MUSELETTER #5
11/8/99
No reports from our regular Museletter correspondents this week -- instead, we'll hear from several Museletter readers:
LOS ANGELES
First, T.J. Sullivan writes:
I co-host (with Pete Justice) a weekly reading at the world-famous Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica on the popular Third Street Promenade. Our readings are every Friday night, although we do have a blackout period for the holidays between Thanksgiving and New Years. Sign-ups for the open reading start at 7:30 p.m. The reading starts promptly at 8 p.m. (we are not on poet time). :-)
The order of the readers is decided by lottery. All open readers get 5 minutes to read. And our featured readers read for 25 minutes. We promote a comfortable environment for all writers, not just those who are published. One way we do this is by giving no introductions other than to announce the poet's name, even for the feature.
T.J. Sullivan
And here's the latest from Richard Beban & the Hyperpoets:
Venice's finest coffeehouse-restaurant, the Rose Café, presents two Hispanic poets and college teachers, Francisco Alarcon and Maria Gillan, on Wednesday, November 10, at 8 p.m. Free readings at the Rose, located at Rose and Main streets, begin at eight p.m. and end at ten.
Gillan, the founder and director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in New Jersey, has taught at Binghamton University, State University of New York, and at Naropa Institute. She edits The Paterson Literary Review and is co-editor with her daughter of acclaimed anthologies, Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry and Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to be American. She has won numerous fellowships and awards, including the May Sarton Award and the American Translator's Award. Her poems have been published widely, and her poetry books include Winter Light, The Weather of Old Seasons and Where I Come From: Selected and New Poems. Her latest book, Things My Mother Told Me, is due this year.
Alarcon grew up in Mexico and Southern California, and is now director of the Spanish for Native Speakers Program at the University of California at Davis where he also teaches Chicano culture and literature. He was a translator, then editor, at Children's Book Press, and now writes poetry books for children, including From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems, Angels Ride Bikes and Other Fall Poems, Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems, which won the Pura Belpre Award and the National Parenting Gold Medal Award. As Alarcon says, “Lots of young people in California are bilingual, and this should be seen as an asset--something to celebrate and nurture, not erase.”
Jeanette Clough, who will host the evening, said, “We love the poetic diversity of cultures and languages in Los Angeles, and are fortunate to present two fine writers who make such vital contributions to the wealth of Hispanic literature in the United States.”
Clough, with poets Richard Beban, Kaaren Kitchell, Jim Natal and Jan Wesley, runs the weekly reading series under the nom de poetique Hyperpoets. Featureds are followed by a poetry open mike, at which every poet has five minutes. Sign-ups are from 7:30 until 8 p.m. The Rose has desserts and espresso drinks until 8 p.m. and free parking.
Wednesday night readings continue in November with Arthur Vogelsang and John Harris (17). There will be no reading November 24, to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Check the Hyperpoets Calendar online.
Richard Beban
UPSTATE NEW YORK
From Georgia Popoff:
My new series creates not only the opportunity to hear the works of noted poets from around the country but for local writers to grow in their own craft by workshopping with many of the featured writers. On an approximate 6-week cycle, Sunday Kind of Words will feature a guest poet for two Sunday events: an afternoon poetry workshop and an evening reading/performance. The 3-hour workshops will be to enhance and encourage the work of the participants in the craft and presentation of their work, guided by noted writers. These poets will also offer readings of their works as a separate evening event to allow their voices full stage for appreciation. A short open mic will also be offered for local poets to share their words.
The series started in September with a fabulous reading by Pablo Medina and Debra Kang Dean, sponsored by BOA Editions, Ltd., White Pines Press, and the New York State Council on the Arts. The second edition in October featured BOA Editions Editor and Director of Development, Thom Ward, and was cosponsored by Poets & Writers, Inc. Other poets on the roster include Katharyn Howd Machan, Roger Bonair-Agard, Elizabeth Thomas, Larry Jaffe, and Crystal Williams.
For more information, call Georgia A. Popoff at 315.472.8789 or visit her Web site.
Here we all are, keeping the Word alive and the community in touch!
Georgia Popoff
NEW JERSEY
Ralph Haselmann, Jr. writes:
Dear poetry lovers,
Hello. My name is Ralph Haselmann Jr. and I live in Hampton, Hunterdon County, NJ (the nice green part of Jersey!). I have been publishing my Lucid Moon poetry zine since January 1997, and it has grown to 260 pages and 120 subscribers. I photocopy, collate, staple and mail out all by hand by myself! Am cutting down size to 160 pages next year and going quarterly with Fall 1999 issue (out in November). Then late December issue, then March, June, Sep and Dec from then on. I publish a wide range of poetry, from underground Beat poetry to heartfelt romantic poetry. I choose poems from well-known as well as up and coming writers. I have published such Beat and Post-Beat luminaries as Allen Ginsberg, Jim Morrison, A.D. Winans, and Ana Christy and will be publishing poems from Jack Micheline and Bob Kaufman next year, two big Beat writers. I publish cartoons, illustrations, short stories, essays, book reviews and a big letters column as well. The letters column is popular and adds a warm community spirit to the magazine. I shy away from sewing circle poets and high school poetry, but will give high school students a chance if their poems are good. I am looking into professional printing and bigger press runs of 500-1000, but it is expensive. I don't make a profit, I do this for the love of poetry. It costs me $700 of my own money in copier lease payments, copier toner and drum, paper and postage each month! I am probably crazy for continuing, but I am cutting down in size and going quarterly. Issues are now 260 pages but will be 160 pages in one year (next four issues are filled). Issues are $10 check or money order made out to me, Ralph Haselmann Jr., 67 Norma Road, Hampton, NJ 08827, email lucidmoon@worldnet.att.net. I am planning an extensive lucidmoonpoetry.com Web site for next year (name tentative). Issues are photocopied, side-stapled, 8 1/2 by 11, packed with fun. Lucid Moon has a playfulness and sense of humor that blows away those snobbish glossy academic journals. Check us out today!
[Editor's note: Haselmann also does a Lucid Moon email newsletter about small press poetry doings -- email him if you want to be on the mailing list.]Ralph Haselmann, Jr.
