June 27th: Deborah Priestly Features


Photo by Bill Perrault

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 June 27th, Out of The Blue co-founder Deborah Priestly returns to feature.

Deborah M. Priestly is co-founder of the Out of the Blue Art Gallery located in Cambridge, Mass at 106 Prospect Street with Tom Tipton, (founder, owner). She runs the Open Bark Poetry reading every Saturday night at the gallery. Her publication credits include Ibbetson Street, Spare Change, Poesy, Fresh!, Boston Poet, The Boston Herald, The Boston Girl Guide and Out of the Blue Writers Unite (which she also co-edited). She is the author of The Woman Has A Voice from Ibbetson Street Press, an eclectic combination of healing poetry and images of women in transition.

June 20th: Chad Parenteau Features at Stone Soup (wait, what?)



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 June 20th, the host of Stone Soup takes center stage just this once (probably).

For one night only, the host of Stone Soup comes from behind the podium to...go back behind the podium for an extended reading of his work. This feature was brought about by popular demand (even before Chad did a whiny "why me" post), so don't miss out on this opportunity to see Stone Soup with Chad as a full feature for the first time since 2004. Hosted by Person or Persons yet unknown. Possibly some kind of robot.

Bruins Haiku



Gloria Monaghan, poet and future Stone Soup feature, recently brought her class to Stone Soup to read on the open mike just before the Bruins game. They were challenged to send in their Bruins poems (haiku or otherwise) to be printed on this page. Here is what we were sent.


Boston ice brings strength.
The Bruins will take it home.
The Cup is waiting…

--Kevin Gebo



Swiftly gliding side to side
the Bruins soar, the fans pride
forever fighting, let's get the cup!

-Rebecca Cowee

June 13th: Linda Lerner 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 June 13th, we welcome back New York poet and Stone Soup friend Linda Lerner.

Linda Lerner was born and educated in New York City; her next full length collection will be published by New York Quarterly Books in the Spring, 2011.

She’s published thirteen collections of poetry. The most recent: Something Is Burning In Brooklyn (http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif2009, Iniquity Press/ Vendetta Books) Living In Dangerous Times (Presa Press, 2007) and City Woman (March Street Press, Fall, 2006, both Small Press Reviews’ Picks). Two previous collections also had that honor; she’s been nominated twice for a pushcart prize.

In 1995 she and Andrew Gettler began Poets on the Line, the first poetry anthology on the Net for which she received two grants. She is also a contributing editor of Home Planet News.

She’s published in the New York Quarterly, Onthebus, Louisiana Review, Paterson Literary Review, Ragged Lion Anthology, Chiron Review, Tribes, Van Gogh’s Ear, Home Planet News, New Verse News, Danse Macabre, Rusty Truck, et.al. She has given readings at the Bowery Poetry club (the Beat Hour) hosted by George Wallace, Smalls Jazz Club, Cornelia Street Cafe, and various other venues around NYC and throughout the country.

Tonight at Stone Soup

R. Wayne Nickerson.

June 6th: Michael F. Gill 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 June 6th, we welcome Michael F. Gil with his debut feature.

Michael F. Gill started writing poetry on September 3rd, 2007, after a freak accident with perfection on the Boston Harbor Islands. He is the co-founder and the host of the Brighton Word Factory, a bi-weekly writing group in Boston. He enjoys the rare book rooms of libraries, the resonance of dadaist sound poetry, and waking up to bake bread with your name carved in it. He reads regularly at poetry open mics around Boston and Cambridge, and can be read regularly at www.bbtp.net and the Boston 365/365 blog.

May 16th: Who Wants to Be A Stone Soup Feature And Kick Off Chad Parenteau?

PLANNED FEATURE GORDON MARSHALL HAS CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS.

As can be expected, noted egomaniac and Stone Soup Host Chad Parenteau has decided to be the stand-in feature for the night.

This must be stopped!!!!!!!!
...
Chad Parenteau has been brazen enough to charge poets for attending a venue that does not sell alcohol. He has been selfish enough to suffer a number of nervous breakdowns in private (tonight being the exception). This self-imposed 11th hour appointment of himself as feature is just the latest in poetry atrocities, not including his actual poems.

WE WANT YOU TO FEATURE IN HIS PLACE.

Tonight on May 16th, open Mikers are encouraged (to the point of begging) to come down and audition on the open mike to win a feature spot for the night, as voted on by those in attendance. Open Mikers, we need your help now more than ever. Critera includes having 15-25 minutes worth of work and NOT being Chad Parenteau. Once we figure out a winner, Chad will just be bludgeoned or something.

(note: there is currently no evidence that Chad put tonight's feature in the hospital in order to have the spotlight for himself, but we decided to put that in in Fox News fashion just so it can be misunderstood and spread as rumor)

OPEN MIKERS UNITE...AGAINST CHAD PARENTEAU!See More

Stone Soup May 9th

From Host/Organizer Chad Parenteau:

Due to circumstances of my own making, I was not able to secure a feature for this week. I hope you will accept my apologies for doing this during the month of Stone Soup's 40th and that you'll consider sharing your voice on the open mike, which has always been an essential part of every Stone Soup for what has now been over 40 years. Features return next week, I promise.

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.