Tag: Christopher Luna

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC featuring Portland writers Patrick Bocarde and Melissa Sillitoe Thursday, July 12, 2012 at Cover to Cover Books

July 2, 2012

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Featuring Patrick Bocarde and Melissa Sillitoe

hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
all ages and uncensored since 2004

7pm Thursday, July 12, 2012
and every second Thursday
Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
360-993-7777
christopherjluna@gmail.com

http://www.printedmattervancouver.com

http://www.covertocoverbooks.net

Featuring Patrick Bocarde and Melissa Sillitoe:

Patrick Bocarde did, according to legend, come from his mother’s womb in the dreaded Nordic winter of 1969. He saved his family just after birth when instinctively he knew they must live off the warmth of burning Rod McKuen Albums. Patrick graduated from SUNY-Binghamton in 1991, and a year later headed west with a car full junk and a head full of poems which soon he would be unleashing on an unsuspecting audience, Among them the early Cafe Lena crowd.

Since then, Patrick has been a contributor to the culture of Portland poetry, having been a host, a sound engineer (to this day!) for KBOO’s poetry program Talking Earth, and contributor to local writing journals including the Broken Word anthologies, the Temple, and Venetian Blind Drunk, among others. He was, with co-conspirator Neil Anderson, creator of the satirical short film “the worriers” (based on the cult classic the warriors) and his chapbooks include This Economy Must Be Destroyed, Walking Home Weird, and Metalbook (available for $5 at the July 12 event).

 

Nailpyres by Patrick Bocarde

We regret the loss of blood

as a thousand nail fangs pierce

her humphung human flesh;

The Society for the Conservation

of Humans claims we must limit

the spread of Nailpyres, who

needlessly lose blood and waste

human stock by the dozens each night.

They must be forced to wear

safe, workable fangs or we

shall exterminate them with extreme

prejudice. So, frail human

victims of supple neck and breast,

choose your vampires carefully,

and you will be rewarded

with a slow yet pleasurable demise.

Melissa Sillitoe: I moved from Salt Lake City to Portland in 2005, and I love this silver sky and river city and its soft light. As a poet, I use everyday words and their inherent music, juxtaposing these with lyrical and symbolic language. I hope to write poems where every word matters, even if its purpose is to keep the poem’s music or momentum intact. I’ve published in a few places like THE BEAR DELUXE, and I’ve performed at invited readings series, including ones produced by dan raphael and KBOO’s Barbara LaMorticella. In 2007, I created Show and Tell Gallery, a 501c3 non-profit that continues to produce weekly spoken word events, some spontaneous, some rehearsed collaborations. I also co-produce the Verse in Person series at Northwest Library and have helped produce other events, such as Goatfest and a bluegrass music series at Backspace Café.

What Happened by Melissa Sillitoe

It was autumn, my first.

It was Red Butte Garden.

Who cares how I got there,

my sleepwalk, those unlikely

years spent outside seasons,

eyes adjusting to starless nights.

I might have looked down,

as usual, and missed it.

No trick of light

that glowing ember sky,

when one sunbeam

struck.  It stuck.

Now, miles later, I don’t

know why I looked up.

Gold fell from openhanded trees.

One birdnote I couldn’t sing

startled my dreams.

I know just this:

all I had was gone, all I

did not dare hope waited.

No. More. Trees,

Where, everywhere,

vermilion autumn

bled for me, in spite of me.

Note: This poem was recently published in Take Out 8, published and edited by Laura Winter.

Vancouver Poets open the 2012 Poetry on the Piazza Series at Director Park (Portland, OR) Monday, July 9

June 29, 2012

6:30-8:30pm

Monday, July 9

Director Park

SW Park & Yamhill

Portland, OR

David Abel presents

Poetry on the Piazza

Featuring poetry by Christopher Luna, Toni Partington,

Jenney Pauer, and Kori Sayer

Live painting by DaBat

Music by Tyler Morgan

This outdoor poetry public reading series provides a glimpse into some of the fertile and diverse literary communities that contribute to Portland’s reputation as a literary mecca. Coordinated by PP&R’s Multnomah Arts Center.

For more info: http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/index.cfm?c=52454

Christopher Luna reads at Cover to Cover Books in Vancouver, WA

Photo by Jim Martin

Christopher Luna is the co-founder, with Toni Partington, of Printed Matter Vancouver, whose books include Ghost Town Poetry, an anthology of poems from the popular Vancouver, WA open mic reading he founded in 2004, and Serenity in the Brutal Garden, the debut collection by Vancouver poet Jenney Pauer. His books include GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978, an important piece of film and literary history that Luna edited at Brakhage’s request, available on Michael Rothenberg’s Big Bridge.org.

Toni Partington at Cover to Cover by Jim Martin

Toni Partington: I’m a poet intrigued by the investigative process. I work with the narrative form to explore social commentary. I’m always looking for the “sweet” spot between poetry and art where collaborations find a common voice. Vancouver, Washington is my town and visual, literary, musical, and performance arts are my mission.

Jenney Pauer by Anna Shogren

Jenney Pauer is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, where she studied theater and English literature. After serving four years in the United States Army as a Korean linguist, she obtained a Secondary English Education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before moving to the Pacific Northwest with her dog and cat in 2008, she taught high school English along the border of Arizona and Mexico. Recently, Jenney co-wrote a short film, Nico’s Sampaguita, accepted into the 27th Annual Asian Pacific Film Festival in Los Angeles, and soon to be released by Sacred Fire Films in San Francisco, California. Serenity in the Brutal Garden (Printed Matter Vancouver, 2012) is her first book.

Kori Sayer and her daughter, Blu

Kori Sayer is a northwest native and a lover of words, wine, friends, kids, art and social justice. She’s worked on a few self-published collaborations with friends and has been featured at a few local readings here and there including at the Cover to Cover series, which is the birth place of her imagination and the place that serves her soul’s favorite comfort food. Her most recent chapbook, Dr. Turpentine, was published all the way back in 2009, she’s been working on small projects and raising her daughter since then, but hopes to have a new book out this fall.

DaBat’s notions of the universe are wildly abstract and difficult to envision. His nature is to show the viewer that within the darkside of light, there is always hope. His influences can be found in the indirect light of love, rage, randomness, the need for non-conformity, the dream of a different reality.

For the last six years Tyler Morgan has jammed with Lincoln’s Beard, playing several instruments. Right now he is taking a sabbatical working on a few new things and recharging his batteries.  Feel free to check out a few of his ideas at www.jvvawa.com . He is mostly playing acoustic covers with a smattering of originals.

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC featuring David Matthews Thursday, May 10, 2012

April 20, 2012

CORRECTION: Due to circumstances beyond his control, Ric Vrana will be unable to attend May’s Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. His friend David Matthews will take his place. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Printed Matter Vancouver co-founders Toni Partington and Christopher Luna look forward to welcoming Ric Vrana back to the series as our featured reader for November of this year.  

GHOST TOWN POETRY Open Mic

hosted by Christopher Luna and

Toni Partington

7pm Thursday, May 10, 2012

and every second Thursday

all ages and uncensored since 2004

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

360-993-7777

http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com

With our featured reader, David Matthews: David Matthews is a native of the South Carolina Midlands, poet, runner, and unaffiliated intellectual who began writing in high school. He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in philosophy. Romantic vision and sense of himself as poet led to the dubious decision to forsake pursuit of an academic career. One day Matthews found himself in Atlanta at the birth of the Little 5 Points arts scene and lingered there for twenty years. In 1998 he came to Portland, Oregon. His poems and essays have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and poetry blogs. He is author of two chapbooks, Notes to One Who Is Far from Here (2003) and A Portable Bohemia (2008), and several unpublished novels. His chapbooks will be available for sale at this month’s reading for five dollars each.

“Matthews heaves his heart against the bulwarks, sets his siege engines of verse a-going into the fathomless ludicrous nonsensical void.”—Wade Dinius

His blog House Red can be found on the website David Matthews Man of Letters (www.matthewsmanofletters.com).

The Unspoken Language by David Matthews

la Tour Eiffel

Apollinaire

triangles numbers consonants

naked Chagall paints

Russian soul novabright with Paris light

horses graze on blue rooftops

a wingèd fish embraces a clock

the man with one green hand plays a red violin

angel candle dream

nude on a couch and Christ on a cross

oh but what color Marc is the color of the spirit?

which letters belong to the unspoken language of love?

Printed Matter Vancouver presents Serenity in the Brutal Garden, the debut collection by Vancouver poet Jenney Pauer

April 12, 2012

Printed Matter Vancouver editors Toni Partington and Christopher Luna are proud to announce the publication of Jenney Pauer’s first book of poetry, Serenity in the Brutal Garden. This book of finely crafted, poignant poetry packs the same emotional punch that Vancouver, WA has come to expect from her spoken word performances.  As Northwest spoken word legend Jack McCarthy comments, ” If George Eliot were alive today and writing poetry, she would sound a lot like Jenney Pauer. There is an unforced elegance in virtually every line she writes. My immediate response is to stand back and salute.”

Printed Matter Vancouver nominated Jenney Pauer’s poem “Relational Aggression,” which appears in the Ghost Town Poetry anthology (http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Town-Poetry-2004-2010-Anthology/dp/1461075114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317767068&sr=1-1#reader_1461075114), for the 2012 Pushcart Prize.

CELEBRATE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

with a book launch party for Jenney Pauer’s

SERENITY IN THE BRUTAL GARDEN

Edited by Toni Partington and Christopher Luna

for Printed Matter Vancouver

Book cover photo: Anni Becker

Book cover design: Toni Partington

GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
all ages and uncensored since 2004

7pm Thursday, April 12, 2012
and every second Thursday

Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
360-993-7777
christopherjluna@gmail.com
http://www.printedmattervancouver.com

Jenney Pauer

Photo by Anna Shogren

Jenney Pauer is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, where she studied theater and English literature. After serving four years in the United States Army as a Korean linguist, she obtained a Secondary English Education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before moving to the Pacific Northwest with her dog and cat in 2008, she taught high school English along the border of Arizona and Mexico. Recently, Jenney co-wrote a short film, Nico’s Sampaguita, accepted into the 27th Annual Asian Pacific Film Festival in Los Angeles, and soon to be released by Sacred Fire Films in San Francisco, California. This is her first book.

Dan Raphael book release party featuring the music of Rich and Carson Halley/ Free poetry workshop with Dan Raphael at Niche Wine and Art Bar Saturday, March 31

March 5, 2012

Niche Wine and Art and Printed Matter Vancouver Present  

Book release party for Dan Raphael and Free Workshop

Dan Raphael photo by Toni Partington

Featuring Dan Raphael and the music of Rich and Carson Halley

Hosted by Niche Poet Laureate Christopher Luna

Niche

1013 Main Street

Vancouver, WA

2-4pm

Reading in the Rain

A free poetry workshop with Dan Raphael

Do you wish that you could read your poems with less fear and mumbling, more energy and applause? Poets tend to be quiet observers, but the words you write can show you how to say them. This free workshop will focus on strategies for performing your work, providing tools, tricks, and perspectives. We’ll explore several presentation styles, and consider ways to use your “outside” voice, engage the audience, and work in a variety of environments. Bring another poet’s poem you like, and a couple of your own; be ready to move around a little, and to use a pen or pencil.

 6pm

Book launch for The State I’m In

Featuring the poetry of Dan Raphael and

The music of Rich and Carson Halley

The State I’m In (nine muses books, Winston OR) is a collection of 47 poems, divided up into 3 sections:  The City in Me (urban poems), Rain is My Favorite Color (rain and ocean) and One Among Many (other poems). Poems have appeared in 20 different publications/website, including Rattapallax, Portland Review, Otoliths, 5 trope Heavy Bear and Pemmican.

dan raphael has been active on the Portland poetry scene for over 3 decades as poet, performer, editor and reading arranger (including a monthly series that ran 13 years downtown.)  The State I’m In is his 18th & newest book, while last September’s Impulse & Warp: The Selected 20th Century Poems, includes work from his first 13 collections. Children of the Blue Supermarket, a CD of performances with jazz saxophonist Rich Halley and drummer Carson Halley, was released in February. Current poems appear in Rattapallax, Otoliths, Raft, Heavy Bear and Caliban. He has performed at places like Bumbershoot, Wordstock, Powell’s Books, Red Sky Poetry Theatre, Eastern Oregon U and the Portland Jazz Festival.

Rich Halley is a saxophonist and composer who has released more than a dozen critically acclaimed recordings. He performs in settings that range from solo to large groups and most frequently in trio and quartet formats.

Rich was the leader of the Lizard Brothers, a sextet whose performances were both exploratory and rooted in jazz tradition, and Multnomah Rhythm Ensemble, a group that combined new jazz with multi-media. He is the leader of the Outside Music Ensemble, a group that does site specific performances in outdoor settings. For the last decade The Outside Music Ensemble has performed annual hike-in concerts in Powell Butte Nature Park.

Rich has performed throughout the US and in Canada and the Middle East. He has performed with Bobby Bradford, Andrew Hill, Michael Bisio, Julius Hemphill, Vinny Golia, Obo Addy, Tony Malaby, Oliver Lake, Michael Vlatkovich and Rob Blakeslee. Rich is a founder of Oregon’s Creative Music Guild.

Rich Halley was educated as a field biologist. His lifelong interest in nature and his love of adventure has informed his music and led him on many trips into wilderness regions around the world. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Carson Halley is a drummer and percussionist based in Oregon. Carson studied with Bobby Bradford at Pomona College and later began playing with his father. He has eclectic musical tastes and brings contemporary musical sensibilities to the music. Carson has performed with a variety of musicians in jazz and rock groups including Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, Shakespeak, The Wayward Trio and Ruby Starfruit.

Other March events featuring Dan Raphael

3/l3 Reading at Milepost 5 850 NE 81st at 7 in the monthly series organized by Duane Poncy and Patricia McLean. Another featured reader or two, plus some open mike time. If you haven’t been to Milepost 5 yet it’s worth checking out, and not just for poetry.

3/24-25 is the fledgling Cascadia Poetry festival organized by Paul Nelson & SPLAB. I’ll be teaching a workshop on how to perform your own poetry and reading on Saturday, as well as joining in on the morning discussions on Saturday and Sunday. Other readers include Sam Hamill, Judith Roche. Tim McNulty and Kim Goldberg. For a full list of activities (readings, panels, workshops and a nature walk) and participants, see http://splab.org/cascadia/