Moonstone Arts Center

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
2017-07-19 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
“Jim Cory writes stories, as well as poems, and his work has appeared in many venues over the course of the last 35 years. His poems most recently appeared in the zine Elephant, out of New London, Connecticut., the on-line political journal Counterpunch.org and …like this, out of North Attleboro, Mass. He has published seven chapbooks of poems and been a recipient of fellowships from the Pennsylvania Arts Council and Yaddo. He lives in Center City, Philadelphia, and can be reached at coryjim@earthlink.net.”

Mary Ann Domanska
Mary Ann Domanska is the author of Unraveled, has published several poems in the Philly Poetry Anthology, performs locally at the Stagecrafters Theatre, is on the board of MAAG (Mt. Airy Art Garage) and founded/hosted The Swerve, an open mic poetry event held monthly (2014-2015). She is a 2nd-grade teacher at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, where she has taught for the past fourteen years. She studied with the notable Latino poet, Martín Espada, and with Kristin Linklater, author of Freeing the Natural Voice.

Susan Holck is a retired physician who lived in Switzerland for 30 years before relocating to Philadelphia. After decades of scientific writing, she began writing poetry. Her poetry has been published in Cecile’s Writers Magazine, By&By Poetry, The Ocotillo Review, and Bluestem Magazine. Holck’s writing is deeply informed by the deaths of her husband and son, and her daughter’s severe mental illness.

Lisa Naomi Konigsberg has been writing poems since the age of five. She is a tenure-track instructor at West Chester University in the English Department. Her writing has appeared in Whirlwind Press, Rockford Review, Word River Journal, Poetry INK, and her chapbook, Invisible Histories, was published in 2015, by Spruce Alley Press. Her poems explore the historical when it works to reveal the personal.
Host: Suzan Jivan, An open mic will follow the featured readers. The event is free and 21+.

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
2017-07-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Mike Cohen hosts Poetry Aloud and Alive at Philadelphia’s Big Blue Marble Book Store. His articles on sculpture appear in the Schuylkill Valley Journal in which he is a contributing editor. He also played Editor Whedon in a Laurel Hill Cemetery production of Spoon River Anthology for the Philly Fringe Festival. Mike has memorized a good deal of his poetry in case a power failure during a reading leaves him in the dark. Mike’s wry writing has appeared in the Mad Poets Review, Fox Chase Review, and other journals. His poetic presentations feature humor and drama against a philosophical backdrop. Mike’s poetry can be found at http://mikecohensays.com/ and in his book BETWEEN THE I’S

Kevin Varrone received his M.A. in poetry in 1997. He is the author of the chapbook g-point Almanac (6/21-9/21) (ixnay press, 2000), id est (g-point Almanac 9/22-12- 20) (Instance Press, 2007), and Eephus (Ugly Duckling Presse, X). In collaboration with poetry and programmer Vlad Zykov, he created Box Score: An Autobiography, an app for iPad and iPhone that features poems from Eephus paired with collages. His poems have appeared in Mass Ave, The Baltimore Review, American Poetry Review’s Philly Edition, and Pavement Saw. He is co-founder of Beautiful Swimmer Press. He teaches at Temple University.
Host: Dave Worrell, An open mic will follow the featured readers. The event is free and 21+.

Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAm - Sanctuary Poets Part II
2017-07-11 14:00 - 17:00 | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
2017 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series on PhillyCAM
Regarding Poetry in Philly someone wrote: “If Philadelphia and environs were a garden of poetry, it would be quite a garden. It’d be huge. This is a poetry town which is lush and fertile.” There are there are over 50 organizations that promote poetry in the Philadelphia area-poetry readings, workshops; special events, as well as publish poetry journals and books of poems. They represent every poetry form, every ethnic background, every age, gender and community. This series consists of a panel of guest poets and artists that discuss the opportunities which their group or organization provides for poetry and poets in Philly. The program also focuses on the wide variety of themes and issues which influence the creation of poetry in Philly. The program is broadcasted live on the first Tuesday of each month. The program is free and open to everyone. Please join us in the studio for this live broadcast.
Tuesday July 11, 2017 -6:30pm – Sanctuary Poets Part 2
This workshop explored questions of belonging, safety and identity for (im)migrants in the aftermath of election 2016 and the resurgence of racist, misogynist, and xenophobic forces in the United States. Participants studied poetry arising from migrant traditions, with an emphasis on poets of color and poets from the Global South. Participants wrote their own original poems, were supported through feedback and revision, and shared their work with the public at a culminating event.
Catalina Rios holds a B.A in Latin American Studies from Wesleyan University and a M.A in Spanish from Middlebury College. She is a recipient of a Leeway Foundation Harmony Grant and has attended the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference. Catalina is a trained S.E.E.D facilitator (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) who is deeply committed to social justice, cultural awareness and respect for diversity in community. She currently teaches Spanish to Preschool through 6th graders at The School in Rose Valley.

Raha Rafii is a Ph.D. student in Islamic history at the University of Pennsylvania. Her home is the Farsi-accented “para decir algo” and “schmeckt gut” her parents still randomly say in conversation.

Maria Sotomayor moved to the US at age 10 from Loja Ecuador. Maria grew up undocumented, learning to navigate invisible systems from an early age. She is now an immigrant rights community organizer. Maria loves to paint, design, write and create as a way to feed her soul.

Caroline Park Kim is a queer writer and reluctant Leo somewhere (and nowhere) between Korean and American. She’s particularly interested in QTIPOC mental health and care modalities. She crash-landed in Los Angeles, and is currently based in Philly

Rosie Glade is a barista and poet currently living and working in Philly. Her interests are dancing and herbalism, and her current writing project is an exploration of paganism, feminism, and sex work.

Sheila Quintana is an immigrant from Acapulco, Mexico who spends her time in Philly as a political organizer with various migrant justice groups. She aspires to grow into an excellent cook, a Mexican traditional healer, and a filmmaker.

Host: Charles S. Carr – Author of paradise, Pennsylvania and Haitian Mud Pies And Other Poems and his work has been published the Painted Bride Review, Apiary, Fox Chase Review, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, Mad Poets, Philadelphia Stories, Moonstone Poetry Anthology, The Blue Collar Review and Generations of Poetry. Charles is former host of the Moonstone Poetry series at Fergie’s Pub.

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
2017-07-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Anthony Palma’s work has appeared in publications such as The Mad Poet’s Review, Italiana Americana, and Harbinger Asylum. Recently, he has taken a renewed interest in the connections between poetry and other forms of expression such as performance and visual a…rt. He teaches composition at Rowan University and also teaches classes at Saint Joseph’s University. He lives in West Chester, and when not teaching or writing, he enjoys martial arts, painting, music, and spending time with family and friends. Brooke Palma grew up in Philadelphia and transplanted to West Chester 10 years ago. A legal receptionist and administrator by day and poet by night, she studied English, Italian, and Ceramics at Saint Joseph’s University.
Brooke Palma grew up in Philadelphia and transplanted to West Chester 10 years ago. A legal receptionist and administrator by day and poet by night, she studied English, Italian, and Ceramics at Saint Joseph’s University. She has been published in The Mad Poet’s Review and has been reading her poems in and around the city. As the child of an immigrant, many of her poems focus on the connections between culture and identity. In her free time, she also enjoys reading, cooking, and shopping.
Charlie O’Hay’s poems have appeared in over 100 journals, including Mudfish, West Branch, Painted Bride Quarterly, Cortland Review, Gargoyle and The New York Quarterly. He is the recipient of a 1995 Fellowship in Poetry from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. “Far from Luck” is his first collection of poems and photographs. His second book is “Smoking In Elevators.” Since 2010, Charlie’s ongoing photo series “Everyone Has a Name” has shared images and stories of the homeless in Center City Philadelphia to promote understanding, dignity, and an end to homelessness in America.
Host: Sean Lynch, An open mic will follow the featured readers. The event is free and 21+.

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
2017-06-28 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Fran Baird received the Judson Jerome Poetry Scholarship, his poem “Neshaminy” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He currently conducts a poetry workshop with inmates at Graterford Prison.

Cassie MacDonald serves as Hearthkeeper of Brigid’s House in Camden where she facilitates a writing circle and creates neighborhood murals as part of the Poetry Liberation Front (“Poetry to the People!”)

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
2017-06-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Laura Spagnoli (& Baby) is a poet and fiction writer inspired by the Broad Street subway line, direct mail advertising, constellations you can see from the city, and parrots. Her poems have appeared in the Apiary, E. Pluribus Unum, and one of her stories was published in the 2010 collection Philadelphia Noir.

Ernest Hilbert’s (& Ian) debut collection, Sixty Sonnets establishes a variation the sonnet form. Hilbert’s second collection, All of You on the Good Earth, returns to his idiosyncratic, highly inventive sonnet form. His spoken word album, Elegies & Laments, includes tracks of Hilbert’s poems backed by his band.

David Moolten (& Shira) is a poet and a filmmaker. His most recent book, Primitive Mood, won the T.S. Eliot Prize from Truman State University Press. He is also the author of Plums & Ashes, which won the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize. His honors include a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship and a Pushcart Prize.

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub 1214 Sansom Street Wednesday June 14, 2017 – 7pm
2017-06-14 19:00 - 20:30
Grace Bauer’s most recent book of poems is MEAN/TIME, just published by the University of New Mexico Press. A 20th anniversary re-issue of her ground-breaking collection The Women At The Well was published in 2016 by SFASU Press. Other books include: Nowhere All At Once (winner of the Society of Midland Authors Book of the Year Award for 2015), Retreats & Recognitions and Beholding Eye, as well as several chapbooks. She is also co-editor (with Julie Kane) of the anthology, Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum: Critical & Creative Responses to Everette Maddox and is currently co-editing another anthology, Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse, forthcoming from Lost Horse Press this fall.

Lynn Levin is a poet, writer, translator, and teacher. She holds a BA in comparative literature from Northwestern University and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She teaches at Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of six books, most recently: Birds on the Kiswar Tree (2Leaf Press, 2014), a translation from the Spanish of a collection of poems by the Peruvian Andean poet Odi Gonzales; Miss Plastique (Ragged Sky Press, 2013), a 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in poetry; and, as co-author, Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets (Texture Press, 2013), a 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in education/academic books. Her previous books include a 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in poetry; Imaginarium (Loonfeather Press, 2005), a finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s 2005 Book of the Year Award; A Few Questions about Paradise (Loonfeather Press, 2000); and a chapbook, The Forest: Poems by Besnik Mustafaj (PM Chapbooks, 2001), a translation from the French. Lynn Levin’s poems, creative nonfiction, short fiction, and translations have appeared in Ploughshares, Boulevard, The Hopkins Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Southwest Review, Cleaver, Wild River River, Painted Bride Quarterly, on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, and other places. She has received thirteen Pushcart Prize nominations, two grants from the Leeway Foundation, and is a Bucks County, Pennsylvania poet laureate.
Dave Worrell, host
An open mic will follow the featured readers. The event is free and 21+.

A Tribute to Leonard Gontarek
2017-06-11 14:00 - 17:00 | Brandywine Workshop, 728 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19146, United States
For some strange reason, we tend to wait until someone dies before we express our gratitude for what they have done. Why Wait? Join us in honoring Leonard Gontarek through a reading of praise poems as well as his own work.
50 Poets have responded with poems and comments to honor Leonard Gontarek
20 of them will be reading at the event on Sunday
A Chapbook with the 50 poems will be available for purchase ($10, The Moonstone Press)
Leonard Gontarek is the author of Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket, Shiva (2016) and He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Needs (2013), both published by Hanging Loose Press. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poet Lore, Verse, Blackbird, The Awl, Spinning Jenny, and The Best American Poetry, among others. He teaches workshops throughout the Philadelphia area, including the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership, and a weekly Saturday workshop from his home in West Philadelphia. He has been Mad Poet-in-Residence since 2008. He coordinates Peace/Works, Philly Poetry Day, The Philadelphia Poetry Festival, and hosts The Green Line Reading & Interview Series. Gontarek has received Poetry fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Philadelphia Writers Conference Community Service Award, and was a Literary Death Match Champion. His poem, 37 Photos From The Bridge, was a Poetry winner for the Big Bridges MotionPoems project and the basis for the award-winning film by Lori Ersolmaz sponsored by the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis: http://movingpoems.com/poet/leonard-gontarek/

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
2017-06-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Andrew Keller has been active in the DIY music scene since 2007. He has toured with the bands Hermit Thrushes, Snow Caps, Jonagold, Folklore, Evil Sword, and Glover. Keller also spent around ten years as Senior Editor of local lit mag Painted Bride Quarterly before leaving last year.

Harmon Butcher was born in rural East Virginia to mother and father. After a strange problem and accident, Butcher set out traveling the great America West on foot in search of truth and innocence.

Sanctuary Poets - Part 1
2017-06-06 18:30 - 20:00 | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Participants of the Asian Arts Initiative workshopped on belonging, safety, and identity for (im)migrants in the aftermath of election 2016 and the resurgence of racist, misogynist, and xenophobic forces in the United
States.

Cynthia Dewi Oka is a poet, immigrant, and author of Nomad of Salt and Hard Water (Thread Makes Blanket, 2016). A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her poetry has appeared in publications such as Guernica, Dusie, Black Renaissance Noire, The Blueshift Journal, Kweli, Apogee, As Us, Painted Bride Quarterly, and others. She has received the Fifth Wednesday Journal Editor’s Prize in Poetry, scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center and Voices of Our Nations (VONA), and the Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant. Her next book of poems, Salvage, is forthcoming in 2017 from Northwestern University Press.

Katherine Sarwopeni Antarikso was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, moved to Pennsylvania, which motivated her to explore ideas of home and identity for displaced people.

Rommy Driks, although better known as a math and science nerd, has always loved words and been fascinated by the art of crafting them.

Meera Jayaraman is a queer South Asian femme dedicated to living in radically vulnerable ways. She writes because she reads, and reading has shaped her into being.

Karla Maria is an afrolatiñx writer from the south. She pulls from all of her lives and emotions to make poetry pour out.

Quinha is a mixed kid living in South Philly who likes to dance and play soccer. She also works in the ER and is a member of Put People First!

Moonstone Poetry @ Toast Café, 1201 Spruce Street
2017-06-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Toast Café, 1201 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Mike Cohen hosts Poetry Aloud and Alive at Philadelphia’s Big Blue Marble Book Store.

Eileen D’Angelo has been nominated for a Pennsylvania Governor’s Award in the Arts and twice for the Pushcart Prize, judged Philadelphia-area poets for Def Poetry Jam.

Hiram Larew’s work has appeared in several journals and books
including the Washington review, Rhino, Rue Bella, The Cosmos Club Journal, Frantic Egg, Not Just Air, and Echoes. Nominated for a 2006 Pushcart Prize, his poems have been recognized for awards by, among others, Louisiana Literature, Verve, the Allen Ginsberg Awards, and S. S. Calliope.
An open mic will follow the featured readers. The event is free.

1917: The Year That Changed History - Immigration Film & Discussion
2017-06-01 13:00 - 15:00 | National Museum of American Jewish History, 101 South Independence Mall East, Philadelphia, PA, 19106-2517, United States
Featuring Liliana Velásquez, author of Dreams and Nightmares/ Sueños y Pesadillas, a remarkable memoir by a teenager who at fourteen years old fled horrific violence and poverty in Guatemala and headed out alone for the United States. On her trip through Mexico she was robbed by narcos, rode the boxcars of La Bestia, and organized thirty of her fellow Central American bus passengers to convince the Federales who had arrested them to allow them to continue on their way. Finally, she made it to the US border, and headed out across the Sonoran Desert, where she encountered death and was caught by US Immigration. She spent a year in a horrendous foster situation and eventually landed on her feet with a family that loves and protects her. She is now in high school, while she works to support her family back home and makes plans to go on to nursing school. Edited & Translated by Mark Lyons who met with Liliana over forty-five times.

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
2017-05-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
D TED TARNOVSKI Lives in Philadelphia, where he hosts Poems Night, a monthly reading series and open mic, at Little Berlin in Fishtown.

SHY WATSON is a poet & painter living in philadelphia, pa. she is the author of AWAY STATUS & my parents were going to give me your name if i were born a boy.
ANGELO COLAVITA is author of Heroines, lives and writes in Philadelphia, where he hosts Oxford Coma, a nihilist poetry reading series. His work has appeared in Apiary Magazine, The Philadelphia Citizen, Mad House, and elsewhere

Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
2017-05-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Grace Bauer’s full-length collections of poetry include The Women at The Well, Beholding Eye, and Retreats and Recognitions. Her awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize and the Nebraska Arts Council.

Lynn Levin is a 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in poetry and the author of Birds on the Kiswar Tree, a translation of a collection of poems by the Peruvian Andean poet Odi Gonzales. Levin’s poems and translations have appeared in Ploughshares, Boulevard, and The Hopkins Review.

Publication Celebration of DREAMS and NIGHTMARES/ SUEÑOS y PESADILLAS by Liliana Velásquez
2017-05-25 18:30 - 20:30 | PhillyCAM Community Room, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Featuring Liliana Velásquez, author of Dreams and Nightmares/ Sueños y Pesadillas, a remarkable memoir by a teenager who at fourteen years old fled horrific violence and poverty in Guatemala and headed out alone for the United States. On her trip through Mexico, she was robbed by narcos, rode the boxcars of La Bestia, and
organized thirty of her fellow Central American bus
passengers to convince the Federales who had arrested them to allow them to continue on their way. Finally, she made it to the US border and headed out across the Sonoran Desert, where she encountered death and was caught by US Immigration. She spent a year in a horrendous foster situation and eventually landed on her feet with a family that loves and protects her. She is now in high school, while she works to support her family back home and makes plans to go on to nursing school. Edited & Translated by Mark Lyons who met with Liliana over forty-five times.
$5 Parking at the corner of 7th and Ranstead Refreshments will be served

Moonstone Poetry @ Toast Café, 1201 Spruce Street
2017-05-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Toast Café, 1201 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Shevaun Brannigan is a graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars, as well as The Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House at The University of Maryland. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Best New Poets, Rhino, Redivider, and Crab Orchard Review.
Irène Mathieu is a pediatrician, poet, and public health researcher. She is the winner of the Bob Kaufman Book Prize and Yemassee Journal’s Poetry Prize, and she has received fellowships from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the Fulbright Program. Irène is the author of the poetry book orogeny and chapbook the galaxy of origins.
Open Reading Follows, Jennifer Hook and Alina Macneal Hosts

Moonstone Gold Series - Gerald Stern and Anne Marie Macari
2017-05-21 14:00 - 17:00 | Arch Enemy Gallery, 109 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Gerald Stern has been called an “American original,” “a sometimes comic, sometimes tragic visionary.” Over dozens of books, and decades of teaching and activism, Stern has emerged as one of America’s most celebrated and irascible poets. Stern’s poetry frequently references his all-American, working-class upbringing as well as his Jewish and Eastern European heritage. He was Poet Laureate of New Jersey from 2000–2002. His new book is Galaxy Love: POEMS ($25.95 Norton.)
Anne Marie Macari is author of Red Deer, She Heads into Wilderness, Gloryland and Ivory Cradle; and a member of the Alice James Books Cooperative Board. Macari founded and teaches in the Drew MFA Program for Poetry & Poetry in Translation and has taught on the faculty of the Prague Summer Seminars. Interview by Elaine Terranova, author of six books of poems and two chapbooks, her work has appeared in a number of literary magazines and anthologies.

The Poetry of Places in Philly
2017-05-19 08:00 - 17:00 | PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
2017 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series on PhillyCAM
Regarding Poetry in Philly someone wrote: “If Philadelphia and environs were a garden of poetry, it would be quite a garden. It’d be huge. This is a poetry town which is lush and fertile.” There are over 50 organizations that promote poetry in the Philadelphia area-poetry readings, workshops; special events, as well as publish poetry journals and books of poems. They represent every poetry form, every ethnic background, every age, gender, and community. This series will consist of a panel of guest poets discussing the opportunities which their group or organization provides for poetry in Philly. The program will also focus on the wide variety of themes and issues which influence the creation of poetry. The program is broadcast live on the first Tuesday of each month with Charles S. Carr as host. It is free and open to everyone. Please join us in the studio for this live broadcast.
