Angst Gallery – Page 7 – PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Kristin Roedell at Angst Gallery November 12, 2015

October 23, 2015

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

7pm
Thursday, November 12
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

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

LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
angstgallery.com

With our featured reader, Kristin Roedell

Kristin Roedell is a Northwest poet and retired attorney. Her work has appeared in over 50 journals and anthologies, including The Journal of the American Medical Association, Switched on Gutenberg, and CHEST. She is the author of Girls with Gardenias (Flutter Press) and Down River (Aldrich Press), a finalist for the Quercus Review Press poetry prize. She has twice been nominated for Best of the Web and once for the Pushcart Prize. She was the 2013 winner of NISA’s 11th Annual Brainstorm Poetry Contest and a finalist in the 2013 Crab Creek Review poetry contest.

Kristin Roedell in Poets & Writers

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic at Angst Gallery Featuring Sarah Webb October 8, 2015

September 14, 2015

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

7pm
Thursday, October 8

Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

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

in the Vancouver Arts District

LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
christopherjluna@gmail.com
angstgallery.com

With our featured reader, Sarah Webb: A former Vancouverite, Sarah Webb now lives in the Texas Hill Country with her hound dog Rex, and reads frequently in Oklahoma and Texas. Her poetry collection Black (Virtual Artists Collective, 2013) was selected as a finalist for the 2014 Oklahoma Book Award and the 2014 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award. She served as Poetry Editor for the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma’s interdisciplinary journal Crosstimbers for many years, and is presently a member of the editorial committee for All Roads Will Lead You Home and a co-editor of Just This, a magazine of the Zen arts.

Two poems by Sarah Webb:

The Altruism of Birds
By Sarah Webb

Ravens clamor the flock to a hidden feast
hark and hoot to show the way.
They share.
We’ll assume it’s for the usual reasons–
courting or potlatch
or the bullying strength of numbers.

Why are we surprised?
After all, people share
and often for no reason we can name.
Men share, and wolves share.
A raven may tip his wing to a hunter.
A badger may shelter a boy in his den.
A roadrunner adopted a man I knew.
The bird would bring him lizards
and grasshoppers,
lay them at his door as a cat might.

Once she brought the egg of a wren.

Once she came right up to the man
as he sat in the shade of his patio,
and she looked at him.

Her eye had that bird glint
that might mean anything–
pride in her prowess,
yearning for the touch of his beak
or delight in the glare of the sun
and the taste of snake
before it is given away.

Empty
By Sarah Webb

We start from the place that is empty.
Even in a mass of clay
there is that empty spot.

The thumb finds it
and follows its prompting,
presses out from it
and feels its yes
to widening.

From it bowls form
and rattles.

And in my chest
there is that empty spot
that widens with each breath
in a sweet yes.

I feel it press, press out,
but how to name what it forms?

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen/ Free Poetry Workshop at Vancouver Community Library September 10, 2015

August 14, 2015

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

7pm
Thursday, September 10
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

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

LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
printedmattervancouver.com
angstgallery.com

With our featured reader, Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen

**Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen Photo by John Ulman**

Elizabeth Austen is the Washington State Poet Laureate for 2014-16. Her collection Every Dress a Decision (Blue Begonia Press, 2011) was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her work is also available on the CD Skin Prayers and in two chapbooks. Elizabeth spent her teens and twenties working in the theatre and writing poems. A six-month solo walkabout in the Andes region of South America led her to focus exclusively on poetry. She earned an MFA in Poetry at Antioch University Los Angeles, and is the poetry commentator for NPR-affiliate KUOW 94.9. She makes her living at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she also offers poetry and reflective writing workshops for the staff. For more information please visit http://wapoetlaureate.org/

Elizabeth Austen will also be teaching a generative writing workshop at the Vancouver Library the same afternoon:

Poetry for All
Thursday, September 10, 2015
2 – 4pm
Vancouver Community Library
Klickitat Room, Level 4

901 C St
Vancouver, WA 98660

Join Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen for a free, hands-on poetry workshop designed to engage participants’ imaginations, life histories and sense of empathy through language. The class includes close reading of a few contemporary poems, then using one as a model for writing our own first draft. No previous writing experience needed.

Library events and programs are free and although everyone is welcome, space is limited. Preregistration is required and closes Sept 9 at 5pm. Maximum 25 participants.

Poetry for All Workshop

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Herb Stokes at Angst Gallery May 14, 2015

April 12, 2015

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

7pm
Thursday, May 14
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660
LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

christopherjluna@gmail.com

Herb at GT December 11 2014 by Tiffany — Herb Stokes at Cover to Cover Books in December 2014 Photograph by Tiffany Burba-Schramm

Featuring Herb Stokes: Upon retirement from Swissair New York, Herb Stokes and his artist wife, Marianne, moved to the Intracoastal Waterway in North Carolina. They did the boat and beach scene for several years but after a wonderful summer trip to Portland decided the Northwest would be their home. He took an ongoing creative writing course at Clark College and hasn’t stopped writing since.

From “SALAD FOR TWO”
By Herb Stokes

We sat at a too small table
on a sun washed terrace
overlooking the Mediterranean
drinking wine from pewter goblets.

A blue haze was in the air
and in your eyes.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic at Angst Gallery celebrates National Poetry Month with a bilingual reading featuring Los Portenos founding member Cindy Williams Gutierrez Thursday, April 9

March 20, 2015

Printed Matter Vancouver and Leah Jackson Present
GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Downtown in the Vancouver Arts District
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

7pm
April 9, 2015
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

With our Featured Reader Cindy Williams Gutierrez:

Cindy Williams Gutierrez

Photo by Russell J. Young

Selected by Poets and Writers Magazine as one of the top ten 2014 Debut Poets, poet-dramatist Cindy Williams Gutiérrez draws inspiration from the silent and silenced voices of history and herstory. Her poetry collection, the small claim of bones, was published by Arizona State University’s Bilingual Press. Poems and reviews have appeared in Borderlands, Calyx, Harvard’s Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México’s Periódico de poesía, Portland Review, Quiddity, Rain Taxi, Rattle, and ZYZZYVA. Plays include Words That Burn, which premiered in Milagro’s 2014 La Luna Nueva festival to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month and the William Stafford Centennial, and A Dialogue of Flower & Song featured in the 2012 GEMELA (Spanish and Latin American Women’s Studies) Conference co-sponsored by the University of Portland and Portland State University.

Cindy earned an MFA from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Program with concentrations in Mesoamerican poetics and creative collaboration. Cindy is a founding member of Los Porteños, Portland’s Latino writers’ collective, and the founder of Grupo de ’08, a Northwest collaborative-artists’ salon inspired by Lorca’s Generación de ’27.

Los Porteños is committed to making Latino and Latin American literature an integral part of the Portland community. We are dedicated to raising our voices and raising awareness of our diverse languages, canons, stories and cultures. We develop and nurture each unique voice into a collective of writers honoring this diverse heritage. Founded in 2006 with the steadfast support of Milagro Theatre, we have presented annual literary readings for Day of the Dead as well as participated in Milagro’s La Luna Nueva festival. In 2011, we began hosting a William Stafford Birthday Reading featuring original, multilingual poetry and prose written in response to Stafford poems.

2014 marked Los Porteños’ foray into community-building projects, including a Noche de Neruda reading at Literary Arts, a staged reading of Marrano Justice in collaboration with Congregation Ahavath Achim, and the production of Words That Burn in commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the William Stafford Centennial, and the rescindment of Executive Order 9066. A dramatization of the World War II experiences of conscientious objector William Stafford, Japanese-American internee Lawson Inada, and Chicano Marine Guy Gabaldón, Words That Burn was supported by 20 community sponsors, including arts and humanities funders; Asian-American, Latino, and peace organizations; as well as universities and libraries. Recent collaborations featured Echoes Cabaret—in memory of “the disappeared”—with the Jewish Theatre Collaborative and Mujeres—in celebration of International Women’s Day—with Milagro.

Upcoming readings include Letters in Exile: William Stafford and Miguel Hernández at Literary Arts on Wednesday, May 13 at 7 pm.

If I Were a Nahua Poet

Make my body a cuicoyan, this house of song.
Garland my bones with those who have gone before, colli,
And the ones who have gone before them, colli. Return,
Return. Let the sweet wind be their breath on my shoulder,
Their tug on my tunic. Let my voice join the ancients
To swell the sky with a thousand plumes of light. Ehua!

And when the moon moves between sun and earth,
Let us remember to beat our deerskin drums and dance.
To pound our bare feet and chests until this holy earth
Splits in two, and volcanoes rise up in song. Only then
Will this life be worthy: to make the dark earth rumble,
And the heart fiercely tremble. Yolhuihuiyocaz, tremble.

By Cindy Williams Gutiérrez
From the small claim of bones, Bilingual Press, 2014.

David Meltzer and Julie Rogers visit Vancouver for an Evening of Poetry and a Talk based on Meltzer’s newly re-issued Two Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook April 23 and 25

March 1, 2015

David Meltzer and Julie Rogers visit Vancouver
for an Evening of Poetry and a Talk based on Meltzer’s newly re-issued Two Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook
April 23 and 25

Note: Printed Matter Vancouver is looking for sponsors for the events in Vancouver. If you would like to donate any amount to make this visit possible, please write a check payable to “Angst Gallery” with “Meltzer” on the Memo line, and send it to or deliver it to the gallery (address below).

The information for the events in Vancouver are followed by a short message from Julie and their full reading schedule for 2015. More info about David Meltzer and the forthcoming re-release of Two Way Mirror is also available here: http://www.blogcitylights.com/2015/02/19/when-i-was-a-poet-life-and-work-of-david-meltzer/

Julie Rogers and David Meltzer

INFO FOR VANCOUVER EVENTS

A Couple of Poets
David Meltzer and Julie Rogers
8pm
Thursday, April 23
Angst Gallery
Vancouver, WA
Free

A Couple of Poets, David Meltzer and Julie Rogers, have been performing their work together since 2010. Each will read solo and they’ll cap the evening with a back and forth poetry improv, referred to as “Fours” in the jazz world.

DAVID MELTZER
David Meltzer began his literary career during the Beat heyday and is considered a prominent figure in the San Francisco/Beat Renaissance. At the age of 20 he recorded his poetry with jazz in Los Angeles. Lawrence Ferlinghetti has described him as “one of the greats of post-World-War-Two San Francisco poets and musicians.” He is the author of many volumes of poetry including Arrows: Selected Poetry 1957 – 1992, No Eyes: Lester Young, Beat Thing, and David’s Copy. He has also published fiction and essays including Two-Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook and has edited numerous anthologies and collections of interviews such as The Secret Garden: An Anthology in the Kabbalah, Reading Jazz, Writing Jazz, and San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets. His most recent book of poetry, When I Was A Poet, is # 60 in the Pocket Poet’s Series published by City Lights. For decades, David Meltzer has read his work and taught at countless venues in the United States and Europe and he continues to give talks and readings in the SF Bay Area and elsewhere. In 2011 he and poet Julie Rogers married; they live in Oakland and now perform their work together. David was given the Bay Area Guardian’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and in 2012 was nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry. This year, City Lights reissued a special edition of Two-Way Mirror with an updated addendum. Diane di Prima, former SF Poet Laureate says of him, “David Meltzer is a hidden adept, one of the secret treasures on our planet. Great poet, musician, comic; mystic unsurpassed, performer with few peers.” See his website at http://www.meltzerville.com.

JULIE ROGERS
Julie Rogers entered the San Francisco poetry scene during the 1970’s. Her poems were first included in a San Francisco anthology in 1980, and she later published six chapbooks. She has read her work on public radio and television and at many venues in California and Oregon. Decades of involvement in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism have influenced her writings, and in 2007, Vimala published her Buddhist hospice manual, Instructions for the Transitional State, with which she will soon begin a training program. Her poetry has been featured in various journals and anthologies such as Beatitude – Golden Anniversary 1959 – 2009, Poetry Flash, Sparring with Beatnik Poets, Big Scream, The Cafe Review, World of Change, and others. In 2012, Wild Ocean Press published her first selected collection of poetry spanning thirty years of work, House Of The Unexpected. Omerta Publications released her chapbook Street Warp in 2013. Penguin/Random House is currently considering another book-length volume of her poetry. Julie teaches creative writing for kids and adults, and performs solo, and with her husband, David Meltzer. Beat poet Michael McClure has said of her work, “Few poems are written as close to the heart — no extra words, just soul meanings…” See her website at http://www.julrogers.com.

Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna and
Printed Matter Vancouver Present:

BASIC MYSTERIES – An Afternoon with David Meltzer
An educational talk designed for teachers, students, and enthusiasts who are interested in and enjoy reading, writing, and/or teaching poetry.

2-5pm
April 25, 2015
Angst Gallery
Cost: $20 Students & Seniors; $25 Teachers, $30 Adults

David Meltzer, Beat & SF Renaissance Poet, will offer a talk and open conversation with participants to explore some of the basic mysteries of poetry & poetics. Some material covered will come from his book, Two-Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook (published by Berkeley’s Oyez Press in 1977, and reprinted in an amended edition by City Lights in March 2015).

Topics will range from:
1. poetry’s roots in oral culture, 2. the invention/mythologies of writing systems, 3. the book and the page, to 4. its present tense return to orality & the wired realms of reading/receiving texts.

Other material utilized will be from lectures given in the graduate Poetics Program at New College of California exploring divination, the prophetic, Kabbalah, & the possibility & impossibility of language.

This educational talk is designed for teachers, students, and enthusiasts who are interested in and enjoy reading, writing, and/or teaching poetry.

Meltzer’s book, Two-Way Mirror will be available for purchase by the participants.

“David Meltzer had set out, when he was very young, to write a long poem called The History of Everything, an ambition that his later poetry brought ever closer to fulfillment. Here, in Two Way Mirror, he shows us the underpinnings for such an enterprise: a brilliant & wise work as rich in insights & discoveries today as when it was first published in 1977. I know of no better amalgam of poetry & poetics & no better introduction to the ways in which poetry can emerge for us & lead us beyond ourselves & toward our own fulfillments. Meltzer’s grace of mind & the life of poetry that surrounds it make the case complete.” – Jerome Rothenberg, poet, translator and anthologist

David Meltzer’s Bio:

One of the key Beat poets of the San Francisco Renaissance period, David Meltzer came to prominence as the youngest poet to have his work included in the anthology, The New American Poetry 1945 – 1960, edited By Donald Allen. He is the author of more than 40 books of poetry and prose including Arrows, No Eyes: Lester Young, Beat Thing, and David’s Copy. He has edited numerous anthologies and collections of interviews such as Reading Jazz, Writing Jazz, The Secret Garden-An Anthology in the Kabbalah, Birth, Death, and San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets.

He also edited and published Tree Magazine and Tree Books. Lawrence Ferlinghetti has described him as “one of the greats of post-World-War-Two San Francisco poets.” A recent book, When I Was A Poet, is # 60 in the Pocket Poets Series published by legendary City Lights of San Francisco City, who this year reissued his book, Two-Way Mirror. In 2011 Meltzer was nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry. David Meltzer taught at SF State, The Urban School of San Francisco, Vacaville Correctional Facility and in the Humanities and graduate Poetics programs at New College of California in San Francisco for 30 years. He is known for his inspiring and witty teaching style. Visit his website: http://www.meltzerville.com.

Here is a recent message from Julie Rogers, followed by their full schedule of events:

MELTZER & ROGERS’ UPDATE & SCHEDULE 2015 winter/spring and onward!

Hello and Happy 2015! Hope it’s going well so far… we’re happy to say that David is feeling good after last year’s health storm AND today’s post-op ultra sound was normal! We’re so happy and relieved! David says he’s ready to get out there, so here’s our current schedule – check back for updates… We hope to see you down the line!

David’s upcoming hit, ‘Two-Way Mirror-A Poetry Notebook’, will be released by City Lights in just a few weeks. Now almost forty years after its first issue, he’s added an addendum and has taken what was already an inspiring, one-of-a-kind poetry guidebook and sent it into a new realm. His book release at City Lights is April 8. Hope you can make it!

As well, our CD, Two Tone Poetry & Jazz, a playful swingin’ improv of our poems with sounds by saxophonist Zan Stewart, should be coming right up… recorded right in our living room by Pureland Audio.

To check us out, our websites are http://www.melterville.com & http://www.julrogers.com.

Take care, be well, and enjoy! Julie and David

Meltzer and Rogers 2015 Reading Tour Schedule
NEW YORK CITY, NY
Sat., Feb. 28 – Time TBA
‘A COUPLE OF POETS’
Readings by Beat poet David Meltzer & Julie Rogers
highlighting the Wallace Berman exhibit
at Jack Tilton Gallery
8 East 76th Street, New York, NY 10021
(212) 737-2221

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Wed. April 8 – 7 p.m.
City Lights Presents the book launch of
David Meltzer’s ‘TWO-WAY MIRROR–A Poetry Notebook’
at City Lights Bookstore – Free Admission
261 Columbus Ave. (at Broadway)
North Beach, San Francisco
A book signing by the author will follow.
For more about the book: http://www.citylights.com/info/?fa=event&event_id=2270

Michael Rothenberg, David Meltzer, and Christopher Luna at Clark College in 2009

VANCOUVER, WA

“A Couple of Poets”
David Meltzer and Julie Rogers

8pm
Thursday, April 23
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA
98660
Free

“Basic Mysteries—An Afternoon with David Meltzer”
An educational talk for teachers, students, and enthusiasts who are interested in and enjoy reading, writing, and/or teaching poetry

2-5pm
Saturday, April 25
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA
98660

ASHLAND, OR:

“A Couple of Poets”
David Meltzer and Julie Rogers
7 pm
Wednesday, April 29
Bloomsbury Books
290 East Main St.
Ashland, OR
Free.

“Two-Way Mirror with David Meltzer”
1:30 – 4:30
Saturday, May 2nd
Ashland Library
Guanajuato Room (lower level room #007)
410 Siskiyou Boulevard
Ashland, OR 97520
(541) 774-6980

$40 for adults / $30 for seniors & students.

Michael Rothenberg, Jim Finley, David Meltzer, and Christopher Luna

at Clark College in Vancouver, WA in 2009

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Thurs., July 2, 2015 – 6:30 p.m.
Thursdays at Readers Poetry Series
David Meltzer & Sharon Doubiago
Readers Bookstore, Fort Mason
Building C
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, 94123

Thurs., July 16, 2015 – 6:30 p.m.
Thursdays at Readers Poetry Series
Julie Rogers & Sunnylyn Thibodeaux
Readers Bookstore, Fort Mason
Building C
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, 94123

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic relocates to Angst Gallery with featured reader Nancy Flynn Thursday, February 12

January 18, 2015

Printed Matter Vancouver and Leah Jackson Present
GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
In a new location
Downtown in the Vancouver Arts District
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

Delicacies and libations provided by Niche Wine and Art Bar

LGBTQ-friendly, all ages, and uncensored since 2004

christopherjluna@gmail.com

With our Featured Reader Nancy Flynn:

Nancy Flynn grew up on the Susquehanna River in northeastern Pennsylvania, spent many years on a downtown creek in Ithaca, New York, and now lives near the mighty Columbia in Northeast Portland. She attended Oberlin College in the 1970s, Cornell University in the 1980s, and got her MA in English/Creative Writing from SUNY Binghamton in 1994. A former university administrator, her writing has received an Oregon Literary Fellowship, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes. Recent poems have appeared in Gold Man Review, PANK, Posit, and Raven Chronicles; her latest chapbook is Eternity a Coal’s Throw. A complete list of her publications is available at www.nancyflynn.com.

Tide Table

Leadbetter Point, Willapa National Wildlife Refuge

beyond the edge of words a fading line
surrendered into silence syntax moved
directing where to stalk or pantomime
in semaphores the byways unimproved
beyond the edge of worlds a falling dream
that seeks to beach the tidal rising fast
past current rush through estuary sea
runs eeling too a salted push of grass
for refuge snowy plovers poised to lift
from mudflat nests gone boggy skyward hail
upended wintering down a calling cliff
beyond the edge of worth what loss unveils
inscription on the fly leaf constant no
ellipses still how much I do not know

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Eighth Anniversary Potluck January 8, 2015/ Final Reading at Cover to Cover Books before changing locations in February 2015

December 29, 2014

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Eighth Anniversary Potluck January 8, 2015

Final Reading at Cover to Cover Books before changing locations in February 2015

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

Potluck at 6pm
Reading at 7pm

Thursday, January 8
Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA 98663

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic founder Christopher Luna

and Cover to Cover Books owner Mel Sanders

Mel Sanders, who has been keeping the bookstore open late for us since 2007, recently announced that Cover to Cover Books will be closing its doors at the end of January. We are very grateful to Mel for her many years of service to the poetry community and to Northwest writers, and we will miss her and her wonderful bookstore. Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic’s success would not have been possible without her support and her patience.

Fortunately, the series has found a new home. Beginning in February, we will relocate to Angst Gallery, 1015 Main Street in downtown Vancouver, owned by another tireless champion of the arts, Leah Jackson. Contact christopherjluna@gmail.com or visit printedmattervancouver.com for more information.

Join Christopher Luna, Toni Partington, and the Vancouver poetry community as we celebrate eight years of open mic poetry at Cover to Cover Books and bid a fond farewell to our favorite bookstore with one more anniversary potluck and open mic poetry reading. Please bring a dish to share.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic with Stephanie Lenox and Miles Hewitt at Angst Gallery for one night only August 8, 2013

July 24, 2013

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Note: The Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, which has taken place at Cover to Cover Books in Vancouver since 2007, will take place at Angst Gallery on August 8 because the bookstore is unavailable that night. The series will return to Cover to Cover Books on September 12.

Contact: Christopher Luna

360-910-1066

christopherjluna@gmail.com

ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Printed Matter Vancouver

& Leah Jackson present

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC

August 8, 2013

7pm

in a special location!

Angst Gallery

(1013 Main St., Vancouver)

With your hosts

Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna

and Printed Matter Vancouver founder Toni Partington

Experience the power & magic of words

Performed with unbridled enthusiasm

All ages and uncensored

Food and drink available for purchase

from Niche Wine and Art Bar

Featuring Stephanie Lenox and Miles Hewitt

Information about Stephanie Lenox from Airlie Press.org: Stephanie Lenox’s inventive debut collection Congress of Strange People entices readers into a “federation of freaks” with voice-driven poems that sing a collective ode to our common strangeness. Employing humor, mystery, and a bold yet generous gaze, this book keeps company with a snake handler and conspiracy theorist, record-holders from The Guinness Book, Miss Manners, human cannonballs, Nancy Drew, and other characters from a family of outcasts.

The poet lives in Salem, Oregon, with her husband and two daughters. She teaches poetry at Willamette University and edits the online literary journal Blood Orange Review. She is the author of The Heart That Lies Outside the Body, an award-winning poetry chapbook published by Slapering Hol Press. Her work has appeared widely in literary journals and has been honored with fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Oregon Arts Commission as well as numerous nominations for the Pushcart Prize.

For more information, please visit her website at http://www.stephanielenox.com.

Miles Hewitt is an eighteen-year-old writer of many mediums from Vancouver, Washington. He spends his days crafting poems, songs, and status messages, recording albums in dimly-lit basements, and ruminating. His self-recorded album Empire will be released on August 10th, 2013, at Niche Wine and Art Bar. Recently, he was selected as one of five National Student Poets for the 2012-2013 year by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, won a National Silver Medal for poetry at the 2012 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and serves as a poetry reader for the Adroit Journal, a writing and art magazine managed exclusively by high schoolers and college undergraduates. Miles is considering a career in political communications or speechwriting if the “rock-and-roll-poet” line of business doesn’t pan out. He will attend Harvard University in the fall.

The Marriage of Poetic Words and Images at Angst Gallery April 2013

May 14, 2013

Toni Partington and I would like to thank everyone who participated in or supported The Marriage of Poetic Words and Images, our first art show as curators. We are especially grateful to Angst Gallery Director Leah Jackson for entrusting the space to us for National Poetry Month. We encourage the community to send any photos they may have taken of the event so that we can add them to this page or the Facebook photo album:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4790349569206.1073741826.1609878790&type=3 . In addition, if any of the writers whose work is featured in the show would like for us to post their pieces here, please send them to christopherjluna@gmail.com.

The Marriage of Poetic Words and Images at Angst Gallery

Work by Olinka Broadfoot, Jolyn Wolfe, Toni Partington, Jim Martin, and DaBat

Work by Olinka Broadfoot, Jolyn Wolfe, Toni Partington, and Jim Martin

Work by Jolyn Wolfe, Toni Partington, and Jim Martin

Here is the announcement for the show:

The Marriage of Poetic Words and Images

April 5-30 2013

Angst Gallery, Vancouver, WA

1015 Main Street

Curated by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

Sponsored by Leah Jackson and Printed Matter Vancouver

Opening Reception: 5-9 pm April 5, Angst Gallery

Poetry Reading: 6pm April 27, Niche Wine and Art Bar

Many creative people work in more than one medium. The Marriage of Poetic Words and Images aims to present the unique impact of language and image when melded together in visual art. This will take the form of photographs, painting, sculpture, and mixed media. Some of the work will be inspired by poetry, while other pieces will be visual art that includes text. The show will also include poetry that is presented in a particularly visual way, or is inspired by art. While many of the pieces in the show are the result of collaborations between artists and writers, many of our contributors will be utilizing both language and visual art. The majority of the artists live in Vancouver; however, we will also feature work from artists and writers from Yakima, WA and Portland, OR.

The show will also feature two poetry readings: throughout the evening of First Friday’s opening reception on April 5, and at Niche Wine and Art Bar (1013 Main Street) on Saturday, April 27. The reading on April 27 will also feature live music and a Q&A with the artists and writers.

The artists and writers who are featured in this show include: Anni Becker, Greg Bee, Olinka Broadfoot, April Bullard, DaBat, Erin Dengerink, Eileen Davis Elliott, John Furniss, Jeremy Gaulke, Leah Jackson, Kelly Keigwin, Christopher Luna, Jim Martin, Toni Partington, Jenney Pauer, Michael Smith, Michele Venclik, and Jolyn Wolfe.

Poets Christopher Luna and Toni Partington are the co-hosts of the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic and co-founders of Printed Matter Vancouver, a local small press and editing service. Their visual art has appeared in Angst Gallery, North Bank Artists Gallery, Gallery 360, Art in the Heart, Multnomah Arts Center, and the Vancouver Community Library.

Visual artist Leah Jackson is the owner of Angst Gallery and Niche Wine and Art Bar.

http://www.angstgallery.com

http://www.printedmattervancouver.com

Work by Jim Martin

Work by DaBat

Art by Kelly Keigwin, text by Jenney Pauer

Work by DaBat, Kelly Keigwin and Jenney Pauer

Here is our curator’s statement, which was posted in the gallery:

We are very fortunate to be a part of Vancouver’s growing, vibrant arts community. One of the qualities we have noticed about this particular community is that many people work in more than one medium. The Marriage of Poetic Words and Images aims to convey the unique impact that language and image have when presented together in visual art.

The show includes photographs, painting, sculpture, and mixed media. Some of the work is inspired by poetry, while other pieces are visual art that incorporates text in some way. Some pieces feature poetry that is presented in a particularly visual way, or is inspired by art. While many of the pieces in the show are the result of collaborations between artists and writers, many of our contributors utilize both text and visual art.

The essence of combining poetic language with visual image is meant to challenge the brain of the viewer/reader. The brain processes language and visual images differently. The work in this show asks you to integrate the two and by doing so, make them come alive. It is our intentional to provide you with an opportunity that allows you to experience the work emotionally and cognitively at nearly the same time.

The majority of the artists who have contributed to this show live in Vancouver, WA; however, the show also features work from artists and writers from Yakima, WA and Portland, OR. Angst Gallery owner Leah Jackson has been a great supporter of art, poetry, and music in downtown Vancouver for many years, and has supported us as we have evolved as poets, visual artists, and community organizers. Therefore, her gallery is the perfect location for such a show.

Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
Writers/Artists
Editors and Publishers, Printed Matter Vancouver

Art by Erin Dengerink and Christopher Luna, poem by Christopher Luna

Christopher Luna poses in front of his collaboration with Erin Dengerink

Here is the text of the poem that formed the basis of the work seen above:

The Tarot Facilitates a Long-Overdue Goodbye

by Christopher Luna, March 2008

three become one

envision bounty

loose robes fall

among grapes, squash, tomato

there are oranges behind you

and a volcano

connects your genitalia

dig in

and don’t tell me

who my elders ought to be

outdated though my ways may be

they still have potential to bring peace to the valley

rove naked

bang on the wall

between you

and the other half

you are already there

upside down, The Butterfly Queen

disappears into the clouds

you will remember neither

the pattern of her garment

nor the curl of her hair

II.

Bend eternally. Raise a sword. Accept the tongue of the lion you once were. It’s alright to dream of the butterfly you may become. Heart open. Head aflame. The avenging angel spreads its hands, sending six rays of light which pierce the soldiers’ armor. And the hills run red with blood. Raise the glasses you were given. Celebrate the bounty assembled before your feet. Tired—nay, exhausted.

After completion

begin again.

Michael Smith’s drawing based on Christopher Luna’s “pavement pastoral”

Art and poetry by Eileen Elliott

Art and poetry by April Bullard

“River God” by April Bullard

Work by Jolyn Wolfe, Greg Bee, Olinka Broadfoot, Michele Venclik, Kelly Keigwin,

Christopher Luna, Toni Partington, and Eileen Elliott

Work by Greg Bee

Art by Jolyn Wolfe, poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelly

Bust of Christopher Luna by Olinka Broadfoot, bird sculpture by Toni Partington

Work by Michele Venclik, Kelly Keigwin, Eileen Elliott, Toni Partington, Christopher Luna and Jeremy Gaulke,

Leah Jackson, Anni Becker and John Furniss, and Toni Partington

Work by Michele Venclik and Kelly Keigwin

Art and text by Michele Venclik

Work by Michele Venclik, Kelly Keigwin, and Eileen Elliott

Work by Michele Venclik and Kelly Keigwin

Poetry and fabric art by Eileen Elliott

Art by Anni Becker and John Furniss

“What I Tried to Say” by Leah Jackson

Jeremy Gaulke’s illustration of Christopher Luna’s poem “full text hallucination 102”

“Into the Muir Woods” by Toni Partington

Christopher Luna’s sketch of poet Dan Raphael in action

and “Into the Muir Woods” by Toni Partington

Sculpture by Toni Partington, based on and featuring text from her poem “Implication”

Work by Olinka Broadfoot, Christopher Luna, Toni Partington, Jolyn Wolfe, Jim Martin, and DaBat

I was very moved by the enormous work that Olinka Broadfoot created that was inspired by my poem “sometimes the latticework of the veil”:

Christopher Luna poses next to Olinka Broadfoot’s work based on “sometimes the latticework of the veil”

sometimes the latticework of the veil

is so perfectly constructed

that it has the appearance of reality

flesh and blood, rather than

a sorry excuse for truth

pastiche of fortune cookie wisdom

ad copy & lines from old movies

stand in for the darkness

which is not evil after all

but the residue of a broken heart

throbbing, sweating

flooding blood-soaked tears

in a melodramatic gush

not to be contained by the

gauzy barrier of our skin

eventually

all

is revealed

are

hopelessly

(beautifully)

human

after all

On April 27, some of the artists and writers who participated in the show held a poetry reading at Niche Wine and Art Bar. Here is the announcement for that event, followed by some photos from that night:

6pm

Saturday, April 27

Niche Wine and Art Bar

1013 Main Street

Vancouver, WA

A Poetry Reading and Q&A

With artists and writers from

The Marriage of Poetic Words and Images

An art exhibit at Angst Gallery (1015 Main)

Curated by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

Music by Five Guys Playing Jazz

Exhibit closes Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sponsored by Leah Jackson and Printed Matter Vancouver

Join us for a reading and Q&A at Niche Wine and Art Bar featuring some of the writers and artists featured in The Marriage of Poetic Words and Images, an exhibit curated by Printed Matter Vancouver founders Toni Partington and Christopher Luna to commemorate National Poetry Month. Confirmed to be in attendance as of this writing: Christopher Luna, Jim Martin, Jenney Pauer, Toni Partington, and Michele Venclik.

Saturday night’s event will be dedicated to our friend Greg Bee, who assists Leah Jackson in numerous ways, has work in the show, and is currently in the ICU. Because flowers are not allowed in the ICU, Leah has set up a station where people can create flowers to be taken to Greg. This will be available until closing time on Saturday. Here is more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/182822975204920/

The artists and writers who are featured in this show include: Anni Becker, Greg Bee, Olinka Broadfoot, April Bullard, DaBat, Erin Dengerink, Eileen Davis Elliott, Jeremy Gaulke, Leah Jackson, Kelly Keigwin, Christopher Luna, Jim Martin, Toni Partington, Jenney Pauer, Michael Smith, Michele Venclik, and Jolyn Wolfe.

Christopher Luna reads at Niche Wine and Art Bar on April 27, 2013

DaBat reads his poetry at Niche Wine and Art Bar on April 27, 2013

Jim Martin reads his poetry at Niche on April 27, 2013

Toni Partington reads her poetry at Niche on April 27, 2013

We are also very grateful to Jenney Pauer for reading from her work that evening, and to Leah Jackson, Erin Dengerink, and Michele Venclik for attending the reading. Finally, Toni and Christopher would like to say a big thank you to Leah Jackson for her leadership, and for all that she does for the arts in Vancouver. Thank you for trusting us to curate a show at your gallery, and for supporting our work.

Artist, Angst Gallery Director, and Niche Proprietor Leah Jackson with artists Heidi Morkert and Erin Dengerink

at Niche April 27, 2013

PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER

we write because we must

Tag: Angst Gallery

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