Snoetry is back!

60 poets in 11 hours-- plus you!  Yes, Snoetry is back, this time at Guide to Kulchur bookstore, in the Gordon Square district near the Capitol Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre.

Courtesy of The Tao of Jesus Crisis:

FIRST TIME IN CLEVELAND!

Featuring writers from several states! Lix & Kix, clevelandpoetry.com and friends present the 4th almost annual Snoetry winter wordfest, Sunday 16 March from noon to 11 pm at Guide To Kulchur: Text, Art, and News in the Gordon Square arts district of Cleveland, Ohio.

Open mic from noon to 1 p.m. 60 featured poets from 1 to 11 p.m.

Potluck and BYOB. If you have any questions, please contact John on Facebook or at jc at crisischronicles.com.

Full [perhaps still evolving] schedule:

Noon: Open Mic
1pm: John Burroughs (Cleveland)
1:10 Mark Sebastian Jordan (Mansfield)
1:20 Heather Ann Schmidt with Marc Shepard (Michigan/Oberlin)
1:30 Clarissa Jakobsons (Aurora)
1:40 Barton D. Smock (Columbus)
1:50 Helen Shepard (Oberlin)
2 pm: Kathy Smith (Cleveland)
2:10 Steve Brightman (Kent)
2:20 Blaire Bommer (Cleveland)
2:30 Juliet Cook (Medina)
2:40 Steven Smith (Cleveland)
2:50 Suzanne Savickas (Cleveland)
3 pm: Marisa Moks-Unger (Erie)
3:10 Jeffrey Bowen (Cleveland)
3:20 Bree [a.k.a. Zlee Zlee] (Cleveland)
3:30 Marissa Hyde (Cleveland)
3:40 Chuck Joy (Erie)
3:50 James E. Stanley (Cleveland)
4 pm: Jennifer Hambrick (Columbus)
4:10 Rose M Smith (Columbus)
4:20 Dianne Borsenik (Elyria)
4:30 Eric Anderson (Elyria)
4:40 Claire McMahon (Cleveland)
4:50 Tracie Morell (Erie)
5 pm: Bradley K Meyer (Dayton)
5:10 Ellis E-matic Crockett (Erie)
5:20 Alex Nielsen (Cleveland)
5:30 Dan Smith (Cleveland)
5:40 Bridget Kriner (Cleveland)
5:50 Megan Collins (Erie)
6 pm: Gork (Cleveland)
6:10 Josh Romig (Ravenna)
6:20 Amanda Oaks (Pennsylvania)
6:30 Mary O'Malley (Cleveland)
6:40 elliot smith (Erie)
6:50 Adam Sagert (Lorain)
7 pm: Christine Howey (Cleveland)
7:10 Kelly Boyer Sagert (Lorain)
7:20 Andy Roberts (Columbus)
7:30 Ryan Sagert (Lorain)
7:40 Brian Fugett (Dayton)
7:50 Theresa Göttl (Cleveland)
8 pm: Steve Thomas (Cleveland)
8:10 Cee Williams (Erie)
8:20 Lennart Lundh (Illinois)
8:30 Mistress Rosie [a.k.a. Lisa Dabrowski] (Lorain)
8:40 mark s. kuhar [a.k.a. Mark Cueball] (Medina)
8:50 Catherine Criswell (Cleveland)
9 pm: Shelly Ann (Cleveland)
9:10 Jim Lang (Cleveland)
9:20 Christina M. Brooks (Detroit)
9:30 Gavin Corey (Boston)
9:40 Shelley Chernin (Cleveland)
9:50 Vladimir Swirynsky (Cleveland)
10 pm Christopher Franke (Cleveland)
10:10 Mark Cronin (Cleveland)
10:20 Cavana Faithwalker (Cleveland)
10:30 Steve Goldberg (Cleveland)
10:40 Julie Ursem Marchand (Elyria)
10:50 Ra Washington (Cleveland)

Peace, love and poetry....
John

Or check the Snoetry-4 facebook page.
...and, if you're suffering from withdrawal from not enough Snoetry: join the Snoetry Withdrawal support group.

The Buck Stops Here - and reads with Bilgere, Borsenik, Leatherman, Hemery and Mad Anthony

Poet Chansonette Buck is coming all the way from Berkeley, California, this week to read at two big events on the western fringe of Greater Cleveland: Wednesday June 15th during the final (for now) Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza at Bela Dubby (13321 Madison Ave.) in Lakewood and Thursday June 16th during PoetryElyria at Scott M Duncan Photography (120 Middle Ave.) in downtown Elyria. She'll share a completely different set of her work at each venue.

Our other featured poet during June's Lix and Kix will be the renowned George Bilgere, author of The White Museum, winner of a 2010 Lantern Award for best poetry collection from The Lit: Cleveland's Literary Center. The evening will include an open mic emceed by Borsenik and Burroughs, as well as a wall-shaking performance by Cincinnati rock band Mad Anthony.

Joining Dr. Buck during June's PoetryElyria will be three more featured authors: Stacie Leatherman, Mike Hemery and Dianne Borsenik, all of whom have exciting new books out. This event will include an open mic emceed by John Burroughs and (while supplies last) free wine.

To read more about our fine featured authors and these exciting happenings, please visit our Facebook event pages:

Lix and Kix featuring George Bilgere, Chansonette Buck & Mad Anthony
PoetryElyria featuring Buck, Borsenik, Hemery and Leatherman

Everett, Nichols, Roberts, Suarez & Grimm: 4/20&21/2011

Fore more information on 4/20's Lix & Kix event, click here.


For more information on 4/21's Avon Lake reading, click here.

Get your Lix & Kix in the 216 on Wed. 2/16

Visit our event page on Facebook.
See also http://wendyshaffer.com

Poets hold longest reading on record in Elyria

[Click here to watch Snoetry live from the warmth of your home or wherever else you like. Live broadcast begins at 4 pm on 2/2/2011.]

First it was Cincinnati, then it was Seattle, and then in 2010 Prospero's Books in Kansas City claimed the distinction of having hosted the longest poetry reading on record: 120 hours straight. Now northern Ohio, with its growing reputation as a hotbed of great poetry, is poised to seize that distinction. Beginning on Wednesday February 2nd at 5 p.m., poets from several states and as far away as Nepal, led by many of northern Ohio's finest, will overrun Jim's Coffeehouse in Elyria to hold a 150-hour poetry reading billed as Snoetry 2: A World Record Winter Wordfest. The marathon is scheduled to wrap up on Tuesday February 8th at 11 p.m. If you're interested in a 30-minute featured reader slot for Snoetry 2, contact John Burroughs ASAP at jc@crisischronicles.com or on Facebook. For other queries, contact Dianne Borsenik at dborsenik@gmail.com or on Facebook.

For a constantly updating list of scheduled readers and open slots, click here. Visit Snoetry 2's Facebook event page here. And for blow by blow updates from Snoetry 2, follow @ElyriaPoetry on Twitter.

Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner is located at 2 Kerstetter Way (formerly Lake Avenue) in downtown Elyria, Ohio. Click here for directions.

Snoetry 2 is a Lix and Kix Poetry production, in association with PoetryElyria, Poets of Lorain County, Main Street Elyria, and the Ohio Poetry Association. Thanks to the generous support of the Nordson Corporation Foundation, Snoetry 2 will be streamed live over the internet, both here at Cleveland Poetics and at John Burroughs' Crisis Chronicles.

Peace and poetry,
Lix and Kix (a.k.a John and Dianne)

The Best of Lix and Kix, vol 1: Roger Craik

Indispensible © 2009 by Roger Craik, all rights reserved

Read by the author on 18 November 2008 during the second ever Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza, held at the 806 Wine and Martini Bar, 806 Literary Rd. in Cleveland, Ohio

Roger Craik is English by birth, was educated at the Universities of Reading and Southampton, and came to the United States in 1991. Roger taught in Bulgaria on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2007 and currently serves as an Associate Professor of English at Kent State University, Ashtabula, in Ohio.

We recommend the following Roger Craik poetry collections:

Of England Still (2010) [available from Finishing Line Press], Those Years (2007) [available from vanZeno Press], and if you can find them: Darkening Green (2004), Rhinoceros in Clumber Park (2003), and I Simply Stared (2002).

* * * * *

The Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza, hosted by Dianne Borsenik and John Burroughs, now happens the third Wednesday of each month (7 p.m.) at Bela Dubby Art Gallery and Beer Cafe, 13321 Madison Avenue in Lakewood, Ohio. Upcoming featured poets include:

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

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

Jan. 19th: Mark Jordan (central Ohio), L.S. Royal (Cleveland) and Marilyn Olivares de Ortiz & musical friends (Cleveland).

Feb. 16th: Steve Brightman (Kent), Akeem-Jamal Rollins (Cleveland) and music by Diana Chittester!

March 16th: Heather Ann Schmidt (Waterford, MI), Mark Hersman (Mansfield) and Scott Woods (Columbus).

April 20th: Dave Nichols (Cleveland), Courtenay Roberts (Cleveland) and Connie Everett (Columbus).

For more information on Lix and Kix visit either crisischronicles.com or myspace.com/lixandkix.

Lix & Kix present Philip Metres, Lou Suarez & Monica Igras on 9/15 @ Bela Dubby in Lakewood

The Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza is pleased to present featured readings by Monica Igras, Lou Suarez and Phil Metres -- followed by an open mic emceed by Dianne Borsenik and John "Jesus Crisis" Burroughs.

Monica Igras is a poet/performer from Erie, Pennsylvania, who Dianne and John had the pleasure of meeting and hearing for the first time during Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest at the Last Wordsmith Book Shoppe. Her work has appeared in numerous places including the Enhanced Poetry CD Live @ the Jive, available at http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZX7HHH.

Lou Suarez is the author of two books of poems, Traveler (Mid-List Press,2010) and Ask (Mid-List Press, 2004), as well as three poetry chapbooks: Losses of Moment (Kent State University Press, 1995), The Grape Painter (Frost Heaves Press, 2001), and On U.S. 6 to Providence (Red Mountain Review, 2006). Lou is currently Professor Emeritus at Lorain County Community College, and his book Traveler was a finalist for one of The Lit's Lantern Awards. Find him online at http://www.lousuarez.com.

Philip Metres, Professor of English at John Carroll University, was recently awarded the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize for Emerging Artist. His books include To See the Earth (2008), Come Together: Imagine Peace (anthology of peace poems, 2008), Behind the Lines: War Resistance Poetry on the American Homefront since 1941 (2007), Instants (2006), Primer for Non-Native Speakers (2004), Catalogue of Comedic Novelties: Selected Poems of Lev Rubinstein (2004), and A Kindred Orphanhood: Selected Poems of Sergey Gandlevsky (2003). His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry and Inclined to Speak: Contemporary Arab American Poetry. Find him online at www.philipmetres.com and http://behindthelinespoetry.blogspot.com.

We hope to see you there!

Trenchcoat Manifesto, Borsenik & Burroughs

Trenchcoat Manifesto (Tom Adams and Richard Hearn) will perform at Visible Voice Books, 1023 Kenilworth in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, on Wednesday August 4th at 7 p.m. Featured poets Dianne Borsenik and John Burroughs will join them. Here's just a taste of what Trenchcoat Manifesto do.


And expect the unexpected. Hope to see you there!

Our Facebook event page is here.

Lix and Kix 5-19-10 Miltner, Brandt, and Shaffer

 

 

Google Calendar for Dummies & St. Pat's Poetry

At the risk of permanently sullying my somewhat spurious reputation as web-savvy by sailing into cyberwaters I have no experience navigating, I need to ask: does anyone know where I can find a copy of Google Calendar for Dummies? I'm trying, but I just can't figure out the damned application. First, I wanted to make a couple of corrections in the calendar widget in the left sidebar of this blog (e.g. Lix and Kix is now on Wednesdays, not Tuesdays, and the Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour begins at 8:30, not 9:30). I also wanted to add a bunch of new events to the widget - to make it a comprehensive listing of all Cleveland area poetry happenings. But when I log into my Google account and add events, they only show up on my "personal" calendar, not here, though I'm (obviously) an authorized author on this blog. How do I get them to show up here? I should probably ask our beloved blog moderator - but I don't want to bug him while he's out of town (if I were in Shanghai, I wouldn't want you bugging me, either, especially with blog minutiae). I'm also thinking that, since no one else has added events to the widget lately, I'm not alone in finding the workings of this Google Calendar thingie incomprehensible. Here's hoping one of our cybersavvy readers will offer advice enabling all of us to make the best use of this calendar widget and turn it into the comprehensive Cleveland poetry event resource many of us crave.

Meanwhile, don't forget to check out:

The Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour (featuring Twin Cranes Press) on Friday, March 12th (8:30 p.m.) at Borders Books, 17200 Royalton Rd. in Strongsville, Ohio.

2nd Saturday open mic poetry at the Brandt Gallery (1028 Kenilworth in Tremont) on March 13th from 3 to 5 p.m.

Lix and Kix St. Patrick's Day poetry party featuring Sammy Greenspan, Zach Ashley and Trenchcoat Manifesto on Wednesday, March 17th (7 p.m.) at Bela Dubby, 13321 Madison Ave. in Lakewood.

Peace and poetry,

John

Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest

Lix and Kix and The Last Wordsmith Book Shoppe will host Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest in the historic town of North East (near Erie), Pennsylvania, on Saturday 16 January 2010. The day will begin with an hour of open mic at 1 p.m., then continue from 2 to midnight with around 40 featured poets and musical artists. We'll try to sprinkle in more open mic throughout the day, as time permits. And come rain, shine, or blizzard, we'll be there!

Dianne Borsenik and John Burroughs will be the day's emcees. Featured poets and performers during Snoetry will include:

Lester Allen (upstate NY)
Gary Bond (Toledo, OH)
Dianne Borsenik (Cleveland, OH)
Kent Brown (Jamestown, NY)
John Burroughs (Elyria, OH)
Cold Heart Youth (Erie, PA)
Nabina Das (Ithaca, NY)
Aleathia Drehmer (upstate NY)
John Dorsey (Toledo, OH)
Christopher Franke (Cleveland, OH)
Steve Goldberg (Cleveland, OH)
T.M. Göttl (Brunswick, OH)
Sammy Greenspan (Cleveland Heights, OH)
Michael Grover (Toledo, OH)
JJ Haaz (10-string guitarist, northeast Ohio)
Clarissa Jakobsons (Aurora, OH)
Chuck Joy (Erie, PA)
tj jude (from NC, by way of MI)
Lady K (Cleveland, OH)
Berwyn Moore (Erie, PA)
Zachary Moll (Monroeville, OH)
Alex Nielsen (Toledo/Cleveland, OH)
Dan Provost (Worcester, MA)
Wendy Shaffer (Cleveland, OH)
Dan Smith (Cleveland, OH)
Steven B. Smith (Cleveland, OH)
Carolyn Srygley-Moore (upstate NY)
Vladimir Swirynsky (Cleveland, OH)
Cee Williams (Erie, PA)



17 East Main Street
North East, Pennsylvania 16428
Phone: 814-725-9141
http://www.lastwordsmith.com

*

Cleveland, Wannberg and Smith

Oh my!
Remember Salinger's blog about California poet David Smith's spectacular September appearance in northeast Ohio? Here's a video sample from Smith's 9/15 reading, featuring a guest appearance by the Literary Cafe's Steve Goldberg:

Good news for those who missed it or want to hear more (I know I do!)... David Smith is returning to our area this week and bringing the incomparable Scott Wannberg with him. I devour a lot of books, and I must say Smith's White Time [just published by Off Beat Pulp] and Wannberg's Strange Movie Full of Death [Perceval Press] are two of the most delicious I've read this year. Don't miss your chance to see these two fine poets together right here in "the heart of it all"!

And that's not all.... The following is by no means a comprehensive list of northeast Ohio poetry events in the next ten or so days -- these are just the ones I expect to attend. If you know of others, feel free to mention them and provide details in the comments below.

Tuesday 11/10/09: Nia Coffeehouse at Karamu (6 p.m.) -- open mic hosted by Vince Robinson and his band the Jazz Poets.

Wednesday 11/11/09: Kazim Ali and Nin Andrews read at Mac's Backs Books on Coventry (7 p.m.) -- and the subsequent open mic will feature an appetizer of poetry by David Smith & Scott Wannberg.

Thursday 11/12/09: The Literary Cafe in Tremont features David Smith & Scott Wannberg (9:30 p.m.) -- with an open mic and free-for-all to follow.

Friday 11/13/09: The Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour at Borders Books in Strongsville features John Burroughs (a.k.a. Jesus Crisis) at 8:30 p.m.-- with an open mic to follow.

Saturday 11/14/09: The Brandt Gallery in Tremont (3 p.m.) hosts a round-robin style open poetry reading led by Russell Vidrick.

Saturday 11/14/09: Saturday Night with the Poet's Haven (7 p.m.) features Gina Tabasso and Terry Provost at Angel Falls in Akron.

Tuesday 11/17/09: The Lix and Kix poetry series at Bela Dubby in Lakewood presents three more fine poets: Mnemosyne editor Jen Pezzo (aka Kerowyn Rose), MoonLit editor (and author of the vanZeno Press collection Emergency Contact) Claire McMahon, and (from Cincinnati) novelist (and author of the West End Press poetry collection Crow Call) Michael Henson. An open mic will follow.

Peace and poetry,
John Burroughs

Lix and Kix 09-15-09

I wasn’t expecting the place to go topless. Swung by the Lix and Kix set last night. This reading series will soon be celebrating its one year anniversary

The monthly series has migrated around town a bit and has alit at Bela Dubby – a coffee shop/tavern/art gallery at 13321 Madison Avenue in beautiful Lakewood Ohio. Fliers say the show starts @ 7pm and the two effervescent hosts John Burroughs (aka Jesus Crisis) and Diane Borsenik got the thing rolling in front of a packed house of fifty or so just about on time. I say just about because the evening began with twenty five minutes of announcements. I wouldn’t recommend coming late to miss these preliminaries though if you hope to get a seat. I got lucky and found a single seat up front between Kathy Smith and some cat wearing a shirt with the mathematical symbol for pi on it.

One of the things I enjoy about this series is on the couple occasions I have been able to attend they have mixed some music in with the readers. This evening Leah Lou, a precociously adorable singer songwriter opened the evening. Her voice comes across in a familiarly quirky and neo folk kinda way. Not being up on the names of all the contemporary practitioners of this genre I am at a loss to make an accurate comparison and will date myself by saying she reminds me of Melanie Safka. Her lyrics showed a healthy dose of self deprecating humor as did her easy stage presence. Definitely one of those folks that causes one to turn to their neighbor and say, “she’s just as good as…”

After the young lady finished her set Russell Vidrick took the mic. I’ve been seeing this guy around town for the last twenty years or so and the only thing that has changed about his hangdog look and deadpan delivery is possibly the addition of two or three gray hairs. This Cleveland poetic staple also hosts a second Saturday series at the Brandt Gallery in Tremont. Vidrick‘s set produced a déjà vu experience. I turned to Kathy and asked, “Maybe it’s just me – but is this the only poem this guy ever does?” Kathy said that he was stringing together several pieces but I felt sure I had heard all of the pieces he was doing the first time I saw him read a couple decades ago.

Even though I felt I was able to anticipate all of Vidrick’s punch lines, his reading was enjoyable and short enough to leave you wanting to hear more (a talent any poetry presenter would do well to cultivate.) If indeed Russ was stringing together several pieces I would have liked to know when one ended and the next began.

Leah Lou came out – did another quick four or five piece set and then disappeared into the night because her boyfriend had to go to work.

Okay here’s the topless part.

This evening the crowd celebrated Burroughs’s birthday. Unbeknownst to Jesus Crisis, his partner in rhyme had solicited lines from the far flung poetry community who have interacted with her co-host and assembled them into an epic approaching bit of verse. Dianne presented the poem, framed for display, to our surprised man of the hour and then read the two hundred plus line piece. A representative from the Ohio Poetry Association also gave our guy a t shirt proclaiming the wearer as an Ohio Poet. Egged on by the crowd John did a quick hootchie cootchie and donned the top.

The final feature spot of the evening was filled by California bartender/poet David Smith nom de plume Handsome Duke Deal. I knew I would have to hit the road right after his set so I moved over to the bar area bequeathing my front row seat to Terry Provost. Smith took the mic and informed the crowd that he had passed up a trip to France to come to Cleveland. The woman at the bar next to me and I instantaneously exchanged dubious looks. It is not beyond the pale to question the sanity of such a decision. Smith’s reading offered no confirmation of mental liabilities though.

This “outlaw poet’s” work came across as a well crafted mixture of wit and observation. He even threw in a piece about transvestites in Cleveland as well as one ruminating over a visit to Lakeview Cemetery. He read mostly from his new collection White Time published by Off Beat Pulp of Kansas. Here is an excerpt of his piece

GENOCIDE SUTRA - A LOVE POEM from the collection:

1.
With ruby hearts at stress,
we march hand wrapped in hand
through the infamous gates
across the broken tracks
and into the empty yard;
where evil screamed,
and the devil harvested
the vineyard of the damned.

Auschwitz
there is no pleasure in yesterday.

Auschwitz
this little terror at the ass-end of the world. Truly.
The memorial here is an antiseptic lie.
An anemic and sterile victims' dude ranch.
Diluted. A soft and incomplete fable.

Auschwitz
we stroll through this detached amusement park,
Poland's tidy and grand tourist attraction.

Auschwitz
when you sleep with Dr. Mengele
you always sleep alone.

###

After Smith’s reading I unfortunately had to hit the road and missed the open mic. Lix and Kix the next installment is October 20 featuring broadside poet extraordinaire Ralph Lacharity. I recommend getting there early.