Honoring Alejandro Pérez-Cortés, Winner of the 2021 Paz Poetry Prize: Alejandro Pérez-Cortés, Carlos José Pérez Sámano, Dulce Ramirez
2022-02-19 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | PA
Honoring Alejandro Pérez-Cortés, Winner of the 2021 Paz Poetry Prize
Saturday February 19, 2022 – VIRTUAL
5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific – On Zoom
Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrdumtqT0sE9Q3x8ulIyfbTTyX6fec3dYR

Alejandro Pérez-Cortés is the author of Ima and Coli Are the Tree That Was Never a Seed, winner of the Paz Prize for Poetry. Some poems are set in an ancient pre-Hispanic Colima; while others reflect the reality of a modern-day Colima.

Carlos José Pérez Sámano is a writer and poet who has 4 published books in Mexico. His work has been featured in anthologies in Argentina, Spain, the United States, Italy, Spain, and India.

Dulce Ramirez directs Mighty Writers El Futuro, a Philly-based organization focused on teaching children to think clearly through the power of writing. This has given her the perfect opportunity to help other Latinos instill in their children the love for culture.

John Lavin Host – Question and Answer Period and Open Reading Follows

Readings from the 2021 Featured Poets Anthology
2022-02-20 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Readings from the 2021 Featured Poets Anthology
Sunday February 20, 2022 – 2pm – VIRTUAL –
Registration Required: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsdOmpqDIqH9B0HU4JTUrRJwRTTLd4J5D6

2021 was Moonstone’s busiest year ever
With over 130 live and virtual events
Presenting over 300 Poets
Please join us
Not all poets will be reading

Moonstone Poetry Reading: Nicole Greaves and Amy Small-McKinney
2022-02-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Moonstone Poetry Reading: Nicole Greaves and Amy Small-McKinney
Wednesday February 23, 2022 – 7pm – LIVE – Proof of Vaccination Required
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street and on zoom
Registration Required: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpduisqjkjGtR_CB38zTyfRrxnOYrXoiOt
Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: [REDACTED]
Nicole Greaves’ poetry has appeared in numerous literary reviews and was awarded prizes by The Academy of American Poets and the Leeway Foundation. Nicole is a former poet laureate of Montgomery County. She teaches English and creative writing at the Crefeld School and her book, Having Witnessed the Illusion, is forthcoming with Glass Lyre Press.

Amy Small-McKinney’s third chapbook, One Day I Am A Field, written during Covid and her husband’s death, is forthcoming with Glass Lyre Press, 2022. For the 2020 virtual AWP, she co-moderated an interactive discussion, Writing Through Grief & Loss: The Intersection of Social and Personal Grief During Covid. Her second full-length collection, Walking Toward Cranes, won The Kithara Book Prize 2016 (Glass Lyre Press). Small-McKinney was the 2011 Montgomery County Poet Laureate. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, for example, Baltimore Review, Pedestal Magazine, Philadelphia Stories and SWWIM. Her book reviews have appeared in journals, such as Prairie Schooner and Matter, and her poems have been translated into Korean and Romanian. She resides in Philadelphia.
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: M. Nzadi Keita, Aaren Perry, Lamont B. Steptoe
2022-02-25 19:00 - 21:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: M. Nzadi Keita, Aaren Perry, Lamont B. Steptoe

Friday February 25, 2022 – 7pm
Registration Required – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElfuGurTIvHdEhuhKG-RhSJuelsiJtkkw0

M. Nzadi Keita is the author of Brief Evidence of Heaven: Poems from the life of Anna Murray Douglass. That book, a finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Prize, is cited by David Blight in his prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Migration Letters, forthcoming from Beacon Press in 2023, will feature poems that center Keita’s perspectives as a first-generation northerner. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications. She has received Leeway Foundation grants and a Pew Fellowship for poetry. Keita is a Professor of English at Ursinus College, where she teaches creative writing, American literature, and Africana Studies.

Aaren Perry’s new book is Shipping and Receiving, published by Moonstone. Bilingual with an MFA from Vermont College, he recently edited a forthcoming 2022 collection of new poems by lamont b. steptoe. He co-edited with Dr. James Villarreal, Under Lock and Key: 100 Poems From Death Row, by Anthony Reid, out this month on Amazon. Perry runs Yeatts Perry Consulting, grants and donor management for health equity and social change nonprofits. Contact him for a two-book special: “Shipping and Receiving (Moonstone) and Open Fire (Whirlwind Press) mindfulpoetics@gmail.com includes shipping.

Lamont B. Steptoe is an award-winning poet, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Steptoe is 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, induction into the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent by the Gwendolyn Brooks Center in Chicago, and two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts awards. Steptoe’s work appears in over one hundred anthologies, the most recent being Waging Peace in Vietnam. Hismost recent titles are Crowns & Halos, Oracular Rumblings & Stilt Walking, Meditations in Congo Square and Beyond the White Stone Lions.

Open Reading follows

New Voices: Emerging Poets with Avik Belenje, Ryan Hiemenz, Vriddhi Vinay
2022-02-26 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
New Voices: Emerging Poets with Avik Belenje, Ryan Hiemenz, Vriddhi Vinay
Saturday February 26, 2022 – 2pm – VIRTUAL –
Registration Required:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlde6urjgiE9afmUo3Ku3FO0NBWLhLZ7C3
New Voices: Emerging Poets – 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 poetry community and giving them the opportunity to share their work with a wide audience.

Avik Belenje, age 15, has studied poetry at Poetry Power, he has received the Silver Key from Scholastic Arts and Writing Regional Awards and four First Place Awards from California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc.

Ryan Hiemenz is author of Fearing Fiction, a Junior at Arcadia University where he is involved in writing and editing in various styles.

Vriddhi Vinay, of South Indian background interested in research into gender justice, post-colonial studies, and revolutionary South Asian histories. She loves the intersection of academia, erotica, and poetics that she represents in her work.

Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading Follows

Memorial Open Mic for Sandra Turner-Barnes
2022-03-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Memorial Open Mic for Sandra Turner-Barnes

Wednesday March 2, 2022 – 7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom, Registration Required for zoom – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpfumtqTgjG9wjtw-r78pDDvf43obI0URl

Join us for a memorial open mic poetry reading for Sandra Turner-Barnes

Sandra Turner-Barnes of Lawnside — writer, arts administrator, and well-known poet — died Friday January 10, 2022 at the age of 74.
Turner-Barnes was former director of the Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission. At the time of her passing, she served on the board of the Camden County Historical Society, often speaking publicly to adults and students about the history of enslaved peoples of the region.
A well-known poet, Turner-Barnes also led several poetry series in the area. For many years, she hosted a popular Poetry in the Park series at Hopkins House in Cooper River Park, which helped nurture the writing careers of numerous aspiring poets. Up until last month, she also hosted A Place in Time open-mic series at the historical society and The Poet’s House series at the IDEA Center for the Arts in Camden.
Together with her friend and protégé Brother Daoud Bey of Camden, Turner-Barnes for many years administered the Arts for Teens program at Rutgers-Camden, through her role as county cultural & heritage director.
Her poetry community often referred to her as the Cadillac Lady, a reference to one of her early poems and her love for the car.
From Tammy Paolino, Cherry Hill Courier-Post

Sean Lynch, Host – Open Reading

Virtual Poetry Reading: International Women’s Day 2022
2022-03-06 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: International Women’s Day 2022
Sunday March 6, 2022 – 2pm EST
Registration Required-Registration Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkdOGhrzMpH9w44h0epioF-_rK2dcB0-iI
Readings from our new anthology, International Women’s Day 2022
“Another world is not only possible,
she is on her way.
On a quiet day,
I can hear her breathing.”
Arundhati Roy

Imagine a gender equal world.
A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.
A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
A world where difference is valued and celebrated.

Live Poetry Reading: Lucia Herrmann, Nicole Liu, George Schaefer
2022-03-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Reading: Lucia Herrmann, Nicole Liu, George Schaefer
Wednesday March 9, 2022 – 7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Registration Required for zoom – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsfuurqDktGNK1pjW8ei1mSqsPb1VFpMOd

Lucia Herrmann is an artist and educator originally from Miami, FL who thinks a lot about her sinking city. She now lives in Philadelphia where she teaches 5th and 6th grade. Lucia has been published by APIARY, Defunkt Magazine, Impostor Poetry, Toho Journal, and has two elegies in O, Miami’s collection Waterproof: Evidence of a Miami Worth Remembering. Poetry and performance are her passion and she believes art is the most effective means of initiating social change.

Nicole Liu (she/her) was born in Hong Kong, raised in Shenzhen, and came of age in Boston. In her poems and essays, she gravitates towards topics of miscommunication and censorship. She also likes to write about pesky suburban critters, like badgers and opossums. Nicole graduated magna cum laude from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in English and Chinese. She is currently applying to graduate school while working as a writer, writing instructor, and translator.

George Schaefer is a Philly born poet who started writing as a lonely teenager hoping to impress girls. It didn’t work but it left him plenty of time to hone his craft. 4 decades later, he still clings to the muse. He has recently published Thru Peripheral Vision, a collection of poems and Cannibalized Haibun, a collection of haibun.

Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry Reading: Kate Carey, Philip Dykhouse, Massimo Elijah
2022-03-16 07:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Reading: Kate Carey, Philip Dykhouse, Massimo Elijah
Wednesday March 16, 2022 – 7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street – and streamed on zoom – Registration Required – Registration Link
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpdumqqz0qH9JKbFehlZlazFvB9TqUx2rx

Kate Carey (she/her) is a fat queer polyamorous slut who sometimes spends whole days in bed crying because feelings are hard. Through deeply personal poetry and creative nonfiction, she touches on issues relating to trauma, fat liberation, mental illness and sexuality. You can find more about her at https://www.katemcarey.com/

Philip Dykhouse released his debut chapbook Bury Me Here in 2020. His work has appeared in Moonstone Press, Soup Can Magazine, everseradio.com, Toho Journal, and Spiral Poetry. He was the featured reader for the Dead Bards of Philadelphia at the 2018 Philadelphia Poetry Festival. Find him on Facebook at Philip Dykhouse Poetry and on Instagram @philip_dykhouse_poetry

Massimo Elijah is a spoken word poet born and raised in Philadelphia. He loves how the arts can give people freedom of expression as well as a common ground for coming together.

Sean Hanrahan Host, Open Reading Follows

New Voices: Aya Borish, Cydney Brown, Nikole Hood
2022-03-19 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
New Voices: Emerging Poets
Saturday March 19, 2022 – 2pm – VIRTUAL –
Registration Required- Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEudumhqTkqG9ZH4Mw6iNZnZRsITbFmHWo
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 poetry community and giving them the opportunity to share their work with a wide audience.

Aya Borish is 14, in the 9th grade, and from Philadelphia. She has always been passionate about civil rights, feminism, and climate change and feel we can all change the world we just need to find our voice.

Cydney Brown (2020-2021 Philadelphia Youth Poet Laureate), author of Daydreaming, is a Senior at Abington Friends School and has been writing poetry since she was in 5th grade. She loves that there are no limitations to writing, her poetry explores the topics of social justice, self-image, love, and nature and she won first place in The National Hip Hop poetry competition and loves to perform spoken word. Cydney has been featured in The New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer, has recited her poetry at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Benjamin Franklin Hall, Lincoln University and The Kelly’s Writers house. Cydney wishes to inspire people to speak their truth and share her poetry with the world.

Nikole Hood is a 24-year-old English Creative Writing major at Arcadia University. It is her goal to tell her story through poetry and inspire others to share their stories in order to make the world a better place. She has been writing most of her life, but has chosen the concentration of poetry and cannot wait to build a strong voice behind her words.
Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading Follows

Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series: Paul Muldoon
2022-03-22 18:30 - 20:30 | PA
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Tuesday March 22, 2022, 6:30pm – VIRTUAL – Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM
699 Ranstead Street, Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 in Philadelphia.
Paul Muldoon (born 20 June 1951) is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he is currently both the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 University Professor in the Humanities and Founding Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts. He held the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 to 2004 and has also served as president of the Poetry Society (UK) and Poetry Editor at The New Yorker. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Paul Muldoon was given an American Academy of Arts and Letters award in literature for 1996. Other recent awards are the 1994 T. S. Eliot Prize, the 1997 Irish Times Poetry Prize, the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, the 2003 Griffin International Prize for Excellence in Poetry, the 2004 American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the 2004 Shakespeare Prize, the 2005 Aspen Prize for Poetry, and the 2006 European Prize for Poetry. He has been described by The Times Literary Supplement as “the most significant English-language poet born since the second World War.”
Charles S. Carr, Host

Welcome To Philadelphia 2022
2022-03-23 18:30 - 20:30 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Welcome To Philadelphia 2022
Wednesday March 23, 2022 – 7pm – Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street and streamed on zoom – Registration Required – Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArceqhqzgqGNf-ubdBlSr-KjldISeXsuRI
Marathon Poetry Reading from the Moonstone Anthology celebrating the 2022 AWP Conference
Hours of Poetry, Food & Drink at Fergie’s Pub
A Welcoming, TV-Free, Philly-inspired Irish Pub in the heart of Center City
Poetry from some of the many poets in Philadelphia for the AWP conference
Presented alphabetical order by last name – Remember that plans change and not everyone who signed up will be available to read

Virtual Poetry Reading: Book Release for Shelter in Place by Ben Hyland
2022-03-29 19:00 - 21:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: Book Release for Shelter in Place by Ben Hyland
Tuesday March 29, 2022 – 7pm – VIRTUAL
Registration Required – use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqdqorD4qGd0ZSypQGzm70h7Zx6x9e5Ki
Ben Hyland, author of Shelter in Place, has poetry is collected in three chapbooks, all under his birth name (Ben Heins): The Empathy Thief, Cut Me Free, and Greatest Hits & B-Sides. Ben’s individual poems have appeared in journals such as Hawai’i-Pacific Review, Penumbra, and The Meadow. As a career coach, Ben has helped hundreds of jobseekers find employment. Connect with Ben and follow his work at benhylandlives.com.

Deborah Bayer is a retired Infectious Disease doctor and former cancer patient from Atlantic City, NJ. Her chapbook, Rope Made of Bandages, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in March 2023. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications. She is pursuing a Certificate of Professional Achievement in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University.

Shelley Cohen has been writing poetry since her retirement from the world of work when she exchanged a career in grant writing for the craft of poetry. Along with the other featured readers, she has ties to the South Jersey poetry scene and frequently uses images from the Shore to inspire her work.

Barbara Daniels’ Talk to the Lioness was published by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press. Her poetry has recently been accepted by Permafrost, Westchester Review, Philadelphia Stories, and Coachella Review. She received four fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the most recent in 2020.

Cole Eubanks is a retired teacher from the Philadelphia and Atlantic City School Districts. Cole has conducted three workshops for Stockton University’s Teen Arts Festival and has been the featured poet for the Sovereign Avenue Black History Jazz Celebration. In 2010, he won the Literacy Volunteers of America in Atlantic County’s Poet of the Year contest. Cole’s work can be found in Poet’s against War, Inferno No Boundaries, Apiary, Stray Cat, and E Pluribus Unum.

Jacalyn Shelley has been published in several journals including Sugar House Review, Dunes Review, Main Street Rag, and Barely South. Her poems have appeared in several anthologies most recently including Moonstone’s anthologies The Virus and Protest 2021. She is the recipient of three Pushcart nominations.

Live Poetry Reading: Mac Chandler, Jules Hostetter, Z Murphy
2022-03-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Reading: Mac Chandler, Jules Hostetter, Z Murphy

Wednesday March 30, 2022 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom
Registration Required for zoom – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsd-GgqTwsHtR1CaWU3y2Sqixd4Z7BQtqK

Mac Chandler is a junior creative writing major at The University Of The Arts in Philadelphia. You can find her published work in The Rappahannock Review, HASH Magazine, and High Shelf Press issue XXXIX. She hopes to continue her writing career in Philadelphia until the world inevitably implodes and the aliens that come after find her little poems about being sad. You can find more of her work on her instagram, @frillysox

Jules Hostetter is a poet who is studying creative writing at The University of the Arts. She will be published in the school literary magazine, Underground Pool, in Spring 2022.”

Z Murphy aka “The Zany Thing” is a multiracial multimedia artist from central Jersey. Z identifies as a storyteller, sharing her art in whatever medium she dims fit. So whether it be performance, the written word, visual art, etc, she takes it upon herself to share the stories she needs to tell. She is currently a Creative Writing Major at the University of the Arts and has been published in different literary magazines. She co-hosts the country’s longest-running queer open mic Out of the Box. Z can be reached at zmurphy@uarts.edu for information regarding her work and information regarding her open mic.

John Wall Barger Host – Open Reading

Tribute to Rosemary Cappello
2022-04-10 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Sunday April 10, 2022 – 2pm – VIRTUAL – – registration required at
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrf-CgrD8uH9ZLWJTWV627rAArWkH5IjA0
Tribute to Rosemary Cappello
Poet, Writer, Watercolorist, Editor of “Philadelphia Poets“

Rosemary Cappello is a poet, painter, prose writer, community organizer, and editor whose work has appeared in such venues as Voices in Italian Americana, Poet Lore, Iconoclast, Avanti Popolo, Sweet Lemons 2, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Poetry Ink, and Autumn Sky, to name a few. She is the author of Wonderful Disaster, The Habit of Wishing (with Ann Menebroker and Joan Jobe Smith); The Sid Poems; and San Paride, named for the patron saint of Teano, Italy, her father, John Petracca’s native town.
“I am passionate about many things. Poetry heads the list, and I’ve spent a large portion of my life reading poetry, writing it, and presenting it to the public. However, it’s not just my own poetry that I promote, but that of many, many others. I am passionate about editing and put a great deal of thought into the publication of “Philadelphia Poets”: reading submissions, making decisions as to which poems merit publication and which poems do not. Approximately sixty poets are published in each issue of “Philadelphia Poets.”
Not All Contributors Will Be Reading

Live Poetry Reading: W.D. Ehrhart, Lynn Levin, Amber Renee
2022-04-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Reading: W.D. Ehrhart, Lynn Levin, Amber Renee
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Registration Required – Registration Link
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIucuCgqzIuH9yFuMAp-FO6iL9rBOqligPl

D. Ehrhart began writing when he was 15 years old and has been writing ever since. Eight of his poems were included in Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans (1972) and 24 books have followed. His Passing Time: Memoir of a Vietnam Veteran Against the War (revised) is due shortly. Exclusively a poet until he was almost 30, he has since written and published a wide variety of nonfiction prose from 400-word newspaper commentaries to 40-page scholarly essays to 400-page personal narratives. The influence of Ehrhart’s encounter with the Vietnam War can readily be seen in his writing, but though he is known primarily as a “Vietnam War poet,” in fact his subject matter ranges widely. He has written essays and articles on such topics as radio disc jockeys, tugboats on the Delaware River, the Internal Revenue Service, and a variety of modern and contemporary poets from William Wantling to Daniel Hoffman. His wife and daughter are major sources of inspiration for his poetry. His poems also reflect his respect for nature, his love of friends, his active engagement with the world around him, and his consternation at the human condition.
Lynn Levin’s most recent poetry collection, The Minor Virtues (Ragged Sky, 2020) is listed as one of Spring 2020’s best books by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Poet Ross Gay calls the book “a lovely honoring of the small, the minor sweetnesses that a life is made of.” Her previous collections include Miss Plastique, Fair Creatures of an Hour, and Imaginarium. She is the translator, from the Spanish, of Birds on the Kiswar Tree by Odi Gonzales and co-author of Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets. Her poems have appeared in Boulevard, Artful Dodge, Rattle, on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac, and other places. She teaches at Drexel University. Her website is lynnlevinpoet.com

Amber Renee, she/her, is a chronic writer from Bucks County, PA. Known to mix mediums, Amber self-published a book Thoughts on This Most Recent Episode in 2016, shortly before its musical counterpart released on SoundCloud. In January 2020 she put out a Poetry Picture book i feel like i’m nothing available online. During the pandemic lockdown, Amber used her time to create tracks she calls “Poetry Songs.” As well, she spent time as an editor for Serotonin Poetry; a journal of mental health by poets with mental illness. 2022 saw her first traditionally published book In memory energy by Moonstone publishing. Find her on social media @amberreneepoet

Open Reading Follows

New Voices: Maura Gallagher, Isabella Piacentino, Vriddhi Vinay
2022-04-16 14:00 - 17:00 | PA
Saturday April 16, 2022 – 2pm – VIRTUAL – New Voices: Emerging Poets
Registration Required, Registration link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqcOCrrTgpH9eHzx8FFy7kTWkpF7osbsal
New Voices is a program designed for emerging poets under the age of 25.

Maura Gallagher, a freshman at Villa Maria Academy High School, where she contributes to the school literary magazine.

Isabella Piacentino, from South Philadelphia, studying to be a high school English teacher. When she is not writing poetry, she is arguing with her conservative family members about.

Vriddhi Vinay, is a poet of South Indian background, who loves the intersection of academia, erotica, and poetics that she represents in her work. Larry Robin, Host, Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Event: International Haiku Day
2022-04-17 16:00 - 17:00 | PA
Sunday April 17, 2pm – VIRTUAL – International Haiku Day
Registration Required, Registration link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqdOCsqzkjGtNEuH75LhkFaTTLV7PkKZyV

The old pond, A frog jumps in, Plop!
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) – Translated by Allan Watts
The Old Pond may be the most famous of all haiku
“Haiku is an important form of creative expression because it distills language down to the essentials: observation, interpretation, and communication. It asks both the reader and the writer to look and search inward and outward.” Sean Lynch, Program Director of the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association and Writers House in Camden, NJ.
Reading from the contributors to Haiku 2022

Live Poetry Reading: James Feichthaler, M. Elizabeth Hershey, Jonathan Koven
2022-04-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Reading: James Feichthaler, M. Elizabeth Hershey, Jonathan Koven
Wednesday April 20, 2022 – 7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom, Registration Required for zoom – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsdu6hpjkuHNGjHoEg5OmObWBGmSPWFSi0
James Feichthaler is a poet and essayist whose work has most recently appeared in One Art, Sortes, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and the Mad Poets Society’s Local Lyrics series. His new book The Rise of the COVFEFE, a poetical satire of these divided and uncertain times, was published in late 2020 by Parnilis Media. He is also the host of an open mic reading in Manayunk, PA called The Dead Bards of Philadelphia.

M. Elizabeth Hershey is originally from a Midwest university town in southern Indiana. She graduated from Brown University with a BA in Visual Arts, where she studied much of her art degree at the accompanying Rhode Island School of Design. She works in several mediums, but photography remains her primary passion and profession. Look to the North is her first published chapbook, in which each poem depicts a memoir of a moment in time approaching middle age. She also has a passion for piano, speaking Italian, and finding four-leaf clovers.
Jonathan Koven grew up on Long Island, NY, embraced by tree-speak, tide’s rush, and the love and support of his family. He holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from American University, works as a technical writer, and freelance editor (and formerly head fiction editor of Toho Journal). He lives in Philadelphia with his best friend and future wife Delana, and cats Peanut Butter and Keebler. Jonathan’s debut chapbook Palm Lines, and his award-winning novella Below Torrential Hill are available and the current list of his publications is available at https://linktr.ee/jonathankoven.

Sean Hanrahan Host, Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Reading: Quincy Scott Jones, Marci Blackman, Sarah Gambito, D. Nurkse, Bushra Rehman, Yolanda Wisher
2022-04-21 19:00 - 21:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: Quincy Scott Jones, Marci Blackman, Sarah Gambito, D. Nurkse, Bushra Rehman, Yolanda Wisher
Thursday April 21, 2022 – 7pm – VIRTUAL
Registration Required – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIlc-usqjwuGteb-36iCgphT76_l9ZkiKT9

Join us for a night celebrating poetry and Quincy Scott Jones’ new-ish book How to Kill Yourself Instead of Your Children, a meditation on racial violence and the prospect of raising Black and Brown children in a world that doesn’t care for Black or Brown (or children).

Quincy Scott Jones is the author of two books of poetry: The T-Bone Series (Whirlwind Press, 2009) and How to KillYourself Instead of Your Children (C&R Press, 2021). His work has appeared in the African American Review, The North American Review, the Bellingham Review, Love Jawns: A Mixtape, and The Feminist Wire. With Nina Sharma he co-curates Blackshop, a column that thinks about allyship between BIPOC artist. His graphic narrative, >BlackNerd<, is in the works.

Marci Blackman is the author of the novels, PO MAN’S CHILD, recipient of the ALA’s Stonewall Award for Best Fiction, and TRADITION, noted in Band of Thebes as one of the Best LGBTQ Books of the year. Blackman’s third novel, ELEPHANT, is forthcoming.

Sarah Gambito is Professor of English / Director of Creative Writing at Fordham University and co-founder of Kundiman, a non-profit organization serving writers and readers of Asian American literature.

D. Nurkse is the author of twelve poetry collections, most recently A COUNTRY OF STRANGERS, just out from Knopf. A former Brooklyn poet laureate, he taught poetry at Rikers Island and served on the board of Amnesty International-USA. He currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

Bushra Rehman is a writer and cultural activist, author of Corona, a dark comedy about being Muslim and her collection of poems, Marianna’s Beauty Salon. She is creator of the community-based writing workshop Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Memoir and Autobiographical Fiction.

Poet, singer, educator, and curator Yolanda Wisher is author of Monk Eats an Afro and co-editor of the anthology Peace is a Haiku Song. Wisher was named Poet Laureate of Montgomery County and third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. A Pew and Cave Canem Fellow, Wisher received the Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award, works as Curator of Spoken Word and Co-Director of Curatorial Programs at Philadelphia Contemporary. She performs a blend of poetry and song with her band Yolanda Wisher & The Afroeaters.

Virtual Poetry Event: Earth Day
2022-04-24 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Event: Earth Day
Sunday April 24, 2022 – 2pm – VIRUAL – Earth Day (April 22, 2022)
Registration Required – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kceGuqj4rE9BYdBT7P4IXS-2P4v93SRNJ

What world are you inheriting? What world are we passing on?
First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. The first Earth Day was focused on the United States. In 1990 it went international with events in 141 nations. On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and 120 other countries. This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Live Poetry Reading: Alicia Askenase, Julia Blumenreich
2022-04-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Reading: Alicia Askenase, Julia Blumenreich

Live at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Registration Required – Registration Link https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYudOqpqT8oEt0RnjqPfwJgqoS46VZuKs6W
Alicia Askenase is the author of The Luxury of Pathos (Texture Press) and Shirley Shirley (sonaweb) and a few chaplets. She was a co-founding editor of the literary journal 6ix, and Literary Curator of the Walt Whitman Art Center for many years. Her poetry has appeared in the anthologies: New Work by Philadelphia Poets, Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets, Second Edition, Art Through the Eyes of Mad Poets, An Ekphrastic Poetry Collection, and others. Her writing has also appeared in literary journals such as: Chain, editions #2 and #12, Poetry New York, The World, Feminist Studies, and The Journal of Modern Languages. Recent publications include The Manhattanville Review, The Painted Bride Quarterly http://pbqmag.org/issue-100/, with new work forthcoming in spring 2022 from the Paterson Literary Review.
Julia Blumenreich, author of Meeting Tessie, Artificial Memory, Blue Angel of a Day and The What of Underfoot, is a poet who is in her 25th year of teaching 4th grade at Germantown Academy. She is a recipient of a PCA grant and 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. Four of her poems have been set to music composed by Kyle Smith and were performed as part of “Lyric Fest” in 2014. Her recent work has been published in “The Whirlwind Review, “Philadelphia Stories,” and in “An Anthology of Philadelphia Poets,” edited by Valerie Fox and translated into Romanian by Daniel Dragomirescu.
Alina Macneal & Jennifer Hook, Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Virtual Poetry Event: International Worker's Day
2022-05-01 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Event: International Worker’s Day
Sunday May 1, 2022 – 2 pm -VIRTUAL – International Workers’ Day (Labor Day, May 1)
Registration Required – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtf–qrT0pGtX7GFWtGu2R5kGRSju8bauy

International Workers’ Day, also known as Labor Day in most countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of laborers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labor movement and occurs every year on May Day (1 May). Though it’s celebrated internationally, Labor Day originated in the United States and has its roots in the rise of trade unions in 19th century Chicago, their hard-fought battle for workers’ rights, and the fight for the eight-hour workday. International Workers’ Day was officially recognized in 1889 at the first International Socialist Congress in Paris to commemorate the Haymarket Affair—a bloody confrontation between striking union workers and Chicago police in 1886.

Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM: Katie Ford
2022-05-03 18:30 - 20:30 | 699 Ranstead Street, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM: Katie Ford
Tuesday May 3, 2022, 6:30pm – VIRTUAL
699 Ranstead Street
Comcast Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 in Philadelphia.
2022 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series

Katie Ford is the author of four books of poems: Deposition; Colosseum; Blood Lyrics; and If You Have to Go. Blood Lyrics was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and the Rilke Prize. Colosseum was named among the “Best Books of 2008” by Publishers Weekly and the Virginia Quarterly Review and led to a Lannan Literary Fellowship and the Larry Levis Prize. International invitations to read and lecture include festivals in Tunis, Morocco, Oslo, and Stockholm. She has taught poetry and creative writing for nineteen years around the country–at Loyola University New Orleans, Reed College, Franklin & Marshall College, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the Community of Writers, and at numerous festivals and residencies. She teaches at the University of California, Riverside. New work, “Estrangement,” will be featured in the May/June issue of Philadelphia’s American Poetry Review. Katie lived in Philadelphia from 2007-2014 and holds it dear as the city in which her daughter was born.

Charles S. Carr, Host

Live Poetry Reading: Jacob L. Camacho, Gina Myers, Ryan Eckes
2022-05-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Reading: Jacob L. Camacho, Gina Myers, Ryan Eckes
Wednesday May 4, 2022 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Registration Required – Registration Link https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrf-uorzosHdZJNPRXR3kPUT25I8ohQknW

Jacob L. Camacho is a CHamoru writer, educator, and activist born and raised in Guahan (Guam), of Islas Marianas. He received his Creative Writing MFA from Rutgers University, Camden. He is an alumni of The University of Guam and UCLA’s Extension Writers Program. Currently, he is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Stockton University, a writer for Philadelphia’s TrailOff and co-founder of the Move Mountains Project 501(c)(3) in San Luis, Colorado. His stories and poems have been featured in University of Guam’s Storyboard, University of Hawai’i’s Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia and Philadelphia’s MadHouse Magazine.

Gina Myers‘ latest book, Some of the Times, was published by Barrelhouse in October 2020. She is the author of two other full-length poetry collections, A Model Year (2009) and Hold It Down (2013), as well as several chapbooks. In addition to poetry, she has published essays, reviews, and articles for a variety of publications, including Hyperallergic, Frontier Psychiatrist, Fanzine, The Rumpus, and The Poetry Project Newsletter. Originally from Saginaw, MI, she lives in Philadelphia, PA, where she co-edits the tiny with Emma Brown Sanders.

Ryan Eckes is a poet from Philadelphia. His most recent books, General Motors, Fine Nothing and Wet Money, are out of print but can be downloaded for free from Internet Archive. His work can also be read in Protean Magazine, Prolit, Wax Nine Journal and elsewhere. He edits Radiator Press.

Open Reading Follows

Remembering Thomas Kinsella
2022-05-08 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Remembering Thomas Kinsella
Sunday May 8, 2022 – 2pm
Registration Required – use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApf-GpqTwpE9QBzsJ92os8X53FdKo3E0zv

Thomas Kinsella (4 May 1928 – 22 December 2021) was an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher.
He began publishing poetry in the early 1950s and, around the same time, translated early Irish poetry into English. In the 1960s, he moved to the United States to teach English at universities including Temple University, where he started Temple’s Irish studies program.
His sensitive lyrics deal with primal aspects of the human experience, often in a specifically Irish context. He began serving in the Irish civil service in 1946, and in the early 1950s he met Liam Miller, the founder of the Doleman Press, which published much of Kinsella’s poetry beginning in 1952. In 1965 he left the Irish civil service and took a position as a writer in residence at Southern Illinois University in 1965 and at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1970.
Kinsella founded his own publishing company, the Peppercanister Press, in Dublin in 1972, which allowed him to publish pamphlets and individual poems in limited editions without relying on submissions to journals or magazines. Kinsella’s first poem to be published through his press was Butcher’s Dozen about Bloody Sunday, in which 13 demonstrators were killed by British troops in Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland, and the ensuing tribunal. Numerous collections of Kinsella’s poems were released, including Collected Poems, 1956–2000), Selected Poems, Fat Master, and Late Poems; the latter was published by Carcanet Press, which released several of his works in the early 21st century.

Live Poetry Reading: Terence Culleton, Emiliano Martin, Anne-Adele Wight
2022-05-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Reading: Terence Culleton, Emiliano Martin, Anne-Adele Wight
Wednesday May 11, 2022 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Registration Required – Registration Link
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvdO6tqD4qGNGb2JxU8ATv4mRIoTmU3fFu

Terence Culleton has published several collections of formally crafted narrative and lyric poems, including A Communion of Saints and Eternal Life. His most recent book, A Tree and Gone is a collection of formal English sonnets, many of which have appeared in journals and anthologies and/or been short-listed in sonnet contests. A Tree and Gone was recently included in the New York Review of Books Small Press Releases. A two-time Pushcart nominee, Mr. Culleton has had work featured on NPR, and he reads widely throughout the Philadelphia and New York areas. Several of his poems have been set to music by Vermont composer Don Jamison, as well as jazz clarinetist Darryl Harper and his ensemble Onus.

Emiliano Martin, Spanish born and long time resident of Bucks County, PA., is the founder and former director of Philadelphia Poetry Forum and past president of the Latin American Guild for the Arts. Currently and since 2018, he is president of Pennsylvania Poetry Society. He has authored over a dozen titles of poetry (and prose), besides having been published in Mad Poets Review, Philadelphia Poets, The Lite Fuuse, S.V. Journal, US 1, The Swarthmorean, and other Spanish language publications in Spain, such as Mizares and Marejadas. Author of “Footprints of Spain in Philadelphia” (2020), his latest book of poems is “Caught Between Layers.”

Anne-Adele Wight is the author of An Internet of Containment, The Age of Greenhouses, Opera House Arterial, and Sidestep Catapult, all from BlazeVOX. For four years she curated the multi-genre performance series Jubilant Thicket. Her work has been published internationally in print and online and includes appearances in Luna Luna, Apiary, Bedfellows, Oz Burp, Have Your Chill, and Read On 2. She lives and writes in Philadelphia.

Open Reading Follows

Jazz and Finnegans Wake: Jam Session
2022-05-15 17:00 - 19:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Jazz and Finnegans Wake: Jam Session
Sunday May 15, 2022 – 5 pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub & Online
1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia and on zoom – Registration Required – Registration Link https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqceusqj8jHNTEJbA47-4Q57xV7jsy66bq

Come witness the Jazz Experiment of the Ages!
Horns and Drums and Arms and Lungs will be Jamming the Lyrical, Witty, Rollicking novel by James Joyce into an Open Jazz Rendition in the style of Cecil Taylor.
Featuring: Neal Kosaly-Meyer (Composer-Performer); Lilia Federico (Vocalist); Fiona Bolger (Poet via Satellite); Justin Deutsch (Bass); Elijah B. Pringle, III (Poet); and John Lavin (Percussion) and Special Guests.
“O tell me all about Anna Livia! I want to hear all about Anna Livia. Well, you know Anna Livia? Yes, of course, we all know Anna Livia. Tell me all . . .” – James Joyce
This performance will also be staged at the International James Joyce Festival in Dublin in June 2022
Come Join the Chorus!

Live Poetry Event: Tonita Austin, Sibelan Forrester, Alison Lubar
2022-05-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry Event: Tonita Austin, Sibelan Forrester, Alison Lubar
Wednesday May 18, 2022 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub
1214 Sansom Street and on zoom – Registration Required – Registration Link https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcudOCrpjovE9JWt5KotUx73STwYpTOT0og

Tonita Austin also known as “Toni Love” is a gifted poet, singer, activist, and writer born in West Philadelphia. While attending Columbia University, Tonita was a student of Amiri Baraka and performed in Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls” as the Lady in Orange. Her writing is influenced by both experiences. She is a contributor to the anthology The Black Body and featured poet in the 2018 and 2020 Winter/Fall edition of the Philadelphia Arts and Urban Literary magazine. The Restoration EP is her first published recording; Toni’s Room is her first published book. Toni currently resides in Media, PA with her two children James and Janai.

Sibelan Forrester is a poet and translator who grew up in Colorado but now lives in the Philadelphia suburbs. She has published translations of fiction, poetry and scholarly prose from Croatian, Russian and Serbian, and of poetry from Ukrainian, and her book of poetry SECOND HAND FATE was published in 2016 by Parnilis Media. She is the host of the Mad Poets Society’s First Wednesday reading series. In her day job she teaches at Swarthmore College.

Alison Lubar teaches high school English by day and yoga by night. They are a queer, nonbinary femme of color whose life work (aside from wordsmithing) has evolved into bringing mindfulness practices, and sometimes even poetry, to young people. Their debut chapbook, Philosophers Know Nothing About Love, is forthcoming with Thirty
West Publishing in May 2022. Most recently, their work has been published by or is forthcoming with Moonstone Press, New York Quarterly, and Sinister Wisdom.

Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices Spring 2022
2022-05-21 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Virtual Poetry Reading: New Voices Spring 2022
Saturday May 21, 2022– 2pm EST
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pcuitqTooGdwfpzt7nCg8xrIqo7F7spOJ

New Voices: Philadelphia’s Emerging Poets is a program designed for emerging poets under the age of 25. It aims to create a platform for younger poets by welcoming them into the larger Philadelphia poetry community and giving them the opportunity to share their work with a wider audience.
Us humans tend to narrow our audience and present to others in our schools or poetry groups. Moonstone’s objective is to expand your audience, introduce you to others who share your interest in poetry but live in different communities and go to different schools. Each month we present three poets from different communities followed by an open reading. We are still virtual on zoom. In addition to monthly readings we publish a New Voices anthology twice a year, once in spring and once in fall, and have a reading from the anthology. This is an on-going project so please send us your poems.
