Moonstone Arts Center

Painter as Poet, Poet as Painter
2019-12-17 18:30 (America/New_York) | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
2019 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series at PhillyCAM.
Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia.
The program is broadcast live on the first Tuesday of each month. The program is free and open to everyone. Please join us.

Catherine Bancroft, artist and writer, has shown at Muse Gallery, Third Street Gallery, Off the Wall Gallery, The Sketch Club, The Main Line Art Center, among other places. and has read her poetry at Green Line Café, the Philadelphia Poetry Festival, the Last Word Bookshop, and other venues.

Peter Baroth, writer, visual artist, musician, and staff member of Philadelphia Stories Magazine, his work has appeared in journals such as Mad Poets Review, Apiary, and Philadelphia Poets. His paintings have appeared in such venues as the Imperfect Gallery and the Wayne Art Center. He is also bass player and co-songwriter for the band the Party Crashers.

Deborah Fries is a poet and non-fiction writer whose work reflects her interest in environmental, medical and social issues. She is the author of two books of poetry published, has been the recipient of numerous poetry awards, including the Kore Press First Book Award, Sandy Crimmins Poetry Prize, Montgomery County Poet.

Amanda Auerbach, Adrienne Raphael, Bridget Talone
2019-12-15 14:00 | Shakespeare and Co., 1632 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Amanda Auerbach is author of What Need Have We For Such as We, her poems have appeared in the Paris Review, Kenyon Review, and other journals. In What Need Have We For Such as We, the speaker quickly transitions from being a lyrical poet to being a person infected by a poetic voice that, like a virus or a machine or a social script, has a startling and terrifying life of its own.
Adrienne Raphel is the author of What Was It For and But What Will We Do. She has written for The New Yorker online, The Paris Review Daily, The Poetry Foundation, Public Books among other publications. Adrienne revitalizes the topsy-turvy lyric and its evergreen sagacity.
Bridget Talone is the author of The Soft Life and two chapbooks. She is the recipient of a Artist Fellowship in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Talone creates a reading of the feminist subject that is both a product of this world and an agent of its dislocation.
Books Will Be Available for Purchase.
Larry Robin, Host

Moonstone Press: Mass Chapbook Releases
2019-12-11 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Hail to the Symptom
Gloria Heffernan is the author of the poetry collection, What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List (forthcoming from New York Quarterly Books), and the chapbook, Some of Our Parts, (Finishing Line Press, 2018), and Hail to the Symptom. Her work has appeared in over fifty journals including Chautauqua Literary Journal, Stone Canoe, Columbia Review, and The Healing Muse. She teaches at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY and holds an M.A. from New York University.

Here I Am Standing This Woman, This Me
Jerri Ketcham McDermott earned a Bachelor of Arts at Syracuse University and a Master’s at SUNY Albany. She is a former English teacher who later worked in environmental and scholarly publishing. She began writing at the age of twelve, with pieces in school and college literary magazines, and has continued writing ever since—fiction, nonfiction, family history, educational materials, and articles for special interest publications. She worked in Manhattan for several years and loves the city, but she was raised in upstate New York and traveled in many countries, as the daughter of a foreign language professor who loved to spend summers on the road. These experiences have given her a broad base of reference for personal reflections on the world and her connections with it. She posts new work on her Facebook website Jerri Ketcham McDermott, Poet.

Makers and Keepers
Gail Mitchell received her MFA in Poetry from Drew University in 2017. This is her second book of poems. Her first book, Learning English the Cultural Way, was written after receiving her Masters in T.E.S.O.L. from West Chester University. Gail is a master quilt maker, poet, and a retired public school educator. She and her husband live in central New Jersey.

Changing Conversations
Esther Schnur-Berlot was born and raised on the Lower East Side in New York City. Before finding her way to poetry, she worked behind the scenes in TV Commercials and owned Esther Street, a Jewish Soul Food Restaurant Gallery in New York’s Soho district. Then on to California, she designed whimsical, wearable art that sold in Sonoma, Palm Springs and Tucson Galleries. Now living in Arizona she devotes her time to writing poetry. Her chapbook memoir, Changing Conversation, is filled with love, pain, tenderness, rancor, joy and grief of past voices that live in her ear. Her poetry has appeared in California Poetry Review, Sonoma Poets Collection, Desert Voices, The Blue Guitar Magazine, Unstrung and Voices of Israel on line and in Poetica Magazine.

Over/Time
Jonathon Todd is a poet and musician, living in South Philadelphia. His work deals with observations mainly written between breaks, trying to find humanity outside of and within labor. His work has been featured in Philadelphia Stories, The Lower East Side Review, and Shakefist Magazine among others.

The Dresden Zoo
Robert Zaller is Drexel Distinguished University Professor of History Emeritus. He is the author of six books and chapbooks of poetry: The Year One; Lives of the Poet; Invisible Music, For Empedocles, Islands, and, with Moonstone Press, Speaking to Power.

Frolic and Detour - Book Release
2019-12-04 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
A new collection from the Pulitzer Prize winning poet.
Though Frolic and Detour is Paul Muldoon’s thirteenth collection, it shows all the energy and ambition we might generally associate with a first book. Here, the poet brings his characteristic humor and humanity to the chickadee, the house wren, the deaths of Leonard Cohen and C. K. Williams, the Irish Rising, the Great War, and how “a streak of ragwort / may yet shine / as an off-the-record / remark becomes the party line.”
Sean Lynch, Host, Open Reading Follows

A Conversation Between Theodore Harris and Warren Longmire
2019-11-24 16:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Theodore A. Harris is a collagist, poet, and has co-authored books with Amiri Baraka, Our Flesh of Flames, and Malcolm X as Ideology, with Fred Moten, i ran from it and was still in it and TRIPTYCH: Text by Amiri Baraka and Jack Hirschman. Our Flesh of Flames “Posed against an eerily iridescent orange sky,” and Harris’ collaged landscapes are filled with urban dystopia. Upside down capitols, distorted bank notes pose the reality of a society fettered by the cash nexus. Controversial critic and poet Amiri Baraka provides lyrical assault through his captions with his trademark humor and biting social commentary.

Warren C. Longmire is a Philly native, expert level whistler, pushcart nominee, former poetry editor at Apiary Magazine. He’s been published in Painted Bride Quarterly, Eleven Eleven and is author of Ripped Winters and Do.Until.True.

This book will be available for purchase during the event.
Larry Robin, Host – Open Reading Follows

Cynthia Dewi Oka and Eleanor Wilner
2019-11-20 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Cynthia Dewi Oka is the author of Salvage: Poems and Nomad of Salt and Hard Water. Her work has appeared in ESPNW, Hyperallergic, Guernica, Scoundrel Time, Academy of American Poets, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and elsewhere.

Eleanor Wilner will be reading from her new collection, Before Our Eyes: New and Selected Poems. She received the 2019 Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement from the Poetry Society of America; her poems appear in more than fifty anthologies. Books will be available for purchase.
Larry Robin, host. Open Reading follows

Philadelphia Says: On War and Peace
2019-11-17 14:00 | The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
This Anthology centers its focus on the aspects of War and Peace, and how it has evolved alongside technology and ideology. Contributors will be reading their poems.The anthology will be for sale to the public.
In Tandem With:
Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans who Opposed the War

Featuring: Kenneth Campbell, Marine combat veteran; VVAW Activist, Associate Professor Emeritus, U of Delaware; Ron Carver and Barbara Doherty, Co-editors, Waging Peace in Vietnam; David Connolly, Member, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Poet, Author of Lost in America; Judith Chomsky, Co-Founder, Philadelphia Resistance; International Human Rights Attorney; W. D. Ehrhart, Vietnam Veteran, Poet Author, Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems; Lamont B. Steptoe, Vietnam Veteran; Poet; winner of an American Book Award and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts; Author of Uncle’s South Sea China Blue Nightmare

“No one did more to bring an end to America’s cruel and unjust war in Vietnam than the patriotic GIs and veterans who turned against it. This extraordinary history of their struggle should inspire all of us who seek to end the ongoing and interrelated threats of war, nuclear doomsday, and environmental catastrophe.”
–Daniel Ellsberg, The Pentagon Papers
Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading follows

New Voices 2: Philadelphia's Emerging Poets
2019-11-17 14:00 | Shakespeare and Co., 1632 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Our second anthology of poets under 25 drawn from the readers at our monthly poetry reading and submissions to the book. Contributors will be reading their poems and the book will be for sale to the public.
Krissan, Host – Open Reading Follows

Moonstone Presents: Julia Blumenreich, Charles Carr
2019-11-14 18:30 | Shakespeare and Co., 1632 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Julia Blumenreich is a recipient of a Pennsylvania Arts Council grant for her poetry and was a finalist for the 2016 Brittany Noakes Poetry Award. In 2012, she collaborated with the visual artist, Wendy Osterweil, on ‘Reforesting: An Homage to Gil Ott’ a poetry/sculptural installation/print show at The Painted Bride Art Center.

Charles Carr was educated at LaSalle and Bryn Mawr College and has worked in social and community development services for 45 years. He has been active in raising funds for various missions and organizations serving the poorest of the poor In Haiti. In 2007 Charles was The Mad Poets Review First Prize Winner for his poem “Waiting To Come North”. Charles has two published books of poetry: paradise, pennsylvania and Haitian Mudpies & Other Poems.

Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading follows

Moonstone Presents: Michael R. Brown, W. D. Ehrhart
2019-11-13 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Michael R. Brown has five books of poetry and has performed poetry, taught classes, and lectured in various world venues from the Stockholm to South Korea. Instrumental in bringing the poetry slam to New England, he created both the Cantab weekly series and the theatrical show Dr. Brown’s Traveling Poetry Circus.

W. D. Ehrhart is a veteran of both the American War in Vietnam and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a recipient of two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowships, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, an Excellence in the Arts Award from Vietnam Veterans of America, and the President’s Medal from Veterans for Peace, he will be reading from his newest book, Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems. This Book Will Be Available At The Event.

Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading follows

Remembering Walt Whitman
2019-11-10 14:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Walt Whitman was born 200 years ago (May 31, 1819), his life coincided with a time of great division in America—the Civil War. Whitman eulogized the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in “O Captain! My Captain!”, a moment in history marked by hatred and bloodshed. His poem “The Wound Dresser” described the job of a first aid responder on the battlefield, in which he mourns the loss of life that the division of the United States caused.
Join the contributors of Remembering Walt Whitman as they read their tributes to The Bard of Democracy

Moonstone Presents: Sean Lynch, Joseph Rathgeber, Lamont B. Steptoe
2019-11-06 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Sean Lynch is a leftist poet and editor who lives in South Philly. His poems have been published in various journals and he is the author of four chapbooks.

Joseph Rathgeber is an author and poet from New Jersey. He is author of Mixedbloods and The Abridged Autobiography of Yousef R. and Other Stories.

Lamont B. Steptoe is an award-winning poet, a Vietnam veteran, photographer and founder of Whirlwind Press. He has published sixteen collections of poems and is winner of an American Book Award, a Pew fellow in the Arts and two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts awards.

Open Reading Follows

Whitman and Sexuality - 2019 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series at PhillyCam
2019-11-05 18:30 | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
The program is broadcast live on the first Tuesday of each month. The program is free and open to everyone. Please join us.
Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS 29/30 in Philadelphia.

David Acosta is the Artistic Director of Casa De Duende. His poetry has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies. Among the most notable are Mayrena, The Painted Bride Quarterly, The Evergreen Chronicles, and The Americas Review. He was a founding member of the Philadelphia based Latinx artist collective Desde Este Lado/From This Side and a founding member and one of the editors of its literary magazine.

Lynn Levin is a poet, writer, translator, and teacher. She is the author of seven books, including the poetry collection Miss Plastique and a translation from the Spanish, Birds on the Kiswar Tree by Odi Gonzales. Her newest book, as co-author, is Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets, Second Edition. Lynn Levin teaches at Drexel University where she has taught classes on the poetry of Walt Whitman and co-coordinated Drexel Celebrates Whitman at 200, part of the regional series Whitman at 200: Art and Democracy.
Andrew Nurkin is the Deputy Director for Enrichment and Civic Engagement at the Free Library of Philadelphia. From 2012 to 2017, Andrew served as the Executive Director of Princeton AlumniCorps and was previously on the staff of the Pace Center for Civic Engagement at Princeton University.

-Charles S. Carr, Host

Moonstone Presents: Michael B. Carroll Jr., Dr. Mbarek Sryfi
2019-10-30 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Michael B. Carroll Jr. is a graduate of West Chester University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Professional Studies (Health Science / Psychology dual minor). He is a native of Philadelphia, PA and has published creative work in The Esthetic Apostle Literary Magazine.

Dr. Mbarek Sryfi is lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, scholar, poet, and translator. His translations and article have appeared in CELAAN Review, Metamorphoses, World Literature Today, Banipal, Translation Review, and the Journal of North African Studies.

–Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading Follows

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

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

-Charles S. Carr, Host

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

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

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

Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts – Open Reading Follows

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

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

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

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

Krisann Janowitz, Host – Open Reading Follows

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

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

Ryan Eckes, Host — Open Reading Follows

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

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

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

-Charles Carr, Host, Open Reading Follows

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

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

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

Sean Lynch, Host, Open Reading follows

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

Charles S. Carr, Host

Ahmad Almallah and Olga Livshin @ Fergie's Pub
2019-09-25 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday September 25, 2019 – 7pm
Moonstone Poetry @ the Pub, Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
“Mother Tongue” – Both poets grew up with another first language
Ahmad Almallah’s first book of poems Bitter English will be out this September. He received the 2018 Edith Goldberg Paulson Memorial Prize for Creative Writing. His set of poems “Recourse,” won the 2017 Blanche Colton Williams Fellowship.
Olga Livshin is a poet and literary translator, and author of A Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman. Her previous work has been recognized by CALYX journal’s Lois Cranston Memorial Prize, and she is co-founder of From Across the Waters, a reading series devoted to immigration.
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts – Open Reading Following

Yearning to Breathe Free: Poetry from the Immigrant Community
2019-09-22 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Book Release and Reading – September 22nd
Emma Lazarus writes in The New Colossus, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Lazarus’ full poem is engraved on a plaque inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and can be read here
Her message was clear and proud—the colossus that stands near Manhattan is a symbol of acceptance. The statue of Liberty guides the way with her torch held high, hoping that all the tired and poor might find hope and refuge in the United States. Many Americans felt they were gifted with a land of opportunity, and many still feel this way today.
However, this is no longer a reality for immigrants. One might even argue that it was an illusion from the start. With the history of immigration to the United States at hand, you might notice that the immigration stance of the Trump administration is nothing new. The lack of willingness from American communities to accept immigrants has always been there—it’s just that now a multi-billion-dollar wall is being built for it.

Joel Dias-Porter and Sibelan Forrester @ Fergie's Pub
2019-09-18 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday September 18, 2019 – 7pm
Moonstone Poetry @ the Pub, Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Joel Dias-Porter (aka DJ Renegade) was a Haiku Slam Champion. His poems have been published in journals and anthologies including Time Magazine, The Washington Post, POETRY, Best American Poetism, Callalloo, Gathering Ground, Role Call, Def Poetry Jam, and Poetry Nation. He received the Furious Flower “Emerging Poet Award.” A Cave Canem fellow, he has a CD of jazz and poetry entitled ‘LibationSong’.
Sibelan Forrester is author of Second-Hand Fate and has published translations of poetry and prose from Croatian, Russian and Serbian. Her poems have appeared in Apiary, Small Craft Warnings, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and others. She is host of the Mad Poets Society’s First Wednesday Readings at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, PA and she is a professor of Russian language and literature at Swarthmore College.
Dave Worrell, host – open reading follows

Tribute to Peter E. Murphy @ the South Philadelphia Library
2019-09-15 14:00 | South Philadelphia Free Library, 1700 S. Broad Street (Morris Street), Philadelphia, PA, 19145, United States
Sunday September 15, 2019 – 2pm
Moonstone Poetry @ the South Philadelphia Library, 1700 S. Broad Street
Join us in celebrating the work & impact of Peter E. Murphy, author of ten books and chapbooks including two books of writing prompts and Stubborn Child. The founder of Murphy Writing of Stockton University, Peter has received dozens of awards and fellowships, was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize, and has led hundreds of workshops for writers & teachers.
Release of A Tribute to Peter D. Murphy and readings by the contributors.

New Voices @ Shakespeare & Co.
2019-09-15 14:00 | Shakespeare and Co., 1632 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Sunday September 15, 2019 – 2pm
Moonstone Poetry @ Shakespeare & Co. 1632 Walnut St
New Voices: Philadelphia’s Emerging Poets
Joey Iozzi, 17, attends the Performing Arts Academy (NJ). An Acting major, he is influenced by the artists he surrounds himself with. While performing, he found his love of speech and how impactful it can be to not only perform, but to write as well.
Alex Mark, 21, is a senior English major at Saint Joseph’s University, and serves as Online Editor for The Hawk Student Newspaper (for which she has written over 30 articles in the past 3 years). She is published in Crimson & Gray (the university’s student-run literary journal). Her favorite authors include Oscar Wilde, Anne Rice, and Haruki Murakami.
Spencer Nitkey, 22, is a writer and poet based in Philadelphia, PA. His poems and prose have appeared in Short Editions, The Gateway Review, Critical Read, and more. He recently graduated Temple University with a degree in journalism and is passionate about learning, people, literature, and innovation.

Elise Brand, Steve Deutsch, and Jacalyn Shelley @ Fergie's Pub
2019-09-11 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday September 11, 2019 – 7pm
Moonstone Poetry @ the Pub, Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Elise Brand is an English teacher, writer, poet, and adviser of Journeys to America and The Maple Legacy. Her poetry has appeared in journals and she served on the board of MCPL for six years.
Steve Deutsch writes poetry, short fiction and a blog. His work has appeared in Eclectica Magazine, The Ekphrastic Review, New Verse News, Silver and other journals.
Jacalyn Shelley, a member of the South Jersey Poets Collective, participates in poetry readings in Atlantic City and hosts the Leap Street Poets Workshop. She’s been published in various journals and she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Dave Worrell, host – open reading follows
