Tiffany Burba reads from Meet Me Where I Left You at Another Read Through Books in Portland, OR on February 23, 2017
It is more important than ever to support local, independently-owned bookstores. One of our personal favorites is Another Read Through at 3932 N. Mississippi Ave. in Portland. Owner Elisa Saphier is delightful, personable, and knowledgeable. She allows authors and publishers to hold readings and book launch events in her beautiful second-floor loft, and hosts regular events such as Lesbian Lit Book Group. A generous amount of shelf space is devoted to Northwest authors in all genres.
You can find Ghost Town Poetry volumes one and two, Tiffany Burba’s Meet Me Where I Left You, and Christopher Luna’s Pulitzer Remix chapbook Brutal Glints of Moonlight at Another Read Through.
Printed Matter Vancouver is grateful to Elisa for her service to the literary community, and for carrying our books at her bookstore. We are very proud to be associated with Another Read Through. Show your support by dropping by the store today!
The latest publication from Printed Matter Vancouver.
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic featuring Coleman Stevenson
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver
7 pm
Thursday, September 14
Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660
angstgallery.com
Coleman Stevenson is the author of two collections of poems, Breakfast (Reprobate/GobQ Books, 2015) and The Accidental Rarefication of Pattern #5609 (bedouin books, 2012). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of publications such as The Portable Boog Reader, Gramma, Paper Darts, Seattle Review, E-ratio, Osiris, Louisiana Literature, Mid-American Review, and the anthology Motionless from the Iron Bridge. She has been a guest curator for various gallery spaces in the Portland, OR, area, and has also taught poetry, design theory, and cultural studies at a number of different institutions there including Portland State University, Mountain Writers Center, The Art Institute of Portland, and Columbia River Correctional Institution. She created and has taught the Image+Text track in the Certificate Program at the Independent Publishing Resource Center since 2015. She creates tarot cards and other divination products through her business The Dark Exact. A collaborative text and image project with artist Aspen Farer, The Doppelgänger Museum, is ongoing.
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
Printed Matter Vancouver co-founders Toni Partington and Christopher Luna will be among the artists featured at this years Washougal Art Festival on Saturday, August 12. We will have all four of the books we have published for sale as well as collage art, sculpture, and painting. We are very proud to be participating in this all-day community event.
2017 Washougal Art Festival
Artists and art lovers will come together at the Second Annual Washougal Art Festival, Saturday August 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in downtown Washougal’s Refection Plaza, 1703 Main Street.
The festival will feature:
• More than 20 juried, professional regional artists displaying and selling their creations
• Live music from 10am to 3p.m:
Insanitizers
Wayne Havrelly
Caryn Jamieson Music
Tianna and The Hustle
Jeffree White
• Children’s art area presented by The Paint Roller
• Hourly raffles for unique and valuable pieces donated by festival artists
• Event proceeds benefit Washougal Arts and Cultural Alliance (WACA) and will fund additional public art in Washougal!
LGBTQIA+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Sean Aaron Bowers is a Portland native. His first collection of poetry, We Were Warriors (University of Hell Press, 2012), was published under the pseudonym Johnny No Bueno. His upcoming book, Concrete & Juniper is due to be released by University of Hell in late 2017 to mid 2018. His work has appeared in Criminal Class Review, Present Tense, and Nailed Magazine. You can find out more about him at seanaaronbowers.com once he gets it up and running again.
Printed Matter Vancouver author Tiffany Burba and co-founders Toni Partington and Christopher Luna will be the featured readers at The Studio Series in Portland, OR on Sunday, August 13.
The Studio Series is a monthly poetry reading and open mic hosted by poet Leah Stenson at Stonehenge Studios in Portland’s historic Lair Hill neighborhood.
Tiffany Burba’s debut is the latest publication from Printed Matter Vancouver.
Meet Me Where I Left You, the debut collection of poetry and short prose by Tiffany Burba, captures her real and imagined New York City adventures of love, lust, museums, jazz, food, and running in Central Park. She has an amazing love affair with the City and its inhabitants stretching from Brooklyn to Queens, the Bronx to Manhattan, and all points between. Living on whiskey kisses, a subway pass, and everything from pizza to soup dumplings, Burba fills and breaks her heart and ours along the way. Meet Me Where I Left You explores her arrivals and departures, her dreams of leaving Pacific Northwest forests for the taxi rides and street grime of New York City, her love of family and friends, and her unashamed quest for passion.
In Meet Me Where I Left You, Tiffany Burba creates brave wordscapes of love broken, love restored, and dreams of New York. With vast humanity and invincible heart this collection does what great poetry always does: it heals us.
Tiffany Burba is a poet and photographer who lives in the Pacific Northwest. She began writing in 2009 as a way to process a very painful relationship. She found that writing was the one way to express all emotions and be completely vulnerable while healing the pain of heartbreak. She is a photographer who likes to capture sunsets, sunflowers, and the New York skyline. She is a mother of two and a grandmother of one. Tiffany’s work has appeared in Ghost Town Poetry, Volume Two (Printed Matter Vancouver, 2014); in the windows of local businesses for Poetry in the Shops in Vancouver, WA; The Poeming Pigeon A Journal of Poetry and Prose: Doobie or Not Doobie (The Poetry Box, 2016); and on C-Tran buses from January – June 2015 for Poetry Moves. Tiffany is a massage therapist and Reiki practitioner who believes in the body’s ability to heal itself. She loves to dance, drink whiskey, and spend time with poets, musicians, and people who enjoy life.
Printed Matter Vancouver co-founders Christopher Luna & Toni Partington sit for and interview with Judith Arcana at KBOO Portland
Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna is a graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Luna is also a visual artist, editor, workshop leader, and writing coach. He and his wife, Toni Partington, co-host Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, the popular reading series Luna established in 2004. Together they founded Printed Matter Vancouver, a small press and editing service for which they edited two volumes of poems from the reading series. 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. Recent publications include The Poeming Pigeon, Bombay Gin, Unshod Quills, It’s Animal But Merciful. As Poet Laureate, Luna created a Poets in the Schools program for Clark County and Poetry Moves, which places poems by local writers on C-Tran buses.
Toni Partington lives and works as a poet, editor, publisher, visual artist, and writing coach in Vancouver, Washington. Toni has a B.A. in Social Work and an M.A. in Humanities with a focus on literature and literary editing. She is the author of two books of poetry, Jesus Is A Gas (2009), and Wind Wing (2010). Her poetry has been published in numerous journals including The Cascade Journal, VoiceCatcher (editions 3 and 4), OutwardLink.net, and Perceptions. She was Co-Editor for the 2011/2012 VoiceCatcher anthology of Pacific Northwest women writers. Toni is co-founder and editor of Printed Matter Vancouver, a small press imprint which also provides coaching and editing services to Northwest writers, and co-hosts the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic.
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic co-hosts Toni Partington and Christopher Luna at Angst Gallery in July 2017. Photo by Aaron Scott. Art by Cynthia Heise.
Printed Matter Vancouver would like to thank producer Aaron Scott, intern Elayna Yussen, and everyone at OPB Radio’s State of Wonder for featuring the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic community on their program. I founded the reading series in 2004, and Toni Partington, my wife and co-host, came on board in 2007. It was a very moving experience to hear what the series has meant to Toni and series regulars April Bullard, Eileen Elliott, and Erin Iwata. I found myself in tears as my friends spoke about their personal journey, and how Ghost Town Poetry has contributed to both their personal growth and their development as writers. We hope that you will agree that Aaron and his crew perfectly captured what makes the reading series so unique.
Toni and I were also pleased to find that the producers acknowledged Angst Gallery’s role in the community as “de facto arts center.” Angst Gallery owner Leah Jackson has been one of the driving forces in the Vancouver Arts District for many years. Since 2005, she has provided me with a venue in which to present local and national poets, poetry & music collaborations, coaster poetry, and bilingual poetry readings. I would not have been named the first Poet Laureate of Clark County without her unfailing support. In fact, Leah Jackson was the first to acknowledge my service to the poetry community when she named me the poet laureate of her two businesses, Angst Gallery and Niche Wine Bar. This great honor allowed me to have two years of practice as her laureate (2011-2012) before being called upon by the Clark County Arts Commission to serve the poets of Clark County as their poet laureate.
The program also includes a wonderful interview with Erika Bartlett, a Vancouver artist whose solo show, “The Art of Healthy Spaces”, is on display at the gallery through July 29.
LGBTQIA+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
printedmattervancouver.com
Tongo Eisen-Martin
Tongo Eisen-Martin is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry book, someone’s dead already (Bootstrap Press, 2015), and his poetry has been featured in Harper’s Magazine. He is also a movement worker and educator whose work in Rikers Island was featured in the New York Times. He has been a faculty member at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, and his curriculum on the extrajudicial killing of Black people, “We Charge Genocide Again!” has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country. His next book, Heaven is All Goodbyes, will be the 61st Pocket Poets book published by City Lights.
Derek Fenner is an artist, educator, and researcher living in Oakland, California. He completed a BFA in painting and photography from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in writing and poetics from Naropa University. After a decade of experience as an art educator in the juvenile justice system, he is completing a Doctorate in education at Mills College. His research interests include youth justice, youth participatory action research, decolonizing methodologies, and art-centered learning. He co-founded Bootstrap Press in 2000, which has published over 40 books. His latest book of poems is Hermeticities & Others, published in 2016.
Our thanks to Multnomah Arts Center writer Jan Stewart, who shared her impressions of her first time at Ghost Town and her time in Christopher Luna’s Multnomah Arts Center poetry writing class:
“My hat is off to you. A bright and multicolored hat of deep significance is lifted to you for your work in building a vibrant, inspiring, and supportive community of poets. At one point last night you said something like, ‘you guys are cracking my head wide open.’ Mine too. Along with the assembly of poets, a group diverse in race, experience, sexual orientation, gender, and perspective, I was impressed by the core values palpably present. Everyone felt safe to let their voice be heard. The power of that mix cracked my head wide open and knocked my socks off. I have been impressed by what you do for us at MAC and last night saw it is a drop in the bucket in what you do for poets, and even more importantly for the community, for the world, for life on this plane. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Featured Reader Dan Raphael performs at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on June 8, 2017
Recently, Portland poet Micah David-Cole Fletcher was the only survivor among three heroes who were stabbed while defending a Muslim woman and her friend from a racist terrorist on the MAX in Portland. In gratitude for their bravery and their willingness to stand up to hate, we dedicated this month’s Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic to Micah, Ricky Best, and Taliesin Namkai-Meche.
I was moved to tears by Ghost Town regular Lori Loranger, who has been attending the series since it was founded in November 2004, when she shared the following poem:
“Tell everyone on this train that I love them”
remembering Rick Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche
So many ways to propagate hate
speak it and spout it and live it
until you believe it’s true
you can teach it to your children,
feed it with your angry thoughts
and stories
keep it on the fire
where it simmers and steams
until it explodes in violence.
So many ways to propagate hate,
while those of us who don’t believe,
who won’t give energy to hating,
pour reason and truth and love on the heat of it
with just the one way to not hate:
to NOT HATE
To not hate people who aren’t like us
or don’t think the same
To not hate even the haters
to just not hate.
It’s the duty of those of us who can
to speak up, when hate is spoken
taught, displayed
acted on
It’s our privilege to do the right thing,
a privilege not everyone can afford.
We’re all on this train
traveling together, to wherever we’re going,
going our own ways, we’re on this train together
packed in tight
with no room for hate
Tell everyone on this train that I love them.
-Lori Loranger
Micah Fletcher: “It’s the duty of those who can – Being able to do the right thing is a privilege some people can’t afford”
This event is a public reading of student poems selected for the fourth season of Poetry Moves, featuring poems written by students in Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna’s Poets in the Schools program whose work has been selected to appear on C-Tran buses from July–December 2017
Congratulations to all of our student poets:
James B., 4th grade, Hearthwood Elementary
Gavin B., 4th grade, Hearthwood Elementary
Brooklyn C., 2nd grade, Hough Elementary
Ellie G., 8th grade, Amboy Middle School
Allison K., 5th Grade, Union Ridge Elementary School
Kaylee K., 5th grade, Union Ridge Elementary School
Berenice L-P., 6th grade, Discovery Middle School
Jacob R., 8th grade, Amboy Middle School
Johanny S., 6th grade, Discovery Middle School
Christina S., 11th grade, Vancouver School of Arts and Academics
JOIN US FOR THIS WONDERFUL CELEBRATION OF LOCAL STUDENT POETS
Season Four of Poetry Moves will once again feature ten young poets from the schools visited by the poets in Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna’s Poets in the Schools Program. The workshops were led by April Bullard, Christopher Luna, Jim Martin, and Morgan Hutchinson. Christopher Luna supervised the instructors, and Printed Matter Vancouver co-founder Toni Partington managed and supported the team.
On July 15, we will celebrate the students whose poems were chosen with a special reading at the Vancouver Farmers Market Music Stage in Esther Short Park. Each student’s poem will be read aloud. Those students who cannot be present will be acknowledged by one of the instructors from the Poets in Schools Program. Arts of Clark County will have channel cards from previous seasons of Poetry Moves for sale to benefit the program.
The student poems will appear on C-Tran buses through December 2017.
When Christopher Luna was named Poet Laureate for Clark County in 2013, he launched a poets in the schools program that sends local writers into Clark County schools to lead poetry workshops aimed at showing children that poetry can be meaningful, magical, and fun. The program has received grant support from Humanities Washington and the Arts of Clark County.
Arts of Clark County Chair Karen Madsen made contact with C-Tran and laid the groundwork for the Poetry Moves program. Her husband Cameron Suttles designed the channel cards for the buses. The first and third season of the program featured poems from ten Clark County poets, eight of whom were selected by Luna and his wife and Printed Matter Vancouver co-founder Toni Partington as judges of a countywide contest. Season Two featured students from the Poets in the Schools Program.
LGBTQIA+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Rob Katsuno has been employed as a Boeing jet design engineer, a Mitsubishi Joint Venture Broker, a Morgan Stanley Investment Banker in NY and Tokyo. He holds an MBA from UCLA and currently works as a Ameriprise Financial Advisor. In 2011 he received third place in the Willamette Writers Kay Snow Writing Contest. He is also a talented performer who has appeared at BackfencePDX and United Solo, America’s largest solo performance festival in Theatre Row, NY. For more information about rob, visit robkatsuno.com
Dan Raphael performs at the Ford Building in Portland Photo by Robert Sanders
Everyone in This Movie Gets Paid, dan raphael’s 19th book, came out last June. Some of his newer poems appear in Caliban, Curly Mind, The Poeming Pigeon, In Between Hangovers and Otoliths. Every Wednesday he writes and records a news poem, as well as writing stories for the news anchors on KBOO Radio. He hosts Fo Po Poetry, a monthly reading series in Portland, and is the prose editor forUnlikely Stories, an e-zine based in New Orleans.
PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER 