Banned Books Week 2024
2024-09-22 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | virtual
Banned Books Week 2024
Sunday September 22, 2024
Virtual on Zoom – 2pm
Registration Required: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/86935252863?pwd=[REDACTED]
“This is a dangerous time for readers and the public servants who provide access to reading materials. Readers, particularly students, are losing access to critical information, and librarians and teachers are under attack for doing their jobs.” – Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom
Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. In a time of intense political polarization, library staff in every state are facing an unprecedented number of attempts to ban books. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom ALA documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans for more than 20 years ago. The unparalleled number of reported book challenges in 2022 nearly doubles the 729 book challenges reported in 2021. Of the record 2,571 unique titles targeted for censorship, most were by or about LGBTQIA+ persons and Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Coming from the book industry Larry, Robin’s Book Store, and Moonstone have always fought censorship. Join us as Poets respond to the issue of suppression and their right to write.
Over 30 poets shared their works to combat book banning for our anthology.
Featured Poets
not all contributors will be reading

Austin Alexis
Susan Baer
Anne Catharine Blake
Charles Briggs
Sharnta Bullard
AJ Chilson
Suzanne Cooke
Linda M. Crate
Amber Deamer

Joanne Durham
Ana Fores Tamayo
Beejay Grob
Steven Halpern
Jane Ellen Ibur
Jones Irwin
Mindy Kronenberg
Eelka Lampe

Kinard Lang
Scott Leff
Daphne M
Curtis Nelson
Faith Paulsen
Elijah Pringle
David Radavich
Janet Restino
Linda Romanowski

Kasey Ryman
George Schaefer
Jennifer Schneider
Kendall Snee
Ken Waldman
Eike Waltz
Kelley White
Samantha Wright

The Art of Inclusion: The Story of Larry Robin and Moonstone
2024-09-25 17:30 - 20:00 | The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Moonstone Poetry & the Free Library of Philadelphia present
Wednesday September 25, 2024, 5:30pm – LIVE
Free Library of Philadelphia Central Branch Skyline Room
1901 Vine Street
THE ART OF INCLUSION
THE STORY OF LARRY ROBIN
& MOONSTONE
A Celebration of the Arts and Free Speech!

Many of us have connections with Larry and Moonstone Arts Center. You may have gone to school at Moonstone’s Early Childhood Education Program, founded by Larry and Sandy Robin. You may be published by Moonstone Press. You may have participated in New Voices, the Annual Poetry Ink readings, Celebration of Black Writing, Festival Cubano, The Paul Robeson Festival, the Hidden Story Programs, the International Voices readings on Zoom, or another of Moonstone’s successful programs. You may have stood at an open mic at Fergie’s Pub and spoken your first poem in public¡ You might still have that copy of Tropic of Cancer you bought from Robin’s Book Store while they successfully defied the censorship ban on the book!

28th Poetry Ink: LIVE
2024-09-29 14:00 - 17:00 | The Rotunda, 14014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Moonstone Poetry & The Rotunda present
28th Annual Poetry Ink Reading LIVE
Sunday September 29, 2024, 2pm
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
We want you all: published poets, unpublished poets, academic poets, street poets, poets who write Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku, Ekphrastic Poems, Concrete Poems, Epitaph, Elegy, Epigram, Limerick, Ballad, Ode, Free Verse, and all other forms. Join us for our 28th year of presenting 100 poets reading in alphabetical order.
We are LIVE at the Rotunda at 2pm on Sunday, September 29.
If you live further away – we will be virtual on Monday, September 30 at 7pm via Zom
Register for the virtual event on Sept. 30th: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88202311343?pwd=[REDACTED]

28th Poetry Ink: VIRTUAL
2024-09-30 19:00 - 21:00 | virtual
Moonstone Poetry presents
28th Annual Poetry Ink Reading VIRTUAL
Monday, September 30th, 2024, 7pm
Online via Zoom, register here: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88202311343?pwd=[REDACTED]
We want you all: published poets, unpublished poets, academic poets, street poets, poets who write Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku, Ekphrastic Poems, Concrete Poems, Epitaph, Elegy, Epigram, Limerick, Ballad, Ode, Free Verse, and all other forms. Join us for our 28th year of presenting 100 poets reading in alphabetical order.
Buy your copy of the anthology here: https://moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/28th-annual-poetry-ink/491

Live Poetry: Mia Kang, Allayna Nofs, and Herman Beavers
2024-10-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Live Poetry
Wednesday October 9, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street and on Zoom
Register for Zoom access: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpceivqTIpHNL2TDUW4c3-ZEqlzjU3eIE9
Mia Kang is the author of City Poems, Apparent Signs and the winner of the 2023 Airlie Prize for All Empires Must. She lives in Philadelphia with two cats, is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Folklore Project. She holds a PhD in the history of art from Yale University, and she has taught at Hunter College, the Cooper Union, University of the Arts, and Yale College.

Allayna Nofs is the author of It’s not them, it’s me, a collection of poetry published in 2019. She is also the sorceress behind the poetry series, Blossoming, which runs (almost) monthly out of West Philadelphia. If she’s not at the park admiring the trees, she might be doing math homework by the river. A collection of her written words can be found on her Substack, at www.allaynanofs.substack.com.

Herman Beavers is Professor of English and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent poems have appeared in Cleaver Magazine, The American Arts Quarterly and been anthologized in The 2014 Anthology of Featured Poets and Obsession: Sestinas for the Twenty-First Century. He serves as an advisory editor for The African American Review, The Black Scholar, and Modern Fiction Studies.

Live Poetry: Courtney Bambrick, Hayden Saunier, and Jevon Simeon
2024-10-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry
Wednesday October 16, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on Zoom
Register here for Zoom access: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkcOqgrj0qEtf2cVm92zWRaL5QhY1ri2if

Courtney Bambrick teaches writing at Thomas Jefferson University’s East Falls campus in Philadelphia. She was poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories until 2024. Her own poems appear or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Mom Egg Review, Landlocked, Pinhole, Thimble, SWWIM Everyday, New York Quarterly, Invisible City, and more. Her chapbook World Without is available from Bottlecap Press.

Hayden Saunier is the author of six poetry collections including her new book, Wheel, (Terrapin: 2024). Her work has been published in 32 Poems, Beloit Poetry Journal, diode, Southern Poetry Review, The Sun, and VQR and featured on Poetry Daily, The Writer’s Almanac, and Verse Daily. Awards include a Pushcart Prize, Pablo Neruda Award, and Rattle Poetry Prize www.haydensaunier.com.

Jevon Simeon says “As I touch the pencil I start to remember I am a writer. I am a Juggernaut. My melanin is the exposition of art itself. I rise with the sun. I am the moon. Im just a Poet that tries to balance the dark and light within me, to find peace within myself I relinquish this into my poetry as it creates imagery to inspire people to see beauty in themselves. I’m a child of the sea with Caribbean blood running through my veins.
Sean Hanahan Host, Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Doris Ferleger & Lisa Grunberger
2024-10-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry
Wednesday October 23, 2 024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on Zoom
Register for Zoom access here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvf-6grzMoGNPJ5xjAbNU3zuz66tQya37z

Doris Ferleger, poet laureate emeritus of Montgomery County PA, and winner of the New Millennium Poetry Prize, New Letters Poetry, Songs of Eretz Prize, and AROHO CNF Prize, among others, is the author of five full-length poetry books, including Big Silences in a Year of Rain, As the Moon Has Breath, Leavened, As for the Kiss, and To Claim Loneliness and a chapbook entitled When You Become Snow. Her work has been published in numerous journals including Cortland Review, Delmarva Review, and Poet Lore. Her sixth book, entitled when the night is near as a bird was a finalist for the four-way prize. Ferleger holds an MFA in Poetry and a Ph.D. in Psychology and maintains a private therapy practice. Aliki Barnestone writes: Ferleger’s memorable poems keep singing with their insistent beauty.

Lisa Grunberger is a first-generation American writer, author of I am dirty and Born Knowing, lyrical reflections on life as a woman, a mother, and a daughter of Holocaust survivors. For the Future of Girls was nominated for an Eric Hoffer Independent Press Award, Almost Pregnant, is her play about infertility and assisted reproductive technologies.
Whether it is the aging woman’s body, the infertile body, the body ravaged by war and trauma, all her work addresses human embodiment in a philosophical, spiritual, tender and satirical voice. Lisa’s poems have been translated into Slovenian, Russian, Spanish and Yiddish. Lisa teaches Yoga and Writing workshops and lives with her family in Philadelphia. Her website is www.Lisa-Grunberger.com.
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook Hosts, Open Reading Follows

Virtual Reading: Remembering Dylan Thomas
2024-10-27 14:00 - 15:00 | virtual
Virtual Reading: Remembering Dylan Thomas
Sunday October 27, 2024 – 2pm EST – VIRTUAL
Register for Zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpdu6hqDMsGdZRzlthm1ZEK-xUGy30g20b
Remembering Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “And death shall have no dominion”, as well as the “play for voices” Under Milk Wood. He also wrote stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child’s Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became widely popular in his lifetime and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then, he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a “roistering, drunken and doomed poet”.
Poets will be reading their work from our latest anthology honoring Dylan Thomas’s legacy.

Live Poetry: William Hazard & Ari Villeda-Martinez
2024-10-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry
Wednesday October 30, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom
Use this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlceyhrj4uGdcKVBmb7dFEdUot8n6Ea8AL
William Hazard makes poems with computers. Recent work can be found in Voicemail Poems, Bring a Blanket Zine, Ghost Proposal, Beloved Radio, Audio Flare Gun, and on GitHub. He teaches at Temple University. He hangs out at llllllll.co

A Latinx poet, educator, and general transgender menace, Ari Villeda-Martinez (she/they) is a performer and artist who thrives in the seemingly liminal space between the seat and the stage. She is a maker most interested in how an audience creates their own tether to a spoken narrative and can breach the wall to the page. Her work is intimate, precise, and at its best, devours.

Aaron Gadbury & Lindsay Hargarve Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Reading: Our State of the Union
2024-11-03 14:00 - 15:00 | Virtual
DID YOU VOTE? The State of The Nation – Get Out The Vote
Sunday November 3, 2024 – 2pm EST – VIRTUAL
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqfuuhrz0vE9NAdRMQxqD0VzHTSKiDCQts
THIS ELECTION IS IMPORTANT
Things you can do to increase participation: • Remind those in your life to vote and invite them to voter education events like debates. • Ask them to visit www.VOTE411.org to find their polling place and learn what will be on their ballot. • Ask about their voting plan for Election Day. Research shows that by asking voters whether they have an Election Day plan (how will they get to the polls? At what time?), you will increase their chances of participating. • Keep it brief and friendly! • Be helpful. Have election dates, polling locations, and other information at your fingertips so that you can help address any questions.
Join us as poets reflect on the election, voting, and raising the voices of the people.

Post-Election Opening Reading
2024-11-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Post-Election Open Reading
Wednesday November 6, 2024 – 7pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
and on Zoom
Register for Zoom access: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIucOivqzwpE9Y9pjEDMm49e2mnxwyCipMH
Election 2024 Open Reading
Whatever happened yesterday
poets will have something to say
Join us to cheer or moan.

Remembering Jim Cory
2024-11-09 11:30 - 14:00 | PA
Remembering Jim Cory
Moonstone’s Remembering Jim Cory event has been cancelled to support another memorial from Jim’s friends and family. The memorial and informal reading will be hosted at the Philadelphia Ethical Society on November 9th at 11:30am.
More information about the event is available on Facebook here.

Philly Loves Poetry: Eileen D'Angelo
2024-11-12 18:30 - 19:30 | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Philly Loves Poetry: Eileen M. D’Angelo
Tuesday November 12, 2024 – 6:30pm – VIRTUAL
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM – Watch on the Phillycam website
Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 – In Philadelphia.
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Eileen M. D’Angelo, twice nominated for a Pennsylvania Governor’s Award in the Arts, she received two Pushcart Prize / Best of the Small Press nominations from Verse Magazine and Schuylkill Valley Journal. Her poetry, essays and book reviews have been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, the News of Delaware County, Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century, Manhattan Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, Drexel Online Journal, Wild River Review, Philadelphia Stories, Philadelphia Poets, The Independent Review, Negative Capability, One Trick Pony, Odessa Poetry Journal, The Aurealean, Bookends, and others. Charles S. Carr, Host

Live Poetry: Thomas Devaney, Joanna Fuhrman, & Lauren Russell
2024-11-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry with Thomas Devaney, Joanna Fuhrman, & Lauren Russell
Wednesday November 13, 2024 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
And on Zoom – Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAlcuygqTIjHdP11BPGj4EeBp6GLWDFSkDJ
Thomas Devaney is a poet, facilitator, and educator based in Philadelphia. He is a Pew Fellow in the Arts with a focus on city building and community engagement. 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. He teaches creative writing at Haverford College and also works for the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University.
Joanna Fuhrman is the author of Freud in Brooklyn; Ugh Ugh Ocean; Moraine; Pageant, winner of the Kinereth Gensler Prize from Alice James Books; The Year of Yellow Butterflies; and To a New Era. Her poetry is humorous and surreal, mining references from pop and high culture. Writing about Fuhrman’s work for BOMBLOG, Susie DeFord observed that Fuhrman “takes the best of the surrealist and narrative poetry, weaving social and personal stories with extreme wit, imagination.” She has been poetry editor for Boog City and curator of the reading series for the Saint Mark’s Church Poetry Project in New York.

Lauren Russell is the author of A Window That Can Neither Open nor Close; Descent, winner of the Poetry Society of America’s 2021 Anna Rabinowitz Award; and What’s Hanging on the Hush. Russell has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and residencies from Millay Arts, Ucross, Yaddo, and MacDowell, among others. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, the New York Times Magazine, Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. She is an assistant professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and lives in Baltimore with her cats, Cat Jeoffry and Lady Day.

Virtual Reading: New Voices Fall 2024
2024-11-17 14:00 - 15:00 | virtual
Virtual Reading: New Voices Fall 2024
Sunday November 17, 2024 – 2pm EST – VIRTUAL
Register to access Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIocu6tpzotGNe7ciI7XVSoht8wYC9CkeMW
New Voices Anthology – Fall 2024 – A series for emerging poets between the ages of 10 and 25.
A monthly reading series and a bi-annual publication which strives to bring together younger poets from
various communities. We tend to gather in our own communities. There is nothing wrong with that
except we begin to sound alike, look alike, think alike. New Voices is our attempt to expand everyone’s
experience, to introduce other ways of everything and to give a platform to the young writers of this
generation.
We will also host a live, in-person reading on November 21st.

Live Poetry: Anisha Bhat, Jiordan Castle, & Alison Lubar
2024-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry with Anisha Bhat, Jiordan Castle, & Alison Lubar
Wednesday November 20, 2024 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street Philadelphia
And on Zoom: Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0lduGsrjgrHNCcGHTb5NF348kiwGXgbFsk
Anisha Bhat, originally from Chicago, Illinois, is a writer and staff member at Temple University where she directs research and creative programs for undergraduates. She has an MPhil in World History from the University of Cambridge and an MA in History from Northwestern University. In her free time she can be found buying too many books at used book stores, eating at the same five restaurants in South Philly, or working on her first poetry chapbook.
Jiordan Castle is the author of Disappearing Act, a memoir in verse. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Rumpus, The Millions, and elsewhere. Her poetry and nonfiction are forthcoming in the anthologies Best New Poets (2024) and What My Father and I Don’t Talk About (2025). She received her MFA in poetry from Hunter College and currently lives in Philadelphia with her husband and their dog.
Alison Lubar teaches high school English by day and yoga by night. They are a queer, nonbinary, mixed-race femme whose life work (aside from wordsmithing) has evolved into bringing mindfulness practices, and sometimes even poetry, to young people. Their work has been nominated for both the Pushcart & Best of the Net, and they’re the author four chapbooks: Philosophers Know Nothing About Love (Thirty West Publishing House, 2022), queer feast (Bottlecap Press, 2022), sweet euphemism (CLASH!, Spring 2023), and it skips a generation (Stanchion, Fall 2023). You can find out more at http://www.alisonlubar.com/ or on Twitter @theoriginalison.
Sean Hanrahan, Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry: Remembering Louis McKee
2024-11-24 14:00 - 15:30 | Virtual
Remembering Louis McKee (July 31, 1951– November 21, 2011)
Sunday November 24, 2024@ 2pm EDT – VIRTUAL
On Zoom, register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pceChqzgjGdayBxHLCQaGDjDwjYHv85Xm
Louis McKee was an American poet and a fixture of the Philadelphia poetry scene from the early 1970s. He was the author of Schuylkill County, The True Speed of Things, and fourteen other collections. More recently, he published River Architecture: Poems from Here & There 1973-1993, Loose Change, and a volume in the Pudding House Greatest Hits series. Gerald Stern called his work “heart-breaking” and “necessary,” while William Stafford has written, “Louis McKee makes me think of how much fun it was to put your hand out a car window and make the air carry you into quick adventures and curlicues. He is so adept at turning all kinds of sudden glimpses into good patterns.” Naomi Shihab Nye says, “Louis McKee is one of the truest hearts and voices in poetry we will ever be lucky to know.”

Live Poetry: Raheem Curry, Ryan Eckes, & Anne-Adele Wight
2024-11-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry with Raheem Curry, Ryan Eckes, & Anne-Adele Wight
Wednesday November 27, 2024 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia
And on Zoom – Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtfuCorz8vHt28FDDrKEX9WwircLjanJS4
Raheem Curry is a writer and photographer from Kensington, Philadelphia. He was inspired to write during his 9th grade year in high school by his English teacher after his father’s sudden death. Raheem published his first chapbook of poems in 2020, Infinite Views of A Ghetto Boy. He has published various singular poems in a multitude of different anthologies. His recent poem (Brothers Raising Brothers to be Men) was published in the national anthology titled Black Fire-This Time, Volume 2.
Ryan Eckes is a poet from Philadelphia. He is the author of Wrong Heaven Again, General Motors, Valu-Plus and Old News, as well as several chapbooks. His poems have appeared in Prolit, Protean Magazine, Tripwire, Wax Nine Journal, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere. With Kim Gek Lin Short, he runs Radiator Press.
Anne-Adele Wight is the author of An Internet of Containment, The Age of Greenhouses, Opera House Arterial, and Sidestep Catapult.
“It is exciting watching a new Anne-Adele Wight poetry fan holding her latest book, their faces beaming until they look up with Wow! Her poetry is a hidden American treasure no longer as more and more poets are sharing her books. It is a privilege to read a poet who has dedicated years to her craft, giving the world some of the best poems we will ever read. The Age of Greenhouses made me say Wow over and over! Let the celebration begin!” –CA Conrad
Open Reading Follows

Virtual Reading: Remembering Dennis Brutus
2024-12-01 14:00 - 15:30 | virtual
Sunday December 1, 2024 @ 2pm EDT – VIRTUAL
Remembering Dennis Brutus (1924 – 2009)
On Zoom, register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZErfu-prjIiE9eezsl16I2_NXEdA45fkVSb
Born in Zimbabwe, poet and human rights activist Dennis Brutus grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and was educated at Fort Hare University College. He taught high school for 14 years until he was dismissed for antiapartheid activism. After studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand and becoming increasingly active in movements opposing racial discrimination in sports, Brutus was shot and then sentenced to 18 months of hard labor on Robben Island, alongside Nelson Mandela. Forbidden to write or publish after his release, Brutus left South Africa in 1966 for England and then the United States.
Brutus taught at the University of Denver, Northwestern University, and the University of Pittsburgh. His poetry collections include Salutes and Censures (1985), Stubborn Hope (1978), and Letter to Martha and Other Poems from a South African Prison (1969). Poetry and Protest: A Dennis Brutus Reader (2006) was edited by Aisha Karim and Lee Sustar, and The Dennis Brutus Tapes: Essays at Autobiography (2011) was edited by Bernth Lindfors.
Submit to our accompanying Remembering Dennis Brutus anthology by November 24th.

Human Rights Day
2024-12-15 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
VIRTUAL EVENT
Meeting Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkd-6srTItHNIPpFXO_9kEzg40jpTJAkA8
Seventy-five years ago, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in response to the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. The first document of its kind, developed by people from diverse backgrounds from around the world, declares that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” The declaration’s 30 articles outline essential freedoms for a just society—from education and medical care to food and participation in elections.
We take this opportunity to Resist State Sponsored Violence. Violence comes in many forms: physical violence, verbal violence (including hate speech), psychological violence, and socio-economic violence. In 2023 police killed 1352 victims in the United States.
We became involved because Eddie Irizanni was killed in Philadelphia by police officer Mark Dial on August 14, 2023, but the issue of state sponsored violence goes beyond murder, it includes the lack of educational opportunity and medical care, and all 30 elements in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Live Poetry: Serotonin Anthology Release Reading
2024-12-29 14:00 - 16:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Serotonin Anthology Release Reading
Sunday December 29, 2024 – 2pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
On zoom – Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vdemvrTkoHNCjR-UHD_ESBLD1ayB-_vOL
Cynthia Arrieu-King was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and earned her PhD from the University of Cincinnati. A former Kundiman Fellow, Arrieu-King is the author of the poetry chapbook The Small Anything City and the full-length poetry collections People Are Tiny in Paintings of China and Manifest. With Sophia Kartsonis, she coauthored the chapbook By Some Miracle a Year Lousy with Meteors. She also cowrote the collection Unlikely Conditions with the late Hillary Gravendyk. Arrieu-King teaches at Stockton University and has been a poet at the Dodge Poetry Festival.
Jane-Rebecca Cannarella is a writer and editor living in West Philadelphia. She edits HOOT Review, a magazine published on postcards, Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit, a broadside press, and was an editor for Lunch Ticket from 2015 to 2017. Jane-Rebecca is the author of the flash fiction collections, Better Bones and Thirst and Frost, as well as the poetry collections, A Practical Almanac for Surviving Inside the Human, Eleven Hundred, and others. She works as a paralegal for an immigration law firm.
Sean Hanrahan is a Philadelphian poet originally hailing from Dale City, Virginia. He is the author of the full-length collections Ghost Signs and Safer Behind Popcorn and the chapbooks Hardened Eyes on the Scan and Gay Cake. His work has also been included in several anthologies, including Moonstone Featured Poets, Queer Around the World, and Stonewall’s Legacy, and several journals, including Impossible Archetype, Poetica Review, and Voicemail Poems. He has taught classes titled A Chapbook in 49 Days and Ekphrastic Poetry and hosted poetry events throughout Philadelphia.
Warren C. Longmire is a writer, performer and teacher from the bad part of North Philadelphia. He hosts House Poet: A Spoken Word Dance Party and founded _mixlit. Warren’s work has been published in journals including Action, Spectacle, The Cleveland Review of Books, R&R, The Best American Poetry 2021, and A Black Philadelphia Reader: African American Writings About the City of Brotherly Love. His latest book, Bird/Diz [an erased history of bebop] was released in Nov. 2022 through Bunnie Press. Warren is currently a student at the Iowa Writers Workshop pursuing an MFA in Poetry.
Amber Renee is a chronic writer from Bucks County, PA. Known to mix mediums, Author of Thoughts on This Most Recent Episode i feel like i’m nothing In memory, energy, Nothing / is Forever. She’s is current co-creating brand new Poetry-Songs with Jake Noonan under the band name “The Goodbye Mind.” The duo’s songs are currently available on Spotify & Youtube. Find Amber on social media @amberreneepoet or @thegoodbyemind
Amy Saul-Zerby is the author of Paper Flowers Imaginary Birds, Deep Camouflage, and Choose Your Own Beginning. Her poems have appeared in The Rumpus, The Chicago Review of Books, American Poetry Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and elsewhere. She edits Voicemail Poems.
Sean Lynch – Host – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry: Remembering T. S. Eliot
2025-01-05 14:00 - 15:30 | virtual
Remembering T. S. Eliot
Sunday January 5, 2025
2pm EST virtual
Register for the Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItdOuopzkpHtZMtMmL-wsKMt33Qh3uvIr-
(26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright, a leading figure in English-language Modernist poetry where he reinvigorated the art through the use of language, writing style, and verse structure. Also noted for his critical essays, which often re-evaluated long-held cultural beliefs, he wrote seven plays, notably Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party and was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature, “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”.
Poets read from our Remembering T. S. Eliot anthology.

Live Poetry: House Poet with Mike Bagwell and Michael Ivory
2025-01-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: House Poet with Mike Bagwell and Michael Ivory
Wednesday January 8, 2025 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
On Zoom – Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpdu-spzsiEtHWlYze5LmC-S7s1MFjVGdK
House Poet @ Fergie’s Pub – Since March 2022, House Poet has strived to bring together writers, dancers, DJs, and musicians. Join us as we bring that energy to Moonstone’s Poetry Nights at Fergies, which features an open reading, featured readers, live music, and a soundtrack you can dance to.
Mike Bagwell is a debris language and a writer in Philly. He’s deep into a multimedia Gilgamesh translation that’ll be hundreds of thousands of pages and take 200 years to complete. Recent work appears in Action Spectacle, ITERANT, Sprung Formal, Annulet, Tyger Quarterly, THRUSH, and others. He runs the Ghost Harmonics reading series. Find him at mikebagwell.me, @low_gh0st, or playing dragons with his daughters
Michael Ivory is a Miami, FL native whose journeys have led him to Philadelphia. A preacher’s kid by birth and a magician in his daydreams, his writing has been an unending journey to share the magic he feels in the everyday with others. Whether it’s the wonder of water, the anointing that is queerness, or the way-making power of Black folks, he wants to help people marvel at it. His work can be read in Waterproof: Evidence of a Miami Worth Remembering and heard in the forthcoming Audio-Anthology: Who We Are is Made, both published with O, Miami. Michael holds an MFA in Fiction from North Carolina State University and can be found using his spare time becoming a Pokemon master or laughing way too loudly.
Lindsay Hargrave, Warren Longmire – Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Jon Lawrence, MJ McGinn, VA Smith, and Amy Beth Sission
2025-01-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry with Jon Lawrence, MJ McGinn, VA Smith, and Amy Beth Sission
Wednesday January 15, 2025 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
Or register for Zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEscOiprj4vHN0alIAMAjPkfzE1D9sbPaZe
Jon Lawrence currently teaches high school English and Creative Writing in his hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He received an MFA in Creative Writing at the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. He is the author of the chapbook A Phrase Which Becomes Us (Bottlecap Press, 2024) and his poetry and reviews have been published in Newfound, American Writers Review, The Bangalore Review, Wild Roof Journal, and others.
MJ McGinn received his MFA from Adelphi University and was a VCCA resident in 2019. His work has been included in the Wigleaf 50 best very short stories and has previously appeared in the Guernica/PEN Flash Series, Necessary Fiction, Lost Balloon, X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, LIT Magazine, and elsewhere. He lives and teaches middle school in Philadelphia.
VA Smith, author of Biking Through the Stone Age and American Daughters, is a frequent Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. Her work has appeared in several anthologies and in dozens of literary journals, among them: Southern Review, Calyx, Crab Creek Review, West Trade Review and Burningword Literary Journal. A former Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence awardee at Penn State University as a Professor of Teaching in The Department of English, VA gigs now as Poetry Editor at River Heron Review.
Amy Beth Sisson lives near the skunk cabbages in a town outside of Philly. Her poetry has appeared in Cleaver Magazine, The Night Heron Barks, Ran Off With the Star Bassoon, Philadelphia Stories, The Shoutflower, Hot Pink Magazine, and others. She received her MFA in poetry from Rutgers University Camden in 2023 and was a 2024 Peter Taylor Fellow with the Kenyon Review Writing Workshops. She is an Associate Artist with the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice and is an Editorial and Special Projects Assistant for Fence Publishers.
Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Terri Lyons, Debrah Morkun, and J. C. Todd
2025-01-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Terri Lyons, Debrah Morkun, and J. C. Todd
Wednesday January 22, 2025 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
For Zoom, register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIlfuirpzwsG9x38xszu1yyCB6qJwrpYsAr
Terri Lyons is a Philadelphia based poet and playwright who has collaborated with a variety of urban initiatives to support cultural and historical enrichment. Her latest book is Light of the August Moon, highlighting the black excursion through the 20th century. She instigates joy and savors truth with her spoken word collection while inspiring our youth to understand the value of history and recognize their own potential. Terri has received numerous awards including citations from the City of Philadelphia, the State of Pennsylvania, and the 14th and 35th District of Philadelphia Police Department. She has had several successful performances of her play, When the Truth Comes Out, highlighting the silent architects of the modern civil rights movement. (Photo credit Cleo Townsend)
Debrah Morkun believes in near death experiences and prays to the old gods. She practices magic and the coin toss, hoping to synthesize the two into holy orders. She is the author of The Ida Pingala and Projection Machine, as well as several chapbooks.
J. C. Todd’s most recent books include a bilingual (English/Lithuanian collection, What Kept Me Awake?/Kas neleido uzmigti?, Beyond Repair, and The Damages of Morning,. She is a co-editor of the anthology Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War, forthcoming from Scarlet Tanager Press in 2025. Winner of the Rita Dove Prize and twice a finalist for Poetry Society of America awards, JC holds fellowships from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Poems have appeared in the Beloit Poetry Journal, The Paris Review, The Night Heron Barks and other journals.
Anne-Adele Wight Host – Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Ernest Hilbert, Dennis Hinrichsen, and Sheleen McElhinney
2025-01-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
For Zoom, register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtdumgqDsuGdAWcqR8ZcE1s8-QCdemDt6n
Ernest Hilbert it the author of the poetry collections Sixty Sonnets, All of You on the Good Earth, Caligulan—selected as winner of the 2017 Poets’ Prize—Last One Out, and Storm Swimmer, selected by Rowan Ricardo Phillips as the winner of the 2022 Vassar Miller Prize. Visit him at www.ernesthilbert.com
Dennis Hinrichsen is the author is eleven books of poetry. His most recent is Dominion + Selected Poems (Green Linden, 2024). Previous books have won the Akron, Field, Tampa, Michael Waters, Grid and Wishing Jewel Poetry Prizes. New work can be found in The Indianapolis Review, Midwest Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Swing and Third Coast.
Sheleen McElhinney is the author of Every Little Vanishing, the winner of the 2021 Write Bloody Publishing book award. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Lily Poetry Review, Bayou Magazine, Slant, Free State Review, and elsewhere. She currently teaches poetry to adults in recovery from substance abuse. She lives in Bucks County, Pa, where she was born and raised.
Open Reading Follows

Live Broadcast: Alison Hicks
2025-02-04 18:30 - 20:30 | PA
Tuesday February 4th at 6:30pm
Moonstone Poetry @PhillyCAM
Can be viewed for free on the Phillycam website or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 in Philadelphia.
Alison Hicks was awarded the 2021 Birdy Prize from Meadowlark Press for Knowing Is a Branching Trail. Previous collections are You Who Took the Boat Out and Kiss, a chapbook Falling Dreams, and a novella Love: A Story of Images. Her work has appeared in Eclipse, Gargoyle, Permafrost, and Poet Lore. She was finalist for the 2021 Beullah Rose prize from Smartish Pace, an Editor’s Choice selection for the 2024 Philadelphia Stories National Poetry Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Green Hills Literary Lantern, Quartet Journal, and Nude Bruce Review. She is founder of Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio, which offers community-based writing workshops.

Charles S. Carr hosts

The Moonstone Hosts 2024 Read
2025-02-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
The Moonstone Hosts 2024 Read: Live Poetry @ Fergies Pub
And on Zoom, register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlfuCurDksGdR2-uQW3lE4O8D8JI2H4c4P#/registration
Moonstone presents about 100 poetry readings and publishes 35 books a year.
We have numerous hosts representing various communities in a attempt to get you to listen to someone you never heard of. Nothing gives me more pleasure than “discovering” someone I don’t know read something I really like. This is the Art of Inclusion.
Charles Carr, author of paradise, pennsylvania and Haitian Mud Pies And Other Poemhost of Philly Loves Poetry a live monthly broadcast on PhillyCAM.
Mac Chandler has been published in some places and has done like a lot of cool literary things you’ve probably never heard of.
Massimo Elijah is a spoken word artist and Philadelphia native. He is thankful to be among so many people doing beautiful and positive things.
Aaron Gadbury is a poet & co-producer of @housepoetphilly. Known as a nightlife legend and dance icon.
Lindsay Hargrave reads poems with the improvised music group Oarsman and the indie pop band Mỹ Tâm and serves as managing editor for Rejection Letters.
Sean Hanrahan, author of several books and is included in several anthologies and journals, he is host of Moonstone third Wednesday at Fergie’s Pub.
Jennifer Hook, author of This is How He Left Me, chose poetry as an entry into the territory of loss and self-reinvention.
Warren C. Longmire’s latest book is Bird/Diz [an erased history of bebop]. He is the host of House Poet: A Spoken Word Dance Party and mix_lit.
Alina Macneal has been a member of the faculty at Drexel University for over 20 years, is a educator/writer/poet/translator/architect whose poems have in numerous journals.
Amy Saul-Zerby, author of several books, edits Voicemail Poems, her poems have appeared in various journals.
Anne-Adele Wight is the author of four books, she curated the multi-genre performance series Jubilant Thicket. Her work has been published internationally in print and online.

Tribute to Lamont B. Steptoe
2025-02-09 14:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
Virtual Reading: Tribute to Lamont B. Steptoe
Sunday, February 9th, 2025
2pm Eastern Virtual
Register for Zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/1fJ5daTdS8elCUBV79ucyg
Lamont B. Steptoe is a poet / photographer / publisher born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is author of eight books of poetry including In the Kitchens of the Master, Mad Minute, Uncle’s South Sea China Blue Nightmare, Cat Fish and Neckbone Jazz, Dusty Road, Common Salt and Trinkets and Beads. Steptoe is a father, Vietnam veteran, and founder of Whirlwind Press In 2005, he was awarded an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for A Long Movie of Shadows.
Contributors form our Tribute to Lamont B. Steptoe anthology will read their works, in community with Lamont and his legacy.

Live Poetry: Robert Coles, Alison Hicks, and Roland Leander Williams
2025-02-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Robert Coles, Alison Hicks, and Roland Leander Williams
Wednesday February 12, 2025 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
For Zoom, register here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4vYhPZXETFGJrideJAk8-Q#/registration
Robert Coles has published over one hundred poems in various journals, anthologies, and magazines.
Alison Hicks was finalist for the 2021 Beullah Rose prize from Smartis Pace, and Editor’s Choice selection for the 2024 Philadelphia Stories National Poetry Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Massimo Lavelle will read on behalf of Roland Leander Williams is a professor and chair of the English department at Temple University, where he teaches courses on African-American culture and American society. He is the author of three books and has published fiction and poetry inspired by his life in the city.
Open Reading Follows
