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.
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.
Looking for inspiration this summer? Why not spend some time with Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna, a graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and a creative writing workshop leader with nearly two decades in the classroom. He would love to share his passion for poetry and storytelling with you.
If you are interested in taking one of these workshops, do not wait. Such classes will be canceled within 3-5 days of their beginning if the minimum enrollment numbers are not met.
Luna also facilitates a writing workshop from 11:30-2:30 on the second Saturday of every month at Niche Wine Bar (1013 Main Street, next door to Angst Gallery and the Kiggins Theatre).
Get LIFTED and join us for a very unique writing workshop with Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna! Christopher spent his late teens and early twenties working in a head shop on Long Island. He believes that mindful use of marijuana can be a powerful tool for consciousness expansion. Christopher is completely turned on by poetry’s ability to encourage empathy and compassion, and to spark the shifts in consciousness which can lead a person to fight for progressive social change. He would love to share his passion for poetry with you.
Christopher Luna is also the Clark County Poet Laureate, and he and his wife, Toni Partington, founded Printed Matter Vancouver, and co-host Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, the popular reading series Luna established 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. Recent publications include WA 129, The Poeming Pigeon: Doobie or Not Doobie, Bombay Gin, Unshod Quills, and It’s Animal But Merciful.
Pens and Pencils will be provided. Please bring something to write on or a laptop.
Space is limited, so be sure to sign up today to #getLIFTED! Tickets are a $20 suggested donation. Online reservation is required to attend the class.
21+, non-refundable/ non-transferable. If attendance requirements are not met the class will be canceled 24 hours before the class begins. Tickets will be refunded at that time.
Bring Your Own Cannabis
Valid Photo ID is required for entrance to the event.
Want to do some writing but don’t have a lot of spare time? Come to a one-session mini course at Clark College’s downtown campus for beginners and experienced writers alike who want to generate new work and engage in dialogue. Read, listen to, and briefly write poetry together. Whet your appetite for poetry with a workshop that touches on how to discover, write, and rewrite a poem. Bring paper and pen or laptop. Ages 16 and over.
Poetry as a means of expression, exploration, and experience is available to everyone. Write poetry in response to prompts and read a variety of published poems that you can use as inspiration. Read and respond to one another’s work in this supportive setting, paying close attention to revision.
1072273 Mon. 10 am – 12:30 pm Jun. 19 – Aug. 14 $190 [8 classes] No class July 3
4. Summer Classes at Clark College (Registration Begins May 22)
Everyone has a story to tell. Each person’s life is filled with adventure, mystery, trouble, and triumph. Memoirs are a powerful way to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all human beings. Clark County’s Poet Laureate will encourage you to begin to see yourself as a part of history. Documenting your life is a wonderful gift for your family as well as a profoundly fulfilling experience for the writer.
Item number: 9100
7/12/2017- 8/16/2017 Wednesdays
1:00PM – 3:20PM
$159
CCE 208 (Clark College’s downtown campus, 500 Broadway
Vancouver, WA 98660 on the second floor of the Columbia Bank building)
Poetry Matters: Writing Poetry
Beginners and experienced writers alike will generate new works and discuss the poet’s role in the community. Read, listen to, and write poetry together in a supportive class focused on providing gentle, constructive feedback. Discuss how to construct a manuscript and ready it for publication. Writers of all experience levels are welcome. Bring paper and pen or laptop. Ages 16 and over.
Item: K154
7/10/2017- 8/14/2017 Mondays
6:00PM – 8:30PM
$129
CCE 208 (Clark College’s downtown campus, 500 Broadway
Vancouver, WA 98660 on the second floor of the Columbia Bank building)
Christopher Luna and Toni Partington in the KBOO studios in Portland, OR
Poet and activist Judith Arcana recently interviewed Printed Matter Vancouver founders Christopher Luna and Toni Partington for her radio program, Poetry and Everything
We’d like to thank Judith for her hospitality and her thoughtful questions. We are also grateful to our friend and fellow poet, Patrick Bocarde, for engineering the program.
Poetry And Everything Air date: Mon, 04/24/2017 -10:00pm to 11:00pm
Interview with Toni Partington and Christopher Luna
Chris and Toni co-host Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, the series he established in 2004. Together they founded Printed Matter Vancouver, a small press and editing service. Not only are there two of them, working together on those projects, but each of them does (notably) more than two things.
LGBTQIA+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
A 2016 Jack Straw Fellow, Artist Trust Fellow, and nominee for a Stranger Genius Award, Robert Lashley has had poems published in Feminete, Seattle Review Of Books, NAILED, GRAMMA, and The Cascadia Review. His first full-length book, The Homeboy Songs, was published by Small Doggies press in April 2014. His new book, Up South, was published in March of this year.
From Paul Constant’s Review of Up South in The Seattle Review of Books: “Lashley demands your attention. His performance style is part fire-and-brimstone preacher, part aggrieved literary nerd, and part Captain America. You can’t help but be moved, to want to follow him wherever he leads. And it’s easy to get swept up in that voice, to forget the poet behind it, to lose sight of the fact that those words have a writer, and that writer is, in fact, very good at what he does. Lashley’s second book of poems, Up South, is a reminder that Lashley is a writer of poems, and more than just that voice. Even more than in his first collection, The Homeboy Songs, Lashley is showing us what he knows. Up South is a collection with roots deep inside the tradition of poetry. Lashley evokes mythology and Biblical stories and classic poets here — not in a showy way, but rather because he understands that no poet writes in a vacuum, that every poet is in conversation with every single poet who came before.” http://www.seattlereviewofbooks.com/reviews/finding-his-voice/
Excerpt from Drake’s Progress
(Or why I can’t feel for my fallen wanna be gangsta cousin)
What is a king to a god of caught weight?
What is a god to a man-boy defrocked
in a paradise he imagined but never saw?
In a Byzantium of bright shiny grain leaden picnics
LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Featuring Sam Roxas-Chua
Sam Roxas-Chua is a poet and visual artist from Eugene, Oregon. His poetry has been described as “tidal,” and he has been called “a man who can take any kind of physical material and transform them into art.” According to poet Dorianne Laux, “Like Jack Gilbert before him, Roxas-Chua reaches beyond the imagery and emotions we expect—creating his own universe, logic, and definitions of the beautiful.” His first book, Fawn Language, was published by Tebot Bach in 2013 and his current manuscript, Saying Your Name Three Times Underwater, is forthcoming from Lithic Press. His poems have appeared in various journals including Narrative, december Magazine, and Cream City Review. His collection of poems, Diary of Collected Summers, won the first place award in the 7th Annual Missouri Review Audio Competition in poetry. Most recently he appeared in a live broadcast of Dear Sugar Radio at the Aladdin Theater in support of #writersresist. He is the owner of The Poetry Loft, a small business dedicated to community writing workshops. He holds an MFA from Pacific University.
Angst Gallery showcases cultural events including art shows, musical performances, book launch parties, classes, workshops, and the monthly Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. All art forms are valued. 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 such as Planned Parenthood, the YMCA/YWCA, Cascade AIDS Project, and the NAACP.
PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER 