New Philadelphia Poets

Friday, July 29, 2011, 7pm

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:32:30 -0400

Please join Fact-Simile Editions, Debrah Morkun, C. McCallister Williams, Andrew K. Peterson & Jess Stoner for a night of poetry and handmade bookness as we celebrate the release of not one but two (and maybe even 3!) lovely new chapbooks with their lovely new authors.

C. McCallister Williams’ Neon Augury was the winner of Fact-Simile’s 2010 Equinox chapbook contest. Another chapbook, WILLIAM SHATNER, is available from alice blue books. His work can be found in GlitterPony, Pindeldyboz, elimae, New Orleans Review and elsewhere. He is an editor for Columbia Poetry Review. He currently lives in Chicago.

Debrah Morkun’s first book, Projection Machine, was published by BlazeVox Books in 2010. Her second book, The Ida Pingala, is forthcoming. She curates The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series. Visit Debrah at www.debrahmorkun.com<http://www.debrahmorkun.com/>

Andrew K. Peterson’s poetry chapbook bonjour meriwether and the rabid maps was a runner up in Fact-Simile’s 2010 Equinox Contest. He also wrote Museum of Thrown Objects, a book of poetry/’soft architecture’ published by BlazeVox Books in 2010, and two collaborative chapbooks with the word ‘here’ in the title: Here Come the Groovies (w/Joseph Cooper), and between here & the telescopes (w/Elizabeth Guthrie). He edits the online journal summer stock and cofounded Livestock Editions, a small press publisher of poetry chapbooks.

Jess Stoner used to be Jess Wigent. One year ago, her husband absconded her to an island off Wales, where black sheep are not just in songs and the wind blew in every direction. Now she’s settled into the sweat and brisket of Austin. Her novel, I Have Blinded Myself Writing This, will be published by Short Flight/Long Drive Books (a division of Hobart) early 2012. She writes book reviews for Necessary Fiction and her prose and poetry have been published in Caketrain, Everyday Genius, Alice Blue Review, Horse Less Review, Juked, Front Porch, Arsenic Lobster, and many other handsome journals. She writes about the NBA and muppets at http://jessstoner.com/

THIS HAPPENS AT THE MOONSTONE ART CENTER, 110A S 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA.

Friday, April 8, 7pm

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:55:54 -0400

CAConrad & Debrah Morkun read with

SISTER SPIT

at MUHLENBERG COLLEGE at the RED DOOR,

Allentown, PA

SATURDAY, April 2nd, 4pm

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 11:20:33 -0400

The New Philadelphia Poets Present

readings by

Tai Amri

Cheryl Quimba

Kim Gek Lin Short

Michelle Puckett

This happens at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia PA. Unmissable. Please come.

Sunday, March 13th, 2011, 5pm

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:04:05 -0500

On Sunday, March 13th, 2011, The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series features poetry by Lauren Ireland, film by Brian Melton, & a lecture plus Q&A by Nicholas Deboer on Ezra Pound’s The Cantos.

LAUREN IRELAND grew up in coastal Virginia & southern Maryland. Currently an editor at Lungfull! Magazine, she also curates the monthly poetry series The Readings at Chrystie Street, & edits Invisible Magazine with Steve Roberts. Her poems have appeared in Sixth Finch, Conduit, Caketrain, & Bateau, among others; a chapbook is forthcoming from Factory Hollow Press. She lives in Brooklyn.

BRIAN MELTON is a freelance cinematographer who’s worked on indie films such as Great World of Sound, which premiered at Sundance in 2007 & the Oscar-nominated Junebug. In February of 2007, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded Brian the ASC Heritage Award for Cinematography for his work on the 16mm short film Red Autumn. Since then, he has shot several projects including an HD feature directed by Stephen Cone called The Chritians, which made its debut in November of 2008 at Chicago’s Gene Siskel film center, a Joshua Harrell music video that is currently running on MTV’s LOGO network, & Cowboy Funeral, an upcoming independent feature produced by Crosswater Entertainment. Brian is an alumnus of the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking. He currently lives in Philadelphia.

NICHOLAS DEBOER was born at 1024pm with a temperature of 29.1 degrees farenheit. The wind gust a bit, around 5.8 mph under a clear sky in Chicago, Illinois. It was the Michael Reece Hospital, designed by Walter Gropius. He certainly still likes to think about it. Later on, he attended schools, they were nice schools & some of his friends were met there. He found out that he could get obsessed with things by the age of 11, when his mother told him he could listen to their vinyl & found a photograph of Edgar Poe in the Beatles’ seventh album. It got worse, over time. By his early 20s he found out that he really liked Guy Debord & the Situationist International, & really thought it was important at 18 to watch Citizen Kane something like 100 times. Now, it’s Ezra Pound, then it’s Charles Olson. He went to Naropa & Western Michigan University. People have been nice enough to take some of his words in poetry journals, such as Fact-Simile, Bombay Gin & other(s). He was born on the 23rd of October, 1981.

This all happens at 5pm at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA. Please come!

Friday, February 4, 2011, 8pm

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:13:00 -0500

Debrah Morkun, Jamie Townsend, Erica Kaufman, & Matt Walker read at The Multifarious Array Reading Series at Pete’s Candy Store, 709 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn.

Saturday, January 29th, 2011, 8pm

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:00:00 -0500

Come hear John Keene and Debrah Morkun read at Chapterhouse on Saturday, January 29th!

John Keene is the author of Annotations (New Directions) and, with artist Christopher Stackhouse, of the poetry-text dialogue Seismosis (1913 Press). He has published his fiction, poetry, essays, translations, and interviews with other authors widely. He teaches at Northwestern University.

Debrah Morkun’s first full length book of poetry, Projection Machine, was published by BlazeVox Books in April 2010. She lives in Philadelphia, where she runs The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series. She believes in the Muse & does rituals to her before she sits to write. Visit Debrah at http://www.debrahmorkun.com/ .

Light & Honey: Jan 13 @ 7 pm

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:06:38 -0500

Karen Rile, Kevin Varrone & Angel Hogan will all be reading!

More info here »

NPP Presents

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:06:00 -0500

Thursday, December 16 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Fergie’s Pub (1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA)

Patrick David Lucy lives & works in Philadelphia. He is the author of two chapbooks, LIVE FIELDS: GROWTHS 1-5 (self released) & WILLIAM (con/crescent press, forthcoming). Recent work has appeared or will shortly in Gulf Coast, elimae, Labrotorio & elsewhere. He’s a member of The New Philadelphia Poets. Learn more about Patrick at catchconfetti.com .

Lily Brown is from Massachusetts & currently lives in Athens, where she is a Ph.D. student at The University of Georgia. Her first book, Rust or Go Missing, is out from Cleveland State University Poetry Center, & recent poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary & The Colorado Review. A new chapbook, Being One, is forthcoming from Brave Man Press.

Cynthia Arrieu-King is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at Stockton College in New Jersey. Her work has appeared or will this year in Boston Review, Witness, & Jacket. Her book People Are Tiny in Paintings of China was released from Octopus Books this fall. She lives near some casinos & the sea.

Julia Cohen is the author of ten chapbooks, & her first full length book, Triggermoon Triggermoon recently released from Black Lawrence Press. Her work has been published in 6X6, Columbia Poetry Review, Octopus, & 1913, amongst others. She is the poetry editor of Saltgrass & the associate editor of The Denver Quarterly. She can be found on the messier side of neat (.blogspot.com).

FURTHER LANDSCAPES, a reading and community...

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 18:58:00 -0400

FURTHER LANDSCAPES, a reading and community discussion

Taking the image of the “urban wasteland” or “third landscape” as a broad conceptual platform, this event will include readings and interactive audience discussion with poets & interdisciplinary writers/artists around the question: What does it mean to be currently engaged in writing around/about ecology while living in an urban/industrialized area?

Featuring: CAConrad, Tina Darragh, Marcella Durand, Brenda Iijima, Patrick Lucy, Hoa Nguyen & Jonathan Skinner

SAT, Nov. 13: 4-7pm

@ Fergies Pub

For more information contact J. Townsend at: greybridge@gmail.com

CACONRAD is the author of The Book of Frank (Wave Books, 2010/Chax Press, 2009). He is also the author of Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009), (Soma)tic Midge (Faux Press, 2008), Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006), and a collaboration with poet Frank Sherlock titled The City Real & Imagined (Factory School, 2010). The son of white trash asphyxiation, his childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift.

TINA DARRAGH ’s recent books include Deep eco pré, a collaboration with Marcella Durand freely available from Little Red Leaves (http://www.littleredleaves.com/), and the Elders Series #8 with Jane Sprague and Diane Ward (belladonna 2009). “No Rights Observed” - an opposable dumbs project report - will soon be available from Palm Press (http://www.palmpress.org/)

MARCELLA DURAND ’s recent books include Deep Eco Pré, a collaboration with Tina Darragh (Little Red Leaves, 2009); AREA (Belladonna Books, 2008 ), and Traffic & Weather, a site-specific book-length poem written during a residency at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in downtown Manhattan (Futurepoem Books, 2008). She is the 2010-2011 Fellow in Poetics and Poetic Practice for the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania where she will be teaching a course in ecology and poetry.

BRENDA IIJIMA is the author of Around Sea (O Books), Animate, Inanimate Aims (Litmus Press), revv. you’ll—ution (Displaced Press) and If Not Metamorphic (Ahsahta Press) as well as numerous chapbooks and artist’s books. She is also the editor of the eco language reader (Nightboat Books and PP@YYL). Currently she is working on a body of work titled Some Simple Things Said by and about Humans—a chronicle of how humans have used animals as surrogates. She is also choreographing ecstatic creaturely movements and gestures. She is the editor of Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs (http://yoyolabs.com/).

PATRICK LUCY lives and writes in Philadelphia, where he is a member of the New Philadelphia Poets. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, The Corduroy Mtn, Elimae, Elective Affinities, and more. He is the author of two chapbooks: LIVE FIELD: GROWTHS 1-5 (_Catch/Confetti press) and WILLIAM (Con/Crescent press, forthcoming).

HOA NGUYEN was born in the Mekong Delta, grew up in the DC area and studied poetics in San Francisco. She is the author of 8 books and chapbooks, most recently *Hecate Lochia* (Hot Whiskey, 2009), *Kiss a Bomb Tattoo* (Effing Press, 2009) and *Chinaberry* (Fact Simile, 2010). Based in Austin, Hoa curates a reading series and leads a creative writing workshop.

JONATHAN SKINNER ’s poetry collections include With Naked Foot (Little Scratch Pad Press, 2009) and Political Cactus Poems (Palm Press, 2005). He founded and edits the journal ecopoetics (www.ecopoetics.org), which features creative-critical intersections between writing and ecology. Skinner also writes ecocriticism on contemporary poetry and poetics: his essay “Thoughts on Things: Poetics of the Third Landscape” appeared recently in the eco language reader (ed. Brenda Iijima). Skinner teaches in the Environmental Studies Program at Bates College, in Central Maine, where he makes his home.

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:37:00 -0400

NPP PRESENTS 2 poets from Philadelphia & 2 poets from Seattle!

Melissa Degezelle is a Birth Arts International trained DOULA, a mother to Hazel, & a graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program in Poetry at Brooklyn College.

Paul Siegell is the author of three books of poetry: wild life rifle fire (Otoliths Books, 2010), jambandbootleg (A-Head Publishing, 2009), and Poemergency Room (Otoliths Books, 2008). He is a staff editor at Painted Bride Quarterly, & has contributed to the American Po…etry Review, Coconut, Rattle, & many other fine journals. He has also been featured in two national music & culture magazines, Paste & Relix, as well as elsewhere exciting. Having lived in the midst of the Long Island Expressway, the Cathedral of Learning, the Magic Kingdom, Stone Mountain, & now the Liberty Bell, he currently bikes to a building where newspapers are published, & there he writes for a living, but not as a journalist. Kindly find more of Paul’s work at ReVeLeR@eYeLeVeL (http://paulsiegell.blogspo t.com/).

Crystal Curry was born in Greenville, Illinois in 1974. Her work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Open City, Conduit, VERSE, & The Hat, & is featured online at Wave Books’ The Bedazzler. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Curry lives in Seattle where she helps manage a gourmet deli & studies to be a cheesemonger. She recommends Cypress Grove Cheve’s Humbodlt Fog for any & all occasions. She is also a mother to Cor Finnegan.

Nico Vassilakis lives in Seattle. His more recent books include Diptych (Otoliths), Askew (bbc press), TEXT LOSES TIME (manypenny press), StarReduction (Book Thug), Disparate Magnets (BlazeVox), Protracted Type (Blue Lion Books), Irrational Dude with Robert Mittenthal (tir aux pigeons), & West of Dodge (redfox press).

These two cities will merge in magic Tuesday, November 2nd, at 6pm, at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Samson Street, Philadelphia, PA.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16th, 7pm

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:22:01 -0400

An evening of readings from:

James Belflower (Instance Press)
Kate Greenstreet (Ahsahta)
Joe Hall (Black Ocean)
Steven Karl (Flying Guillotine)
Lauren Bender (Publishing Genius)
Andy Devine/Jamie Gaughran-Perez (Publishing Genius)
Dan Magers (Immaculate Disciples Press)
Adam Robinson (Publishing Genius)
Ben Segal (Publishing Genius)

at Philly’s FERGIE’S PUB: 1214 SANSOM

James Belflower is the author of Commuter (Instance Press) and Bird Leaves the Cornice, winner of the 2010 Spring Gun Press Chapbook contest. Commuter was recently voted 2009’s “Best Book Length Long Poem/Sequence by ColdFront magazine. His work appears, or is forthcoming in: EOAGH, Denver Quarterly, Apostrophe Cast, 1913 & Greatcoat among others. He curates the Yes! Reading Series in Albany NY.

Lauren Bender is co-director of Narrow House, Feminine Arbiter of Phrases for the Performance Thanatology Research Society, and curator of Show&Tell, a new performance series in Baltimore. Books include Whale Box (Publishing Genius) and The Dictionary Poems(Furniture Press). Work has appeared in various print and online places including onedit, Featherproof’s iPhone app, and The Shattered Wig Review. Performances have included Big Pink with William Bender at the BMA as part of the Franz West: To Build a House You Start With the Roof exhibition, and CorpOreo I and II, video performances as part of the Transmodern Festival in Baltimore and the Los Solos Series, respectively. Sporadic postings can be found at http://www.times-infinity.blogspot.com/.

Andy Devine’s alphabetical fiction and essays have appeared in a variety of literary magazines, including New York Tyrant, Unsaid, Elimae, Everyday Genius, and Taint. In 2002, he was awarded the Riddley Walker Prize (for a work that ignores conventional rules of grammar and punctuation). In 2007, he published a chapbook, “As Day Same That the the Was Year” (Publishing Genius). In 2009, Andy Devine was awarded The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Award (for fiction in the face of adversity). WORDS (2010, Publishing Genius) is his first book. Andy Devine Avenue — in Flagstaff, Arizona — is named after him.

Kate Greenstreet is the author of The Last 4 Things and case sensitive, both on Ahsahta Press, and four chapbooks, most recently “but even now I am perhaps not speaking” (Imprint Press, 2010). Her new work is in current or forthcoming issues of Chicago Review, Colorado Review, Cannibal, VOLT, and other journals. More information at kickingwind.com.

Joe Hall’s first book of poems is Pigafetta Is My Wife (Black Ocean Press 2010). Pigafetta has appeared on the Small Press Distribution Best Seller List and is a Poetry International Notable Book of the Year. His poetry and fiction have appeared in Gulf Coast, HTML Giant, Barrelhouse, The Boog Portable Reader, Zone 3 and elsewhere. With Wade Fletcher he co-organizes the DC area reading series Cheryl’s Gone. He no longer lives in a trailer park.

Steven Karl is the author of (Ir)Rational Animals (Flying Guillotine Press, 2010) and with Joseph Lappie, the collaborative chapbook, State(s) of Flux (Peptic Robot Press, 2009). He has e-chaps forthcoming from h_ngm_n and Scantily Clad Press. He’s the News Editor for Coldfront and an assistant editor for Sink Review. He adjuncts at many places and calls Brooklyn, NY his home.

Dan Magers graduated from The New School’s MFA program and works on engineering books for a publishing company. He is co-founder and co-editor of Sink Review (sinkreview.org), an online poetry magazine, as well as a chapbook press called Immaculate Disciples Press. He has poems published in Sixth Finch, Eleven Eleven, the tiny, and forthcoming in Forklift, Ohio, among other places. A regular contributor of books reviews at New Pages (newpages.com), he currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Adam Robinson is the publisher of 15 books of innovative prose and poetry through his small press, Publishing Genius. He has also written two books of his own poetry, including Adam Robison and Other Poems, which Narrow House released last spring. He holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he won the Yale Gordon advisory committee award. He writes about poetics and small press culture for HTMLGIANT, the literary blog of the future, and plays guitar in the rock band, Sweatpants.

Ben Segal is the author of 78 Stories (No Record Press). His chapbooks ‘Science Fiction Pornography’ and ‘Weather Days’ were published by Publishing Genius and ML Press, and his short fiction has appeared in various publications including Gigantic, The Collagist, Eyeshot, and elimae. He is also the co-editor of The Official Catalog of the Library of Potential Literature.

Poets from all over the Eastern Seaboard! You do not want to miss this spectacular.

Sunday, October 10th, 7pm

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:28:00 -0400

The JUBILANT THICKET SERIES features Daron Muellar, CAConrad, and Cedar Sigo.

This event occurs at Molly’s Bookstore, 1010 South 9th Street, in Philadelphia’s Italian Market. Hosted by Debrah Morkun. Bring Your Own Bottles!!!

DARON MUELLAR is a poet and filmmaker living in New York City. His poems have appeared in The Long Beach Art Walk, The Stolen Purse, Nancypants, and Transition. He was the assistant director for the film Flip. Daron studied poetry at Naropa University with Lisa Jarnot, Anne Waldman, and Anselm Hollo.

CACONRAD is the recipi…ent of the Gil Ott Book Award for The Book of Frank (Chax Press, 2009). He is also the author of Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009), (Soma)tic Midge (Faux Press, 2008), and a collaboration with poet Frank Sherlock titled The City Real & Imagined (Factory School, 2010). The son of white trash asphyxiation, his childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift. For correspondence, contact CAConrad13@aol.com .

CEDAR SIGO is a poet and sometime teacher, active in the literary and art world since 1999. He studied Writing & Poetics at Naropa University. He is the author of Selected Writings (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2003), Expensive Magic (House Press, 2008), and most recently Stranger in Town (City Lights, 2010). His poems have been included in many magazines and anthologies, and he has published poetry books and magazines under the Old Gold imprint. He participated in “Coordinates: Indigenous Writing Now,” a conference at California College of the Arts. He has read at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, The Bowery Poetry Club, PS1 Museum of Contemporary Art, Beyond Baroque, The San Francisco Poetry Center, The San Francisco LGBT Center, Intersection for the Arts, Small Press Traffic, and elsewhere. He has collaborated with visual artists including Cecilia Dougherty, Frank Haines, Will Yackulic, and Colter Jacobsen. He lives in San Francisco.

Tuesday, September 21st, 6pm

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:24:00 -0400

The New Philadelphia Poets Present Nicholas A. DeBoer, Peter Davis, Jennifer L. Knox, & Shana Compton.

This all happens at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, at 6pm.

Here’s some info about the night’s fabulous readers:

Nicholas A. DeBoer: On October 30, 1952, his parents were born in separate cities, twelve hours apart. Mine was on the 23rd, WSB’s #. EzPo in 1887, me in 1981 (94 years). The SI supported the barricades as long as they could, hands like miniature infidels, 1968 (13 years). Tumbled out in the middle of the night, without any breath in the lungs…. Policy Wonk degree from WMU (2004), the rest from JKDP (2008). Ushered White Waiting (2009) available from Con/Crescent Press. Published poems in Fact-Simile, Bombay Gin, In Stereo Press and other(s). My poem of some length caught in the graveyard, a tarantula on the right shoulder, inking venom into a tattoo: ‘ante mortem no scortum’” www.concrescentpress.org

JENNIFER L. KNOX was born in Lancaster, California—home to Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Space Shuttle. Her other
…books of poems, Drunk by Noon and A Gringo Like Me, are also available through Bloof. A volume of her verse in German, Wir Fürchten Uns,is available through Lux Books. Her poems have appeared in three volumes of the Best American Poetry series, Best
American Erotic Poems, Great American Prose Poems: From Poet to Present, and Free Radicals: American Poets Before Their First Books. One of Jen’s poems recently appeared in The New Yorker. http://www.jenniferlknox.com/

PETER DAVIS writes, draws, and makes music in Muncie, Indiana, with his sweet kids and sweet wife. His first book of poetry is Hitler’s Mustache (2007), and he edited Poet’s Bookshelf: Contemporary Poets on Books That Shaped Their Art (2005) and coedited Poet’s Bookshelf II (2008) with Tom Koontz, all from Barnwood Press. He teaches English at Ball State University. Poems from Peter’s new book Poetry! Poetry! Po…etry! are forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2010, edited by Amy Gerstler & David Lehman. http://artisnecessary.com/

SHANNA COMPTON’s books include For Girls (& Others) (Bloof, 2007), Down Spooky (Winnow, 2005), Gamers (Soft Skull, 2004), and several chapbooks, including a new one called Good Morning, Romantics (Bloof, 2010). Her third poetry collection, The Seam Rovers, is forthcoming from Bloof Books in February 2011. New poems have appeared or are forthcoming in No Tell Motel, The Black Warrior Review, Dusie, The Equalizer, and LIT. http://www.shannacompton.com/

The New Philadelphia Poets read at Philadelphia Center for the Book on South!

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:52:31 -0400

The New Philadelphia Poets read Friday, September 10th, from 6pm - 8pm at Philadelphia Center for the Book on South, 626 South Street. Come one & all, it is sure to be delightful.

Friday 9/3: Triple Header

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:51:10 -0400

the most poetry-packed September eve in memory…

6:00 pm: Eastern Seaboard Showcase: Sarah Heady, Hailey Higdon & Angel Hogan [from Philly] and Mike Lala, Eric Nelson, & Matt Zingg [from New York]. Philadelphia Center for the Book on South, 626 South Street, Philadelphia. Free, BYOB.

7:30 pm: NPP Presents Carlos Soto Roman, Julie Doxsee, Frank Sherlock, & David Wolach. Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia.

9:30 pm: Mostly Books presents Sarah Dowling, Chris Alexander and Kristen Gallagher. Mostly Books, 529 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 14TH, 7PM

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:46:57 -0400

Come to the Milkweed Pod Sculpture next to the DOW CHEMICAL BUILDING in Philadelphia (SW corner of 6th & Market) to see Joshua Beckman, Debrah Morkun, Frank Sherlock, and Laura Spagnoli read for CAConrad’s amazing new reading series TRANSGRESSORS!

For more information, go here.

NPP Presents Ian Davisson, Tamara Oakman, Gregory Bem, and Amy De'Ath

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:51:08 -0400

Where: Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Samson Street, Philadelphia

When: Friday, August 6th, 7pm

Please come for a wonderful night of poetry by:

Ian Davisson has studied at Temple University and The University of Georgia. He’s been published in some on-line and print journals. Nothing recent. He lives in the ritziest part of town. He is a pool boy and adjunct instructor. Always looking for more work.

Tamara Oakman is a graduate of Temple University. She has won awards in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and drama. She has been published by Many Mountains Moving, Philadelphia Stories, Mad Poets Review, and other journals; reads poetry and fiction everywhere in Philadelphia and the tri-state area; judged a fiction and drama contest for Hidden River Arts, and has completed her Master’s thesis in English at Arcadia University. She has hosted at venues such as; Book Corner, Robin’s Bookstore and Voices and Visions Bookstore. She created, coordinated and hosted The Light of Unity Festival, is currently leading The Business of Words poetry workshop at Upenn Bookstore for Mad Poets Society, created a chapbook called “The Business of Words,” and hosted a Fringe Festival performance at The Rotunda called Arsenic Pizza. She wrote freelance articles for Uwishunu.com, hosts and manages The Light of Unity Artist’s and Writer’s Series 2009 at The Parkway Central Library where she showcases the talents of new writers and musicians at library branches all over the city. Her efforts have been documented in The Metro, Arcadia University Bulletin, and The City Paper. She has read poetry at Robin’s Bookstore, Voices and Visions Bookstore, Caramel, South Cafe, Kelly Writer’s House, Lori Cosgrove Design, Arcadia University, Del Co. Institute and many other places. She is the executive director of The Light of Unity Association and currently resides in Philadelphia. She says, “Whenever I read a work I don’t get caught up on technique. Anybody can learn technique. Hanabi-Ko (Koko) the gorilla wrote Haiku’s about bananas. What I like to read is something that cuts me up on the inside, makes me laugh, makes me see something in a different way, moves me. A poem could be about a stick on the ground and still be stirring. ‘A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.’” Contact her at: thebusinessofwords@gmail.com.

Gregory Bem was born in Illinois, grew up in Gorham, Maine, lived in Rhode Island for a minute, and now finds his home in Philadelphia. He’s an advocate for exploring urban decay, believes in the happiness of baking, runs Lone Byte press on and offline, and with The New Philadelphia Poets, hosts events and initiatives all over Philadelphia.

Amy De’Ath studied American Literature with Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her poems have appeared in Onedit, QUID, Signals, and others. Crater Press recently published her broadside, Andromeda, The World Works For Me. She has two short books forthcoming in 2010. Her first collection will be published by Salt, and a chapbook will be coming out from Oystercatcher later in the year. Her poetry blog can be found at www.amydeath.wordpress.com.

This reading will be very special. Amy De’Ath is here all the way from London. This will also be one of Gregory Bem’s last readings in Philadelphia before he embarks to the great Northwest. Ian and Tamara are Philadelphia powerhouses. A very special reading that you don’t want to miss.

Sun. 8/8: Babies in Jugs and Wannabe Bugs

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:30:22 -0400

JUBILANT THICKET
poetry + artways + local spirits

at Molly’s Bookstore on second Sundays
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
featuring puppetry & storytelling by C. KENNEDY
and
poetry by KIM GEK LIN SHORT

Sunday, August 8th
7:00 pm
Molly’s Bookstore (1010 S. 9th St. Phila, PA 19147 in the Italian Market)
Drinks for a small donation
Open reading to follow

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

C. KENNEDY is a playwright, actress, puppeteer and orientation and mobility specialist currently located in Philadelphia. She wrote/directed and produced her first full length stage play, “Rails,” for the ‘09 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and will produce her second work, “Water Bears in Space,” for the ‘11 Fringe. She is currently in rehearsals for “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens,” an adaptation of the first draft of Peter Pan, to be performed in August.

Jug-Baby, part I, introduces the audience to Jug-Baby, a bonsai-kid grown in a jug by its destitute parents. Toys and puppets bring the first part of this woefully whimsical fable to life as we follow Jug-Baby from its humble beginnings in a jug to halls of the rich, to one of the most infamous brothels in the country. Part fairy tale, part autobiography, Jug-Baby is one of a kind.

KIM GEK LIN SHORT is the daughter of a Scots-Irish geophysicist from the midwest and a Straits-Chinese tenpin champion from Singapore. She is the author of The Bugging Watch & Other Exhibits (Tarpaulin Sky Press), and the chapbooks The Residents (dancing girl press) and Run (Rope-a-Dope Press). Her next book, China Cowboy, will be published by Tarpaulin Sky Press in 2011. She lives with her family in Philadelphia.

“The declarations of independence have been submitted for...

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:17:00 -0400

“The declarations of independence

have been submitted

for editing”

~ Frank Sherlock, from Feast Day Gone & Coming

Please join many of the bright lights in the Philadelphia Poetry Cosmos on Saturday, July 24th, for a poetic celebration of Old Philadelphia / New Philadelphia, at one of America’s birthing spots — Elfreth’s Alley.

This event is one you DO NOT want to miss. History in the making. It all begins at 6pm. Once you get to the Alley, follow the magic signs of Philadelphia to find where the reading will occur.

This reading has been brainchilded by Debrah Morkun & Carlos Soto Roman. It will open with an Old American magic spell led by them, and will end with the burial of the New Philadelphia Poetic Time Capsule.

A new America will certainly be born.

For more information, go here.

Come celebrate the wonderful Tarpaulin Sky Press & Spork...

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:51:15 -0400

Come celebrate the wonderful Tarpaulin Sky Press & Spork Press, with a book raffle and readings by:

Jake Levine (Spork)
Gordon Massman (TSKY & Spork)
Andrew Zornoza (TSKY)
…Kim Gek Lin Short (TSKY)

JAKE LEVINE is a recipient of a 2010-2011 Fulbright Scholarship to Lithuania, the author of a chapbook The Threshold of Erasure (2010 Sporkpress), became an editor and is editor at Spork Press under Richard Siken, is on the board of directors at POG (poetry in action Tucson), is editor-in-chief at Sonora Review, has taught, teaches, and will teach poetry for The University of Arizona, Vilnius University, CHAX press, and has lectured and given talks to people in public spaces. He just recently started to eat meat again and generally likes to think of himself as somewhat of a magician or a unicorn when he is not doing poetry or is in a meeting. He also has a brother. He is working on several manuscripts at this time, all of which share the title Future History: The Rhyme and Retrobution. His work is heavily indebted to Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism, Literary Postmodernism, Hedonism, a slew of other isms, but also Leadbelly.

Gordon Massman attempts to reveal with relative objectivity his innermost urges, motivations, fantasies, and fears in hopes of touching upon something universal, to nail the unspeakable as graphically and realistically as he can. Given that beauty also resides in raw irreverent statement, perhaps, you as listener will hear a perverse unexpected beauty in his writing. Mr. Massman’s most recent book, “The Essential Numbers”, was published by Tarpaulin Sky Press. Spork Press will publish a chapbook of his work this month and next year The New York Quarterly Press will publish his next full-length collection.

Andrew Zornoza is the author of the novel Where I Stay. His short fiction and essays have appeared in magazines such as, Gastronomica, Sleepingfish, Confrontation, and CapGun, among many others. Born in Houston, Texas, he has taught at Gotham Writers’ Workshop and in Parsons Design & Technology MFA program. He is a contributing editor to the arts journal Helping Orphans Worldwide (H.O.W.). He currently lives in New York City.

Kim Gek Lin Short is the author of THE BUGGING WATCH & OTHER EXHIBITS and the chapbook RUN. Visit her website http://www.kimgeklinshort.com/

An event not to be missed!!