NOTE: Due to the restrictions to keep us safe from the Coronavirus, The Work will continue as a remote workshop via Zoom. Please email Christopher Luna at christopherjluna@gmail.com by 4 pm on Monday, March 23 if you would like to participate. Also, please share this event with others who might be interested.

The face-to-face version of this workshop takes place at Niche Wine Bar and Angst Gallery, both of which are owned and operated by Leah Jackson. Please support Niche Wine Bar by taking advantage of their take-out services during this difficult time.

“Well, while I’m here I’ll do the work — and what’s the work?
To ease the pain of living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow.”
― Allen Ginsberg, “Memory Gardens” (Fall of America, City Lights)

The Work is a drop-in poetry writing workshop for beginners as well as more experienced writers. Poetry encourages empathy and compassion, and sparks the shifts in consciousness which lead to healing, personal growth, and an interest in fighting for progressive social change.

We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together. Each workshop will feature at least three timed writing exercises.

$20 suggested donation payable to Christopher Luna via PayPal (christopherjluna@gmail.com); however, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.

Shareable snacks are also welcome and very much appreciated.

Upcoming 2020 Saturday afternoon workshops will take place on March 14, April 11, and May 9.

There is also a Monday evening version of the workshop that takes place on the second and fourth Monday of the month. Upcoming 2020 Monday evening workshops will take place on March 9 & 23, April 6 & 20, and May 11.

If you are looking for writing coaching, editing/manuscript review, or information about poetry and memoir classes, send Christopher an email via printedmattervancouver@gmail.com.

NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control, this month’s reading will take place over Zoom. Email christopherjluna@gmail.com by no later than 3 pm on April 9 to indicate your interest in participating. In the subject line, let us know if you are “Reading” or “Just Listening.” You will receive instructions for how to join the meeting. Open mic readers are invited to share one poem for three minutes or less.

Our scheduled featured reader, Clark County Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Morgan, works in health care and therefore will be unable to join us. We would like to express our appreciation for Gwendolyn and all of those who are working long hours under dangerous conditions to help us through this crisis.

We would also like to encourage you to support Leah Jackson, who has given us a place to hold the reading since 2015, by ordering food or gift certificates from Niche Wine Bar: https://nichewinebar.com

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Hosted by Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, & Morgan Paige
Featuring Clark County Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Morgan

7 pm
Thursday, April 9
Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7

$5 Suggested donation
No one turned away for lack of funds

Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660
angstgallery.com

Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar: http://briz.us/

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ANTI-FASCIST,
ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Gwendolyn Morgan is a Northwest poet and artist. She learned the names of birds and wildflowers and inherited paint brushes and wooden paint boxes from her grandmothers. She earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College, and an M.Div. from San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union. She was at Centrum in an Artist Residency Winter 2020. She has been a recipient of artist and writing residencies at Artsmith, Caldera, Centrum, Into the Depths of Winter, and Soapstone. Crow Feathers, Red Ochre, Green Tea, her first book of poems, was a winner of the Wild Earth Poetry Prize, Hiraeth Press. Snowy Owls, Egrets and Unexpected Graces, is a Nautilus Gold Winner in Poetry and a Foreward Indies Book of the Year Finalist in the Nature Category. Before the Sun Rises, her third book of poetry, was released in June 2019 by Homebound Publications. She is currently the Clark County Poet Laureate, Washington 2018-2020. Gwendolyn and her spouse share their home, music and creekside walks with Naomi, a rescued Cardigan Corgi & Chesapeake Retriever mix.

In the morning, before the sun rises, before
repeated rumors of rain, random shootings,
foreclosures, extreme weather, earthquakes,
we recall our dreams while drinking coffee
from the highlands of Guatemala.
The owl flies silently over the Italian Basil,
over the damp earth.
– Gwendolyn Morgan