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
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
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
Christopher Luna’s Winter 2018 Creative Writing Classes
Christopher Luna by Julian Nelson
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has already signed up for one of my classes. As of this writing, my Thursday memoir writing class is full, but there are still spots available in the Wednesday memoir writing class, and my MAC classes on poetry writing and collage. I have also updated the link to the Wednesday memoir writing class so that it will take you directly to the class description. Please feel free to contact me with any questions: printedmattervancouver@gmail.com.
Poets and artists have always used allusion and reference to create something new. Explore strategies for assembling borrowed words and images into art and poetry. Create visual collages that incorporate text or poems that include visual aids. Bring newspapers, magazines, photos, found text, and natural items to class. These items will be shared or swapped during class. Scissors, glue, and paper to collage on will be provided. All levels.
1082751 Sat. 10 am – 2 pm Feb. 24 $40 [1 class] Christopher Luna
Poetry Writing Ages 16 & Up
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.
1082102 Mon. 10 am – 12:30 pm Jan. 8 – Mar. 19 $249 [9 classes] Christopher Luna
Everyone has a story to tell. Each person’s life is filled with adventure, mystery, trouble, and triumph. Memoir is a powerful way to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all human beings. With the help of former Clark County Poet Laureate (2013-2017) Christopher Luna, you will begin to see yourself as a part of history, and appreciate the value of documenting the story of your life.
This class is full and cannot accept additional students. Please consider taking the Wednesday class described above.
Item #: 9028
Dates: Thursdays 1/11/2018- 3/15/2018
1:00PM – 3:20PM
$215
Room: CCE 208
THE WORK
Niche Wine Bar/ Angst Gallery
The Work Saturday Afternoon Edition
Join us on Saturday, December 2 for The Work, a monthly poetry writing workshop at Niche Wine Bar led by Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna.
Christopher is completely convinced of poetry’s ability to encourage empathy and compassion, and to spark the shifts in consciousness which can lead to healing, personal growth, and an interest in fighting for progressive social change. He would love to share his passion for poetry with you.
We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together from 11:30 until 2:30.
Niche is located at 1013 Main Street, right next door to The Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver’s landmark movie house in the Vancouver Arts District.
$20 suggested donation; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.
Shareable snacks are also welcome and very much appreciated.
Note: The Saturday Afternoon Edition of The Work will take place on the second Saturday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Upcoming readings will take place on the following dates: January 13, February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, and June 9.
The Work Monday Evening Edition
Christopher Luna and Leah Jackson are excited to announce a new Monday evening edition of The Work, to take place on the last Monday of every month.
Join us on Monday, January 29 for The Work, a monthly poetry writing workshop at Angst Gallery led by Clark County’s first Poet Laureate (2013-2017) Christopher Luna.
We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together from 6:00 until 8:30. Angst Gallery is located at 1015 Main Street, two doors north of The Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver’s landmark movie house in the Vancouver Arts District. Food and libation available for purchase at Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street (accessible through a doorway at the rear of the gallery).
$20 suggested donation; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.
Note: The Work will take place on the last Monday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Upcoming workshops will take place on the following dates: February 26, March 26, April 30, May 28, and June 25.
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
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 angstgallery.com
Featuring Naomi Fast, author of
Portland Light: Post-Industrial City Poems and Photography
Naomi Fast is an American poet, artist, and photographer who grew up in California, Brussels, and Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo). Ms. Fast earned her MA in Writing from Portland State University, where she won an Academy of American Poets Prize and the Shelley Reece Award. Her poetry has been published around the U.S. in various journals and anthologies includingEmpty Shoes and VoiceCatcher, a journal featuring women authors and artists of the Pacific Northwest. In addition, her poem “Kajiji Fires” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The poems and photographs in Fast’sPortland Light: Post-Industrial City Poems & Photography, provide a glimpse into the Rose City’s evolution over a ten-year period.
Fantasy by Naomi Fast
According to Naomi, “I consider my Portland Light poems to be ‘light’ in language, length, mood and tone—they are, if you will, ‘language snapshots.’ My hope is that they also reveal bits of a city that aren’t readily seen unless we shine a light on them.”
Awning of Stars by Naomi Fast
Eclipse
by Naomi Fast
We photograph the bronze moon
in increments.
Planets collaborate
enlightening our address
with sun and moon’s embrace.
We’ve lived rivers and oceans of years
but it only takes one
cloudless September night
to eclipse them all,
to reveal with a flash
this naked moment
of our sameness.
Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall
at Angst Gallery May 12
GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna
Workshop with
Washington State Poet Laureate and
Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna
3-5pm
Thursday, May 12
Workshop is limited to 28 people; pre-registration is recommended.
Pre-register by contacting Christopher Luna at christopherjluna@gmail.com
Open Mic
7 pm
Thursday, May 12
Both events located at
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660
Food and libation provided by
Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
angstgallery.com
Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall
Tod Marshall was born in Buffalo, NY. He earned his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1996. His first collection of poetry, Dare Say, was the 2002 winner of the University of Georgia’s Contemporary Poetry Series. He has also published a collection of his interviews with contemporary poets, Range of the Possible (EWU Press, 2002), and an accompanying anthology of the interviewed poets’ work, Range of Voices (2005). These volumes include interviews with and poems by Robert Hass, Li-Young Lee, Robert Wrigley, Brenda Hillman, Dorianne Laux, Kim Addonizio, Ed Hirsch, Dave Smith, Yusef Komunyakaa, and others. In 2005, he was awarded a Washington Artists Trust Fellowship. His second collection, The Tangled Line (Canarium Books, 2009) was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Bugle (Canarium, 2014), was the winner of the 2015 Washington State Book Award. Marshall was also awarded the Humanities Washington Award in 2015 for creativity and service. He lives in Spokane, Washington, and teaches creative writing and literature at Gonzaga University where he is the Robert and Ann Powers Chair in the Humanities.
Workshop Description
If You Ain’t No Place You Can’t Go Nowhere
My title is from Richard Hugo’s The Triggering Town. In his book, Hugo reminds poets of the importance of identifying the “where” of a poem and how rooting creativity to place can allow the imagination to grow in unexpected ways. In this workshop, we will explore ways to connect our imagination to the real and imagined landscapes of Washington.
There are many ways, of course, that we can think about “place.” Perhaps specific flora and fauna conjure up place for us (salmon and Arrowleaf Balsamroot, delicious huckleberries). Perhaps titles of towns or geological phenomena do the same (Anacortes, Mt. Rainier, and Twisp; The Columbia, The Palouse, and sharp columns of basalt, to name only a few). Perhaps people—individuals or groups—make a “where” vivid in our minds (Chief Seattle or Ken Griffey Junior, Kurt Cobain and Colonel George Wright, Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp or Bing Crosby and Cathy McMorris Rodgers).
Using a controlled range of diction, we will work from freewriting to drafting a poem that might reveal something about where we are and where we’ve been, and perhaps such knowledge will tell us a little bit about who we are, were, and might be.
GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna
7 pm Thursday, February 11 Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004 angstgallery.com
Featuring Steve Williams
Steve Williams is the author of a new chapbook entitled Thirteen, a poem. He works in Portland, helping those who have barriers to employment find jobs. He lives with a lovely woman who writes and edits much better than he but refuses to admit it.
GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
7pm Thursday, November 12 Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004 angstgallery.com
With our featured reader, Kristin Roedell
Kristin Roedell is a Northwest poet and retired attorney. Her work has appeared in over 50 journals and anthologies, including The Journal of the American Medical Association, Switched on Gutenberg, and CHEST. She is the author of Girls with Gardenias (Flutter Press) and Down River (Aldrich Press), a finalist for the Quercus Review Press poetry prize. She has twice been nominated for Best of the Web and once for the Pushcart Prize. She was the 2013 winner of NISA’s 11th Annual Brainstorm Poetry Contest and a finalist in the 2013 Crab Creek Review poetry contest.
GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
7pm Thursday, October 8
Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
in the Vancouver Arts District
LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004 christopherjluna@gmail.com angstgallery.com
With our featured reader, Sarah Webb: A former Vancouverite, Sarah Webb now lives in the Texas Hill Country with her hound dog Rex, and reads frequently in Oklahoma and Texas. Her poetry collection Black (Virtual Artists Collective, 2013) was selected as a finalist for the 2014 Oklahoma Book Award and the 2014 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award. She served as Poetry Editor for the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma’s interdisciplinary journal Crosstimbers for many years, and is presently a member of the editorial committee for All Roads Will Lead You Home and a co-editor of Just This, a magazine of the Zen arts.
Two poems by Sarah Webb:
The Altruism of Birds
By Sarah Webb
Ravens clamor the flock to a hidden feast
hark and hoot to show the way.
They share.
We’ll assume it’s for the usual reasons–
courting or potlatch
or the bullying strength of numbers.
Why are we surprised?
After all, people share
and often for no reason we can name.
Men share, and wolves share.
A raven may tip his wing to a hunter.
A badger may shelter a boy in his den.
A roadrunner adopted a man I knew.
The bird would bring him lizards
and grasshoppers,
lay them at his door as a cat might.
Once she brought the egg of a wren.
Once she came right up to the man
as he sat in the shade of his patio,
and she looked at him.
Her eye had that bird glint
that might mean anything–
pride in her prowess,
yearning for the touch of his beak
or delight in the glare of the sun
and the taste of snake
before it is given away.
Empty
By Sarah Webb
We start from the place that is empty.
Even in a mass of clay
there is that empty spot.
The thumb finds it
and follows its prompting,
presses out from it
and feels its yes
to widening.
From it bowls form
and rattles.
And in my chest
there is that empty spot
that widens with each breath
in a sweet yes.
I feel it press, press out,
but how to name what it forms?
GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
7pm Thursday, September 10 Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine and Art Bar, 1013 Main Street
LGBTQ-FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004 printedmattervancouver.com angstgallery.com
With our featured reader, Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen
Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen Photo by John Ulman
Elizabeth Austen is the Washington State Poet Laureate for 2014-16. Her collection Every Dress a Decision (Blue Begonia Press, 2011) was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her work is also available on the CD Skin Prayers and in two chapbooks. Elizabeth spent her teens and twenties working in the theatre and writing poems. A six-month solo walkabout in the Andes region of South America led her to focus exclusively on poetry. She earned an MFA in Poetry at Antioch University Los Angeles, and is the poetry commentator for NPR-affiliate KUOW 94.9. She makes her living at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she also offers poetry and reflective writing workshops for the staff. For more information please visit http://wapoetlaureate.org/
Elizabeth Austen will also be teaching a generative writing workshop at the Vancouver Library the same afternoon:
Poetry for All Thursday, September 10, 2015 2 – 4pm Vancouver Community Library Klickitat Room, Level 4
901 C St Vancouver, WA 98660
Join Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen for a free, hands-on poetry workshop designed to engage participants’ imaginations, life histories and sense of empathy through language. The class includes close reading of a few contemporary poems, then using one as a model for writing our own first draft. No previous writing experience needed.
Library events and programs are free and although everyone is welcome, space is limited. Preregistration is required and closes Sept 9 at 5pm. Maximum 25 participants.
PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER 