May 10th.

He’s a Pennsylvania visual poet, publisher, and multimedia artist whose work appears on college-level hypermedia syllabi around the world. His work does not just sit on the page. It glows, it dances, it moves. For real. You got to move!

Past efforts have appeared in print, in performance, and in digital and gallery exhibitions in places like Recursive Angel, Vispo and Riding The Meridian.

He has pieces in the Electronic Literature Collection, Vol. 1, the textbook The Art of English, and is a featured guest at vispo.com. He is also the publisher of the “this is visual poetry” series of full-color chapbooks, and a series of visual poetry posters.

Waber writes a recurring column on visual poetry for the e-issues of Rattle magazine. He is passionate about what he does and loves to share his enthusiasm with others. The hub of his web activities is logolalia.com. Oh, yeah– Poetry in Motion!

Watch it now, watch it!

http://vispo.com/guests/DanWaber/

http://nonfinito.de/oh/

http://www.drunkenboat.com/db7/feature-aphasia/waber/anomie.html

You’re The Guy I Want To Share My Money With
Electronic, Non-Music, Spoken Word, Experimental
Giorno Poetry Systems 1993

http://music.selfree.net/posts/laurie-anderson-john-giorno-william-s-burroughs-youre-the-guy-i-want-to-share-my-money-with.html

Book Review: 'Images of Being' by Diane Sahms-Guanieri

Words are remarkable things. Unlike numbers, which mean one thing and one thing alone, words expand and contract, creating space and time in a way that mathematicians and physicists can only dream of. In the hands of a craftsman, they can be used to lull you into quiet spaces or to hit you with the force of a train…and a good craftsman can do both at the same time.

Diane Sahms-Guanieri is a good craftsman, and in her first collection, Images of Being, (Stonegarden Publishing  www.stonegarden.net ) she uses words quietly, but with great fluidity, and an even greater sense of – dare I say it?–love.  Beginning with solidity and a sense of history, the book feels autobiographical at first– and it is– but, like a flower,  it opens, revealing, not only personal history but remarkable artistry and a striking documentary of a universal past of inside.

Sahm’s collection is rooted in the past- her past and the past of the city from which she writes- Philadelphia, in all of its dirty, faded, industrial history…But this is not just a city of factories, churches and bars, but of the stoic, blue-collar generations that came before, trading their health, their bodies, for their livelihoods, and often for their lives. Through there is bitterness in the book, Sahms offers forgiveness and rectification to them all.

In ‘Mister’, we are there, angrily watching her father begging money from a loan shark, with his “rump-roast hand”…”Judas dressed as Jesus sent to calm the storm/in debt’s drowning waters/row us out of shark infested poverty…  You hear his confession/know his job doesn’t have a pension, Union,/just one day off for Christmas, a week’s vacation/… your anvil voice drops a 30% interest rate, Mister/with your complimentary smile…”
Children, we see, rarely miss a thing and Sahms- gives us the bare-knuckled reality of a child growing up in a working-class world, but gives it to us with a forgiveness that can only be experienced by someone who was there.

Her writing is wonderfully conservative in that way that poets strive for- each word matters and is artfully placed against another to create maximum impact in sometimes very small spaces. At times her writing can appear almost minimalist- a craft in itself for poets- but without that forced feel that sometimes happens when a poet tries to confines one’s self to narrowly to the form.

All in all, this book is an enjoyable read while still deeply moving and real. Her work manages to master that fine line between the concrete and the ethereal without becoming sappy or overdone. By the close of the book, she leaves us painfully aware of the maladies of life that can so easily drag us down, yet with a sense of optimism that we can only hope remains our own.

Madeline
Madeline is suffocating.
The caves of her eyes search fading light for
something to cling to. She breathes
in unison,  death-rattle chorus with

black lungs of coal miners
brown lungs of factory workers
dying lungs of asbestos workers.

Her soul excavates itself
Like a cicada tunneling out…

–colhere

April Cartel Events: Grant Clauser was featured

Poetry Thursdays is now in its 14th year as a weekly poetry series. It’s produced and directed by the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel at the Reel Café, Midtown Cinema, 250 Reily Street. For more  information: (717) 909-6566. www.almostuptown.com

April 19– open reading

April 26– Grant Clauser

Grant Clauser lives in Hatfield, PA where he was selected as the Montgomery County Pennsylvania Poet Laureate in 2010 by Robert Bly. He earned an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University where he was a Richard Devine Fellow.  He makes his living as a home technology writer, though he spends as much time as possible in the woods away from electronic things. His poems have appeared in a variety of journals including The Literary Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Heartland Review, Cortland Review, Wisconsin Review, The Seattle Review, Philadelphia Stories, Schuylkill Valley Journal and others. He runs the Montco Wordshop in Lansdale, a monthly workshop for area poets, and conducts workshops for the Musehouse Writing Center in Philadelphia. His favorite dry fly is the Parachute Adams. His favorite nymph is a basic Hare’s Ear with a brass bead.For bass he sticks mostly to a Clouser Minnow (no relation). His first book, The Trouble with Rivers, was released in January of this year.

You can check out his Website at www.poetcore.com

and, coming soon–

May 3– Mayday! Mayday!

May 10–  Dan Waber

May 17– open reading

May 24– Jack Veasey

May 31– open reading

Annette Russell will be featured at Poetry Thursdays, March 22, at the Midtown Cinema’s Reel Cafe, 250 Reily Street, Harrisburg. Exposed: A Real Life in Real Words, Russell’s latest verse collection, began as a small project for author Russell’s family and friends, but it grew into a collection of poems telling her life story.

Originally from South Philadelphia, Russell now lives in Lebanon. “Writing poetry,” she says, “allows me to acknowledge and express my feelings and the things that I’m going through.” Her words mirror things that many others are feeling. Russell says “I’m a voice for the silent…Poetry allows me the freedom to face anything on my own terms. I use it to heal and deal!”

The feature presentation begins at 8, following an 7pm open mic. Poetry Thursdays, beginning its 14th year as a weekly poetry series, is sponsored by the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel. For more  information: (717) 909-6566.

YorkArts | Literary Events

Benevolent Armchair Poetry Series

The Benevolent Armchair Poetry Series links the PA & MD reading scenes via a poet exchange. Every other month, YorkArts hosts the northern editions of Benevolent Armchair. All readings begin at 3:00 PM. Light refreshments are provided. Readers are paid via donations from the audience. One-poem open mike, twelve readers sign in. Co-Hosted by Chris Toll and Barbara DeCesare. Email bteapot@gmail.com for more info.

   J. C. Todd, a one-time Harrisburg resident– the poet formerly known as Jane Todd Cooper. New name, same game. She was, in fact, back in the day, the featured performer at the first Paper Sword reading, a popular verse series at Harrisburg’s Art Association. Now, she’s back, with MaryAnn Miller, for a special event at the Midtown Cinema’s Reel Cafe, 250 Reily Street, in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. 

Todd currently teaches creative writing at Bryn Mawr College and in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rosemont College after many years of teaching secondary English and leading Artist-in-the-Schools workshops. Her awards include a Fellowship in Poetry from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, two Leeway Foundation grants, and a fellowship to Kunstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

She’s been affiliated with the Dodge Poetry Program for more than 20 years. Widely published in journals such as The Paris Review, The American Poetry Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review. Todd is the author of Nightshade and Entering Pisces, chapbooks published by Pine Press. Her most recent collection of poems, What Space This Body, is published by Wind Publications.

This weekend (April 21) is the sixth annual Block of Art where downtown Pottsville transforms its indoor spaces into a premier gallery walk, multiple indoor venues, arts exhibits, performances, and workshops, as well as outdoor music and events.  Several hundred works of art will be on display and for sale, including paintings, photographs, jewelry, ceramics and sculpture from local, regional and international artists.

There’ll be a Pottsville poetry reading on Saturday April 21st @ 6:30PM.  Maria James-Thiaw

An Open Mic and featured poets Maria James-Thiaw & John Kreiser. The location: 10 North Centre Street Pottsville, PA 17901. (The reading will be in a room in the back of the Bella Salon on Centre Street.) The front of the Salon will be an art gallery.

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Midtown Poets Community Group Meets every Third Tuesday, 7-9pm at the Midtown Scholar, one of “America’s Great Independent Bookstores.” 1302 North Third Street, Harrisburg PA 17102, located just across from the Broad Street Market; 1/4-mile north of the State Capitol. Street parking abounds, plus there’s a parking lot behind the store. Emerging and established poets alike are encouraged to attend. 7:00 begins an hour of open forum poetry reading followed by an hour of open workshop at 8:00. A guest poet will introduce the workshop portion which begins, generally, with a guided prompt.  More info: Bookstore-cafe: 717-236-1680

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Poetry Thursdays coming attractions

April 19– open poetry reading

April 26– Grant Clauser Clauser is editor-in-chief for E-Gear magazine (a newsstand magazine about electronics) and editorial director for a Philadelphia-based publishing company. His poems have appeared in a various journals including the Maryland Poetry Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Cincinnati Review, the Heartland Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Cortland Poetry Review, the Seattle Review,  and Philadelphia Stories.

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May 3– Mayday! Mayday!  open reading

May 10–  Dan Waber

May 17– open reading

May 24– Jack Veasey

May 31– open reading

June 7– open reading

June 14 –Deborah Filanowski

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http://www.almostuptown.com/
http://www.midtowncinema.com/

www.midtownscholar.com

Emerging and established poets alike are encouraged to attend.
7:00 begins an hour of open forum poetry reading followed by an hour
of open workshop at 8:00.

A guest poet will introduce the workshop portion which begins, generally, with a guided prompt. This week, the Poetry Cartel’s own Christian Thiede will be hosting what promises to be a fun event.

More info: Bookstore-cafe: 717-236-1680

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Poetry Thursdays coming attractions:

March 1– In-like-a-Lion open reading

March 8– Philadelphia’s J.C. Todd

March 15– Ides of March Et-Tu reading

March 22– Annette Russell

March 29– open reading

and…
“MasterCraft; A Poetry Conference By and For Poets,” York, coming atcha in April 2012