Optical Poems, won the Frank Moore Poetry Prize 2008 and the Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant. Her poems have been published In the CAP literary magazine, Poetry Ink, and in Apiary.

This Reading Includes an Open Mic (Hosted by the staff of Apiary Magazine)

Moonstone Presents: Cuba, 2019 - Poetry & Information
2019-02-03 14:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Presenters include:

Steve Halpern was a member of the UAW and has been working as a housekeeper in Philadelphia area hospitals.

Enrique Sacerio-Garí, born in Cuba, professor at Bryn Mawr College known for his work on Jorge Luis Borges, and is author of Comunión (a concrete poem), Poemas interreales, Para llegar a La Habana and El mercado de la memoria.

John Staggs, Socialist Workers Party Candidate for Philadelphia City Council, a Walmart worker, Staggs participated in the “Dairy Farm Crisis Hearing” and joined the teacher’s picket lines in West Virginia.

International Volunteer Work Brigade to Cuba 2019 will take place April 21 – May 5.
Brigade members will participate in the May Day celebration in Havana. These tours are sponsored by the Cuban organization ICAP.
For more information: ICanGoToCuba@nnoc.info.
Applications are due by March 29.

Moonstone Presents: Philly Loves Poetry - Interviews and Readings
2019-02-05 18:30 | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
2019 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series at PhillyCAM
Join us as the poets who Moonstone has published discus poetry and read their poems
“From Across the Waters: Jewish Refugees from the Former Soviet Union.”

In the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, three Jewish refugee poets from the former Soviet Union read and discuss their work. They spotlight the enduring lives of their community, as well as complexities of their identity.

Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach is the author of The Many Names for Mother, winner of the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry prize, and The Bear Who Ate the Stars. Her poems appear in POETRY, Best New Poets, American Poetry Review, others.

Olga Livshin’s poetry, essays, and translations from Russian appear in Writers Resist, the Kenyon Review, Poetry International, Jacket, and others.

Natalie Lyalin is the author of Blood Makes Me Faint, but I Go for It, Pink & Hot Pink Habitat, and Try A Little Time Travel.

Host: Charles S. Carr

To be Broadcast Live: Comcast 66/966 & Verizon 29/30

Moonstone Presents: Rodriguez & Dr. Williams-Witherspoon Poetry, Open Reading to follow
2019-02-06 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Edythe Rodriguez is a senior at Temple University studying Creative Writing and Africology. She will be anthologized this year in The Dreamers Anthology: Writing Inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank and FEMME: Literati Mixtape.

Dr. Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, PhD (Cultural Anthropology), MA (Anthropology), MFA (Theater), Graduate Certificate) Women’s Studies, BA (Journalism); is an Associate Professor of Urban Theater and Community Engagement. She has had over twenty-three of her plays produced. Her stage credits include thirteen productions and she is a contributing poet to twenty-six poetry anthologies.

Open Reading follows – Sean Lynch, Host

Moonstone Presents: Bondhus & Evans Poetry, Open Reading to follow
2019-02-13 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Charlie Bondhus is author Divining Bones and All the Heat We Could Carry, winner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Missouri Review, Columbia Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Nimrod, and Copper Nickel.

R.G. Evans is the author of Overtipping the Ferryman, his poems, fiction, and reviews have appeared in Rattle, The Literary Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, Lips, MARGIE, The Best of Pif Magazine (Offline), ​and Weird Tales, among other publications.

Open Reading follows – Dave Worrell, Host

Michelle Belluomini & Ditta Baron Hoeber Poetry, Open Reading to follow
2019-02-20 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Michele Belluomini is author of Crazy Mary and Signposts for Sleepwalkers, her poetry has been published in American Poetry, Philadelphia Poets, Beltway, The Mad Poets Review and Apiary.

Ditta Baron Hoeber is an artist and a poet. Her work has appeared in Contemporary American Voices, the American Journal of Poetry, the American Poetry Review, Construction Magazine, New American Writing, Window Cat and Per Contra along with a suite of her photographs. In 2018 she received a nomination for the Pushcart Prize.

Open Reading follows – Larry Robin, Host

2018 Moonstone Featured Poets Book Release & Poetry Reading *See Above*
2019-02-24 14:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub
2018 Moonstone Featured Poets Anthology Book Release and Poetry Reading
Sunday, February 24, 2019 — 2pm

Join us for an afternoon of poetry and camaraderie. The 2018 Anthology of Featured Poets includes over 30 of the featured poets who read for Moonstone in 2018, many of whom will read on February 24. Poets included in this year’s anthology are:

Steve Burke
Joe Costal
Liz Chang
Aaron Graham
Bill Van Buskirk
Peter Baroth
Ahmad Almallah
Joe Roarty
John Wojtowicz
Ryan Eckes
W.D. Ehrhart
Angel Hogan
Brandon Blake

Charlie O’Hay
Levi Bentley
Eileen D’Angelo
Silvino Alexander
Sydney Coffin
Steve Nolan
James Feichthaler
Catherine Bancroft
Sean Hanrahan
Chad Frame
Antoinette Libro
Hayden Saunier
Don Riggs

Mike Miller
Candida Rodriguez
Thom Nichols
Joan Roberta Ryan
Bela Aznar
Donna Wolf-Palacio
Lamont Steptoe
Joel Dias-Porter
Mbarek Syfri
Charles Carr—host
Jennifer Hook—host
Sean Lynch—host
Alina Macneal-host

Dagmawe Berhanu, Wilquan Davis & Taylar Enlow: New Voices, Open Reading to follow
2019-02-25 18:00 | South Philadelphia Free Library, 1700 S. Broad Street (Morris Street), Philadelphia, PA, 19145, United States
Moonstone@The South Philadelphia Library
1700 S. Broad Street
New Voices:
Philadelphia’s Emerging Poets
A Voice for Everyone – Listen, Share, Connect
Join us each month for readings by emerging poets under the age of 25.

Monday February 25, 2019 – 6pm

Dagmawe Berhanu is an Ethiopian-American poet from Columbus, Ohio who has been living in Philadelphia since 2011. He was a member of Temple University’s Babel Poetry Collective, a student run organization that aims to support and facilitate the progression of writing and performance art, hosting monthly writer and music workshops, as well as showcases several times year. In August 2018, he was a member of Philadelphia’s team at the National Poetry Slam. Some of his works can be found on YouTube via Slamfind, as well as on Wus Good and Voicemail Poems.

Wilquan Dorsey, also known as QUE, is a poet from Chester, Pennsylvania who attends Widener University studying finance. Not only does he want to help communities financially and bring financial literacy to schools, he uses spoken word as a platform for expression and to start conversations.

Taylar Enlow is a Black creator and Philadelphia native. For her, the act of creating is a bodily function, as natural as breathing or bleeding; poetry is the transfiguration of blood to ink and flesh to page. The art of poetry has always been her primary medium of self expression, and she considers words to be the extension of both her physical and spiritual beings. More than anything, Enlow believes in the power and significance of community construction and preservation. That belief is the primary influence of all her works and endeavors.

Krisann Janowitz, Host – Open Reading follows

Simone Allender & Deborah Turner: This Poem's For You, Open Reading to follow
2019-02-27 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
THIS POEM’S FOR YOU
featuring…

Simone Allender is a bookkeeper who started writing poetry in the early 80s (long before the bookkeeping) as a way of expressing her burgeoning feminism and keeping herself sane. She continues her writings today, as a way to keep herself sane.

Deborah Turner writes fiction and poetry, the valve through which she allows anger, compassion, advice and sanity to escape into the modern world. Her early works appear in the Lavender Reader as well as in anthologies including the Body Eclectic and Letters to My Sister.

Open Reading follows – Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts

Fran Baird @ Fergie's
2019-03-13 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ the Pub
Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Wednesday March 13, 2019 – 7pm
Fran Baird
Fran Baird studied with David Ignatow in the 1980s and more recently at the Antioch Writers’ Workshop with Cathy Smith Bowers, John Drury and Jamey Dunham. He was nominated for a Pushcart prize in 2009 for his poem “Neshaminy,” published in the Schuylkill Valley Journal. He currently studies with poet Leonard Gontarek as a member of the Osage Avenue Poets. As an adjunct professor he has taught social work and psychology at LaSalle University and criminal justice at West Chester University. He has been conducting a weekly and on-going poetry workshop at Phoenix (formerly Graterford) Prison for the last 2 years with long-term, incarcerated men, co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Prison Literacy Project and Lifers, Inc. In the winter edition 2017, the Schuylkill Valley Journal published 10 poems by 5 individuals from the workshop. His first chapbook, Painting With My Father, has been published by Finishing Line Press.
Dave Worrell, Host, Open Reading follows
Moonstone Arts Center Office
110A S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, (215) 735-9600;
larry@moonstoneartscenter.com; www.moonstoneartscenter.com
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Moonstone Presents: Patrick Blagrave, Fae Aspen Gehringer & Octavia McBride-Ahebee
2019-04-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Patrick Blagrave is a poet from Philadelphia, currently at work on a chapbook about student loan debt. He is on the editorial board of The Painted Bride Quarterly and is the founder and editor of Prolit, a literary magazine about class, work, and money. His work can be found in Bedfellows, Apiary, and Mad House magazines.
Fae Aspen Gehringer is the author of “I Love You It Looks Like Rain” (Be About It Press 2017) and “I Don’t Write About Race” the latter of which was the winner of Civil Coping Mechanisms’s 2017 Mainline contest, an Entropy Best Poetry Book of 2018, and debuted as the number one LGBT new release on Amazon.
Octavia McBride-Ahebee’s poetry is informed by the convergence of cultures and the many ways people move throughout the world. Her work presents human relationships within the context of global inequality. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Rigorous, For Harriet, Raising Lilly Ledbetter; Women Poets Occupy the Workplace, Yellow Medicine, Badilisha Poetry Exchange, South Philly Fiction, Blackberry Magazine, International Quarterly; Faces of the Americas and the Beloit Poetry Journal. McBride-Ahebee’s poetry collections include Assuming Voices (Lit Pot Press) and Where My Birthmark Dances (Finishing Line Press). Her poetry chapbook, Praise Songfor the Gravediggers, was released in January 2019. https://omcbrideahebee.squarespace.com/
Sean Lynch, Host, Open Reading follows

23rd Poetry Ink: 100 Poets Reading
2019-06-02 12:00 | 1199C Headquarters, 1319 Locust st., Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Sunday June 2, 2019 – noon
Moonstone at 1199C Headquarters, 1319 Locust Street
Hello! We are hosting our 23rd annual Poetry Ink release event which will be commemorated by readings from 84 (not quite 100 this year!) poets. Join us in enjoying the work of academic poets, famous poets, free form poets, street poets, unknown poets, spoken word poets, published poets, unpublished poets- you name it! Poetry Ink was created with the goal of generating conversation between poets of different ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, and stylings in order to celebrate Philadelphia’s historically diverse literary community.
Accordingly, the 100 Poets Reading aims to provide a platform for poets from all different walks of life so that the audience and readers alike may enjoy new poetic experiences- nowhere else in Philadelphia is there such a unique congregation of poets and poetry. Food contributions are encouraged, as this will be a potluck community event for all ages. Whether you stop by for hours or just a few minutes, an enjoyable time is guaranteed for all attendees.
Purchase the Anthology
Not all contributors will be reading.
All Reading Times are Approximate
12:00
Sekai’afua Zankel
David Worrell
Shanyah Womack
Donna Wolf-Palacio
Rocky Wilson
Eleanor Wilner12:30
Anthony Williams
Notus Williams
Sharon Wellons
Mercedes Weathers
Bill Van Buskirk
Jonathon Todd1:00
John Timpane
Elaine Terranova
Lamont Steptoe
Mbarek Sryfi
Fereshteh Sholevar
George Schaefer
Tonya Ryva
1:30
Ayo Rosier
Tyrone “Marcy” Roosevelt
Stuart Roberts
Don Riggs
Elizabeth Quigley
Elijah Pringle
Prabha Prabhu

2:00
Aaren Perry
Hermond Palmer
Claire Owen
Ewuare Osayande
Daniel O’Hara
Stu O’Connor
Michael Miller2:30
John Mason
Alina Macneal
Sean Lynch
Cynthia Lee
Hazel Lee
Jeffrey Lee
Kinard Lang3:00
Lynette
Lisa Konigsberg
Michelle Keita
Anne Kaier
Betti Kahn
Bea Joyner
Irving Jones
3:30
Christina Jones
Leah Jackson
Ann Huang
Jennifer Hook
Alison Hicks
Laura Hawley
Janelle Harvey
Sean Hanrahan

4:00
Steven Halpern
Hanoch Guy
Linda Goss
Beulah Gordon-Skinner
Greg Francis
William Foster
Peggy Fisher4:30
Alfred Encarnacion
Runett Ebo
Pheralyn Dove
Ashini Desai
Nicole Davis
Tiffany Cooper
Cathleen Cohen5:00
Marion Cohen
Jose Cedillos
Steve Burke
Eugene Brown
Elizabeth Bodien
Lynn Blue
Pamela Blanding
5:30
Brandon Blake
Michele Belluomini
Peter Baroth
Catherine Bancroft
Kwame Bakari
Meredith Avakian
Silvino Alexander
Liz Abrams-Morley

2019 Philly Loves Poetry and New Voices @ PhillyCAM (Watch Live on Cable!)
2019-08-06 18:30 - 19:30 | 699 Ranstead Street, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
2019 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series at PhillyCAM
A Discussion with New Voices host Krisann Janowitz and readings by New Voices participants. New Voices: Philadelphia’s Emerging Poets program
The program is broadcast live on the first Tuesday of each month, it is free and open to everyone. Please join us and Watch live on Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia!
Krisann Janowitz, host of New Voices, is a poet. Wife. Dog owner. Philadelphian. Adventurer. Learner. Believer. Part-time political commentator. & music appreciator.
Matilda Bray (14) “Matilda’s ability to focus on one or two unifying images and mine them metaphorically is extraordinary. Matilda is a brave and gifted poet.”
– Joanne Leva, executive director of the Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program.
Elisha Gibson is a Poet, illustrator, and musician and a Lancaster resident with a passion to revel in the abstract and poetic aspects of life. He is author of Prospectives.
Spencer Nitkey (22) is an Educator, Communicator, Writer, Researcher, and Storyteller.
Jennifer Nessel (22) graduated Saint Joe’s where she received the Best Short Story award from Crimson and Gray. She explores trauma and storytelling in the age of the ‘Me Too’ movement.
Charles S. Carr, Host

Floyd Brown & Joe Roarty @ Fergie's Pub
2019-08-07 19:00 - 21:30 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ the Pub, Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Floyd Brown is a poet and hip-hop artist who was born in Wilmington, Delaware and lives in North Philadelphia.
Joe Roarty’s poetry is high octane energy, passionate intelligence, supercharged, insistent blues, jazz and heightened speech rhythms.
Sean Lynch, Host – Open Reading Follows

Poetry & Humor: Hannah McDonald, Scott Sigl, & Jonathon Todd @ Fergie's Pub
2019-08-14 19:00 - 21:30 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ the Pub – Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Poetry & Humor with Hannah McDonald, who has performed at The Bechdel Test fest, the National Poetry Slam, etc
Scott Sigl is a musician, poet, and teacher who has performed poems, as well as haikus in Boston, Charlotte, Oakland, New York,
Jonathon Todd is a poet and musician, whose work deals with observations and trying to find humanity outside of and within labor.
Aaren Perry, Host – Open Reading Follows

New Voices: Matilda Bray, Elisha Gibson, & Bella Randazzo @ Shakespeare & Co.
2019-08-18 14:00 - 17:00 | Shakespeare and Co., 1632 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ Shakespeare & Co. – 1632 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19103
New Voices: Philadelphia’s Emerging Poets
Matilda Bray (14) “Matilda’s ability to focus on one or two unifying images and mine them metaphorically is extraordinary. Matilda is a brave and gifted poet.” – Joanne Leva, executive director of the Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program.
Elisha Gibson is a Poet, illustrator, and musician and a Lancaster resident with a passion to revel in the abstract and poetic aspects of life. Out of that, he has published a collection of poems and illustrations titled Prospectives.
Bella Randazzo is a freshman at Drexel University studying Environmental Engineering, currently living in rural South Jersey. From a young age and now at 18, her passion for reaching the hearts and minds of others extends across mediums such as STEM, culinary arts, illustration, music, mental health awareness, and, most evidently, poetry and prose. With empathy and self-truth as fuel, she allows slam poetry and spoken word to be poetic vessels through which she can connect with the world in a personal yet profound way.
Host: Krisann Janowitz

'Philadelphia Says: Women Are Voting' Anthology Release & Reading @ Fergie's Pub
2019-08-18 14:00 - 17:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ the Pub – Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Philadelphia Says: Women Are Voting
For the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment (the right of women to vote)
Moonstone asks: What is the condition of women’s lives today?
Women’s right to vote was passed in 1919, What did it accomplish?
What still needs to be done?
Women vote with their feet as well as at the ballot box.
And with their pens.
Philadelphia poets respond.

Chapbook Release Party: 5 Featured Authors @ Fergie's Pub
2019-08-21 14:00 - 17:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ the Pub – Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Chapbook Release Party & Reading
Leonard Kress has published poetry and fiction in Missouri Review, Massachusetts Review, Iowa Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review among others. His recent collections are The Orpheus Complex, Walk like Bo Diddley, Living in the Candy Store, and Other Poems.
Lisa Konigsberg is a teacher and poet working and residing in the Philadelphia area. She aims to expose larger cultural truths, especially women’s realities, and her personal experience in light of human experience, using historical context as the frame.
Brooke Palma has been published in The Mad Poets’ Review, Whirlwind Magazine, and Moonstone Art and featured elsewhere. As the child of an immigrant, many of her poems focus on the connections between culture and identity and finding beauty in the everyday.
Sarah Trembath is currently on faculty in the Writing Studies Program at American University in D.C. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Everyday Feminism, Azure Literary Journal, The Santa Fe Writer’s Project Quarterly, and DCist.
Rocky Wilson is a poet, performance artist, and substitute teacher ho lives along the Delaware River in Camden. In Dance with Me, he blends his love for dance with his love of poetry..

Brother Jahi, Kyu & Barrett Rosser @ Fergie's Pub
2019-08-28 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
The Philadelphia Writing Project Presents:
Silvino J. Alexander Jr., “Brother Jahi” is an educator, poet, author, and mentor/consultant currently residing in Pennsylvania with his wife and two children. His poetry reflects the uncompromising reality of this world. Sydney Hunt Coffin has taught English, Poetry, and Art in Philadelphia, worked with the Advisory Council of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and as a poet has been published in Mad House Press, Apiary magazine, and Yale Universary Press.
Leah J. Mahoney “Kyu” is a local hip hop artist, freelance model, and spoken word poet living in Upper Darby, PA. Kyu is best known for her vivid wordplay and fiery cadence. Her mission is to be a healer and advocate for creative expression. Horace Rooney has developed programs to provide mentorship and sports related outlets and managed the summer institution. Currently, he is working towards completion of the Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership Program.
Barrett Rosser is passionate about diversity, equity, inclusiveness and maintaining a culturally relevant stance as an educator: justice for self, relational justice, and social justice drives Barrett as a human being.
Hosts: Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook

2019 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Reading Series at PhillyCAM
2019-10-01 18:30 | 699 Ranstead Street, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
(Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia.)
The program is broadcast live on the first Tuesday of each month. The program is free and open to everyone. Please join us.
The mission of Philadelphia Stories is to cultivate a community of writers, artists, and readers in the Greater Philadelphia Area through publications, professional development, and promotion.
Courtney K. Bambrick is Philadelphia Stories’ poetry editor, teaches composition creative writing, and literature at Rosemont College, Delaware County Community College, and Widener University.
Vernita Hall is the author of Where William Walked: Poems About Philadelphia and Its People of Color, The Hitchhiking Robot Learns About Philadelphians. She serves on the poetry review board of Philadelphia Stories.
Nicole Marie Mancuso is a Contest Coordinator for non-profit literary magazine Philadelphia Stories and maintains a personal blog that focuses primarily on poetry and fiction.

Charles S. Carr, Host

Moonstone Presents: Amy Jannotti, Jay Margraf, Charles Springer
2019-10-02 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Amy Jannotti lives with several small animals and a multitude of dried flowers. Her poetry and fiction has appeared in Calliope magazine, Charge! and Z Publishing House’s Pennsylvania’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Fiction.
Jay Margraf is a poet, educator, grad student, and queer transman currently living and learning in Oaklyn, NJ. His poetry provides commentary on masculinity, personal growth, and change. Jay believes that words can change the world, and he hopes his work can be a part of that.
Charles (Charley) Springer has degrees in anthropology and is an award-winning painter. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he has published in over seventy journals including The Cincinnati Review, Edison Literary Review, Faultline, Oxford Magazine, Packingtown Review, Passager, Tar River Poetry and the Windsor Review.

Sean Lynch, Host, Open Reading follows

Remembering Amiri Baraka, Book Release & Reading
2019-10-06 14:00 | Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine St
Join us in celebrating the life and work of renowned poet Amiri Baraka on his 85th birthday!
A dramatist, novelist, and poet whose career spanned over fifty years, he is one of the most respected and widely published African American writers. Poets will read their contributions to the Moonstone Chapbook, Remembering Amiri Baraka.
(Available for purchase at event, $10)
“Warriors are poets and poems and all the loveliness here in the worlds.” – Amiri Baraka

Moonstone Press: Mass Chapbook Release Event
2019-10-09 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Erin Castaldi This book conquers some commonly held beliefs by people of the simplicity and lackluster of the haiku poem.
Gregory Loselle has won awards at The University of Michigan, won The Academy of American Poets Prize, the William van Wert Fiction Award from Hidden River Arts, and The Ruby Lloyd Apsey Award for Playwriting.
Frederick Lowe has been a Pushcart nominee twice. Often collaborating with graphic artists to produce folios, broadsides, and artist books.
Gloria Nixon-John has published poetry, fiction, essays and pedagogical articles and chapters in small and mainstream presses. She is author of The Killing Jar, the story of one of the youngest Americans to serve on death row.
g emil reutter is a writer of poems and stories. He has been published widely in the small and electronic press. Eleven collections of his fiction and poetry have been published. He is a contributing editor at North of Oxford and published The Fox Chase Review. He can be found at: https://gereutter.wordpress.com/about/
Carter Vance is a writer and poet from Ottawa, Ontario. His work has appeared in The Vehicle, Contemporary Verse 2 and A Midwestern Review, among others.

Moonstone Presents: Alicia Askenase, Savannah Cooper-Ramsey, Heather H. Thomas
2019-10-13 14:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Alicia Askenase has written four poetry chapbooks, including The Luxury of Pathos (Texture Press) and Shirley Shirley (Sonaweb). She was an Editor’s Choice for the 2018 Sandy Crimmins Prize, which appears in Philadelphia Stories. Additionally, her publications include, New Works by Philadelphia Poets, The Manhattanville Review, The Big Muddy, and Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets, Second Edition, 2019, ed. Valerie Fox and Lynn Levin. She has poems forthcoming in the Painted Bride Quarterly

Savannah Cooper-Ramsey is author of Not Fit for Print, The Self and Other Jokes, and forthcoming Little Murders. She was a finalist for Philadelphia Stories` 2018 Crimmins National Prize for Poetry.

Heather H. Thomas is the author of Vortex Street, Blue Ruby, Resurrection Papers, and Practicing Amnesia. Her newest book is a bilingual selected poem, Reconocimiento / Recognition. She served a term as Berks County, PA, Poet Laureate, and her recent publications include Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice; Women’s Studies Quarterly; and Mizna: Prose, Poetry and Art Exploring Arab America.

-Charles Carr, Host, Open Reading Follows

Politics and Poetry: Patrick Rosal and Sami Miranda
2019-10-16 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Patrick Rosal, is the author of four books of poetry and the recipient of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fulbright Research Scholar Program.

Sami Miranda is a teacher, poet and visual artist. He is the author of We Is and Departure. His artwork has been exhibited in DC, New York, Madrid and Puerto Rico.

Ryan Eckes, Host — Open Reading Follows

New Voices: Philadelphia’s Emerging Poets
2019-10-20 14:00 | Shakespeare and Co., 1632 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
New Voices is a program designed for emerging poets under the age of 25. It aims to create a platform for young poets by welcoming them into the larger Philadelphia poetry collaborative and giving them the opportunity to share their work with a wide audience.

Hazel The Aura is a Poetic Artist born and raised in Philly. Through spoken word and music Hazel The Aura celebrates the voices, rhythms, and language of her neighborhood. Her debut chapbook Next Hood Over will be published by ToHo Journal at the top of 2020. If you would like to be neighbors please follow @HazelTheAura on Instagram.

Gretel Cuevas, 21, was born in Celaya, Mexico, a small city at the heart of the country and has lived in Mexico, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. She possesses a unique perspective of the world and herself, is a Political Science major at Bryn Mawr College, and an innate explorer, which has driven her interests in everything from politics to economics to social activism to fiction writing. In 2016, she co-authored her first novel, “The Century of Broken Hopes,” which was the beginning of her passion and life mission as a fiction writer. Gretel is the type of person that meditates every day, prefers espressos over cappuccinos, believes in destiny, and enjoys having long walks with good company.

Yves-Melsein Metellus, 14, is a student at Franklin Learning Center. He enjoys writing poetry to express himself and explore his emotions. Yves-Melsein also likes to play chess and he is currently training to be really good at it.

Krisann Janowitz, Host – Open Reading Follows

Moonstone Presents: Marion Cohen, Chanda Rice, Elliot Bat Tzedek
2019-10-23 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Marion Cohen’s 28th book is “The Discontinuity at the Waistline: My #MeToo Poems” (Rhythm & Bones Press, 2019), and her 29th is “The Fuss and the Fury” (Alien Buddha Press, NM, 2019.)

Chanda Rice (also known as Muffy) has been a writer all her life, but her half-sister would expose her children before their birth and so she hid them. She met Rachel Wenrick, who allowed her to find herself, organize her kids and give them a voice.

Elliott Bat Tzedek is a poet, translator, liturgist and bookseller. Her chapbook “The Enkindled Coal of my Tongue” was published by Wicked Banshee, and her work has been published in American Poetry Review, Massachusetts Review and others.

Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Moonstone Present: Olga Livshin
2019-10-24 18:30 | Shakespeare and Co., 1632 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Original poetry by the Russian-American poet Olga Livshin, alongside her translations of Russian poetry by Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) and Vladimir Gandelsman (b. 1948). Foreword by Ilya Kaminsky.
“Olga Livshin has braided her own poems with her superb translations of Akhmatova and Gandelsman, poets she describes as “ecstatic voices.” Livshin’s voice, too, is ecstatic–and unflinching, and loving, and full of earned wisdom. In poem after poem, Livshin, who immigrated to the US from Russia as a child, acknowledges the two Americas she knows firsthand: the one that fears and demonizes, and the one that welcomes. A Life Replaced is astonishingly beautiful, intelligent, and important.” Maggie Smith

-Charles S. Carr, Host

Al-Bustan Presents: Natalie Handal
2019-10-30 18:00 | Slought Gallary, 4017 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
(co-sponsored by the Moonstone Arts Center)
Natalie Handal is an author and professor at Columbia University. She draws on her diverse and multicultural background for her work. Life in a Country Album speaks on borders and citizenship, hybrid identities and home, freedom and pleasure.
