Moonstone Arts Center

Live Poetry: Nathalie Anderson, Steve Burke, Cassie MacDonald
2024-03-27 19:00 (America/New_York) | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Join us for Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom!
Nathalie Anderson, author of Rough, Following Fred Astaire, Crawlers, Quiver, Stain, and Held and Firmly Bound, collaborated in with artist Susan Hagen and poet Lisa Sewell on Birds of North America. Anderson’s poems have appeared in many journals, manages the list-serv Lit-Philly. Steve Burke lives in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia; worked for many years as a labor & delivery nurse. He’s read in many venues around the Philly area; has two Moonstone-published chapbooks – After the Harvest & For Now – plus another, Small Answers, forthcoming. Cassie MacDonald served as Hearthkeeper of Brigid’s House, where she welcomed writers and other artists with wide-open creative space and loving encouragement. Cassie was also a founder and the first Director of Camden FireWorks, an arts destination serving the community with gallery space, studios, and workshops. Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook Hosts, Open Reading Follows.
Register for Zoom

Hearing Women's Voices: Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Michelle Myers, & Kimmika L.H Williams-Witherspoon
2024-03-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Barnes and Noble 1708 Chesnut St., 1708 Chesnut Street., Phildelphia, PA, 19122, United States
Join us for Live Poetry at Barnes and Noble!
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach is the author of three poetry collections: 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. She is an Assistant Professor of English/Creative Writing at Denison University. Michelle Myers is an award-winning poet and educator. Appearing on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam as a founding member of Yellow Rage, Michelle harnesses her experiences as a biracial Korean American woman to create work that raises awareness and builds community. Her writing has been published in Apiary, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Title Magazine, Brevity, and USA Today. Michelle received a 2024 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, awards from the Leeway Foundation, Loft Literary Center, Asian Arts Initiative, Japanese American National Museum, and Dodge Poetry Program. Michelle’s CCPTV show Drop the Mic has been nominated for six Emmys. Michelle’s poetry was featured in Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now as well as My Life: Growing Up Asian in America. Michelle’s TEDx Talk Let Hearts Love. Let Hearts Live (TEDx YouTube Channel, December 2023) and she hosts a podcast called Mind Your Margins, which is produced by her daughter, Myong. Kimmika L.H. Williams-Witherspoon has been a force in the spoken word/poetry scene for decades. This new release (You Gotta Have Game) from Boyer College of Music and Dance is Williams-Witherspoon at her best. The poet tells us: “I am the crack of morning, Light in the shadow of dark” – In this beautiful collection of poetic text with instrumental accompaniment Williams-Witherspoon brings us through the struggle of life, always the light in the shadow of dark. No matter how hard the journey, no matter the roadblocks placed, Williams-Witherspoon offers hope in endurance. The poem” By g emil reutter. “Life is a journey—not just a trip with destinations and an expiration date! Traveling is an action AND a process. These are the pieces that fill my heart and remind me to greet each day glad to be alive.” —Kimmika L. H. Williams-Witherspoon

Poetry Reading: Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate Finalists
2024-04-02 17:00 | The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Moonstone Arts Center and the Literature Department of The Free Liberty of Philadelphia Present: Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate Finalists
The Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate Program is designed to award a young poet (14-18) the title of Youth Poet Laureate who is well versed in poetic expression, exemplifies a deep understanding of poetic language, exhibits uniqueness and newness, and shows appreciation for all art forms.
Featuring Sofia Bagarazzi, Maya Brothers, Sophia Hall, Emi Maeda, Samrithaa H.V.
Sofia Bagarazzi is a sophomore at Friends’ Central School. She plays a multitude of sports and is involved with BSA and Girl Scouts. She loves to read, write, cook, and play with her dog and cats! Maya Brothers is a sophomore at Friends’ Central School, captain of the Debate Tea, a competitive cyclist and she loves to weightlift. In her free time, she writes poetry, draws & paints, and participates in mock trial.Sophia Hall lives a double life: eighteen-year-old poet by day, secret agent by night. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the Library of Congress, and Button Poetry. Emi Maeda is a Junior at The Baldwin School. Her work has appeared in the NY Seikatsu Newspaper, The Rising Phoenix Review, The Kenyon Young Writer’s Anthology, and more, and she is the first-place winner of the Charlotte Miller Poetry Contest. Samrithaa H.V. is a freshman at Methacton Senior High School, currently a writer and editor for Element, a superior Literary Arts Magazine and certified staff writer for her school newspaper, The Windy Hill.
王潇/Evan Wang is the first Youth Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and is judge and host of this reading

Virtual Poetry: Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM with Brain Tierney
2024-04-02 18:30
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM
Can be viewed on the Phillycam website Or Cable 6/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 In Philadelphia.
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Brian Tierney is the author of Rise and Float, winner of the 20-2021 Jake Adam York Prize. His poetry and prose have appeared in such journals as Paris Review, Kenyon Review, AGNI, NER, The Adroit Journal, and others. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and a graduate of the Bennington College MFA Writing Seminars, he was named among Narrative Magazine’s 2013 “30 Below 30” emerging writers, and is winner of the 2018 George Bogin Memorial Award from The Poetry Society of America. Raised in Philadelphia, he lives in Oakland, Ca., where he teaches poetry at The Writing Salon.
Charles S. Carr, Host

Live Poetry: Anuradha Bhowmik, Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, Jess Yuan
2024-04-03 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Join us for a poetry reading, live at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom!
Anuradha Bhowmik is a Bangladeshi-American poet and writer from South Jersey, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize for her first collection Brown Girl Chromatography, a Kundiman Fellow and a 2018 AWP Intro Journals Project Winner in Poetry. Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, a native Philadelphian, is the author 8 books, the latest of which is Blues, Prayers, & Pagan Chant. She has been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Many Mountains Moving, Philadelphia Stories. Jess Yuan is a poet, educator, and architect, author of the Slow Render, winner of the Airlie Prize, and Threshold Amnesia, winner of the Yemassee Chapbook Contest, her poems appear in Best New Poets, Tupelo Quarterly Review, jubilat, and elsewhere.
Register for zoom

Live Poetry: Ona Gritz, Alina Macneal, Zack Rogow
2024-04-09 17:30 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Join us for Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom!
Ona Gritz writes memoir, essays, and poetry for adults, verse novels for teens, and fiction for children, her poetry collection Geode was a finalist for the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. Zack Rogow is an American poet, playwright, translator, and critic. He is the author of nine books of poetry, including Irreverent Litanies; Talking with the Radio: poems inspired by jazz and popular music, and My Mother and the Ceiling Dancers. He has taught in several MFA creative writing programs and serves as a contributing editor of Catamaran Literary Reader. Daniel Simpson has appeared in Prairie Schooner, the Cortland review, and many other journals, and works as a technical support specialist for the Library of Congress’s braille and audio book download service for the print-impaired.
Register for Zoom

Live Poetry: zach blackwood, Faye Chevalier, Violet Gehringer
2024-04-10 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Join us for Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom!
zach blackwood is a poet and culture writer in philadelphia, author of ultra-fine and the apocryphal chapbook sexy unique hollow point. Faye Chevalier is a Philadelphia-based creatur, lurking. She is the author of futur.txt and flesh_wound, her poetry has been featured in bedfellows, The Wanderer, Peach Mag, Yes Poetry, the tiny, & elsewhere, & she serves as a editor for Voicemail Poems. Violet Gehringer’s work has appeared in Vice, them., Barrelhouse, and elsewhere. Her first book of poems, i love you it looks like rain, was published by Be About It in 2017. She lives in Philadelphia with her cat, Noodle.
Amy Saul-Zerby, Host – open reading follows
Register for Zoom

Live Poetry: Matt Lake, Jon Lawrence, Hannah McDonald
2024-04-17 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Join us for Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom!
Matt Lake is frankly baffled, he began writing and editing books about folklore, monsters, and dark history–including his best-known book Weird Pennsylvania. Jon Lawrence poetry and reviews have been published in Newfound, American Writers Review, The Bangalore Review, and others. Hannah McDonald is a writer, poet, geek, and generally funny queer woman. Her writing has appeared in Apiary, The Legendary, and Dreamstreets. Hannah writes fan-fiction, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Sean Hanrahan, Host – Open Reading Follows
Register for Zoom

Virtual Poetry: International Haiku Day
2024-04-21 14:00 - 17:00
International Haiku Poetry Day (April 17) was started in 2007 and later taken on by The Haiku Foundation in celebration of National Poetry Month.
According to The Haiku Foundation, the haiku is an ancient and undefinable-in-English form of Japanese poetry. At its most basic, it is three lines, the first with five syllables, the second with seven and the third with five. Write us a Haiku.
“Haiku are short imagistic poems about things that make the reader feel connected to nature.”
— William J. Higginson (1938-2008), in his essay “Guidelines for Writing Haiku in English.”
Register for Zoom

Live Poetry: Warren C. Longmire, Kirwya Sutherland
2024-04-24 19:00
Join us for Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom!
Warren C. Longmire, author of Bird/Diz, is an uncle, writer, performer and educator from the bad part of North Philadelphia. He is the host of House Poet: A Spoken Word Dance Party and mix_lit. Kirwyn Sutherland makes poems centering the black experience in America, whose work has been published in American Poetry Review, APIARY Magazine, FOLDER, The Wanderer and elsewhere.
Register for Zoom

Live Poetry: Save Chinatown Anthology Reading
2024-04-30 17:30 | Independence Library, 18 S. 7th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Join us for Live Poetry at Independence Library and on Zoom!
For 150 years, Philadelphia’s Chinatown has been the cultural heart of Philly’s Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and our community is worth fighting for. Chinatown has been the place where we share community, culture, and language. It is where generations of immigrants have found home. It is where folks who don’t speak English can easily navigate and find community, and at a time of rising anti-Asian hate, Chinatown is where we are safe. Chinatown is one of the few remaining communities of color and low-income communities in Center City, and one of few authentic Chinatowns left in the country. The Save Chinatown Coalition includes: Pennsylvania United Chinese Coalition, Philadelphia Chinatown Dragon Boat Team, Asian Americans United, Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School, Chinese Restaurant Association of Greater Philadelphia, Concerned Citizens of Chinatown Association, Philadelphia Suns, and Asian Arts Initiative. Join us as people respond in poetry to the fight to preserve neighborhoods, preserve culture, and against displacement or gentrification
Register for Zoom

Virtual Poetry: 2024 Chapbook Reading Contest
2024-04-30 19:00
Join us for Virtual Poetry on Zoom!

Guy D’Annolfo, winner, poems have been published by Mantis (2024), Schuylkill Valley Journal (2023), Paperbark (2023), and Chestnut Review (2022). When not at work, or kindling a love of Natural History with his son, or accidentally disrupting peace in a Satipaṭṭhāna class, he’s likely to be found reading and writing.
Sheleen McElhinney, runner-up, is a poet, baker, robot maker living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with her family. Her work has appeared in Whiskey Island Magazine and Dogzplot. Her debut book, Every Little Vanishing, will be released this October with Write Bloody Publishing.
Finalists
Cathleen Cohen was the 2019 Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, PA. A painter and teacher, she founded the We the Poets program at ArtWell, an arts education non-profit in Philadelphia. Cathleen holds a PhD in Special Education has led various workshops and classes on poetry, art and literacy. Her writing appears in journals, anthologies and three collections of poetry. Cathleen received the Interfaith Relations Award and the Public Service Award .
John DiMenna was released from federal prison in May 2020. Since then, he has completed a collection of prose poems titled A DIFFERENT KIND OF HELL, a hybrid form of memoir IN SEARCH OF MYSELF, and is currently writing a long-form memoir titled WHITE COLLAR ELEGY. Selections from the above have been published in several literary journals. He resides on the east coast of Florida with his wife of fifty-two years and writes full-time.
Tyler Dunston is a poet, visual artist, and PhD candidate at the University of Michigan studying literature. He received his MFA in poetry from Boston University, and his poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Narrative, Nimrod International, Raleigh Review, and elsewhere.
Alexandra McIntosh, author of Bowlfuls of Blue, lives and writes in Kentucky, her favorite place on Earth. Her writing explores memory, both personal and communal, and its connection to the natural world. In August of 2019, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Miami University as well as her MA in English from Northern Kentucky University. She is currently teaching college English and working on her next book: a memoir about family stories and the mental landscapes they inhabit.
Lynn Levin, Judge and Host, is a poet and writer, author of nine books, teaches writing and literature at Drexel University and lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Register for Zoom!

Live Poetry: Leeway Foundation Poets
2024-05-01 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom.
Nzadi Keita’s new poetry collection, Migration Letters, centers her upbringing in Black working-class Philadelphia. Pat McLean-Smith is a female word artist dedicated to the writing, reciting and powerful performance of poetry. Debra Powell-Wright has been a performance poet for the past 25+ years and has been published in numerous anthologies, including a tribute to the legacy of Nina Simone. Nikki Powerhouse uses performance and literary art to create a space for collective healing and transformation within communities.
Link for Zoom:

Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCam: Ahmad Almallah, Huda Fakhreddine
2024-05-07 18:30
Can be viewed on the Phillycam website Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 In Philadelphia.
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Ahmad Almallah is a poet from Palestine and an artist-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Border Wisdom and Bitter.
Huda Fakhreddine’s work focuses on modernist movements or trends in Arabic poetry and their relationship to the Arabic literary tradition.
Charles S. Carr, Host

Book Release - James Feichthaler - Live Poetry
2024-05-08 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub and on Zoom
Join us in celebrating the release of poet James Feichthaler’s new book From the Back Porch of a War (Parnilis Media). A short reading will be followed by a book signing.
James Feichthaler is a poet with roots in the Philadelphia-area residing in Trenton, NJ, where he watches the skies for UFOs, sings Irish folk songs on his porch, and drinks beers. From the Back Porch of a War pulls no punches in its assessment of a politically-divided America seemingly at war with itself, searching for moral integrity in a hashtag-hardened, spiritually-bankrupt world.
Link for Zoom

Virtual Poetry - New Voices Spring 2024
2024-05-12 14:00
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 - Pink Trees Press
2024-05-20 17:30 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry at Fergie’s Pub
Pink Trees Press began in 2012 in New York City, publishing small batches of handmade, hand-sewn books. In 2019, Pink Trees Press started producing Origami Books. The simplicity and low cost of these books, allowed Pink Trees Press to reach a larger audience. In 2020, Pink Trees Press began producing mass-marketed books. The press continues to grow publishing memoirs and poetry collections. They are active in the poetry community curating readings across the nation. They are thrilled to read at Fergie’s today.
With: MADELINE ARTENBURG, PAULINE FINDLAY, PHILLIP GIAMBRI, LINDA, RON KOLM, JANE LECROY, AMY BARONE, RANDI HOFFMAN, and C.O. MOED
Zoom Link

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

Live Poetry: Anisha Bhat, Lester Mobley, Joe Roarty & Pat Rodgers
2024-07-24 19:00 - 20:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday July 24, 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/tZ0pduqgrDwsGdJz84QTuvTvY7eeqbamGw7V
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.
Lester Norman Mobley was born on Long Island New York before moving
to Philadelphia at the age of 18 where he has remained ever since. He is a
retired union construction worker who has dabbled on and off with poetry as
far back to elementary school. His favorite poets whose style he attempts to
emulate in his writing are Charles Bukowski and Walt Whitman. Everyone
else, as he would always maintain, remain respectfully peripheral.
Joe Roarty won Moonstone’s first chapbook contest in 2015 for
Moritat, German for "street ballad." Poetry of high-octane energy,
passionate intelligence, supercharged, insistent blues, jazz &
heightened speech rhythms. His chapbook Showtunes was published
in 2023 by Iniquity Press.
Pat Rodgers is a poet based in West Philadelphia. His published work can be
found in Neptune and several Moonstone anthologies. Recall is the title of
his first chapbook
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook Hosts, Open Reading Follows

Black Fire This Time @ Barnes & Noble
2024-07-28 15:30 - 16:30 | Barnes and Noble 1708 Chesnut St., 1708 Chesnut Street., Phildelphia, PA, 19122, United States
In this follow-up volume in the Black Fire—This Time series, over seventy-five poets
and writers come together on the ongoing theme of "Black is Beautiful, Black is
Powerful, Black is Home." Works ranging from poetry, fiction, essays, and drama cover
a wide range of Black literature. This "continuum" of writing, as coined by Volume 1
editor Kim McMillon, brings together legends of the Black Arts era with contemporary
writers in the tradition. This edition includes a hallmark work from the Black Arts era,
We Own the Night by playwright and one of the last living legends Jimmy Garrett.
Volume 2 of Black Fire—This Time will educate and inspire the next generation.
Keisha-Gaye Anderson is a Jamaican-born poet, author, and visual artist based in Brooklyn whose
books include A Spell for Living, Everything Is Necessary, and Gathering the Waters. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have been widely published in national literary journals, magazines, and anthologies.
Raheem Curry is a writer out of Kensington, Philadelphia. He is inspired by James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Etheridge Knight, and Huey Newton. He hopes his writings does what writings did for him: changed the trajectory of his life. He is in the works of publishing his second book.
Cole Eubanks of Mays Landing NJ is retired as an educator from the Philadelphia and Atlantic City School Districts. He is Pushcart nominated and his work can be found in Sugar House Review, Poems from the Pandemic Years, The Journal of Baha’i Studies, Shamrock, MiGoZine.
Theodore A. Harris is a Philadelphia-based visual artist and poet, whose work has been exhibited internationally. He is the co-founder of the Anti-Graffiti Network/Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and is the Founding Artistic Director of The Institute for Advanced Study in Black Aesthetics
Everett Hoagland is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, was the first poet laureate of New Bedford, MA, his work has appeared in numerous anthologies and several books, including …Here…: New and Selected Poems and Encounters: Poems about Race, Ethnicity, and Identity.
Chantal James lives in Washington, DC, and has been published across genres—as a poet, fiction writer, essayist, and book reviewer—in such venues as Catapult, Paste Magazine, Harvard’s Transition Magazine, The Bitter Southerner, and more. Her honors include a Fulbright fellowship in creative writing to Morocco.
Ewuare X. Osayande is the author of several books including Our Breath is the Whisper of Our Ancestors' Defiance: The Poetry Anthology (1993-2023) and Blood Luxury (introduction by Amiri Baraka). A former professor of African American Studies at Rutgers University, he is the founding editor of The Poetariat.
Elijah B Pringle, III is a Philadelphia born writer who has to his credit experience in Radio, TV, Stage and Film, has worked as a dancer, choreographer, actor, director, and vocalist. He is a much sought-after workshop facilitator for writing and performance. Mr. Pringle has been published globally in almost fifty anthologies.

Live Poetry: Lars Scott & De'vine Stylez
2024-07-31 19:00 - 20:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday July 31, 2024 – 7pm

Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom
Use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtcOGhrTktGNNSwztFI2s61EfLKH6m_G23
Lars Scott is a musician from Philadelphia. Lars began their musical
journey in high school, performing folk songs at local open mics and
coffee shops. After graduating from Temple University, they released
their first single, The Sand Song, in 2017. Spending time amongst
singers and songwriters in Philly’s rich music scene pushed Lars to
develop their sound, as they moved away from straightforward, folkier
tunes and incorporated vocal loops and beats into their songs. Lars’s
new project incorporates both past and present musical inclinations.
With smooth melodies and swirling harmonies, Lars enchants listeners
with their rich and chilling voice. Reminiscent of summer nights, their
music will beckon you back to blissful memories with its dreamy style and compelling rhythm.
Lars moves past genre, blending the beauty of musical traditions to create a style all their own.
Shadeia De'vine Wilson (Pen name: De'vine Stylez) has been writing
poetry since she was 14yr old based on her life experiences &
environment She has performed at some of the best venues in Philly
such as the harvest, Voices in Power Her recent pieces written in the
last 5/7 years are drawn from her need to help people be open about
sexual freedom, exploration and being more in tune with their erotic
selves, while owning her own sexual awareness & power, coupled
with using the mic the heal from past traumaA Co-owner of a all
female poetry collective called THEE INSIGHT, that curates
educational immersive experiences in Philadelphia and surrounding
areas. These experiences are based on Mental health awareness and
bridges the gap in the urban community and all genders. She is currently working on a poetry
album to be release the end of Sept 2024
Sean Hanahan Host, Open Reading Follows

Philly Loves Poetry: Interview and Readings Series Live Broadcast
2024-08-06 18:30 - 19:30
Can be viewed on the Phillycam website or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 In Philadelphia.
James Feichthaler is a poet with roots in the Philadelphia-area residing in Trenton, NJ, where he watches the skies for UFOs, sings Irish folk songs on his porch, and drinks beers. He was the host of an open mic reading series called The Dead Bards of Philadelphia for over ten years. His new book From the Back Porch of a War pulls no punches in its assessment of a politically-divided America seemingly at war with itself, searching for moral integrity in a hashtag-hardened, spiritually-bankrupt world.
Charles S. Carr, Host

Live Poetry: Sojourner Ahebee, Mac Chandler & Mikey Franz
2024-08-07 19:00 - 20:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAlfuuorz0jHd3WfQPtz1CyOTxW_SzKHruq
Sojourner Ahebee, author of Belly of the Night, 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, The Academy of American Poets (Poem A Day), 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.
Mac Chandler is a graduate of The University of the Arts and a proud West Philly resident. She has been published in some places and has done like a lot of cool literary things you’ve probably never heard of. Mostly, she loves to write poetry and fiction, and involve herself in the beautiful Philly writing scene.
Mikey Franz is a writer & composer from the Philadelphia area who uses his work to explore the relationship between music & language. His debut chapbook, Terrestrial Sanctuaries was published by Moonstone last year & you can typically find him performing at various open mics throughout the Philadelphia area.
