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Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian

Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian
Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Poet, Screenwriter, and Novelist Danika Dinsmore visits Vancouver and Portland March 25-27

Open Mic Poetry
hosted by Christopher Luna
7:00pm Thursday, March 25, 2010
Cover to Cover Books
1817 Main Street, Vancouver
McLoughlin Blvd. & Main Street
“always all ages and uncensored”


Featuring Danika Dinsmore: Danika Dinsmore’s early writing career was built on experimental poetry and collaborative spoken word performances. In 1993, she and NY poet Bernadette Mayer launched an annual collective writing project called The 3:15 Experiment, during which participants wake up in the middle of the night to write. While living in Seattle, she performed with the 12-person Word Orchestra and the performance group ForWord ForTete. The co-founder and director of a literary arts centre in Auburn, WA (1996-1998) and producer of the Seattle Poetry Festival, since moving to Vancouver, BC she has turned her attention to film, television. She has worked as an artist-in-the-schools and media literacy educator for Learning Through the Arts and has taught screenwriting courses at Vancouver Film School. The former Chair of the Women in Film Festival, and co-producer of WIFTV’s first New Media Forum, Danika blogs about her multi-disciplined writing life as The Accidental Novelist. Her accidental novel, Brigitta of the White Forest, will be released in March 2010. She and her husband, music maven Ken Ashdown, live in Vancouver, BC. Danika will have the following books for sale: Traffic ($5), her red book ($10), Every Day Angels and Other Near Death Experiences ($10), and between sleeps ($12). Her CD, All Over the Road, will also be available for $10.



Danika will also be reading
Friday, March 26 at 7pm
St. John's Booksellers
8622 N. Lombard St., Portland
503-283-0032

Then she will return to Vancouver for a special workshop:

Imaginary Worlds
Workshop with Danika Dinsmore
Saturday, March 27 4:30 pm
Cover to Cover Books
Cost: $25 ($20 students)

Imaginary Worlds with Danika Dinsmore: As we grow older, we tend to spend less time looking at our world via our imaginations. In this workshop we will explore the imaginary worlds of our daily lives, discovering new and magical experiences in the “ordinary” occurrences around us. Be inspired by an afternoon of creative writing exercises and lively discussion and leave with a bag of tricks to return to whenever you want to re-enter those worlds.

Everyone who attends Danika's workshop will receive a copy of her first book, Traffic.

Friday, March 19, 2010

GHOST TOWN, USA/ The People on the Bus January/February 2010

The People on the Bus

# 4 Eastbound
January 6, 2010

“strands of hair
a long collar in there
it’s like
essentially
I can’t do it anymore”

1/7/10

driving into the pink

as the schoolgirls board
the sky comes up pink
as the vinyl Hello Kitty jacket
on a Japanese teen

look, look away

as the horizon combusts
into the fiery brilliance
of a new morning

look, look away

turn a corner
watch it burn
feel it rise

purple-tinged canopy
of untapped potential


GHOST TOWN, USA

January 7, 2010
Clark College
AA-5 Common Area

“Girls are crazy, man. And it’s not their fault.
It’s the hundreds and thousands of hormones they got.”

Walking East on Mill Plain
toward Harney elementary
I shake hands with a guy
in a black baseball cap
with an enormous Yankees insignia:

“Sup New Yawk.”

“Hey, brotha. Keep up the attitude.”


The People on the Bus

January 8, 2010
# 4 Eastbound

Chat with a guy in a Killers tee and Trooper cap
about our mutual interest in Iron Maiden:

“Yeah. I got my sister into it. She’s 19. I had everything, but then I went to prison, and I lost it all. I’m slowly getting it back. . . . I got an Irish nap last night. I guess it’s pretty bad when you show up for a drug and alcohol assessment hung over.”

“Are they gonna test you?”

“Probably not. If they do, I’ll just tell ‘em I’ll have to come back next week. I don’t reek of alcohol or nothin’ do I? I know Tequila has a certain smell.”

I lean forward, feign sniffing:

“I’m not sure. I guess you’ll know in a few minutes.”


GHOST TOWN, USA

Clark College
Foster Hall

“Genocide. Not at all.”

1/12/10

unemployed vet
former Vancouver cabbie
who spent 25 years
as an Alaskan fisherman
eagerly awaits hip replacement
after which he’ll

                             “get my life back”

has lived with radiation sickness
the government refuses to be held accountable for
anticipates that it will become necessary
to appeal to the Supreme Court

1/14/10
O’Connell Fitness Center
Clark College

I watch the faces of the ladies
on the recumbent bicycles light up
each morning when a dozen members of
Vancouver Fire and Rescue jog into the gym to work out

“Have you heard back on the MRI?”

“I find out tomorrow. When I know, you’ll know.”

“I wanna know, man.”

“I thought of you the other day.
The 82nd Airborne is going to Haiti
to help with security relief.”

“That sounds like a good—“

“When I took my family to Nicaragua,
I found out that Nicaragua
is the 2nd-poorest country
in the Western hemisphere.
The first: Haiti.”

“It’s devastating.”

“It’s a mess. They lost their bishop.”

Cannell Library
Instruction Lab
Clark College

“you wanna be armed
a little bit
in your war on research”


The People on the Bus

1/15/10
# 4 Eastbound

without the slightest trace of self-consciousness
the crosseyed homeschooled Christian girl
in the black leather jacket
puts on her headphones
and commences with
her morning ritual

won’t sit with her brother

“You’re very broad-shouldered, which is,
as I’ve said, very irritating.”

when her brother objects to
her frantic head nodding, she retorts

“I’m insane, get over it.”

random assortment of items
representing various uniforms:
                                                 peace sign bedecked Chuck Taylors
                                                                  goth makeup
                                                                  bondage belt

a few weeks later, she switches
trying on hippie for size:

                                                 tie dyed bandanna
                                                 peace sign pendant
                                                 suede boots, jeans,
                                                 purple cotton pouch,
                                                 green sunglasses


GHOST TOWN, USA

1/16/10
Paper Tiger Coffee

Joseph like the sound of
50360
“the Northwest is all one spot”

Sole Provider
freestylin’
spittin’ “coffee shop rhymes”

“for me, right now I have no money . . .
I had security, but I wasn’t happy . . .”

Julio Appling
Photograph by Anni Becker

For Julio Appling

blue sweat
drips unacknowledged
like a pearl

slips
down the dark brown wood
to hit the floor
with a beautiful splash

this is some
deep pocket
shit

                       right here

not possible to be obliterated
by the squawking ignorance
of caffeinated youngsters
hopped up on self-importance
unable to hear
a thing that does not
travel into their consciousness
via earbuds


The People on the Bus

1/19/10
# 4 Eastbound

“James’s got court this morning,
so pray for ‘im. He finds out
if he gets to go home.
He wants to.
I want him to.”


GHOST TOWN, USA

1/20/10
Angst Gallery

Charlie:

                 “I know no boundaries
                   I have no self control
                   and I’m fun as hell.”

11th & Main

there is an underground
network of smokers
who hide cigarettes and lighters
under Columbian newspaper boxes around town
‘cause smokin’ ain’t allowed
on work release

1/21/10
Outside Harney Elementary

“Guy drove up in a Ford Mustang painted black and said, ‘What are you doing, Mrs. White?’ and he’d shaved his head, too. He’s an odd motherfucker. Not good at all.”

1/22
# 32 Eastbound

“Did you see what he just did? That was a Crip sign. I’m Blood, and you don’t do that shit to me. . . . That’s pretty funny—Kayla’s getting’ cheated on. That’s gonna be funny. She’s gonna call Miles, and he ain’t gonna be there.”

“Yo, where you at? Yo, where you at?
Yo, where you at? Why you over there?”

1/27/10

I see a skinhead
on the 37 Mill Plain
in a black hoodie
with a strange symbol
resembling a freemason’s compass
reading:

CRYSTAL METH
ANONYMOUS


1/29/10
# 30 Westbound

“Retire in two years. I was in the pipefitter’s union for 25 years. I go in for surgery on February 11. I fractured my spine. Where I live. I fractured my spine.”

# 32 Eastbound

“We were sat down, and we were told the dos and don’ts of livin’ in a foreign country. My Dad being in military intelligence, if they can’t get to you, they’ll get to your sons and daughters.”

Parent to child:

“Don’t lose your house key. ‘Cause if someone
gets your house key he’ll break into the house
and steal all your toys and play with them.”

“No! No!”

“No, stay out of my bag. None of this stuff is yours.”


The People on the Bus


February 3, 2010
# 32 Eastbound

“You guys know a little Mexican named Brad? I’m allergic to bees. I am too, though. So you like my Dad? He’s a fuckin’ pervert. My teacher’s like, ‘Have a good weekend, don’t get pregnant.’”

“I hope I get a check today. It’s today. Wednesday.
My ears are cold. They process my check.
I call it into the state.”

“Nosy little thing, isn’t ‘e?
Wants to know whatchadoin
whatchadoin?”

2/4/10
Clark College

Foster Hall graffiti:

The only difference between
me and a homeless man
is this school

Students discuss their hometowns

Washougal: It’s a hick town.

Longview: Smells like cabbage.

“If you see a tweaker on a bicycle,
you’re probably in Longview.”


The People on the Bus

2/4/10
#32 Eastbound

one of the guys on work release
tells me he’ll be visiting NY soon
staying in the penthouse
of a friend who was a fashion consultant
on The West Wing and Sex and the City
and once gave him a $2,500 pair of Prada shoes

but what my new pal
is really looking forward to
is seeing the Bronx
‘cause it’s so “gangster”

2/5/10
# 32 Westbound

“I don’t wanna start drinkin’ again.
I’ll really kill myself then.
I’m arguin’ with myself right now.
I’m not sure what I wanna do.”


GHOST TOWN, USA

2/9/10
Clark College

“I don’t want to go out drinking anymore.
No offense. It’s gross.”


The People on the Bus

2/10/10
# 4 Eastbound

Cell phone:

“I know that’s how I was.
She’s stupid.
She thinks she’s smart,
but she’s not. I know.
I know.”

Leah Jackson informs me
that C-Tran is talking about
installing safety boxes at bus stops
so that passengers can pay $3
to lock themselves in a cage
away from the riff raff
or into which a criminal can enter
and murder you for three bucks


GHOST TOWN, USA

2/11/10

Christine’s lunchtime symphony:

“Constant problems. Constant trouble. They didn’t wanna hear about it. Gas station runnin’ outta gas. Gas fireplace. Smell o’ money. For somebody. Vagrancy. Determination. It was pretty much cease and desist. You can’t practice anymore.”

2/11/10

Drunk outside Burgerville
waiting on the cheeseburger
I had agreed to buy for him:

“Gettin’ too old for this Northwest stuff.
This old man’s gotta go home where
his bones can get warm and dry.
It’s not like I don’t love my grandchildren.
I gotta house on Glen Oaks Boulevard.
You kids can handle it. Come over
anytime and I’ll cook you some pasta.”

2/13/10

just this afternoon
a wise woman reminded me
that there are two secrets
to a lasting relationship:

                                     1. You don’t have to spend every minute together.
                                     2. Choose your battles.

Just ask Jack and Lori Loranger
if you don’t believe me.

2/17/10
Harney Elementary

“She can’t eat, she can’t sleep, her eyes are swelling up. The good thing, Cody, is it’s gonna save people’s lives. Snowboarding was his life. She’s 20. She goes, ‘I’ve never lost anybody.’ Her best friend’s boyfriend.”


The People on the Bus

2/18/10
# 32 Westbound

Paul takes the 105 Express
into Portland every day
to scan accounts payable documents
for PGE
informs me that some of the documents
are illegible
or come in stapled—creating extra work
for the scanners

# 4 Eastbound

“she’s too rigid”

2/23/10
# 4 Eastbound

“What’s wrong with imagination?”


GHOST TOWN, USA

2/24/10

K. asks me to escort her through
the wooded area behind the T-Building
she’s new to town and visibly shaken
happy to help
though curious what it is about me
that signals Not-A-Rapist

two days later
she is waiting in the same spot
smoking a cigarette
so I offer to walk her again

I ask her to explain
the pendant around her neck
she informs me that it symbolizes
girl juggaloes

K. is married to a juggalo
despite the fact that Insane Clown Posse
ain’t particularly girl-friendly
like most, this stereotype shatters
upon contact with an actual person

so I shouldn’t be surprised to learn
that K. works with
at-risk populations

strikes me as being
as far away as one can get
from a hardened criminal

***

most of the work release crew
got big smiles and shifty eyes
the eyes of a guy
done some lyin’
run a few games
seen some shit

bad news
yet cute enough
that the girls from Bay
offer them candy

2/26/10

Work Release complains about one of his supervisors:

“She fucks with everybody, man.
Sometimes I take a two-hour lunch
and she says, ‘Hey, wait.
I don’t understand.’
She pisses me off.
What the fuck is
your problem?”


The People on the Bus
2/26/10
# 32 Eastbound

“Somethin’ to keep me fuckin’ sane. I ain’t trippin’ about it.
Nothin’s ever gonna get better. Nothin’s
ever gonna change. It’s hard to keep your mind free.”

“You got the same problems as everybody, man.”


GHOST TOWN, USA

2/28/10

Angelo: “A dog needs food, and a boy needs cheats.”

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Art Conversations with Ceramist Linda Kliewer this Wednesday March 17

Please join us for Art Conversations Wednesday, March 17th at Sixth Street Gallery. Joining us this month will be ceramist Linda Kliewer.

Art Conversations is a monthly salon by artists for the community, artists, galleries and the art curious.
 

Monday, March 8, 2010

THE WORK: MARCH 2010

THE WORK POETRY NEWSLETTER MARCH 2010

This Saturday, March 13, is my latest workshop at Angst Gallery (1015 Main Street Vancouver, USA 98660). Each workshop is different, but we usually read a little, listen to spoken word recordings, discuss poetry, and write  together. If you'd like to join us this Saturday, please bringa favorite poem and an example of your work. You may also bring a recent poem that addresses a social or political issue. The cost for the workshop is $20. The workshop begins at noon. Hope to see you there.

Please check out “The Work,” the first in a series of interviews with Partners-in-Truth-and-Beauty that I am posting on my blog. Our first conversation is with Derek Fenner, poet, artist, and co-founder of Bootstrap Press:

http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com/2010/02/work-february-2010-interview-with-derek.html

Back in the day, I collaborated on two spoken word pieces with my friends Dystopia One, a now-defunct industrial rock band from Strong Island, NY. Our tribute to actor/director Steve Buscemi, whom I had recently interviewed for the Island Ear, was later featured on Dr. Demento’s radio program. It was also featured on Vin Scelsa’s amazing show, “Idiot’s Delight,” and Scelsa replayed it on an evening during which he had Buscemi on the air as his guest in the studio. Now Mike Bazini, the vocalist and keyboardist for Dystopia One, has placed our collaborations on iTunes.

“Steve Buscemi” and “Spastic Colon Kidney Stone Blues” by Dystopia One and Christopher Luna on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-buscemi-tapes/id350104663



Please join us for two great events and a workshop at Cover to Cover Books in Vancouver:


Open Mic Poetry
hosted by Christopher Luna
7:00pm Thursday, March 11, 2010
& every second Thursday
Cover to Cover Books
1817 Main Street, Vancouver
McLoughlin Blvd. & Main Street
“always all ages and uncensored”



With our featured reader, Barbara LaMorticella: Barbara LaMorticella has lived in a cabin in the woods since arriving in Portland from San Francisco in the late 60s. A founding member of the Diggers and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, her second poetry collection, Rain on Waterless Mountain, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. In 2000 she was awarded the first Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship specifically for women writers, and in 2001 received the Stuart H. Holbrook Award for Outstanding Contributions to Oregon Literary Arts. LaMorticella’s work has appeared in many anthologies, most recently Poetry International’s Fall 2008 To Topos—Poverty and Poetry (Oregon State University and Amnesty International), Eating the Pure Light (Backwater Press, 2008), and Not A Muse, an anthology of women’s poetry published in Hong Kong in 2009 by Haven Books. She has won a Bumbershoot Big Book Award, was a Poetry in Motion featured poet, and has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She and Walt Curtis co-host Talking Earth, a poetry program on KBOO Portland.

Open Mic Poetry
Featuring Danika Dinsmore
7:00pm Thursday, March 25
Cover to Cover Books


Danika Dinsmore’s early writing career was built on experi-mental poetry and collaborative spoken word performances. In 1993, she and NY poet Bernadette Mayer launched an annual collective writing project called The 3:15 Experiment, during which participants wake up in the middle of the night to write. While living in Seattle, she performed with the 12-person Word Orchestra and the performance group ForWord ForTete. The co-founder and director of a literary arts centre in Auburn, WA (1996-1998) and producer of the Seattle Poetry Festival, since moving to Vancouver, BC she has turned her attention to film, television. She has worked as an artist-in-the-schools and media literacy educator for Learning Through the Arts and has taught screenwriting courses at Vancouver Film School. The former Chair of the Women in Film Festival, and co-producer of WIFTV’s first New Media Forum, Danika blogs about her multi-disciplined writing life as The Accidental Novelist. Her accidental novel, Brigitta of the White Forest, will be released in March 2010. She and her husband, music maven Ken Ashdown, live in Vancouver, BC. Danika will have the following books for sale: Traffic ($5), her red book ($10), Every Day Angels and Other Near Death Experiences ($10), and between sleeps ($12). Her CD, All Over the Road, will also be available for $10.


Danika will also be reading
Friday, March 26 at 7pm
St. John's Booksellers
8622 N. Lombard St., Portland
503-283-0032

Then she will return to Vancouver for a special workshop:

Imaginary Worlds
Workshop with Danika Dinsmore
Saturday, March 27 4:30 pm
Cover to Cover Books
Cost: $25 ($20 students)

Imaginary Worlds with Danika Dinsmore: As we grow older, we tend to spend less time looking at our world via our imaginations. In this workshop we will explore the imaginary worlds of our daily lives, discovering new and magical experiences in the “ordinary” occurrences around us. Be inspired by an afternoon of creative writing exercises and lively discussion and leave with a bag of tricks to return to whenever you want to re-enter those worlds.
Hope to see you in March!

Keep spreadin’ the word,
Christopher

THE WORK
MARCH 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Sage Cohen’s poetry events schedule for March (Portland)
2. Elva Maxine Beach, dan raphael, and Celestial Concubine at Three Friends (Portland) March 15
3. “A Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition” workshop w/ Claudia Savage (Portland) Mar. 11-Apr. 1
4. Multnomah Arts Center Literary Arts Program Instructors amd students read March 12 (Portland)
5. John Morrison and Scott Siegel + open mic at 100th Monkey Studio (Portland) March 17
6. Jim Martin at Paper Tiger Coffee open mic (Vancouver) with host Dan Nelson March 18
7. The Poetry and Music of Ancient Mexico with Gerardo Calderon and Cindy Williams Gutierrez at Rob Schouten Gallery (Whidbey Island, WA) March 27
8. Two new books available from poet Sean Patrick Hill
9. Bingo Gazingo RIP
10. “The art goes round” by Colleen Lindsay
11. New books available from Ed Coletti and John Coletti
12. SUBMISSION CALLS and CONTESTS (most with March deadlines)

1.
March events with Sage Cohen -- in Portland, OR and online

MILWAUKIE POETRY SERIES -- FEATURED READER

Wednesday, March 10, 7:00 p.m.

Attendees will receive a free broadside of a Sage Cohen poem. Reading will be one hour; Q&A session to follow.

Ledding Library Pond House
2215 SE Harrison –– across the pond from the library
Milwaukie, Oregon

Learn more: http://www.facebook.com/l/e871c;www.milwaukie.lib.or.us/adultwebsite/adultcalendar.htm

POETRY WORKSHOP FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS

Thursday, March 25, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Sign up your middle-school writer for a week of writing & literary enrichment during Portland Public’s spring break! I'll be teaching a poetry session and would love to work with your young student! (A special shout-out to Dave Jarecki for creating this event.)

The Attic Spring Break Writing Camp for Middle Schoolers

Attic Writers' Workshop
4232 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97215

Learn more and register: http://www.facebook.com/l/e871c;atticwritersworkshop.com/content/spring-break-writing-camp-middle-schoolers

2.
3/15/2010, 7:00p.m.
3 Friends Mondays: Caffeinated Art #86: Elva Maxine Beach, dan raphael, and Celestial Concubine


Three Friends Coffee House
201 SE 12th Avenue
Portland, OR
$FREE$

Elva Maxine Beach’s first erotic kiss occurred at her neighborhood swimming pool when she was barely five years old. This innocent kiss transformed into an insatiable taste for boys and men, a craving she began chronicling in journals at the age of ten. She has been writing about her sexcapades ever since, and her first book of short stories and poems, Neurotica, is a result of this obsessive-compulsive need to fictionalize her most intimate experiences. To fund her habit of seductive storytelling, Beach has worked as a car hop, waitress, usher, maid, janitor, dishwasher, secretary, scriptwriter, copywriter, technical writer, critic, videographer, producer, editor, tutor, proctor, teacher and professor. Beach pursued her Mistress of Fine Arts, Creative Writing at Louisiana State University where her mentor and party buddy, Andrei Codrescu told her to “Stop working so hard and write some erotica.” “My work isn’t necessarily erotica,” Beach says. “It’s raw, yes, and there’s lots of fucking and sucking, but my work delves into the psyche. It’s psyche-sexual drama.” Originally from bebop groovy Kansas City, Beach has lived and loved in cool jazz town St. Louis, and Cajun crazy Baton Rouge, Music Capital of the World, Austin, Texas and now she once again resides in St. Louis where she teaches writing, professes pleasure, and encourages mindful hedonism.

Born in the bosom of two mountains in Oregon, raised in a cult, Celestial Concubine ran away from home at age 18 to go to college failing her business courses at PSU, someone asked her what she liked to do “write” she said, “and read” “why don’t you get a degree in that?” they asked. religious guilt no longer keeping books out of her hands. she wrote and read freely, for the first time in her life. grateful for the resources and channels of her formal education, her poetry is less inspired by formal poetics and more by the journey of freedom and the support, nurturing, and love shown to her by the beautiful people that make up the Portland underground of poets, artists, musicians and mystics.

dan raphael delivers inventive language with physical verve. He organizes events for fun – 80+ workshops and talks at the recent Econvergence gathering; thirteen years of monthly readings at Borders.

Do you do art of any kind? Please do let us take a look and consider your creative proposals for one of our many events. Submit your art to showandtellevents@gmail.com.

Where else is Show and Tell Gallery? Stay informed about indie art in our community: Facebook
MyspaceShow and Tell Gallery WebsiteTwitter

Hugs, Nikia Cummings, Marketing Coordinator and Melissa Sillitoe, Hostess/Producer, Luke Lefler, Digital Media Producer
“Art. Caffeine. Community. Good times. Beginners Welcome.”
http://www.showandtellgallery.org/
showandtellevents@gmail.com

3.
A Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition:
The Poetry of Place
Dates: March 11-April 1
Time: Four Thursdays, 6-8pm
Fee: $100, some income sensitive tuitions are available.
Facilitator: Claudia F. Savage
Location: 2021 Southeast Clinton through Ibex Studios: Adventures in Creative Writing

Description: So many of us feel connected to a specific physical place. In this poetry workshop, we'll explore poets such as Szymborska, Wendell Berry, and Neruda, who delve into the idea of place and belonging. Poetry allows us to connect a birch tree with a first kiss and a particular blue with never learning French. Through experiential writing exercises, we'll tap into the physical spaces that make up our emotional terrain. Come prepared to fly over grassy plains and rest on top of heathered peaks. Beginners encouraged and welcome. Seasoned poets, come learn a few new tricks.

About the Facilitator: Poet Claudia F. Savage has been a chef for people recovering from illness, a book editor, and a roller-skating waitress. She has been awarded numerous residency awards to Ucross, Jentel, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts and her chapbook, The Last One Eaten: A Maligned Vegetable's History, was published in 2005 by Finishing Line Press. In 2008, she won the Thomas Hornsby Ferril Poetry Prize for a series of poems. These poems, about wilderness in relation to human desire, are part of her forthcoming full collection. A dynamic presence, she has taught poetry to young women in Appalachia, ranchers in Colorado, and itinerant jazz musicians. She believes, as Neruda, that poetry helps "the light inside to awaken."

To Register and Secure Your Spot: Please go to www.ibexstudios.com/workshops.htm

(We accept debit and credit cards at PayPal. You can also mail us a check to Ibex Studios at 4424 SE Ivon, Portland, OR 97206.)

4.
Multnomah Arts Center Literary Arts Program
Instructors & students
past, present, future


reading from their work
poetry, fiction, nonfiction


Friday, March 12, 7:00 pm
Free admission

Multnomah Arts Center Gallery
7688 Southwest Capitol Highway
www.multnomahartscenter.org
(503) 823-2787

Please join us for the first group reading by participants in the expanded Literary Arts Program at Multnomah Arts Center. Enjoy short pieces and excerpts, and learn about upcoming classes and special summer events.

Readers will include:
Richard Enger
Lyssa Tall Anolik
David Abel
Gwen Osborne
Kaia Sand
Gail Simmons
Lola Scobey
Susan Hall
John Hall
Tani Draper
Suzanne Lehman
Amy Minato
Martha McKay
Monica Wheeler
Donna Prinzmetal
Liz Prato

5.
Join us March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day) at 7 p.m. at the Monkey for our two featured readers, some open mic time, and a green surprise or two.

100th Monkey Studio
110 S.E. 16th(at Ankeny)
Portland, OR 97214
503-232-3457

Hosted by Steve Williams and Constance Hall

John Morrison earned his MFA from the University of Alabama and received the 2003 C. Hamilton Bailey Poetry Fellowship from Literary Arts. His book, Heaven of the Moment, won the 2006 Rhea & Seymour Gorsline Poetry Competition and was a finalist for the 2008 Oregon Book Award in poetry. His poems have appeared in numerous national literary journals, including the Cimarron Review, Poetry East, Southern Poetry Review, and Poet Lore. He has taught poetry at the University of Alabama and Washington State University, Vancouver, and is a Writer-in-Residence for Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools program in Portland, Oregon.

Scot Siegel is a native of Northern California, lives in Lake Oswego with his wife and two daughters. He works as an urban planning consultant and serves on the board of the Friends of William Stafford. Siegel is the author of three volumes of poetry, Some Weather (Plain View Press 2008), the chapbook Untitled Country (Pudding House Publications 2009), and a second chapbook, Skeleton Says, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. He has received awards and commendations from Aesthetica Magazine (UK), Nimrod International (Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, semi-finalist) and the Oregon State Poetry Association (OSPA). In celebration of Oregon’s Sesquicentennial, Poetry Northwest and the Oregon State Library selected Some Weather as one of 150 Outstanding Oregon Poetry Books, one for each year of statehood. Siegel was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009.

6.
From Dan Nelson, host of Paper Tiger Coffee’s third Thursday poetry open mic: “This month on March 18 at 7pm we have Jim Martin. For those of you who've missed it you might want to check out Jim's photography at 6th st Gallery. He's got 3 fine pieces exhibited there. Jim Martin is a retired biologist and teacher, who spends his time with family, volunteering at animal shelters, advising and board work in science inquiry education, doing tap and ballet, writing and reading poetry at open mikes, and doing and exhibiting photography. Much of his poetry is influenced by his experiences in biology and teaching. See you March 18.” Paper Tiger is located at 703 Grand Blvd. (corner of Evergreen and Grand) in Vancouver.

7.
Humanities Washington and Brave New Words
Proudly Present

The Poetry and Music of Ancient Mexico
With Gerardo Calderon and Cindy Williams Gutierrez
Saturday, March 27
7 PM

Rob Schouten Gallery
Whidbey's Greenbank Farm

No charge! Absolutely free!

A live performance of Aztec-styled poetry and music, this collaborative performance engages in a haunting dialogue with ³the ones who have gone before.² The presentation features a series of poems written in the mythic voices of Nahua poet-princes and princesses accompanied by Mexican indigenous music.

Musical virtuoso Gerardo Calderon performs Mesoamerican rhythms on water drums, turtle shells and butterfly cocoon rattles, and otherworldly melodies on clay flutes and wind whistles, to transform Cindy Williams Gutierrez's poems into the ³flower and song² of the ancients.

Originally from Mexico, Gerardo Calderon studied classical guitar at the Escuela Superior de Musica in Mexico City and theory and composition at Portland Community College. He plays a variety of Latin stringed instruments, as well as pre-Columbian instruments such as clay flutes, silvato de viento, teponaztles, huehuetl, tambores de agua and tenabaris. Gerardo is the musical director of Grupo Condor Latin American Folk Music and has toured all over the United States, Canada and Europe.

Cindy Williams Gutierrez is a poet-dramatist who collaborates with artists in music, theatre, and visual art. Her poems and reviews have been published in many literary journals. She is currently finishing her first verse play A Dialogue of Flower and Song. Three of her plays have been produced by the Miracle Theatre and Insight Out Theatre Collective in Portland, Oregon. Cindy earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Program, with an emphasis on ancient Mexican poetics.

Their performance, which is free to the public, will begin at 7 PM at the Rob Schouten Gallery which is located on Whidbey Island at Greenbank Farm at 765 Wonn Rd. C-103, Greenbank, WA. For more information call 360-331-7099 or email info@bravenewwords.org

About the Inquiring Mind Speakers Bureau:
Inquiring Mind is a program of Humanities Washington and brings Washington¹s finest scholars, authors, musicians and actors to local communities for engaging public presentations.
For more information visit http://www.humanities.org/inquiringmind/

Brave New Words
For More Information Contact:
Victory Lee Schouten

Phone: 360.331-7099
765 Wonn Road, Bld. C, #103
Greenbank, WA 98253

Brave New Words operates under the auspices
of Greenbank Farm, a qualified 501 C-3.

8.

Sean Patrick Hill's first book of poems, The Imagined Field, has been released by Paper Kite Press and is available for order at wordpainting.com. Hill graduated with an MA in writing from Portland State University, where he won the Burnam Graduate Poetry Award. He has been awarded a grant from Regional Arts and Culture council and residencies from Montana Artists Refuge, Fishtrap, and the Oregon State University Spring Creek Project. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in New York Quarterly, Hayden's Ferry Review, 42opus, RealPoetik, Exquisite Corpse, Copper Nickel, Painted Bride Quarterly, and many others. He reviews poetry for Rain Taxi and Bookslut. His blog is http://theimaginedfield.blogspot.com/.


Sean Patrick Hill has published a hiking guide for Oregon: Moon Outdoors Oregon Hiking, from Avalon Publishing. The book contains 500 hikes from the coast to the mountains to the deserts. The book, along with four others featuring Hill's writing, is available for preorder at Amazon. Hill is a freelance travel writer whose articles have appeared in The Oregonian, Columbia Gorge Magazine, Washington Trails, Travel Oregon, and Oregon Coast.

9.


Bingo Gazingo -RIP

Pause for a moment and send up a little poem for Bingo, who died on New Years Day, 85, hit by a cab on his way to the Bowery Poetry Club, never regained consciousness, died of complications. He was an artist who lived his work till his last breath. Whether he had no one but us and Taylor in the house, or if he was playing an arena concert with the Bogmen, he was never less than full tilt 1,000 percent. Mr Gazingo (Murray Wachs) was a consummate artist who lived his work. We will continue to hold his place at the Club -- Mondays at 6 -- to play tapes, show video, read poems, light candles, and carry on the legacy of the King of the Street Poets.

http://lifejustbounces.blogspot.com/2010/01/rip-bingo-gazingo-1924-2010.html

10.
Colleen Lindsay on the Constellation, a collaborative art project that featured work by local artists including Christopher Luna:
http://www.vanvoice.com/article/20686-art%20goes%20round

The art goes round
By COLLEEN LINDSAY
I’m not ashamed to admit that I really can’t resist a FREE sign on the side of the road. Last June, I saw just such a sign propped up next to a cabinet shop on St Johns. I whipped a u-ey, swerved into the parking lot and made a beeline for a large pile of wood scraps.

Scattered atop the tumble-down pile lay thirty, wood rounds — large, medium and small, all with a nice, round one-centimeter hole in the center. As a painter of multicultural icons, I was delighted to find the perfect shaped canvases for a new series I was planning to do over summer vacation.

Well, as they say, best laid plans and all that. Instead of painting those icons, I spent my summer vacation hanging out with other artists in ‘Couve and dancing out my happiness at First Friday, Craft in the Village and the annual DADA fest. In this community of artists, I found my long-lost family (Like most artists, I’ve always felt that the stork made an error in judgement with this baby’s drop in my family of normals).

As the leaves began to fall, I wandered wearily back into my studio, those circles screamed to me with their tales of summer loneliness. They begged me to do something creative and expressive with them. So, I gave them away.

I made a list of my new artist friends and offered one to each of them — to love, honor, and paint in their own style around the theme of “creating community.” My friendly muse sisters (Brittney Koitzsch and Anni Becker) shared some with their favorite artists too. And soon all our creative circles were out in the community being painted, glittered and collaged.

Then, on the first of day of the month of love (February),we called them all back. They returned to us with glee and great celebration. Our friends at Selfless Creations made a back drop for them, and together we formed them into the “Creative Community Constellation.” This installation shows the diversity and creativity of our community. And now It hangs happily on the wall of our favorite night spot, the BrickHouse Bar and Grill.

After hanging the Constellation, we threw it, it’s creators and our community, a lovely Red, White and Black Ball with music, live painting and dancing. Then we left our creative circles hanging there for all to see. They will be hanging together through the month of February. We three muses and all our artists hope you will go in and give our circles, and our Community Constellation a little love. After all, it’s FREE!

Colleen Lindsay is a local artist and member of the recently established Vancouver Arts Collective, nicknamed "The Space," which is on the search for donations of art supplies

11.

A couple of poems from
the most recent book from
Round Barn Press

Jazz Gods by Ed Coletti (January 2010)


Now available at
the San Francisco Beat Museum

or

by sending $9. (includes return postage) to
Jazz Gods, 2134 Vintage Circle, Santa Rosa, CA 95404.

just one of those things
(for charlie parker)

simply another
thing

just one of
those crazy

things

purely one more of
those crazy
gossamer
ring-thing
bells-ring

things

you keep on
blowing out there,

bird!


Ornette #3 R.P.D.D.

knife blade shine
scratching meat off bone

riffing riffing
all round that bone
white and pink with bone meat
separating from solidity

switch blade of a saxophone
slashing sculpting
round and round
all round that bone

Some Previous Round Barn Press Chapbooks

Richard Krech - Some Global Positioning Dharma
Rychard Denner - Calendar of the Moon
Ed Coletti - Peace Planters & Family Matters
David Madgalene - Kali
Justin Adkins - Dream Climber
Bill Vartnaw - Postcards

Ed Coletti Readings for Remainder of 2010

Sun. March 21 12:30 PM Coffee Katz, Sebastopol, CA
Mon. April 5 7PM Caffe Greco, North Beach, SF (with David Madgalene and Mark Eckert)
Fri. April 16 6PM? Infusions Tea & Chocolate, Sebastopol, CA
Sat. May 8 2PM? The Beatitude Reading, Pelican Gallery, Petaluma, CA
Sun. July 18 6:30 PM Berkeley - The Art House Gallery & Cultural Center (with Belle Randall Lu Garcia, and Jeremy Cooks)
Sun. Sept 5 2PM Poetry Azul 521 4th St. Santa Rosa, CA (with Toni Wilkes, Greg Randall, Armando Garcia Davila, Nancy Dougherty, and Vilma Ginzberg)
Thurs. Sept 9 7PM Vancouver, WA - Cover to Cover Books - 1817 Main St.
Sun. Sept 19 Petaluma Poetry Walk
Mon. Oct 11 City Lights Books - SF - Avanti Popolo Reading 7PM

John Coletti is the author of Physical Kind (Yo-Yo-Labs, 2005), Same Enemy Rainbow (fewer & further, 2008), and now Mum Halo (Rust Buckle Books, 2010) which is available in pre-release at http://rustbucklebooks.blogspot.com/lebooks.blogspot.com/. He recently finished serving as editor of The Poetry Project Newsletter.


Mum Halo
John Coletti
ISBN 13: 978-0-9843468-0-6
102 pages, cover and interior art by Zachary Wollard
$15
$12 with free shipping

12.

SUBMISSION CALLS & CONTESTS


Switched-on Gutenberg, an on-line poetry journal is now accepting submissions for Issue 16. Our theme is Assemblage.

We are looking for art and poetry which muses on or portrays the art of assemblage - a la Joseph Cornell, Lousie Nevelson, Andre Breton, etc. Of course, this could mean an ekphrastic poem written “to” or “interpreting” a piece of assemblage art by these artists or other collage/assemblage artists.

But, in the larger sense, we’re looking for poems that trust the imagination to go where it will go—“leaping” poetry as it were— the kind of poetry that pulls together images that seem disparate and reassembles them to showcase new meanings, new worlds, fresh epiphanies. Examples of poets that do this are Charles Simic, Mary Rueffle, Matthew Rohrer, masters of an edginess that makes a sense you can hardly describe. We’d like the edges of this issue to blur a little, words into art, art into words. Other unique interpretations of the theme “assemblage” are welcome. Just be sure you follow the rest of the guidelines below.

Submissions for the next issue:

• Will be taken until March 31, 2010.
• ONE TO THREE POEMS ONLY, not to exceed 48 lines.
• Must be original (previously published work is okay if credits are included).
• Simultaneous submissions are OK, if you notify us as soon as any work is accepted elsewhere.
• Poetry can be in Text only (TXT or RTF) or in Word (DOC or DOCX) format or included in the body of the e-mail.
• Should be e-mailed to (replace (at) with @). Please include your name in the subject line.

All submissions should include:

• your name and e-mail address
• a short (three-line) biographical note.
• Where you live, in case we need to contact you concerning a local reading (we are in Seattle, WA).

We report on submissions shortly before each issue goes on-line. We plan to release Issue 16 in late-summer 2010.

VoiceCatcher’s Call for Submissions

VoiceCatcher--an annual anthology featuring new and established women writers of diverse perspectives, voices, ages, orientations, and experiences--offers a panoramic view of literary life in the Portland/Vancouver area. We publish both poetry and prose.

The submission window for VoiceCatcher 5 is open from February 1 to March 31, 2010. For guidelines, please check our website (www.voicecatcher.org). We’d love to hear your voice.

Meet our contributors and editors at one of the upcoming readings:

Saturday, March 27 at 2 pm:
Central Library
801 SW 10th Avenue
Portland, OR 97205


Saturday, May 8 at 2:30 pm:
St. John’s Booksellers
8622 North Lombard St.
Portland, OR 97203


Attention Authors, Poets and Artists:
Submissions are being accepted until March 31, 2010


Superstition Review
is currently accepting submissions of
fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and art
for Issue 5 to be launched in April 2010.

Please visit www.superstitionreview.com
to read submission guidelines.

Contact us at: superstition.review@gmail.com

Superstition Review is a collaboration between web design students and writing students.

This online national literary magazine is designed, written, edited and maintained by students.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Exquisite Disarray Publishing Announces Contest for Washington State Poets

TACOMA, WA—Exquisite Disarray Publishing, a Tacoma-based literary arts organization, is pleased to announce the launch of its 1st annual First Book Poetry Contest and a call for poetry manuscripts from now until May 15, 2010.

The First Book Poetry Contest will award one Washington State poet a $200 cash prize and publish the winning manuscript as the poet’s first book. The winner will also give a free poetry reading and offer a poetry workshop for the public to enjoy in Tacoma in November 2010—coinciding with “Art at Work” month. In addition to the winning poet’s work being published, a separate contest prize of $100 cash will be awarded to the poetry manuscript submission that contains the best “Tacoma poem.” All poets entering manuscripts in the contest are encouraged to include an original poem about the City of Destiny in their submission.

Exquisite Disarray’s First Book Poetry Contest will be judged by poet and teacher Kathleen Flenniken. Flenniken is the author of Famous, the winner of the Prairie Schooner Prize in Poetry, and co-editor and president of Floating Bridge Press.

Exquisite Disarray President William Kupinse expressed enthusiasm about what the contest means for the Tacoma arts scene. “Our First Book Poetry Contest seeks to contribute to Tacoma’s important role within the Washington State arts community,” said Kupinse. “Like Tacoma itself, we wanted our contest to be down-to-earth and welcoming. Many first book poetry contests charge a reading fee of up to $25 for the privilege of submitting a manuscript. We wanted our contest to be accessible to everyone, so we decided to offer a modest award and charge no reading fee. It’s not the amount of the prize, but the quality of the work that’s important.”

This contest is open to all Washington State residents 18 years of age and older who have not yet published a full-length book of poetry. Full contest guidelines and editorial contact information can be found at www.exquisitedisarray.org.

Exquisite Disarray Publishing was founded by William Kupinse in 2008 to publish In Tahoma’s Shadow, an anthology of 75 Tacoma-area poets. A non-profit corporation registered with the State of Washington and supported in part by the Tacoma Arts Commission, Exquisite Disarray is an associated program of Shunpike, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. Exquisite Disarray has since expanded to serve as a vehicle for supporting the work of Washington State poets, particularly poets who have yet to publish a full-length volume of their work.