May 1st: Stone Soup's 40th Anniversary Tribute to Jack Powers, 6:00-9:00 PM



May 1st marks 40 years to the day that Stone Soup began as a weekly poetry series founded by Jack Powers. Join us at the International Community Church (30 Gordon Street in Allston) as members from Stone Soup's history celebrate the life of the man that inspired and spurred so many poetry movements in the Boston area. The time is from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Performers for the night include:

D.A. Boucher and Ethan Mackler (Da Butcha Shoppe)
David Fillingham
Walter Howard
Lee Litif
Gordon Marshhall
R. Wayne Nickerson
Bill Perrault
Andreas Powers
Sidewalk Sam
Ryan "Rat" Travis
James Van Looy
Carol Weston performing with bassist Jon Voight

More to be announced.

May 30: R. Wayne Nickerson 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 May 30th, we finish Stone Soup's 40th anniversary celebration with the debut feature of long time friend to the venue, R. Wayne Nickerson.

R. Wayne Nickerson writes: "I started writing short stories and poetry at Riverview Hopefield School, A boarding school I attended from 1966-1968. I had a great English Teacher, Mr.s Prat, who encouraged her students to read both classics and new writers, which I still do to this day.

I also like to encourage people to do the same. I also paint and enjoy singing. I've been since age five and still own my first book. I started performing mine and others' work three work three years work three years ago. I pray I'll continue to do this for a long, long time. Viva Stone soup, viva fellow writers, good company, good life."

May 23: Ryk McIntyre 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 May 23rd, we welcome the return of local legend Ryk McIntyre.

Ryk McIntyre is a Multi-Hyphen. Poet,-critic-performer-workshop facilitator-co-host at both GotPoetry! Live (Providence) and Cantab Lounge (Cambridge,MA), as well as a carbon-based life form and known biped... triped... whatever. Ryk has performed his work at Boston's ICA, NYC's New School, Portsmouth, NH's Music Hall and Lollapalooza, to name just a few, and opened for such acts as Leon redbone, Jim Carroll, Andre Codrescu, Reggie Gibson, to name-drop but a few.. He has toured the US, performing in countless Poetry, Music and Academic venues, and wants to share that rehearsing his poems in a mumbly, soto voce usually gets him the entire seat on trains, planes and buses. He is pleased to share this information. He's also a really good Dad to 2 sons and a daughter. He's most proud of that.

May 16 Gordon Marshall 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 May 16th, we'll have the return of Gordon Marshall, author and founder of the Jack Powers Stone Soup Savor Poetry Prize.

Gordon Marshall will be celebrating the release of his tenth volume of poetry, Poet of the Smashed Palace (Shires). Gordon is an accomplished jazz critic as well as poet. His criticism can be found on the All About Jazz website, as well as The New York City Jazz Record. His nine previous volumes of verse are available through Shires Press, Manchester Ctr, VT. He lives in Boston's North End.

May 2: Lynne Sticklor The Prize Lady and Walter Howard

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 2nd, we start our Monday celebrations of Stone Soup's 40th anniversary with a focus on The open mike with Lynne Sticklor helping to facilitate the open mike and featuring the open miker's open miker, "Sir" Walter Howard.


Lynne Sticklor, The Prize Lady, is a Performance & Visual Artist, Editor, Text & Graphics Designer and Poet. She is the sole creator of The Prize Lady Experience: a one-on-one performance art piece and a grand poetic theatrical show with chances to earn "Fabulous Prizes." She edited and designed oodles of books that were independently published by the poets as well as by Ibbetson Street Press and its imprint Singing Bone Press. She has been writing more poetry and damn! There's a book of her own forming a way to come out~


Walter Howard is a retired history professor, English teacher, and journalist. He is a member of the Longfellow Society, Natick Writers, and the Wayland Poetry Workshop. His poems have appeared in Motive, Longfellow Journal, Ibbetson Street Press, Journal of Modern Writing, Endicott Review, and others.

Tonight Jennifer Kean kicks off National Poetry Month at Stone Soup.

Tonight

Jen Campbell Features.

April 25th: April Penn 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 25th, Stone Soup brings National Poetry Month to a satisfying conclusion as April Penn has her first feature at Stone Soup.

April Penn moved to Boston one year after graduating class of 2008 from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. She earned a B.A. in English, specializing in American Transcendentalism and feminist experimental writing. She learned much more from the poetry scene in Boston, however, than she ever learned in school. She completed the 365 challenge to write 365 poems in a year for 2010 and is well on her way to doing the same in 2011. Working with poet Michael F. Gill, she was a founding member of the the Brighton Word Factory, a very productive writer's group that meets every other Thursday in Brighton. Her first chapbook, One inside the other, is a DIY success and owes much to the writing of Michelle Tea and Eileen Myles.

April 18th: The Fifth and Sixth Horsemen Return



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 18th, the Fifth and Sixth Horsemen, Lee Litif and Chris Robbins, return for annual their Stone Soup. It is the most contraversal night of the year at Stone Soup, and you are invited to contribute your own outrageous material to the open mike to compliment the outrageousness on display.

The most infamous open miker at the venue. Lee Litif has been a regular contribution to the Stone Soup open mike since 1991. He's the author of several chapbooks, including Unpatriotic Flags and Abominating White Houses, Reckless Paella and Defecating Republicans, and Ultrasonic Amplifiers and Marshall Amps/Genital Wart Puking Rednecks. He's been described as "The love child of Gallagher and Larry Fischer with G.G. Allin as midwife" by Stone Soup host Chad Parenteau.

If you can imagine Alice Walker dating Jim Morrison and their kid having George Carlin and John Valby for teachers, you’d have a fair picture of Chris Robbins. His darker side is a cross between “Animal Farm” and “Animal House”. Ever since he discovered that he has Asperger’s Syndrome, he quit writing feminist poems in favor of writing autistic ones because he believes that he’ll become more relevant that way. In other words, just like former Boston Red Sox player Manny Ramirez joining the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chris is playing on a different team now, but he’s still playing the same game.

April 11th: Valerie Loveland Returns


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 11th, Stone Soup celebrates the return of Valerie Loveland.

Valerie Loveland is the author of Reanimated, Somehow (Scrambler Books, 2009). Her poetry has appeared in Dzanc Book's anthology Best of the Web 2008 and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a regular at various open mics around the Boston area and a co-founder of the poetry group Amethyst and Arsenic.

Valerie enjoys running and listening to audio poetry. She is an optician apprentice and lives and works in Acton, MA.

April 4th: Jennifer Jean 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 4th, Stone Soup kicks off National Poetry Month with acclaimed local poet Jennifer Jean.

Jennifer Jean is the author of In the War (Big Table Publishing Co., 2010), a themed poetry chapbook about growing up as a bookworm amid urban warfare and spiritual famine in Los Angeles; as well it deals with her relationship with an absentee Vietnam War veteran father. Her work has been published in numerous journals, including North Dakota Quarterly, Denver Quarterly, Awakenings Review, Santa Clara Review, Southern California... Review, Caketrain, Relief Quarterly, The Wilderness House Review, The MOM Egg Journal, and Megaera. Notably, her work has appeared in the audio anthologies Whale Sound, and Two Weeks; also, she is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Agnes Butler Award. She directs Thursday’s Theatre of Words & Music artist performance series at the Salem Athenaeum, is the librettist for the Fishwife Music Project, is an active member of the committee producing the Salem-based 2011 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and she teaches writing and literature at Salem State University. Jennifer lives with her husband and two children in Salem, MA. For more on Jennifer, go to: www.fishwifetales.com

Tonight

Martin Willitts Jr. and Linda Griggs.

March 28th: Jen Campbell 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 March 28th, we welcome another friend back to Stone Soup.

Jen Campbell: She’s lived a life, but then so have you. She’s worked hard and tried to be good. She’s stood on the edge with wet toes and looked down over the edge. And sit back with a nice glass of scotch without a care. She’s an avid birder and psychic for hire. She’s a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. She’s swished two words together and calls it a poem. She’s good with a pot, some heat, and a carrot. Her hair is combed, but her nails aren’t done. She only runs when she chased, but she enjoys a good walk across the length of Cambridge. None can call her a villain. But she’s just bad enough that none can call her nice. If this sounds like a treat, then come.

March 21: Martin Willitts Jr and Linda Griggs Feature


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 22nd, we welcome the return of Martin Willitts Jr. and Linda Griggs.

Martin Willitts Jr and Linda Griggs are from Syracuse, New York.

Martin Willitts Jr graduated from Syracuse University with a MLS in Information Studies. He has been an oral storyteller, puppeteer, and “Science Magician” that can bounce eggs and throws ordinary playing cards into hypnotized watermelons. He is currently a Senior Librarian in upstate New York. He is a visual artist of Victorian and Chinese paper cutouts. He was one of nine winners of the international 2003 John Cotton Dana Award for library programs and publicity. He was the winner of the 2007 Chenango County Council of the Arts Individual Artist Award funded by the New York State Council on the Arts. He was recently nominated for two Best of The Net awards and his 5th Pushcart award. He has an online interview http://www.caperjournal.com/ (issue 8).

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); online chapbooks "Farewell--the journey now begins" on (http://www.languageandculture.net/, 2006), “News from the Front” (http://www.slowtrains.com/, 2007), “Words & Paper” (http://www.threelightsgallery.com/, 2008); edited a poetry anthology about cancer, “Alternatives to Surrender” (Plain View Press, 2007); two full length books "The Secret Language of the Universe" (March Street Press, 2006), and “The Hummingbird” (March Street Press, 2009). He has four new chapbooks: “The Girl Who Sang Forth Horses” (Pudding House Publications, 2010), “Van Gogh’s Sunflowers for Cezanne” (Finishing Line Press, 2010), “True Simplicity” (Poets Wear Prada Press, 2011), and “Art Is Always an Impression of What an Artist Sees” (Muse Café, 2011). His website is: http://www.redroom.com/member/Willitts.
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, which is awaiting publication. She is the host and founder of the Palace Poetry Group (Syracuse, NY).

March 14: Dick Lourie 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 14th, we welcome esteemed author and musician Dick Lourie.

Dick Lourie is a poet and blues saxophone player whose two professions drew him to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. If the Delta Was the Sea, his eighth book of poems, explores the region’s rich heritage of music, history, and a diversity of cultures, particularly in the city of Clarksdale, long regarded as a center of Delta blues. The book results from Lourie’s frequent visits to the Delta over the past twelve years to play with lo...cal musicians and write about the area.

Dick Lourie’s poems have appeared widely for more than forty years, in such literary journals as ACM, Agni, The Arkansas Review, Exquisite Corpse, Lungfull!, The Massachusetts Review, Sun, Transfer, and Verse. Among his seven previous books are Stumbling (The Crossing Press) and Anima (Hanging Loose). His most recently published book, Ghost Radio, and Ghost Radio Blues, a companion CD, are both still available from Hanging Loose Press. Writing about Lourie’s poetry, Denise Levertov observed that his “voice speaks with a unique and convincing eloquence.”

“Dick Lourie has written a rich, spacious book. Observing the principles that ‘we are all embedded in history’ and that the individual ‘contains multitudes,’ these poems present a portrait of a place, Clarksdale, Mississippi, and its people, through a unique cultural and social perspective. Lourie has an impeccable ear for colloquial nuances and an acute eye . . . If the Delta Was the Sea is a genuine delight.”—Ha Jin

“Dick Lourie has something to say and he says it well. Here, in direct, clear, no-nonsense language, he tells the story of Clarksdale, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. The voices of the town ring true, from blues legend Robert Johnson to civil rights leader Aaron Henry to Lin “Pap” Pang, an elder in the Chinese community, all presented with irony, humor and honest insight. This is a poet who fully understands the burdens and the blessings of history, and knows that there is much to celebrate in the spirit of the survivors.”—Martín Espada

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 Walter Howard, 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

Walter Howard is a retired history professor, English teacher, and journalist. He is a member of the Longfellow Society, Natick Writers, and the Wayland Poetry Workshop. His poems have appeared in Motive, Longfellow Journal, Ibbetson Street Press, Journal of Modern Writing, Endicott Review, and others.


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.

February 28th: Mignon Ariel King 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 February 28th, Mignon Ariel King returns to Stone Soup.

Mignon Ariel King was born in Boston City Hospital in 1964. It became apparent in kindergarten that she would probably be a bookworm and "city-girl" for life. After barely graduating from Boston Latin Academy and college thanks to language and visual arts abilities, she began a career as a formal scholar and experienced an intellectual and creative revitalization while earning a Master of Arts degree from the Graduate Program ...in English at Simmons College. Mignon was an adjunct English professor for about ten years, a database-clerical-research assistant in academic and nonprofit offices for a lot longer than ten years, and has filled in holes in her Swiss-cheesy resume with freelance proofreading and copyediting. For a list of publications and future events, visit her blog Making Poetry.

After 15 years of writing autobiography, Mignon Ariel King returns to her roots--love poems. Some are sweet, some are bitter, many are infused with lyrics from rock and pop artists from the '70s to the present. Roll on in to say goodbye to February with one last Valentine's Day celebration!

February 21st: John Hodgen 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 February 21st, we welcome John Hodgen, who will be reading from his newest poetry collection from the University of Pittsburg Press.

John Hodgen is visiting assistant professor of English at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is the author of four poetry collections: his newest, Heaven & Earth Holding Company; Grace, winner of the 2005 Donald Hall Prize in Poetry from AWP; In My Father’s House, winner of the Bluestem Award; and Bread Without Sorrow, winner of the Balcones Poetry Prize.

Hodgen is the recipient of numerous other awards, including the 2005 Foley Poetry Prize, the 2005 Ruth Stone Poetry Prize, the Grolier Prize, an Arvon Foundation Award, and the 2000 Massachusetts Cultural Commission Artist Foundation Grant in Poetry.

February 7th: Michael and Lucie Monroe


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 February 7th, we welcome two of the forces behind the popular poem a day 365 blog, Michael and Lucie Monroe.

Michael and Lucie Monroe are serial writers.

For Michael the adventure started three years or so ago when he reluctantly attended his first poetry slam at the Cantab Lounge, right down the street. Years of religious showmanship finely found an outlet that made sense, and his fondness for the spoken word increased until he was one of a handful of crazy souls to complete the first 365 challenge in 2009 - in his case, under 10 months instead of a full year. Undeterred by his success, he became the blogmaster and overseer for the 2010 and 2011 editions. He might be the only poet alive to have written 730 poems in 730 days and live to tell the tale.

His contagious enthusiasm soon contaminated his lovely bride, a recent political refugee from France who had never written a line in English and didn't think she could ever compare to English speakers in their native language. But when you have style, you can't lose it – as could testify Lucie's school teachers all wowed by her French composition writing skills, cleverly dissimulating a complete lack of content. A natural born writer, and not one to refuse a challenge, she signed up for the 2010 edition of the 365, only to discover that, surprisingly enough, she did compare.

Whether they write separately, as a duo, or in a group setting, their styles, originally so different (funny, somber, angry or surreal for Michael – horrific, bittersweet, detail oriented and airy for Lucie) collide to make the kind of mash you're going to hear at Stone Soup on February 7th!

Tonight

Lynne Sticklor has her first full feature at Stone Soup.