Tim Mason and Lisa LoBasso at Caffe Lena, July 1

This month the Caffe Lena Open Mic has two featured poets plus an open mic.  Here is the info from Carol Graser:

Timothy Mason has been actively performing poetry and promoting folk music since the 1980's. He honed is performance style in the early poetry slams and at the fabled Kerrville Folk Festival giving the songwriters a run for their money. His first book Gently, Like Water, Cracking Stone was released in April 1997. His most recent work, Feral Voices, published in February 2009, is a collection of poetry giving a non-human voice and sensibility to the 21st century experience on our shared planet. From Anchorage, Toronto and Ottawa to Boston, Austin and Oakland, festival and club appearances have solidified his place among contemporary New England artists and international audiences. "...beautiful imagery and solid structure mixed with an intense performance style...."  www.timothydmason.com

Refusing to characterize her poetic style as either academic or performance, LisaAnn LoBasso considers herself most at home among artists. With over 20 years experience, she has produced countless readings and collaborative arts events, such as the Up Close, Let Loose Traveling Poets’ Reading Series, and Operation Soapbox, while still racking  up her own credentials, including Poet Ambassador of Kern County in California, as well as appearances at venues and universities from West Coast to East. LisaAnn’s work has been lauded as both dynamic and boundary-breaking; dubbed a poetry minstrel by Las Vegas City Life Weekly, she has featured with diverse and noteworthy poets, such as Nicholas Roerich Prize winner Lee McCarthy, California Poet Laureate Al Young, and Paterson Award Winner Indran Amirthanayagam. Twice nominated for California Poet Laureate 2008, she has two poetry books in print: In the Swollen a poetry collection (2003), and Oleander Milkshake, (2008). In her spare time, LisaAnn develops creative writing programs, theatre scripts, arts-education programs, and public arts installations with artists as far as England. She travels worldwide and recently just returned from living in India for three months. LisaAnn has worked closely with Gluck Award winner Frances Mconnel, National Book Award finalist and critically acclaimed author Susan Straight, and Pulitzer Prize nominee Maurya Simon.

Poetry Open Mic
Wednesday July 1
doors open 7PM, readings start 7:30
Featured Poets: Tim Mason and Lisa LoBasso
$3
hosted by Carol Graser
Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs
www.caffelena.org     583-0022

Sunday Four Poetry With Frank Desiderio and Mimi Moriarty

Just wanted to pass this announcement along from the poets in Voorheesville and their monthly poetry series at the Old Songs Community Arts Center.

Old Songs Community Arts Center: Sunday Four Poetry--Frank Desiderio and Mimi Moriarty/ Voorheesville

Frank Desiderio and Mimi Moriarty with an open mike
Sunday Four Poetry Open Mike

Hosts: Dennis Sullivan, Edie Abrams, & Michael Burke

Old Songs Community Center
37 S. Main St., Voorheesville, NY
Every 4th Sunday

Hudson Valley Writers Guild Annual Writing Contest

Here is information on the Hudson Valley Writers Guild Annual Writing Contest from www.hvwg.org (Thank you Dan Wilcox for sending us the info)

HUDSON VALLEY WRITERS GUILD ANNUAL WRITING CONTEST

Poetry Contest, 2009

1st Place: $150
2nd Place: $75
3rd Place: $50

Deadline: August 31, 2009

The Hudson Valley Writers Guild is pleased to announce its first annual multi-genre Writing Contest, which will annually alternate among the genres of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. This year's contest is in poetry. Winners and Honorable Mentions will be invited to read their poems during the Community of Writers Program in the fall of 2009.

Eligibility:

All contestants must be residents of New York State. Current members of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild Board of Directors and their families are not eligible. Entries must be postmarked between May 1 and August 31, 2009.

Submission Guidelines:

• Theme: No style or topic requirements, but all submissions must be unpublished
• Submissions must be typed (No email submissions)
• 50-Line Limit
• Anonymous Entries: Do not write your name anywhere on the poems
• Submit 3 copies of 3-5 poems (3 completes sets)
• Entry fee: $10.00 for members of the HVWG and $15.00 for non-members

Send cover letter with:

• Your name
• Address
• Email address
• Poem titles
• Check for entry fee made out to "HVWG"
• SASE (optional)

Mail submissions to:

The Hudson Valley Writers Guild
c/o Mimi Moriarty
Box 222
Clarksville, NY 12041

Note: Submissions will not be returned, but if you would like hardcopy results of the contest, please send a SASE. All entrants will be notified of winners by email and/or SASE. Results will also be posted on our website. For more info, please email Mimi Moriarty.

Third Thursday Poetry Night Featuring W.D. Clarke

This coming Thursday at the Social Justice Center on Central Ave.:

The Poetry Motel Foundation presents Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY on Thursday, June 18 (7:00 sign up; 7:30 start)

Featured Poet: W.D. Clarke

W.D. Clarke is the author of “Soldier Ballads and Other Tales” (Infinity Publishing). His poems are narrative rhymes done in a style of Robert Service and Rudyard Kipling. Many have a military setting, while others are based on Clarke’s wanderings and love of the Old West California’s “gold country.”

-- with an open mic for community poets before & after the feature: $3.00 donation, suggested; more if you got it, less if you can’t.

Your poetry host: Dan Wilcox.

Every Other Thursday Poets… and Artists

The Every Other Thursday Night Poets are artists as well! Or at least some of them are. They are hosting a reception on Thursday evening, June 18, from 6:00-8:00 pm at the Voorheesville Library (directions on Library web site). View art work by Tom Corrado, Barbara Vink, Mimi Moriarty, Philomena Moriarty, Alan Casline, Mark O'Brien, and others. Everything from acrylic to collage to photography and more! Everyone is invited to admire the art and its integration with the written word.

Mimi Moriarty and her brother, Frank Desiderio, will be the featured poets at the regular open mic held at the Old Songs Building, 37 S. Main Street, Voorheesville, on Sunday, June 28 at 3:00. (Old Songs is across the street from Stewart's.) They are a duet, reading companion poems, seeing the same topic through a different set of lenses. Reception will follow. Bring a poem to read, or just come and listen to the varied and talented group of poets that hang out in Voorheesville.

Judith Saunders and William Seaton at Woodstock Poetry Society and Festival, June 13

From our friend Phillip Levine, host of the Woodstock Poetry Society and the weekly poetry night at the Colony Cafe:

Poet Judith Saunders presenting her poetry and poet William Seaton presenting a talk (Winged Words: Notes on the Oral Performance of Poetry") will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, June 13 at 2pm.

The reading is usually hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine, however he will be more than capably replaced as host for this reading by Donald Lev. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Judith Saunders, long-time resident of the Hudson Valley, is a professor of English at Marist College. Her poems, humor, and creative nonfiction have appeared in many literary journals and little magazines, regional and national, most recently in Home Planet News, Poet Lore, Chronogram, The Hudson River Valley Review, and The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Her chapbook collection, Check-Out Counter Suite, was a winner in the 1992 Panhandler Poetry Chapbook Competition, sponsored by the University of West Florida.

William Seaton is the author of Spoor of Desire: Selected Poems and Tourist Snapshots and the producer of the /Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance Series/. Recipient of the Ada Louise Ballard Fellowship in the Humanities and the Helen Fairall Scholarship Award in Comparative Literature, he has published studies in learned publications such as the Iowa Journal of Literary Studies and Bruccoli Clark's Dictionary of Literary Biography series. During the last year, his reviews have appeared in Poetry Flash, Home Planet News, Chiron Review, and Chronogram. This summer he will teach a workshop series in a newly organized College of Poetry.

Winged Words: Notes on the Oral Performance of Poetry" is an investigation of orality in poetry. The essay explores the history of the oral performance of poetry from Sappho to rap as well as distinguishing the typical generic characteristics of oral and written texts. How is poetry different for a silent reader and a listener to a live performance? Is either experience better? Are today's coffee house readers the real poetic traditionalists? Part of this lecture was presented in an earlier form at the Woodstock Library in March of 2007.

This talk is made possible by The New York Council for the Humanities for support and funding of the /Speakers in the Schools /program.

Here's our upcoming 2009 schedule of featured readers:
Jul 11 - LisaAnn LoBasso, Marnie Andrews; Raphael Kosek
Aug 8 - Susan Lewis; India Radfar
Sep 12 – Gioia Timpanelli
Oct 10 – Patti Martin; Susan Hoover, Victoria Sullivan
Nov 14 – Angelo Verga; **George Wallace
Dec 12 – Open Mike & Annual Business & Planning Meeting

Also, why not become a 2009 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival?  Membership is a nominal $15 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number.) Your membership helps pay for hall rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.

Upcoming Poetry Readings and Events

Busy week in poetry coming up.  Things kicked off yesterday with Dan Wilcox’s annual birthday tribute and reading of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”.  Here is some information on Tuesday’s Albany Poets Presents and Wednesday’s Caffe Lena Open Mic up in Saratoga. 

Albany Poets Presents, Tuesday, June 2

Albany Poets Presents, hosted by Thom Francis returns to Valentines on Tuesday, June 2 starting at 8:00PM.

Come over and join local poets and spoken word artists for an evening of conversation, cocktails, coffee, and, of course, poetry. The signup starts at 7:00PM for anyone who wants to take the stage and share their work.

Albany Poets Presents takes place at Valentines Music Hall (17 New Scotland Ave.) on the first Tuesday of each and every month.

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic,  Wednesday, June 3 featuring Bill Wunder

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic on Wednesday, June 3.  7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start with featured poet: Bill Wunder.  $3.  Hosted by Carol Graser at Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs.  For more information contact www.caffelena.org or call 583-0022.

This poetry month is sponsored by Joe and Carol Bruchac in memory of Kate O'Connell, a true lover and supporter of poetry.

Bill Wunder is the author of Pointing at the Moon (WordTech Editions, 2008) and a chapbook, A Season of Storms (Via Dolorosa Press, 2002). His poems have twice been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, and in 2004 he was named Poet Laureate of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Bill has been a finalist in The T. S. Eliot Prize two times, and the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards four times. He has read and lectured in local schools, colleges, on public television. His poems and short stories have been widely published, most recently in the Innisfree Poetry Journal, The Manhattan Review and The Paterson Literary Review. Bill serves as Poetry Editor of The Schuylkill Valley Journal, and lives with his two black labs in Bucks County.

Be sure to check the Poetry Calendar and if there are any events, readings, or open mics that we are missing, feel free to send us an email and we will add it to the calendar.