Moonstone Arts Center

Sunday March 22, 2026 - World Poetry Day - Virtual
2026-03-22 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | PA
Sunday March 22, 2026 World Poetry Day – Virtual
Register Here: World Poetry Day – Virtual
World Poetry Day is celebrated on March 21st, and was declared by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) in 1999, ”with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard”. Its purpose is to promote the reading, writing, publishing, and teaching of poetry throughout the world, and as the original UNESCO declaration says, ”to give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional, and international poetry movements”.

Wednesday April 1, 2026 - LIVE
2026-04-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 1, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub @ 7pm
Featuring: Peter Baroth, Courtney Bambrick, Emiliano Martin, and Liz Allen as Host
Peter Baroth is a writer, artist, and musician based in the Philadelphia area. He has published a novel, Long Green and his most recent chapbook is Ski Oklahoma. , he is on the editorial board of Philadelphia Stories magazine.
Courtney Bambrick was poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories, her poems appear in American Poetry Review, Spotlong, Mom Egg Review, Landlocked, Clockhouse, Pinhole, Thimble, SWWIM Everyday, New York Quarterly, Invisible City, and more.
Emiliano Martin is a bilingual poet originally from Spain. Martín served as President of “Círculo Español”, was the founding director of the “Philadelphia Poetry Forum”, Executive Director of the Latin American Guild for the Arts in Philadelphia and President of the Pennsylvania Poetry Society.
Liz Allen Host – Open Reading Follows

Wednesday April 8 - LIVE
2026-04-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 8, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub @ 7pm
Featuring: John Wall Barger, Mac Chandler, Ernest Hilbert, and Sean Lynch as Host
John Wall Barger, author of Praise for Resurrection Pie, is a contract editor for Frontenac House, lives in Vermont, and lectures in the Writing Program at Dartmouth College.
Mac Chandler is a writer from West Philly who has been published in some places and not in others. They currently host quarterly shows for Moonstone Arts, and recently self-published their first collection of poetry, There Is A Thing Haunting Me I Could Grow To Love.
Ernest Hilbert founded the Oxford Quarterly and E-Verse Radio. He has also served as editor of both the Contemporary Poetry Review and Random House’s magazine Bold Type.
Sean Lynch as Host – Open Reading Follows

Sunday April 26, 2026
2026-04-11 08:00 - 17:00 | PA
Sunday April 26, 2026 – VIRTUAL at 2pm
Moonstone Chapbook Contest 2025 – Reading Featuring:
The Winning Manuscript: All at Once by Lucia Owen
High Honorable Mention: Tarifa Moon by Bill O’Connell
Honorable Mention: Bright Clatter by Susan Coppock
Honorable Mention: Shadow House by Ada Lowenthal

PLUS These Exceptional Poets
Aliyah Cotton, author of The Lungs Remember Breath
Anne Greenhaigh, author of Half sun, half shade: a sequence of sestinas
Vincent Hostak, author of The Strangest Fire
Stacie Kiner, author of Abby Road
Brandy Reinke, author of Remnants of the Injury of Finding the Known
Meri Tumanyan, author of Why I Pray in Armenian
Register Here!

Sunday April 12 - LIVE
2026-04-12 15:00 - 17:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Sunday April 12, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub @ 3pm
Featuring: Joseph Chelius, Lee Stockdale, Anne-Adele Wight, and Aaron Perry as Host
Joseph Chelius is the author of five collections of poems and is a former Bucks County, Pennsylvania Poet.
Lee Stockdale has won the United Kingdom National Poetry Prize, Montana Prize for Humor, Sidney Lanier Poetry Prize, and others.
Anne-Adele Wight is the author of An Internet of Containment, The Age of Greenhouses, Opera House Arterial, and Sidestep Catapult, all from BlazeVOX.
Aaron Perry Host – Open Reading Follows

Tuesday April 14, 2026 - LIVE on PhillyCam
2026-04-14 18:30 - 19:00 | PA
Tuesday April 14, 2026 – LIVE BROADCAST on PhillyCam @ 6:30pm
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM, Can be viewed on the
Phillycam website: PhillyCam Philly Loves Poetry
Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 In Philadelphia.
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Anne-Adele Wight is the author of An Internet of Containment, The Age of Greenhouses, Opera House Arterial, and Sidestep Catapult, all from BlazeVOX. Her work has appeared in Poets and Writers, Luna Luna, Adroit Journal, and other publications. She lives and writes in Philadelphia.
Charles S. Carr, Host

Wednesday April 15, 2026 - LIVE
2026-04-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wedsnesday April 15, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub @ 7pm
Featuring: C.M. Crockford, Chris DeMento, John Fadely, Alison Lubar, and Sean Hanrahan as Host
C.M. Crockford poems, essays, and stories have been featured in Vastarien, Nobody Magazine, Be About It Press, and The Cleveland Review of Books among many others.
Chris DeMento hosts Poetry Night in collaboration with the cafe Char & Stave, featuring some of the most impressive voices from the PHL region and beyond.
John Fadely won the 2025 Trail to Table Book Award in Poetry for his debut collection, Before Leaving the Island, which will be published on April 21.
Alison Lubar is a Nikkei poet and educator who teaches literature to teenagers, writing to adults, and yoga to all ages. Alison writes about biracial identity, queer love, transgenerational healing, and common moths; they are also a board member for Philadelphia’s Blue Stoop.
Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows

Sunday April 19, 2026 - Haiku Poetry Day - Virtual
2026-04-19 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Sunday April 19, 2026 – Haiku Poetry Day – Virtual
Register Here: Haiku Poetry Day Virtual Reading
National Haiku Day, an initiative of the Haiku Foundation, celebrates the art form every April 17th. A haiku is an ancient form of Japanese poetry that consists of three lines with the sentence structure ”five-seven-five”- although this is contested for being a western way of teaching the haiku. Japanese haikus also count sounds, not only syllables. Haikus typically revolve around nature, the passing of seasons, or ephemeral beauty. At the risk of sounding like your high school English teacher, they rely more on images than metaphors. They’re also very concise, due to their short length.

Wednesday April 22 - LIVE
2026-04-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednseday April 22, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub @ 7pm
Featuring: Grace Bauer, Sean Hanrahan, Gina Myers, and Anne-Adele Wight as Host
Grace Bauer has published six books of poems and co-edited the anthology Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse.
Sean Hanrahan is author of Headless, has taught classes titled A Chapbook in 49 Days, Ekphrastic Poetry, Poetry Embodied and has hosted and read at poetry events throughout Philadelphia.
Gina Myers is the author A Model Year and Hold It Down, she coedits the tiny with Gabriella Torres andruns the Accidental Player reading series.
Anne-Adele Wight Host, Open Reading Follows

Virtual: Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners 2025
2026-04-26 14:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners 2025
Sunday April 26, 2026 @ 2pm ET – VIRTUAL
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/NOIi7-_lSja6fp2YjqQPgw
The Winning Manuscript: All at Once by Lucia Owen
Unsentimental yet open hearted, these poems capture a married couple’s long and loyal love. The voice is older. The voice is precise, wise, stoic, and self-reliant. It confronts old age with toughness, compassion, and moral strength. I cherish these poems and the spirit behind them more and more each time I read them.

High Honorable Mention: Tarifa Moon by William O’Connell
A collection of many profound delights, these elegant and precise poems take us on a magnificent journey with a husband and wife through Southern Europe. He shares precise reflections on the places visited including the coastal town of Tarifa. The speaker’s voice is learned, observant, open to awe and discovery of self and place.
Honorable Mention: Bright Clatter by Susan Coppock
These are unforgettable, precise, and stoic poems of a girl’s coming of age and her relationship with her beautiful, cold, and often rejecting actress mother. We get glimpses of her free-spirited dating life during the 1950s and 1960s. These are stirring and compelling poems.

Honorable Mention: Shadow House by Ada Lowenthal
These poems captivate with their witty and playful wordplay, their allusions to all manner of things, and their occasional enthusiastic moments of absurdity. I marvel at this poet’s mind and the way in which she darts here and there as she weaves eclectic images and observations together.

PLUS These Exceptional Poets
Aliyah Cotton, author of The Lungs Remember Breath, her work appears in Adroit, Cortland Review, Emerson Review, Grub Street Literary Journal, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Redivider, Rust & Moth, Salamander, Southern Humanities Review, and South Carolina Review.
Anne Greenhaigh, author of Half sun, half shade: a sequence of sestinas, Her debut chapbook, Now that mother is dead, all quilts unravel in the end, published by Moonstone Press, features a double crown of sonnets that explore themes of time, memory, and loss.
Vincent Hostak, author of The Strangest Fire poems have been featured in literary journals including The Dewdrop, Sonder Midwest (Iowa), The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, and more. He writes & produces a podcast, the Phantom Script, examining the evolution of the world’s most accessible form of literature and how it reaches others.
Stacie Kiner, author of Abby Road Her poems have appeared in Calyx, The Charlotte Poetry Review, Madison Review, Comstock Review, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Apalachee Quarterly, The Ekphrastic Review, Lavender Review, Panoply, Plainsong, Rhino, and more.
Brandy Reinke, author of Remnants of the Injury of Finding the Known, published pieces in: The Redrock Review, Esthetic Apostle, Tulane Review, Glassworks, Big Muddy Review, Microfiction Monday Magazine, Moonstone Arts, Unleash Press, Hare’s Paw Journal, and the HCE Review.
Meri Tumanyan, author of Why I Pray in Armenian, a first-generation Armenian-American, earned a B.A. in English and Comparative Literary Studies from Occidental College and an M.A. in Creative Writing from CSUN. For her, writing is an exploration—a journey toward reconciliation, hope, fresh perspectives, and a deeper self-awareness.

Wednesday April 29 - LIVE
2026-04-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 29, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub @7pm
Featuring: Shannon Frost Greenstein, Emily Rose Reed. With Hosts Warren Longmire & Lindsay Hargrave
Shannon Frost Greenstein resides near Philadelphia with her family and cats. She is the author of Through the Lens of Time, and “These Are a Few of My Least Favorite Things. Shannon is a former Ph.D. candidate in Continental Philosophy and a multi-time Pushcart Prize and BOTN nominee. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Pithead Chapel, Nimrod Journal, Bending Genres, Parentheses Journal, Litro Mag, Philadelphia Stories, and elsewhere. Shannon’s passions include Friedrich Nietzsche, anti-racism, the Seven Summits, the Hamilton Soundtrack, motherhood, and acquiring more cats.
Emily Rose Reed is a queer trans chaotic mess of a DIY musician, writer, and all around sweetie from Philly/South Jersey who makes music under the name How I Became Invisible. If you have a band she’s probably in it, and she might also be your girlfriend. Find her music at howibecameinvisible.com, and everywhere except Spotify because they’re a garbage company.
Warren Longmire & Lindsay Hargrave Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Sunday, May 3 - LIVE AND VIRTUAL - 3pm
2026-05-03 15:00 - 17:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Remembering Hal Sirowitz
Sunday May 3, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub AND Virtual
Hal Sirowitz (March 6, 1949- October 17, 2025) was an American and internationally known poet, who first began to attract attention at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe where he was a frequent competitor in their Friday Night Poetry Slam. He eventually made the 1993 Nuyorican Poetry Slam team and competed in the 1993 National Poetry Slam along with his Nuyorican teammates Maggie Estep, Tracie Morris, and Regie Cabico.
He would later perform his poetry on stages across the country, and on television programs such as MTV’s Spoken Word: Unplugged and PBS’s The United States of Poetry. He wrote five books of poetry: Mother Said, My Therapist Said, Father Said, During and After, and Stray Cat Blues. He was the best-selling translated poet in Norway, where Mother Said has been adapted for the stage and turned into a series of animated cartoons. He has been translated into thirteen languages.
Sirowitz was a 1994 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry and was the Poet Laureate of Queens. He worked as a special education teacher in the New York public school system for 23 years and was married to the writer Minter Krotzer, who will be attending.
Tom Devaney and Jeff Lee as Hosts

Purchase the anthology featuring over 30 poets honoring Hal and his legacy.
Register Here for Virtual

Wednesday May 6, 2026 - 7pm – LIVE
2026-05-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday May 6, 2026 – 7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub
Featuring: Dilruba (Ruba) Ahmed, Barbara Siegel Carlson, Raina J. León, ariel rosé
Dilruba (Ruba) Ahmed is the author of Bring Now the Angels (Pitt Poetry), with poems featured in New York Times Magazine, The Slowdown, and Poetry Unbound. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Her work has also been anthologized in Best American Poetry; Halal If You Hear Me; New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims; They Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets; and elsewhere.
Barbara Siegel Carlson is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Current published by Lily Poetry Review Books, 2026. Her poetry and translations have appeared in Verse Daily, Cortland Review, Mid-American Review, Salamander, 2River, The Poetry Porch and others. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Carlson is a Poetry in Translation Editor of Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices.
Raina J. León, PhD, 2026-2027 Philadelphia Poet Laureate, is a Black, Afro-Boricua poet, writer, and educator from southwest Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). Her work is grounded in collective action and community engagement, centering storytelling, memory, and the liberatory practice of humanizing education across poetry, visual art, and archival practice. She is the author of black god mother this body, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, sombra : (dis)locate, and several chapbooks, and is the founding editor of The Acentos Review, an international journal dedicated to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts.
ariel rosé is a trans gender / androgynous / queer poet, essayist, and illustrator originally from Poland, resident of Norway, a nomad. Ariel is coming to the United States to read from Both Sides Face East. Durable Words, that they edited: well as their latest poetry collection, morze nocą jest mięśniem serca (the sea at night is a muscle of the heart) nominated for the Orfeusz Award, and Północ. They were for the Most Beautiful Book Award for their illustrations for Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s Kocia Książka (Cat Book).

Tuesday May 12 - PhillyCAM - Philly Loves Poetry
2026-05-12 18:30 - 19:30 | PA
Tuesday May 12, 2026 @ 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
Sean Hanrahan (he, him, his) is a Philadelphian poet originally hailing from Dale City, Virginia. He is the author of Headless (Collapse Press), the full-length collections Safer Behind Popcorn (2019 Cajun Mutt) and Ghost Signs (2023 Alien Buddha), and the chapbooks Hardened Eyes on the Scan (2018 Moonstone) and Gay Cake (2020 Toho). His work has also been included in various anthologies and journals. He has taught classes titled A Chapbook in 49 Days, Ekphrastic Poetry, Poetry Embodied, and has hosted and read at poetry events throughout Philadelphia. He can be found on Instagram as gaycakepoet. Sean Hanrahan, author of Headless, Safer Behind Popcorn and Ghost Signs, Hardened Eyes on the Scan and Gay Cake. His work has also been included in various anthologies and journals..
Charles S. Carr, Host

Wednesday May 13, 2026 - LIVE @ 7pm
2026-05-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday May 13, 2026 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom
Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War
Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War offers a groundbreaking and vital perspective on war’s destruction of the natural world—the creatures, plants, soil, water, and atmosphere of Earth. In poems and contextual comments, 61 contemporary poets focus on military damages to the ecosystems on six continents and the moon. This compelling anthology alerts readers to environmental degradation of our planet while affirming nature’s resilience and regeneration.
Contributors: Ninety poems, each paired with an Author’s Note, by U. S. and international poets, including John Balaban, Gillian Clarke, Camille T. Dungy, Ferida Duraković, W.D. Ehrhart, Willian Heyen, Cynthia Hogue, Denise Low, Craig Santos Perez, Eric Paul Shaffer, Jillian Sullivan, Brian Turner, Pamela Uschuk, and Mai Der Vang.
“Bringing light to a dark place, these geographically and historically wide-reaching poems illuminate how war pulls, from under our feet, the earth on which we stand and pollutes even the air we breathe. Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War is unique in its scope and its focus on how war’s intolerable human cost is inseparable from the devastation of nature and its non-human animals—war against life itself. Though, like green shoots from a charred root, here, too, are poems of eloquent witness to nature’s humbling power of resilience and restoration.” —Eleanor Wilner – Chancellor, Academy of American Poets

C. Todd, co-editor of Convergence: Poetry on the Environmental Impacts of War. Her most recent books are Beyond Repair and the bilingual English–Lithuanian What Kept Me Awake? / Kas neleido užmigti?. A former Pew Fellow, she has poems in American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, Pedestal.

D. Ehrhart is a Marine Corps veteran of both the American War in Vietnam and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. His most recent books are Smart Fish Don’t Bite and Getting Shot At: Essays on War, Conflict, and Culture Clash.
Vernita Hall, author of Where William Walked: Poems About Philadelphia and Its People of Color. Poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, African American Review, Barrow Street, and elsewhere.
Rick Kearns is a writer of Puerto Rican and European heritage. His poems have appeared in over 70 publications and six anthologies in the US and Argentina. He was Poet Laureate of Harrisburg. Rick and the Con Alma Quartet blended his poetry with established jazz tunes. A freelance journalist for over 35 years, he writes mostly about Latin American and Indigenous issues.
MaryAnn L. Miller is a poet, printmaker, and book artist. Miller has been thrice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has appeared in the anthologies Illness as a Form of Existence, Welcome to the Resistance, and Stained.
Michelle Servellon is a Salvadoran-American writer and graduate of Stockton University. She lives in South Jersey with her family—whose joy, grief, and anger often become the subject of her pieces. She now dedicates her time at the Long Branch Free Public Library working as a Technology Assistant.

Live Reading: Featured Poets 2025
2026-05-16 14:00 - 16:00 | The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Saturday, May 16 2026 – 2pm ET
Philadelphia Central Library, Literature Department – 1901 Vine Street
Featured Poets from 2025
Moonstone presents over 100 poetry readings a year, creates a book with some of the presenters poems, and has a live and virtual reading. This is it.
Featured Poets (not all poets will be reading):

Nathalie
Anderson

Peter
Baroth

Grace
Bauer

Nilufer
Bektas

Phoebe
Brown

Christopher
Brown

Sarah
Browning

Sydney
Coffin

Marion
Cohen

Robert
Coles

C.M.
Crockford

CRAIG
CZURY

Eileen
D’Angelo

Bill
Ehrhart

Shannon
Frost Greenstein

Thalia
Geiger

Jenny
Grassl

Julia
Gwiazdowski

Brian
Harper

Faleeha
Hassan

Alison
Hicks

Dennis
Hinrichsen

Ditta Baron
Hoeber

Jones
Irwin

Mackenzie
Lerario

Lynn
Levin

Cameron
MacKenzie

Marjorie
Maddox

Emiliano
Martin

MJ
McGinn

Carol
Metellus

David
Milley

Jane Edna
Mohler

Nader
Rahimi

Sultana
Raza

Don
Riggs

Lynda Gene
Rymond

Amy
Small-McKinney

Karamo Muchuri
Sulieman

Mark
Svenvold

Tara
Tamburello

Elaine
Terranova

Bill
Van Buskirk

BJ
Ward

Bernardine
Watson

Von
Wise

Alexis
Young

Robert
Zaller

Wednesday May 20, 2026 @7pm - LIVE
2026-05-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday May 20, 2026 @7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s
Featuring: Chris Darrah, Olga Livshin, David Milley, Elijah B Pringle, III, and Sean Hanrahan as Host
Chris Darrah – Unwashed heathen wordsmith. Published several times in area zines. Member of the New Hope Beats. “Heretic Vicar” nome de plume.
Olga Livshin grew up in Ukraine and Russia. Her poetry appears in POETRY, The New York Times, Ploughshares and other journals.
David Milley’s recent work appears in 3rd Wednesdya, Bay Windows, RFD Magazine, Neologism Poetry Journal, and Last Syllable. His collection of poems, Tiller and Shears, will appear under the Aldrich Press imprint in fall 2026.
Elijah B Pringle, III has to credit his experience in Radio, TV, Stage and FIlm, has worked as a dancer, choreographer, actor, director, and vocalist. Facilitator for writing and Performance, Mr. Pringle has been published in almost fifty anthologies, journals, and books.
Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows

Wednesday May 27, 2026 – 7pm LIVE
2026-05-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday May 27, 2026 – 7pm LIVE @ FERGIES
Featuring: Alexander Khan, Dustin Wright, and Mac Chandler as host
Alexander Khan is a poet, he is also a member of a big family in a small house, and a pharmacy staff for children. His work reflects these places and the different person he becomes in each of them.
Dustin Wright hails from somewhere between the Mississippi River delta and the North Mississippi hill country. He moved to West Philadelphia in 2023, but his poetry can only come from Mississippi.
Mac Chandler Host – Open Reading Follows

Live Broadcast: Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series Presents Diane Sahms
2026-06-09 18:30 - 21:30 | Moonstone Arts Center
Diane Sahms is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently,– of an octopus: an archite|x| tural awareness of words. She was awarded first place in Judith Stark’s Poetry Contest; Partisan Press’s Working People’s Poetry Contest; and recieved a poetry grant from AEVentures Foundation. Published in North American Review, Northern Virginia Review, Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, Valley Voices, Sequestrum Literary Journal, The New Verse News, Ranger Magazine, Amsterdam Review & elsewhere. She’s Poetry Editor at North & Oxford. Charles S. Carr, Host

Live Poetry: Dan Kraines, Amy Saul-Zerby, & Rocky Wilson
2026-06-10 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Dan Kraines, Amy Saul-Zerby & Rocky Wilson
Wednesday, June 10th @ 7pm
Live at Fergies Pub
Dan Kraines is a queer poet of Viennese, Bolivian, and Ukrainian heritage. Strap is his first full length book. Dan works at the writers residency Hawthornden Brooklyn on weekends, and for the poet Sharon Olds during the week. ” Dan Kraines is one of the most gifted literary minds that I have ever taught… daring, surprising, unconventional, a refreshment because everything he does proceeds from an original relation to his material.”– Frank Bidart, Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Half-light: Collected Poems.
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. Her newest poetry collection, If I Cannot Fly, is available through Serotonin Press in July, 2026.
Rocky Wilson is a poet, performance artist, and teacher who lives near the Delaware River in Camden. Rocky has been interpreting Whitman in schools and libraries, and for historial groups and at the Philly Fringe Festival. Rocky has , for the last 25 years, hosted Pizza and Poetry at A Slice of New York in Camden. It is one of the longest running poetry series in New Jersey.
Sean Lynch Host- Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Indran Amirthanayagam, Claudia Gary & Mike Jurkovic
2026-06-21 08:00 - 17:00 | PA
Live Poetry: Indran Amirthanayagam, Claudia Gary & Mike Jurkovic
Wednesday July 8, 2026 – 7pm – LIVE
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Indran Amirthanayagam is a poet, editor, publisher, translator, youtube host and diplomat. He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Haitian Creole and is the author of 30 books and translations. He edits the Beltway Poetry Quarterly, writes a weekly poem for Haiti en Marche and El Acento; has received fellowships from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The US/Mexico Fund for Culture and the Macdowell Colony. He is the 2025 Matwaala Poet of Honor. His first book The Elephants of Reckoning won the 1994 Paterson Poetry Prize in the United States and is the 2025 Poet of Honor for Matwaala and IFLAC’s 2022 World Poet/Poeta Mundial. Indran comments on poetry at indranmx.substack.com
Claudia Gary’s new poetry book, Time and Other Solvents, is a story of healing. She lives near Washington DC and teaches workshops on Sonnets, Villanelles, Natural Meter, Persona Poems, Poetry vs. Trauma, etc. at The Writer’s Center (writer.org). She is also the author of Humor Me and chapbooks, and is an advisory editor for New Verse Review, health/science writer, visual artist, and composer of tonal art songs and chamber music.
Mike Jurkovic is 2025-2027 Ulster County Poet Laureate. Published globally. Little reportable income. Collections: Circling Planes, Buckshot Reckoning, mooncussers, AmericanMental, 2016 Pushcart nominee. President Calling All Poets Series. Co-chair of the Music Fan Film Series, Rosendale Theatre, Rosendale, NY. CD reviews online All About Jazz and lightwoodpress.com Host of NuJazzXcursions, Mondays, 9-11a WVKR-FM 91.3 Vassar College. He loves Emily most of all.
Liz Allen Host – Open Reading Follows

Live Poetry: Vasiliki Argyris & William Lessard
2026-06-24 19:00 - 22:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Vasiliki Argyris looks for the threads that bind history, poetry, and walking the earth. Her work can be found in Voicemail Poems, Pamphilet, and Works & Days. William Lessard writing has appeared in American Poetry Review, McSweeney’s, and others, he is the Poetry & Hybrids editor at Heavy Feather Review.

Live Poetry: Michael J. Ivory Jr., Matthew Kosinski, & Mattie Phrances McDonald
2026-07-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Michael J. Ivory Jr., Matthew Kosinski, & Mattie Phrances McDonald
Wednesday July 1, 2026 – 7pm – LIVE
Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Michael J. Ivory, Jr. is a Worker of the Word — in other words, a writer. A Miami, FL-native, he currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the queer son of Pentecostal preachers, Michael lives out his sacred mission to affirm the inherent divinity of all people, but most especially Black queer “outcasts” like himself. He does this through his writing, which can be found on his Substack, as well as in his work with O, Miami Press, Iansá Mag, Duke Magazine, and Oxford American. He is currently working on his debut novel.
Matthew Kosinski is a poet, socialist and occultist from Philadelphia. His books include Alone in the White Marble City (NDR, 2020), Your Human Shape (Broken Sleep Books, 2022) and Year of the Inverted Star (Broken Sleep Books, 2026).
Mattie Phrances McDonald (they/she/bun) is an engineer, musician, and writer. Along with their solo project Betty’s Eyes, she is the guitarist/vocalist in Booklegger, creates art and circuits for Electrofoods, Ultd., and co-founded the queer- and trans-centered sandlot baseball team the Quaker City Cryptids. Bun lives in their adoptive home of Philadelphia with two of her partners and two kitties. Their work can be found at booklegger.bandcamp.com, electrofoods.space, and on instagram at @bettys.eyes and @cryptidsbaseball
Warren Longmire Host – Open Reading Follows

Freedom 250? - Virtual Poetry Event
2026-07-05 14:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
The United States is a federal republic whose people benefit from a vibrant political system, a strong rule-of-law tradition, robust freedoms of expression and religious belief, and a wide array of other civil liberties.
However, in recent years its democratic institutions have suffered erosion, as reflected in rising political polarization and extremism, partisan pressure on the electoral process, mistreatment and dysfunction in the criminal justice and immigration systems, and growing disparities in wealth, economic opportunity, and political influence.

Link to Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/f7cHnTsGSLGnHbzv4dA2jQ

Live Poetry: Indran Amirthanayagam, Claudia Gary, & Mike Jurkovic
2026-07-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday July 8, 2026 – 7pm – LIVE
Indran Amirthanayagam is a poet, editor, publisher, translator, youtube host and diplomat. He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Haitian Creole and is the author of 30 books and translations. He edits the Beltway Poetry Quarterly, writes a weekly poem for Haiti en Marche and El Acento; has received fellowships from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The US/Mexico Fund for Culture and the Macdowell Colony. He is the 2025 Matwaala Poet of Honor. His first book The Elephants of Reckoning won the 1994 Paterson Poetry Prize in the United States and is the 2025 Poet of Honor for Matwaala and IFLAC’s 2022 World Poet/Poeta Mundial. Indran comments on poetry at indranmx.substack.com
Claudia Gary’s new poetry book, Time and Other Solvents, is a story of healing. She lives near Washington DC and teaches workshops on Sonnets, Villanelles, Natural Meter, Persona Poems, Poetry vs. Trauma, etc. at The Writer’s Center (writer.org). She is also the author of Humor Me and chapbooks, and is an advisory editor for New Verse Review, health/science writer, visual artist, and composer of tonal art songs and chamber music.
Mike Jurkovic is 2025-2027 Ulster County Poet Laureate. Published globally. Little reportable income. Collections: Circling Planes, Buckshot Reckoning, mooncussers, AmericanMental, 2016 Pushcart nominee. President Calling All Poets Series. Co-chair of the Music Fan Film Series, Rosendale Theatre, Rosendale, NY. CD reviews online All About Jazz and lightwoodpress.com Host of NuJazzXcursions, Mondays, 9-11a WVKR-FM 91.3 Vassar College. He loves Emily most of all.
Liz Allen Host – Open Reading Follows

Painting in the Dark: An Artistic Collaboration
2026-07-11 16:00 - 19:00 | City Arts Salon, 5838 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19144, United States
Saturday, July 11th, 2026 – 4 to 7 pm
City Arts Salon, 5838 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144
Painting in the Dark interrogates the hideousness of war, addiction, and delusion with the consolation concluding poet John Lavin’s final poem, –but that’s all we have is each other. Illustrators Gregorio Torres, III and Janelle Robinson have joined Lavin in mapping the extreme pain and pleasure inherent in this collection’s narrative arc: a journey from darkness to light. Just such solidarity is engrained in this book’s search within the darkness imposed by a king’s tyranny (“Goya Under House Arrest”) and elaborated in erotic euphoria, colonial oppression, exile, and erasure. John Lavin was Gregorio’s drama teacher and ten years after Greg’s graduation Lavin attended an exhibition of Torres and his partner, Janelle Robinson’s art in New York (2023) where they began the conversation that inspired this collection. Event will combine reading from Collection of Poems, Musical Performance and Reflection.

Philly Loves Poetry: Jim Timpane
2026-07-14 18:30 - 19:30 | PA
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series with Jim Timpane
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM
Watch on the PhillyCAM website
Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 in Philadelphia.
John Timpane was a professor and lecturer in English, first at Rutgers University and later at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. In 1997 The Philadelphia Inquirer, hired him as Opinion Page Editor, and later the Books Editor and Theater Critic. He retired from The Inquirer in 2019. Since The Inquirer, John has freelanced fulltime. He specializes in ghostwriting autobiographies; arts reviewing, especially in poetry and theater; and writing seminars. He keeps working at the craft of versemaking.
Charles S. Carr, Host

Live Poetry: Jessica Buten, Caroline Furr, Ben Saff, Abby Minor & Amy Thatcher
2026-07-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Live Poetry: Jessica Buten, Caroline Furr, Ben Saff, Abby Minor & Amy Thatcher
Wednesday July 15, 2026 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
Jessica Buten is a poet from Bucks County.
Caroline Furr has a decades long history in painting, sculpture, interior and surface design, gallery and museum work. At this less distracting time of life she has turned to her accumulation of written work as inspiration for new words.
Ben Saff is a technologist by trade and a creative when the moon comes knocking at his window, asking for a poem. He lives in Philadelphia with his cat, Simba.
Abby Minor lives in the ridges and valleys of central Pennsylvania, where she works on poems, essays, gardens, collages, and projects exploring regional and reproductive politics. Her poems and essays have appeared in Fence, the American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Ninth Letter, Bombay Gin, Sixth Finch, Harvard Review, Feminist Studies, and elsewhere.
Amy Thatcher is a native Philadelphian. Her poems have been published in Denver Quarterly, Split LIp, The Journal, Copper Nickel, Salt Hill and other journals. Her first manuscript, Weird Girl, won the 2025 Charles B Wheeler Prize and will be published by the Ohio State University Press in February 2027.
Anne-Adele Wight Host – Open Reading Follows

Censorship: A Panel Discussion with Larry Robin, Ernest Hilbert & Keith Kopka
2026-07-18 14:00 - 16:00 | The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Censorship: A Panel Discussion with Larry Robin, Ernest Hilbert, & Keith Kopka
Sat, July 18, 2026 @ 2:00 P.M.
Rare Book Department at Parkway Central Library
Cost: FREEElkins Library, 3rd FloorA discussion on censorship with Larry Robin, Director of Moonstone Arts Center and former owner of Robin’s Book Store, which was the Philadelphia defendant in the Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller) pornography case in 1961. Larry will be joined by poet and rare book dealer Ernest Hilbert, and Keith Kopka, Writers Resist and Senior Editor at Narrative Magazine and Poetry Editor at Philadelphia Stories.
This program is presented in association with Book Complaints and the Defense of Intellectual Freedom, an exhibition from Special Collections and will take place in the Rare Book Department’s Elkins Library.
The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees.
