Moonstone Arts Center

Live Poetry: Thomas Devaney, Joanna Fuhrman, & Lauren Russell
2024-11-13 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | 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

Live Poetry: Kat Giordano, Carol Moog, Lester Mobley, and Tara Tamburello
2025-02-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday February 19 at 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Use this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/s1lCXplISbCpSTMX_DE2UQ
Kat Giordano was born in Philadelphia and it’s been downhill ever since. Their latest poetry collection, Thumbsucker, is out via Malarkey Books. Kat tweets at @giordkat and lives on the internet at katgiordano.com. Kat is very cool. You like them.

Carol Moog will read from her debut poetry collection She Sat But Not Still (Tell Tell Poetry). She is a practicing psychologist, professional musician (harmonica) and author of “Are They Selling Her Lips?” (William Morrow) and The Autism Playbook for Teens (New Harbinger). She can also be found improvising with Tongue and Groove Spontaneous Theater, and voicing vintage radio plays. She has never understood why people tell children to sit still.
Lester Mobley was born on Long Island New York before moving to Philadelphia at the age of 18 where he has remained ever since. He is a retired union building tradesmen who has dabbled on and off with poetry since elementary school. His favorite poets whom he reveres and attempts to emulate are Charles Bukowski’s who he describes as being urban, seamy and modern, and the innovative groundbreaking mid-19th century stylings of Walt Whitman. Everyone else as he always maintains, remain respectfully peripheral.
Tara Tamburello was the 2023 Poet Laureate of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her short fiction and poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Schuylkill Valley Journal, Ghost City Review, Bone Parade, Rust + Moth, and other journals and anthologies. She is a past winner of the Bucks County Short Fiction Contest and received Eastern University’s Dorothy McCollum Siebert Award for creative writing. She lives in the Philly suburbs with her husband, two children, and cat.

Sean Hanrahan Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Remembering Gerald Stern
2025-02-23 14:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
Sunday, February 23, 2025
2pm Eastern virtual
Register for Zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/P35CdROtSy2NBi1XJHF3lg
Gerald Daniel Stern (February 22, 1925 – October 27, 2022) was an American poet, essayist, and educator. The author of twenty collections of poetry and four books of essays, he taught literature and creative writing at Temple University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Raritan Valley Community College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. From 2009 until his death, he was a distinguished poet-in-residence and faculty member of Drew University’s graduate program for a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in poetry.
Stern was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University and attended the University of Paris for post-graduate study. He received the National Book Award for Poetry in 1998 for This Time: New and Selected Poems and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1991 for Leaving Another Kingdom: Selected Poems. In 2000, Governor Christine Todd Whitman appointed him the first Poet Laureate of New Jersey.
Submit to the Remembering Gerald Stern anthology here by February 16th to be included in our anthology.

Live Poetry: Samantha Medina, Amanda Nicole Meadeis, and Skyler Norbury
2025-02-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Samantha Medina, Amanda Nicole Meadeis, and Skyler Norbury
Wednesday, February 26, 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
And on Zoom – Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/d9r8978JQ-CQKRC4mzSTbA
Samantha Medina is a writer based in South Philadelphia. Her poetry touches on feminism and how to explore the cracks.
Amanda Nicole Meadeis a poet, artist, tarot card reader, and actress from Limerick, PA. With a penchant for cute things – and a knack for making up amalgam-words – her work is a reflection of herself and how she interprets the energy of the world around her, you are invited to look and listen to her works as you wish.
‘Just be forewarned of the juxtapositional nature of their existence’.
Skyler Norbury is a versatile visual artist who explores the interconnectedness of human experience through a range of different mediums. Drawing inspiration from personal encounters and spiritual reflections, she creates work that invites viewers to connect on a deeper, universal level. With a penchant for collaging found objects and other eclectic elements, the result often offers a blend of nostalgia and contemporary expression. Skyler’s pieces offer both playfulness and profound intuition, offering a unique perspective on the human journey.
Mac Chandler Hosts
Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Sarah Browning, W. D. Ehrhart, and Jack Miller
2025-03-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday March 5th, 2025 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Use this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/vLVubHweQumhe0GM3rq9nA
Sarah Browning is the author of Call Me Yes (forthcoming), Killing Summer, and others, co-host of Wild Indigo Poetry, and teaches online with Writers in Progress.
W.D. Ehrhart’s most recent books are Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems; What We Can and Can’t Afford: Essays on Vietnam, Patriotism, and American Life, and At Smedley Butler’s Grave (a Moonstone Arts poetry chapbook).
Jack Miller is a former English teacher who retired after a long career at Ocean City High School. The author of a recently published autobiographical poetry book called Habit: Seven Decades of Poems, his first collection, he is a lover of nature who enjoys birds, butterflies, woods and swamps.
Open Reading Follows

Live Broadcast: Nathalie Anderson
2025-03-11 18:30 - 20:30 | virtual
Tuesday March 11th, 2025 at 6:30pm – Live Broadcast
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCam
Can be viewed on the Phillycam website or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 in Philadelphia.
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Nathalie Anderson’s books of poetry include Following Fred Astaire, Crawlers, Quiver, Stain, and the chapbook Held and Firmly Bound. She collaborated in 2021 with artist Susan Hagen and poet Lisa Sewell on Birds of North America, and her new book, Rough, is forthcoming in 2024 from The Word Works. Anderson’s poems have appeared in such journals as Atlanta Review, DoubleTake, Natural Bridge, The New Yorker, Nimrod, and Plume. She has also authored libretti for five operas, in collaboration with Philadelphia composer Thomas Whitman. Anderson manages the list-serv Lit-Philly that informs about 500 members about literary events in the Philadelphia area. She has recently retired from Swarthmore College, where she taught as Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Literature, and served as Director of the Program in Creative Writing.
Charles S. Carr hosts.

Live Poetry: Catch Breath, Amanda Giordano Herrera, and Matthew Sekellick
2025-03-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday March 12, 2025 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Use this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/zgOiWqUUT6OxURZIbzujjw
catch breath is the founder of reunion poetry, a literary festival held in Philadelphia.
Amanda Giordano Herrera is an interdisciplinary artist and writer born in Philadelphia. She is an editor for Poet’s Row. Her personal work examines surrealism, death, rebirth and religion.
Matthew Sekellick is a writer, artist and performer from Upstate New York living in Philadelphia. A poet, playwright, essayist and critic, their writing has appeared in Protean, Prolit, Peach Mag, Jacobin, and Theatre Journal, among others. His plays include Picnic Among Tall Grasses, The Life (and Afterlife) of Uncle Sam, and an adaptation of the film noir Detour. He writes about theater in his newsletter, Plays Unpleasant. sekellick.net
Amy Saul-Zerby Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
2025-03-18 17:00 - 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Tuesday March 18, 2025 – 5:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Use this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Q3BIKrZhRjOSQ_BFscJ85A
Nathalie Anderson, author of Rough, Following Fred Astaire, Crawlers, Quiver, Stain, and the chapbook Held and Firmly Bound. She collaborated with Susan Hagen and Lisa Sewell on Birds of North America. Anderson’s poems have appeared in such journals as Atlanta Review, DoubleTake, Natural Bridge, The New Yorker, Nimrod, and Plume and authored libretti for five operas. She has recently retired from Swarthmore College, where she taught as Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Literature, and served as Director of the Program in Creative Writing.
Joseph Lennon is Emily C. Riley Director of the Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University, where he also is Associate Dean, Professor of English, and Co-Director of Villanova’s Strategic Initiative for Climate, Justice and Sustainability. His forthcoming book, Marion Wallace-Dunlop and the Origins of the Hunger Strike will be published in 2026. He writes poetry, essays, and scholarship on Irish and transnational literature and culture, focusing on histories of the hunger strike in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, and India. He has published poetry in New Hibernia Review, Poetry Ireland, Natural Bridge, Denver Quarterly, and Salmon Poetry published his Fell Hunger in 2011; he is editing a forthcoming issue of the American Journal of Irish Studies on “Sustainability in Irish Culture.”
Stephen Sexton’s first book, If All the World and Love Were Young was the winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2019 and the Shine / Strong Award for Best First Collection. He was awarded the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2020. He was the winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2016 and the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2018. Cheryl’s Destinies was published in 2021, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. Wake Forest University Press reissued both collections in North America in 2024.
Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: C.M. Crockford, R.G. Evans, Shannon Frost Greenstein, and Von Wise
2025-03-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday March 19, 2025 – 7:00pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Use this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/s1AkTaeNSISE_wCCV7KJSg
C.M. Crockford is a neurodivergent writer and editor. His works been published in dozens of magazines, anthologies, and websites, and his first book Birdsongs was released in 2024 with Alien Buddha Press. You can always find him doting on his cat Wally or seeing movies in actual theaters like a nerd.
R.G. Evans’s books include Overtipping the Ferryman, The Holy Both, and Imagine Sisyphus Happy. His work has appeared in Rattle, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Weird Tales, among other publications. His collections of original songs, Sweet Old Life and Kid Yesterday Calling Tomorrow Man, are available on most streaming platforms. He received a 2025 Individual Artist Fellowship award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Shannon Frost Greenstein (She/They) resides near Philadelphia with her family and cats. She is the author of “Through the Lens of Time” (2026), a fiction collection with Thirty West Publishing, and “These Are a Few of My Least Favorite Things” (2022), a book of poetry from Really Serious Lit. Shannon is a former Ph.D. candidate in Continental Philosophy and a multi-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her passions include Friedrich Nietzsche, anti-racism, ballet, the Seven Summits, the Hamilton Soundtrack, motherhood, and acquiring more cats.
Von Wise is the author of Grow a Cowboy, winner of the 2025 Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Awards. His poetry and prose have been published and anthologized by Lucky Jefferson, Inverted Syntax, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, Red Ogre Review, and elsewhere. He teaches English and Creative Writing in Philadelphia, where he lives.
Sean Hanrahan Hosts – Open Reading Follows

World Poetry Day Reading
2025-03-23 14:00 - 16:00 | virtual
Sunday March 23, 2025 – 2pmEST – VIRTUAL
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/LqG9LovqQnCdUxVCaQ1PHg3/26/2025
World Poetry Day Reading – The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) founded this day in 1999. Poetry uses rhythms and imagery to elicit emotion and the imagination of the reader. Poetry can rhyme, using what are called meters of long and short syllables. Some poetry, written in what’s called ‘free verse,’ doesn’t employ rhyme or meters. Poems are broken into stanzas, which are like paragraphs, and can be up to 12 lines long. We believe the first known poem appeared 4,000 years ago in Babylon. Today, countless types of poems are available to enjoy, including haikus, limericks, sonnets, and ballads.

Live Poetry: The Hosts of Other Series Read
2025-03-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday March 26, 2025 – 7:00pm – The Hosts of Other Series Read
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Use this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/RcZsDsGjRYmxq7LxQ_YDkQ
Sibelan Forrester is a poet, translator, and host since 2016 of the Mad Poets Society First Wednesday poetry reading series.
Raina J. León, co-host of Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, is s a founding editor of The Acentos Review.
Bill Van Buskirk’s, host of Mad Poets Society 4th Friday series, latest book is The Poet’s Pocket Guide to Steady Employment.
Noah David Roberts is a non-binary poet, the author of Mutable, GUNK, and SWARM, an organizer of the World’s End Writing Retreat, & was an editor for Graphic Violence Lit.
BJ Ward, host of Warren Community College Visiting Authors Series, is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Conflict & Poetry: An Interactive Workshop
2025-03-30 14:00 - 16:00 | The Rotunda, 14014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Conflict & Poetry: An Interactive Workshop
Sunday, March 30th at 2PM EST
Live at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104
Register for the live event

In a time fraught with political strife and armed conflict, how can we reframe, heal, and continue to live in the midst of destruction, chaos, and loss? We seem to have forgotten that we are all human beings. Where is our empathy? How do we reconcile? How do we survive? In an effort to inspire people embroiled in conflict (all of us), to meet and create dialogue across differences for the sake of resolving heartbreak, damage and personal or cultural loss.
Australian authors, David B. Moore and Alike Vernon, writers of Setting Relations Right in Restorative Practice, have provided the backgrounds and the methods for humane ways to make peace. They will share knowledge on the possibilities occasioned by people seeking repair and resolution.

Restorative practice uses deliberative decision-making processes to:

respond to harm with healing in justice system programs;
manage relationships in educational, workplace, and other communities; &
link individual healing with institutional reform in redress schemes.

Dr David Moore and Dr Alikki Vernon are Australian ‘pracademics’, who remain actively engaged with fellow educators and researchers while working as facilitators in each of these applications.
In their 2024 book Setting Relations Right in Restorative Practice, they explain how:

restorative processes support people to learn, heal, and work together to improve their circumstances;
techniques from restorative practice can also assist citizens’ assemblies to develop socially acceptable and appropriately complex policies for government.

The reforming potential of restorative practice is great. The need for further restorative reform urgent. Practical skills are essential for that reform.
Dr Moore and Dr Vernon will describe:

core skills for facilitating different restorative processes;
programs that apply these skills, to work with people to set relations right.

The audience and poets will participate with Moore and Vernon to consider pathways out of the impasses that inhibit our creativity as humans.

Register for the interactive workshop.

Submit to our Chaos/Crises/Conflict anthology here by March 9th.

Anthology Reading: Chaos, Crises, Conflict
2025-03-31 19:00 - 21:00 | virtual
Monday March 31, 2025 – 7pmEST – Chaos, Crises, Conflict Anthology Reading – VIRTUAL
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/o5aORNAuQH6qAzaYCOI-Yg
In a time fraught with political strife and armed conflict, how can we reframe, heal, and continue to live in the midst of destruction, chaos, and loss? We seem to have forgotten that we are all human beings. Where is our empathy? How do we reconcile? How do we survive? Poets Respond

Live Poetry: Courtney Bambrick, Caroline M. Mar, Hayden Saunier, and Robert Zaller
2025-04-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 2, 2025 – 7:00pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub,1214 Sansom Street
On Zoom – Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/IMJG5oarQqGAkXCjjv6H6A
Courtney Bambrick, author of World Without, teaches writing at Thomas Jefferson University’s East Falls, was poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories.

Caroline M. Mar, author of Water Guest, Special Education, and Dream of the Lake, a member of Rabble Collective, and serves on the board of Friends of Writers.

Hayden Saunier is the author of six poetry collections including her new book, Wheel, awards include a Pushcart Prize, Pablo Neruda Award, and Rattle Poetry Prize.

Robert Zaller is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Drexel University. Poet, critic, and historian, his books of verse include Speaking to Power and The Dresden Zoo.
