Tag: OPB’s State of Wonder

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Risa Denenberg at Angst Gallery July 12, 2018

June 22, 2018

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic flyer July 12 2018 cropped

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Risa Denenberg

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver

7 pm

Thursday, July 12

Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 sharp

Angst Gallery

1015 Main Street

Vancouver, WA 98660

Risa 38

Risa Denenberg lives on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state where she works as a nurse practitioner. She reviews poetry for the American Journal of Nursing and is a co-founder and editor at Headmistress Press, publisher of LBT poetry. She has published three chapbooks and three full length collections of poetry, including Whirlwind @ Lesbos (Headmistress Press, 2016) and  slight faith (MoonPath Press, 2018).

 

slightfiath-frontcov-withbleed

Abiding Winter 

by Risa Denenberg

How we made it through another winter’s

not the question. Nor is it an answer

since one of us was left behind in winter.

 

In Spring, in buoyancy, you asked a question.

Cups stood their ground between us, tea and coffee.

You wished to be the answer to your question.

 

Then winter comes again and yet another,

a darkling season full of melancholy. The yanking

of my soul back to the gutter, that other

 

place where questions have no answers,

and answers only placate. It takes rafters

of steadfast faith, or mettle, to seek answers.

 

Truth is brutal. So much we can’t recover,

years I’ve begged for you to wait for Spring to bloom

again, living in despair beside each other, and another

 

stormy season while we tussle for an answer

or a coda to the sum of all of life’s bother.

I’ve learned to hold my tongue, to question

nothing. Questions are another sort of winter.

 

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

Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Matt Amott June 14, 2018

May 15, 2018

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic flyer June 14 2018 cropped

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Matt Amott

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver

7 pm

Thursday, June 14

Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7

Angst Gallery

1015 Main Street

Vancouver, WA 98660

 

Amott head shot
SONY DSC
SONY DSC

Matt Amott is a poet, musician, and photographer who rambles around the Pacific Northwest. He is co-founder and co-editor of Six Ft. Swells Poetry Press and has been published in numerous collections as well as two books of his own, The Coast is Clear (Six Ft. Swells Press) and Get Well Soon (Epic Rites Press).  He can be reached and purchases made at afterhourspoetry.com.

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

Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar

LGBTQIA+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Judith Arcana April 12, 2018

March 11, 2018

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Flyer April 12 2018 cropped

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Judith Arcana

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver

7 pm

Thursday, April 12

Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7

Angst Gallery

1015 Main Street

Vancouver, WA 98660

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

Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar:

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

ja laughing
Photo by Friderike Heuer

Judith Arcana writes poems, stories, essays and books, publishing online and on paper. Her work has, naturally, been influenced by the times and places of her life: A high school English teacher in the 1960’s, Judith was fired, as many were in those years, considered dangerously radical by the school board. She’s written poems and stories rooted in her commitment to reproductive justice, which began with her work in the pre-Roe abortion underground in Chicago.

AFTP final cover copy

Judith’s new poetry collection, Announcements from the Planetarium, was published by Flowstone Press in 2017; its poems examine memory, consider the nature of wisdom, and reflect on the experience of aging into new consciousness. Judith hosts a poetry show on KBOO community radio in Oregon and online.

The Woman Who Hands You A Gun

Don’t think because I’m old

I’m not learning anymore. No.

That’s not how it goes. Right

now I’m on my way, leaving

town to be a carny, a barker

at the tattooed lady’s tent flap

or the woman who hands you a gun

at the shooting gallery or hoops

to toss over baby dolls. It’s got

to be something I don’t have

to study or practice, something

I can slip right into, on-the-job

training. Because I don’t have

that kind of time anymore.

I’m saying I’ll be an intern

an apprentice – not a student.

I don’t have time for that.

…….. Judith Arcana  (First published in CIRQUE – Winter Solstice issue, 2012)

Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Neil Aitken January 11, 2018

December 28, 2017

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic January 11 2018

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Featuring Neil Aitken
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
of Printed Matter Vancouver
7 pm
Thursday, January 11
Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

P1020032_sqr
Neil Aitken, author of Babbage’s Dream

Neil Aitken is the author of Babbage’s Dream (Sundress 2017) and The Lost Country of Sight (Anhinga 2008), which received the Philip Levine Prize, as well as the poetry chapbook, Leviathan. His work has been published in American Literary Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Dialogist, Ninth Letter, The Normal School, The Southern Poetry Review, and many other journals. A former computer programmer and a past Kundiman Poetry Fellow, he is the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review, curator of Have Book Will Travel, and co-director of De-Canon: A Visibility Project. He also hosts The Lit Fantastic, a podcast about writers and their obsessions, and works as a creative writing coach and mentor. Visit him online at www.neil-aitken.com

Babbages_Dream_v23
Float
—a fundamental type used to define numbers with fractional parts

Like a bell, or rather the sound of it opening,
a silence that having tolled speaks again

suspended between states of incompleteness—
a point traversing a numbered landscape.

This country of small infinities is what we do
with what remains: bits of window panes,

refracted light, what gathers in the torn leaves
from the dimming edge of the red fields

grown dark. Say what you will, the body is no more
than the moon, a white trouser button in a pool
of gasoline, a halo of ash and flame
ascending the ladder of night.

Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar
LGBTQIA+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Jamie Houghton December 14, 2017

November 19, 2017

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Flyer December 14 2017 cropped

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Jamie Houghton

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver

7 pm

Thursday, December 14

Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7

Angst Gallery

1015 Main Street

Vancouver, WA 98660

angstgallery.com

Jamie Houghton head shot

Jamie Houghton is a poet, musician and teaching artist. Her poetry chapbook, Burn Site in Bloom, was released by Musehick Publications in 2017. Her secret talents include making the best Key Lime Pie in town and looking weirdly good in fur hats. You can read her personal essays on her blog.

Jamie Houghton book cover

THE MOWER TO THE GLOWWORMS

(After Andrew Marvell)

by Jamie Houghton

 

Think of it as just a haircut through your heart which is your whole

body glowing because that’s what a pulse does and your heart is electric

 

Think of your heart as mud struck by lightning in the womb some where

you cannot dive for or become small enough to see

 

Think of it as a slight shock combing up your spine or your skin

changing like the surface of water

 

Think of it as division think

of me as a witness think

of clinging to the rain or pouring

down the grate think

of it as the last

whisper before being extinguished

 

Think of it as sinking just

to rest in the dark wet think

of it as a buffet and you

are sunlight’s last snack think

of the shining blades as music think

of your tailbone as a mouse

 

and you will be fed to the peonies

and the dogs and the dawn think

of me as next

 

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

Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar.

LGBTQIA+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder.

 

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Julene Tripp Weaver November 9, 2017/ Poeming Health Workshop November 10

October 15, 2017

Ghost Town Flyer November 9 2017 cropped

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Julene Tripp Weaver

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver

7 pm

Thursday, November 9

Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7

Angst Gallery

1015 Main Street

Vancouver, WA 98660

angstgallery.com

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

Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar: http://briz.us/

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Julene T Weaver Brick Background

Julene Tripp Weaver lives in Seattle where she is a psychotherapist and a writer; she worked in AIDS services for over 21 years. Her third poetry book, truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS, was published this spring by Finishing Line Press. Two prior books are No Father Can Save Her, and Case Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues. She is widely published in journals and anthologies including: Anti-Heroin Chic, Riverbabble, River & South Review, The Seattle Review of Books, HIV Here & Now, and In The Words of Women International 2016 Anthology (creative nonfiction). Find more of her writing at http://www.julenetrippweaver.com.

Julene will also be leading a workshop at Angst Gallery at 6:30pm on Friday, November 10 entitled Poeming Health: Are you or is someone you love living with a chronic illness? Are you a caregiver? This workshop will provide a clearing space to crystallize what is necessary for your survival, no matter the challenges. We will explore our personal experience through writing to our illness, to our loved one, to our pain. Bring a notebook and pens you are comfortable with. Cost: $25.

To register for the workshop, please attend Julene Tripp Weaver’s reading on November 9 or contact Christopher Luna via christopherjluna@gmail.com or 360-910-1066 before Friday, November 10.

 

JTWeaver-TruthBeBold WebPage-LargeSize

HIV Today

By Julene Tripp Weaver

We long term survivors

got a lifetime, came through the hard

years still strong. Smart not to trust early.

The only answer at the beginning, AZT,

we found our own box of hope

filled a whole book with reasons

to live, made art, wrote stories, poems,

created family.

 

We felt love for our dying

brothers and sisters, wanted them

to fall well, we held community

created an embrace: Act Up meetings,

coalitions, die-ins. We made history.

Moved science up a notch

like that last lover in our belt,

that quilt panel we’ve all made.

 

Those of us still here with

our endless days to live

take pills daily to hold steady.

Victory survivors

welding a healing path

with our scrapbooks we created, Hope,

it’s title, and for some of us

our hearts melded to welcome this virus

make it feel at home. Give it a long life.

Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on State of Wonder

July 21, 2017
Toni and Christopher OPB pic
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.

Christopher Luna

To listen to the entire program, visit:

Hurray For The Riff Raff | Ghost Town Poetry | Teva Harrison | Ural Thomas | Bend Art Center

April Bullard by Tiffany
April Bullard reads her work at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. Photo by Ghost Town videographer Tiffany Burba 

To listen to the segment on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, visit:

Vancouver’s Ghost Town Poetry Hasn’t Missed A Beat Since 2004

Erika on OPB
Erika Bartlett and her work at Angst Gallery in Vancouver, WA. Photo by Aaron Scott

To listen to the segment with Erika Bartlett, visit:

Erika Bartlett At Angst Gallery: Mixing Nature And Business