September 29: Lissa Piercy 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 September 29, Stone Soup continues its focus on the group Flatline Poetry with the final single-member feature, Lissa Piercy, before all four members perform on the same stage at Stone Soup on October 27.

Lissa Piercy is a Boston based performance poet whose favorite thing to do is collaborate with other performers. She is a member and co founder of Flatline Poetry, winner of the 2013 Poetry Award for Best Poetry Group, and a member of the 2014 Lizard Lounge Poetry Slam Team. In addition, Lissa is a MassLEAP trained teaching artist and the creator of PWP (Performance With Purpose), a conference that brings together college students across Boston for workshops and dialogue around the idea that performance can facilitate change and action. Lissa's passion for poetry has brought her to stages across New England and beyond, including an open mic she hosts at the Opportunity Collaboration conference in Ixtapa, Mexico.

In addition to performing poetry and teaching, Lissa has joined forces with individuals across various fields to use poetry as the catalyst for conversation within schools, conferences, and even religious services.  Her friends and fans guarantee that you have never met another performer with as much energy, passion, heart, and grit both on and off the stage.

September 22: Deborah M. Priestly 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 22, we start to day good bye to 106 Prospect Street as the gallery prepares to move to its new location.  Welcome Gallery co-founder Deb Priestly to the podium to begin this process.
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. For years, she ran the gallery's Saturday Nght reading series called Open Bark. 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.

September 15: Mascha Kaleko Presented by David H. Agee and Lee Varon

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 Monday, September 15, Lee Varon and David Agee will introduce the German poet, Mascha Kaleko using her own poems in English translation to illustrate and illuminate the events of her turbulent life.

Mascha Kaleko is counted in Germany as their most famous female poet of the twentieth century. She is virtually unknown here as her work is totally in German language.This presentation will introduce her to an English speaking audience.

Coming from obscurity she started writing in the Berlin literary scene in 1928. Within a brief space her poetry was appearing as a weekly feature on the front pages of Berlin daily newspapers. Wildly successful, in two years her two first books sold some 10,000 copies. When the Nazis discovered she was Jewish her writing was forbidden and her books confiscated and burned. Her personal life was marred by an unpleasant divorce, and although she and her husband managed to flee into exile in America, even after the war the Nazi presence continued to damaged her career.

Throughout, her poems illuminate this life in emotional language understood by all. They speak meaningfully to experiences her listeners everywhere easily relate to, and she never pulls her punches. They range in emotion from meltingly beautiful to to pointedly revealing to wildly amusing and beyond. They are also marvelous works of art, wonderful to hear.

It's time American audiences become aware of her.

David H. Agee is a professional anthropologist who has created video investigations in prose and poetry of the varieties of human experience in strained, tragic, even life-threatening situations.  Some come from his own life, others build on the experiences of others.  Some vignettes introduced at Stone Soup or The Explorers Club include the following:

The Monkey; Minor murder in the Borneo jungle;
Birdsongs; The brief lives and poetry of children murdered in Auschwitz.
The Bone Picker; From the Choctaw Trail of Tears.   
Ronnie Briscoe;  A tale of true bravery in 1943.
The Memory of her Face;  A vehicular, Midsummer’s Night --- mare.
Who's the Terrorist now? A political satire of the 21st century.

Lee Varon lives in Cambridge and writes poetry and fiction. Recently her work has been published in Prick of the Spindle, Willow Review, Sliver of Stone and Spare Change News. She reads he work on Mondays at Stone Soup.

September 8: Ron Goba 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 September 8, we have the return of poet Ron Goba, who will be reading from a selection of poems specifically written for the night.

Ron Goba is the author of such collections as The Music Box, The Custom of Quoting Someone, and Collage As Silkscreen. For several years, he was known as the doorman for the weekly Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab. In 2011, he released Swan Song, a small collection of poems, to coincide with his reading at the Cantab on the eve of his birthday.  In 2012, his work was included in Songs of Innocence and Sam Adams, a collection of poems co-authored by Prabakar T. Rajan.