Painter/Poet Scott Carstensen Honors Christopher Luna, Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, Angst Gallery and the Vancouver Arts District at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Nastashia Minto March 14, 2019

Ghost Town Angst Luna Tribute Painting by Scotty Carstensen
Painting by Scott Carstensen

We were very honored to receive this tribute painting from our dear friend and Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic regular Scott Carstensen. Scott explained that he was inspired by “magic taken seriously,” a poem which appears in reading series founder Christopher Luna’s Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018). The painting features a few lines from the poem as well as meanings Scott found for “Luna.” It also pays tribute to Angst Gallery, Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, co-host Toni Lumbrazo Luna, and the downtown Vancouver arts scene. Scott even threw in a nod to Christopher’s love for the Wu-Tang Clan.

Thank you, Scott.

Printed Matter Vancouver would also like to thank everyone who attended the event, those who shared their beautiful poems with us, and especially featured reader Nastashia Minto, who blew us away with her powerful set featuring poems from her brand new book, Naked: The Rhythm and Groove of It. The Depth and Length to It..

Please join us next month when our featured reader will be Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna. Please note special time and location.

 

NEW DATE: Earth Magic: Mindful Exploration as Poetics Practice with Christopher Luna at Treesong April 27, 2019

Earth Magic: Mindful Exploration as Poetics Practice with Christopher Luna

NEW DATE! Saturday, April 27th

10 am to 3pm
TreeSong Nature Awareness & Retreat Center
41 Tree-ific Drive W., Washougal, WA
PO Box 883, Washougal, WA 98671
360.837.TREE ~ 360.837.8733
hello@treesongnatureawareness.org

earth magic by christopher luna version 2 edit

Poetry provides a way to explore our universe and document this process of discovery. We will read poets who have engaged with nature and complete a series of writing experiences. There will be an emphasis on mindful observation and real-time tracking of our daily movements. We will also discuss the role that observation and research play in building a body of reality-based work with the potential to engender compassion, understanding, and progressive social action. No writing experience necessary.

Please bring a bag lunch, water, pens, and paper.
Tuition: $88
Online Registration

Christopher Luna is a collage artist, poet, editor, and teacher who served as the first Poet Laureate of Clark County from 2013-2017. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He has hosted the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA since 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978. His first full-length collection of poetry, entitled “Message from the Vessel in a Dream” was published by Flowstone Press in December 2018.

Where to Find Message from the Vessel in a Dream in Portland and Southwest Washington

I am very grateful to the following businesses for carrying Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018):

Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

Another Read Through
3932 N Mississippi Ave.
Portland, OR 97227

Like Nobody's Business

Like Nobody’s Business
904 NW 23rd Ave.
Portland, OR 97210

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Ghost Town Poetry Volumes One and Two, Edited by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna for Printed Matter Vancouver, and Christopher Luna’s Message from the Vessel in a Dream on display at Multnomah Arts Center

Multnomah Arts Center
7688 SW Capitol Hwy
Portland, OR 97219

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Christopher Luna reads from Message from the Vessel in a Dream at Vintage Books on February 2, 2019

Vintage Books
6613 E Mill Plain Blvd.
Vancouver, WA 98661

Flowstone Press announces the release of Message from the Vessel in a Dream, the first full-length volume of poetry by Christopher Luna, Clark County, WA’s first poet laureate (2013-2017) and the founder of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. The book contains work spanning 20 years, and favors prose poetry and collage poems assembled and arranged using found material. The book is dedicated to Carlos Santana, the guitar virtuoso and eponymous “vessel” who gifted Luna with the only line of poetry he has ever received from a dream.

Order Message from the Vessel in a Dream.

Message_FrontCover_sm
Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018) featuring poetry and collage art by Christopher Luna

How many Christopher Lunas are there? The bard, the community dynamo, the scholar, the compassionate one, the jazz quartet, the father & lover, the world of a man: all and more are speaking in this book. So many perspectives to experience here, so much to learn about literature, attitude, action and beauty. The maestro of Ghost Town has created a bustling, radiant and necessary environment. — Dan Raphael

Christopher Luna served as Clark County, WA’s first Poet Laureate from 2013-2017. He has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Lumbrazo Luna co-host Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, the popular Vancouver, WA reading series he founded in 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.

message from the vessel in a dream

completely still
seemingly emotion-
less yet blowing
notes to charm
succeeding ages
it matters little
whether one studies
flow or counterpoint
so long as eventually
the instrument is raised to the lips

you make your appearance
known through some creator
neither Duke nor Trane
ever revealed the source
a wisdom too precious
to put a name to
something not unlike the sound of the heart
beating in the chest of your firstborn

listen to the wind
as interpreted
remember how his hips’
involuntary Poughkeepsie shimmy
show’d you how it was done
never forget promises made
in the quiet of the early morning
priorities set straight
a brick wall stared down till dawn
experience cool breeze adrenaline release
and never forget you learned to listen
don’t forget to breathe

Printed Matter Vancouver and Angst Gallery present an AWP offsite reading featuring Ohio’s Argus House Press & Červená Barva Press and NYC’s great weather for MEDIA on March 30, 2019

Printed Matter Vancouver and Angst Gallery proudly present
an AWP offsite reading featuring
Ohio’s Argus House Press & Červená Barva Press
and NYC’s great weather for MEDIA

Put it on your calendar!

Saturday March 30
6:30-9:30
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98663

FREE, but please support our out-of-town guests by buying their books.

Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street.

Argus House Press Logo

6:00-7:30
Argus House Press & Červená Barva Press

Argus Press Authors

Teneice Durrant
Anastacia Renee
Amanda Johnston
JR Toriseva

Teneice Durrant is the Managing Editor of Argus House press and Winged City Chapbooks. A graduate of Spalding University’s Low Res MFA, she is the author of four poetry chapbook and one full length, Glass Corset, just out from Two of Cups Press. She is a college professor and private writing instructor from Akron, Ohio.

Anastacia-Renee is Seattle’s Civic Poet and former 2015-2017 Poet-in-Residence at Hugo House. She is a hybrid genre writer, workshop facilitator, and multivalent performance artist. She is the author of four books: Forget It (Black Radish Books), (v.), (Gramma Press), Answer (Me) (Argus Press) and 26 (Dancing Girl Press) and her poetry, prose and fiction have been published widely. She has appeared in 9 Ounces, a One Woman Show, a theatrical mixed media project. She was a 2016 James W. Ray Distinguished Writers Award nominee and a 2016 Pushcart Prize nominee.

Amanda Johnston earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter (Argus House Press). Her poetry and interviews have appeared in numerous online and print publications, among them, Callaloo, Poetry, Puerto del Sol, Muzzle,Pluck!, No, Dear and the anthologies, Small Batch, Full, di-ver-city, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, and Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism. The recipient of multiple Artist Enrichment grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Christina Sergeyevna Award from the Austin International Poetry Festival, she is a member of the Affrilachian Poets and has received fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation and the Austin Project at the University of Texas. Johnston is a Stonecoast MFA faculty member, a cofounder of Black Poets Speak Out, and founder of Torch Literary Arts. She serves on the Cave Canem Foundation board of directors and currently lives in Texas. http://www.amandajohnston.com

Recently selected by Oliver de la Paz for the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry from Cutbank , J. R. Toriseva’s work has appeared in, or is forthcoming, from The North American Review, Salt Hill, The Literary Review, The Saranac Review, The Cincinnati Review, Descant, and JACKET, among others, and included in “Days I Moved Through Ordinary Sound from City Lights”, and “Best Canadian Poetry in English”. Toriseva currently serves as the Director of English and Communication Arts, and an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY-GCC, she has also taught for Mills College, California Poets in the Schools, San Francisco WritersCorps, and Literary Arts of Portland, Oregon.

http://www.argushousepress.com/

Červená Barva Press Authors

Michael McInnis
Gloria Mindock
Lori Desrosiers
Joani Reese

ČERVENÁ BARVA PRESS was founded in April of 2005. The press solicits poetry, fiction, and plays from various writers around the world, and holds open contests regularly for its chapbooks, postcards, broadsides and full-length books. I look for work that has a strong voice, is unique, and that takes risks with language. Please see submission guidelines for current information. I encourage queries from Central and Eastern Europe.

http://www.cervenabarvapress.com/

GWFM logo

8:00
Great Weather for Media

Featuring Venus De Mars, Thomas Fucaloro, Craig Kite, David Lawton, Christopher Luna, David lawton, Jane Ormerod, Lynette Reini-Grandell, Mary McLaughlin Slechta, and Michelle Whittaker

Venus de Mars is the front-founding member of glam-punk/trans-band “Venus de Mars & All The Pretty Horses,” a core artist of “Rifle Sport Alternative Art Gallery,” and is writing a memoir. She has illustrated covers for Holy Cow! Press, and contributed art used by great weather for MEDIA and others.

Thomas Fucaloro is the author of two books of poetry published by Three Rooms Press, most recently It Starts from the Belly and Blooms. The winner of a performance grant from the Staten Island Council of the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, he has been on five national slam teams

Craig Kite is a poet, publisher and director of Mad Gleam Press LLC. He is the current poetry slam champion of Staten Island, NY which he represented at the National Poetry Slam 2018. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by great weather for MEDIA in 2016 and has been published by various presses. He has a background in journalism/human rights reporting and has written from locations such as Iraq, Turkey, Chiapas, Guatemala, New Orleans, and Algonquin territory Ontario.

Christopher Luna served as the first Poet Laureate of Clark County, WA from 2013-2017. His first full-length collection of poetry, Message from the Vessel in a Dream, was published by Flowstone Press in 2018. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, a small press for Northwest writers which also provides writing coaching, editing, and manuscript review. He has hosted the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA since 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.

David Lawton wrote the poetry collection Sharp Blue Stream. A graduate of the acting program at Boston University, he was also Guest Artist in the graduate play writing classes taught by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. The 2009 Herbert Huncke tribute reading he curated is legend in post-beat New York.

Jane Ormerod is the author of the full-length poetry collections Welcome to the Museum of Cattle and Recreational Vehicles on Fire. Her work also appears in publications including Maintenant, Marsh Hawk Press Review, Post (BLANK), Sensitive Skin, The Nervous Breakdown, and Paris Lit Up. Jane is a founding editor at independent press, great weather for MEDIA.

Lynette Reini-Grandell is the author of Wild Verge and Approaching the Gate. Other work has appeared in Alligator Juniper, The Understanding between Foxes and Light (great weather for MEDIA), Poetry Motel, Revolver, and Poetry City U.S.A., among others. She has received grants from the Finlandia Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Based in Minneapolis, she performs poetry with the Bosso Poetry Company and the jazz/poetry collective Sonoglyph. Her newest project is a book-length memoir about finding her voice amid the glam-punk peaks and lows of life with a transgender rock star spouse.

Mary McLaughlin Slechta is author of the poetry collection Wreckage on a Watery Moon, three chapbooks, and a novel, The Spoonmaker’s Diamond. She’s taught at the Chautauqua Institute in New York and joined the editorial staff of great weather for MEDIA after serving as guest fiction editor in 2014.

Michelle Whittaker is a poet and musician. Surge, her debut poetry collection from great weather for MEDIA, was Finalist in the 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker, Vinyl, Narrative, Southampton Review, Transitions Magazine, and other publications. She was awarded a Jody Donohue Poetry Prize, NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, and Cave Canem Fellowship. Michelle is an Assistant Professor in the Program of Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University.

Founded in January 2012 by Jane Ormerod, Thomas Fucaloro, and Brant Lyon, great weather for MEDIA focuses on the unpredictable, the fearless, the bright, the dark, and the innovative…. We are based in New York City and showcase both national and international writers. As well as publishing the highest quality poetry and prose, we organize numerous readings, performances, and book releases in New York City and across the country.

https://www.greatweatherformedia.com/

ABOUT ANGST GALLERY
Since its opening in 2008, Angst Gallery has hosted solo and group shows featuring more than 300 local and national artists and cultural events including art shows, musical performances, book launch parties, art talks, classes, workshops, and the monthly Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. More than just a place to show art, Angst Gallery is also a safe space for community discussion, where all people are respected for who they are. We donate the use of the space to organizations that work for human rights and progressive social change.

angstgallery.com

ABOUT PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER
Founded in 2011 by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna, Printed Matter Vancouver works with new, emerging, or established poets and writers. We believe in getting the work out by providing a way for writers to get the support, feedback, and guidance they want to enter the publishing world. Our services include editing, coaching, workshops, manuscript layout, format, and production.

Printed Matter Vancouver is also a small press which has published five books of poetry featuring Clark County authors: Ghost Town Poetry (volumes one and two), Serenity in the Brutal Garden by Jenney Pauer, Meet Me Where I left You by Tiffany Burba, and Consistently East by Matthew Eiford-Schroeder.

printedmattervancouver.com

Christopher Luna Reading/Book Signing at Final Vancouver Independent Artists Group Show on March 1, 2019

VIA final show March 1 20919

Vancouver Independent Artists
March Group Show
Final Event

5-10pm
Friday, March 1
North Bank Artists Gallery
1005 Main Street
Vancouver, WA

From event organizer Chris Stevens (Pop Octopus): Please join us for this final event in the North Bank gallery space. We will be showcasing a variety of local artists and saying goodbye to a Vancouver landmark. We’re opening up the back studio and hallway for the first time and will have some wonderful spoken word poetry and book signing from Christopher Luna. Please join us in saying farewell to this landmark of the Vancouver art community.

Artist Lineup:

Lindsey Butler
Bill Ferguson
John Burkett
Mike Lindberg
Lee Sekaquaptewa
Nickolas Barnes
Melissa Koren
Renee Bryant
Drew Taylor
Jacob Herring
Cory Crouchley
Kerry Scribner
Kelly Schrock
Patrick Flynn
Chris Stevens

Spoken word and book signing by Christopher Luna

Christopher Luna will be reading from and signing his new book, Message from the Vessel in a Dream.

Flowstone Press announces the release of Message from the Vessel in a Dream by Christopher Luna, Clark County, WA’s first poet laureate and the founder of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. Luna’s first full-length volume of poetry spans 20 years, and favors prose poetry and collage poems assembled and arranged using found materials. The book is dedicated to Carlos Santana, the guitar virtuoso and eponymous “vessel” who gifted Luna with the only line of poetry he has ever received from a dream.

Paperback: 140 pages
Publisher: Flowstone Press (November 13, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1945824220
ISBN-13: 978-1945824227

Order Message from the Vessel in a Dream

Message_FrontCover_sm
Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018) featuring poetry and collage art by Christopher Luna

How many Christopher Lunas are there? The bard, the community dynamo, the scholar, the compassionate one, the jazz quartet, the father & lover, the world of a man: all and more are speaking in this book. So many perspectives to experience here, so much to learn about literature, attitude, action and beauty. The maestro of Ghost Town has created a bustling, radiant and necessary environment. — Dan Raphael

Christopher Luna served as Clark County, WA’s first Poet Laureate from 2013-2017. He has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Lumbrazo Luna co-host Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, the popular Vancouver, WA reading series he founded in 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.

Message from a teeming mind” by Scott Hewitt for the Columbian, December 8, 2018.

 

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Nastashia Minto at Angst Gallery March 14, 2019

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Flyer March 14 2019

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna
of Printed Matter Vancouver

Featuring Nastashia Minto

7 pm
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7
FREE

Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Nastashia Minto Head Shot

A Georgia native who currently lives in Portland, OR, Nastashia Minto has performed at the Unchaste Readers Series, Neon Dream, Incite and various other reading series in the metro area. She has also appeared on KBOO Radio’s Talking Earth. Her writing has been published in SUSAN and in the forthcoming Unchaste Anthology Volume III. Nastashia’s first book, Naked, was published by Eldredge Books in February 2019.

Note: Nastashia and Eldredge Books will launch Naked with a reading at Another Read Through (3932 N Mississippi Ave. Portland, OR 97227) on February 28.

Nastashia Minto Naked Cover

Ask Me …

Ask me of the mistakes I’ve made, and let me pull back the layers to my truth. Many false narratives, but I’m the original carbon proof. DNA soaked in cocaine and booze — don’t know how my genes survived, but ask me of the mistakes I’ve made. I still hold her truths, although she tells many lies. I cry, we cry, she cried, but she said we were all a mistake. Maybe after one, but after three, take responsibility for their place, your place, our place in this world. Forgiveness seems to fall off trees like leaves in the fall, but even in some regions the leaves will stay on the trees, so I guess forgiveness will never fall. Ask me of the mistakes I’ve made. I’ll be the first in line, raised hands to account for all the shit I’ve put you through. Ask me of the mistakes I’ve made. You preached forgiveness but forgot I came from you

Nastashia Minto

Photos from Matthew Eiford-Schroeder and Christopher Luna’s Reading at Vintage Books in Vancouver on February 2, 2019

Matthew Eiford-Schroeder and Christopher Luna would like to thank everyone who attended our reading on February 2. We are very grateful to Candace and the rest of the staff at Vintage Books for being so hospitable. Both Matthew and Christopher have additional readings lined up for this year. Please visit our Events page for more information.

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Matthew Eiford-Schroeder reads from Consistently East
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Matthew Eiford-Schroeder reads from Consistently East
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Matthew Eiford-Schroeder reads from Consistently East
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Christopher Luna reads from Message from the Vessel in a Dream
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Christopher Luna reads from Message from the Vessel in a Dream

Portland Book Launch for Message from the Vessel in a Dream at Like Nobody’s Business on February 23, 2019

Message_FrontCover_sm
Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018) featuring poetry and collage art by Christopher Luna

Join us for the Portland Book Launch for
Message from the Vessel in a Dream
the first full-length volume of poetry by Christopher Luna
with special guests Judith Arcana and Dan Raphael

7pm
Saturday, February 23
Like Nobody’s Business
904 NW 23rd Ave.
Portland, Oregon

Flowstone Press announces the release of Message from the Vessel in a Dream by Christopher Luna, Clark County, WA’s first poet laureate and the founder of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. Luna’s first full-length volume of poetry spans 20 years, and favors prose poetry and collage poems assembled and arranged using found materials. The book is dedicated to Carlos Santana, the guitar virtuoso and eponymous “vessel” who gifted Luna with the only line of poetry he has ever received from a dream.

“How many Christopher Lunas are there? The bard, the community dynamo, the scholar, the compassionate one, the jazz quartet, the father & lover, the world of a man: all and more are speaking in this book. So many perspectives to experience here, so much to learn about literature, attitude, action and beauty. The maestro of Ghost Town has created a bustling, radiant and necessary environment.”
— Dan Raphael

Message Luna Front Cover 600 dpi cropped
Collage art by Christopher Luna for Message from the Vessel in a Dream

Message from the Vessel in a Dream by Christopher Luna
140 pages
Flowstone Press

ISBN-10: 1945824220
ISBN-13: 978-1945824227

Christopher Luna served as Clark County, WA’s first Poet Laureate from 2013-2017. He has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Lumbrazo Luna co-host Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, the popular Vancouver, WA reading series he founded in 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.

Message Luna Back Cover 600 dpi cropped
Collage art by Christopher Luna for Message from the Vessel in a Dream

Christopher Luna would like to thank all the people, living or dead, whose words provided material for the poems in this book. He would especially like to thank the poets and friends whose words (before, during, and after reading their work at the mic) offered such inspiration: Lynn Alexander, Jane Arnal, Elizabeth Austen, Brittany Baldwin, Roxanne Bash, Kristin Berger, Alex Birkett, Holly Black, Sari Breznau, Tiffany Burba, Barbara Lynn Cantone, J’Lyn Chapman, Sage Cohen, Darlene Costello, Walt Curtis, Leah Noble Davidson, Rene Denfeld, Natalie Diaz, Liz Donley, Josh Ehrdal, Matt Eiford, Terri Eliof, Eileen Elliott, Barbara Engel, Annette Ernst, Kathleen Flenniken, Michelle Fredette, Mike G (Michael Guimond), Rhonda Grace, Samuel Green, Jack Greene, Michelle Giuliano, Dean Haspiel, Miles Hewitt, Morgan Hutchinson, Vishal Khanna, Kevin Killian, Sabra Patricia Larsen, Rosemary Leary, Edee Lemonier, Robin Coste Lewis, Lori Loranger, Angelo Luna, Ben Scott Luna, Cathleen Luna, Dan Luna, Greg Luna, Jae Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, Tod Marshall, Doug Marx, Alec Matthews, Dennis McBride, Marianela Medrano, Matt Meighan, David Meltzer (RIP), Kristopher Molina, Livia Montana, Judith Montgomery, Gwendolyn Morgan, Dan Nelson, Gwen Osborne, Aaron Pacora, Eric Padget, Jenney Pauer, David James Randolph, Dan Raphael, Yugen Rashad, Karen Read, Shelby Reece, Donna Roberge, Katharine Salzmann, Darcy Scholts, Laura Sciortino, Daniel Skach-Mills, Michael Smoler, Shawn Sorensen, Rob Sparks, Bill Sterr, John Stevens, Herb Stokes, Gary F. Suda, Grace Valentine, Ric Vrana (RIP), Julene Tripp Weaver, Paul Yates, and Lidia Yuknavitch.

Christopher Luna Interviewed by People of Vancouver, WA

Printed Matter Vancouver co-founder Christopher Luna was recently featured on People of Vancouver, WA:

Instagram
YouTube

Christopher would like to thank Steve and Emily for this wonderful video. He is also grateful to Leah Jackson for her many years of support for The Work and Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. Finally, a hearty shout out to those who attended the workshop at Niche that afternoon (and appear briefly in the video): Stella Guillory, Diane Corson, Denise Campbell, Suzanne LaGrande, Robert Syverson, Paula John, Cathie Padgett, Sonja Gellerson, and Bruce Hall.

THE WORK Ginsberg and Stein

Here is the text which accompanies the video on the People of Vancouver WA YouTube Channel:

Christopher Luna is a poet, teacher, editor and was the first Poet Laureate for Clark County. He has been hosting Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, since 2004, and we caught up with him at his writing workshop, also known as The Work, which is held on the second Saturday of every month at Niche Wine Bar on Main St.

“The name for the workshop comes from a couple of lines in a poem by Allen Ginsberg called Memory Gardens, where he says ‘What is the work? To ease the pain of living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow.’ I interpret that as let’s, as poets, in a culture where our work is not always completely understood or respected, let’s take it seriously enough to look at it as work. I think there are some people, even other writers, who don’t see poetry as work because they tend to be shorter than novels. I want to encourage poets in the workshop to own being a poet. To have fun, but to take the work seriously.”

Ginsberg himself co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado, where Luna earned an MFA in Writing and Poetics. It was there that Luna learned about outreach, developing writing workshops and going out into the community to teach. After becoming Clark County’s first Poet Laureate, he launched the Poets in the Schools Program, which continues sends writers into local educational settings to lead poetry workshops to this day.

For more information about Christopher Luna’s coaching and editing services, Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, or The Work, visit https://printedmattervancouver.com/

Music: Bass Walker – Film Noir by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/&#8230😉
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-…
Artist: http://incompetech.com/