12/27/12

December 31st: New Year's Eve at Stone Soup with C.C. Arshagra



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.  This coming Monday, starting at 6:00 PM, we have the pleasure of offering Stone Soup on December 31st, chiming in the new year with poetry and song with the help of feature C.C. Arshagra.  We will also be offering up free food and beverage and invite everyone else to come with post holiday potluck.  Bring your verse and music and whatever else you'd like to ring in the new year with.

ABOUT THE FEATURE

C.C. Arshagra: A native of Connecticut who has recently returned after 25 years away from his hometown. 20 years in Boston/Cambridge, MA. Then later moving to the North West, across the Puget Sound from Seattle Washington, to the Native American town of Suquamish, Washington. There, he taught himself to play piano to develop his lyric writer’s life.

CC later moved to Europe for a brief life in Germany, with plans to move to France. But suddenly, he changed directions and returned to CT for a high paying job where he acquired a CDL license.  The job never came to fruition when the recession started.  He hit debt and homelessness, lapped his heels, crawled back, and set-up in home in a low rent humble dwelling he calls his slum-haven (and loves it).

CC is in the process of starting up his publishing company, press22publishing, with a world known author in the wings and a printer paid and set to roll. He is planning to reprint his collections “The Open Mike Poems” as one book.  Other projects include two additional poetry books, a children’s book, and  an experimental poetry project “The ID (Inkless Dialogue) Poems."

C.C. is a dreamer of ‘Humanity will be; Humanity, an ever-present evolving ideal of life living and it’s all gratitude from here.’  His most recent creative behavior has lead him to produce and host a free form radio show at the 6,000 watt radio station WESU, 88.1 FM, in Middletown, CT at Wesleyan University. The show is called “The I Do Not Know Show” With the tag line “The most experimental show in the world now. ‘Now’ in it’s most experimental stage. (What? A person can’t dream?)”

12/24/12

December 26th: Stone Soup Poetry Post-Christmas Open Mic Party


Stone Soup will NOT be meeting this Monday at Out of Blue Art Gallery this Monday Christmas Eve. 

Instead, we offer a post-holiday relief open mic on Wednesday the 26th from 8:00 to 10:00 PM.  People are encouraged to bring their work and any holiday leftovers they might have as we enjoy each others company and share in our post-holiday relief.

We thank the Out of The Blue Art Gallery for allowing us the space for a different day.


11/26/12

December 3rd: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop



I will be leading a workshop today on November 26th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to just before 8:00 PM.  NEW LOCATION: Au Bon Pain in Central Square, 684 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge.

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 others work. If you have trouble printing your work, you can email it to me before 5:00 today at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

After today's date, the workshop will continue to 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

November 26th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop


I will be leading a workshop today on November 26th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to just before 8:00 PM.  NEW LOCATION: Au Bon Pain in Central Square, 684 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge.

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 others work. If you have trouble printing your work, you can email it to me before 5:00 today at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

After today's date, the workshop will continue to 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

December 17th: Boni Joi 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 17th, we welcome poet and Off The Park Press co-founder Boni Joi.

Boni Joi was born in North Miami Beach, Florida, raised in New Jersey, and recently discovered her lost lineage in Salem, Massachusetts. She has a MFA from Columbia University and has read her poetry at numerous venues in New Jersey, New York and elsewhere. Her first collection Before During or After Rainstorms just hit the pavement. Boston Review says: "Armed with an eye for the particular and a knack for gentle satire, Joi writes from the front lines of a doomed fight for America's spirit, but does so with a bright infectious gusto." She lives with her husband, musical chef Tobi Joi, in Brooklyn.

December 10th: Sean Patrick Mulroy 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 10th, Sean Patrick Mulroy features at Stone Soup for the first time.

 A gifted writer and an accomplished performer, Sean Patrick Mulroy (aka Sean Patrick Conlon) is a dedicated student of literature and a firm believer in the power of the oral tradition. Born and raised in Southern Virginia, the house where Sean Patrick Mulroy grew up was built in 1801 and was commandeered by the union army during the civil war to serve as a makeshift hospital. As a boy, Sean loved to peel back the carpets to show where the blood from hasty surgeries on wounded soldiers had stained the wooden floorboards. Now he writes poems.

Sean is the author of “The Pornography Diaries,” a poetic study of love and sex as seen through the lens of media study and film analysis. He also stars in a one-man show of the same name, combining original rock music and the poems from the book in a critically acclaimed multimedia tour-de-force.

Sean has performed in 10 countries on 3 continents, participated in 12 national spoken-word competitions, written and recorded 3 albums of music, and sold over a thousand books of his poetry. He has been published in both online and print journals, and has featured at literary festivals for universities and arts organizations all over the World. He is currently living in Seattle, working on the production of a new webseries.

December 3rd: Kevin Carey 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 3rd, we welcome north shore author and teacher Kevin Carey, who is celebrating his new collection.

Kevin Carey teaches Writing at Salem State University. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, recognized with an Allen Ginsburg Poetry Award, and won Best of the Net 2011. His debut poetry collection, The One Fifteen From Penn Station, was released by CavanKerry Press this year.

His co-written movie script, Peter's Song, won Best Screenplay at the New Hampshire Film festival in 2009. Other screenwriting awards include The Massachusetts Film Office Screenwriting Competition and The Woods Hole Film Festival. His one-act plays have been staged at The New Hampshire Theater Project and at The New Works Festival in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Carey is also a seventh grade basketball coach. He lives with his family in Beverly, Massachusetts.

November 26th: The Fourth Annual "Chad F***ed Up" Open Mic Extravaganza--The WINTER EDITION



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 26th...

Due to more than one scheduling error and one too many events planned in a row (i.e. Chad f***ed up AGAIN), Stone Soup was unable to secure a feature for November 26th. As a result, the night belongs to the open micers with an ultra-extended open mike segment. People always afraid of showing up late for the open mike, coming with a poem that's too long (note: this almost never happens) or not knowing whether a particular night is a good night to debut a different kind of poem, Stone Soup says "Come on down!" People who have been away are welcome. People who have never been are welcome. We want to hear from you.

11/16/12

Spoonful Double Feature!

We are pleased to release issues # 5 and 6 of Spoonful, an online journal that serves as an ongoing tribute to the Stone Soup Poetry scene.

ISSUE #5
AT LONG LAST!

Featuring:

A TRIBUTE SECTION TO BROTHER BLUE.

COLLABORATIONS BY

Valerie Loveland, Samantha Milowsky, Michael F. Gill and Chad Parenteau,

OTHER POEMS BY:

Beatriz Alba del Rio, Mike Amado, Maggie Cleveland, Nate Connors, Ry Frazier, Timothy Gager, Michael F. Gill, Marc D. Goldfinger, Paul Haypenny, Coleen T. Houlihan, Laurel Lambert, Valerie Loveland, Samantha Milowsky, Bridget Murphy, Joanna Nealon, Chad Parenteau, April Penn, Jack Powers, Dan Provost, Zvi A. Sesling, Patrick S., Luis Lazaro Tijerina, and Rafael Woolf.

ARTWORK BY:
 James Conant, (The) Marshall, David Marshall Janice Raynor, and Su Red.

And of course there's...

ISSUE #6

THE JACK POWERS TRIBUTE ISSUE

POEMS BY:

C.C. Arshagra, Christine Casner, Susie Davidson, Raffael De Gruttola, Edward S. Gault, Marc D. Goldfinger, Carolyn Gregory,  Yuri (Riq) Hospodar, Doug Holder, Walter Howard, Lawrence Kessenich, Gordan Marshall, Felipe Victor Martinez, Ryk McIntyre, Bridget Murphy, Joanna Nealon, Chad Parenteau, Bill Perrault, Su Red, Ryan "Rat" Travis, Jame Van Looy, Carol Weston and Jack Powers.

Click here to start reading.

Thank you.

Chad Parenteau, Editor
Dale Meyer-Curley, Contributing Editor


11/15/12

November 19th: The Return of Ryan "Rat" Travis 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 November 19th, we welcome back Ryan "Ratt" Travis, who celebrates his 15th year as a poet, open micer and performer.

Ryan “Rat” Travis is an accomplished poet; for 15 years he’s performed all over New England, as well as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. He is best known in the open mic scene as Rat and is considered one of the most unpredictable performers out there.  A member of the Barnum and Buddah Poetry Circus and a former member of the infamous “Collective”, he holds the dubious distinction of being kicked off stage by long distance telephone while in Kentucky with the Poetry Circus.

A self proclaimed Modern American Haiku Master, he has accomplished the daunting task of completing 1000 haiku in 100 days, which he hopes will be published someday.

Rat currently resides in Salem, MA with his beautiful wife Holly and their wonderful black cat Midnight.

11/5/12

November 7th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop



I will be leading a workshop today on November 5th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to just before 8:00 PM.  NEW LOCATION.

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 others work. If you have trouble printing your work, you can email it to me before noontime on November 7th at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

After today's date, the workshop will continue to 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


10/29/12

October 29th: Stone Soup Cancelled Tonight

There will be no feature or open mic tonight due to weather conditions.  We apologize for the inconvenience.


10/22/12

Tonight

Rusty Barnes Features Tonight!

November 12th: Douglas Bishop 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 12th, we welcome the return of Douglas Bishop.

Douglas Bishop, as a teacher, has worked with students from one to ninety, but now teaches English as a Second Language at a middle school in Lowell, Massachusetts. As a poet, he has performed in places as distant as Glasgow and Guatemala, but now appears primarily around Boston. He is known for bringing a literate eye to multi-voiced performances often incorporating musicians and singers as well as other poets. His two books, Songs in Love and The Eightfold Path (the latter includes a live recording involving nine poets and five musicians), are available through his website, bishopsky.com.

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.

10/15/12

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.

10/2/12

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

9/26/12

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.

9/19/12

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.

9/17/12

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
 

8/26/12

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.


8/25/12

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.

8/24/12

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

8/16/12

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.
 

7/26/12

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

August 20h: The Highway Poets 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 August 20th, Stone Soup celebrates Biker Poetry Month with the return of The Highway Poets.



K.Peddlar Bridges is the co-founder of the Biker Poets & Writers Association and founder of the ROADPOET online magazine. He also serves as a columnist for CT Cruise News and motorcyclegoodies.com. An occasional writing workshop teacher, his work has appeared in numerous publications and has made many radio and television appearances.





Marc D. Goldfinger has been published by Ibbetson Street Press, The Aurorean, Pegasus, The Boston Poet, Clamor magazine, Earth First! and the Crooked River Press among others. He is currently the poetry editor of Spare Change News, a paper put out for the benefit of homeless people. He is a counselor for people with Substance Use Disorders and some of his work has been used to augment courses at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. His newest works include Essays On Major Mental Illness with a Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorder or What Came First: The Chicken or The White Horse.

August 13th: Peter Fulton 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 13th, we welcome the poem and music of Peter Fulton.

Peter Fulton was born and raised in Massachusetts.  He performed his first verse drama, Death of a Worn Man, accompanied by guitar and harmonica, at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts in the mid-sixties.  He made the rounds as a singer-songwriter in Boston coffee houses in the late 60’s.  He has written a collection of poems, Boulders in Ice; a novella with a CD of songs, Silicon in Sand; a book of poems and photographs in collaboration with sculptor McAlister Coleman, Figures.  

In January, 2010, The Seventh Quarry Press published Peter’s lengthy poem How to Carve an Angel with a forward by Peter Thabit Jones, in English and Russian translation, with a CD of original accompaniments by four master musicians.  How to Carve an Angel was presented in world premier in June of 2010 at the International Poetry Festival in Swansea, Wales.  In September 2010, Peter hosted An Evening in Dylan Thomas’ Wales, a presentation of The Seventh Quarry Drama Group, on tour in New England, featuring Peter Thabbit Jones’ The Boy and the Lion’s Head and John Dotson’s Thumps or Waking up Dreaming in the 21st Century, with Lisa Miroski, as well as readings at the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire, The Farmer’s Market in Lawrence Massachusetts, the Rockport Public Library in Rockport, Massachusetts and The Grolier Poetry Book Store at Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, including American poets Ifeanyi Mankiti, Tino Villanueva and Mark Schorr.     

The Seventh Quarry Poetry Press has recently published Peter’s interactive ebook of poems, flying stones.  Peter has also written a yet-to-be performed verse drama, The Ordination.

August 6th: Tyler Smith & Lindsey Yuriko Warriner 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 6th, Michael Gill hosts another Stone Soup night, featuring two young poets, Tyler Smith and Lindsey Yuriko Warriner.

Tyler Smith was born and raised in Rochester, NY. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Interrupture, Jellyfish Magazine, and Yes, Poetry. Tyler has just completed his MFA in Boston and is know for his quirky imagery and surreal, deadpan sense of humor. He will feature during one of his last weeks in Boston before returning to New York

Lindsey Yuriko Warriner is a shepherd of short poetry. She draws inspiration from her international upbringing, and dreams of one day writing an epic poem. She has been published by Alehouse Press, and was awarded the 2010 Evvy for Outstanding Poetry by Emerson College, where she earned her BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing. This is her first feature.

6/28/12

July 30th: David Allen Sullivan 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 July 30th, we welcome David Allen Sullivan, a touring poet from the west coast, as he reasds from his latest collection.

David Allen Sullivan's Every Seed of the Pomegranate is a series of poems about the war in Iraq which gives voice not only to the US and Iraqi soldiers caught up in the conflict, but the children, mothers, booksellers, and various civilians who are also affected in both countries. The author teaches English and Film at Cabrillo Community College in Santa Cruz, California, where he edits the Porter Gulch Literary with his students, and serves on the Veterans Task Force Committee. Two poems from his first book, Strong-Armed Angels, were read on The Writer’s Almanac by Garrison Keillor. Another two recent poems were selected by Alberto Rios and recorded as part of the permanent public art and poetry project Passage, in Phoenix, Arizona. 

July 23rd: Judson Evans 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 July 23rd, we welcome Judson Evans, who will be reading from his long poem, "Monologue."

Judson Evans is the Director of Liberal Arts at The Boston Conservatory. He teaches courses on utopian societies, ancient Greek culture, and haiku and related Japanese poetic forms. He has been involved in a wide range of collaborative experiments with composers, choreographers, dancers, and other poets. He has published poems most recently in Volt, 1913:a journal of forms, Amethyst Arsenic, and Epoch. He is a member of Off the Park Press Writers' Collective and has poems in three of the press's recent anthologies of poetry responding to contemporary painters ( New Smoke: An Anthology of Poetry Inspired by Neo Rauch [2009], Viva La Difference: Poems in Response to Peter Saul [2010] , The Triumph of Poverty: Poems Inspired by Nicole Eisenman [due out in winter 2012] and was chosen as an emerging poet for The Association of American Poets in 2007 by John Yau.

July 16th: Blaine Hebbel 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 July 16th, we welcome poet and activist Blaine Hebbel for his first Stone Soup feature.

Poet, activist and Ipswich native, Blaine Hebbel he has been fascinated by the “American Voice” for over thirty five years and has been fighting social injustice since the 60s. He has read as a member of the Poets’ Mimeo Cooperative in Burlington, VT and on the Poemair show on KUOR FM, the University of Redlands, CA station. He is a member of the OccuPoets and performs his poetry at the Walnut Street Coffee Café, Stone Soup in Cambridge and every other venue he can find. He has published two chapbooks, Poems From the Shore and The Occupy Poems.

6/26/12

July 9th: Diane Sahms-Guarnieri and g emil reutter 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 July 9th, we welcome back Philadelphia based poets Diane Sahms-Guarnieri and g. emil reutter.


Diane Sahms-Guarnieri is a native Philadelphia poet and currently the poetry editor of The Fox Chase Review. She has served on the editorial board of Philadelphia Stories magazine and founded The Center City Poets Workshop and The Tenth Muse Workshop. Her poetry has been published in The Southern Ocean Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, Autumn Sky Poetry, Many Mountains Moving, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Fox Chase Review, Folio, Philadelphia Stories, Mid-West Cultural Council, Mad Poets Review, and Limited Editions among others. Her latest release is Images of Being. Nicolette Milholin of the Montgomery County News said of Images of Being, “Like a well-written memoir, Sahms-Guarnieri’s work shoots straight to the center of human experience instead of hiding pain under a false fabric of pretension.” Barbara Bialick of the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene said, “To Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, images are an all-important way she remembers people from her childhood and on into motherhood. You can visit her on the web at: http://dianesahmsguarnieri.wordpress.com/

g emil reutter writes fiction and poetry in the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia where he founded the Fox Chase Reading Series and The Fox Chase Review. His work has been published widely in the small and electronic presses. Eight collections of his work have been published. You can visit him on the web at www.gemilreutter-author.com


 

July 2nd: Krysten Hill and Karen Locascio 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 July 2nd, we welcome another double header hosted by Michael F. Gill, featuring Krysten Hill and Karen Locascio.

Krysten Hill is a third year MFA student at UMass-Boston from Kansas City, Missouri. She received her BFA in Creative Writing from Stephens College where she became involved in Women’s Studies and activism. Her mother poets include: Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and Patricia Smith. She believes that a poem should live in whatever skin it feels good in. Her greatest desire is to form a collective of women poets who travel around teaching the power of voice to the girls on front porches who wonder what that aching in their chests is all about.

Karen Locascio is an MFA candidate in poetry at UMass Boston where she interned with Hanging Loose Press. She's had work in Amethyst Arsenic, has workshopped at Bread Loaf and Tin House, and occasionally reads at various Boston area venues. For her summer vacation, she's attempting to put together a chapbook and to find employment that's more consistent than temping, all while reading like there's no tomorrow. Karen proudly hails from the Jersey Shore and currently resides in Dorchester. She always thought putting together a bio would be a lot more fun than it actually is