May 21st: Doug Holder, Harris Gardner and Susie Davidson

Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On May 21st, Stone Soup welcomes the return of three old mainstays of the open mike: poet/activist Susie Davidson, Tapestry of Voices founder Harris Gardner, and former Stone Soup President Doug Holder. 

Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press. He teaches writing at Bunker Hill Community College and Endicott College. Holder is the Arts Editor for The Somerville News, the Director of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series, and former President of Stone Soup Poets. Holder's work has appeared widely in the small press including Rattle, Iodine, Toronto Quarterly, The Scrambler, The Oak Bend Review, the new renaissance, Word Riot, and many others. He holds an MA Literature from Harvard University.

Boston-area poet and freelance journalist Susie Davidson writes regularly for The Jewish Daily Forward, the Jewish Advocate, The Jewish Journal, the weekly Tabs and other media, and has contributed to the Boston Sunday Globe and the Boston Herald (op-ed), the Jerusalem Post and the Eagle-Tribune. She has been published over 150 times in varied poetry journals across the U.S. and Canada. Susie began and hosted the OccuPoetry series at Occupy Boston with poets Peter Desmond and Robyn Su Miller, which was the subject of a front-page Metro article in the Boston Globe in November, 2011.

Harris Gardner is founder of Tapestry of Voices--a poetry organization that sponsors the Boston National Poetry Festival and other venues. His work has appeared in the Harvard Review, Ibbetson Street Midstream, Aurorean and many other magazines. He is the poetry editor for Ibbetson Street, and co-founder of Somerville 's Bagel Bards. He is the author of three collections: Chalice of Eros (C o-authored with Lainie Senechal), Lest They Become ( Ibbetson Street ) 2003, and Among Us (Cervena Barva Press). In 1999, he founded Breaking Bagels with the Bards, community of Poets and Other Writers. He currently serves as Poetry Editor of Ibbetson Street.\

May 20th: Stone Soup Benefit at Doyle's Cafe With Features Prabakar T. Rajan and Ron Goba 

UPDATE: Due to unforeseen events, Prabakar will neither be in the states nor available at Doyle's Cafe to read his work this coming Sunday. We still implore you to come to the event and hear his poems as read by respected Boston poet and instructor Tom Daley. Ron Goba, of course, will still be in attendance, and the chapbook of poems frim both Ron and Prabakar will still be available. Please come down the night of May 20th and help make this night a success.

Join us on Sunday Night, May 20th, as Stone Soup welcomes your voices and a special focus on two amazing poets on the Boston Scene as Stone Soup holds it's first fundraising benefit in years to help keep the reading series more self sustaining and better benefit it's feature poets. Admission to the event is $3. A special collection of poems both features will be reading that night will be on sale for the suggested donation of $1. The open mike will begin no later than 7:30 PM with the features going on around 9:00 PM.

Prabakar T. Rajan was born at the Cantab sometime in 2003 and even following his departure from the states he continues, with audacity, to inflict his poems regularly on hapless audiences like The Cantab and the Brookline Booksmith. He even released his full length poetry collection, A Slice of Water, through Friends of Poetry. His only saving grace is that he has the good sense to truly enjoy the open mike, where he savors and steals from poets better than he. No true poet is safe from him. That could well be the most generous epitaph he merits.

Ron Goba is a retired english teacher (a career he began in 1958), a member of Friends of Poetry, and the author of such collections as The Music Box, The Custom of Quoting Someone, and Collage As Silkscreen. For several years, he was known as the doorman for the weekly Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab. In 2011, he released Swan Song, a small collection of poems, to coincide with his reading at the Cantab on the eve of his birthday.

May 14th: James Leaf and Bobby Crawford Feature at Stone Soup

Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On May 14th, we welcome performance poets James Leaf and Bobby Crawford, hosted by Michael F. Gill.

James Leaf is a stage director, actor, acting teacher, and artistic director of the Young Mechanics Theatre Ensemble in New Haven Connecticut. In the last year he has also worked as an instructor for Poetry Out Loud, a country-wide high school recitation contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. He'd like to thank Stone Soup for the invitation, and the opportunity to share his poems and banter.

Bobby Crawford is currently co-curator of the Emerson Poetry Project and is a two-time CUPSI slam team member representing Emerson College. He has performed poems on genetics with Donnie Welch at the Boston Museum of Science, and presented a co-written (also with Donnie Welch) chapbook entitled: Shift: Poems about Plate Tectonics at the Cambridge Science Festival.

"Bobby is a one-man-boy-band with a two-row fan club" - Simone Beaubien

Coming Soon... 

This Weekend's Boston National Poetry Month Festival Schedule

Rabb Lecture Hall

  

Saturday, April 28, 2012         
              

10:00  Soubhik Barari: Acton-Boxborough Regional

10:10 Allesandra Davy-Falconi: B.U. Academy

10:20  TBA                                                                          

10:30 Boston Arts Academy, Molly Pope

10:40  Boston Latin High School, Justin Singletary       

10:50 Daniel Schwartz- Milton Academy

11:00 Sam Cornish                                                                          

11:10 Elizabeth McKim                                                                              

11:20 Regie O. Gibson                                                        

11:30 Joanna Nealon                                                           

11:40 Sheila Twyman                                                          
11:50 Chad Parenteau                                                         

12:00  Carol Weston                                                            

12:10 Robert K. Johnson                                                     

12:20 Walter Howard                                                          

12:30 Ryk McIntyre                                                             

12:40 Kaji Aso Studio                                                          

         Kate Finnegan                                                              

12:50  Kim Triedman                                                                                          

1:00   Linda Larson                                                               

1:10   Molly Bennett                                                              

1:20  Irene Koronas                                                                                   

1:30  Philip E. Burnham, Jr.                                                   

1:30-3:00 OPEN MIKE- Room 5-6                                   

1:40  Frank Blessington                                                         

1:50  Valerie Lawson                                                                                            

2:00  Diana Saenz                                                                                      

2:10  Lucy  Holstedt  

2:20  Michael Brown

2:30  Ron Goba                                                                                      

2:40  Elizabeth Doran                                                                                        

2:50 Tomas O’Leary                                                                                                       

3:00 Timothy Gager

3:10 Jack Scully

3:20 Rene Schwiesow

3:30 Carolyn Gregory

3:40 Suzanne E. Berger

3:50 Molly Watt

4:00 Richard Hoffman

4:10 Jan Schreiber

4:20 Mignon Ariel King

4:30 Susan Donnelly

Sunday, April 29, 2012


1:10 Tom Daley      
1:20 Ifeanyi Menkiti     
1:30 Lo Galluccio
1:40 Dan Tobin
1:50 Kathleen Spivack
2:00 Gloria Mindock
2:10 Christine Casson
2:20 Lainie Senechal
2:30 Zvi Sesling
2:40 Rhina P. Espaillat
2:50 Harris Gardner
3:00 Stuart Peterfreund
3:10  Victor Howes
3:20  Alfred Nicol
3:30  Marc Goldfinger
3:40  Charles Coe
3:50  Doug Holder
4:00  Fred Marchant
4:10 Richard Wollman 
4:20 Jennifer Barber
4:30 January  O’Neil     

The National Poetry Month Festival This Weekend

THE  BOSTON NATIONAL 
POETRY MONTH  FESTIVAL

Now In Its Successful TWELFTH!!! Year

CO-SPONSORS:  Tapestry of Voices & Kaji Aso Studio in partnership with the Boston Public Library, SAVE the DATES: 

Saturday, April 28th 10:00 A.M.- 4:40 P.M. OPEN MIKE: 1:30 to 3:00P.M.; 
& Sunday, April 29th^th, 1:10 to 4:30P.M. 

The Festival will be held at the library’s main branch in Copley Square. FREE ADMISSION

56 Major  and Emerging poets will each do a ten minute reading; ALSO

Featuring 5 extraordinarily talented prize winning high school students: from Boston Latin High School, Justin Singletary; Boston Arts Academy, Molly Pope; Milton Academy, Daniel Schwartz; Boston University Academy: Alessandra Davy-Falconi. Winner of the Helen Creeley Poetry Prize; Acton-Boxborough Regional: Soubhik Barari, winner of the Helen Creeley National Poetry High School Prize. These student stars will open  the Festival at 10:00 A.M.  SAM CORNISH, Boston’s current and first Poet Laureate will open the formal part  of the Festival at 11:00 A.M. 55 additional major  and emerging poets will follow with a

                                                           POETRY MARATHON

Some of the many  luminaries include SAM CORNISH, , Rhina P. Espaillat,  , Richard Wollman, Christine Casson, Dan Tobin, Jennifer Barber,  Alfred Nicol, Kathleen Spivack , Doug Holder, Elizabeth Doran, Richard Hoffman, Lucy Holstedt Charles Coe,  Kim Triedman,  Ryk McIntyre, January O’Neil ,  Regie O’Gibson, Kate Finnegan (Kaji Aso Studio), Victor Howes, Lainie Senechal,  Harris Gardner Susan Donnelly, Jack Scully, Rene Schwiesow, Chad Parenteau, Linda Larson, Tomas O’Leary, Molly Bennett,  Marc Goldfinger, Gloria Mindock, Tim Gager, Diana Saenz, Stuart Peterfreund, Elizabeth McKim, Frank Blessington, Valerie Lawson, Michael Brown, Mignon Ariel King, Tom Daley, Molly Lynn Watt, Ifeanyi Menkiti, Joanna Nealon, Walter Howard,Ron Goba, Carolyn Gregory,   Zvi Sesling,  Irene Koronas, Fred Marchant, Sheila Twyman, Robert K. Johnson, Suzanne E. Berger, and a Plethora of other prize winning poets.

This Festival has it all: Professional published  poets, celebrities, numerous prize winners, student  participation, OPEN MIKE.

Even more, it is about community, neighborhoods, diversity, Boston, and Massachusetts. This popular tradition is the largest event in Boston’s Contribution to National Poetry Month.  

FREE ADMISSION !!!

FOR INFORMATION: Tapestry of Voices: 617-306-9484

Library: 617-536-5400

May 7th: Cosmic Spelunker Theater Reunites



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On May 7th, we celebrate the 41st anniversary of Stone Soup as three long-time fixtures of Stone Soup reunite as Cosmic Spelunker Theater.

Cosmic Spelunker Theater is a Boston based collaborative performance art troupe that has been presenting its fusion of spoken word and movement since 2002, appearing at Mobius (Boston, MA), Puppet Showplace Theatre (Brookline, MA), Artists at Large, Inc. (Hyde Park, MA), Casa Nia, Zeitgeist Gallery, Out of the Blue Art Gallery (Cambridge, MA), The Revolving Museum (Lowell, MA), AS220 (Providence, RI) Warwick Museum of Art (Warwick, RI), and Bowery Poetry Club (New York, NY)

William J. Barnum is a stage actor whose long career began at the age of 17 playing Valentine in a production of Twelfth Night. His roles often had him sharing the stage with George C. Scott, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Bennedict, and Spaulding Gray. As a mime, he received training from Étienne Decroux, the father of modern mime, Tony Montanaro, and Samuel Avital, he was also one of the leads for Paul Curtis’ American Mime Theatre. He danced with the Boston Ballet and with José Limon. Barnum began to synthesize his stage skills as a performer with his own poetic compositions to form his own body of work. His poetry was collected in the volume Of Rare Design (VB Press.)

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s and performed with the Mirage Mime Theater from 1980 to 1987 during which time he was also taught classes offered by Mirage. From 1987 to 1988 he was a member of the Collective Mime. His poetry has been anthologized in Out of the Blue Writers Unite. He has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992 and regularly reads at Bay State Prison as part of their poetry program. Currently, Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop. Van Looy also has second degree black belt in Karate and is a Vietnam War era veteran.

Ian Thal‘s poetry grew out of his participation in Boston’s post-punk “spoken word” scene of the late 1990s before studying mime with Van Looy. His blog about his work with Bread & Puppet Theater was recently placed on the reading list for a course at the University of London. He is a member of the commedia dell’arte troupe, i Sebastiani, where he serves as both an actor and choreographer. He studies kathak, a classical dance form of Northern India, at the Chhandika Institute of Kathak Dance, and also serves as the mime and commedia dell’arte instructor at Open Air Circus, a Somerville based youth circus.

April 30th: José Gouveia Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On April 28th, we have the long awaited return of José Gouveia.

José "Joe" Gouveia is a first-generation Portuguese-American poet & writer who lives on Cape Cod where he is Poetry Curator at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod; author, the Meter Man poetry column for the Barnstable Patriot newspaper in Hyannis; and host of the Poets Corner radio show out of WOMR-FM Provincetown. He has 3 chapbooks published and has edited 3 poetry anthologies, including Rubber Side Down, the biker poet anthology. Gouveia is also a member of Presença, the group of Portuguese-American authors that travels to Lisbon, Portugal every year for the Disquiet Festival. He has won awards for both his written verse and spoken word genres of poetry, including the Cambridge Poetry Awards Poet-of-the-Year 2001. Gouveia is also the Founder of the Biker Poets & Writers Association, former National Secretary of the Highway Poets Motorcycle Club, and a former Cantab Slam Champion 2000 and former Poet Laureate of Cape Cod, 1999. He has an MFA in Poetry from New England College.

April 23rd: Martin Willitts Jr. and Linda Griggs



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On April 23rd, we have the return of New York poets Martin Willitts, Jr. and Linda Griggs, fresh from their visit from the Massachusetts Poetry Festival.

Martin Willitts Jr retired as a Senior Librarian in upstate New York. He is a visual artist of Victorian and Chinese paper cutouts. He was nominated for 5 Pushcart and 2 Best Of The Net awards. He has print chapbooks Falling In and Out of Love (Pudding House Publications, 2005), Lowering Nets of Light (Pudding House Publications, 2007), The Garden of French Horns” (Pudding House Publications, 2008), “Baskets of Tomorrow” (Flutter Press, 2009), The Girl Who Sang Forth Horses (Pudding House Publications, 2010), Van Gogh’s Sunflowers for Cezanne (Finishing Line Press, 2010), Why Women Are A Ribbon Around A Bomb (Last Automat, 2011), Protest, Petition, Write, Speak: Matilda Joslyn Gage Poems (Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, 2011), and Secrets No One Wants To Talk About (Dos Madres Press, 2011).

He has two full length books The Secret Language of the Universe (March Street Press, 2006), and The Hummingbird (March Street Press, 2009). His forthcoming chapbooks include “How to Find Peace” (Kattywumpus Press, 2012), Playing The Pauses In The Absence Of Stars (Main Street Rag, 2012), and “No Special Favors” (Green Fuse Press, 2012). He will be providing a poetry program at the 2012 Massachusetts Poetry festival.

Linda Griggs has a BS in art education and a MPS degree in the Applied Work of the Humanistic Psychologists. Currently an adjunct professor at SUNY Empire State College, Syracuse Unit, she worked as an art teacher and private mental health counselor, and she has worked with at-risk youth in Syracuse. She is a Conscientious Objector Counselor, a past member of an anti-racist response group, and a member of Syracuse Interfaith Works. Linda was published in anthologies Poetry From Art (2008) and Poetry From Nature (2010). She has been a featured reader at Mud Puddle Cafe (New Paltz, NY) and Cubbyhole Cafe (Poughkeepsie, NY), and was a guest reader at Veela Festival (New Paltz, NY) and the Strathsmore Art Festival (Syracuse, NY). She wrote the chapbook Love Poems of the Universe. She wrote and illustrated a children's book The Night of Starfish People. She is the host and founder of the Palace Poetry Group (Syracuse, NY).

April 16th: Adam Stone Features at Stone Soup




Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On April 16th, we welcome longtime poet and performer Adam Stone for his first ever Stone Soup feature.

Adam Stone is a veteran poet from the famous Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has featured all across the country and competed in the National Poetry Slam eleven times, representing Boston, Cambridge, Cape Cod, Vermont and Worcester. He also writes The Insafemode Blog (a biographical journal), and masters The 900 Year Diary, where a group of six writers have set out to watch and review every episode of "Doctor Who" from 1963 to present. In his increasingly spare time, he also works for a comic book store, Million Year Picnic, and has a graphic novel selection that worries many potential suitors.

April 9th: Sam Teitel Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On April 9th, we welcome the return of poet and venue host Sam Teitel.

Sam Teitel is a poet and performer based out of New England. His first published collection, SURVIVE SURVIVE SURVIVE was released in 2011 by Bicycle Comics. He has participated in four National Poetry Slams, thrice as a poet and once as a coach, and two National Underground Poetry Invitational Championships. He has been a featured performer at many theaters, bars, cafes, lecture halls, libraries and basements across the country, spanning thirteen states and including The Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, The Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, The Mercury Cafe in Denver, The Green Mill Jazz Club in Chicago, Hampshire College, Sarah Lawrence University, Emerson College and Northeastern University. He has been a part of the No More Ribcage and Two Sensitive Guys ensemble tours and is currently serving as co-slam master for The Slam Free Or Die series in New Hampshire.

April 2nd: Stone Soup Presents Head to Head Haiku, Featuring Sam-R-I



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On April 1st, Stone Soup hosts the Head-to-Head Haiku.

Please consider this a call for participation as Stone Soup and Michael F. Gill host the Head-to-Head Haiku to kick off our celebration of National Poetry Month.

Stone Soup is looking for a minimum of 8 poets to participate in his friendly competition. Interested persons should email Stone Soup at stonesouppoetry@yahoo.com or post on this Facebook event page.

There will be prizes for the Winner and Runner up.

Admission is a suggested $3-5 donation.

Haiku is a traditional Japanese poetry form consisting of 17 syllables, commonly with syllable line counts 5-7-5 and normally includes a reference to nature. These pithy poems can be witty, whimsical, and wise. Head to Head Haiku is a performance poetry competition featuring standard and "modern American" haiku. The form was originated by Daniel Ferri (heard often as a commentator on NPR) at the National Poetry Slam in the 1990s
as a demonstration event. The tradition has been continued by devotees of the Haiku form including Samantha Jane who was a member of the 2004 National Slam Poetry Team representing Boston. She studied with Ferri
in New Mexico in 2005 and developed her Haiku Slammaster character Sam-R-I who has hosted Head to Head Haiku at the Individual World Poetry Slam and who first brought this "new" form of slam poetry to New England.

Just as the "poetry slam" was created to get more audiences excited about hearing poetry, the "Haiku Slam" pays special attention to this short form, with controlled clapping rituals that show influence from the martial arts and are meant to allow the Haiku to be heard distinctly and appreciated. The formula is simple. 4 pairs of Two Competitors affectionately known as
"Haikusters" are given the chance to perform a series of Haiku in series of knock out rounds, judged by "randomly" selected audience members who are trained in front of the audience in the art of reverent judgement. Winners must get the best 3 of 5, 5 of 9 and 9 of 17 in the series of rounds.

Sudden death matches are commonly used as tie breakers or if more than 8 want to compete. The whole show can be quite humorous at times and there is no strict rule other than the poems must be 17 syllables. Purists should rest assured that traditional Haiku often outscore the sarcastic slapstick, but like any slam it depends on the judges and it's more about entertainment and
providing a unique environment for the work be heard.

This will be televised, so no X rated Haiku. Sorry.



I double dare you
Come to Head to Head Haiku
You know you want to

--Sam-R-I

March 26th: Julie Batten at Stone Soup



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 26th, we welcome poet and MassPoetry volunteer Julie Batten. For her efforts, Stone Soup will be making a donation that night to benefit the two-day April event.

Julie Batten is a graduate of Bennington Writing Seminars and one of the many volunteers that makes MassPoetry (and the Massachusetts Poetry Festival) happen every year. She has most recently been published in Drunken Boat and Theodate. When she isn’t writing, she is riding her bike at break-neck speed around Cape Ann, blurring all the noise to white.

Tonight

Patrick S. performs for nearly an hour, recording for his upcoming CD.

Stone Soup Stanzas

A trio of podcasts by Stone Soup open miker Andrew Pezzelli regarding the Gloria Monaghan reading this past December.

The first of three is an interview with host Chad Parenteau.

The second stars last week's feature, Gloria Monaghan.

The third focuses on last week's open mike.

Thanks to Andrew Pezzelli for the opportunity.

Tonight

Welcome back, Al Gundy.

March 19th: Patrick Shaughnessy Features




Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 12th, we have Patrick Shaughnessy returning to feature.

Patrick Shaughnessy was born. He attended where he majored. He began reading. He became. He regularly reads. He has been awarded. Patrick's writing is influenced.

Reminder

Everyone welcome Janet Marks tonight.

March 12th: Bill Perrault and Friends at Stone Soup

Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 12th, Stone Soup welcomes back friend Bill Perrault, who will be celebrating his birthday featuring alongside friends Joanna Nealon and Carol Weston.



Photo by Chad Parenteau

Bill Perrault was born and lived in Biddeford ME until he finished college for which he had paid by working as a weaver in the textilemills. From 1958 to 1960, the U S Army sent him to Germany as a medic andEducational Counselor. He took the opportunity to tour Europe at that time. When his tour of duty was over, he came home and six weeks later,he married his wife, Lorraine. In 1964, the first of their four children was born an...d, to date, they are now the proud grandparents of seven. After he and Lorraine married, he began his career teaching high school French and Latin in Maine and upper New York State. He did graduate studies at University of Maine and wrote his masters thesis on Guillaume Apollinaire. In 1973, he moved to Massachusetts to work for Polaroid. Bill now lives in Lowell. Throughout his life, he has enjoyed poetry andphotography. Bill was always the one with a notebook with him to write and a camera to take a picture. He never knew when he might be inspired or find a picture that just needed to be taken. In his retirement, the free time allows him to take these passions to a new level. If it’s joining the Poets in Boston for the Stone Soup Poets or producing local TV programs in Cambridge and Lowell, he is enjoying his creative life. Bill Has been published in the Stone Soup Anthology 2003, Out of the Blue Writers Unite Anthology, and various web pages, and if you are lucky enoughto be on his e-mail list, the poetry is Hot Off The Presses! Bill has featured, performed and sometimes hosted at open mikes all over NewEngland--including: COOL COFFEE in Biddeford, ME, Bestseller’s Cafe inMedford, MA his Walden Pond Series and, of course, Out Of the BlueGallery. Bill is a staple figure at the Gallery in Cambridge, MA and has faithfully supported the events they hold there every day/night of the week-- Stone Soup Poets, WordBeat, Open Bark and all.



Photo by Bill Perrault

Joanna Nealon is a Fullbright Scholar who has published five books. In addition to Stone Soup, she has read for various venues such as Tapestry of Voices, Ibbetson Street Press, Walden Pond Poetry and the Newton and Brockton Library series. She has been published in The Aurorean, Ibbetson Street Review, the Stone Soup anthologies, Cosmic Trend, Bitteroot, Northeast Corridor, and Poesis.



Photo by Bill Perrault

Carol Weston has featured many times with Stone Soup. She read alongside Jack Powers and Allen Ginsberg in 1973 in the former Charles Street Universalist Church. In the Winter of 1983, she was asked by Powers to feature in Boston's City Hall along with John Wieners. Her poetry has been published in The Farleigh Literary Review, Bomb, Stone Soup Anthology 2003, Spoonful and The Blind See Only This World.

March 5th: Al Gundy Features




Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 5th, Stone Soup welcomes back the popular open miker Al Gundy. Hosted by Michael F. Gill. There will be an open mic featuring live jazz piano by Michael Monroe. $3 suggested donation to help cover our rent at the Out of the Blue Art gallery.

Al Gundy was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he co-wrote his first novel in second grade. Since then, he has written adventure novels and created award-winning computer games. At the age of nine, he fell in love with rhyming poetry. Today, Al performs his narrative verse regularly at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, as well as other venues around Boston. Al is the author of a long-running web comic, “Elo & Anson,” which can be seen at www.eloandanson.com. He is excited to be sharing his work at Stone Soup.

February 27th: Zeke Russell Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 27th, we are treated to the return of past feature and new resident of the Boston area from Lowell, Zeke Russell.

Zeke Russell grew up in an artist’s community in Central Maine surrounded by poets playwrights and lumberjacks. He has been writing poetry since the age of 8. He is the co-host and slam master of the Untitled at Brew’d open mic and slam in Lowell MA, on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. He is the reigning grand slam champion of that venue and a member of its 2011 national poetry slam competition team. He lives in Jamaica Plain with PJ the wonder pug, drinks too much coffee and usually needs a haircut.

February 20th: Janet Marks Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 20th, we welcome Janet Marks.

Janet Marks was born in in a small town called Brady in Central West Texas. Her parents were immigrants from Lithuania and Poland. Growing up in Houston during The Depression, she was unable to attend college. After High School, she worked as a secretary and bookkeeper, married, raised three wonderful children, and found time to attend the University of Houston part-time as they were growing up. She had started writing bad poetry in Junior High School, which was published in the school paper. One summer she attended a Writer’s Conference at the University of Colorado in Boulder, which whetted her appetite for poetry. She started writing poetry seriously and published poems in her college journals and in many little magazines. In 1972, at 52 years of age, she finally earned a BA with honors in English.

As an undergraduate among so many young people, she had the feeling of living a second childhood! After a divorce when her children were mostly grown, she moved to California, earning an MA in Creative Writing and English from San Francisco State University. As a teacher of English, she worked at Paine College, Augusta, Georgia; the University of Houston; and the University of San Francisco, also teaching ESL for the Marin Community College and the San Francisco Community College District.

As runner-up for the Frances Shaw Fellowship For Older Women Writers, she was in residence at Ragdale, an arts colony, for a month, won several awards for poems on the Jewish experience from the Rosenberg Awards, sponsored by the Judah Magnes Museum in Berkeley. Some of her poems have been published in New England Review, Mississippi Review, Forum, Latitudes, South and West, Mediphors, Passager, and in the following anthologies: Bittersweet Legacy, Creative Responses to the Holocaust, Travois, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, and Poets on Parnassus, San Francisco.

Visit the Stone Soup website for information on future features and more http://stonesouppoetry.blogspot.com/

February 13th: David Miller Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 13th, we continue featuring new talent with the debut feature of David Miller.

David P. Miller began writing poetry at 52, in 2007. This leaves aside the political doggerel he composed in high school. His work has been seen in Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, and his booklet, Caution: Many People Walking is available from the Origami Poems Project. He was a member of the multidisciplinary Mobius Artists Group of Boston for 25 years. He is a librarian at Curry College, in Milton, Mass., and is active in the Curry faculty creative writing group.

Tonight

Michael F. Gill presents Laura Brown-Lavoie & Antonia Lassar at Stone Soup.

Tonight

Welcome Owen Maresh.

February 6th: Laura Brown-Lavoie & Antonia Lassar Feature



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. Stone Soup kicks off February with the first Boston-area features from poets Laura Brown-Lavoie and Antonia Lassar! Laura will be doing a full feature, and Antonia will be on hand for a spotlight feature.

Hosted by Michael F. Gill. There will be an open mic featuring live jazz piano by Michael Monroe. $3 suggested donation to help cover our rent at the Out of the Blue Art gallery.

Laura Brown-Lavoie is a spoken word poet from Providence, RI. A newcomer to the national slam scene, she was the 2011 Providence Grand Slam Champion and had the opportunity to perform on finals stage at the National Poetry Slam, where she and her Providence teammates took 3rd place. When she isn't writing, Laura works as an urban farmer, growing food on vacant lots across Providence. While much of her poetry is inspired by her interactions with the urban natural environment, she also writes to interrogate the use of language in politics and the mainstream media, and, of course, to figure out where the heck she is in all of this. She is committed to spoken word performance as a means of fostering creative community in a culture where too often people are isolated from one another in favor of glowing screens. Her mom is a high school English teacher, and her dad is a storyteller, and she takes any opportunity she can to be in rooms full of people where beautiful things are being said out loud. Oh, and Laura fuckin loves public libraries.

Antonia Lassar is thrilled to see you! Antonia’s home lies somewhere between Boston, Massachusetts and everywhere else. She has studied Theatre Arts at both Boston University and the University of Cape Town. Four years ago, Antonia would have called you crazier than Charlie Sheen if you threatened she would become a poet, but thanks to some brilliant mentoring from Boston and beyond, she hopes one day to become a famous poet/ actress/ activist/ vegan. She has performed at UCT’s Hiddingh campus, at The Boston Playwright’s Theatre, and in Las Vegas as the 2008 national high school speech and debate Storytelling champion. Antonia is constantly thanking her family, (You know in my head, because phone calls are expensive. Yes mom, I’m doing fine…) particularly for their rare breed of crazy that has shaped her as a poet and is an endless source of hilarity to write about.

January 30th: Owen Maresh Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 30th, we close out January with the debut poetry feature of Owen Maresh.

Owen Maresh is a mathematics artist living near Inman Square. He likes visualization and is leery of endless towers of abstraction. He describes his creative writing style as "a chiaroscuro of eroded bananas, or a conglomeration of malfunctioning robotic bees". At present, he is working on finding methods of visualizing funky quasiconformal automorphisms of Julia sets.

Tonight

Martha Boss Features.

Tonight

Dennis Daly features!

January 23rd: Timothy Gager Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 23rd, we feature the return of Timothy Gager to our podium.

Timothy Gager is the author of eight books of fiction and poetry. He has had over 250 piece published in the last five years and of those eight have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He lives on www.timothygager.com

Tonight

Kain and Loveland Ring in The New Year.

January 16th: Martha Boss Features




Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 16th, we enjoy a long-awaited full-length feature from local poet, Bagel Bard and longtime Stone Soup open miker, Martha Boss. She writes:

Bio:

i don't have
a traditional bio.
& I didn't have
a formal education.

i did have
a variety
of jobs,
husbands,
children & grandchildren.

they all kept
& keep me
constantly tracking
the poem.
they were & are
my accredited hours.

translated correctly
poems are bios.
more specifically
i have had poems published in The Aurorean,
The Register, Light, Spare Change,
Suny Review, Salt Works Press
& Others.
March Hare published
my book "Twine," a collection of poems
in 2009.

my favorite venue
for publishing poetry
is Spare Change.
my favorite venue
for reading it
is Stone Soup

Three Holiday Poems

Performed during month of December.


R. Wayne Nickerson Jazzes Up Shel Silverstein





"Merry Merry," A Poem by Tom Daley





"Calling for Peace," A Poem by Samantha Jane

January 9th: Dennis Daly Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 9th, we enjoy a full-length feature from poet Dennis Daly.

Dennis Daly was born in Salem Massachusetts. He graduated from Boston College with a B.S. degree and earned a Master of Arts degree at Northeastern University. At Northeastern he studied poetry under Samuel French Morse.

For ten years Dennis worked for the General Electric Company. He became a union activist and was elected into the leadership of the 9000 member Local 201 of the International Union of Electrical Workers. During this period he published and edited The Union Activist and the North Shore Union Leader. He also was the managing editor of the Electrical Union News.

Dennis has been published in numerous magazines and small poetry journals such as The Sou’wester, Lyric, Boston Today Magazine, Soundings East, Tendril, Poetry &, Green House, Lyrical Somerville, and is included with two other poets in a chapbook entitled 10 X 3, published by Northeastern University Press. He also has done a verse translation of Sophocles' Ajax, which will be published in the next issue of Wilderness House Literary Review. He reads his poems regularly at Stone Soup Poetry and the Walnut Street Coffee Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif in Lynn and is a member of the Bagel Bards.

In addition Dennis has published travel articles and many op-ed pieces in the Salem Evening News. He is currently working on two books of poetry.

Dennis lives in Salem Massachusetts with his wife, Joanne. They have four children.

Visit the poet's blog.

January 2nd: Christopher Kain and Valerie Loveland Feature at Stone Soup

Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 2nd, we kick off the new year the best way possible, juxtaposing the similar styles of two beloved local poets, Christoper Kain and Valerie Loveland.


Christopher Kain has been a regular a the Cantab Lounge's open mike for over a decade. He has published two books: homefront, with poems arranged by half hours of the day, and Twentieth Century Limited, with a poem for each year of the twentieth century. He is currently working on a collection called Janus: Looking Forward, Looking Back.


Valerie Loveland is the author of Reanimated, Somehow (Scrambler Books, 2009). Her work is anthologized in Best of the Web 2008, and has been featured at the 2009 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. She is a regular at open mics and writing groups around Boston and Cambridge. She works as an optician and lives in Action, Massachusetts.

Happy Boxing Day

Celebrate it with Tom Daley.

Tonight

Welcome back, Samantha Jane.

Tonight

Gloria Monaghan features.

Congratulations Bill Perrault


Congratulations to Bill Perrault, who recently won an award from the Lowell Telecommunications Corporation for Best Taped Show of 2011 for his weekly filming of Stone Soup Poetry.

December 26th: Tom Daley Features




Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On December 26th, we close out 2011 with the awaited return of noted poet, playwright and instructor Tom Daley.

Tom Daley is privileged to work with the many fine writers who enroll in workshops he leads at the Online School of Poetry, Boston Center for Adult Education, and Lexington Community Education. He is grateful to editors who have published his work, but won’t bore you with a list of the journal names. He is the author of Every Broom and Bridget, a play about Emily Dickinson and her Irish servants. He worked as a machinist for many moons, and learned skills in that capacity that won him a seat in the Occupy Mount Parnassus Tent Pole Design Committee. He is currently looking for a campsite for a manuscript of his poems in the voice of his mother, House You Cannot Reach.

December 19th: Samantha Jane Features at Stone Soup

Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On December 19th, we welcome back poet, visual artist and local Head-to-Head Haiku host Samantha Jane.

Samantha Jane is a poet-photographer-philosopher-person who lives on the Atlantic coast when she is not sailing. By night she is a performance poet and represented Boston Cantab at the 2004 National Poetry Slam and is a Head to Head Haikuslammaster. By day she is a nonprofit healthcare advocate and organization founder. She has no capital letters after her name to prove she knows anything, but served on the faculty at Harvard Medical School anyway for courses in Cybermedicine. She says “For me poetry is autonomic. It’s essential as breathing. It is a spiritual practice. Respire, Inspire, Live with Spirit. Call me a religious poet.” Samantha counts among her ministers many Cantab and National poets who reach the deep into the heart, especially Jack McCarthy who introduced her to “Slam” at the Isles of Shoals in 2002. She has been poet-in-residence and workshop leader there at the Star Island Natural History Conference for several seasons and is a member of the STAR ARTS colony. She is also an award-winning photographer. Images are just poems without words. She likes to play with the combination. Her poems tell stories that make the mundane germane to even to those who thought they didn't enjoy poetry before. For her poetry is a place to gather large chunks of hope from the roadsides we travel.

December 12th: Gloria Monaghan Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On December 12th, we welcome Gloria Monaghan, who will be debuting her new poetry collection Flawed from Finishing Line Press.

Gloria Monaghan is an Associate Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. She teaches arts, humanities, and writing. She has been writing poetry since she was a teenager. Her influences include friends (many of them emerging from the Midwest as artists and musicians) and her professors. Her book, Flawed has recently been published by Finishing Line Press. Her work has also appeared in Spoonful, No Roses Review, Ninth Dimension, Slope, and Thirteen. She is working on her third collection of poetry. She also writes fiction and recently published and presented academic papers on music, technology and gender.

December 5th: Helen R. Peterson Features


Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On December 5th, we welcome another visitor from our neighbors to the west in Connecticut as Helen R. Peterson debuts her new book.

Helen R. Peterson has been published in over 100 online and print journals, both nationally and internationally. Most recently she’s had work accepted at Word Riot, Juked, Existere, and Strong Verse. She was also featured in The Lunch Break Book published by Poet Plant Press, was the editor of the small print journal Chopper, and read at the Bowery Poetry Club in November. Recently she became the Poetry Editor of Waterhouse Review.
A mother of three living in Connecticut, you can find her blog at http://mspetersonexplains.wordpress.com/

Tonight

Welcome, Ian Thal.

Open Mike 11/21/11

Tonight, Stone Soup will have a pre-holiday open mike for all. Everyone welcome.

Tonight!

Tony Toledo remembers Brother Blue!

This Coming Monday

Aaron Goldstein Features.

In light of Stone Soup's recent coverage and discussion of recent activist movements, we are pleased to publish an account of Occupy Boston from poet and past Stone Soup feature April Penn.

My personal story about Occupy Boston
by April Penn



What is it all about?

For those who don’t know what Occupy Boston is, let me explain in my own words: There is a public park in the middle of Boston’s financial center where protesters have gathered and set up a make-shift village of tents as a way to have an around-the-clock protest of the tremendous and growing economic inequality in this country and abroad. It was modeled off the movement in New York called Occupy Wall Street, inspired by Wisconsin’s occupation of the capital and the Arab spring which brought revolution in Egypt. Protesters in Boston, New York, and cities all over the country, also stand in opposition of corporate greed, corporate tax loopholes, special interests and lobbyists that buy out politicians. For example, CEO salaries have increased by 300 percent in the last 15 years, whereas the minimum wage has not been raised. Another issue is education. College students are graduating with an extreme amount of debt while there are fewer job prospects. Of those who are employed, many are under-employed (working part-time jobs) or being grossly underpaid. I myself am working two part-time jobs and am no stranger to minimum wage. I currently make about 20,000 dollars a year, for which I consider myself very lucky. I am also lucky that I don’t have any college debt due to the fact I was on scholarship. (I graduated third in my high school class and received numerous awards for writing.)

Getting back to the issues that Occupy Boston protesters and protesters in all the occupation movements are focused on, it is important to note that this is also an anti-war protest. On marches, protesters frequently chant: “How do you solve the deficit? End the wars and tax the rich! Other chants include, “What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like!” “Banks got bailed out. We got sold out.” “Who’s streets? Our streets!” “Money for jobs and education. Not for banks and corporations.”

What happened on Monday that resulted in Occupy Boston making national news?

I have been going to Occupy Boston marches and general assemblies (made up of the people who show up and vote on issues) since the movement kicked off in Dewey Square. I have been to several marches and numerous general assemblies as well as served as a sidewalk protester where I held a political sign (with the same kind of message as the chants previously noted). After going to the march on Columbus day, I had an appointment so I left for a few hours. On my way back home from the appointment, I got several text messages from comrades at Occupy Boston stating that we had an emergency situation. Police were planning to possibly shut down the latest expansion of the occupation into a field of grass across the street from the original occupation site. We had to expand because so many people brought tents and wanted to join the occupation movement that we were running out of room. In order to protect the occupation sight-- the meeting ground and heartland of the growing movement for economic change if not all out revolution—the general assembly met and we decided with a consensus that we would stay to occupy the sight of our peaceful protest. We locked arms in a circle around the tents while others with flags encircled us and many stood in front as another line of defense and look-out.

How did the police attack us?

The police came in and issued a warning saying that if we did not disperse we would be arrested. There were large trucks nearby which we knew were to clear all the tents and items on the greenway. We held our ground and repeated that our constitutional right to freedom of speech and assembly permitted us to be there. The police burst in from the rear of the greenway and knocked over many veterans for peace who were holding flags. They pushed those who were locking arms in the circle. When the police pushed me, I couldn’t help but step back and back because I would lose my footing. The line of people locking arms to my right fell so I was split from them. My comrade to my left was still locking arms with him but no one was on his other side because that is where the police broke the circle and began bringing down the tents. Police were manhandling someone further down the circle to my right. They arrested my comrade to the left and I was left standing on my own. The police officer put my hands behind my back and cuffed me with plastic ties. I walked out to the street with him without speaking or putting up any fight. He had me stand between what he called “paddy wagons.” I prefer to avoid such a racial slur against the Irish and instead say “police wagon.” Then he had me walk with him to the back of one police wagon. I was the first to get in so I had to scoot all the way to the back. Eight other women soon joined me. I quickly learned that the police had banded some of the other woman’s arms so tight they were losing sensation in their hands and fingers. When they asked a police officer to loosen it, the female police officer who began asking us for names, height, weight, birth date, said she didn’t care if it hurt. Fortunately, mine were on loosely so I didn’t have any trouble with loosing sensation. The police wagon was dark as we bumped along the road. We sang songs like Amazing Grace and talked about our backgrounds. We debated about whether the police were part of the 99 percent—the working class who are subject to the oppression of the ruling class state. I believe that the police may come from a working class background but the institution of the police sides with the ruling class. In New York, for example, the NYPD received millions of dollars in donations from JP Morgan before the police decided to arrest 700 protesters. Once we got to the police station, they kept us in a small cinder block holding cell. Our numbers in that one holding cell grew from nine to 18 women as more arrived at the station. In all about 140 peaceful protesters were arrested and dispersed to nearby jails. There was some writing on the cinder block wall that appeared to be scrawled in blood. Some of the women asked a cop about the mysterious handwriting on the wall. One said it must be menstrual blood. Another suggested it might be from a wound. A police officer told us it spelled out the name of a gang. He made a joke saying, “If I give you a hammer will you stop hitting yourself in the head with it?” I didn’t understand his joke but he thought it was funny and kept repeating it. They took a group of us out of the holding cell because we had enough cash on us to make bail. They moved us to another holding cell where we waited for hours to be processed and released. It turned out that Occupy Boston had already raised enough money to cover everyone’s bail so I didn’t have to pay out of pocket. They fingerprinted me and scolded me for not having an ID but said they’d let me go anyway. I didn’t have an ID because I knew about the risk of arrest and had given Brenda my purse. I only kept some money on me just in case. I got a court summons for Thursday morning with the charge being “unlawful assembly.” Then I was released.

What happened after I got out of jail? And Concluding Reflections

A few comrades from Occupy Boston greeted me with a cheer so I smiled real big. Brenda arrived a few minutes later after she had finished driving someone else home. I was happy to see Brenda and gave her a big hug. I have a mix of emotions. I feel very loved because so many people helped support me in this process. I am grateful to everyone at Occupy Boston for carrying on the movement even in the face of personal sacrifice and the adversity that comes with police brutality. However, I also feel deeply hurt and confused why we everyday people were not permitted to peacefully assemble. I do not know what awaits me at court. It isn’t considered a serious offense so I probably won’t have to do much but pay a fine. Many people in our community, especially people of color, have endured far worse consequences at the hands of police brutality. I am humbled at my privilege as a white middle-class looking female. I am appalled that I can even refer to myself as privileged because most Americans like myself are far from privileged, from problems with healthcare to employment, education to police states, we are not going to be okay unless this movement continues to strengthen and give voice to the oppressed. We must tear down the capitalist system and replace it with one based not on human greed and profit but on human need where community and democracy are the highest goals.

November 28th: Ian Thal Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On November 28th, Ian Thal will be presenting Arlecchino Am Ravenous at Stone Soup, a one-act, one-man play which Ian describes as "a tale slapstick blasphemy and auto-canibalism" featuring Arlecchino, who before becoming a star of the commedia dell'arte and the inspiration for Harlequin, was a demonic figure of European folklore, even appearing as one of the "Evil-tails" in Dante's Inferno.

Ian Thal began writing poetry and doing performance art on the Boston scene in the late 90s, and was a regular at Stone Soup, he would later collaborate with James Van Looy and William J. Barnum in the poetry and mime troupe, Cosmic Spelunker Theater. A puppeteer and actor as well, he has also performed with Bread & Puppet Theatre, i Sebastiani, and the commedia dell'arte troupe, Teatro delle Maschere, of which he is the capocomico ("head comedian.") His play, Total War, was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition, and its first reading was greeted with a protest on the sidewalk outside the venue. He is currently at work on another play, The Conversos of Venice. Ian has worked all over the Boston area as a theatre educator.

November 14th: Tony Toledo Remembers Brother Blue



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On November 14th, Tony Toledo returns to the Out of The Blue to feature at Stone Soup to pay tribute to the late storytelling legend Brother Blue.

Tony Toledo spent many a Tuesday night with Brother Blue as his guide at the Tuesday Night Story Swaps. Brother Blue often said, "Tony, your voice is a trumpet! You and your lovely lady make a fine team." When Tony thinks of Blue he is happy and sad at the same time. Happy for the memory, sad Blue is not here to lead another swap. So next Monday Tony will be thinking of Brother Blue as he features at Stone Soup.

Come to hear some memories of one of Cambridge's finest fellows. A spoken salute if you will. Oh, don't worry, Tony will also share his poem of the Cat With a Drinking Problem, and What He Left Behind. There'll be a ghost story too just for the boo of it. See you Monday.

Tony Toledo lives on a massive one tenth of an acre estate in Beverly, MA that he bought with his storytelling. There is just enough room for his wife's basil, his books and their Corn Museum. Tony has been telling stories to pay the rent since 1990. Listeners at libraries, elementary schools and day cares all clap for more stories. Tony is 54 years old but reads at a 69 year old level.