Poetry in the Neighborhood
We have an ongoing Poetry Series, in collaboration with Gallery DeForest, entitled Poetry in the Neighborhood. The series runs from November through May, on the third Thursday of the month, with readings by local Poets and Writers.
As Featured in Ashland Daily Tidings, read about the series in the article National Poetry Month
Please join us for this inspiring series showcasing the talent of local poets!
Schedule of Readings 2013
January-April 7:00 - 8:30 PM
POETRY PERFORMED !
Saturday April 13, 3:00 to 4:30
Poetry Performed! The Poeteers (Michael Holstein, Martha Fitzgerald, Maria Ciamaichelo, Irv Green, and Joseph T. Suste) will perform, (that's right, not just read or recite, but perform!) a variety of traditional and original poetry at Illahe Studios and Gallery, Saturday, April 13, from 3-4-ish p.m. Performance poetry uses the tools of theater (props, costumes, body language, etc.) to bring poetry alive. This is a must-see event for poetry lovers, poetry likers, and poetry undecideds.
Thursday, April 18, 2013, 7:00 PM
John Daniel, Esther Kamkar
Born in South Carolina and raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., John Daniel has lived in the West since 1966. After attending and dropping out of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, he worked as a logger, railroad inspector, rock climbing instructor, hod carrier, and poet-in-the-schools. He began to write poetry and prose in the 1970s while living on a ranch in south-central Oregon. In 1982 he received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford University, where he then took an M.A. in English/Creative Writing and taught five years as a Jones Lecturer in Poetry and a lecturer in Freshman English. He now makes his living as a writer and itinerant teacher in workshops and writer-in-residence positions around the country.
Esther Kamkar's poetry is as changing as the ocean, as passionate as a pomegranate tree in blossom, as deep and clear as a pool in a mountain stream. Her poems are lovingly crafted, utterly honest, full of evocative imagery and awakenings that bounce around in our consciousness – to be enjoyed again and again, like a favorite book or work of art. Esther Kamkar's wish? That her words may inspire you and speak to your own poetic and artistic voice. Go ahead, immerse yourself and enjoy.
:: John Waterman - 2005
POETRY PERFORMED !
Poetry Performed! The Poeteers (Michael Holstein, Martha Fitzgerald, Maria Ciamaichelo, Irv Green, and Joseph T. Suste) will perform, (that's right, not just read or recite, but perform!) a variety of traditional and original poetry at Illahe Gallery, Saturday, April 13, from 3-4-ish p.m. Performance poetry uses the tools of theater (props, costumes, body language, etc.) to bring poetry alive. This is a must-see event for poetry lovers, poetry likers, and poetry undecideds.
Special Poetry Event
Thursday, June 13, 2013, 7:00 P.M.
David Meltzer and Julie Rogers
DAVID MELTZER
A poet at age 11, David Meltzer began his literary career during the Beat heyday in San Francisco. At the age of 20 he recorded his poetry with jazz in Los Angeles and also became a singer-songwriter and guitarist for several bands during the 1960s. Meltzer came to literary prominence with inclusion of his work in the anthology, The New American Poetry 1945-1960. He is the author of many volumes of poetry including Arrows: Selected Poetry 1957 – 1992; No Eyes: Lester Young; Beat Thing; and David’s Copy . He has also published fiction and essays, and has edited numerous anthologies and collections of interviews such as The Secret Garden: An Anthology in the Kabbalah, Reading Jazz, Writing Jazz, and San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets. His most recent book, When I Was A Poet, # 60 in the Pocket Poet’s Series published by City Lights, came out in 2011. Two-Way Mirror, A Poetry Notebook, will be the text for his Ashland class in June and will be reprinted by City Lights next year. David Meltzer taught in the undergraduate and graduate programs for poetics and humanities at New College in San Francisco for thirty years, and was given the Bay Area Guardian's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. In 2012 he was nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry. Visit the website at www.meltzerville.com .
David Meltzer and Julie Rogers married in 2011, live in Oakland, California, and perform their work together in the Bay Area and elsewhere.
“David Meltzer is a hidden adept, one of the secret treasures on our planet. Great poet, musician, comic; mystic unsurpassed, performer with few peers.” Diane diPrima, former SF Poet Laureate
“One of the greats of post-World War Two San Francisco poets and musicians. He brought music to poetry and poetry to music!” Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beat Poet, author and founder of City Lights, San Francisco
JULIE ROGERS
Julie Rogers grew up in the SF East Bay, began writing at age 12 and reading her poetry in San Francisco cafes in the late 1970’s. Her poems were first published in 1980, including five chapbooks. She has read her work on public radio and television, and at many venues in California and Oregon. She's participated in many literary events and readings in the Rogue Valley, having previously been a resident for over twenty years. In 2007, Vimala published her Buddhist hospice manual, Instructions for the Transitional State. Her work has been featured in various journals and anthologies such as Beatitude – Golden Anniversary 1959 – 2009, Poetry Flash, Big Scream, The Cafe Review, the Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, the Jefferson Monthly, and others. In 2012, her first selected collection of poetry spanning thirty years of work, House Of The Unexpected, was published by Wild Ocean Press, and it is currently being considered for the Northern California Book Award for Poetry. Visit the website at www.julrogers.com.
“Few poems are written as close to the heart -- no extra words just soul meanings…” Michael McClure, Beat Poet, author, novelist, artist
“Surpassing a consistency of sensitivity, Julie Rogers reveals that she writes with political and personal vision and can make a truly visionary leap of imagination, the brilliance of which resonates through all the love poems.” Jack Hirschman, Former San Francisco Poet Laureate, author, and artist
Both lucid and heart-felt, Julie Rogers’ words travel – and illumine - the way.” Jane Hirshfield, editor of ‘Women In Praise Of The Sacred’, 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women and author of other titles
2009
Spring 2009 poetry readings
Thursday April 16, 2009, 7:00 P.M.
Amy Miller, Suzanne Petermann, Liz Robinson, Joseph Federico
Sunday April 19, 2009, 3:00 P.M.
Michael Holstein: Guanajuato Poems
Friday, May 8, 2009, 7:00 P.M.
Robert McDowell, Julie Rogers
Thursday May 21, 2009, 7:00 P.M.
Kathleen Meagher, Tandren Alexander, accompanied by music
2009-2010
2009-2010 Poetry Readings
Third Thursday of the Month
Thursday Nov 19th, 2009 7:00 PM
Darrelle Cavan
Marcy Greene
Gaea Yudron
Thursday December 17th, 2009 7:00 PM
Stephanie Butler
Steve Dieffenbaucher
Derek Pyle
2010
Thursday January 14th, 2010 7:00 PM
Jonah Bornstein
Liz Robinson
Joe Federico
Thursday, Feb 18, 2010 7:00 PM
Michael Jenkins
Susan Rouzie
Amy McLennan
Thursday, March 18, 2010 7:00 PM
Ines Diaz
Amy Miller
Petra Whitaker
Help us celebrate National Poetry Month with a special reading
Wednesday April 7, 2010 7:00 PM
Michael Holstein
in conjunction with National Poetry Month and our Artist Book Exhibit
introducing excerpts from his new book "Storied Memoirs"
Thursday, April 15, 2010 7:00 PM
Susanne Petermann
Pepper Trail
Gary Lark
Dori Appel
Thursday, May 20, 2010 7:00 PM
Kathleen Meagher
Michiko Wisdom
Steve Berman
musical accompaniment with the viola da gamba, chinese lute and flute
November 11, 2010, 7:00 PM
Marcy Greene, Poet, reading from "The Chemistry of Buddha's Brain"
Joseph Thompson, Classical Guitarist
Kathleen Meagher reading from her new book, "Facing the Light"
2011
NOTE CHANGE OF DATE!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 7:00 PM
Liz Vesecky
John Fisher-Smith
Joyce
Epstein
Thursday February 17, 2011, 7:00 PM
Charlotte Abernathy
James V. Anderson
Jay Schroder
Thursday, March 17, 2011, 7:00 PM
Nancy Bringhurst
Quinton Hallet
Erik Muller
Thursday April 21, 2011, 7:00 PM
Jessica Lamb
Donna Henderson
Julie Weber
James V. Anderson
A special added reading:
note change of date to Saturday
Saturday, May 21, 2011
7:00 to 8:30 PM
Allan Peterson
John Witte
2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 (Note Wednesday reading)
Carol Brockfield, Cecelia Hagen, Judson Hyatt
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Dave Harvey, Morgan Hunt, Ashland High School "Voices of the Young"
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Nancy Carol Moody, Sharon Munson, Linda Barnes
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Carter McKenzie, Kylan Rice, Anita Sullivan
2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 7:00 P.M.
Miles Frode, Marisa Petersen, Angela Decker, Richard Lehnert
Miles Frode is a 28 year old lifetime poet and 3rd generation artist who started speaking poetry before he could write it and recently, in the last 8 years, has been merging his new influences of free-style hip/hop and spoken word.
Marisa Petersen is a retired teacher who taught Spanish in New Mexico, New York and Oregon, and English in Romania. Her poems have appeared inThe Jefferson Monthly, Oregon Poetic Voices, andTurn, the forthcoming themed anthology from Uttered Chaos press. She and her husband live in Medford where they tend their organic gardens… but they keep their passports current and continue to explore other longitudes and latitudes each year after making the last batch of blackberry jam and gifting the last zucchinis.
Angela Decker has lived in Ashland for over 8 years. Her poems have appeared inThe Jefferson Monthly, Comstock Review, Hip Mama, The Wisconsin Reviewand others. She has taught writing and literature in California, and this fall taught poetry writing at SOU. She is a freelance writer, and a columnist for the Ashland Daily Tidings.
Richard Lehnert’s first book of poems,A Short History of the Usual, was published in 2003 by The Backwaters Press; his second book,The Only Empty Place, is as yet unpublished. From 1987 to 1996 he was the music editor ofStereophilemagazine, and since then has worked as a freelance copyeditor and music critic. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry, from Warren Wilson College in 1997. His work has been published inPoetry,The Southern Review,The Sun,Prairie Schooner,Mid-American Review,Barrow Street, and many other journals. He lived in New Mexico for 30 years, and moved to Ashland in June 2011.
Thursday February 21, 2013, 7:00 PM
Joan Peterson, Linda Barnes, Robert Pesich
Joan Peterson retired from teaching writing classes at Rogue Community College several years ago. She lives on her farm in Applegate where she has room for gardening, and walking. Sometimes she even has time to write a poem. She has published her work inINTRICATE HOMELAND (2000), VOICES OF TH E SISKIYOUS (2006)WEST WIND REVIEW, ROGUES’ GALLERY, OREGON ENGLISH JOURNAL, FIREWEEDand various other literary magazines. She has one chapbook of poems,BRILLIANT BY THE DOOR (1999).
Linda Barnes has degrees in English and Psychology, and is a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator and a Certified Facilitator for the Journal to the Self® Program. She is a retired personal counselor who continues her work in poetry therapy and journal faciliation in private groups and on line with the Therapeutic Writing Institute. She serves on the Board of the Federation of Biblio-Poetry Therapy.
Linda has won several awards for her poetry and is included in the Oregon Poetic Voices Project on line. She is a founding member of the Rogue Valley Chapter of the Oregon Poetry Association, and has coordinated the annual Southern Oregon Poetry Prize for the Downtowners Coffee House monthly reading group for eight years.
Her book on the benefits of teaching expressive writing at the community college will be released in 2014. She has just returned from presenting poetry workshops at the Southcoast Writers’ Conference in Gold Beach, Oregon.
Robert Pesich is the editor for Swan Scythe Press. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in The Redwood Coast Review, The Bitter Oleander, Slipstream, Skidrow Penthouse and Círculo de Poesía (Mexico City) among others.
He was a finalist for the 2011 SLS Unified Contest. In 2009, he was awarded the Littoral Press Poetry Prize and fellowships from Djerassi and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
In 2004, he was awarded an artist fellowship from Arts Council Silicon Valley. In 2001, he authored the chapbook Burned Kilim (Dragonfly Press). A second collection of poetry, Night Sutures, is in submission. He works at Stanford University Medical Center as a research assistant in the Department of Biochemistry and lives near San José with his wife and their two sons.
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 7:00 PM
Judith Barrington, Toni Hanner
Judith Barrington is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Horses and the Human Soul, which was selected by the Oregon State Library for "150 Books for the Sesquicentennial" (from among books by Oregon writers, 1836 – 2009).
Two recent poetry chapbooks include the Robin Becker Award-winning, Lost Lands, and her memoir, Lifesaving, won the Lambda Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award. She teaches for the University of Alaska’s MFA program and at workshops across the USA, Britain and Spain.
Judith has been announced as the winner of Ireland's 2013 prestigious Gregory O'Donoghue Prize.
http://www.judithbarrington.com
Toni Hanner’s poems appear in Yellow Medicine Review, MARGIE, Alehouse, Calyx, Gargoyle, Tiger’s Eye, and others. She is a member of Lane Literary Guild’s Red Sofa Poets, the Eugene/Springfield Unit of Oregon Poetry Association, and Port Townsend’s Madrona Writers. Moonmusic, poems by Hanner and collaborator Connie Beitler, was published by Wellstone Press in 2000. She had two books published in 2012 — The Ravelling Braid from Tebot Bach, and a chapbook of surrealist poems, Gertrude, from Traprock Books. Gertrude is a finalist for the 2013 Oregon Book Award for poetry.
Hanner’s poetry ranges from the wildly experimental (her poem “,,” won a First Place in the OPA’s spring 2011 contest) to straight narrative poems. She has written a series of persona poems about “Orange Dave” and loves to play with forms, particularly the sonnet and pantoum.
Her current favorite poets are Laura Kasischke, Zach Schomberg, and her partner-for-life, Michael Hanner.
An additional workshop by Judith Barrington
Writing the Body, a workshop with Judith Barrington Friday, March 22, 2013 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM; cost is $75.00 (limited to 12 participants)
This workshop will focus on letting your writing emerge through physical experiences. You may want to write directly about the body—its pleasures, its brokenness, its limitations or its particular ways of knowing. Or you may choose to recall experiences that you’ve never looked at from the point of view of your feet or your navel—moments that you never thought of as being about the body, but that will now include the physical. We’ll look at writings by writers who have attempted this and try out for ourselves, some new perspectives. As time permits we’ll give feedback for your work in progress.