Tag: Redmond (WA)

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Raúl Sánchez at Art at the Cave and on Zoom on October 14, 2021 

September 15, 2021

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Raúl Sánchez

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige

7 pm

Thursday, October 14

Art at the Cave

108 E Evergreen Blvd

Vancouver, WA 98660

https://artatthecave.com

$5 Suggested donation

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.

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST,  ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, provided a home for the reading series from 2015-2020: https://nichewinebar.com

Raúl Sánchez is the current City of Redmond Washington’s Poet Laureate. A 2014 Jack Straw Writer. Mentor and judge for the 2014 Poetry on Buses Project and a TEDx participant in Yakima WA. To learn more visit https://www.poetraulsanchez.com/

During the pandemic he put together the manuscript for his 2nd poetry collection “When There Were No Borders” published by Flower Song Press, available now: https://www.flowersongpress.com/books-1/p/when-there-were-no-borders-poems-by-ral-sncheztlatecatl

Advance Praise for When There Were No Borders

Sánchez writes borderless in borderless times. He breaks through the ancient  Mexica figure of death and transformation, Coatlicue, to poems as pyramids,  to the Sea of the Salish in the Pacific Northwest and on to cool-rebel Pachuco  dialect of the US-Mexico borderlands. He cooks on a rotating rainbow colored pan, he spices, he refuses to present his “papers” at the border stop.  There are nectars, harvests, the always-farmworker fields, a detention center  to tend to with resources and a poet. Open this collection — hold on, there  is a “pirinola,” an ever spinning umbrella-shaped candy with a pointed  tip burning colors, lights and stories that will take you to Latinx multidimensional magic. A precise, moving mural, this text of visitations of “life,  precious life!” Sanchez’s delights as he writes, as he tears across those borderlines,  dancing. Magnificent poetics to take home and to take you out.

– Juan Felipe Herrera

Poet Laureate of the United States Emeritus

Raúl Sánchez is also a translator who currently teaches bilingual poetry at Denny International Middle School through the Jack Straw Cultural Center. He translated Ellen Ziegler’s book for the Museum of Antique Mexican Toys in Mexico City, Mexico. Sánchez is a member of Writers in the Schools through Seattle Arts and Lectures (WITS), teaching bilingual poetry at Evergreen High School. This is his fourth year volunteering for PONGO Teen Writing in the Juvenile Detention Center. In 2019 he was one of the eleven speakers at the Ignite Education Lab storytelling event at Seattle University. He was commissioned by the Ballard Civic Orchestra to write the libretto for the “The Other Conquest” A Opera ensemble in response to Vivaldi’s Motezuma, which included the Score written by Hector Armienta.

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 October 13 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.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on Zoom Featuring Michael Dylan Welch February 11, 2021

January 17, 2021

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige

Featuring Michael Dylan Welch

7 pm

Thursday, February 11

On Zoom

$5 Suggested donation

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST,

ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, has provided a home for the reading series since 2015: https://nichewinebar.com

Michael Dylan Welch served two years as poet laureate of Redmond, Washington, where he is also president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword, director of the Poets in the Park Festival, and curator (since 2006) of SoulFood Poetry Night. He has published dozens of books, most recently Dance into the World, and his poetry has appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies in more than 20 languages. Michael was keynote speaker for the 2013 Haiku International Association conference in Tokyo, is cofounder of the biennial Haiku North America conference (1991), the American Haiku Archives (1996), and the Seabeck Haiku Getaway (2008). He also founded the Tanka Society of America (2000) and National Haiku Writing Month (2010), the latter held every February, the shortest month for the shortest genre of poetry (learn more at http://www.nahaiwrimo.com). His personal website, devoted mostly to poetry (not just haiku), including hundreds of essays and reviews, is www.graceguts.com. Lately, Michael has been traveling the world, via Zoom, giving poetry readings, workshops, and presentations in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, India, England, Canada, and around the United States—a silver lining amid our pandemic lockdown.

NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control, this month’s reading will take place over Zoom. Email christopherjluna@gmail.com by no later than 3 pm on February 11 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. Open mic readers are invited to share one poem for three minutes or less. 

If you are willing to donate to support the series, please use Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com) or contact him to make other arrangements. Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.

Watch Toni Lumbrazo Luna and Christopher Luna Read at SoulFood Poetry Night in Redmond, WA on June 20, 2019

June 25, 2019

We had a great time at Soul Food Poetry Night in Redmond, WA. Many thanks to host Michael Dylan Welch for inviting us, to all of the great open mic readers and audience members, and to the staff of Soul Food CoffeeHouse and Fair Trade Emporium for making us feel so welcome.

Toni Lumbrazo Luna’s set begins at 25:42 and Christopher Luna’s set begins at 52:00. You can watch the video of the livestream broadcast here.

To find out about Christopher’s upcoming readings for Message from the Vessel in a Dream and Toni’s readings for Driven By Hope, visit our Events page.

SoulFood Poetry Night Featuring Christopher Luna & Toni Lumbrazo Luna at SoulFood Coffee House in Redmond, WA June 20, 2019

May 26, 2019

SoulFood Poetry Night
Featuring Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

Thursday, June 20, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
SoulFood Coffee House
15748 Redmond Way
Redmond, WA 98052

20 June 2019 (1)

Series Description from host Michael Dylan Welch: On the third Thursday of every month, SoulFood Coffee House in Redmond, Washington, is home to SoulFood Poetry Night, an evening of engaged and engaging poetry. Our performance stage features professional sound and lighting systems in an inviting gallery and café setting in SoulFood Coffee House. Performances are streamed live to the Internet.

SoulFood Poetry Night is curated by Michael Dylan Welch, and has been running monthly since July of 2006 (we held our 100th reading in October of 2014). For more than a decade, we asked one featured reader to select someone else to read with him or her. This process echoed the sense of community and connection that is central to SoulFood Coffee House. This serendipity brought in new voices, and helped to create harmony or contrast in our reading series. Starting in 2016, though, we switched to primarily featuring groups or organizations. Featured readers start shortly after 7:00 p.m. Our featured readers are mostly from the greater Seattle area, but we welcome poets from farther afield as well.

After we have a break to enjoy the bookstore, its art gallery, and especially its café, we have an open-mic reading where we invite you to share your poetry. Just sign up when you arrive and be prepared to read for about three or four minutes each (depending on the number of readers). And the occasional song is welcome, too.