Wednesday December 3, 7pm – Moonstone Poetry @ Fergie’s Pub (1214 Sansom Street)
Ivan Taub and notable Philadelphia actors: Mark Knight, Gina Martino, and Ethan Lipkin, will read poems from the collection Speed Limit 225 ($14.95 Moonstone), and if the stars are favorably aligned that night, perform a section (or two) from Taub’s newest play The Show. Ivan has publication and artistic credits as a writer/editor, playwright, author, poet, recording artist, record producer, band leader, performer, and as a presenter of theatre, music and dance.
Wednesday December 3, 7pm – Moonstone Poetry @ Brandywine Workshop (728 S. Broad Street)
Poetric Quid Pro Quo? Another poet reads your poem, then you read it. How does it sound, does it say what you wanted it to say? Then you read someone else’s poem. – Elijah B. Pringle, III host.
Sunday December 7, 2pm – Moonstone Poetry @ Brandywine Workshop (728 S. Broad Street)
Whirlwind Magazine #2 Release Event
Join Lamont B. Steptoe, Aaren Yeatts Perry, Ted Wilson and others to celebrate the life and work of James Baldwin. An open mic will follow. Copies of the magazine and books by local authors will be on sale. Photographs of Baldwin are by Lamont B. Steptow and others are intimate pictures taken by Shawun O. Henderson at the writer’s home in the south of France. An excerpt from Henderson’s elucidating memoir about Baldwin is included in Whirlwind Magazine #2.
Sunday December 7, 6pm – Moonstone Poetry @ Brandywine Workshop (728 S. Broad Street)
Join Eleanor Wilner, Elaine Terranova, Shulamith Caine, B.E. Kahn and others for a Memorial Reading for Henry Braun (1930-2014)
Henry Braun was born in 1930, grew up in Buffalo, participated in Robert Lowell’s workshop, and taught literature and creative writing at Temple University. In the 1960s, Braun’s anti-Vietnam work included organizing poetry read-ins against the war and as an organizer of a draft card turn-in at the Justice Department, Braun was an unindicted co-conspirator at the trial of the Boston Five. Braun’s first book of poems, The Vergil Woods, in 1968 and his collection Loyalty, New and Selected Poems in 2006. Over the years his work appeared in magazines such as Poetry, The Nation, The Massachusetts Review, American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Colorado Review, and in several anthologies.
Wednesday December 10, 7pm – Moonstone Poetry @ Brandywine Workshop (728 S. Broad Street).
Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander ($22, FreedomSeed Press)
65 poets from all over the world join together in one voice for justice, freedom and peace. Stand Our Ground is the definitive testament of a revolutionary generation. In this historic collection Black Arts Movement legends Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Haki R. Madhubuti and Askia M. Toure’ are joined by poets of all ages from across the United States and around the world. The cases of Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander expose the duplicity of an American justice system that remains rooted in racism and sexism. Stand our Ground is an effort to raise funds for both families to aid in their pursuit of justice even as it raises the consciousness of a generation toward the pursuit of a movement for justice for all! The books editor, Ewuare X. Osayande, is a poet, educator and activist.
Features Poets include: Yolanda Wisher, Lamont B. Steptoe, Adriann Bauista, Debra Wright, Jaz and more.
Tuesday December 9, 7pm – Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM (699 Ranstead Street)
Mentor & Mentored: Herman Beavers with Lauren Yates, Camara Brown, and Taylor McLendon.
Herman Beavers is Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies. He teaches courses in 20th Century African American literature and creative writing. He serves as an advisory editor for The African American Review, Modern Fiction Studies, and The Black Scholar.
Lauren Yates is a San Diego transplant, an alumna of The Excelano Project, Lauren represented The Philadelphia Pigeon at the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam. Her writing has appeared in XOJane, FRiGG, Melusine, and The Bakery.
Camara Brown loves Penn for many different reasons, one of the reasons she loves Penn is the unique and loving community that the Kelly Writer’s House offers.
Taylor McLendon aka “Ivy Sole” My name is Ivy Sole. I make art: music and other consumables. Pardon my fresh. Illadelph X QC.
Sunday December 14 – 1pm – Moonstone Poetry @ Brandywine Workshop (728 S. Broad Street)
2014 Anthology of Featured Poets – Reading, Book Launch and Holiday Party
Join us for an afternoon of poetry, refreshments, and camaraderie. Moonstone’s new anthology includes 90 of the 116 featured poets who read for us in 2014, many of whom will also read on December 14. A listing of the poets included in the anthology is on our website, which includes some of the best poets reading in Philadelphia today. That makes this a terrific book to give to poetry lovers and to use in poetry classes since readers can go hear the poets as well as read their work. This is a pot luck affair so please bring something good to eat or drink.
Wednesday December 17, 7pm – Moonstone Poetry @ Brandywine Workshop (728 S. Broad Street)
Elinor Mattern teaches writing and literature at Atlantic Cape Community College. Her poems and non-fiction have appeared in Washington Square, Without Haloes, Footwork: Paterson Literary Review and others. She is also a visual artist.
Barbara Daniels is author of Rose Fever: Poems, Black Sails and Quinn & Marie. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-Atlantic Review, Solstice, The Literary Review, and many other journals. She has published more than 250 poems, has given many poetry readings and participated as a staff member in writing conferences and workshops.
Paul-Victor Winters’ most recent publications include poems and book reviews in New York Quarterly, Shot Glass Journal and TLR: The Literary Review. His chapbook, Muscle & Bone won the 1995 Hudson Valley Writers’ Center Poetry Chapbook Competition, judged by Billy Collins. He Currently teaches English at Egg Harbor Township High School. Open Reading Follows, Dave Worrell Host.
Thursday December 18 – 7pm – Moonstone Poetry @ Brandywine Workshop (728 S. Broad St.)
Brian Patrick Heston is author of If You Find Yourself (Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award) and Latchkey Kids. His work has appeared in publications including Many Mountains Moving, Rosebud, West Branch, South Carolina Review, and River Styx.
Jeffrey Ethan Lee is the author of identity papers (Colorado Book Award finalist), invisible sister (Many Mountains Moving Press poetry book finalist), toward euphoria (co-winner of the Seven Kitchen Press Editor’s Prize) and The Sylf (Sow’s Ear Press poetry chapbook prize).
Elaine Terranova is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently, Dollhouse (Off the Grid Press 2013 Poetry Award), Not To, New and Selected Poems, The Cult of the Right Hand (Walt Whitman Award). Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and other magazines and anthologies.