ANTI-RACIST, LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, PRO-CHOICE, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
$5 Suggested donation No one will be turned away for lack of funds
Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry.
Ken Yoshikawa likes to write plays and poems and do silly things onstage. Recently he played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Portland Center Stage, and has had two plays commissioned in Portland, one of which, From a Hole in the Ground, is presently onstage with Corrib Theatre. His first full-length poetry book, Monster Colored Glasses, was published by Lightship Press, and is available to purchase at yoshikawaken.com! In his free time he enjoys video games, hanging with friends, trees, and working as an astrologer.
Igor Brezhnev and Sam Rose Preminger founded Lightship Press “to support living artists with an emphasis on poetry (as this is our field of expertise). This mission will be realized through publishing and promoting high-quality full-length books and chapbooks, recording spoken word performances, and producing community events where contributors can step into the public eye and market their work. Priority, both in who we publish and who we hire onto our team, will be given to authors intending to earn a portion of their income through their literary craft. Our motto is ‘Support Living Artists Cause the Dead Ones Don’t Need It.'”
November 2024 is the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. This year’s featured readers include Marialicia Gonzalez, Kevin Sampsell, Gay Garland Reed, William Erickson, Bruce Hall, Washington State Poet Laureate Arianne True, and Debra Elisa.
Send an email to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com to receive The Work, Christopher Luna’s monthly newsletter featuring news and events for poets in Vancouver, WA, Portland, OR and surrounding areas.
The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.
UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.
As we prepare to celebrate 20 years of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in November, Printed Matter Vancouver and Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic emcees Morgan Paige, Christopher Luna, and Toni Lumbrazo Luna are collecting poems for our third anthology. If you have participated in the series, please send two poems that you have read at the open mic to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com for possible inclusion in the book. We are also looking for high-quality photos and brief descriptions of your most memorable experiences at the reading. Deadline is April 1.
Printed Matter Vancouver is proud to present the debut chapbook from Leah Klass. Recently relocated from Portland to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Leah is a poet, community activist, global connector, and World Peace Fellow. Hers is the first book of poetry Printed Matter Vancouver has published featuring a writer who lives outside of Southwest Washington.
We are pleased to report that you can now purchase Reach Out, Reach In as an ebook. Please note that due to the unconventional formatting of this chapbook it is best read in landscape/horizontal view.
The debut collection of poetry by Leah Klass tells stories of discovering empathy through human connection. Her work is a rallying call to value our everyday interactions with other people. Reach Out, Reach In offers concrete ideas for transforming the world into a warmer, more welcoming place.
Reach Out, Reach In
By Leah Klass
Published by Printed Vancouver
October 25, 2021
Cover Art & Design by Mercer Hanau
Edited by Toni Lumbrazo Luna and Christopher Luna
ASIN: B09K1HRGF6 ISBN-13: 979-8985129106
ADVANCE PRAISE FORREACH OUT, REACH IN
How we are made is how we see, and from the rich mosaic of her background Leah Klass delivers kaleidoscopic poems that will persuade your vision to see this world made strange and precious. This book offers local beginnings, global consciousness, and the courage to use language for what it needs to do: sustain the sovereign self engaged in connecting the private life to the public world. Enter this book troubled, then emerge knowing “there is another way.” — Kim Stafford, author of Singer Come from Afar
I read Reach Out, Reach In straight through and want more. Leah Klass tells to the bone truth in bold narratives and chewable language. She is a thoroughly American woman who gathered new languages and a layered identity living in many countries. “Understand I am global,” she writes, and we do, seeing through her “inherited pattern recognition” a unifying grasp of culture and language that threads through her own evolution from childhood to maturity. These brave poems move with a strong beat, riding on a wide and inclusive heart. They illuminate so much of a woman’s experience through the stages of her life. For Klass, a fierce advocacy for all people developed, rooted in connection and kindness, and in her passion for acts big and small in families and communities that count toward healing the world. — Rae Latham
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Washington, D.C., Leah’s education has included attending diverse public schools and studying abroad. She learned Spanish in the homes of her friends in Falls Church, Virginia. In high school she turned 16 on a secular kibbutz, where she worked on the assembly line in an olive factory and was chased by ostriches. She later waitressed and cleaned houses to help pay for her studies in Anthropology at the University of Virginia which included a year of study abroad in Brazil. She completed a master’s degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Queensland thanks to a Rotary Fellowship in Argentina and Australia.
She spent the first years of her career bringing businesses from different countries together and encouraging friendships between strangers. Market research and report writing were a ticket to long weekends in Chile and high speed taxi rides in Mexico. She has also helped get social services to migrant communities, taught students how to better network and facilitated group discussions for international business people.
Leah’s greatest pleasures are making connections and reaching out to build community. Speaking many languages allows her to communicate with more people. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese and some Hebrew and German. She is committed to valuing intergenerational relationships and amplifying kindness.
After becoming a mother, Leah experienced a great shift in her understanding of the world and felt an overwhelming desire to express her need to build community and to help others find and use their voices. In tandem, she joined a kind and passionate poetry community in Portland, Oregon. With the support of the group, poetry has become a way for her to tell stories and to activate others to go out and do something good.
The joyous finale. l.to r,: Poetry Moves poets Louise Wynn, Bethany Kim-Yin, Claudia Saleeby Savage, Em Gallup, Marcia Smith, Brittany Mishra, Sherri Levine, Gwendolyn Morgan Clark County Poet Laureate (CCPL) 2018-2020, Armin Tolentino CCPL 2021-2024, Susan Dingle CCPL 2024-2026, Artstra Chair and Director of Poetry Moves LaRae Zawodny, Poetry Moves Manager Derek Klein, Poet Emmett Wheatfall, Chair of the Clark County Arts Commission Debbie Nagano, Washington State Poet Laureate Arianne True, Christopher Luna Inaugural CCPL 2013-2017. Image from video by Angela Cochran.
I was so moved by the Celebration of Poetry at the Magenta theater on March 10 that I asked Artstra Chair LaRae Zawodny and outgoing Clark County Poet Laureate Armin Tolentino for permission to reprint their remarks. I am very grateful to both Armin and LaRae for their service to the poetry community. It is my hope that publishing their beautiful words here will inspire those in our community who were present at the event. Christopher Luna
LaRae Zawodny, Artstra Chair, Director of Poetry Moves, Director and emcee of A Celebration of Poetry Image from video by Angela Cochran
LaRae Zawodny Why POETRY?
Preparing for today, I felt a need to answer this question, at least for myself. I reflected … for months. I realized that poetry charmed me very early on in the form of lullaby and song, comforting and melodic. Then there were books with rhymes and pictures, adding the visual magic of words. The classics for children…you know them. Playfulness of sound with silly drawings to match were Edward Lear’s gift to me.
A more serious encounter with poetry played out countless Sunday school mornings when “what does it mean?” challenged me to interpret stories …to learn lessons from strange words in cadence unfamiliar.
The door opened for me…come right in, have a love affair with language. It is endlessly mysterious, amusing, magical, full of possibility, powerful.
Why am I sharing this personal story with you? There are many poets in the house today, each with a story of “why poetry?” Others may be here just to support a poet, with hopes of getting home in time to see the Oscars. Maybe, listening today, a door to poetry will open for you. There are many doors. Poets, all of you, please know that YOU ARE recognized and honored today.
In the words of poet Rita Dove: “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”
To quote Leonardo Da Vinci, “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.”
Truth is elusive. Today recognizing truth is, without exaggeration, a survival skill. We count on communication, predominantly linguistic, to solve problems, from the personal to the world stage. We have a basic, some say “essential” human need to express ourselves. How well do our communication skills serve this need to express ourselves…to connect…really.
Today, with an epidemic of loneliness, many people feel unheard. In the political arena, it has been said “we don’t know each other.”
A university teacher laments “language is careless”. Responses to friends …reduced to an emoji, appreciation? an iconic thumbs up. Love?…a tiny electronic image. And the number of things we “love” is amazing. Should we not, then, listen mindfully to those who seek with great care… just the right word, the turn of the phrase that will resonate, be heard.
Let us honor the poets, their voices honed into artistry, who write and speak their truth.
Armin Tolentino passes the pen to newly-appointed Clark County Poet Laureate Susan Dingle at the Celebration of Poetry at the Magenta Theater on March 10, 2024. Image from video by Angela Cochran.
Armin Tolentino
Thank you to the Clark County Arts Commission and to ARTSTRA for your commitment and advocacy for artists of all disciplines. You make our County a richer place to live.
Thank you Gwendolyn Morgan and Christopher Luna for your mentorship and friendship. Thank you Susan for accepting this role and for all I know you’ll do to make poetry alive for Clark County. So proud to be part of this lineage with you three.
Serving as poet laureate for my community has been the greatest honor I’ve experienced as a writer. Over the last three years, I’ve focused on fostering spaces for people to write. These generative workshops were only possible because of following organizations with whom I’m so grateful to have partnered:
Community Organizations and Businesses: NAACP Vancouver, Summer of Pride Clark County, Plas Newydd Farm, Cascades Presbyterian Church, Willamette Writers, and Inspired Learning of Yacolt
Schools: Cascadia Montessori School, Ridgefield High School, Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, Clark College
Bookstores: Birdhouse Books and Vintage Books
Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries: Vancouver Community Library, Cascade Park, Ridgefield, Washougal
Residential Facilities: Knights of Pythias Retirement Center and Clark County Juvenile Detention
As varied as these communities and participants are, the mechanics to these workshops have been identical. We welcome each other and sit down to an empty page. And, without judgement or editing, we fill the emptiness with whatever surfaces with zero regard for whether what we’re writing makes sense or is any good.
In these workshops I’ve talked plenty about the joy of writing. The exhilaration of uncovering a phrase or image we didn’t know was inside us. I’ve talked plenty about the sheer fun of playing with sounds and structures, the mouth feel of words. The lingering warmth of connection when we realize our words made a reader feel something.
What I haven’t talked much about is the fear. Mostly because I don’t have to. Everyone who writes knows that fear. Fear that we don’t know what to say. Fear we know what to say, but don’t know how to say it.
Fear that we’ve written it the best we can and our ability is simply inadequate to ever capture what we’re really feeling. Fear that we’re not good enough and will never be.
When we all gather as writers in a shared space, we recognize that Fear is in the room and we need neither resist it nor feed it. We have plenty of chairs. Fear can pull one up and stay if it likes. I won’t kick Fear out but I also won’t offer Fear a drink.
Because, what I’ve learned writing alongside you these last three years: you’re going to do this regardless of the fear. For many of you, writing isn’t a choice. This craft called you. So, writing isn’t a matter of banishing fear because, over time, the pull to write is simply stronger and more persistent than the fear. Every time I face a blank page, I have to admit to myself that I don’t know how to write a poem. But I’d still like to try. Over and over.
So thank you all for allowing me to face this fear alongside you. As Susan begins her term, I know you will show her the same support and outpouring of welcome I’ve experienced. Reach out to her. Find out how you can support her projects but also her own writing. She will undoubtedly show up for us, so let’s learn how we can show up for her. We as a County are better when we share this space, our words, and our fears and joys.
Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry.
Help us celebrate National Poetry Month with our special guest, Lightship Press author Zia Pollis, who is traveling from Massachusetts to be with us.
Zia Pollis is a poet and illustrator from Chamisal, New Mexico. She has a B.A. in English from Reed College and is a Master’s of Divinity student at the Harvard Divinity School. She has organized and participated in numerous poetry communities and festivals, including the Taos Verse Converse festival and the Society of the Muse of the Southwest (SOMOS). She also competed in the national youth poetry slam, Brave New Voices, and has been featured in MassPoetry’s U35 reading series. Her work has appeared in Nailed Magazine, MassPoetry,Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Harvard Magazine, and others.
Her chapbook Labors of Mercy was published by Lightship Press in 2023:
Igor Brezhnev and Sam Rose Preminger founded Lightship Press “to support living artists with an emphasis on poetry (as this is our field of expertise). This mission will be realized through publishing and promoting high-quality full-length books and chapbooks, recording spoken word performances, and producing community events where contributors can step into the public eye and market their work. Priority, both in who we publish and who we hire onto our team, will be given to authors intending to earn a portion of their income through their literary craft. Our motto is ‘Support Living Artists Cause the Dead Ones Don’t Need It.'”
November 2024 is the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. This year’s featured readers include Ken Yoshikawa, Marialicia Gonzalez, Kevin Sampsell, Gay Garland Reed, William Erickson, Bruce Hall, Washington State Poet Laureate Arianne True, and Debra Elisa.
Send an email to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com to receive The Work, Christopher Luna’s monthly newsletter featuring news and events for poets in Vancouver, WA, Portland, OR and surrounding areas.
The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.
UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.
It was another magical night at Art At The Cave on Thursday, March 14. Not only were we treated to a powerful, poingant set by featured reader, Vivian Sapphire, the evening also included several first-timers and the return of J.E. Douglas, an old friend of the series now living in Texas. Here are some photos and artwork from the proceedings.
Vivian Sapphire
Hector Hinojosa
J.E. Douglas reads “77”
Chris Stevens sketches Jim Martin
Chris Stevens’s sketch of some of the reaers at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.
Vivian Sapphire is a poet, singer and actor from SW Washington. She is inspired by the stark beauty of life and death, and everything we do in-between. She has written two unpublished manuscripts and will probably finish a third before getting around to publishing the first two.
November 2024 is the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. This year’s featured readers include Zia Pollis, Ken Yoshikawa, Marialicia Gonzalez, Kevin Sampsell, Gay Garland Reed, William Erickson, Bruce Hall, Washington State Poet Laureate Arianne True, and Debra Elisa.
Send an email to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com to receive The Work, Christopher Luna’s monthly newsletter featuring news and events for poets in Vancouver, WA, Portland, OR and surrounding areas.
The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.
UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.
$5 Suggested donation No one will be turned away for lack of funds
Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.
Genevieve DeGuzman was a 2022 Oregon Literary Fellow and has received fellowships and grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and Vermont Studio Center. As a poet, Genevieve won the Atticus Review contest and earned several Best New Poets nominations. Most recently, she was a finalist for the Black River Competition by Black Lawrence Press. Her work appears in The Adroit, Bear Review, Nimrod, RHINO, phoebe, and other journals. She lives in Portland, OR.
This year’s featured readers include Bruce Parker & Diane Corson, Zia Pollis, Ken Yoshikawa, Marialicia Gonzalez, Kevin Sampsell, Gay Garland Reed, William Erickson, Bruce Hall, Washington State Poet Laureate Arianne True, and Debra Elisa.
Send an email to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com to receive The Work, Christopher Luna’s monthly newsletter featuring news and events for poets in Vancouver, WA, Portland, OR and surrounding areas.
The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.
UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.
Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.
Brianna Renae is a spoken word poet & public speaker born and raised in Portland Oregon. She is the author of her debut poetry collection Her Way with Words and the founder of The People’s Poets which is a BIPOC open mic created to amplify marginalized voices. She had the pleasure of opening for bestselling author Rupi Kaur in 2022. This year Brianna Renae was crowned Portland Poetry Slam’s 2023 Grand Slam Champion. She writes in hopes to inspire people to recognize the power in their stories.
The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.
UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.
Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.
Joshua Bauscher is a poet, photographer, adventurer, digital artist, herbalist, wizard, lyricist, and organizer. He is also the author of four self-published poetry collections, former coach of the SUNY Geneseo Slam Poetry Team, and a Nitty Gritty Slam, Albany Regional Poetry Slam, and Slamlandia Champion. Joshua is on a self-appointed quest to release all fear and limiting beliefs, to come into alignment with Love and higher self, and to help humanity rise to our full and unhindered potential.
The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com. UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.
Thank you to Joann Boswell for allowing me to create a broadside of her poem “Cement-Crack Sunflower,” which she presented at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on October 12, 2023. To learn more about Joann’s poetry and photography, or to order her books, visit https://joannrenee.com/.
PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER 