Wilcox and Daley in Bellingham

You’re invited to join Finn Wilcox and Michael Daley (pictured above in 1982 being ticketed in Portland, Oregon, for trespass on a freight train) as they read recent poems from their own books, Too Late to Turn Back Now (Empty Bowl) by Finn Wilcox and Reinhabited: New and Selected Poems (Dos Madres) and True Heresies (Červená Barva) by Michael Daley.

Wilcox and Daley will read at Honey Moon in Bellingham on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at 8:00pm, with jazz provided by Chuck Easton on guitar.

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photo by Steve R. Johnson

tonight in Bellingham!

Tonight, Friday, February 24, 2023, at 8:00pm Pacific, come on down to Honey Moon Mead & Cider in Bellingham and join Jory Mickelson, Caitlin Scarano, and Jessica Gigot for a poetry reading, with music by Louis Ledford.

Honey Moon has a busy calendar. Have a look.

FisherPoets-on-Bellingham Bay

Bellingham SeaFeast 2018 is coming up on Friday, September 21, and Saturday, September 22, 2018, and that means it’s time once again for FisherPoets-on-Bellingham Bay. Modeled on the original Astoria, Oregon, FisherPoets Gathering (next up: February 22-24, 2019), the event highlights poetry, prose, and song, at various venues in downtown Bellingham, Washington, including Boundary Bay’s Mountain Room, two recently refurbished theaters within the Sylvia Center for the Arts, and Honey Moon Mead and Cider. Performers’ chapbooks, stories, CDs, photos, cards, and whatevers will be for sale in the Sylvia Center’s entrance lobby thanks to Village Books.

If you are a commercial fisher and/or find inspiration in or on the sea that fuels your art, consider signing up to perform. Read the guidelines and register to present your prose, poetry, film, or songs of the sea at FisherPoets-on-Bellingham Bay on Friday, September 21, 2018. The registration deadline for performers has been extended to Monday, September 10, 2018.

Poetry-About-Movies

And as long as we’re talking about the intersection of poetry and film, we should mention Poetry-About-Movies: a celebration of Film Is Truth happening at Honey Moon in Bellingham on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. The evening will feature poetry about movies by Dee Dee Chapman, Rena Priest, Susan J. Erickson, and Jessica Lee.

Film is Truth 24 Times a Second is a beloved, locally owned and operated DVD, Blu-ray, and VHS rental store in Bellingham with a little bit of everything and a lot of foreign films, independent movies, arthouse films, and documentaries.

the coolest cats

You are most cordially invited to a reading and release party for Nine Lives Later: a Dead Cat Anthology. Writer/editor Dee Dee Chapman presents this unique collection of poetry and fiction that embraces the unusual motif with sincerity, honest grief, humor, and love. The evening features readings by Jessica Lee, Rena Priest, Duncan Shields, Luther Allen, Malcolm Kenyon, Nancy Canyon, and Dee Dee Chapman.

Let the fur fly. Join the hep cats at Honey Moon in Bellingham, on Thursday, November 30, 2017, at 8:30pm.

Gather Round: stories

Honey Moon Mead & Cider has added a new monthly event to their music- and poetry-friendly programming: Gather Round.

This evening, Tuesday, May 30, 2017, will be the fourth in the Gather Round series, which happens on the last Tuesday of each month. Here’s the official description:

Gather Round is inspired by The Moth, the New York based non-profit dedicated to “true stories told live.” We believe that nothing binds a community together like shared stories. Our format is Open Mic: prospective tellers prepare a story based on the evening’s theme and submit their names before the show starts. Our rules are simple:

1. Stories must be true and personal, that is, they must relate something that actually happened and directly affected the teller.
2. Stories must be told, not read — they must be performed without notes.
3. Stories last approximately 5-8 minutes.

We’re committed to creating a safe and supportive environment for all sorts of stories to be shared. Funny stories, sad stories, stories about small triumphs or epic defeats; stories about friends, about families, about the search for love or justice; stories about the human condition and how we cope with it on any given day. Come tell us a story, or just sit back and listen as others share theirs.

One more thing: our space is small and seating is limited — come early to get a good spot!

Each Gather Round has a theme. The theme for this evening’s event is “Taking Liberties – Stories of Overstepping Bounds.”

We’ve all taken liberties in big ways and small, with people, with situations, with facts. Maybe you’re a rebel at heart, always defying conventions, or maybe you’ve occasionally chosen to bend the rules, just slightly and for good reason. Maybe it’s what happened that time your parents were out of town; maybe it’s a story you embellished for artistic effect; maybe you were impudent, or impertinent, or too fresh. Maybe the moment helped define who you were, or who you didn’t want to be. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal, but it makes a good story. Either way, we’d love to hear about it.

See more Gather Round on Facebook.

Workshops!

Each autumn, the Sue Boynton Poetry Contest holds a series of short, dynamic poetry workshops taught by regional poets. The fall lineup is now in place, with two workshops scheduled on Saturday, October 8, 2016, and two more on Saturday, November 5, 2016.

You can read the workshop descriptions and see the instructor bios on the Workshops page.

Workshops will be held at Honey Moon Mead and Cider (see photo), which is located in the alley behind Pepper Sisters, 1053 N. State Street, Bellingham, Washington.

Registration is required and all fees benefit the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest: $30 for one workshop or $50 for both workshops offered the same day, paid by check or cash at the workshop.

Register by sending an email to boyntonpoetrycontest@hotmail.com indicating the workshop(s) you wish to take and including your name and a phone number. Please bring writing materials.

Poetry 24 times a second

In these posts, we occasionally mention films about poets or poetry. Here’s one on poetry about film.

If you live anywhere near Bellingham, Washington, and you love movies, you probably know that Film Is Truth is a locally owned and operated DVD, Blu-ray, and VHS rental store (15,000+ titles) that is also a nonprofit corporation.

On Friday, April 8, 2016, in celebration of movies, poetry and National Poetry Month, Film Is Truth will hold its second annual Every Frame Tells a Story: a poetry-about-movies fundraiser! This all-ages, free event will feature performances by poets Mighty Mike McGee, Elizabeth Vignali, Bruce Beasley, Troy Osaki and Dee Dee Chapman. The action starts at 8:30pm at Honey Moon Mead & Cider.

You can seem more Film Is Truth on Facebook.

tonight in Bellingham!

The Write Riot Poetry Slam started one year ago and tonight will mark the occasion by featuring the wonderful poet Ellie A. Rogers. The evening begins with an open mic (3 minute max), then a three-poem slam, then the featured poet. Signups start at 8:00pm. See you at Honey Moon Mead & Cider, on the North State Street alley, Bellingham.

epic!

Back by popular demand, it’s the 2nd Annual Beowulf Marathon! Join audience and readers at an open mic-style community reading of the ancient epic. Participants will take turns reading in 5-10 minute increments, from Grendel’s scourge of the Mead Hall to the battle with the dragon and the final funeral pyre.

Need to brush up on your Beowulf? See the modern English translation at the Poetry Foundation.

The reading is at Honey Moon Mead & Cider, in Bellingham, at 7:00pm on Saturday, December 12, 2015. It’s free and open to all ages. More information on the Facebook event page or on the Honey Moon website.