Brownstone Poets on Zoom: Marissa Prada, Bryan Franco, Edith Blackbird, Sat, March 30 at 2 pm ET
You are invited from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET, the last Saturday of the month, March 30 for our next installment of Brownstone Poets with our rockstar features:
Marissa Prada
Bryan Franco
Edith Blackbird
Plus a limited (3-minute) open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays for our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our February edition! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page:AD
https://www.facebook.com/events/773123818024105
Bios:
Marissa Prada turned to writing and spoken word as a method of healing. Marissa continues to write as a tool for managing anxiety, stress, and trauma, as well as an expression of love, independence, and sexuality. She has been published in many periodicals and anthologies around the world. Marissa is the founder of Read or Green Books and is the Co-Founder and Creative Director for The Word is Write on Facebook & Instagram; a platform that hosts open mics, slams & workshops almost every day of the week. Marissa is a founding member of the worldwide women’s poetry group, Tesoro.
Bryan Franco is a gay, Jewish poet from Brunswick, Maine. He competed with the Portland, Maine Rhythmic Cypher slam team in the 2014 National Poetry Slam in Oakland, California. He has been published in the US, Australia, England, India, Ireland, and Scotland and has featured for poetry events in the US, England, Ireland, and Scotland. He was a finalist in the 2022 NAMI NJ Dara Axelrod Expressive Arts Poetry Contest. He hosts Café Generalissimo Open Mic, is a member of the Beardo Bards of the Bardo poetry troupe, painter, sculptor, gardener, and culinary genius. His book Everything I Think Is All in My Mind was published in 2021 by Read Or Green Books.
Edith Blackbird is a Mexican queer trilingual writer/poet/performer with a “Declamation Style”. In Mexico 2005, placed second in a nationwide poetry contest, and in 2007, the Sonora University published her in the anthology Realidad Aleatoria. Now in USA, Edith has been published in the anthologies Di-vêrsé-city (2020), the SINEW: 10 Years of Poetry in The Brew (2021), the Touching Tongues (2021), and in the Out Loud: An LGBTQ Literary Art Anthology (2022). She was featured in the Lion and Pirate event at Malvern Books (2020), in the Pastiche House event (2021), in the Waterfront Immersive Arts Festival (2020, 2021, and 2023), and in the 2023 NM Poetry Summit. She co-hosts Lenguas a virtual event that promotes cultural diversity and art.
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Brownstone Poets / Blog
Brownstone Poets on Zoom: Marissa Prada, Bryan Franco, Edith Blackbird
Brownstone Poets on Zoom: Marissa Prada, Bryan Franco, Edith Blackbird, Sat, March 30 at 2 pm ET
You are invited from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET, the last Saturday of the month, March 30 for our next installment of Brownstone Poets with our rockstar features:
Marissa Prada
Bryan Franco
Edith Blackbird
Plus a limited (3-minute) open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays for our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our February edition! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page:AD
https://www.facebook.com/events/773123818024105
Bios:
Marissa Prada turned to writing and spoken word as a method of healing. Marissa continues to write as a tool for managing anxiety, stress, and trauma, as well as an expression of love, independence, and sexuality. She has been published in many periodicals and anthologies around the world. Marissa is the founder of Read or Green Books and is the Co-Founder and Creative Director for The Word is Write on Facebook & Instagram; a platform that hosts open mics, slams & workshops almost every day of the week. Marissa is a founding member of the worldwide women’s poetry group, Tesoro.
Bryan Franco is a gay, Jewish poet from Brunswick, Maine. He competed with the Portland, Maine Rhythmic Cypher slam team in the 2014 National Poetry Slam in Oakland, California. He has been published in the US, Australia, England, India, Ireland, and Scotland and has featured for poetry events in the US, England, Ireland, and Scotland. He was a finalist in the 2022 NAMI NJ Dara Axelrod Expressive Arts Poetry Contest. He hosts Café Generalissimo Open Mic, is a member of the Beardo Bards of the Bardo poetry troupe, painter, sculptor, gardener, and culinary genius. His book Everything I Think Is All in My Mind was published in 2021 by Read Or Green Books.
Edith Blackbird is a Mexican queer trilingual writer/poet/performer with a “Declamation Style”. In Mexico 2005, placed second in a nationwide poetry contest, and in 2007, the Sonora University published her in the anthology Realidad Aleatoria. Now in USA, Edith has been published in the anthologies Di-vêrsé-city (2020), the SINEW: 10 Years of Poetry in The Brew (2021), the Touching Tongues (2021), and in the Out Loud: An LGBTQ Literary Art Anthology (2022). She was featured in the Lion and Pirate event at Malvern Books (2020), in the Pastiche House event (2021), in the Waterfront Immersive Arts Festival (2020, 2021, and 2023), and in the 2023 NM Poetry Summit. She co-hosts Lenguas a virtual event that promotes cultural diversity and art.
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Jerry Jazz HAIKU publication
Wow! I completely forgot that I submitted Jazz haiku to Jerry Jazz Musician and I'm in Volume 2! Thank you Joe Maita. Kudos to my talented friends Amy Barone, Carrie Magness Radna, George Held, Michael L. Newell, Miho Kinnas, Mike Jurkovic, Russell DuPont
https://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/a-collection-of-jazz-haiku-vol-2/
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REMINDER: Brownstone Poets on Zoom: George Wallace, Carla Cherry, Andrew Kaufman
You are invited from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET, the last Saturday of the month, for our next installment of Brownstone Poets with our rockstar features:
George Wallace
Carla Cherry
Andrew Kaufman
Plus a limited (3-minute) open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays for our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our February edition! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/739278748303039
Bios:
George Wallace is writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Huntington NY, professor of English at Pace University in NYC, editor of NYC FROM THE INSIDE (Blue Light Press 2022), and author of 39 chapbooks of poetry in the US, UK, India, Albania, and Italy. He is creator of the Poets Building Bridges world poetry triangulation project. In 2022 he was named poet of the year for the Boao International Poetry Festival in Hainan China. Wallace’s previous honors and awards include New Generation Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate (National Beat Poetry Foundation, US 2021); Corona d'oro (Korca Literary Festival AB 2019).
Carla M. Cherry is a high school English teacher. Her work has appeared in Random Sample Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, 433, and Raising Mothers. A Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, she authored five books of poetry, Gnat Feathers and Butterfly Wings, Thirty Dollars and a Bowl of Soup, Honeysuckle Me, These Pearls Are Real, and Stardust and Skin (iiPublishing), and two chapbooks Clap Your Hands, Stomp Your Feet (Grandma Moses Press) and Sundays and Hot Buttered Rolls (forthcoming from Finishing Line Press). She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the City College of New York.
Andrew Kaufman’s most recently completed book, The Rwanda Poems, is forthcoming from New York Quarterly Books. His previous books include The Cinnamon Bay Sonnets, winner of the Center for Book Arts Award, Earth’s Ends, winner of the Pearl Poetry Award, and Both Sides of the Niger. He is an NEA recipient.
View more of his work at his website, Andrewkaufman.wordpress.com, and reach him via email at Andrewkauf@aol.com
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Brownstone Poets on Zoom: George Wallace, Carla Cherry, Andrew Kaufman
Brownstone Poets on Zoom: George Wallace, Carla Cherry, Andrew Kaufman Sat, February 24 at 2 p.m. ET You are invited from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET, the last Saturday of the month, for our next installment of Brownstone Poets with our rockstar features:
George Wallace
Carla Cherry
Andrew Kaufman
Plus a limited (3-minute) open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays for our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our February edition! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/739278748303039
Bios:
George Wallace is writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Huntington NY, professor of English at Pace University in NYC, editor of NYC FROM THE INSIDE (Blue Light Press 2022), and author of 39 chapbooks of poetry in the US, UK, India, Albania, and Italy. He is creator of the Poets Building Bridges world poetry triangulation project. In 2022 he was named poet of the year for the Boao International Poetry Festival in Hainan China. Wallace’s previous honors and awards include New Generation Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate (National Beat Poetry Foundation, US 2021); Corona d'oro (Korca Literary Festival AB 2019).
Carla M. Cherry is a high school English teacher. Her work has appeared in Random Sample Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, 433, and Raising Mothers. A Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, she authored five books of poetry, Gnat Feathers and Butterfly Wings, Thirty Dollars and a Bowl of Soup, Honeysuckle Me, These Pearls Are Real, and Stardust and Skin (iiPublishing), and two chapbooks Clap Your Hands, Stomp Your Feet (Grandma Moses Press) and Sundays and Hot Buttered Rolls (forthcoming from Finishing Line Press). She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the City College of New York.
Andrew Kaufman’s most recently completed book, The Rwanda Poems, is forthcoming from New York Quarterly Books. His previous books include The Cinnamon Bay Sonnets, winner of the Center for Book Arts Award, Earth’s Ends, winner of the Pearl Poetry Award, and Both Sides of the Niger. He is an NEA recipient.
View more of his work at his website, Andrewkaufman.wordpress.com, and reach him via email at Andrewkauf@aol.com.
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Reminder Brownstone Poets on Zoom
Happy New Year! May this year bring peace, happiness, and creativity!
You are invited from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET, the last Saturday of the month, for our next installment of Brownstone Poets with our rockstar features:
JP Howard
Cynthia Manick
Tantra-Zawadi
Plus a limited (3-minute) open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays for our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our October edition! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page:
https://fb.me/e/3LFvC7pnS
Bios:
JP Howard is a poet, educator, literary activist, curator, and community builder. JP is a current Learn with Lambda Literary workshop facilitator and was the Spring 2023 Brooklyn College Tow Mentor-in-Residence. Her debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*), Praise This Complicated Herstory: Legacy, Healing & Revolutionary Poems (Harlequin Creature) and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians--We Are the Revolution! JP has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda Literary Foundation, and Brooklyn Arts Council. She curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon. Her poetry is widely anthologized. http://www.jp-howard.com.
Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, 2023), which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay and was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023; editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry; winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry; and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, and MacDowell among other foundations. Manick’s work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, and other outlets. She lives in New York but travels widely for poetry.
Tantra-zawadi, an award-winning, Brooklyn-born, international performance poet and recording artist, is a 2020 Brooklyn Arts Fund grantee! She is the author of three books of poetry: alifepoeminprogress (Chuma Spirit Books); Gathered at Her Sky and Bubbles: One Conscious Breath (Poets Wear Prada). A passionate educator and instigator, she has collaborated with The Senegal-America Project, Dr. Muzvare Betty Makoni’s Girl Child Network Worldwide, and Black Art in America. To learn more, or to hear her latest house music releases, please visit and follow her Instagram profile, @tantrazawadi.
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Brownstone Poets on Zoom: JP Howard, Cynthia Manick, Tantra-Zawadi
Happy New Year! May this year bring peace, happiness, and creativity!
You are invited from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET, the last Saturday of the month, for our next installment of Brownstone Poets with our rockstar features:
JP Howard
Cynthia Manick
Tantra-Zawadi
Plus a limited (3-minute) open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays for our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our October edition! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page:
https://fb.me/e/3LFvC7pnS
Bios:
JP Howard is a poet, educator, literary activist, curator, and community builder. JP is a current Learn with Lambda Literary workshop facilitator and was the Spring 2023 Brooklyn College Tow Mentor-in-Residence. Her debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*), Praise This Complicated Herstory: Legacy, Healing & Revolutionary Poems (Harlequin Creature) and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians--We Are the Revolution! JP has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda Literary Foundation, and Brooklyn Arts Council. She curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon. Her poetry is widely anthologized. http://www.jp-howard.com.
Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, 2023), which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay and was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023; editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry; winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry; and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, and MacDowell among other foundations. Manick’s work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, and other outlets. She lives in New York but travels widely for poetry.
Tantra-zawadi, an award-winning, Brooklyn-born, international performance poet and recording artist, is a 2020 Brooklyn Arts Fund grantee! She is the author of three books of poetry: alifepoeminprogress (Chuma Spirit Books); Gathered at Her Sky and Bubbles: One Conscious Breath (Poets Wear Prada). A passionate educator and instigator, she has collaborated with The Senegal-America Project, Dr. Muzvare Betty Makoni’s Girl Child Network Worldwide, and Black Art in America. To learn more, or to hear her latest house music releases, please visit and follow her Instagram profile, @tantrazawadi.
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27th Annual Alternative Spoken Word Event
The 27th Annual Alternative New Years Day Spoken Word/ Performance Extravaganza Posted on December 30, 2023
I AND ROXANNE HOFFMAN ARE SCHEDULED TO GO ON BETWEEN 4 & 5 p.m. on Monday, January 1 at the Westbeth Community Room at the Westbeth Artists Housing Complex. As always, this is a free event, although donations are always appreciated.The event runs from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
DIRECTIONS
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The Westbeth Community Room is located between Bank and Bethune streets, just east of West Street, inside the Westbeth complex. Enter via the courtyard between Bank and Bethune streets (the room is midway between those streets within the Westbeth complex and the courtyard opens from both), just inland from West Street/Route 9A (between West Street and Washington Street).
Transit directions to Westbeth: Buses that stop at Abingdon Square are the M11, M12 and northbound M20 buses, and M14A’s last stop is one short block before Abingdon Square. From the square, walk west on Bethune Street 2 1/2 blocks. Shortly before you reach West Street, while walking past the complex, you will see an entrance way to your left; take that left and when the courtyard begins to get bigger, you’ll see the room on your right. An alternative is the M8 bus to its last stop, on West Street at Christopher Street. From there, walk five blocks north on West Street to Bank Street. Turn right on Bank and almost immediately you will see a large courtyard to your left. Walk into the center of the complex, and the room will be on your left.
The nearest subway is the A/C/E/L stop at Eighth Avenue and East 14th Street. From there, walk south on Eighth Avenue to Abingdon Square, then follow the instructions above.
Here is a link to Google Maps that shows Westbeth: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Westbeth+Artists+Housing/@40.7368192,-74.0106763,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x89c259eae45711ed:0x79e6a84b6f8257af!8m2!3d40.736803!4d-74.0085574!16zL20vMGNuZjEy?entry=ttu
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More late December news
Thank you Spillwords for publishing "Upon a Six-Foot Tree" A typical meowy Catmas poem:
https://spillwords.com/upon-a-six-foot-tree/#comments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thank you Word Up Pages for publishing “Feel So Different” in the November 2023 edition. Kudos to my friend @gnrlsmo Generalissimo Bryan Franco who has his excellent work in the same issue “The Real Reason The Pyramids Were Built.”
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More Publication News
Wow, another holiday surprise 🎄in the mail. Thank you Billy Brown for publishing “Misty” and “trouble approaches” in the December 2023 Fixed issue and Free Quarterly Vol 2 Issue 4. Kudos to Josephine LoRe Don Krieger John Roche @Billy Brown Bill Nevins et al.
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Un-Christmas Kiityku
https://katzenworld.co.uk/2023/12/21/purrsday-poetry-un-christmas-kittyku/
Happy Kitty Solstice and thank you Marc-André Runcie-Unger Katzenworld for publishing my holiday kittyku
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