August 4: Diane Sahms Guarnieri and g emil reutter 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 August 4, we welcome the return of Fox Chase poets Diane Sahms Guarnieriand  g emil reutter to the venue.

Diane SahmsGuarnieri is a Philadelphia Poet and Poetry Editor of The Fox Chase Review and co-curates The Fox Chase Reading Series. Her first collection Images of Being was released in October of 2011. She was awarded a grant in poetry from the AEV Foundation in May of 2013 and currently serves as Poet in Residence at Ryerss Museum and Library in Philadelphia. . Diane’s poetry has been published widely in the small and electronic press. You can also visit her on Youtube. 

g emil reutter lives and writes in the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia where he founded The Fox Chase Review and The Fox Chase Reading Series.  Eight collections of his poetry and prose have been published by Stonegarden.net, Blazevox Books and Persistenica Press. Most recently Carvings in November 2010. You can visit him at  You can also visit him on YouTube. 

 

July 28: Flatline Poetry's Guillermo Caballero 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 July 28, Stone Soup continues it's featuring of the group Flatline Poetry (one member per month) with Guillermo Caballero.

Guillermo is a Boston based artist. Before the formation of Flatline, he worked with fellow teammate Lissa Piercy and co-founded FLOW (the Fundamental Lyricists of Wheelock), whose monthly open mics focus on “performance with a purpose” and have grown to audiences of over one hundred. Guillermo has performed and featured at various venues in and around Boston, including the “if you can Feel it, you can Speak it” open mic and the “Lost Voices of Boston” open mic. In addition to performing poetry, Guillermo has presented on topics of masculinity and leadership. In May of 2014, Guillermo received a Bachelor’s Degree in American Studies, with a double minor in Political Science and Education.

July 21: K. ROADPOET Readers Peddlar Bridges and Lisa Golda-Shields

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 July 21, biker poetry is once again added to our summer schedule with the return of motorcycle poets K. Peddlar Bridges and the debut of Lisa Golda-Shields as part of the Roadpoet Fortnight event this July. 



K. Peddlar Bridges is a prolific and persistent talent, one of the founders of the Biker Poetry movement. Peddlar is a well recognized, unique voice currently living on the North Shore of Boston. The Roadpoet Fortnight is his brain child, and debuted in July, 2013. In addition to being a regular at many poetry venues, he also hosts RoadPoet Café, on ICAM, (the Ipswich Cable access station) and is working on a new collection of works about the poetic heritage of Gloucester.

Lisa Golda-Shields is a poet, editor, and advocate for special needs children, now living in Ipswich. Her first collection of poetry and prose The Infinite Charm of Firefly Glow is currently housed in the Library of Congress. She works with kids and their families, in between various collective and individual literary projects. She is also working on her first novel.

July 14th: Deta Galloway 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 July 14,  regular open micer Deta Galloway has her turn at the feature spot.

Deta Galloway is a poet and artist who has returned to Boston in recent years. She can be seen at open mics around the Boston area, her poems often changing each time she reads them. She wowed the audience at the recent Cambridge River festival, and now she is here for your listening pleasure tonight! Co-hosted by Toni Bee.

Flatline Poetry's Lewis Morris 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 30, Stone Soup begins the first of a exciting series of features at the end of each month starting members of the Flatline Poetry group, beginning with Lewis M. Morris.

Lewis M. is a multi-talented poet, writer, beatmaker, MC, and three time Uno Champion of the world. He started writing at the age of eleven, and discovered poetry slam at age fourteen. Since then, he has performed at The Apollo Theater, The Smithsonian, The Bowery Poetry Club, and The Nuyorican, among many others. For his work as a teaching artist, he has received the Newman Civic Fellow Award. He has also won a Mass Poetry Award for Most Versatile Poet. Lewis is the founder of The OFFICIAL Massart Poetry Alliance, a student group that hosts open mics, poetry slams, and special events that have grown to audiences of over one hundred. Currently, Lewis teaches poetry at Dorchester Academy in Dorchester, MA as their Poet in Residence, and is working towards his BFA in the Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. To find out more about Lewis, visit https://www.facebook.com/LewisMorrisIzThaIllest or lewism.bandcamp.com.

June 23: An Evening with John Voigt

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 23, we have an extended open mic where readers will have the opportunity to perform alongside reknowned jazz bassist Jon Voigt who will also play accompanying "word-sound solo pieces" as part of his visit.

John Voigt has had performances with figures such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Keith Jarrett, Bill T. Jones, Allen Ginsberg, Captain Kangaroo, Tuli Kupferberg of the Fuggs, Jemeel Moondoc, and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.  He has also performed in numerous Broadway musicals and taught the Massachusetts College of Art, and Boston Arts Academy. He currently serves as Librarian/Archivist for Berklee College.

Voigt has served on the Board of Overseers for the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. Prose published by American Library Association, Black American Literature Forum, International Society Of Bassists, Macmillan, MIT Press , Oxford University, Scarecrow Press, C. Scribner's Sons. Prose-poetry published by Olympia Press. Currently editor of Qi Encyclopedia. 

June 16: Susanna Kittredge 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 16, writer, workshopper, educator and Jamaica Pond poet Susanna Kittredge returns to the podium for her first full-length feature at Stone Soup.

Native New Englander Susanna Kittredge has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Her poems have appeared in publications such as Sidebrow, Shampoo, 14 Hills, We Still Like, 580 Split and Salamander as well as the anthology Bay Poetics (Faux Press, 2006). She is a proud member of the Jamaica Pond Poets and a regular participant at the Brighton Word Factory (a bi-weekly open writing group). She lives in Jamaica Plain and teaches middle school inclusion special education in Medford.

June 9: Alice Weiss 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 9, we welcome poet and activist Alice Weiss to the podium.

Alice Weiss' poems have been appeared in the Alaska Quarterly Review, Oddball Magazine, Ibbetson Street, Radical Teacher, Liberty’s Vigil, The Occupy Anthology, Poetry Super Highway, Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, and Jewish Currents.  She has also published nonfiction at VoxMom and Wilderness House Literary Review. Until 2011 she was the unofficial Poet-in-Residence at Am HaYam, the Cape Cod Chavurah. She has featured most recently at the Boston Poetry Salon and studies with Tom Daley and Joan Houlihan.

Weiss received an MFA in poetry from New England College in 2010. From 1977 to 1998 she was a civil rights attorney and public defender in New Orleans, Louisiana. This included voting rights cases and challenges to prison conditions, throughout the state. "I came to New Orleans as a young lawyer from the Northeast eager to make change and I was seduced by the dank and swampy and irremediable dysfunction of the place and the wit and sadness and the song people conjured up to deal with it. If I write poetry at all it’s because of the way living in Louisiana unlocked my suburban Jewish heart." She now lives and writes in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

June 2: Emily R. Rudofsky 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 2, we start June off with a feature by young poet and recent Yes/No Press author Emily Rudofsky.

Emily R. Rudofsky hails from the Boston area by way of the Mid-Atlantic Region. Her first chapbook, RAVENOUS, was published by Yes/No Press in January, 2014. Her poetry and artwork has appeared in Oddball Magazine, The Gabbler, The Fat City Review, and ZigZag Folios Vol.2. Emily spent her school years reading during math class. Now she spends her workdays reading under her desk. She still gets in trouble.

May 26: David P. Miller 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 26, we welcome another friend of Stone Soup and the Boston poetry scene, David Miller.

David P. Miller’s poems have appeared in print in Meat for Tea, Stone Soup Presents and Durable Goods, and online in the Muddy River Poetry Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, and the Boston and Beyond Poetry Blog. His chapbook, The Afterimages, is forthcoming from Červená Barva Press.  His has three “micro-chapbooks” available from the Origami Poems Project website. David was a member of the multidisciplinary Mobius Artists Group of Boston for 25 years, and is a librarian at Curry College in Milton, Mass. He has often been seen in the company of one or more of the Bagel Bards.

May 19: MP Carver Features at Stone Soup Poetry

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 12, Stone Soup is please to welcome M.P. Carver to the podium.

M.P. Carver lives in Salem, Massachusetts. A member of YesNo Press, M.P. helps host the twice-monthly Zig Zag Poetry Open Mic (Salem, MA). M.P. has featured at Stone Soup previously, at Speak Up! (Lynn, MA), Merrimac Mic (Newburyport, MA). and most recently in the Poets in the Round event at the 2014 Mass Poetry Festival. M.P.’s poetry has appeared at the Massachusetts State Poetry Festival (2012, part of the Poetry Everywhere art installations), in the University of Virginia’s Hospital Drive, and in the inaugural issue of Zig Zag Folios.

May 12: The Wild Women of Lynn 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 12,  Stone Soup's 43rd anniversary month continues strong, as we we have the pleasure of featuring every single contributor from the recommended local Wild Women of Lynn anthology.

Ring of Bone Press is a small publishing house founded in 2013, from Ipswich, MA. The mission of the press is to bring "The American Voice" to you, the reader, by publishing the work of local, under discovered poets and writers. The first book from the press is Wild Women of Lynn: Writings from the Walnut Street Coffee Cafe, poems and writings from five incredibly talented women poets from Lynn, each sharing their versions of "The American Voice."

Kerry Zagarella is a performance poet and toured with the first Boston Poetry Slam Team. She has performed at a variety of venues, including First Night Boston, The DeCordova Museum, The Boston Architectural Society, and the Green Mill in Chicago. Her work has appeared in magazines such as The Stone Soup Quarterly, Borderine Magazine, The Tower Journal and Wail Magazine. Her collection of original poems, Cardboard Soul, was published by This Poet's Press, and one of her essays can be found in A Tribute to Brother Blue by Yellow Moon Press.

Jocelyn Almy-Testa is a not quite 40 year old dancer, mother of four, writer, arts advocate, runner, photographer, sculptor, fiber artist, daughter, sister, lover, housewife, feminist coach and friend. Sometimes she likes to have a glass of wine and just stare out her favorite window and not be anything.

Kato Mele is a writer who has abandoned the idea of keeping up with the Joneses and has instead concentrated on keeping her head above water, which she is current accomplishing in her beloved adopted city of Lynn, Massachusetts - that the great and terrible beauty. She is neighborhood renowned for her use of her wit, her wits and even the occasional use of her half-wits whom she keeps in her shed and deploys only when absolutely necessary as she fears an uprising if they were to gain knowledge of the outside world and al the possibilities it holds. Her work has been sparsely published due to her inability to focus and complete the task at hand, but she has been found between the covers of THIS Magazine, Zig Zag Folios, and she can, truth be told, at the moment to be found between the covers and sheets of her reasonable comfortable bed.

Elizabeth Gordon McKim is a poet, spoken word performance artist, editor and teacher of poetry for people of all ages. She is the author of five books of poetry, the latest being The Red Thread, published by Leapfrog Press and Beyond Words, a poetry guide for parents and teachers co-authored by poet and teacher Judith Steinberg. McKim's poems have appeared in magazines, reviews and journals and she is a member of the graduate faculty of Lesley University in the department of Creative Arts in Learning. Her roots are in the oral tradition of song, story and chant. She is Poet Laureate of the European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland and locally is known as The Jazz Poet of Lynn, MA where she lives in a renovated shoe factory in Central Square and is often found at the Speak Up! open mic magic evenings at the Walnut Street Coffee Cafe.

May 5: Dennis Daly and Dimitris Lyacos at Stone Soup

Dennis Daly’s first full length book of poetry, The Custom House, was published by Ibbetson Street Press in June, 2012. His second book, a verse translation of Sophocles’ Ajax, was published by Wilderness House Press in August, 2012. A third book entitled Nightwalking with Nathaniel was just released by Dos Madres Press in April 2014. Daly writes reviews regularly for the Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene. He is a former factory worker and labor leader. Follow his blog here: dennisfdaly.blogspot.com.

Dimitris Lyacos is the author of the Poena Damni trilogy, an exceptionally popular and influential work of European avant-garde writing. Translations of the original Greek have appeared in English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese, and numerous performances have taken place across Europe and the USA. The trilogy has inspired many sister projects in the fields of drama, contemporary dance, video and sculpture installations, opera and contemporary music. Dimitris Lyacos was 2012 Fellow at the International Writing Program, University of Iowa.

April 28th: Carla Schwartz Features at Stone Soup Poetry

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 28, we welcome back Carla Schwartz, who comes back with the return of her newest book of poetry.

Carla Schwartz is a poet, poetry filmmaker, photographer, and lyricist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fulcrum, Common Ground Review, Cactus Heart, Wordgathering, Stone Highway Review, Boston Poetry Magazine, Literary Juice, Emerge Literary Journal, Enizagam, Equinox, and 05401 among others. Her book, Mother, One More Thing is available through WordTech and Turning Point Books ( 2014). She has performed and read her work in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Carla is also a professional writer with a doctoral degree from Princeton University. Learn more at her website at carlapoet.com.

April 21st: 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 21, Jennifer Jean, one of Salem's finest active poets, will be featuring her newest work for the Boston audience.

Jennifer Jean's most recent poetry collection is The Fool (Big Table, 2013); other collections include: The Archivist, Fishwife, and In the War. Her book reviews, essays, and poems have appeared in: Drunken Boat, Denver Quarterly, Tidal Basin Review, Caketrain, Poets/Artists, Poetica, The Mom Egg Review, and more. Her Pushcart nominated poem "Love All the Girls" was published by Ibbetson Street Magazine. Jennifer blogs for Amirah, a non-profit advocacy group for sex-trafficking survivors; she is a key organizer of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival; and, she teaches writing and literature at Salem State University. For more information, visit: www.fishwifetales.com

April 14: LightSpeed Arafat 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 14, get a Taste of Boston Flavor with LightSpeed Arafat, a father, come-unity activist and entrepreneur promoting visual art, media design, music, performance art and various other kinds of cultural enrichment. He is dedicated to using his talents for the betterment of inner city communities in Boston and beyond.

Arafat is a firm believer in the power of individuals and families to provide for and heal themselves. In 2008 Arafat founded LightSpeed Entertainment, Inc., beginning a life of business dedicated to edutainment, and cultural therapy enlightening himself and others on their natural capacity to thrive.

Toni Bee is happy to host this event with Chad Parenteau!

April 7: 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 April 7, we welcome Oddball Magazine Editor Jason Wright back to the podium.

Jason Wright is a Graduate of UMass Boston, recent guest on Wheel of Fortune, and self proclaimed champion of mental illness. He co-published five issues of the print journal Oddball Magazine before moving the journal online to oddballmagazine.com, which he still runs and edit today, featuring poetry and prose from a multitude of contributors as local as Cambridge, Massachusetts and as remote as the African country Tunisia.

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, Massachusetts, where he was recently featured in it's new local journal, The Scout.. His poem, "Strong as Boston Skyline" was recently chosen for the 2014 Mayor’s Prose & Poetry Program focusing on the Marathon tragedy of last year.

The Mayor's Prose & Poetry Selections, April 2014

Greetings Boston Writers and Poets, here are the latest winners for the April installment of The Mayor’s Prose & Poetry Program focusing on the Marathon tragedy of last year. One or two poems from each poet were chosen by the Poet Laureate Sam Cornish. The chosen poems will be printed and hung in various locations around Boston City Hall very soon and an opening reading and reception will take place sometime after April 22nd. Congratulations to the winners and keep an eye out for the next Call for Poetry from the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events and the City of Boston.


Alexis Ivy / From My Fire Eascape

Chad Parenteau / Mom at the Marathon

Lisa Fay / The Noise of Terror

Linda Carney Goodrich / Pleasure Bay

Michael Burke II / In April Boston roads turn pale

Holly Guran / To Cleanse

Holly Guran / A Hot Wind Blows

Dorothy E. Morris / Elegy

Jason Wright / Strong as Boston Skyline

Jane Jacobson / Buxton to Boston

Louisa Clerici / The Photographer’s Marathon

Carol Masshardt / September in Boston, 2013

Kurt Cole Eidsvig / The Rainest June & The Hottest July (excerpt)

 and 9th grader Kevin Downing! / Death is in the Field Today


Special THANKS go out  to Poet Laureate Sam Cornish for the time and effort he has invested over the last several years on the Mayor’s Prose & Poetry Program. He was a conscientious and learned juror, choosing poems for numerous installments of Poetry on the walls of Boston City Hall. Thank you Sam and thank you all for participating in this artistic process!

--
John Crowley
Curator/Exhibitions Coordinator

March 31: Ryk McIntyre 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 31, we welcome the return of Ryk McIntyre.

Ryk McIntyre has been a legendary presence on the New England poetry scene for decades. Which is to say, he is rarely photographed and not everyone is convinced he really exists. He has toured extensively around the continental United States and Canada, appearing on stages as varied as NYC’s New School, Portsmouth NH’s Music Hall, Lollapalooza and the very first “Legends of The Slam” Showcase, at the National Poetry Slam in 2006 in Austin, TX. He has also appeared at countless poetry venues, festivals and house parties. He was even on 5 NPS Slam Teams...you’d think some of those people would have had cameras, He has been published widely, most notably, in The Worcester Review, Off the Coast, Short Fuse-An Anthology of New Fusion Poets, and Aim for the Head - An Anthology of Zombie Poetry. He is currently touring and reading from his new book After Everything Burns (Sargent Press)

March 24: Clay Ventre 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 24, join us for an evening with Clay Ventre, one of the organizers of the Zig Zag Poetry open mic.  Attendance is recommended as this show will not be televised.  For more on Clay Ventre, like his Facebook page.