MUSELETTER #1
10/3/99
Welcome to the first issue of MUSELETTER from About.com Poetry. We've gathered a group of correspondents to bring you news & notes, gossip & reading dates, Net links & the voices of poets known & unknown from all over the poetry world. We hope you find it a worthy successor to Juliette Torrez' Poetry Channels!
Cheers,
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Your About.com Poetry Guides
VIRGINIA/DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The DC Area
Greetings from Central Virginia to the Beltway and into the depths of Washington, DC where poetry means po-et-try and you better watch out, the SLAM is gonna getcha!
Did you know. . . the seat of our government shuts down at 6 pm and people head to clubs, coffee houses and theaters for spoken word! The best source for up-to-date accuracy is the STYLE section of the Washington Post, both in print and the Web site, if you want phone numbers, addresses and, check this out, MAPS! The only thing Style doesn't tell you is how to find a parking place, but remember the Metro, it's just what the doctor ordered (still, this ain't New York--they don't run all night).
Special events: Linda Pastan & Dolores Kendrick at the Jewish Community Center, open mikes at Groove Gumbo, Bar None, Cassava Cafe, slams every Sunday at Cafe Myth (see below for more on this).
Words, Beats, and Movements: The Forces of Hip-Hop Festival
You prefer a festival?? Try this one out: Words, Beats, and Movements: The Forces of Hip-Hop Festival. It's all month long, various locations and events, from panel discussions to graffiti walls. The Nuyorican Poets and the DC Poets have a number of performances; there's a staged reading of a new book by Bobby Hill. It's worth the drive into DC, and if you get to Union Station, try the Indian Restaurant downstairs in the food court -- you might see me!
Cafe Myth
Here's a site for poets and writers: Cafe Myth. They do slams with host Toby DeBarr, but bring your credit cards -- it's in Georgetown, across from the Georgetown Mall. By the way, I heard the Virginia Ham sandwich makes you feel like a Virginia gentleman, if you know what I mean, and I think you do!
Charlottesville, the University of Virginia
Did you know that Charlottesville is number one in books read per household? And number eight in the top ten US book markets! It stands to reason they'd have a festival for books, and sure thing, every spring the hills are alive with the sound of readings. There are some delightful bed & breakfasts in the area.
Central Virginia, Richmond metropolitan area
The two major venues here for poetry readings and events are bookstores and colleges, though The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a monthly series. Poetic Principles is in its second year at the museum. It was to begin on September 17 featuring Lucille Clifton (who was so marvelous in Bill Moyers' PBS special, Fooling With Words). Alas, Hurricane Floyd flooded the East coast. She's been rescheduled for November but I'm not sure whether that means Gregory Donovan will be bumped or an additional date will be set up.
In the meantime, the month of October features the 150th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's death, and the program will feature “Homage to EAP: The Edgar Allan Poe Memorial Reading.” Poets John Bricuth (aka John T. Irwin), Philip Levine, and Dave Smith (a wonderful reader and poet) will read from their own work. That's Saturday, October 9 at 4:45 p.m. Odd time, but who knows? Parking is dicey these days -- there's an Egyptian exhibit that is drawing huge crowds (no tickets left on weekends). I hear they are running a shuttle bus from the nearby Arthur Ashe Center. Call ahead: (804) 367-8148.
BARNES & NOBLE, Willow Lawn, features Elizabeth Kuhn, a poet and instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University this Friday night October 1, at 7 p.m. This store will be moving to bigger facilities in February or March; they plan more poetry events when that happens. My jazz poetry group VILLANELLE performed there this past July with C.E. Chaffin of Melic Review and Savoy. It was a little cramped but we made it!
Speaking of Villanelle, check out Border's Books and Music on Broad Street, Sunday, October 17th at 5 p.m. We'll be there, doing about an hour and a half of poetry and great jazz. There will be regular open mike poetry on October 26 at 8 p.m. This month's featured reader is Vernon Wildy, a great poet! There is also a special event involving the University of Richmond Creative Writing Department: I'll post that date asap, or call (804) 965-0733.
It's not poetry, but if you miss John-boy, Earl Hamner will be at the Huguenot Road Barnes & Noble October 7th, 7-8 p.m. They have the biggest collection of poetry titles in the city at that store. I'm meeting with the events coordinator, June Stephenson, to see if we can get a poetry open mike started there. The last one died because no one would run the thing, and you know, I needed one more thing to do, didn't I?
In the meantime, downtown, the VCU series of readings The Moveable Feast begins, and more readings follow. Last month I heard Sandra Alcosser read from the winning manuscript for the Larry Levis prize at the University. She was delightful. I bought her book Except by Nature and highly recommend it.
There's so much more!!! The JAZZ POETS SOCIETY has released their second CD. Patrick Mamou started at the now closed Underground Railroad Cafe reading “What if. . . Rosa Parks had a car?” -- and look how far they've come! A new cafe called UTOPIA, 402 North Harrison, has advertised readings/spoken word, to benefit Food Not Bombs, but they need to get an answering machine so people can find out times of events! That's my destination this month, if they'll tell me whassup.From the banks of the James River,
--Shann Palmer
ORANGE COUNTY/SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Greetings from Orange County
Orange County, California -- a strange semi-metropolitan area about 45 minutes south of Los Angeles (four and a half hours, in traffic). If you're not familiar with Orange County, you need to know that OC: a) is generally considered to be the most conservative county in America; b) was the first U.S. County to declare bankruptcy; c) is the place where Richard M. Nixon was born; and c) is the home of both Disneyland and the Crystal Cathedral's “Hour of Power.” All of which makes this a terrifying place to be a poet, but shouldn't real art have the capacity to scare us silly? Or something like that? I'll talk about LA, too (of course) but I don't want anyone wasting energy trying to figure out where this OC place is.
Just Passing Through
Lately, we've been visited by many poets and writers who've been able to find OC on a map. One such was Jennifer Robin, of Oregon, whom we missed completely at both AAA Electra 99 in Newport Beach (a very strange art gallery) and at Club Mesa in Costa Mesa (a dive bar with a REALLY late-running poetry reading on Wednesdays, hosted by longtime OC promoter Lob. We said nice things about her in the paper anyway, because we liked her demo tape, and people keep telling us we missed a great show.
We had better luck catching Boston's Jack McCarthy, who just so happens to be one of our favorite poets reading today. McCarthy's work borders on storytelling: It's narrative -- and it's funny as all heck -- but it retains a gentle sense of lyricism and empathy that rivals any poet we've ever read. He read at Darin's Café, in San Clemente, hosted by the wild and wacky Jaimes Palacio, accompanied by LA's lovely Robin Gwynne and Laguna Beach's Jim Sanford, then the following Wednesday at Club Mesa. At Club Mesa, he was accompanied by Brett Axel, touring through from Woodstock, New York, who's on a MASSIVE tour promoting his book, Will Work For Peace, an anthology that features the likes of Larry Jaffe, Taylor Mali, Daniel Roop and some poet who wrote a GREAT poem called “Ronald Reagan is Forgetting Things,” which we really liked, but we're broke at the moment so we weren't able to buy the book on the spot. Which sucks. We fully intend to buy it later from his Web site, which is a pretty good place to find his remaining tour schedule. Axel's an energetic, funny and insightful performer, and I recommend him wholeheartedly. McCarthy most likely can be found haunting the Cantab Lounge, home of Boston's weekly poetry slam. Check slamnews.com for info.
Oh! And the best part of the evening was when a drunk at the bar got pissed off at local poet Jack Schaeffer for reading a poem about his experiences in Vietnam. Fun! And the poem was good!
AAA ELECTRA 99: 4320 Campus Drive, Newport Beach, (949) 833-7718
CLUB MESA: 843 W. 19th Street, Costa Mesa, (949) 642-8448
LOB: instagon@netcom.com
DARIN'S CAFÉ: 207 S. El Camino Real, San Clemente, CA, (949) 361-9093
JAIMES PALACIO: Penguinboy88@hotmail.com. He's very hard to reach sometimes. He lives in a van and he doesn't check his email very often. Aren't the 90s weird?
Oh Yeah. . . Los Angeles
The coolest thing coming up in LA, from where we're sitting, is that “Poetic License,” at the Moondog Café in Hollywood, will be broadcasting one of their readings a month over the Internet. Host Larry Jaffe runs the most densely packed reading in LA, with warm sweaty bodies packed into the place like sardines. The crowd's also enthusiastic and hungry for poetry. You can find out more info about the reading and the broadcast at incognitocafe.com. The first broadcast will be September 28th, featuring Eitan Kadosh, from this year's champion San Francisco Poetry Slam Team.
MOONDOG CAFÉ: 7160 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, (323) 936-4604
Back in Orange County
The coolest thing going on down here in the forseeable future are the readings by FarStarFire Press poets at the Gypsy Den in Costa Mesa on October 7th, and again at the Laguna Beach Brewing Company on October 21st. FarStarFire Press is an elegant little chapbook publisher run by locals Bill & Carole Luther. Among the readers will be Derrick Brown, John Gardiner, Daniel McGinn, Katya Giritsky, John Harrell and the 1999 Laguna Beach Poetry Slam Team, consisting of Buzzy Enniss, Mindy Nettifee, Lizzie Wann and Paul Suntup. And for a great story on Suntup (okay, it's by me!) check out The Orange County Weekly, and for a VERY funny story on the Laguna Beach Poetry Slam Finals (not by me), look there again.
GYPSY DEN: The LAB Anti-Mall, 2930 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, (714) 549-7012Please send info, press releases, gossip, etc.,
LAGUNA BEACH BREWING CO.: 422 S. PCH, Laguna Beach, (949) 499-2337
FARSTARFIRE PRESS: FarStarFire.com
--Victor Infante
MIDWEST
Zak Mucha and Andrew Vachss in Chicago
Chicago: Authors Zak Mucha and Andrew Vachss will be reading from their new books at the Chicago underground hangout Quimby's Bookstore on Friday, September 22. Mucha's first novel, The Beggars' Shore, is also the first publication by new Vancouver small press Red 71. Everybody Pays (Knopf) is the latest story collection by “investigative novelist” Andrew Vachss, whose experiences practicing law have led to several gripping novels currently under movie negotiations in Hollywood. Vachss is also a founding partner of Red 71, who is sponsoring the tour.
QUIMBY'S: 1854 West North Avenue / 773.342.0910 / info@quimbys.com / www.quimbys.com
RED 71: www.Red71.com
ANDREW VACHSS: www.vachss.com
Two Tongues at Asian American Benefit
Chicago: I Was Born with Two Tongues, the all-Asian-American poetry troupe, will be performing at a benefit for RIKSHA, a Chicago-based arts magazine for the Asian-American community. For those who remember, Two Tongues members Dennis Kim and Marlon Esguerra made quite a splash at this year's National Poetry Slam as members of the Chicago - Mad Bar team. Also performing at this benefit are Soyoung Kim, Dwight Okita, Pintig Cultural Group and the comedy troupe Stir. It is at Funky Buddha Lounge, 728 W. Grand. 7 pm, $12 cover ($7 students).
I WAS BORN WITH TWO TONGUES: anida@mail.atomickitchen.com
John Biederman Moving to Los Angeles
Chicago: Local poetry veteran John Henry Biederman, long a staple of the Chicago scene, has announced that he is packing up and moving to La-La Land. A patron of the local community for many years, including hosting the legendary “Kinky Dolphin” reading and founding the much-lamented Tunnel Rat poetry newspaper, Biederman is also an accomplished performer himself as well as the author of several absurdist novels. His recent marriage, along with a new dedication to comedy, will unfortunately be taking him away from us. John, you will be missed. Meanwhile, make sure to catch some of his last shows, including Thursday, September 16 at The Red Lion (2446 N. Lincoln, 9 pm) and Monday, September 20 at both The Lyon's Den (1934 W. Irving Park, 8:30 pm) and “Nightcap with Shap” (The Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 11 pm). Who knows the secret of the Creamy Leprechaun?
JOHN HENRY BIEDERMAN: kdolphin@xsite.net
Another Open Mic Bites the Dust
Chicago: In a city famous for its transitory nature, yet another poetry open mic is closing its doors. “Nightcap with Shap,” the poetry/comedy/freak show hosted by nationally known funkmeister Shappy, will have its last show at the end of September. Shappy has a long and shaky history with Chicago open mics, including shows at Estelle's, Barnes & Noble, The Note and Subterranean -- and that's just in the last four years! Shappy claims that he's ready for a break and will likely sit out of a hosting position for a while. But anyone who knows Shappy can bet that his manic personality will not let him stay idle for long. In the meanwhile, make sure to catch the last month of his anything-goes show, which is actually compelling in a very, very odd and drunken way.
NIGHTCAP WITH SHAP: Every Monday, 11 pm, Subterranean (2011 W. North)
SHAPPY: info@quimbys.com
Illinois Arts Council Deadline Changed
Illinois: The deadline for the Poetry and Prose Fellowship Programs with the Illinois Arts Council has been changed from September 1 to December 1, 1999. To receive an application by mail please leave your complete mailing address at their phone number or email address. (Thanks to the Guild Complex for this update.)
ILLINOIS ARTS COUNCIL: 312-814-6750 / info@arts.state.il.us
National Poetry Slam Champion at Guild Complex
Chicago: Ricardo Menes and National Poetry Slam 1999 Individual Champion Roger Bonair-Agard will be performing at “Caribbean Voices,” Tuesday, September 21, one of many shows sponsored by the Chicago poetry collective The Guild Complex. Menes has been published all over the place and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize; Bonair-Agard, in addition to his NPS experience, is also the author of . . . and chaos congealed. The Guild Complex presents an average of one poetry show every three days, year-round, and it's definitely worth your time to sign up on their email update list.
CARIBBEAN VOICES: The Guild Complex (1543 W. Division), Tuesday, September 21, 7:30 pm / $5 ($3 open mic), hosted by Quraysh Ali Lansana.
THE GUILD COMPLEX: 773.296.1268 x26 / guildcomplex@earthlink.net / nupress.nwu.edu/guild
Two New Poetry Web Sites Open in Chicago
Chicago: As the poetry world gets more and more connected through the Internet, two new Chicago-based Web sites are throwing their hats into the ring. “Fengi” is the new site by Chicago poet and event producer Greg Gillam. Those in the know may remember Greg from his appearances at last year's Albuquerque Poetry Festival, Seattle Poetry Festival, or as the co-chair of daytime/late-night events at this year's National Poetry Slam. Greg's goal with “Fengi” is no less than a complete national listing of all poetry open mics in the United States. “Let's say you go with your parents to a wedding halfway across the country one week,” Greg said to me one drunken night. “It's my hope that eventually you'll be able to go to Kinko's, log onto my site, and find out what open mics are going on in that town, no matter what town it is.” “Fengi” also includes an online poetry anthology and will highlight recent books published by Fengi Press, a basement publishing company started in conjunction with the site.
FENGI: www.fengi.com
“Fresh Poetry” is the new online manifestation of Chicago chanteuse Krystal Ashe. Krystal is the co-host of both “Mental Graffiti” and “Sister Sense,” two of the most popular poetry events in Chicago. She may also be familiar to you as the coach of the Chicago - Madbar team from this year's National Poetry Slam, or from her appearance at 1998's Albuquerque Poetry Festival. “Fresh Poetry” is just getting started but hopes to showcase the best of both Chicago poetry and literary leavings nationwide. Both sites are worth checking out.Do you have an upcoming tour, event, open mic or just plain gossip from the world of Midwestern poetry? Please send it along,
FRESH POETRY: www.freshpoetry.com
MENTAL GRAFFITI: www.madbar.com
--Jason Pettus
