Moonstone Arts Center

Live Poetry: Julia Kolchinsky's PARALLAX
2025-04-12 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147, United States
April 12, 2025 – 7pm EDT- LIVE
Live at Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine Street
Join us as we celebrate the release of Julia Kolchinsky’s new book PARALLAX
Julia Kolchinsky’s Parallax offers a lyrical narrative of parenting a neurodiverse child under the shadow of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the poet’s birthplace. As her child expresses a fascination with death and violence, Kolchinsky struggles to process the war unfolding far away, on the same soil where so many of her ancestors perished during the Holocaust. Julia Kolchinsky is the author of PARALLAX, 40, Don’t Touch the Bones, and The Many Names for Mother.
Julia will be joined by these terrific poets: Sarah Browning, Steven Kleinman, Olgq Livshin, and Artress Bethany White

Live Poetry: E. Lynn Alexander, Peter Baroth, Julia Gwiazdowski, and George Schaefer
2025-04-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 16, 2025 – 7:00pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
E. Lynn Alexander is an artist, poet, and “crazy cat lady” from the Lehigh Valley. She is a partnering artist and writer in the Perspectives: Art on Environment project at the Nurture Nature Center.
Peter Baroth, author of Long Green and Lost Autograph is a writer, artist, and musician. He has been published in Philadelphia Poets, Red Fez, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Apiary, and others.
Julia Gwiazdowski is a poet, musician, zine maker, and the resident Sappho of Philadelphia, author of 31 Days of Venus Aphrodite, illustrated and formatted by dear friend and collaborator, Jesse Arbor.
George Schaefer is a Philly born poet, philosopher and prankster. He started writing over 4 decades ago in an attempt to make some sense of this crazy world. All these years later, he’s as confused as ever but still clinging to the belief that the word can lead to wisdom.
Sean Hanrahan Hosts – Open Reading Follows

International Haiku Poetry Day
2025-04-20 14:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
Sunday April 20, 2025 – 2pm EDT – VIRTUAL
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/0vQ-qLRCTqaki87Hoxes8A
International Haiku Poetry Day (April 17) was started in 2007 and later taken on by The Haiku Foundation in celebration of National Poetry Month (April). 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.

Live Poetry: Thomas Devaney, Sean Lynch, and Kim Gek Lin Short
2025-04-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 23, 2025 – 7:00pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Thomas Devaney is a poet, facilitator, educator and author of Getting to Philadelphia and You Are the Battery. His work is featured in Best American Poetry 2019.
Sean Lynch, author of five, has been the editor of various magazines, journals, anthologies, and books, and is the Founding Editor of Serotonin Press.
Kim Gek Lin Short is the author of China Cowboy and The Bugging Watch & Other Exhibits. Her poems and stories appear in numerous anthologies. With Ryan Eckes, she runs Radiator Press.
Anne-Adele Wight Hosts, Open Reading Follows

World Press Freedom Day
2025-05-04 00:00 - 23:59 | Virtual
Sunday May 4, 2025 – VIRTUAL – World Press Freedom Day
The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day or just World Press Day, observed to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in Windhoek in 1991. Send us a poem.

Live Poetry: Sarah Browning, W.D. Ehrhart, Jack Miller
2025-05-05 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Reading Series
2025-05-06 18:30 - 19:30
Tuesday May 6, 2025 – 6:30pm – Live Broadcast
On the Phillycam website or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 – Philly
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
David Kertis, author of Word of the Day. was born in 1955 and grew up in northern New Jersey. He attended Oberlin College where he studied creative writing with David Young, and has lived in Philadelphia since 1978. He is married and works as a claims adjuster. In Philadelphia, he has studied with Leonard Gontarek and Eleanor Wilner. He has been published on line in Frigate and Apiary and given a number of readings in the Philadelphia area. His book, Word of the Day, has recently been published. Charles S. Carr, Host

Live Poetry: Grace Bauer, Majorie Maddox, Amy Small-McKinney
2025-05-07 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday May 7, 2025 — 7:00 pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Grace Bauer is a Philadelphia-based poet who has published six books of poems—most recently Unholy Heart: New and Selected Poems (Backwaters Press).
Marjorie Maddox is a Professor of English at Lock Haven University as well as an author who has published 17 collections of poetry among other works.
Amy Small-McKinney is the author of two full-length books and three chapbooks. Her newest chapbook, One Day I Am A Field, was published by Glass Lyre Press (April,2022). She resides in Philadelphia.
Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

2024 Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners
2025-05-11 14:00
Sunday May 11, 2025 – 2:00 pm – VIRTUAL On Zoom – 2024 Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/VJprZxhkRxGtL6tgxl7bkA
First Prize – Partridge Boswell, author of Heckler, poems appear in Poetry, American Poetry Review and Poetry Ireland Review. Co-founder of Bookstock Literary Festival, he troubadours widely with the poetry/music group Los Lorcas
Honorable Mentions
Shaina Clingempeel, author of in the homes that house my history, is a Philadelphia-based poet and the owner of a small book editing business (Cypress Editorial) and literary magazine (Cypress Review).
Dayle Olson, author of From the Dead Letter Department, was a Northwest Voices guest writer at Lower Columbia College and winner of the Oregon Poetry Association’s first prize for prose in 2024.
Martha Brenckle, author of Inside a Snow Globe is Professor at the University of Central Florida in the Writing and Rhetoric Department and an affiliated faculty in Women and Gender Studies and Text and Technologies, a transdisciplinary PhD Program.
Jacqueline Jewell, author of Lady Arab, is a poet, college professor, EMMY Award-winning journalist, mother, and activist. A Philadelphia area native and proud daughter of an immigrant, Jacqueline uses her poetry to amplify underrepresented and discounted voices.
Host & Judge – Nathalie Anderson is a poet and librettist, who manages the lit-philly listserv for literary events in the Philadelphia area. She has recently retired from Swarthmore College, where she served as a Professor of English Literature, and directed the Program in Creative Writing

Live Poetry: Sarah Browning, W.D. Ehrhart, Jack Miller
2025-05-14 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Sarah Browning is the author of Call Me Yes, Killing Summer, and others, co-host of Wild Indigo Poetry, and teaches online with Writers in Progress. W. D. Ehrhart’s most recent books are Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems; What We Can and Can’t Afford: Essays on Vietnam, Patriotism, and American Life, and At Smedley Butler’s Grave. Jack Miller, author of Habit: Seven Decades of Poems is a former English teacher who retired after a long career at Ocean City High School. Open Reading Follows

New Voices: Live at Parkway Central Library
2025-05-15 17:30 | Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine St
New Voices: Spring 2025
A series for emerging poets between the ages of 10 and 25. A bi-annual publication which strives to bring together younger poets from various communities.
Join us as contributors read their poems
Thursday May 15th, 2025 – If you live near Philadelphia please join us live
LIVE at 5:30 EDT – Central Library, 1901 Vine St.

New Voices: Virtual Reading on Zoom
2025-05-17 14:00
New Voices: Spring 2025
A series for emerging poets between the ages of 10 and 25. A bi-annual publication which strives to bring together younger poets from various communities.
Join us as contributors read their poems
Saturday May 17th, 2025 – No matter where you live, please join us virtually
VIRTUAL at 2pm EDT on Zoom

29th Annual Poetry Ink: LIVE at the Rotunda
2025-05-18 14:00 | The Rotunda, 14014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
29th Annual Poetry Ink
We want everyone: 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.
Join us for our 29th year of presenting 71 poets reading in alphabetical order
Sunday May 18, 2025 – If you live near Philadelphia please join us live
LIVE at 2:00pm EDT

29th Annual Poetry Ink: Virtual Reading
2025-05-19 19:00
29th Annual Poetry Ink
We want everyone: 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.
Join us for our 29th year of presenting 71 poets reading in alphabetical order
Monday May 19, 2025 – No matter where you live, please join us virtually
VIRTUAL at 7:00pm EDT on Zoom

Support Ukraine
2025-05-25 14:00 - 17:00 | virtual
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified over 12,600 civilian deaths as of January 2025. The war has resulted in a humanitarian crisis, as thousands of Ukrainians were internally displaced or fled abroad. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million have fled the country, creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
Join as poets respond!

Book launch for Jane-Rebecca Cannarella's Long Island Sad Poems(Serotonin Press)
2025-05-25 17:00 | Sueño Restaurant, 114 S 12th St, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Jane-Rebecca Cannarella is a writer and editor living in West Philadelphia. She edits HOOT Review, a magazine published on postcards, Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit, a broadside press, and was an editor for Lunch Ticket from 2015 to 2017.
Krystle Griffin is an Aquarian alien who emerged from the depths of the Delaware River. A writer, actor, artist, and Swiss army knife of all trades, trying to spin brain bees and nightmares into something shiny. Anne-Adele Wight is the author of An Internet of Containment, The Age of Greenhouses, Opera House Arterial, and Sidestep Catapult. Sean Lynch Host – Open Reading Follows

Poetry Reading by Love McTiernan, Myles Matunis, Adiah Siler
2025-05-28 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Love McTiernan feels an obsession with the natural world and thus tends to write about clouds, trees, and Earth’s other unknown beasts.
Myles Matunis work has been published by Expat Press and the Bitchin Kitsch, featured on public radio, and nominated for the Best of the Net.
Adiah Siler is an east coaster through and through and so excited to be back in Philly for the show. Mac Chandler Host, Open Reading Follows

Philly Lingo: Speaking Our Tongues, Sharp and Sweet Workshop
2025-06-01 14:00 - 17:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Come and join us in a plurilingual workshop
Where all the languages in your head are welcome. We will listen to each other, share words and ideas, read and make poems. This workshop will explore the crossing of borders both linguistic and political and the spaces between, rooted in a trauma informed, anti-racist pedagogy and will be facilitated by:
Carole Metellus is a Haitian-American writer, cultural worker long-time activist starting with Indigenous rights, to Women’s, GLBTQ, immigration, and peace and justice issues, she manifests her passion currently in her writing. Fióna Bolger is an Irish poet, mentor and creative facilitator, author of Love in the Original Language and a compound of word. Her facilitation and creative practice are polyvocal, plurilingual and co-operative. She welcomes all languages and works to create language sharing, poetry making spaces. Free and open to Everyone

A Mamafesta for Hearts and Minds Workshop - LIVE
2025-06-02 17:00 - 19:00 | Sueño Restaurant, 114 S 12th St, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
In the circle of all those who have struggled in their bedrooms or in the boardroom, in the courtroom or in the open fields, who have bellowed songs of endurance and stomped their feet in joyful defiance for brighter futures, Carole Metellus and Fióna Bolger invite us to renew our mandate to struggle and joy. Participants are invited to bring their words of resistance and to pen their sustenance to self, to community, and to nature that calls them home.We will share our ideas, listen to the words of the wise ones, and craft our mamafestas for a healing existence in these times of human distress. We hope you can join us, facilitated by:
Carole Metellus is a Haitian-American writer, cultural worker long-time activist starting with Indigenous rights, to Women’s, GLBTQ, immigration, and peace and justice issues, she manifests her passion currently in her writing. Fióna Bolger is an Irish poet, mentor and creative facilitatorShe welcomes all languages and works to create language sharing, poetry making spaces. See also: A. Stepien, Migrant Voices in the Plurilingual Poetry and Creative Practice of Fióna Bolger. ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries, 2024, Vol. 21, No. 2.
Free and open to Everyone

Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series - Live Broadcast
2025-06-03 18:30 - 20:00 | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAMCan be viewed on the Phillycam website or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 In Philadelphia.
Fióna Bolger is an Irish poet, mentor and creative facilitator, author of Love in the Original Language and a compound of word, co-editor of KIN: Anthology of Roma, Traveller and Nomadic Women’s Writing. Her facilitation and creative practice are polyvocal, plurilingual and co-operative. She welcomes all languages and works to create language sharing, poetry making spaces. Charles S. Carr, Host

Poets From Around the World - LIVE
2025-06-04 19:00 - 22:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Asia – Katherine Sarwopeni Antarikso is an architect, artist, and activist was born in Jakarta.Western Europe – Fióna Bolger is a poet, mentor, creative facilitator from Ireland. Middle East – Faleeha Hassan was born and raised in Najaf, Iraq, she was the first woman in Najaf to publish a book of. Eastern Europe – Alina Macneal is a Philadelphia based educator, writer, poet, translator, architect, born in Poland.
Caribbean – Carole Metellus is a Haitian-American writer, cultural worker, and performer from the East Coast of the United States.

S/He Speaks 3: Voices of Women and Trans Folx - LIVE
2025-06-07 13:00 - 16:00 | The Rotunda, 14014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Women, trans and nonbinary writers are invited to contribute to the 2025 edition of S/He Speaks anthology and to participate in an event at The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania on June 7, 2025. The anthology will contain poetry, essays and stories by writers who are either women, trans or non-binary identified.

S/He Speaks 3: Voices of Women and Trans Folx
2025-06-07 13:00 - 17:00 | The Rotunda, 14014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States

Poetry Readings by Courtney Bambrick, Micheal Angelo Abreu, Aja Beech, Rhianna Searle, and Olga Livshin - LIVE
2025-06-08 14:00 - 17:00
Courtney Bambrick author of World Without was poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories 2010-2024. She teaches writing at Thomas Jefferson University’s East Falls campus in Philadelphia. Her own poems appear in Landlocked Magazine, Pinhole Poetry, Thimble, Invisible City, and more.
Michael Angelo Abreu, author of Gemini, is a leaf. He takes frequent walks through the Wissahickon woods, musing about life and its many particulars, such as love, happiness, suffering, and spiritual growth. Aja Beech, author of Blood/Magic, is an artist, author, and organizer who uses her art to address systemic issues related to equity for people of all abilities. Rhianna Searle, author of Hope is Shades of Purple, is the 2023 Bucks County High School Poet of the Year. She is 20-years-old and currently attends Haverford College. Olga Livshin, author of A Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman and the co-translator of Today is a Different War by the Ukrainian poet Lyudmyla Khersonska, grew up in Ukraine and Russia and came to the US as a teenager.

The Beast in the Pines: A Horror Novel Launch Party
2025-06-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
The Beast in the Pines: A Horror Novel – Launch Party
Wednesday June 11, 2025 – 7pm
Live at Ferge’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
In October of 2003, a 19 year old named Cody considers joining the Army to fight in the Iraq War so that he can escape the boredom of small town Woodville, New Jersey. He finds a mysterious book that a strange man leaves behind at his mother’s job. The book is about the Jersey Devil, a legendary demonic creature that haunts the Pine Barrens, a desolate wilderness that spans the middle of the state. The book inspires Cody to explore the Pine Barrens in search of the Jersey Devil. What he ends up finding changes his perception of reality. The Beast in the Pines is a disturbing novel that delves deep into the human psyche and bridges the gap between the psychological and supernatural horror genres.
Sean W. Lynch is a writer and editor who lives in Philadelphia. He is the author of five books of poetry including, the city of your mind, Broad Street Line, 100 Haiku, On Violence, and Halo Nest: Poems on Grief. He has been the editor of various magazines, journals, anthologies, and books, including Rocky Wilson’s The Last Bus to Camden, Chidi Ezeobi’s Remind the World: Poems from Prison, and Beyond the White Stone Lions by Lamont Steptoe. He’s worked for non-profit organizations such as Moonstone Arts Center and the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association.
C.A. Bryson is living in South Philly and has written pieces focusing on working-class issues, which have been featured in Whirlwind Press, Toho Journal, The Industrial Worker, Castlejackle, Weird Visions Society, and Bohemians FC Matchday Program. He previously contributed to a monthly labor organizing bulletin for the Teamsters Airline Division. He has a self-published chapbook which was released in 2020.
J Johnson (JJ, they/them) is the author of Janky Materiality: Artifice & Interface (punctum books, 2025), The Book / Or / The Woods (punctum books, 2021), and Trouble Songs: A Musicological Poetics (punctum books, 2018). JJ co-edits the horror poetics journal Cul-de-sac of Blood, is a staff writer at MovieJawn, and lives in Philadelphia.
Buy a copy on Ingram here.

Virtual Reading: Remembering William Butler Yeats
2025-06-15 14:00 - 17:00 | Virtual
Virtual Reading: Remembering William Butler Yeats
Sunday, June 15, 2025
2pm EDT – VIRTUAL
Register for Zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/30Xa0KKUQuqq-mApWGpv7Q
An Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer, one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. While in London he became part of the Irish literary revival. He had become the chief playwright for the Irish Literary Theatre in 1897.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

Poets will be reading from our anthology, Remembering William Butler Yeats.

June 25 - LIVE Poetry Reading at Fergie's Pub
2025-06-25 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday June 25, 2025 – 7pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Christian Bufo is a Philadelphia-based photographer, editor, and poet. He is a member of Poet’s Row, a collective that hosts readings and publishes physical & online poetry journals. Sophia Tempest is a poet who lives in Philadelphia. Her full length collection, WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN, was released in Ghost City Press in 2022. She also hosts Discount Guillotine’s Philadelphia reading series.
Amy Saul-Zerby Host – Open Reading Follo

Virtual Reading: Go Back Where You Came From
2025-06-29 14:00
Register @ https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85860281960?pwd=[REDACTED]
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out —because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out —because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller (1946)
First they came for the immigrants (2025)
*Sherman Alexie, a terrific writer and member of the Spokane Tribe, included this story in one of his books (I don’t remember which, all of his books are terrific). He was walking down the street in Seattle when a pick-up truck pulled up and a person leaned out and yelled “Go Back Where You Came From” and sped off. Sherman thought about it a moment and started to laugh and said “After You”.

July 2 - Live Poetry Reading at Fergie's Pub
2025-07-02 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday July 2, 2025 – 7pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Maia Brown-Jackson is a symphony of papercuts, banged-up knees, and stubborn determination. She believes in the altruism of strangers, the power of direct action, and the Oxford comma. Marion Cohen is an American poet and a mathematician, has published 32 books of poetry and prose. Robin O. Hiteshew, author of A Germantown Sequence, has been published in East Coast Literary Review, Germantown Crier, The Hive/Apiary Review, Lilliput Review, Mad Poets Review, Mickle Street Review, and others. Saskia Kercy is a scholar-activist, educator, and writer from Philly by way of Haiti, has been published across newspapers, magazines, and literary journals.

Virtual Reading: Freedom - for Who, to do What, to Whom
2025-07-08 14:00
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/j16zWU86TBajHSEsuQt1Fw
Sunday July 6, 2025 – 2pm EDT – VIRTUAL
Freedom – for Who, to do What, to Whom
Freedom has become a rallying cry for those in power who aim to exploit, to lie, and to endanger the less powerful with impunity. They demand Freedom to contaminate the earth, to deny history, to claim the Holocaust never happened and that slavery was good. They demand Freedom to deny science and abolish vaccines, to ban books and open dialogue, and to teach their version of history. What do poets think about Freedom and the state of the Union
