Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Pudding House Salon-Cleveland to Launch New Chapbook 10/29 at Coventry Village Library

(click pic once or twice for a larger, more readable/printable version)


What: Book Launch & poetry reading, to celebrate new chapbook anthology from the first year of our Cleveland workshop

Who: Pudding House Salon-Cleveland poets
Host: Sammy Greenspan, director, Pudding House Salon-Cleveland
Featured readers: Kathleen Cerveny, Shelley Chernin, Christine Howey
Emcees: Dianne Borsenik & John Burroughs of Lix & Kix

Where: Coventry Village Library, 1925 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, (216) 321-3400

When: Friday, October 29, 2010 at 7 p.m.

Cost: Free and open to the public
Refreshments provided
Free parking behind the library

Contributors to the Pudding House Publications anthology What I Knew Before I Knew include Courtenay Roberts, Linda Tuthill, Howard D. Hersch, Mary O'Malley, Nancy Nixon, Meredith Holmes, Bonne de Blas, Shelley Chernin, John B. Burroughs, Kathleen Cerveny, Linda Goodman Robiner, Dawn Shimp, Dianne Borsenik, Mark Hersman, Christine Howey, Caroline Dandalides, Cindy Washabaugh, Jocelyn Adams, and Sammy Greenspan.


Register at: http://heightslibrary.org/index.php (click on "Register for a Program")

You may also visit our event page on Facebook.

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Monday, October 25, 2010

It was a Dark and Scary Night...


The Science Fiction Poetry Association has put up their 2010 Halloween Poetry Reading podcast-- nine scary poems in MP3 format, by the likes of David Kopaska-Merkel and Elissa Malcohn. If you like ghosties and ghoulies in your ears-- check it out.

If "short" is your style, on the other hand, this month Microcosms, the twitter poetry-zine, is running horror-themed short-shorts poems.

Happy Hallowe'en!





image: "A Halloween Collage with Spiders,"

Sunday, October 24, 2010

I Love You, Fuck Off - Mad Perl Lix & More



Totally unrehearsed: NYC poet Puma Perl performs "I Love You, Fuck Off" from her book Knuckle Tattoos, backed by Cincinnati-based Mad Anthony (Ringo, Adam, Dave & Marc), Friday 10/22 at Lix & Kix. Recording by Lix co-host Dianne Borsenik.

This past week, we celebrated the second anniversary of Lix with two events. On Wednesday 10/20, Cleveland poets Jim Lang and Ben Gulyas anchored our second annual "Fuck the Format, Get in Where You Fit in, Open Mic Free for All." And on Friday 10/22, we featured poetry by Smith and Lady, Alex Nielsen, and Puma Perl — plus soul-infused hard rock by Mad Anthony. Both events were quite different from each other and from what we usually do at Lix, except in these common respects: they were energetic, inspired and inspiring. It seems the poets also helped raise enough money to resuscitate the Homeless Grapevine. Kix ass! Thank you!

Click here to see the 1st half of my 10/20 Lix pix.
Click here to see the 2nd half of my 10/20 Lix pix.
Click here to see my 10/22 Lix pix.

Check out Lix and Kix Poetry the third Wednesday of each month, 7 p.m., at Bela Dubby Art Gallery & Beer Cafe, 13321 Madison Avenue in Lakewood, Ohio. Upcoming shows include:

Wed. Nov. 17: Major Ragain (of Kent), Blaire Bommer (of Cleveland) and Christopher Franke (of Cleveland).

Wed. Dec. 15th: Larry Smith (of Huron), Eric Anderson (of Elyria) and Nicole Robinson (of Kent).

Here's another clip Dianne recorded, of Puma Perl (and Cleveland Poetics contributors Shelley Chernin and me) performing a bit of non verbal poetry to Mad Anthony's song "Teeth":

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Tweet poem


Today's immortal lines from the ever-continuing tweet poem, the "longest poem in the world":

..."ever though you're singing and thinking how well you've got it made.
I just looked at this week's calendar and I'm very afraid.
And suddenly I'm not sleepy anymore. I'd die for some cereal.
Crap. I have to take a dump and I am out of reading material."

Somehow, that just says it all.

(see also earlier post at auto poetry, part 3)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Two Lix (and Kix) Are Better Than One [updated]



To celebrate the Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza's second anniversary, we're having two events this month: one on our regular third Wednesday (Oct. 20th) and one the following Friday (Oct. 22nd). The Wednesday event is our second annual Fuck the Format, Get in Where You Fit in, Open Mic Free-for-All anchored by Cleveland poets Jim Lang and Ben Gulyas. The Friday event features New York City poet Puma Perl, Cleveland's own Alex Nielsen and citizens of the world Smith & Lady, followed by an open mic. There will be music and cake both nights as well. Dianne Borsenik and John "Jesus Crisis" Burroughs will emcee. Both events will take place at Bela Dubby Art Gallery & Beer Cafe, 13321 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio. [UPDATE - Friday will also feature a performance by Mad Anthony, a soul-infused rock band from Cincinnati. The party begins at 7 p.m.]


According to S.A. Griffin, editor The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, "Puma Perl is tough, funny, straight ahead and unforgettable. A survivor with a knockout punch and a heart of gold who claims she never wrote a love poem. But don't be fooled, Knuckle Tattoos is an epic love poem to the curb and back dressed in leopard print, sporting come fuck me pumps working the thin edge. Puma is jazz, punk and the ghost of Ava Gardner. A subway angel who talks to god, Puma Perl is a pearl of a girl and a poet who writes like her heart is on fire." Her latest book, Knuckle Tattoos, won the Erbacce Prize for poetry.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

WORKING-CLASS READING AT MAC'S BACKS October 21st



Reading from new Working-Class Anthology on Thursday, October 21st at 7 p.m.
Mac's Backs Paperbacks

Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams published by Coffee House Press and edited by Detroit poet M.L. Liebler is an anthology of writing about work and workers.
Poets Maggie Anderson, Jeanne Bryner, M.L. Liebler, Ray McNiece and Larry Smith will be at Mac's to read from the book.

"A collection about living while barely making one, about layoffs and picket lines, about farmers, butchers, miners, waitresses, assembly-line workers, and the “Groundskeeper Busted Reading in the Custodial Water Closet,” this is literature by the people and for the people— Working Words is a transcendent volume that touches upon all aspects of working-class life."
Other contributors include Andre Codrescu, Dorothy Day, Diane DiPrima, Bob Dylan, Eminem, Philip Levine, Thomas Lux, Michael Moore, Michael Mclure, Ed Sanders, Diane Wakoski, Walt Whitman and dozens of others.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Columbus Slam Poet, Educator and Director Scott Woods has some interesting things to say concerning an article that attempts to chastise slam poetry here:

http://scottwoods.livejournal.com/368552.html

What I love about this retort is that Woods also runs GotPoetry.com's "Poetry Is Doomed," which addresses many of Farr's issues:

http://gotpoetry.com/News/topic=24.html

As the editor of the Hessler Street Fair Competition for the past few years, I must say that "Are your poetry submissions telling you the same things they're telling the editors? Probably not." struck a particular chord with me.

Let the words of the homeless be heard!

Let the words of the homeless be heard! Cleveland poets are trying to raise money for a new version of the The Homeless Grapevine, the newspaper that the homeless used to give away to folks in return for donations (see post below). I can't think of anyone better qualified to raise money to print the words of the homeless than the word-loving poets of Cleveland. After all, if we don't stand behind words for humanity, who will? I know that the late Daniel Thompson, a fierce advocate for the homeless, would want us to do this and we can't let him down. To aid the effort, deep cleveland press will donate all of the profits from the purchase of any deep cleveland press book, or any publication from the historic Agents of Chaos "ArtCrimes" series to the effort (a markk & smith idea). Go to the below links and make a purchase today, and tell all your friends!

http://www.deepcleveland.com/artcrimes.html

http://www.deepcleveland.com/deepclevelandbooks.html

Thursday, October 7, 2010

The Homeless Grapevine is dead; long live the Homeless

http://www.walkingthinice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/grapevine1.jpg
Daniel Thompson poem in the Homeless Grapevine
foto taken at Daniel Thompson’s funeral by Smith


The Homeless Grapevine is dead; long live the Homeless
[received from Smith]

Cleveland poets are trying to raise $1,600 for a new issue of the newspaper the homeless give away to folks in return for donations. So far we have almost $1,000 donated by poet Larry Smith's Bottom Dog Press, poet Mary Weems, poet Ben Gulyas and his friends, and poets Kathy and Steve Smith. That leaves the newspaper $600 short.

I can't think of anyone better qualified to raise money to print the words of the homeless than the word loving poets of Cleveland; after all, if we don't stand behind words for humanity, who will?

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) used to print The Homeless Grapevine four to six times a year which allowed the homeless to offer a newspaper in return for a donation rather than just asking for money. This let every one retain a sense of dignity because it is a transaction rather than begging. Plus 50% of the articles in each issue are written by the homeless, which gives them a venue to showcase their story and us a chance to learn more about our fellow humans’ need.

Unfortunately NEOCH ran out of money last year and there hasn't been an issue printed since August 2009. Even more unfortunate, some unauthorized folks tried to raise money using old papers, which sullied the paper's name.

So the Homeless Grapevine is no more. But they have plans for a new newspaper as well as some job training scheduled for the first of the year and would be willing to print an edition right away if they can raise the funds.

Since the old Grapevine name has been tarnished, the new paper will have a new name. Ben Gulyas has suggested calling it Let's Face It, which I think is bodaciously excellent because it is time we faced our homeless problem here in Cleveland.

As Ben Gulyas says, "The address to send a check to is listed below. Again just specify on the check that it's "for homeless newspaper," and that will reserve that money for that purpose. So far the five of us, Kathy, Steven, Larry, Mary and myself we've got $600. Let's keep it going!"

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH)
3631 Perkins Ave, #3A-3
3rd Floor
Cleveland, Oh 44114

You can also donate at http://www.networkforgood.org/.

For a NEOCH status update on the donation process, check http://clevelandhomeless.blogspot.com/2010/10/update-on-street-newspaper.html

For the NEOCH blog, check http://clevelandhomeless.blogspot.com/

Kudos go out to Kathy Smith for proposing this, Larry Smith and Mary Weems for jumpstarting the initial donations, and especially Ben Gulyas who has literally kept it rolling. Who says poets and poetry don’t matter?

Here are the two emails from Brian Davis of NEOCH to Ben Gulyas in response to Ben's inquiries on exactly what’s going on.

Please, all of you, pass this on. Let’s get this done.

Email #1:

Yes, the Grapevine has not published since August of 2009. We just have not had the money to publish. Yes, it would cost around $1,600 to publish one issue. NEOCH is the 501-c-3 charity to make donations to. The Grapevine never had its own charitable status. We would give out tax receipts to anyone that sends in donations to the Grapevine. We are working on a plan to tie the Grapevine to a job training program so that anyone who signs up to go through job training during the day could make some money in the late afternoon/evening to stay alive during their training. We don’t expect to start this until January 2011.

Finally, people can specify the Grapevine when donating through Network for Good, and those dollars are held until we decide what the future of the paper will be. We have talked about this for a while and since the Grapevine has not published for a year and some people are abusing the paper’s name by panhandling with old papers, we most likely start with a clean slate and a new name if we published again. We will try for a different business model to make sure that we can sustain the paper without the pedestrian traffic that we had in the past. When we started we had a rich pedestrian traffic downtown. That is no longer true so we have to look at other models for distribution.

Brian

Email #2:

If we get $1,600 then we can do an edition before we get our plans together, but as I said, we probably would call it something else. If we only get $1,000, we would have to contact the donors to ask what they want done with their donation.

I think that we can clarify on the front of the paper and in the media that we are changing directions, but still maintaining the concept. We still want a street newspaper distributed locally by homeless people with at least half of the text by homeless people. It is just that the name has been dragged through the mud with scammers using the paper to fundraise for themselves for the past year.

We would love to have volunteers. We actually just updated our website to provide ideas for volunteering in the homeless community: http://www.neoch.org/volunteerpage.htm and then here is a link if people want to directly serve homeless people: http://www.neoch.org/volunteering_directservice.htm

Also, just to let you know we are doing a joint fundraiser with Catholic Charities in November to support the Coalition. We are having a chef from Sans Souci prepare a gourmet lunch for homeless people, and we are selling tickets in which individuals can pay for one of the meals. Everyone that supports one of the meals will be entered in a raffle for prizes. It is a nice way to support NEOCH and one of the programs that feeds homeless people every day. The website on this fundraiser will be up on Friday.

I agree with you about the one shot nature of raising dollars, and how it would be great to put something together long term. We were never good at getting advertising support for the paper to sustain it. We just did not have that skill here.

Thanks again for your interest and support.

To all the other poets: Thank you for thinking of the Grapevine and the vendors who sold the paper.

Brian


Daniel Thompson poem in the Homeless Grapevine – foto by Smith

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Monday, October 4, 2010

Canton – ese Poetry

Poetry and Music with Robert Miltner and Erin Vaughn
miltner001
Poetry, Poetry+Music, and Music::this is a collaboration between Robert and Erin. Open mic at 7pm, the show starts by 7:30. Suggested donation is $5 and bring nonperishable food items to donate to the Stark County Hunger Task Force. Fair Trade coffee will be served.
Unitarian Coffee House
2585 Easton Street NE Canton Ohio
Saturday, October 9 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Cited...

The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ~Jean Cocteau