April 1st: Dennis Daly 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 April 1st, we kick off National Poetry Month with a feature by Dennis Daly.

Dennis Daly lives in Salem, Massachusetts. He is included in a chapbook with two other poets published by Northeasten University Press, entitled 10X3. He has been nominated for a 2012 Pushcart Prize. Ibbetson Street Press published The Custom House, his first full length book of poetry in June, 2012. His second book, a verse translation of Sophocles’ Ajax, was recently published by Wilderness House Press. Daly’s third book is set in Salem Massachusetts, and it will shortly be seeking a publisher. 

March 25th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workshop today on March 25th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to just before 8:00 PM at the 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 Monday at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

Those unable to attend that are interested in future dates please email me.

March 25th: Lo Galluccio 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 March 25th, we welcome a feature by current finalist in the Cambridge Poet Populist race, Lo Galluccio.  

Lo Galluccio is a vocal artist, memoirist and poet whose roots lie in the Lower East Side of NYC, though she is a Cambridge native and a Harvard graduate. Lo has released three books in Boston, since returning in 2001: “Hot Rain,” a chapbook with illustrations put out by Ibbetson St. Press, “Sarasota VII” a prose-poem memoir published by Cervena Barva Press and “Terrible Baubles” a chapbook on Propaganda Press. Some of the poems in “Terrible Baubles” were set to music or made into songs for a CD released on Studio 234 records this past year, with piano by Eric Zinman and cello by Mobius artist Jane Wang. Lo has two other vocal CDs – “Being Visited” on the Knitting Factory label in NYC, and “Spell on You” self-released in Boston, an avante jazz and blues CD. Her CDs are available at www.cdbaby.com, on Itunes and Rhapsody and can be heard on Spotify.

Her written work is available at the Grolier bookstore. She is currently a finalist for the Poet Populist position in Cambridge and has a reading with Tom Yuill, the other finalist, at that delirium inducing dive bar, the Cantab, on April 3rd at 9 pm. Her websites are www.logalluccio.weebly.com and www.logalluccio.alalla.com.

March 18th: Da Butcha Shoppe Returns 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 March 18th, Stone Soup features the return of Da Butcha 'shoppe.

Da Butcha 'shoppe rose from the ashes of The Collective and became the premier Poetry Performance Troupe of New England with their ongoing production of "The Alien Chronicles," the story of Captain Quawn and his crew stranded on Earth when their spaceship, the Smada Salguod, crashed in the northern Maine woods. The crash was witnessed by an Air Force officer, Major Warren Pease, who now pursues the the extraterrestrial band as they attempt to escape from Earth as well as plot world domination, and human subjugation via a chain of porn stores that sells adult toys that control the mind.

Cpt Quawn speaks in Poetry, while Mj Pease uses the lingo of the military.

Da Butcha 'shoppe features, Mr. Ethan Mackler on Bass Guitar, Alan Wilbar as, Mj. Pease, and, Da Butcha, as, the Alien.

Da Butcha 'shoppe, the best thing to happen to Poetry since the invention of the microphone.

March 11th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workshop today on March 11th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to just before 8:00 PM at the 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 Monday at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

Those unable to attend that are interested in future dates please email me at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

March 11th: Chris Warner & Sue Savoy 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 March 11th, Michael F. Gill hosts another Stone Soup night and welcomes Stone Soup features Sue Savoy and Chris Warner.

Sue Savoy has been a popular regular at Boston’s Cantab Lounge for the last decade and featured all over New England, including Cantab, Tapestry of Voices, Emerson College, Boston University, Worcester, Manchester, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine. This is her third feature at Stone Soup.

Chris Warner is an emerging poet and sometime-regular at the Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge. She is the author of a micro-chapbook, Strokes (Mostly) in Silence, and her work has appeared in The Muddy River Poetry Review, Bagels with the Bards Anthology, Writer’s Digest Annual Poetry Contest Collection, and Ibbetson Street. She was selected to attend the 2012 Southampton Writer’s Conference as a contributor in poetry, with Mary Karr, and her poem, “Engulfed” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2013).

A graduate of the Harvard University School of Education, Chris teaches yoga, meditation, and mindfulness-based core strength classes in West Boxford, MA, where she lives with her husband, Mike Maguire, her Himalayan, Pumpkin, and with Sake, the beloved Japanese Chin. She has begun to appear as the feature poet at venues throughout the greater Boston area, and writes, every day—‘ass in seat’—and works, every day, on letting go of attachment to outcome.

March 4th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workshop today on March 4th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to just before 8:00 PM at the 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 Monday at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

Those unable to attend that are interested in future dates please email me at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

March 4th: Bill Perrault's Birthday Bash With Walter Howard and R. Wayne Nickerson

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 4th, we celebrate the birthday of Stone Soup's own Bill Perrault as he reads with friends.

Bill Perrault has been published in Spoonful, Out of the Blue Writers Unite, and various web pages, and if you are lucky enough to be on his e-mail list, the poetry is Hot Off The Presses! Bill has featured, performed and sometimes hosted at open mikes all over NewEngland--including: COOL COFFEE in Biddeford, ME, Bestseller’s Cafe inMedford, MA his Walden Pond Series and, of course, Out Of the BlueGallery. Bill is a staple figure at the Gallery in Cambridge, MA and has faithfully supported the events they hold there every day/night of the week-- Stone Soup and all.

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. 

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." 

MONDAY IS THE LAST DAY TO SEND SUBMISSIONS FOR SPOONFUL #7

Current Spoonful Deadline

We are accepting submissions for issue #7 between January 25th and February 25th (with an eye on going online for March).

Submission Guidelines

Spoonful currently accepts by email submission only. Please send 3-5 poems of various forms and length as Word attachments with the word "Submission: Poetry" in the subject heading to stonesouppoetry@yahoo.com before February 25th.

Short works of fiction and non-fiction will also be considered. We are particularly looking for essays that touch on Stone Soup's history or the history of the Boston Poetry scene. Please send an inquiry email describing your prose piece and its length before sending it with the word "Proposed Longer Piece" in the subject heading.

Artwork is also being accepted, though moving forward, there will be fewer pieces accepted.  If your artwork or photography is meant to accompany a submitted poem or prose piece, please let us know in the body of the email.

Illustrators, photographers, and artists of any kind are encouraged to send up to 10 JPEG submissions to the same address with the words "Submission: Artwork" in the subject heading to stonesouppoetry_at_yahoo.com. The artwork's title and medium (if any) should be part of the JPEG file name (example, "Summer, Windphotograph.jpg").

Important

With your submissions, please also include as an attachment document a 2-5 sentence bio (longer bios will be edited at the editors' discretion and without notice).  Please include notice of submissions sent simultaneously to other journals.

A Note On Prior Publication

Our editorial eye will be toward unpublished work but we will considered previously published poems on the basis of merit and/or the previous source (a defunct web journal, a prelude to a larger, new project, etc).

We encourage that you be forthright with a poem's publication history, if any. Spoonful retains the right to reject and remove from our site, without notice, works with previous publication credits intentionally omitted by the author.

Holding Work

Due to our small staff and resources, Spoonful generally does not carry over unaccepted work from one reading period to another. In other words, if the work is rejected for the Winter issue, it will normally not be carried over to be considered for the Spring issue. On the rare occasion that a poem is carried over to be considered for the next reading period, the poet will always be notified. Otherwise, unaccepted submissions will be deleted before the next reading period begins. A poet is always welcome to resubmit any previously rejected work to be considered for a new reading period.

February 25th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workshop today on February 25th, to take place before Stone Soup Poetry from 6:00 PM to just before 8:00 PM at the 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 Monday at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

Those unable to attend that are interested in future dates please email me at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

February 25th: Black Women Writers Celebrate the Extra MoJo! Anthology

 

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 February 25th, we celebrate the release of Extra Mojo with its contributors, including editor Mignon Ariel King.

Extra MoJo!, the first book of Hidden Charm Press (HCP), is a print collection of poems, memoir, and social commentary essays selected from the first ten issues of the online journal MoJo!

The anthology features 20 writers’ work. The online journal was founded in 2008 to encourage a writing-for-publication focus for the MAPS-ONE workshops run by Boston-born writer Mignon Ariel King (the HCP publisher who also edits MoJo! online).

READERS INCLUDE: Toni Bee, Mignon Ariel King, and Robin G. White

February 18th: Dawn Gabriel 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 February 18th, we welcome Dawn Gabriel back to our podium.

Dawn Gabriel, a sometime co-host at the Cantab poetry slam, has been writing and performing poetry for almost 20 years.  The Worcester Telegram and Gazette has called her an “extraordinarily captivating performer, marrying engaging language and imagery with an outrageous sense of humor and comic timing.” 

Dawn toured with Lollapalooza in 1994, appeared on the finals stage at the 1997 National Poetry Slam as a member of the fourth place Worcester team, and has been on 3 other national slam teams (Providence 98, Boston 05, and Boston 06).  She has performed at the Seattle Poetry Festival, the Boston Globe Book Fair, and First Night in three cities.  Her poetry has been published in numerous anthologies, including the 20 Years at the Cantab Anthology, and Knocking at the Door: Approaching the Other, published by Birch Bench Press. 

February 11th: Nathan & Jonah Comstock 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 February 11th, Michael F. Gill hosts the performance duo of Nathan and Johan Comstock.

Nathan and Jonah Comstock have been writing and performing, together and separately, since age four. In college, both attended the College of Wooster in Ohio and studied English, Theatre, and Philosophy in various combinations. They have been regular performers at the Cantab Lounge for a little over a year, performing sometimes silly, sometimes heartfelt poetry about such topics as Gender, Family, Science, and Star Trek. They are excited to be featuring together at Stone Soup.

February 4th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workshop today on February 4th, 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 Monday at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

Those unable to attend that are interested in future dates please email me at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

--Chad Parenteau

February 4th: James Van Looy 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 February 4th, we welcome back Stone Soup fixture, James Van Looy.


James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s and performed with the Mirage Mime Theater from 1980 to 1987 during which time he was also taught classes offered by Mirage. From 1987 to 1988 he was a member of the Collective Mime. His poetry has been anthologized in Out of the Blue Writers Unite. He has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992 and regularly reads at Bay State Prison as part of their poetry program. Currently, Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop. In 2008, Van Looy reunited with the performance troupe Cosmic Spelunker Theatre alongside Ian Thal and William J. Barnum to perform for Stone Soup.

NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR SPOONFUL #7

Current Spoonful Deadline

We are accepting submissions for issue #7 between January 25th and February 25th (with an eye on going online for March).

Submission Guidelines

Spoonful currently accepts by email submission only. Please send 3-5 poems of various forms and length as Word attachments with the word "Submission: Poetry" in the subject heading to stonesouppoetry@yahoo.com before February 25th.

Short works of fiction and non-fiction will also be considered. We are particularly looking for essays that touch on Stone Soup's history or the history of the Boston Poetry scene. Please send an inquiry email describing your prose piece and its length before sending it with the word "Proposed Longer Piece" in the subject heading.

Artwork is also being accepted, though moving forward, there will be fewer pieces accepted.  If your artwork or photography is meant to accompany a submitted poem or prose piece, please let us know in the body of the email.

Illustrators, photographers, and artists of any kind are encouraged to send up to 10 JPEG submissions to the same address with the words "Submission: Artwork" in the subject heading to stonesouppoetry_at_yahoo.com. The artwork's title and medium (if any) should be part of the JPEG file name (example, "Summer, Windphotograph.jpg").

Important

With your submissions, please also include as an attachment document a 2-5 sentence bio (longer bios will be edited at the editors' discretion and without notice).  Please include notice of submissions sent simultaneously to other journals.


A Note On Prior Publication

Our editorial eye will be toward unpublished work but we will considered previously published poems on the basis of merit and/or the previous source (a defunct web journal, a prelude to a larger, new project, etc).

We encourage that you be forthright with a poem's publication history, if any. Spoonful retains the right to reject and remove from our site, without notice, works with previous publication credits intentionally omitted by the author.

Holding Work

Due to our small staff and resources, Spoonful generally does not carry over unaccepted work from one reading period to another. In other words, if the work is rejected for the Winter issue, it will normally not be carried over to be considered for the Spring issue. On the rare occasion that a poem is carried over to be considered for the next reading period, the poet will always be notified. Otherwise, unaccepted submissions will be deleted before the next reading period begins. A poet is always welcome to resubmit any previously rejected work to be considered for a new reading period.

January 28th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workshop today on January 28th, 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

Those unable to attend that are interested in future dates please email me at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

--Chad Parenteau

January 28th: M.P. Carver 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.  Join us on January 28th for the first ever full-length feature of north shore poet M.P. Carver.

M.P. Carver is a 26 year old poet from Salem, MA. She graduated from Brown University where she concentrated in East Asian Studies with a focus on Japan. She works a day job with an energy consulting company, but in her real life she's a poet. Her work has been featured in the inaugural volume of Zig Zag Folios, in an art exhibit at the Mass State Poetry Festival, and in Hospital Drive, the University of Virginia's online medical literary journal. Her upcoming first book, Angry Little Poems, is being published by YesNO Press.

January 21st: Toni Bee Features

Photo by Phillip Brooks

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 January 21st, we welcome poet populist Toni Bee for her first Stone Soup feature.

Toni Bee is the 2011-2013 Poet Populist of Cambridge, MA. She is a student and photographer who Mothers her daughter and writes poetry whenever possible. Lately, Song and Music show their pretty faces at her performances and Toni will soon publish a book…very soon. Bee currently holds the honorable position of Artist Fellow at Citi Perfoming Arts Center in Boston. Bee feels she, “must be theatrical…” since she works within the walls of ‘The Wang’ and ‘The Shubert’ theatres. Toni is very excited that her Other American Cousins – the Slam Poets – will be back in town by spring for National Poetry Slam 2013. When Toni grows up she wants to keep bees and, “sell some of the honey.”

January 14th: Emily Duggan & Shira Rubenstein 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.  Michael F. Gill returns on January 14th to host Stone Soup with two new  young poets Emily Duggan and Shira Rubenstein.

Emily Duggan is a member of Brandeis University's 2013 slam team who also performs in her school's improv and sketch comedy circuits. Her hobbies include (and are limited to) sleeping. Emily wants to get better. 
 
Shira Rubenstein is an upstate New York native and the youngest of a large clan of artists, bakers, globetrotters, and polyglots. She is currently a senior at Brandeis University pursuing a degree in Creative Writing. She can be reached at shira.rubenstein@gmail.com.

January 7th: Pre-Stone Soup Poetry Writing Workshop

I will be leading a workshop today on January 7th, 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

Those unable to attend that are interested in future dates please email me at chadpoetforhire@yahoo.com

January 7th: Sam Cha 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 January 7th, we kick off our first feature of 2013 with the return of Sam Cha.

Sam Cha is an MFA candidate at UMass Boston, in his third year. His poems, translations, and essays can be found in apt, ASIA, Amethyst Arsenic, Anderbo, Banipal, Opium Online, Printer's Devil Review, and Radius, among other places. He was a finalist for the 2007 Anderbo poetry prize and the 2012 Memorious Art Song Contest, and he was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize at UMass Boston in 2011 and 2012. He lives in Cambridge with his family.

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?)”

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.

Tonight

Welcome, Sean Patrick Mulroy.

Tonight!

Kevin Carey Features.

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.

Tonight: Ryan "Rat" Travis

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

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.

Tonight!

Michael F. Gill hosts Douglas Bishop!

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

October 29th: Stone Soup Cancelled Tonight

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

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.

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