November 5th: CD Collins 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 November 5th, we welcome back poet and storyteller, CD Collins.

Kentucky native CD Collins follows the storytelling traditions of the South, both as a solo artist and when accompanied by musicians. As one of originators of the resurgence of spoken-word with live music, her work has been archived in three award-winning compact discs: Kentucky Stories, Subtracting Down and Carousel Lounge. 

Collins’ fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines including StoryQuarterly, Salamander, Phoebe and The Pennsylvania Review. Her short fiction collection, Blue Land, was published by Polyho Press.  Her poetry collection, Self Portrait with Severed Head, was published by Ibbetson Street Press.  Her work is available at Joseph Beth’s Bookstore and through her website www.cdcollins.com.

Collins has received grants from the Massachusetts College of Art, The St. Botolph Club, The Cambridge Arts Council, The Somerville Arts Council, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. 

 Her recent projects include a novel about the psychological effect of WWII on the daughters of an American and a German soldier, a short biographical film about a devastating event that illustrates the necessity of government regulations. Forthcoming are a compact disc titled Clean Coal/Big Lie and a book of essays designed for a multimedia tablet display with  visual artist and designer Melody Farris Jackson Dutch artist and designer Markus Haala. 

Collins has read and performed in a range of venues including Club Passim, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art,  Berklee College of Music and the New York Public Library. She has consulted on a variety of projects including the screenplay for Debra Granik’s Academy-Award-nominated Winter’s Bone, the breakout film for Kentucky native Jennifer Lawrence.

Praise for Blue Land:

 “CD Collins has the voice of a natural-born storyteller.  The stories in this collection have the compressed beauty of poetry and the richness of novels.  Original and unforgettable.”

— Stephen McCauley

author, The Object of My Affection and Alternatives to Sex

October 29th: C.C. Arshagra Features at Stone Soup

Cancelled Due to Weather! 

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 October 29th, we welcome the return of Stone Soup friend, C.C. Arshagra.

Poet and songwriter C.C. Arshagra is a past producer of the Stone Soup Poets CCTV Show. He is the author of the Poems (1999), Emotional Geography (1996) and a three part chap book series called The Open Mike Poems. In the year 2000, he was a recipient of The Marcel Kopp Award. He has returned to Stone Soup. First in 2009 to mark the 39th anniversary of Stone Soup, then again in 2010 to participate in the 40th anniversary celebration and Jack Powers memorial.

October 22nd: Rusty Barnes 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 October 22nd, we welcome the return of Rusty Barnes.

Rusty Barnes lives in Revere with his family, where he writes about rural Pennsylvania. He's published two chapbooks of poetry, 'Redneck Poems' and 'Broke.' A full-length poetry manuscript entitled 'Kissing Tolstoy' is making the rounds.

October 15th: Jason Wright 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 October 15th, we welcome online poetry editor Jason Wright.

Jason Wright, creator and Editor of Oddball Magazine and oddballmagazine.com,  is a  Graduate of UMass Boston, recent guest on Wheel of Fortune, and self proclaimed champion of mental illness. He has been published in Oddball Magazine 1-5 and oddball magazine online. Jason was given the English Award of Achievement at Bunker Hill Community College.  He is the host of the Decompression Sessions a Podcast online, and a recently retired series at Johnny D's in Somerville.  He has been featured on Talk Up with Charlie Peters, and a frequent performer at The Middle East, Cantab Lounge, Cafe Luna, and other local venues. He currently resides in Somerville, MA.

Stone Soup Ends Columbus Day Weekend

Welcome back Susan Deer Cloud.

Bill Barnum Starts off New Cantab Anthology, Introductions by Richard Cambridge, Robyn Su Millerz

In addition to performing again, Bill Barnum (currently recovering at home) also has future publication to look forward to.  His poem, "Satan's Marbles," will be included in an anthology  that documents the history of the Boston Poetry Slam at The Cantab Lounge, a series that has existed in Boston for over twenty years.  Bill Barnum is not only featured in the anthology, but he is also its first entry.  What follows is a preview of the book with introductions to Barnum's section by Boston poetry mainstays Richard Cambridge and Robyn Su Millerz. Thanks to anthology editor Adam Stone for permission.

"The first thing you need to know is Billie is still writing, memorizing, choreographing, and performing every week at Squawk Coffeehouse. Mostly new material! At Eighty-Six! And I don’t mean three-minute poems. We allow Billie whatever he brings us, and it’s mostly ten minutes of word-dance. Only once in the last four or five years did I see him miss a line and have to go to his notebook to find his place. He shows up around 10pm, and closes the place with his latest piece. Billie is a paradox — a spoken-word mime. Think about that. Most folks think he’s some kind of ethereal-surreal free verse wordman, but in fact, if you get a peek at his journal you’ll see they are formal, rhyming, mostly iambic pentameter structured poems. Billie is such a master you never hear that singsong end-rhyme ‘cause he’s got you mesmerized with his dervish dance.

Most folks don’t know this, but Billie was a regular slammer, week-after-week. He never did win one that I recall. His work was on some other plane. To give him a score would be like trying to write on the river running by. I once asked Billie why he slammed. “For the money,” he said to me, matter-of-factly.

My favorite memory of Billie is on Finals Night when the National Slam came to town in ‘92. Michael Brown gave Billie his props and introduced him to the audience. Billie did the opening feature dressed in his cap & bells, and pixieslippers, and wowed the crowd. No one had ever seen the likes of him before.

Billie is as rare and pure as a unicorn, and he hides in plain sight among us."

―Richard Cambridge

"Billy Barnum is an ageless portal to a nearly bygone era. His mind channels a time most poets have forgotten, when poems were danced. Rhymes are still used as a mnemonic device but the practice of placing a step to mark the “feet” in a line is all but forgotten. Although it will be a treat to see his work on page, those privileged to have seen him perform will remember the hush that fell over the room in order for us to marvel at each step that found its mark and catch each word that floated up out of his pipes, and his presence, rhythm and sound will echo within as we read."

―Robyn Su Millerz

October 8th: Susan Deer Cloud Features at Stone Soup

Susan Deer Cloud is a mixed lineage Catskill Indian (mostly Mohawk & Blackfoot).  An alumna of Binghamton University (M.A. & B.A.) and Goddard College (MFA in Creative Writing), she has received various awards and fellowships, including a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, two New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowships (most recent NYFA Fellowship awarded in summer 2011), a Chenango County Council for the Arts Individual Artists Grant, First Prize in Allen Ginsberg Poetry Competition (twice), Prairie Schooner’s Readers’ Choice Award, and Native American Wordcraft Circle Editor’s Award for her multicultural anthology Confluence.  She has taught Creative Writing at the college level and currently is giving readings and talks around the country.

Deer Cloud’s poems and stories have been published in numerous journals and anthologies (Adrienne Rich Tribute Anthology; City of the Big Shoulders: an Anthology of Chicago Poems; Sister Nations: an Anthology of Native Women Writers on Community, Unsettling America & Identity Lessons multicultural anthologies, American Indian Culture & Research Journal, Yellow Medicine Review, To Topos (Poetry International), Florida Review, Mid-American Review, Ms. Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Many Mountains Moving, North Dakota Quarterly, Quarterly West, Earth’s Daughters, Shenandoah, Blood Lotus, Exquisite Corpse, Pembroke Magazine, Stone Canoe, Paterson Literary Review, Helicon Nine, etc.).  Her most recent books are The Last Ceremony and Car Stealer (FootHills Publishing) and Braiding Starlight (published by Split Oak Press, October 2010).  Our Parallel Universe, New & Selected Poems is forthcoming from University of New Orleans Press.

Deer Cloud has edited two published anthologies ~ multicultural Confluence and Native anthology I Was Indian (Before Being Indian Was Cool) ~ plus the 2008 Spring Issue of Yellow Medicine Review, a Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art & Thought.  She is now an adviser to Yellow Medicine.  Currently she is editing the Re-Matriation Chapbook Series of Indigenous Poetry for FootHills Publishing and just completed the second volume of I Was Indian anthology.  She is a Board Member of YANAN (You Are Not Alone), a non-profit Native organization for preventing suicide among Native American young people.  She served on two panels at the 2012 AWP Conference in Chicago (Narrative Poetry Panel & a second Panel on empowering indigenous students through Creative Writing), and she has had two panels accepted for the 2012 AWP Conference in Boston.  In spring 2012 she read and spoke on the Maine Women Writers Indigenous Poets Panel in Portland on March 30th and spent a week’s residency in poet Vincent Ferrini’s old studio (Gloucester Writers Center) the third week of April; she gave a reading on the 19th  at GWC and read at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum on April 21st.

October 1st: Mill City Poetry at Stone Soup with Ricky Orng & Zeke Russell

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 October 1st, we receive a test from another venue, that of the Mill City Poetry series with current and pasts hosts Ricky Orng and Zeke Russell.

 

Ricky Orng is multi-tasker residing from Lowell Massachusetts, also know as Mill City; home of Jack Kerouac, The Industrial Revolution, and a whole bunch of Cambodian people. He has been committed to poetry and the art of spokenword for the past 5 years. Master of freestyle poetry, care taker of the haiku, and ambassador of the awkward, he also hosts the Untitled Open Mic at the Brew'd Awakening Coffeehaus and teaches spokenword at his city's founded organization, FreeVerse! Besides loving the Word, he also collects floral garments and plays frisbee. A five foot ten gemini with freckles, Ricky is kind of easy on the eyes, on the off chance his poetry is really boring.

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. Tonight, he will reading a set of poems revolving around his time spent living in Lowell.

Bill Barnum Recovering

We recently found out that Bill Barnum, longtime staple of Boston's poetry community, had a bout of pneumonia earlier this month.  James Van Looy reported that he is currently recovering at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network in the North End.  He is in good spirits and eager to receive visitors.   We at Stone Soup hope he is back on his feet soon.

Tonight!

R. Wayne Nickerson at Stone Soup!

September 24h: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workship on September 24 th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Price of admission into the workshop will be included in your standard donation to Stone Soup Poery.

You will be able to attend Stone Soup Poetry and the workshop without having to pay anything extra. I'm interested in community, not profit.

For the first workshop, please bring a poem of any form and style no more than 1-2 pages. Bring up to 10 copies of your poem to share with the group, an

d be prepared to share your thoughts on each other's work. If you have trouble printing your work, you can email it to me before noontime on September 24th at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

Tom Tipton at the Out of The Blue has agreed to lend us space in the gallery's spacious back yard. I'll make sure to bring snacks and water.

This workshop will ideally take place the final Monday of every month. Those who are unable to attend next week but interested in future dates please email me at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

 

Tonight

Jonathan Russell Clark and Ruby Fox.

September 24th: The Bagel Bards Return to 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 September 24th, we welcome back The Bagel Bards as they celebrate the release of their 7th volume anthology.

The Bagel Bards, a wide-open and ever-expanding group of writers— including award-winning poets, novelists and short-fiction writers, knowledgeable teachers and editors, and some of the best small press publishers — meet for coffee, tea, bagels, muffins, socializing, literary gossip, and networking. Their current home is Au Bon Pain in Davis Square, and any writer, any genre, is welcome. Bagel Bards meets on Saturday mornings at 9:00 am.

September 17th: 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 September17th, we welcome back open mic regular R. Wayne Nickerson for another full-length Stone Soup feature.

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, Mrs. 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 four 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."

September 10th: Jonathan Russell Clark & Ruby Rose Fox 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 September 10th, Michael F. Gill returns to host another night of Stone Soup with Jonathan Russell Clank and Ruby Fox.

Jonathan Russell Clark is a fiction writer who lives in Jamaica Plain. He has read his work, in various capacities, at numerous venues around Boston and Cambridge. He is the co-founder of Woellert & Clark, a shadow puppet theater company, as well as the Program Director of the Forest Hills Educational Trust. His non-fiction has appeared in Thrasher Magazine, EdgeBoston and Dig Boston. He is the author of "HowFiction Hurts: Fiction About Fiction."

Ruby Fox is a singer and songwriter from Boston, Mass. Ruby has been spent the last four years as a theatrical actress and has performed with a number of Boston theater companies, such as The Actor’s Shakespeare Project, Company One, and The Central Square Theater. Fox has also written and performed two one-woman shows, so it’s of little surprise that her songwriting tends to be filled with characters, plot, sub-plot, sub-sub-plot (on occasion, even sub-sub-sub-plot). She will have copies of her debut EP, "Blue Light City," for sale. You can find her on RubyRoseFox.com.

August 27th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workship on August 27th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.  Price of admission into the workshop will be included in your standard donation to Stone Soup Poery.

You will be able to attend Stone Soup Poetry and the workshop without having to pay anything extra.  I'm interested in community, not profit.

For the first workshop, please bring a poem of any form and style no more than 1-2 pages.  Bring up to 10 copies of your poem to share with the group, and be prepared to share your thoughts on each other's work.  Tom Tipton at the Out of The Blue has agreed to lend us space in the gallery's spacious back yard.  I'll make sure to bring snacks and water.

This workshop will ideally take place the final Monday of every month.  Those who are unable to attend next week but interested in future dates please email me at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

September 3rd: Richard Cambridge 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 September 3rd, we welcome Richard Cambridge as part of a special reading to mark the month Stone Soup founder Jack Powers would have had his 75th birthday.  Special musical guest will be Andreas Powers.

Richard Cambridge’s work has appeared in The Paterson Literary Review, Nantucket Journal, Asheville Poetry Review, and other publications. He is the author of a collection of poetry, Pulsa— A Book of Books (Hanover Press), of which Robert Pinsky wrote, “Full of heart, sincere ambition and a genuine devotion to the mysteries of language,” and The Cigarette Papers— A Memoir of Addiction (Fern Hill Records), from which he developed a one-man play that opened at The Institute of Contemporary Art, and was hailed by the Boston Globe as “A tour de force.”

Cambridge is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. He was a finalist for a residency at the Fine Arts Work Shop in Provincetown, MA, and he won the Masters Slam at the 1997 National Poetry Slam. In 2011 he was graduated from the University of Southern Maine with an MFA in creative writing (Fiction) and completed his first novel, RIDE, based on a hitchhiking journey. He is currently at work on a new novel titled 1970, an alternate history centered on his experiences with the Black Panthers, featuring a cast of supporting activists who successfully bring revolution to America.

 

Tonight!

Peter Fulton at Stone Soup.

Reminder

Tyler Smith and Lindsey Yuriko Warriner  tonight.

August 27th: Tony Brown 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 August 27th, we close out the hot summer reading months by welcoming back Tony Brown.

Tony Brown has been writing for over 40 years, and publishing and performing his work for over 30.  A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, his work has appeared in many journals and anthologies.  He has traveled all over the country, slammed for the Worcester Poets’ Asylum, organized and hosted readings and reading series, and written on poetry for the website http://www.gotpoetry.com. 

Tony most commonly performs with The Duende Project in collaboration with Steven Lanning-Cafaro on electric and acoustic bass and classical guitar; they’ve spent 6 years performing up and down the East Coast and have released three collections of their work.  The most recent collection, “One Thing That Scares You,”  is available on Bandcamp (http://theduendeproject.bandcamp.com .  Their website at http://www.reverbnation.com/theduendeproject offers links to videos and music, show schedules, and more. 

Tony’s personal blog of constantly updated new poems, “Dark Matter,”  is at

http://radioactiveart.wordpress.com.