ANTI-RACIST, LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, PRO-CHOICE, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
$5 Suggested donation No one will be turned away for lack of funds
Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry.
Ken Yoshikawa likes to write plays and poems and do silly things onstage. Recently he played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Portland Center Stage, and has had two plays commissioned in Portland, one of which, From a Hole in the Ground, is presently onstage with Corrib Theatre. His first full-length poetry book, Monster Colored Glasses, was published by Lightship Press, and is available to purchase at yoshikawaken.com! In his free time he enjoys video games, hanging with friends, trees, and working as an astrologer.
Igor Brezhnev and Sam Rose Preminger founded Lightship Press “to support living artists with an emphasis on poetry (as this is our field of expertise). This mission will be realized through publishing and promoting high-quality full-length books and chapbooks, recording spoken word performances, and producing community events where contributors can step into the public eye and market their work. Priority, both in who we publish and who we hire onto our team, will be given to authors intending to earn a portion of their income through their literary craft. Our motto is ‘Support Living Artists Cause the Dead Ones Don’t Need It.'”
November 2024 is the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. This year’s featured readers include Marialicia Gonzalez, Kevin Sampsell, Gay Garland Reed, William Erickson, Bruce Hall, Washington State Poet Laureate Arianne True, and Debra Elisa.
Send an email to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com to receive The Work, Christopher Luna’s monthly newsletter featuring news and events for poets in Vancouver, WA, Portland, OR and surrounding areas.
The Ghost Town Poetry community respectfully encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020. Stop by their new location at 900 Washington, Suite 130 Vancouver, WA 98660: https://nichewinebar.com.
UPDATED Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We have been practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. As a result of the removal of the mask mandate effective March 12, 2022, we will no longer require the wearing of masks. We encourage you to continue to wear a mask if it makes you feel more comfortable, and we will supply masks and hand sanitizer at the door. As social distancing has become a norm, please be mindful some will still need a bit of personal space while inside the gallery.
NOTE: Art at the Cave co-founder Kathi Rick has graciously offered to help us to continue to include our new friends from around the country in the open mic. Email katecrackernuts@comcast.net by no later than midnight on November 10 to indicate your interest in participating. In the subject line, let us know if you are “Reading” or “Just Listening.” You will receive instructions for how to join the meeting.
Zoom open mic readers are invited to share one poem for three minutes or less.
Donations can be made in person or through Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com). Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.
Masks must be worn at all times to participate in this event. Open Mic readers may remove their masks while reading. The microphone will be sanitized after each reader.
Statement on Healthy Spaces from Art at the Cave: We want to provide a healthy space to enjoy art. We are practicing safety precautions such as regular cleaning, social distancing and mask wearing. We kindly request that you wear a mask and practice social distancing while visiting the gallery. If needed, we will limit the number of people in the gallery. Masks and hand sanitizer are available upon entry.
Art At The CAVE was established in 2017. Located at 108 E. Evergreen in downtown Vancouver, the CAVE is free and open to the public Tues-Sat, 10am-4pm, and on First Fridays when it remains open until 8:00pm. The gallery is also available to host events. Visit the website at artatthecave.com or contact gallery@artatthecave.com for more information.
Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020: https://nichewinebar.com
Igor Brezhnev is a poet and a book designer, among his other sins. His most recent body of published work is titled nights since. It is a series of 363 poems written every night from January 18th, 2019 to January 14th, 2020 documenting the emotional landscape of being without a home. Igor’s other work includes two full-length poetry books, dearest void (2016) and america is dry cookie and other love stories (2018) as well as a number of spoken-word albums available on Bandcamp at igorbrezhnev.bandcamp.com. You can support his work at patreon.com/igorbrezhnev and get daily poems & weekly audio recordings. More information about Igor and his books can be found at igorbrezhnev.com.
Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings presented by NovaPDX, Rocking Frog Cafe and hosted by Igor Brezhnev.
On Saturday August 31st, we’ll have a feature from Christopher Luna, two mini features from Toni Lumbrazo Luna & Morgan Paige, and a short set poetry open mic!
OUR FEATURE:
Christopher Luna in PDX by Morgan Paige
Christopher Luna
Christopher Luna served as the first Poet Laureate of Clark County, WA from 2013-2017. His first full-length collection of poetry, Message from the Vessel in a Dream, was published by Flowstone Press in 2018. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, a small press for Northwest writers which also provides writing coaching, editing, and manuscript review. He has hosted the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA since 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978. In 2019 Uttered Chaos Press in Eugene, OR will release a revised and expanded edition of Christopher’s Ghost Town, USA, a decade-long investigative poem about Vancouver, WA.
MINI FEATURES FROM:
Toni Lumbrazo Luna by Maria Vara
Toni Lumbrazo Luna
Toni Lumbrazo Luna (formerly Partington) is a poet, editor, publisher, visual artist, and writing coach living in Vancouver, Washington. She holds a B.A. in Social Work and a M.A. in Humanities and Literary Editing. She’s had a long career in social work, college teaching and administration, grant writing, life and career coaching, and nonprofit consulting.
She is the author of three books of poetry: Jesus is a Gas, Wind Wing, and her most recent, Driven By Hope, released in June 2019. Her poetry has been published in VoiceCatcher (editions 3 and 4), OutwardLink, Poeming Pigeon, Perceptions and more.
She was Co-Editor for the final print edition of VoiceCatcher 6. Toni is currently working on her memoir, titled Life in View of the Crazy House.
Toni is co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press imprint that publishes the poetry of Pacific Northwest writers. Toni works with poets and writers on their manuscripts, individual poems, essays, and prose. She has also developed business plans, marketing materials, grant proposals, and government reports. She co-hosts the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, established in 2004 by
Christopher Luna.
Toni has been creating visual art since 1980 and in the last seven years has enjoyed the challenge of collage using found materials. She uses both 2D and 3D formats, experimenting with salvaged metals, plastics and anything that is the slightest bit unusual.
Most recently she was nominated to serve on the Clark County Arts Commission representing the business community. Originally from central New York, she’s made the Pacific Northwest her home for thirty years. Toni has been writing poetry since she was ten years old and is still in love with it!
Morgan Paige is a creator, morbid optimist, business owner and cannabis lover residing in Vancouver, WA. Her poetic cadence is not her own. Rather, an expression of the ever unfolding spiral of nature manifesting itself through her selection of shared symbols and sounds we call language. Her poetry takes you on a playful, chanting ride, inviting you to join her in exploring femininity, psychedelia, love, addiction, philosophy and the life/death/life cycle.
She regularly performs at open mics in Vancouver and Portland, OR and has been featured at readings such as The Dialogue, Lets Talk About Sex, Ghost Town Open Mic and The Last Stand at Wildwood Saloon. Most recently, she performed at the Kiggins Theatre with the Clark County Poet Laureate, Gwendolyn Morgan, for VanTalks 2019.
Her first chapbook will be released summer 2019.
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Sign-ups start at 5:30, show starts at 6PM. On second and fourth Saturdays each performer in the open mic gets 5 minutes, there are only 8 slots available and the list order is randomized.
Come share your words and join us for a night of open mic, a great feature, delicious nourishment and tasty libations.
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Rocking Frog Cafe is an independently run, local gem in the lower Belmont District of southeast Portland. Nestled in a lovely early-century Craftsman-style bungalow, we offer a comfortable place to study, eat and socialize. Find out more about The Rocking Frog at rockingfrogpdx.com.
NovaPDX is a talent and production company based in Portland, Oregon. We organize and host performance and educational events, showcasing local and visiting musicians, poets and comedians. Our mission is to create spaces where talent thrives. Learn more about us at novapdx.org.
Your host, Igor Brezhnev is a poet, an author, an artist and a book designer among his other sins. He is roaming the West Coast thinking up new art, books and helping shape creative projects. You can find out more about Igor at igorbrezhnev.com
PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER 