we’ve been waiting for this

It has been a long time since Jack McCarthy left the room. For those who have been standing slack-jawed with loss since January 2013, news of the publication of a collection of Jack’s lost poems is long awaited.

Now, thanks to Jessica Lohafer and Write Bloody Publishing, Allow the Light is available for pre-order through Village Books (and probably through an independent bookstore near you). The book will be published October 15, 2020, much anticipated.

Everett Poetry Night takes it outside

Everett Poetry Night (Everett, Washington), home of weekly spoken words since 2006, is taking poetry to the park. Ghost Mic happens every Thursday at American Legion Memorial Park. See the schedule on Facebook. Here’s the rundown:

Ghost Mic is poetry without a mic (less germs)
Ghost mic is held in a park (fresh air, less germs)
Ghost mic encourages safe distancing 8 to 10 feet (less germs)

It has gotten cold twice during Ghost Mic… each time we wrapped up by 7:30pm. The hour or so of poetry was well worth coming out for. But, if you are running late, there might be a chance that we are wrapping by the time you arrive.

If you come to Ghost Mic:
Wear masks
Bring a chair or a blank to sit on
Bring extra clothes or blanket…it can get chilly
Take precautions
BATHROOMS ARE CHAINED SHUT
BE SAFE
If you feel ill or been around someone ill, PLEASE STAY HOME
Plan well
Be SAFE
I don’t want anyone dying….
remember we need your vote in November.
Bring blankets and or chairs (worth saying twice.)
There will be NO MIC… hence Ghost Mic… so prepare to evoke.

Start mingling at 6:00 pm
Poetry will begin at 6:30 and go to dusk…around 8:30 or so

We are NOT doing the usual 30-minute music opening.
Musicians are encouraged to participate in the open mic or play during the mingling.
We do not plan on having any features for the remainder of 2020, just pure open Ghost Mic. It will be safer that way.

Support Café Zippy by picking up a boxed dinner… order early. See ordering information and Marilyn’s special offer on each Ghost Mic event page on Facebook.

**** IF YOU ARE FEELING UNWELL…Please stay HOME.
IF IT RAINS, We WILL CANCEL.

Dream Loaf

From Wednesday, August 12, to Saturday, August 22, 2020, Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences will offer Dream Loaf, a free, curated selection of readings and lectures from their archives along with live events. You can see the general schedule on the Dream Loaf page. The archived material will go live on the day of the event and can be accessed simply by clicking on the program title.

On the same page, you can find lectures from the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference and the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, available now, free.

on poetry

“To recite my poems to an audience is to be slapped awake by my limitations. I confront the infinite chasm between the audience’s conception of Poet and the underwhelming evidence of me as that poet.”
Cathy Park Hong
(b. August 7, 1976)

. . . . .
photo by Beowulf Sheehan
quote from Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

poem places

PLACES is a peer-reviewed journal of public scholarship on architecture, landscape, and urbanism. In August 2017, Places presented a “special series on poems that can be read as maps, whose lines trace and transgress boundaries of identity and experience.” The Poems as Maps series features work by Elizabeth Alexander, Bao Phi, Joanne Diaz, Nikky Finney, Sean Hill, Andrea Jenkins, Douglas Kearney, J. Drew Lanham, Claudia Rankine, Barbara Jane Reyes, Sun Yung Shin, Evie Shockley, and Ocean Vuong, with an introductory essay by Taiyon J. Coleman. Enjoy.

so much poetry!

The Boston Poetry Marathon is a tradition going back more than 20 years. The event brings together poets from around the globe, each poet reading for about 5 minutes during the three-day poetry festival. This year, the Boston Poetry Marathon goes virtual for the first time, with close to 150 poets participating, including Eileen Myles, Kazim Ali, Lloyd Schwartz, Danielle Legros George, and Dorothea Lasky, among many others. Here’s the schedule.

Broadcast live to the BPM YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter/Periscope pages, the hours (Eastern time) are 7:00-10:00pm on Thursday, August 6, 2020, 7:00-10:00pm on Friday, August 7, and ten solid hours (100 poets in a day!) from Noon-10:00pm on Saturday, August 8.

late (but not too late)

Back in 2017, poet Nicole Sealey realized that she “hadn’t been doing much reading” and decided to do something about it. She challenged herself to read a book or chapbook of poetry each day for the month of August and posted her intentions on social media. Poet Dante Micheaux coined a hashtag, #TheSealeyChallenge, and the word spread. (Here’s a 2018 article in Literary Hub on why Sealey launched her ambitious challenge.)

The Sealey Challenge is now in its fourth year. It’s already August 4, so you have a bit of catching up to do, but chapbooks count, so you can do it! We’ve posted loads of recommended titles and here’s a 2019 list in Electric Lit: “31 Poets Recommend 31 Poetry Books to Read Every Day in August.”

Plus, if you happen to be participating in the August Poetry Postcard Fest, this will give you plenty of fuel for your postcard poems. Happy reading!

. . . . .
photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

on poetry

“You write in order to change the world … if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.”
James Baldwin
(August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987)

. . . . .
photo by Allan Warren
quote

vispo, vismemoir, visfiction, etc.

Trinidad Escobar is a storyteller, poet, visual artist, and full-time cartoonist from Milpitas, California. She combines her comics/illustrations with poetry, memoir, essays, fiction, and more. See lots of examples on her website and unlock more on Patreon.

. . . . .
image: Self-Portrait

give this to your boss

If you’ve been wanting to get copies of your poems in the company newsletter or your book in the executive suite, check out this article in Fast Company. In “Why CEOS need to read poetry — yes, poetry — to lead in the post-COVID world,” Clare Morgan and Massimo Portincaso make a case for the unique abilities of poetry to navigate uncertainty:

“…this gear change, from (perhaps) a data-driven, algorithm-inspired reliance on what has been, to the challenging freedoms of what-if? What then?, is unlikely to be achieved overnight and without the intercession of some potent catalyst. That catalyst, we humbly submit, is poetry.”

Sounds like it’s time to add a poem or two to your Zoom meetings!