Tag: Washington State Poet Laureate

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest at Art at the Cave on April 13, 2023

March 20, 2023

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest

Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige

7 pm

Thursday, April 13

Art at the Cave

108 E Evergreen Blvd

Vancouver, WA 98660

https://artatthecave.com

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

ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

$5 Suggested donation

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.

Rena Priest is a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is wrapping up her term as our 6th Washington State Poet Laureate. She is also a Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow an Academy of American Poets Fellow, and the recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award. Her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues, received a 2018 American Book Award. Most recently she has edited an anthology titled, I Sing the Salmon Home: poems from Washington state. Other books include Northwest Know-how: Beaches and Sublime Subliminal. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

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.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna at a special time and location Thursday, April 11, 2019

March 30, 2019

Printed Matter Vancouver, Clark County Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Morgan,
Clark County Arts Commission, and ArtsWA Present

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna of Printed Matter Vancouver
6:30-8:30 pm
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Open mic sign up begins at 6:00 and closes at 6:30
FREE

Columbia Room
Vancouver Community Library
901 C Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Claudia Castro Luna will be signing books at Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street (nichewinebar.com) from 5-6 pm. Spend happy hour with the Poet Laureate. There will also be an after party at Niche Wine Bar at 8:30 pm.

Claudia-Castro-Luna-light-blue-dropshadow

Biographical information from ArtsWA and Claudia Castro Luna’s website: Claudia Castro Luna is Washington State Poet Laureate. She served as Seattle’s Civic Poet, from 2015-2017 and is the author of the Pushcart nominated and Killing Marías (Two Sylvias Press) also shortlisted for WA State 2018 Book Award in poetry and This City, (Floating Bridge Press). She is also the creator of the acclaimed Seattle Poetic Grid, an online interactive map of showcasing poems about different locations around the city. The grid even landed her an interview on PBS NewsHour.

Castro Luna is a Hedgebrook and VONA alumna, a 2014 Jack Straw fellow, the recipient of individual artist grants from King County 4Culture and Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture. Born in El Salvador she came to the United States in 1981. She has an MA in Urban Planning, a teaching certificate and an MFA in poetry. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, La Bloga, Dialogo and Psychological Perspectives among others. Her non-fiction work can be read in several anthologies, among them This Is The Place: Women Writing About Home, (Seal Press) Claudia is currently working on a memoir, Like Water to Drink, about her experience escaping the civil war in El Salvador. Living in English and Spanish, she writes and teaches in Seattle where she gardens and keeps chickens with her husband and their three children. Since 2009, Claudia maintains Cipota bajo la Luna, a blog with reflections, writing and reviews.

Claudia Castro Luna was appointed the fifth Washington State Poet Laureate by Governor Jay Inslee. Castro Luna’s term will run from February 1, 2018 to January 31, 2020. Prior to Castro Luna, Tod Marshall (2016-2018), Elizabeth Austen (2014-2016), Kathleen Flenniken (2012-2014), and Sam Green (2007-2009) held the position.

The Washington State Poet Laureate program is jointly sponsored by Humanities Washington and the Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA). Poets laureate work to build awareness and appreciation of poetry-including the state’s legacy of poetry-through public readings, workshops, lectures, and presentations in communities throughout the state. Laureates are selected through an application and panel review process that evaluates candidates’ proposed project plans, writing acumen, and experience promoting poetry.

ABOUT CLARK COUNTY POET LAUREATE GWENDOLYN MORGAN

Gwendolyn Morgan learned the names of birds and wildflowers and inherited paintbrushes and boxes from her grandmothers. With an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College, and an M.Div. from San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, she has been a recipient of artist and writing residencies at Artsmith, Caldera, Into the Depths of Winter, and Soapstone. Crow Feathers, Red Ochre, Green Tea, her first book of poems, was a winner of the Wild Earth Poetry Prize, Hiraeth Press. Snowy Owls, Egrets and Unexpected Graces, initially published by Hiraeth Press and now Homebound Publications, is a Nautilus Gold Winner in Poetry and a Foreward Indies Book of the Year Finalist in the Nature Category. Her third book of poems is forthcoming from Homebound Publications in the Summer of 2019. Her poems have appeared in: Calyx, Kalliope, Mudfish, Tributaries: A Journal of Nature Writing, Wayfarer as well as The Cancer Poetry Project 2, and other anthologies, blogs and literary journals. She is currently serving as the Clark County Poet Laureate. Gwendolyn and Judy A. Rose, her spouse, share their home and creekside walks with Naomi, a rescued Chesapeake Retriever and Cardigan Corgi mix.

ABOUT GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC

Christopher Luna founded Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in 2004; Toni Lumbrazo Luna, his wife and co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver, joined him as organizer and co-host in 2007. Printed Matter Vancouver is an editing and writing coaching service for Northwest writers which also publishes books of poetry by Clark County authors. Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic began in November 2004 at Ice Cream Renaissance before moving to Cover to Cover Books and finally, Angst Gallery. It has been LGBTQ+ friendly, all ages, uncensored, and free since its inception. Christopher’s many years of service to the poetry community led the Clark County Arts Commission to name him the first Poet Laureate of Clark County, a position he held from 2013-2017.

Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall to Visit Vancouver in May

April 22, 2016

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic and a Free Workshop

Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall

at Angst Gallery May 12

Ghost Town Flyer May 2016

 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

 Marshall,Tod-6

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.

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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 Featuring Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen/ Free Poetry Workshop at Vancouver Community Library September 10, 2015

August 14, 2015

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
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.

Poetry for All Workshop