Virtual Poetry Reading: Philly Jawns: For Women Revisited, Poetry Anthology Tribute to Nina Simone
2021-02-21 19:00 (America/New_York) | PA
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81841890688?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 818 4189 0688 Passcode: [REDACTED]
PHILLY JAWNS: FOR WOMEN REVISITED
A poetry anthology in tribute to Nina Simone
“Editors Debra Powell-Wright and Pat McLean-Smith have lovingly gathered a chorus of voices from the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection to honor Nina Simone, the queen of Black Woman Magic, Rage and Reckoning. These Philly jawns revisit and revive Nina’s infinite gospel. This anthology is both playlist and prayer for Ms. Simone, our mold-breaker and future fashioner.” —Yolanda Wisher, Philadelphia Poet Laureate 2016-2017
With: Annette Deigh, Wanda Flowers, Brenda Hodges, Jaz, Aziza Kebe, Kia Knight, Oni Lasana, Pat McLean-Smith, Alida Padilla, Debra Powell-Wright, Rahnda Rize, Sandra Turner-Barnes, Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon

Annette Deigh is a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, child of God, and survivor of child abuse and sexual assault, which led her to become an “artivist,” channeling her love of the arts and humanity into helping to heal others.

Wanda Flowers Peacock has spent her life advocating for human rights, as a teacher and as an attorney fighting discrimination in the workplace. She is focused on creating peace through interfaith activities, exploring justice through poetic expression, and by elevating the state of girls and women, as a mentor.

Brenda Hodges is a poet and author whose work centers on telling the stories of Black, Brown, and Indigenous Women. She is the author of Contradictions in Shades of Blue, a poetry collection, and Naima The Junkman’s Daughter, a novel.

Jaz is a Performance Poet, Singer, Actress, Author, Award-Winning Poet & ASCAP songwriter, who has performed at venues including Freedom Theater, Temple University, and Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. Jaz is interested being of service to those considered to be castaways and forgotten people of the world.

Aziza Kebe is an Art Activist, Poet, Griot, Public Servant, and Citizen of the World who utilizes her art form to uplift her culture, promote Black Womanhood in a positive light, and cultivate a consciousness receptive to social and political change.

Kia Knight is a poet, singer, songwriter, dancer and percussionist. She has been performing in the Philadelphia area and surround area as a guest artist with In The Company of Poets and as a member of For Women Collective.

Nish Pugh is a founding member of In The Company of Poets and The Free-Though Collective performance ensembles, she is also founder and facilitator of spoken word venues Word4Word, Moods in Mocha, and TOPS–Taste of Philly S.O.U.L.

Oni Lasana (Desirable Poet of The People), a descendant of African San peoples with roots in Barbados, is a life-long spirit-driven poet, storyteller, musician, performance and teaching artist. As “Auntie Oni” she can be heard telling stories on ABF Creative podcast.

Pat McLean-Smith is a poet and teaching artist, author of Poetry Pulls Pain and Healing Her Hurts, author and illustrator of her children’s book Reggie Rascal. In addition, Pat is the Founder and Director of the Tomorrow’s Girls Mentoring Program.

Alida L. Padilla aka Poetic Ali, is a Puerto Rican woman who has loved poetry, music and art since a young age. Poetic Ali contributes an inspired work influenced by Nina Simone’s music and voice for this collection.

Debra Powell-Wright serves as lead strategist of social justice artist advocacy collective, SistahWrites!, founder of the multi-genre performance ensemble, For Women Collective, and a founding member of Philly’s first female spoken word ensemble, In The Company of Poets. Her work can be found in Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees, Imaging the Black Female Body: Reconciling Image in Print and Visual Culture, Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin & Marissa Alexander, The Pierian: Albany State University Literary Journal.

Rahnda Rize is a singer/songwriter, actor dancer and poet as well as an arts facilitator, event organizer/host, and an art for social change agent who advocates for the self esteem, well-being and representation of Black women and girls.

Sandra Turner-Barnes is a Poet, Author, Historian, and Workshop Presenter, author of Beyond the Back of the Bus, But, Mostly Love, and a CD, September Will Never Be the Same. She is a Trustee of the Camden County Historical Society; founding member of the New Jersey Black Cultural & Heritage Initiative Foundation; and the first African American woman appointed Executive Director of the Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission.

Kimmika Williams Witherspoon is an Associate Professor of Urban Theater and Community Engagement at Temple University. She is the author of Through Smiles and Tears: The History of African American Theater (From Kemet to the Americas); The Secret Messages in African American Theater: Hidden Meaning Embedded in Public Discourse. Her scholarly work centers around pedagogy, women’s issues, the African diaspora, performance rituals and community engagement.

Host: Ewuare X. Osayande is an award-winning poet, essayist, publisher, international social justice activist and anti-oppression educator.

Virtual Poetry Reading: Ahmad Almallah, Grant Clauser, with Larry Robin
2021-02-24 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 Passcode: [REDACTED]

Ahmad Almallah holds a Ph.D. in Classical Arabic Poetry from Indiana University Bloomington. He is currently a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, working on writing a book on Arabic love poetry and the ghazal. He held the position of Assistant Professor of Arabic and Arabic Literature at Middlebury College and left that position to move to Philadelphia with his wife and daughter in 2014. Since then he has found inspiration in Philadelphia to work on writing poetry and has been involved with the Arab arts and education organization, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, in West Philadelphia. He is currently managing their project “Words Adorned: Andalusian Poetry and Music.”

Grant Clauser is the author of five books, most recently Muddy Dragon on the Road to Heaven (winner of the Codhill Press Poetry Award) and Reckless Constellations (winner of the Cider Press Review Book Award). Poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Cortland Review, The Literary Review, The Journal, Rattle, Southern Poetry Review and others. He was the 2010 Montgomery County Poet Laureate, has been a presenter at numerous writing conferences and a guest speaker at the Sharjah International Book Fair in the United Arab Emirates. He received his MFA from Bowling Green State University where he was a Richard Devine Fellow. He is a senior editor at the New York Times’ Wirecutter and teaches poetry classes at Rosemont College

Virtual Poetry Reading: Martín Espada, Afaa Weaver, with Larry Robin
2021-02-27 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 Passcode: [REDACTED]
Martín Espada
Celebrating his new book Floaters: Poems
Autographed copies for $26.95 available at our website www.moonstoneartscenter.com
Martín Espada is celebrating his new book Floaters: Poems ($26.95, W. W. Norton & Company, 978-0393541038).
“Vintage Espada―essential, topical, political, irrepressible; in his poems, mercy acquires muscle and close attention confers value―reminding us that protest and praise rise from the same source. Such eloquence in comradeship, elegy and homage to those who lit the path, and, oh, a fresh bounty of love poems, written ‘not in lust but in astonishment.'” — Eleanor Wilner
Floaters takes its title from a term used by certain Border Patrol agents to describe migrants who drown trying to cross over. The title poem responds to the viral photograph of Óscar and Valeria, a Salvadoran father and daughter who drowned in the Río Grande, and allegations posted in the “I’m 10-15” Border Patrol Facebook group that the photo was faked.
Espada bears eloquent witness to confrontations with anti-immigrant bigotry as a tenant lawyer years ago, and now sings the praises of Central American adolescents kicking soccer balls over a barbed wire fence in an internment camp founded on that same bigotry. He also knows that times of hate call for poems of love―even in the voice of a cantankerous Galápagos tortoise.
Martín Espada has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator, including Vivas to Those Who Have Failed and Pulitzer finalist The Republic of Poetry. His many honors include the Ruth Lilly Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Born in Brooklyn, he now lives in western Massachusetts.

Afaa M. Weaver (尉雅風)
“Afaa Michael Weaver reaffirms the value and necessity of a worker’s poetics in his latest collection, Spirit Boxing. Here, work is not celebrated for its own sake or merely derided as drudgery but is considered as a primary source of hardship, solidarity, pain, pride, and joy.” —the Literary Review
Born in 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland, he spent fifteen years (1970-85) working in factories and developing himself as a poet, editor, and free-lance journalist. Near the end of that period, he received a 1985 NEA in poetry. He has published fifteen books of poetry, the most recent of which is Spirit Boxing. From 1997 to 2001, he was the editor of Obsidian III. His awards include the 1993 PDI playwriting award, multiple Pushcarts, a 2002 Fulbright at National Taiwan University, the Beijing Writers’ Gold Friendship medal in 2005, the 2014 Kingsley Tufts, the 2015 Phyllis Wheatley award, and a 2017 Guggenheim. In 2019, Afaa was given two lifetime achievement awards, from the St. Botolph Club Foundation in Boston and in Taiwan the 96th National Medal in Art & Literature. His poetry has been translated into Arabic and Chinese. Afaa is a lifelong student of Chinese language and culture. In 2017, he retired from Simmons U, after twenty years holding the Alumnae Endowed Chair. He now teaches at Sarah Lawrence.

Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM: Dilruba Ahmed with Charles S. Carr
2021-03-02 18:30
Watch the live broadcast:
Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 | Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia | PhillyCAM TV:
https://phillycam.org/watch2021
2021 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Dilruba Ahmed is the author Bring Now the Angels (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), with poems featured in New York Times Magazine, The Best American Poetry 2019, and podcasts such as The Slowdown and Poetry Unbound. Her debut book of poetry, Dhaka Dust (Graywolf Press, 2011), won the Bakeless Prize. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, New England Review, and Ploughshares. Ahmed is part of the low-residency MFA faculty at Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers and Chatham University’s MFA Program. She also teaches with Hugo House and The Writing Lab. Website: www.dilrubaahmed.com/

“In Bring Now the Angels, Dilruba Ahmed sings a complex song of loss: loss of a father, loss of a culture, and loss of country, both the original country and the one in which one is raised. In tightly-wound lyrics, Ahmed questions what it is to live in this present moment where loss seems to build almost hourly. With stringent rhetoric and beautiful imagery, Ahmed shows us what it means to be ‘[c]aught between one world / and the next . . .’”—C. Dale Young

“There are books of poetry whose service approaches public ritual of private feeling, Dilruba Ahmed’s Bring Now the Angels is one of those books. It is a prayer to see more clearly one’s grief and one’s relationship to the vibrancy and complexity of parents and children and the natural world. This is a book that asks about neglect and regret in order to understand how we might care for the living and the dead. What a healing collection of poems Ahmed has given us.” —Patrick Rosal

“Dilruba Ahmed’s luminous second book of poems, Bring Now the Angels, considers layered relationships and identities: adults to parents and children; bystanders as public witnesses; humans to angels, to water, or bureaucracy — or, as in ‘Zodiac,’ to the self.” —Naomi Shihab Nye, New York Times Magazine
Charles S. Carr, Host

Virtual Poetry Reading: Nathan Antoine, Philip Dykhouse, Susana Praver-Pérez, with Elijah Pringle
2021-03-03 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 Passcode: [REDACTED]

Nathan Antoine – “I’m an introverted poet living somewhere in my mind. Although, Charlotte, NC is where you’ll find me. I’ve been writing poetry for over 15 years, specializing in poetry that details our specific thoughts, feelings, observations, rage or whatever comes mind. I mix current and traditional style poetry, prose and story telling and create art from my mind, that you feel in your soul.”

Philip Dykhouse lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His first chapbook, Bury Me Here, was published by Toho Publishing in 2020. His work has appeared in Toho Journal, Moonstone Press, everseradio.com, and Spiral Poetry. He was the featured reader for the Dead Bards of Philadelphia at the 2018 Philadelphia Poetry Festival. Visit his website philipdykhousepoetry.home.blog

Susana Praver-Pérez is an Oakland-based, Pushcart nominated poet. By day, she works as a Physician Assistant at La Clínica de la Raza. By night, she can be found reading poetry at open mics from San Francisco to San Juan, By nature, she is a storyteller recounting that to which she bears witness through her poetic lens. Susana’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies including two published by Moonstone Press. Her first full-length book of poetry titled: Hurricanes, Love Affairs and Other Disasters, will be released by Nomadic Press in mid to late 2021.

Elijah Pringle, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading in Collaboration with Serotonin: Cynthia Arrieu-King, Roseline Mgbodichinma, Theresa Rodriguez, with Sean Lynch
2021-03-06 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 Passcode: [REDACTED] Phone: 646 876 9923 US (New York)

Cynthia Arrieu-King teaches creative writing, literature, and general studies. Her poetry books include People are Tiny in Paintings of China, Manifest, and Futureless Languages. Her poetry book Continuity is forthcoming from Octopus Books and her book of experimental memoir The Betweens is forthcoming from Noemi in 2021.

Roseline Mgbodichinma is a Nigerian writer whose works have appeared or are forthcoming in The African writer Magazine, West Trestle Review, X-ray lit mag, JFA human rights mag, Artmosterrific & elsewhere. In 2018, she won the audience’s favorite award powered by Union Bank and Okadabooks for her short story, Silence That Spoke. Her poem, The Giant, was published in the Poets in Nigeria (PIN) 2019 Anthology, You can reach her on her blog at www.mgbodichi.com and Twitter @Rmgbodichinma.

Theresa Rodriguez is the author of three books of poetry: Jesus and Eros: Sonnets, Poems and Songs (Bardsinger Books, 2015), Longer Thoughts (Shanti Arts, 2020), and Sonnets, a collection of sixty-five sonnets (Shanti Arts, 2020). Her work has appeared in such journals as The Scarlet Leaf Review, The Wilderness House Literary Review, Spindrift, Mezzo Cammin, The Road Less Traveled, and the Society of Classical Poets Journal. Her website is http://www.bardsinger.com, where you can view videos of her performance poetry and find information about her books. Follow Theresa on Instagram and Twitter @thesonnetqueen.

Sean Lynch, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: 34th Street Poets
2021-03-07 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 Passcode: [REDACTED]
The 34th Street Poets, one of the longest-running poetry groups in the Philadelphia area (since 1992), meets weekly and currently comprises seven members: Alyson Shore Adler, Deidra Greenleaf Allan, Sandra L. Chaff, Barbara Daniels, Minna Duchovnay, B.E. Kahn, and Nina Schafer. The group includes poetry book and chapbook authors, a Montgomery County poet laureate, Leeway Foundation award winner, Pushcart Prize nominee, and recipients of grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and NJ State Council on the Arts. Works by the group have appeared in numerous print and online journals including Adirondack Review, American Poetry Review, The Mid-American Review, Harrisburg Review, Passager, Poet Lore, and West Branch. The 34th Street Poets are currently based at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House.

Alyson Shore Adler has been writing poetry for the past 20 and has workshopped with and been mentored by many brilliant poets, including AV Christie and now Nat Anderson.

Sandra Chaff’s poetry has appeared in Poet Lore, Full Bleed, Unlocking the World: An Anthology of Found Poetry, among other publications. Her poetic subjects these days tend towards non-human sentient beings; philosophical musings on phenomena; and – no surprise here – mortality.

Barbara Daniels is author of Talk to the Lioness, Black Sails, Quinn & Marie, and Moon Kitchen. Her poetry has appeared in Cleaver, Faultline, and elsewhere, and she received four fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Minna Canton Duchovnay left business to study Latin and translates early 16th Century Renaissance Latin love poetry. Minna has been a featured reader in the Philadelphia area and has been published in Mad Poets Review, Premier, The Elixir, and the anthology, Embers and Flames among others.

B.E. Kahn, Pushcart Prize Nominee, recipient of both a PCA and CBE grant, among other awards. Her poems have appeared in Philadelphia Stories, Harrisburg Review, Mad Poets Review, Apiary and other journals. Author of 3 chapbooks, her book, Moon Writing to be published in 2022.

Deidra Greenleaf Allan has been published in American Poetry Review, Apiary, Haibun Today.com, Poetry Miscellany, and Puerto del Sol, among other journals. In 2001, she was selected as Montgomery County Poet Laureate and has received a Leeway Emerging Artist Award and been a finalist for a Pew Fellowship in poetry.

Nina Schafer is a member of the Lansdowne Poetry Workshop and the 34th Street Poets, and works with many poets at The Frost Place in New Hampshire every summer. She created The Unexpected Poetry Project through which she distributes (before the pandemic-induced hiatus) 12,000 poems a year, one-by-one, to unsuspecting people waiting in grocery store lines, at the gas station, in the elevator. The responses have been unexpected.

Virtual Poetry Reading: Mama Poets From Eastern Europe: Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Luisa Muradyan, Alina Stefanescu, with Larry Robin
2021-03-08 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85477352895?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 854 7735 2895 Passcode: [REDACTED]
Mama Poets From Eastern Europe, Celebrate International Women’s Day

Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach (www.juliakolchinskydasbach.com) is the author of three poetry collections: The Many Names for Mother, winner the Wick Poetry Prize (Kent State University Press, 2019) and finalist for the Jewish Book Award; Don’t Touch the Bones (Lost Horse Press, 2020), winner of the 2019 Idaho Poetry Prize; and 40 WEEKS, forthcoming from YesYes Books in 2023. Her recent poems appear in POETRY, American Poetry Review, and The Nation, among others. She holds an MFA from the University of Oregon and just defended her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Philly with her two kids, two cats, one dog, and one husband. Books@https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GblDW6X0ARL1NLSsHTYhNQ_FrUqIZax86fw1GXR9YoI/edit
Luisa Muradyan is originally from the Ukraine and holds a Ph.D. in Poetry from the University of Houston. She is the author of American Radiance and was the Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts from 2016-2018. She was also the recipient of the 2017 Prairie Schooner Book Prize and the 2016 Donald Barthelme Prize in Poetry. Additionally, Muradyan is a member of the Cheburashka Collective, a group of women and non-binary writers from the former Soviet Union. Previous poems have appeared in Poetry International, the Los Angeles Review, West Branch, Blackbird, and Ninth Letter among others.

Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her partner and several intense mammals. Recent books include a creative nonfiction chapbook, Ribald (Bull City Press Inch Series, Nov. 2020). Her poetry collection, dor, won the Wandering Aengus Press Prize and is forthcoming in July 2021. Alina’s writing can be found in diverse journals, including Prairie Schooner, North American Review, FLOCK, Southern Humanities Review, Crab Creek Review, World Literature Review, and others. She serves as Poetry Editor for Pidgeonholes, Poetry Editor for Random Sample Review, Poetry Reviewer for Up the Staircase Quarterly, and Co-Director of PEN America’s Birmingham Chapter. A finalist for the 2019 Kurt Brown AWP Prize, Alina won the 2019 River Heron Poetry Prize. She still can’t believe (or deserve) any of this. More online at www.alinastefanescuwriter.com.
Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follow

Virtual Poetry Reading: Lisa Alexander Baron, Rodger Lowenthal, Abbey J. Porter, with Larry Robin
2021-03-09 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81679636780?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 816 7963 6780 Passcode: [REDACTED]

Lisa Alexander Baron is the author of four poetry collections, including While She Poses, poems prompted by visual art. Her poems appear in Chautauqua, Confrontation, Fourth River, and Philadelphia Stories. She teaches writing and public speaking at two Philadelphia-area colleges. She hosts “Modern Plays Read Aloud” on Meetup, which offers Open Poetry and Monologue Readings for poets and actors.

Rodger Lowenthal’s new chapbook, fourteen, has just be released by the Moonstone Press. He has this to say:
“I started writing poetry when I was a freshman at Penn State. I had a pattern of finding a girlfriend and writing poetry, until we broke up. Then I started again with a new girlfriend.
I have been with my current “girlfriend” for 46 years, so lots of poetry.
Trivia: I have 5 grandchildren. More trivia: the historian Bernard Bailyn wrote about the “logic of rebellion.” Think about it.”

Abbey J. Porter writes poetry and memoir about people and relationships, life and loss. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte, an MA in liberal studies from Villanova University, and a BA in English from Gettysburg College. Abbey works in communications and lives in Cheltenham, Pa., with her two beloved dogs—who help her remember to smile, particularly during these challenging times.

Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading in Collaboration with E-Verse Equinox Reading Series: Steven Kleinman, Warren C. Longmire, Christina Rosso, with John Wall Barger
2021-03-10 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 Passcode: [REDACTED]
Steven Kleinman is the author of Life Cycle of a Bear, winner of the 2019 Philip Levine Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, the Gettysburg Review, Beloit Poetry Review, the Iowa Review, Oversound, American Literary Review, Tikkun, and elsewhere. He is the interim director of the University of the Arts BFA in creative writing, he is the faculty coordinator of the Art Alliance Writers’ Workshop, and a contributing editor at the American Poetry Review, where he co-hosts the podcast. Learn more at stevenkleinmanpoetry.com

Warren C Longmire is a writer, software engineer and educator from the bad part of North Philadelphia. His writing has been published in American Poetry Review, Eleven Eleven, The Painted Bride Quarterly. He is featured in the upcoming Best American Poetry anthology of 2021 and will be releasing his first full length collection through Radiator Press this year. He likes jazz, being black, video games and suffering. You can find his work and life on instagram at @alongmirewriter & @doubleyoulongmire respectively.

Christina Rosso lives and writes in South Philadelphia with her rescue pup, Atticus Finch, and bearded husband, Alex, where they run an independent bookstore and event space called A Novel Idea on Passyunk. She received an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from Arcadia University in 2016. Her debut chapbook, SHE IS A BEAST (APEP Publications), was released in May 2020. CREOLE CONJURE, her first full-length collection, is forthcoming from Maudlin House. Her fiction and nonfiction work centers around gender, sexuality, and fairy tales, and has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and the Pushcart Prize.

John Wall Barger, Host, Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Love & the Pandemic
2021-03-14 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 Passcode: [REDACTED]

Love & the Pandemic
How are you coping?
Has isolation made you crazy?
Do you have a love life?
If you have a family – Are you fighting with your love ones?
If you are single – what have you done for the last year?
How do you survive?
69 Poets Respond
$15 – Not All Contributors Will Be Reading
Contributors in anthology include:
Fran Abrams
Carolyn Adams
Princess Ameenah
Barbara Arzt
John Balaban
Elisabeth Bass
Vincent Bell
Byron Beynon
Erica Blatt
Julia Blumenreich
Matilda Bray
R. Bremner
Lawrence Bridges
Joseph Chelius
Christine Chesire
Phebe Ciemny
Craig Czury
Pheralyn Dove
Runett Ebo
Cole Eubanks
Hugh Findlay
Eli Goldblatt
Linda Goss
Rebecca Hartz
Christine Higgins
Alan Hill
Brenda Hodges
Halsey Hyer
Suzan Jivan
Irving Jones
Bea Joyner
Chris Kaiser
David Kozinski
Kyle Laws
Michael Levin
Warren Longmire
Marjorie Maddox
Jim McDade
Kindra McDonald
Michael Miller
Drew Miller
Ryan Mimna
Marjorie Moorhead
Bonnie Neubauer
Gloria Nixon-John
Daniel O’Hara
Kaleigh O’Keefe
Stephen Page
Randall Potts
Gouri Prakash
Peter Prizel
David Radavich
Charles Rammelkamp
Paul Rousseau
George Schaefer
Jennifer Schneider
Katherine Shehadeh
Jacalyn Shelley
Bob Small
Ashley Stahmer
Richard Stimac
Lois Villemaire
Skyler Walker
Kelley White
Linda Whittenberg
Florence Woods
Han Yang
Brendan Yukins
Sarah Zale
Larry Robin, Host

Virtual Poetry Reading: Nathalie Anderson, Thomas Devaney, Mary Madec, with Larry Robin
2021-03-17 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 Passcode: [REDACTED]
Nathalie Anderson is a poet, librettist, and educator based in the Philadelphia suburbs. Her books of poetry include Following Fred Astaire, Crawlers, Quiver, Stain, and the chapbook Held and Firmly Bound. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Atlanta Review, DoubleTake, Natural Bridge, The New Yorker, Nimrod, and Plume; and she has authored libretti for five operas. She also manages the list-serv Lit-Philly. A 1993 Pew Fellow, she has taught for 39 years at Swarthmore College, where she serves as Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor in the Department of English Literature, and directs the Program in Creative Writing.

Thomas Devaney is a poet and educator based in Philadelphia. He wrote and co-director the film Bicentennial City with Green House Media (2020). Devaney is the author of Getting to Philadelphia, Hanging Loose Press (2019) and You Are the Battery, Black Square Editions (2019). His work is featured in Best American Poetry 2019 and he is 2014 Pew Fellow. He is on the Advisory Board of Blue Stoop: A Home for Philly Writers and he teaches at Haverford College.

Mary Madec’s most recent book The Egret Lands with News From Other Parts has been described by Medbh McGuckian as, “extraordinary, celebrating the, “crazy mystery of good agony,” in a solemn mixture of the banal and the prophetic; these are poems about poems and poets, birds and the bible, war and married life, children and childhood, insects and parents. Deeply rooted in Irish myth they explore female territories explicitly, culminating in moving dirges for the mother figure. She has a PhD, in Linguistics, from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s in Old English Poetry from NUI, Galway) and two other collection from Salmon Poetry In Other Words, 2010, and Demeter Does Not Remember 2014, She won the Hennessy XO Prize for Emerging Poetry in 2008.

Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices
2021-03-20 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 Passcode: [REDACTED]
The New Voices program consists of monthly readings by poets under the age of 25, plus a bi-annual publication. Moonstone’s objective is to expand your audience, introduce you to others who share your interest in poetry but are in different communities or go to different schools.

A Voice for Everyone
Listen, Share, Connect with Other Writers.
Open Reading Follows

Contributors in anthology include:
Isabel Acosta
Jared Alicea
Colby Bellman
Matilda Bray
Isabel Catalan
China Rain Chung
Cora Clark
Michaela Coll
Yves Marie Desir
Joanna Flynn
Stephanie Frank
L. J. Gallagher
Samuel Gunther
Lindsay Hargrave
Ryan Hiemenz
Nikole Hood
Marygrace Irvine
David Jones
Brianna Jones-Hollis
Alexandra Marino
Michaela Mazzeo
Isabella McIlvaine
Austin McLain
Shannon Montgomery
Jessica Moulder
Audrey Movsesian
Claire Petersen
Isabella Piacentino
Taleen Postian
Dani Radosh
Isabella Rice
Rachel Rosenblatt
Aimee Schwartz
Davi Schweizer
Vincent Sergiacomi
Madison Starinieri
Kelly Thompson
DuPree Walker
Han Yang

Virtual Poetry Reading: National Be Nasty Day & International Women's Day
2021-03-21 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 Passcode: [REDACTED]
March 8th is National Be Nasty Day and International Women’s Day.
It reminded me of an event we did 2017 when “Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse” edited by Grace Bauer & Julie Kane came out. It is an excellent anthology, and the event was lots of fun, as women responded to Donald Trump’s comment that Hillary Clinton was a Nasty Woman.
“Like beauty, “nasty” is in the eye of the beholder… The call for poems made it clear that we were looking for broader—and more varied—perspectives on women’s experience. Women poets have always been resisting, reclaiming, and reinventing—sometimes subtly, sometimes more overtly. To my mind, any refusal to allow others to define what it means to be a woman is a kind of resistance.” – Grace Bauer
Poets respond in this spirit, in the second year of the pandemic.
Contributors in anthology include:
Emily Batemon
Aja Beech
Wendy Blaxland
Eve Chilali
Minna Duchovnay
Suzanne Eaton
RUNETT EBO
Sophia Falco
Christine Ferrari Strickland
Hanoch guy
Rachel Haas-Gutin
Dolores Hayden
Emiliann Lorenzen
Jerri Ketcham McDermott
Emily Rose Miller
Liz Minette
Claire Nolan
Isabella Piacentino
Kate Potter
Susanna Rich
George Schaefer
Jennifer Schneider
Leanne Shirtliffe
Solana Warner
Kelley White
Linda Whittenberg
Samantha Wright

Virtual Poetry Reading: Kirwyn Sutherland, Sekai'afua Zankel, with Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook
2021-03-24 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 Passcode: [REDACTED]
Kirwyn Sutherland is author of Jump Ship, a Clinical Research Professional and poet who makes poems centering the black experience in America. He is a Watering Hole fellow, has attended workshops/residencies at Cave Canem, Winter Tangerine, Poets House, Philadelphia Sculpture Gym, and Pearlstein Art Gallery, was a member of the 2015 Philadelphia Pigeon Slam Team and a member of the 2016 Philadelphia Fuze Poetry Slam Team. Kirwyn’s work has been published in American Poetry Review, Blueshift Journal, APIARY Magazine, FOLDER, The Wanderer and elsewhere. He has served as Editor of Lists/Book Reviewer for WusGood magazine and poetry editor for APIARY Magazine and currently teaching Spoken Word/Poetry Performance at the University of the Arts.

Sekai’afua Zankel, actor, writer, and poet, She is the author of Behind These Eyes/Optical Poems, and a winner of the Leeway Foundation, Art and Change Grant for her Poetry Play, Miss Pearl’s Spirit: In the Mysteries of Mirrors. Her poems have been published In the CAP literary magazine, “Poetry Ink”, several Anthologies, and in “Apiary”, 7 Power Issue. Sekai lives in Philadelphia with her husband, musician Bobby Zankel.

Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Remembering Lawrence Ferlinghetti
2021-03-28 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Remembering Lawrence Ferlinghetti
On February 22, 2021 Lawrence Ferlinghetti died at 101. In the 1950s, Ferlinghetti’s San Francisco bookstore, City Lights, was the center of the Beat Movement. Ferlinghetti published many of the writers whose goal was to “write in an authentic, unfettered style.” Ferlinghetti was arrested for obscenity for publishing Howl by Allen Ginsburg in 1956, but Judge Clayton Horn decided that the poem was of “redeeming social importance”.
Join us in remembering Ferlinghetti and the Beat Movement
“I have a personal connection with Ferlinghetti. While I never met him, he influenced my life. A Coney Island of the Mind (1958) was the first poetry book that reached me, at the age of 16 my friends and I sat around reading it aloud to each other. His fight against censorship also influenced me. When Tropic of Cancer was published by Grove Press in 1961, Robin’s Book Store was the test case in Pennsylvania. While Ferlinghetti won his case, we lost. Another Tropic of Cancer case made it to the Supreme Court which permitted sales in the United States.” – Larry Robin
Not All contributors Will Be Reading:
Joseph Bathanti
Joan Bauer
Ken Been
R. Bremner
Maryrose Carroll
Greg Colburn
Terry Dugan
Oliver Egger
Marie-Louise Eyres
Francis Flavin
Joan Huffman
Jones Irwin
Irving Jones
Chris Kaiser
Leonard Kress
Jim LaVilla-Havelin
Jim McDade
Richard Paul
Joan Penn
Kenneth Pobo
John Polier
Larry Robin
Ari Robinson
George Schaefer
Linda Simone
Bob Small
Diana Tenes
Kelley White
Samantha Wright
Robert Zaller

Virtual Poetry Reading: Five New Chapbooks from the Moonstone Press: Carey Hunter Davis, Peter F. Murphy, Leonard Neufeldt, Monika Wysong, Seki'afua Zankel, with Larry Robin
2021-03-31 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 Passcode: [REDACTED]
5 New Chapbooks from the Moonstone Press
Carey Hunter Davis began writing poetry as a day dreaming fourth grader once she realized words could enhance day dreaming. Her days are spent in writing and reading poetry. Recently dancingirlpress published a collection of her poems, “THE A POEMS.” Her work has also been published by the journals: Poeming Pidgeon, Echoes, Black Panda Press and the collections: Island of Geese and Stars, The Weird World Rolls On, Sarasvati Takes Pegasus As Her Mount, as well as other venues. It’s The Way We Live $10.00 (ISBN 978-1-946150-75-2) https://square.online/app/store/users/129102844/sites/541329794836208511/#/store/products/245

Peter F. Murphy grew up on the St. Lawrence River in Alexandria Bay, NY, the Heart of the Thousand Islands, where he learned to shoot pool and ice fish. His poems have appeared in the Birmingham Poetry Review, New Madrid, and The Café Review. His critical work includes three books on men and masculinity: Studs, Tools, and the Family Jewels: Metaphors Men Live By; Fictions of Masculinity; and Feminism and Masculinities. Maps of Three Continents, $10.00 (ISBN 978-1-94615077-6) https://moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/murphy-peter-f-maps-of-three-continents/250?cs=true&cst=custom

Leonard Neufeldt “The philosopher George Santayana defined life as the fixation of significant points of interest in the flux of experience. In our interactions with our human world, certain moments in our relationships offer more than just a transient happening and a brush stroke of memory; they take on a kind of “life meaning” deeply implicated in our own lives. The poems focus on particular tensions and burdens of a strong interaction with the human community. Figures in Time, $10.00 (ISBN 978-1-946150-76-9) https://square.online/app/store/users/129102844/sites/541329794836208511/#/store/products/243

Monika Wysong is a Philadelphia based poet, playwright and psychotherapist. Her play, Laundromat, appeared on Philadelphia’s PBS station, and she has been a semi-finalist in the Louisville Actors’ Theater playwriting competition. Her poems have appeared in American Writing. “ Monika Wysong has given us poems of the body othered by trauma and reclaimed through identification with the natural world.” J .C. Todd, author of The Damages of Morning. Poems for The Rest of Us, $10.00 (ISBN 978-1-946150-78-3 https://moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/wysong-monika-poems-for-the-rest-of-us/253?cs=true&cst=custom

Sekai’afua Zankel, actor, writer, and poet, She is the author of Behind These Eyes/Optical Poems, and a winner of the Leeway Foundation, Art and Change Grant for her Poetry Play, Miss Pearl’s Spirit: In the Mysteries of Mirrors. Her poems have been published In the CAP literary magazine, “Poetry Ink”, several Anthologies, and in “Apiary”, 7 Power Issue. Sekai lives in Philadelphia with her husband, musician Bobby Zankel. What I Heard, $10.00 (ISBN 978-946150-66-0) https://moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/zankel-sekai-afua-what-i-heard/248?cs=true&cst=custom

Moonstone Poetry @PhillyCAM: The Spiritual in Poetry with Leonard Gontarek and Charles S. Carr
2021-04-06 18:30
Watch the live broadcast:
Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 | Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia | PhillyCAM TV:
https://phillycam.org/watch
2021 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series: The Spiritual in Poetry with Leonard Gontarek
In many ways, writing poems and the reading of poems are spiritual acts. The poem resembles a prayer. It can be an invocation or a plea. Its origin is a sacred memory and its source, an illumination. Leonard Gontarek will discuss this through examples of his own poetry, in conversation with Charles Carr.
Leonard Gontarek is the author of seven books of poems, including Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket, Shiva. His poems have appeared in Field, Poet Lore, Verse Daily, Fence, Poetry Northwest, American Poetry Review, Joyful Noise: An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry, and The Best American Poetry. He coordinates Peace/Works, Poetry In Common, Philly Poetry Day, hosts The Green Line Reading & Interview Series, he conducts the poetry workshop: Making Poems That Last. His poem, 37 Photos From The Bridge, selected by Alice Quinn, was a Poetry winner for the Big Bridges MotionPoems project and the basis for the award-winning film sponsored by the Weisman Art Museum.

Charles S. Carr, Host

Virtual Poetry Reading: Elizabeth Catanese, Darla Himeles, Ysabel Y. Gonzalez with Larry Robin
2021-04-07 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Elizabeth Catanese, Darla Himeles, and Ysabel Y. Gonzalez
Elizabeth Catanese is a writer and artist whose poems have appeared in The Pittsburgh Poetry Review, The Stillwater Review, OVS, Anomalous Press, Referential Magazine, and Calyx. Her most recent books include A Student’s Companion for How to Write Anything and STEAM Jobs You’ll Love: Architecture and Construction.

Darla Himeles is the author of Flesh Enough and Cleave. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, NAILED Magazine, Lesbians are Miracles, The Night Heron Barks, and Atticus Review. She is poetry editor for Platform Review and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and for Best of the Net.

Ysabel Y. Gonzalez is Assistant Director for the Poetry Program at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, is a CantoMundo Fellow and has been published in Paterson Literary Review; Tinderbox Journal; Anomaly; and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of Wild Invocations.

Larry Robin, Host

Virtual Poetry Reading: Terry M. Dugan, Isabella Piacentino, Rob Wright, with Larry Robin
2021-04-09 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82768729107?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 827 6872 9107 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Terry M. Dugan, Isabella Piacentino, and Rob Wright
Terry M. Dugan writes poetry and prose about the collateral damage people suffer from wars, gun violence and the AIDS/addiction epidemic. Her work has appeared in Alimentum, Bellevue Literary Review, Womens’ Studies Quarterly, A&U Magazine, New Verse News, Inkwell and numerous anthologies including Poetry Ink, The Anthology of New England Poets and Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora. She has read at the United Nations, Hudson Valley Writers Center, Moonstone Arts Center, Hudson Valley Center for the Contemporary Arts, and Bowery Poetry Club, Bread and Roses Gallery, Fordham University, and on nytalkradio.net.

Isabella Piacentino is studying to be a high school English teacher at Temple. You can find her work in Moonstone Art Center’s New Voices #3 and Featured Poets Anthology, as well as in Hyphen (Temple’s Literary Magazine) and on the websites of Yikes Magazine, Anti-Herion, and Short Edition. When she is not writing, she is jamming out to her “middle school dance 2009-2013” playlist or (most likely) sifting through mountains of homework.

Rob Wright has now chosen to spend his time writing after working for three decades in film production, He currently serves as associate fiction editor for Able Muse, and has been awarded three Fellowships in Literature from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and has published fiction, reviews, and poetry in Able Muse, Angle, Big City Lit, the Evansville Review, Measure, Rattle, String Poet, and the Schuylkill Valley Journal. A finalist for the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, he recently was awarded the Frost Farm Prize for Metrical Poetry and was honored to give a reading at the home of Frost in Derry, New Hampshire.
Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices - Emerging Poets, Isabel Acosta, David Jones, Han Yang, with Larry Robin
2021-04-10 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82855093815?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 5509 3815 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices – Emerging Poets, Isabel Acosta, David Jones, and Han Yang
New Voices is a program designed for emerging poets under the age of 25.
Isabel Acosta is a twenty-year-old aspiring poet who hopes to one day touch the hearts of many through her writing. After being born and raised in a small town in West Texas, she currently resides in Pennsylvania where she is studying English and Communications at Rosemont College. Some of her favorite poems include “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman, “A Glimpse” by Walt Whitman, and “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe. From poems about love to social justice, Acosta strives to show her audience that feeling emotion and wanting to be heard in the world is important. She states that even if her writing were to change one person’s life, she knows that she achieved her goal.
David Jones is a Philadelphia native, and former Youth Poet Laureate for the City of Philadelphia (2015-16). His work has appeared in Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice published by Michigan State University Press. David loves mangoes and Hip-Hop. He writes with the intent to heal and believes that poetry is an art form that goes far beyond the written word.

Han Yang is a senior biology student at Haverford College who brings a refreshing take on poetry through her scientific background. Her poetry takes an experimental tone and is interwoven with bold imagery and lucid contemplations. Her experiences with English as a second language and as an outsider to the traditional world of poetry have both shaped and liberated her style. Her most recent work was published in Milkweed, Haverford College’s literary magazine. Outside of poetry, Han also enjoys writing personal reflection and other nonfiction pieces.

Larry Robin, Host. Open Reading Follows.

Virtual Poetry Reading: Moonstone International - From France in Association with Alliance Française de Philadelphia: Jamika Ajalon, Malik Ameer Crumpler, Nina Zivancevic, with Aaren Perry & Sonia Robin
2021-04-11 14:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84532069956?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 3206 9956 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Moonstone International – From France in Association with Alliance Française de Philadelphia
Jamika Ajalon is the author of “Take back the Narrative” and a novel “SKY PAPERS” coming out via The Feminist Press in NY in June. Ajalon is also a musician whose latest album is “rebooted” with Jamika & the Argonauts and will be released this year. Jamika is also known for her insightful filmmaking. Her latest film to do the circuits is “Coffee Pot” 2020. She has written many academic texts on Afro futurism, Narrative, and Memory. Her web page is: www.jamikaajalon.com.

Malik Ameer Crumpler is a poet, rapper, composer, editor, producer, P.R. Writer & teacher that’s been involved in over fifty albums, several glitch art films, six poetry books & one book of raps, Beneath The Underground. He’s the co-poetry editor/co-host with Paris Lit Up, editor-at-large of The Opiate, curator for Poets Live & co-founder of Those That This. He currently lives in Paris, France. “The Rest Is Now (a poetry EP)” published with The Isolation Collection Anthology is Malik’s most recent Poetry offering which he toured throughout France, England, Amsterdam, and Washington D.C. thanks to a generous grant from Washington D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities 2020..

Nina Zivancevic’s new book of poetry, ROLLERSKATING NOTES will be published by Cool Grove Press in New York in September of 2021. Her first book was published in 1982. In the two preceding years she worked as a secretary and assistant to Allen Ginsberg. Zivancevic, Serbian born poet, author, critic and correspondent has published more than twenty books – poetry and prose – and has translated numerous works into Serbian. A PhD in Comparative Literature and Slavic Studies, she taught English Language and Literature at the Sorbonne and other European universities. Zivancevic, currently living in Paris, has received three awards and a grant for her outstanding literary achievements.

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

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

Virtual Poetry Reading: Miriam N. Kotzin, Michelle Taransky, Kevin Varrone, with Larry Robin
2021-04-14 19:00
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Virtual Poetry Reading: Miriam N. Kotzin, Michelle Taransky, and Kevin Varrone
Miriam N. Kotzin is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently, Debris Field and The Body’s Bride. Her poetry and fiction have been published in anthologies and in journals including Shenandoah, Boulevard, SmokeLong Quarterly, Eclectica,

Michelle Taransky is author of Sorry Was In The Woods, and Barn Burned, Then, winner of the Omnidawn Poetry and Abramowitz-Goldberg. Taransky directs the reading series at Kelly Writers House, work as Reviews Editor for the poetics journal Jacket2, and appear as a regular guest on the popular poetry podcast series, PoemTalk.

Kevin Varrone has worked for over 10 years on a multiple-book project entitled g-point Almanac. Eephus, is the fourth book in the project, written in a style that Varrone describes as “research lyric,” synthesizing historical anecdotes, slowly unfolding narratives, and language experimentation.

Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading Follows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

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

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

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

Sean Lynch, Host – Open Reading Follows

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

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

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

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

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