Merry Gangemi
Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 4:15 PM EST (1:15 PM PST). I'll be interviewed by Merry Gangemi on Woman-Stirred Radio. Streaming live at WGDR.org or broadcasting live in Vermont at 91.1 FM out of Goddard College. I'll read from my new fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009), winner of the 2008 Gertrude Press Fiction Chapbook Award for LGBT writers. I can't wait to talk about the book on the air with my Woman-Stirred queer women's writing collective colleague, radio host extraordinaire and fellow poet Merry Gangemi!
Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 7 PM. I'll be reading with other authors published online in The Pedestal Magazine and with editor John Amen at Book Passage (Corte Madera Store), 51 Tamal Vista Blvd, Corte Madera, CA 94925. For more info call store at (415) 927-0960, or email pedmagazine@caroline.rr.com.
Tentative reading line up:
Set 1:
1. Jan Steckel
2. Gregory Randall
3. Alexa Mergen
4. Daniel Y. Harris
5. Greg Gerke
Set 2:
1. CB Follett
2. Stewart Florsheim
3. Lee Rossi
4. Meg Pokrass
5. Barbara Swift Brauer
So get there on time if you want to hear me!
Dr. Carol Queen
Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 at 7:30 PM. Featured with my husband Hew Wolff and several others at Perverts Put Out, hosted by Carol Queen. (Simon Sheppard, PPO's other host, will be on vacation.) The Center for Sex and Culture, 1519 MIssion Street, San Francisco, CA. $10-15 sliding scale.
Perverts Put Out is San Francisco's long-running pansexual performance series or literary smut salon, as condemned recently here on Fox News! Please note that, contrary to Fox's report, Perverts Put Out doesn't receive any money from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Joan Gelfand
Clive Matson
Friday, September 4, 2009 at 7:30 PM. Featured with Joan Gelfand and Adele Mendelson at Poetry and Pizza, MC'd by Clive Matson. A $5 requested donation gets you an evening of fine poetry plus all-you-can-eat gourmet pizza at Escape from New York Pizza, 333 Bush St. (at Montgomery) in San Francisco, CA. 415.421.0700. Nearest BART is Montgomery Station. Your donations benefit a cause chosen by the poets. (Charity to be announced.)
Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 7 PM. I read my poem “Just Like Jazz” with other authors included in the anthology Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts #3 at Bird & Beckett Books, 653 Chenery St., San Francisco, CA. Steve Arntson opened with his poetry and piano playing. For more info contact Daniel Yaryan at admanyaryan@yahoo.com.
Monday, July 20, 2009, at 6:40 PM. Featured with open mic at Poetry Express, hosted by Mark States, Nance Wogan and Jim Barnard. Priya Indian Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. (near University Ave.), Berkeley, CA. 510-644-3977. Ask for special seating for poetry reading; 10% off dinner.
Monday, July 6, 2009, at 7 PM. Feature with Joyce Jenkins and my husband Hew Wolff at the Gallery Cafe Reading Series hosted by Kit Kennedy. Open mic to follow. The Gallery Cafe, 1200 Mason St. at Washington, San Francisco, CA. 414-296-9932. Take the bus: #1 California, #30 Stockton, #45 Union. For more information contact Kit Kennedy, kitkennedy@yahoo.com, 415-305-1831.
Joyce Jenkins
Joyce Jenkins is the author of Portal, with an introduction by Carolyn Kizer, and Joy Road, a limited edition chapbook, and has given many poetry readings both in the Bay Area and across the country. Her poems have appeared in speechlessthemagazine.com, Parthenon West Review, ZYZZYVA, Berkeley Poetry Review, Solo Cafe 1, The Addison Street Anthology: Berkeley's Poetry Walk, and Petaluma Poetry Walk 10-Year Anthology: 1996-2005, among other publications. Her poem “Piano Man” is part of the Addison Street Poetry Walk in Berkeley. She is Editor/Publisher of Poetry Flash magazine and PoetryFlash.org, and co-organizer of Poetry Flash's reading series. She received the American Book Award in 1994, and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2006, among other honors. She lives in Berkeley, California. June 6, 2009 was named “Joyce Jenkins Day” by the City of Berkeley in honor of the Berkeley Poetry Festival lifetime achievement award.
Monday, May 11, 2009 7 PM to 9 PM. Co-feature with my friend and poetry mentor Julia Vinograd, at Word Dancing, hosted by Jeanne Powell. Open mic for spoken word and acoustic music. It's A Grind Coffee House, 1800 Polk at Washington, San Francisco CA 94109. 415-928-8904 for more info. Free!
Julia Vinograd, also known as “The Bubble Lady”, is a Berkeley street poet who has published fifty books. Her collection of Jerusalem poems, The Book of Jerusalem, won the Before Columbus Foundation Book Award. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Iowa Writers Workshop, a Pushcart Prizewinner, and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry from the city of Berkeley.
Sunday, April 19, 2009, 2 p.m. The Marsh Cafe, 1070 Valencia, San Francisco
Come see our friend Roberta's play! I'll be selling my chapbooks there, too.
Jump! Theatre invites you to a benefit play reading and art show to celebrate Support Women Artists Now (SWAN) Day. Reading of a dynamic new play by Roberta D'Alois, the newest Associate Artist at Jump!
Art for sale (photographs, graphic novels, chapbooks and original art) by Jump! artists and others. Meet the artists, enjoy soft drinks and light snacks, and help support some of the many women artists who help make Jump! successful. $5 donation requested.
Sunday, April 5, 2009, around 7 p.m.
Join the mature, over 30 audience to enjoy Jan Steckel and Hew Wolff reading at Sexy Sundays, 101 Broadway, Oakland, CA.
$20.00 will get you 2 drinks/appetizer or 3 drinks. No cover charge.
Saturday, November 8, 2008. Featured Reader at WORKS IN PROGRESS: An Open Mic for Women at The Home Of Truth, 1300 Grand St., Alameda, CA. 6:30-10 p.m.
$7- $10 admission benefits The Home of Truth. A raffle ticket will be given with each paid admission.
6:30-7:15 - Pot Luck in the Garden Room. Share your favorite dish!
7:15-10 pm - Performance in the Sanctuary.
For information, contact Linda Zeiser at (510) 545-7344 or zeiserpoetmc@aol.com
Linda Zeiser says: "Jan Steckel, MD, Writer, a former Peace Corps volunteer and pediatrician, is an incomparable writer whose short stories, poems and non-fiction pieces have been widely published and awarded honors. Her poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital is strong, luminous and compassionate writing that always has an emotional punch.
"With glowing exuberance, Jan reads with a rich, soft intensity that surrounds the audience. She is a brilliant, bold, sexy, knock-your-socks-off, take-no-prisoners performance poet."
Saturday, September 13, 2008, 7 to 9 PM. Group Feature with the Women's Poetry Salon at Second Saturdays Prose and Poetry Reading, hosted by Jeanne Lupton at The Frank Bette Center for the Arts. Bring some poetry or prose of your own to share at the open mic. 1601 Paru Street at Lincoln Ave, Alameda, CA. 510-523-6957. Admission free, donations appreciated.
Readers will include:
Directions: Coming from the Webster St tunnel from Oakland stay on Webster, turn left on Lincoln. If you reach Grand Ave, you've gone one block too far. Coming from the south or north on 880 take the Fruitvale exit. After crossing the Fruitvale bridge you will be on Tilden way which will turn into Lincoln. Stay the course. Paru is one block beyond Grand. The center is a bright (very) Victorian on the corner.
Jan Steckel
Giovanna Capone
Monday, August 18, 2008, at 7 PM. Co-feature with Giovanna Capone plus open mic at Poetry Express, hosted by Mark States, Nance Wogan and Jim Barnard. Priya Indian Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. (near University Ave.), Berkeley, CA. 510-644-3977. Ask for special seating for poetry reading; 20% off dinner.
Giovanna Capone is a San Francisco bay area poet and fiction writer. She was raised in New York in an Italian American neighborhood whose intense flavor still resonates strongly in her life. Her work has appeared in numerous publications. Some of these include Unsettling America: an Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry (Viking Penguin), Curaggia: Writing by Women of Italian descent (The Women's Press), Queer View Mirror, 2, Lesbian/Gay Short Fiction (Alyson Publications), What I Want From You: East Bay Lesbian Poets (Raw Art Press), and Sinatra...but Buddy I'm a Kind of Poem (Entasis Press). Her first play, Her Kiss, was produced in San Francisco by Luna Sea Women's Performance Project as part of their Dyke Drama Festival. It performed to sold-out audiences. Giovanna also co-edited Hey Paesan: Writing by Lesbians & Gay Men of Italian Descent with Tommi Avicolli Mecca and Denise Leto. Most recently, while working with teenagers at the Dimond Branch Public Library, Giovanna edited a new book of their poetry and art, entitled Words on Fire! An Anthology of Teen Voices (Wordrunner Press). She lives in Oakland, California.
Saturday, July 19, 2008, 2 PM - 5 PM. Afternoon Delight: Julia Vinograd and me plus an open mic at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, in the Lakeshore district near Lake Merritt in Oakland. 510-238-7344.
Julia Vinograd
Julia Vinograd, also known as "The Bubble Lady", is a Berkeley street poet who has published fifty books. Her collection of Jerusalem poems, THE BOOK OF JERSUSALEM, won the Before Columbus Foundation Book Award. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Iowa Writers Workshop, a Pushcart Prize-winner, and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry from the city of Berkeley. She recently won the 2008 East Bay Express Readers' Choice for Best Poet.
Monday, June 9, 2008 7 PM to 9 PM. I read with one of my favorite poets, Al Averbach, in San Francisco, at a reading hosted by Jeanne Powell. Al and I were the featured readers, along with poet, author, reading host and sex goddess E.K. Keith. Followed by an open mic for spoken word and acoustic music. Word Dancing at It's A Grind Coffee House, 1800 Polk at Washington, San Francisco CA 94109. 415-928-8904 for more info. Free!
Al Averbach's work has appeared in Poetalk, The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, The Throwback, Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review, and Po(Re/Po). He edited The Poetry of Beth McDonald (Meridien PressWorks, 2005), published Harm's Way, a chapbook, and is preparing his first book of poems. He is a six-time prize-winner in recent Bay Area Poets Coalition contests.
POSTPONED DUE TO BACK SURGERY -- INSTEAD, MK CHAVEZ READ WITH STEVE ARNTSON.
Monday, February 11, 2008, 7 PM to 9 PM. Co-feature with Steve Arntson with open mic (microphone provided), hosted by Jeanne Powell, at It's a Grind Coffee House, 1800 Polk St. at the corner of Washington, San Francisco. Take BART to Civic Center. Cross the street and take the #19 bus. Get off at the bus stop in front of Orpheum Stage Theater.
Clara Hsu
Sunday, October 28, 2007, 4 PM. Featured reader at The Poetry Salon hosted by Clara Hsu. The Poetry Salon is on the last Sunday of each month at the Gambier House in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. The gathering starts at 4 pm with potluck dinner followed by a reading. Space is limited to 14 people. Please make your reservation early by e-mail to Clara Hsu at soullesswoman@gmail.com no later than the Friday before each event if there is space left. Directions to the salon will be given after your reservation.
Martha Meltzer
Sunday, October 14, 2007. 2 PM to 4 PM. Co-feature with Armand Brint at the Century House Poetry Reading with open mic, hosted by Pleasanton Poet Laureate Martha Meltzer, Century House, 2401 Santa Rita Road, Pleasanton, CA. Admission $5.00.
Century House is located at 2401 Santa Rita Road, 1.3 miles south of the Santa Rita exit from I-580, in Pleasanton. For more information, call City of Pleasanton Civic Arts (925) 931-5350 or e-mail host Martha Meltzer at m.meltzer@comcast.net.
Stephen Kopel
Monday, September 17, 2007, at 7 PM. Co-feature with Stephen Kopel with open mic at Poetry Express, hosted by Mark States, Nance Wogan and Jim Barnard. Priya Indian Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. (near University Ave.), Berkeley, CA. 510-644-3977. Ask for special seating for poetry reading; 20% off dinner.
Stephen Kopel, aka The Pedaling Poet, is a San Francisco treat! He's been published in over 230 journals around the world, including Poetry New Zealand, the quest (India), Comstock Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, and Offerte Speciale. This polite, warm & friendly soul was nominated for SF Poet Laureate for 2002/2003. Stephen is the curator of Word Painters since 2000, a 60-minute poetry event presented at SF Library, and hosts the weekly broadcast show Poetry Scene from The Lighthouse. Poetry Scene is live Fri. at 10:30 AM, and rebroadcast Fri. 6 PM, Sat. 8:30 PM, Sun. 8:30 PM, and Tues. 6:30 PM.
Saturday, August 11, 2007. 1:10 P.M., Co-feature at the Community Stage at the 2nd Annual Laurel World Music Festival. I'll be performing with a lineup of talented local musicians and performers at the Community Stage at 35th Ave. and MacArthur Blvd. The show starts at noon; two musical acts will precede me. I'll kick off the Spoken Word part of the afternoon at 1:10 PM. There will also be a World Music Stage with live music for the whole afternoon; the festival lasts until 6 PM.
Come enjoy a street festival with over 100 booths along MacArthur showcasing a wide variety of clothing, jewelry, toys, books, and tapestries all available for sale, gourmet food vendors featuring ethnic cuisines that you can find in the Laurel community, and Kid's World, a separate area packed full of fun for children of all ages.
The festivities will take place in the Laurel business district located along MacArthur Blvd. between 35th Avenue and High Street in Oakland. For more information, visit www.laureldistrictassociation.org, or contact Helen Wyman at 510-301-3122.
Saturday, August 18, 2007, at 1 PM. I'll be one of the featured readers at Tea and Poetry at Perennial Pleasures Nursery and Tea Garden. Event organized by Merry Gangemi.
Enjoy fine poetry and prose in a garden setting during an English Cream Tea including cucumber-and-herb sandwiches and scones with whipped cream and jam, and a choice of 30 varieties of tea (or coffee).
Readers will include:
Alas, due to physical limitations I won't be able to participate in this wonderful Vermont reading this year with my very talented friends and Woman-Stirred colleagues Merry Gangemi, Nicki Hastie and Julie Enszer. If you're in the area, I highly recommend that you go anyway. See you there next year! —Jan
Saturday, May 12, 2007, at 2-4 PM. Featured reader with open mic at The Poetry Zone, hosted by Virginia Mariposa. Theme: Mother's Day. Karpeles Manuscript Museum, 21 W. Anapamu, Santa Barbara, CA.
Unfortunately cancelled due to illness.
Host Virginia Mariposa
Friday, April 27, 2007, 6-8 PM. I'll be one of several readers and speakers at a Gala Celebration and Fundraiser to benefit Street Sheet and Street Spirit newspapers for the homeless. “A GALA EVENING OF WINE, MUSIC, POEMS, DANCE & YOU!!” Alexander Book Co., 50 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA, 415-495-2992.
Speakers, readers, artists, musicians and performers include Terry Messman, editor of Street Spirit, a publication of the American Friends Service Committee; Bob Offer-Westort, editor of Street Sheet, published by Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco; Berkeley's famous street poet Julia Vinograd; opera composer Carla Lucero; bookseller and nuclear disarmament activist John Windell; poets Mark Schwartz, Sara Menefree, Claire Baker, and A'isha Rafiq-Swan; painter/poet Sharron Rose; photographer Chuck Brooks; and jazz pianist Mr. BJ Papa. More details at joinheartsandhands.com.
Unfortunately cancelled due to illness.
Clara Hsu
Elz Cuya
Paul Watsky
Rich Schimpf
Kit Kennedy, host
Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 7-8:30 PM. Featured Reader at a National Poetry Month reading organized by Kit Kennedy, also featuring Elz Cuya, Clara Hsu, Rich Schimpf and Paul Watsky.
Rich Schimpf writes in as many genres as possible, and has published fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and co-written two produced screenplays, including Mission Movie, an award-winning film about San Francisco's Mission District. He has degrees from Columbia and Stanford and has been driving a cab for seven years, mostly to drive his mother crazy.
Eureka Valley Library/Harvey Milk Branch 16th/Castro San Francisco 7-8:30 PM 415-355-5616 FREE! Snacks provided.Unfortunately cancelled due to illness.
Saturday, April 14, 2007, 2-5 PM. Art and Poetry by the Lake at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, in the Lakeshore district near Lake Merritt in Oakland. 510-238-7344.
My dear and talented friends Deborah Vinograd and Tom Tuthill will be showing her paintings and his collages at the library the entire month of April. Julia Vinograd and I will read poetry about the artists and their art at the April 14 reception. Kit Kennedy of SF's All Poets Welcome Reading Series will host an open mic, and we'll serve delicious free refreshments.
Tom Tuthill has an A. A. from Orange County Community College in Middletown, New York. He does miniature surreal collages. He was once represented by Allrich Gallery in San Francisco. His work has appeared in several group shows, and he recently had a one-man show at 2 C Arts in San Francisco. His collages were featured in North Coast Literary Review. He lives in Berkeley with his artist partner Deborah Vinograd and their cat Foxy.
Deborah Vinograd received a B.A. from University of California, Irvine. She showed at John Berggruen Gallery and several local venues. She paints still lives, nudes, portraits by commission, and follows the magic of the world on canvas. She was published in the Czech art magazine Analogue. She lives in Berkeley with her partner, artist Tom Tuthill, and their cat Foxy.
Julia Vinograd, also known as "The Bubble Lady," is a Berkeley street poet who has published fifty books. Her collection of Jerusalem poems, The Book of Jerusalem, won the Before Columbus Foundation Book Award. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Iowa Writers Workshop, a Pushcart Prizewinner, and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry from the city of Berkeley.
Saturday, February 10, 2007, 7 to 9 PM. Co-featuring with the incomparable Selene Steese at Second Saturdays Prose and Poetry Reading, hosted by Patricia Edith at The Frank Bette Center for the Arts. Bring some poetry or prose of your own to share at the open mic. 1601 Paru Street at Lincoln Ave, Alameda, CA. 510-523-6957. Admission free, donations appreciated.
Coming from the Webster St tunnel from Oakland stay on Webster, turn left on Lincoln. If you reach Grand Ave, you've gone one block too far.
Coming from the south or north on 880 take the Fruitvale exit. After crossing the Fruitvale bridge you will be on Tilden way which will turn into Lincoln. Stay the course. Paru is one block beyond Grand. The center is a bright (very) Victorian on the corner.
Extravaganza!! Readings of New Books from Zeitgeist Press!!
Sat. Dec 2, 7:00-9:00 PM Cafe Internationale 508 Haight St. @ Fillmore, SF 415-552-7390 Sun. Dec. 3, 7:30 PM Moe's Books 2476 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley 510-849-2087Celebrate New Books!!
Cannibal Casserole, New & Selected, 1996-2006 by Julia Vinograd The Revolution of 1964 by Lenore Waters & Jennifer Blowdryer Love Poems for the Wicked by Brian Morrissey I Want a New Gun (back in print) by David Lerner The Bruised Angels' Almanac by Susan Birkeland The Underwater Hospital by Jan Steckel And Extrava-Stanzas By: Joie Cook Kathleen Wood QR Hand Bruce Isaacson Vampyre Mike Kassel Bucky Sinister Chris Trian Sparrow 13 David Gollub
Friday, November 17, 2006, 7:30 to 9 PM. Featured reader at "Wired Poets" at the Firefly Café, hosted by Brian Morissey and Christopher Robin. Sign-up for OPEN MIC at 7 PM. Firefly Café, 135 Laurel St. at Pacific (next to the Saturn Café), SANTA CRUZ, CA.
"All Poets Welcome" Host Kit Kennedy
Monday, November 6, 2006, at 7 PM. Feature with David Gollub and Steve Berry at All Poets Welcome Reading Series at the Gallery Café, hosted by Kit Kennedy. Open mic to follow. The Gallery Café, 1200 Mason St. at Washington, San Francisco, CA. 414-296-9932. The Gallery Café is across the Street from the Cable Car Museum. Take the bus: #1 California, #30 Stockton, #45 Union. For more information contact Kit Kennedy, 415-775-0261.
David Gollub, Self-Portrait
David Gollub was born in 1951, the son of an opera singer and a trial lawyer. He got a BA from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Stanford. He met David Lerner in Palo Alto in 1973. Lerner got him his first poetry publication. He has been on the Bay Area poetry scene since April 7, 1983, when he showed up at the Old Spaghetti Factory in North Beach. He participated in the Cafe Babar reading series in the Mission, and for a time ran the series. It was at the Babar that he re-encountered David Lerner. He also edited and published Bull Horn, a monthly photocopied poetry magazine. His most recent books are As For Us (1990), Special Effects (1992), and As Needed For Rage (1996), all from Zeitgeist Press. He is in a 3-way marriage with the Berkeley poet Debra Grace Khattab and her other partner Ken Siegel, though for a time he is keeping a separate apartment in Oakland.
The Canary
by David Gollub
If they cage you and take you down out of the light
sing in the dark
like a coal-mine canary.
Sing while you can.
They depend on it to tell them they're safe
but it's not for them.
You're never safe, so it's not for them.
You're never safe, so you sing—
the brightest little thing
to be seen in the dark
if there were light to see by.
But there's no light.
So you sing.
Stephen Berry currently makes a living designing and installing gardens in the Bay Area. Before that, he dropped out of his Masters program in Comparative Lit. Before that, he went to UC Santa Cruz, and before that he grew up in the foothills of the Sierras, in a wee little mountain town called Sonora. His focus when writing has grown to include a heavier focus on the sounds and rhythms of language, and an attempt at capturing the immediacy of a moment. Current influences include poets such as Duane Locke (and he's not even dead yet!!), the ever present Osip Mandelshtam, Tu Fu, Dickinson, Longfellow, and the largely (and sadly) unknown SF Renaissance balladeer Helen Adam. When not writing, he's generally roasting in the sun, weeding, working on his backyard, driving around in his little red truck to pick up plants, or trying to look professional in a nice button up shirt.
Saturday, October 21, 2006, 7:30 PM. Group Feature: Reading and Book-signing of What I Want from You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets, edited by Linda Zeiser and Trena Machado, published by RAW ArT PRESS, at the Laurel Bookstore, 4100 MacArthur Blvd (corner of 39th Ave.), Oakland, CA 94619, (510) 531-2073.
I'll be reading my work from the book along with other contributors and the editor. Come celebrate in this delightful independent bookstore in my neighborhood. Refreshments will be served.
Directions: From the 580 Freeway south, take the 35th Ave. exit and turn left onto 35th Ave. Go across the freeway and a couple of blocks to MacArthur. Turn right on MacArthur and go a few blocks; the bookstore will be on your left across from the Albertson's. From the 580 Freeway north, take the High Street exit. Follow the signs onto MacArthur; the bookstore will be on your right across from the Albertson's. From Route 13 south, take the Redwood Road exit. Turn right on Redwood Road and follow to MacArthur. Turn left on MacArthur and go a few blocks; the bookstore will be on your left across from the Albertson's. From MacArthur, take the 57 bus and get off at 39th Avenue. From the Fruitvale BART station, take the 54 bus to MacArthur and walk 4-5 blocks east.
Saturday, October 7, 2006, 12 noon to 4 PM. I'll be reading my poem “Haditha,” which won a third prize in this year's Artists Embassy International's Dancing Poetry Contest, at the Annual Dancing Poetry Festival at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Florence Gould Theatre, Lincoln Park, 100 34th Avenue at Clement Street, San Francisco, California. International and local dance companies will be performing dances, some of them choreographed to grand-prize-winning poems. Tickets can be ordered at www.dancingpoetry.org.
Wildsang
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006. BOOK LAUNCH with blues duo WILDSANG plus Group Feature of contributors to the anthology What I Want from You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets (RAW ArT PRESS), at the Works in Progress poetry open mic, FOR WOMEN ONLY, at the Montclair Women's Cultural Center. Hosted by the book's editor Linda Zeiser.
WILDSANG, a finalist for Best Blues Song in the Independent Music Awards in 2005, is the feminist country roots blues duo Hillary Kay and Kate Freeman. I'll be performing my poems “Jane's Ark,” “Daddy's Little Girl” and “Hard as Nails” along with other contributors to Linda Zeiser's smashing new anthology of local lesbian poetry.
Admission is $5 (for performers and audience alike). Delicious light refreshments are included. For more information call Linda at (510) 276-0379 or e-mail her at ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com.
7:30 PM, Montclair Women's Cultural Center, 1650 Mountain Blvd. in Montclair (Oakland, CA)
Patricia Edith
Monday, October 2, 2006, at 7 PM. Co-feature with Patricia Edith plus open mic at The Last Word at Pegasus Books Downtown, hosted by Dale Jensen, Tim Donnelly and Diana Quartermaine. 2349 Shattuck Ave. (corner of Durant), Berkeley, CA, 510-649-1320. Free!
Patricia Edith's book, THE COMMUTE, an extended 26-part poem, has just been published. Her poetry has appeared in: The Birmingham Poetry Review, Calyx, The Minnesota Review, Sonoma Mandala, and Poetry East among others. She was a founding member of Seeing Out Loud, a group that met in Bay Area Museums and wrote in response to the work on display. She's been nominated for a Pushcart Award and been awarded residencies at Ucross Foundation in Wyoming and at Ragdale Foundation in Illinois as well as a grant from the Barbara Demming Foundation. Her chapbook “The Modern Office” was published by Redfruit Press in 1998. She currently directs the literary arts programs at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda, CA. where she lives with her dog, Shakti Goldman.
STRINGING
by Patricia Edith
The moon tonight sliced like a split pill,
like 50 mg instead of 100, the remaining half
glued against the sodalite sky. Under its beam
shining through my window, I plan a necklace
of my mother's charms and pearls, lockets
and lapis lazuli and an old clasp, a long linked
cable chain across the span of us and tonight,
like a bridge tender, I lubricate each joint.
Inside of me a stretched space to hold what I possess —
the speedy molecules of my father
and the solidified carbon, oxygen and chrome
of my mother and what she held of her mother,
the past and what progress has altered or destroyed
layered like a rock crystal and what we've designed
to correct the problems caused by what we've designed,
how we connect here to there and my required solitude
next to the necessity to connect and my depression
like a dark stone placed next to a lighter one
and then one lighter than that on the graduated strand.
At the open mic, Linda Zeiser will sneak preview her new anthology What I Want from You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets (RAW ArT PRESS). If you have a poem in the anthology, hope you'll come to read it at the open mic (as time allows). Sign-up 6:30 to 7.
Friday, September 22, 2006, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Featured reader at Oakland S.O.U.P. (Sing, Open Up, and Poetize) hosted by Paula Farkas and Selene Steese with open mic at the Temescal Café. The Temescal Café is a lovely space with lots of room for poets and poetry fans, microphone and piano available. Their menu features great food, including salads, sandwiches, smoothies, and (of course) soup—the kind you eat from a bowl! They also serve coffee, tea, fruit juice, and wine to go with your meal. For more info e-mail selene@matchlessgoddess.com. 4920 Telegraph Ave. (at 50th St.), Oakland.
Sunday, August 27, 2006, at 1 PM. I'll be one of the featured readers at Tea and Poetry at Perennial Pleasures Nursery and Tea Garden. Event organized by Merry Gangemi.
Enjoy fine poetry and prose in a garden setting during an English Cream Tea including cucumber-and-herb sandwiches and scones with whipped cream and jam, and a choice of 30 varieties of tea (or coffee).
Readers will include:
Alas, due to physical limitations I won't be able to participate in this wonderful Vermont reading this year with my very talented friends and Woman-Stirred colleagues Merry Gangemi and Julie Enszer. If you're in the area, I highly recommend that you go anyway. See you there next year! —Jan
Monday, August 7, 2006, at 7 PM. Feature with open mic at Poetry Express, hosted by Mark States, Nance Wogan and Jim Barnard. Priya Indian Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. (near University Ave.), Berkeley, CA. 510-644-3977. Ask for special seating for poetry reading; 20% off dinner.
Diane Frank
Thursday, July 20, 2006, at 7 PM. Co-feature with Diane Frank plus open mic at WORD BEAT, hosted by Debra Grace Khattab, David Gollub and Jeremy Siegel. Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. (near Dwight Way), Berkeley, CA, 510-549-1128.
Directions: If you are on an AC Transit bus, take either the 40 or 40L bus to Telegraph & Dwight Way — the Med is just down the block towards campus. Alternatively, take the 51 bus to Durant & Telegraph and walk a few blocks south to the Med. If you are driving, get off on the Ashby exit from 580/80 (they run together right there). Head east on Ashby towards the hills. When you get to Telegraph Ave. (there is a Chevron on one corner and Whole Foods and a Flower Stand on the other), take a left and head north towards UC Berkeley. When you get to Dwight Way and Telegraph Ave. (there is a Krishna Copy on one corner and Shakespeare's bookstore on another corner), the Med or Mediterraneum Caffe is halfway down the block.
Cover image by Tristram Wolff / flyer designed by Terry Lim
Saturday, June 17, 2006, 2-4 PM. The Underwater Hospital: Poetry by Jan Steckel, MD plus open mic at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, in the Lakeshore district near Lake Merritt in Oakland. 510-238-7344. Pulitzer-Prize-nominated writer, author of FRENCH KISS DESTINY and editor of the BAY AREA POETS SEASONAL REVIEW Marvin R. Hiemstra will MC the open mic. Refreshments will be served. Free! (And free 4-hour parking as marked under the freeway across from the library.)
Marvin R. Hiemstra, Your Open Mic Host
Germ Theory
By Anneli Rufus
Oral abscesses, senility, babies born with syphilis — a doctor's
world isn't all cheery boil-lancing and flu vaccines, as
Pushcart-nominated Oakland pediatrician Jan Steckel reveals in
Underwater Hospital, her chapbook of poems probing the sadder
scenes seen from behind the surgical mask. At the Oakland Public
Library's Lakeview Branch, Steckel muses about patients who didn't
make it. Amputations are a hard act to follow, but an open mic
ensues. 2 p.m. (poet signups at 1:45). Sat., June 17, 1:45 p.m.,
free. Oakland Public Library, Lakeview Branch, 550 El Embarcadero,
Oakland, 510-238-7344, http://www.oaklandlibrary.org.
[East Bay Express Online, in Literary Events]
Sunday, June 4, 2006, 7-9 PM. Co-feature with Susan Birkeland plus open mic at Sweetie's in San Francisco. Susan will read from her new Zeitgeist Press chapbook The Bruised Angels' Almanac, while Jan will read from her new chapbook The Underwater Hospital, recently published by the same small press. Flying in from Las Vegas to introduce both authors will be Zeitgeist publisher Bruce Isaacson, author of Ghosts Among the Neon. Sweetie's Bar and Cafe, 475 Francisco (between Mason and Powell), San Francisco, CA, 415-433-2343, wheelchair accessible, FREE.
Saturday, May 20, 2006, 5:00 to 6:00 PM. Launch Party (Reading and Book-signing) of The Underwater Hospital at the Laurel Bookstore, 4100 MacArthur Blvd (corner of 39th Ave.), Oakland, CA 94619, (510) 531-2073. Come celebrate with me in this delightful independent bookstore in my neighborhood. Refreshments will be served.
Directions: From the 580 Freeway south, take the 35th Ave. exit and turn left onto 35th Ave. Go across the freeway and a couple of blocks to MacArthur. Turn right on MacArthur and go a few blocks; the bookstore will be on your left across from the Albertson's. From the 580 freeway north, take the High Street exit. Follow the signs onto MacArthur; the bookstore will be on your right across from the Albertson's. From Route 13 south, take the Redwood Road exit. Turn right on Redwood Road and follow to MacArthur. Turn left on MacArthur and go a few blocks; the bookstore will be on your left across from the Albertson's. From MacArthur, take the 57 bus and get off at 39th Avenue. From the Fruitvale BART station, take the 54 bus to MacArthur and walk 4-5 blocks east.
I'll read poems from my new chapbook, The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press), on Woman-Stirred Radio, a literary GLBTQ radio show. I'll read and be interviewed by host Merry Gangemi, on Thursday, April 27 (1:30 PM PST, 4:30 PM EST), on WGDR Radio out of Goddard College, 91.1 FM if you're in Vermont. Elsewhere, listen to it streaming live on the Internet at www.wgdr.org.
Thursday, April 6, 2006 at 7:00 PM. Featured Reader at First Thursdays Poetry Series at the Albany Library. Hosted by poet and teacher Toby Bielawski, MFA. Enjoy exquisite cookies baked by former series organizer Julie Winkelstein. Bring your own poetry to read at the open mic afterward (sign up by 7:00 PM).
First Thursdays Poetry Series Featuring Jan Steckel Thursday, April 6, 2006, 7:00-9:00 PM Edith Stone Room Albany Library 1247 Marin Ave. (corner of Masonic) Albany, CA 510-527-3720Tuesday, March 7, 2006. Featured reader at the Works in Progress poetry open mic, FOR WOMEN ONLY, at the Montclair Women's Cultural Center. Hosted by local poet Linda Zeiser, editor of the anthology What I Want from You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets (RAW ArT PRESS). Admission is $5 (for performers and audience alike). Delicious light refreshments are included. Bring 5 minutes of your own work to perform before a friendly, supportive female audience. For more information, or for early sign-up, call Linda at (510) 276-0379 or e-mail her at ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com.
7:30 PM (open mic sign-up 7:00 to 7:20) Montclair Women's Cultural Center 1650 Mountain Blvd. in Montclair (Oakland, CA)
Erika Mailman, Editor
Saturday, November 19, 2005, 2-3 PM. Launch party for Oakland's Neighborhoods at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, in the Lakeshore district near Lake Merritt in Oakland. 510-238-7344. Free!
Oakland's Neigborhoods, edited by Erika Mailman, contains my poem “35th Avenue Ladybug” as well as work by Chokwadi, Mark States, and other Oakland literary luminaries. The book contains brief histories of all the neighborhoods, maps to assist you in locating those 'hoods, wonderful historic photographs, and creative writing by residents about their neighborhoods. It was made possible by a grant from the city of Oakland's Craft and Cultural Arts Department and the assistance of the Oakland History Room of the Oakland Public Library. Featured readers at the event will be Gary Turchin and Chokwadi, whose work appears in the book. Oakland's Neighborhoods will be for sale at the event and thereafter at local bookstores.
Tuesday, October 4, 2005, at 7:30 PM. Joint Feature with Hew Wolff plus open mic at Poetry Diversified, "where sound meets song meets word meets poetry," hosted by Mark G., Muteado and Chokwadi, World Ground Café, 3726 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA, 510-482-2933.
The World Ground Café is near where 35th Ave. and MacArthur Blvd. meet, next door to KFC. Bus Lines: 44 (38th Ave.), 54 (35th Ave.), 57 and 58 (MacArthur Blvd.). BART EXIT: Fruitvale Station then take the 44 or 54 up to MacArthur.
Debra Grace Khattab
(photo by Leah Steinberg)
Thursday, September 8, 2005, at 7 PM. Co-feature with Debra Grace Khattab plus open mic at WORD BEAT, hosted by Debra Grace Khattab, David Gollub and Jeremy Siegel. Debra will read her poetry and I will read short, funny and slightly raunchy prose, so there will be something for everybody! Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. (near Dwight Way), Berkeley, CA, 510-549-1128.
Directions: If you are on an AC Transit bus, take either the 40 or 40L bus to Telegraph & Dwight Way — the Med is just down the block towards campus. Alternatively, take the 51 bus to Durant & Telegraph and walk a few blocks south to the Med. If you are driving, get off on the Ashby exit from 580/80 (they run together right there). Head east on Ashby towards the hills. When you get to Telegraph Ave. (there is a Chevron on one corner and Whole Foods and a Flower Stand on the other), take a left and head north towards UC Berkeley. When you get to Dwight Way and Telegraph Ave. (there is a Krishna Copy on one corner and Shakespeare's bookstore on another corner), the Med or Mediterraneum Caffe is halfway down the block.
(click an image to see it full-size; photos by Leah Steinberg)
Saturday, August 27, 2005, at 7 PM. Feature with open mic at Rhythm and Muse, hosted by Eliza Shefler and Hassaun Ali Jones-Bey. Open mic sign-up at 6:30 PM. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. (between Eunice St. and Rose St.), Berkeley, CA, 510-644-6893. For more info: 510-527-9753. Click here for directions and map.
Come enjoy an evening of poetry, art and live music in this small art museum with amazing acoustics! Bring poetry or music of your own to perform, and be sure to get there early to view the paintings and sculptures on display. Piano and 2 mics available. Admission free, donations appreciated.
Friday, July 8, 2005, at 10:30 AM. LIVE RADIO BROADCAST. Repeated Friday, July 8 at 6:00 PM; Sunday, July 10 at 10:30 AM; and Tuesday, July 12 at 6:30 AM. A poem of mine (“On a Reading in an Indian Restaurant”) will be read aloud by San Francisco poet and radio show host Stephen Kopel on his weekly half-hour-long show “Poetry Scene.” Hear it live on the internet at http://www.lighthouse-sf.org/audio/streaming.php.
Poetry Scene. Want something cerebral, chewy, yet totally palatable to accompany your Friday morning coffee, juice or milk? AIS Radio now presents “Poetry Scene.” The show's lively host, Stephen Kopel, is S.F.'s “pedaling poet” and a long-time city resident. He writes: “As a published poet, author and café reader, I've enjoyed several successes in a few short years. It feels wonderful to give something back to the city we all love.” Kopel reads poetry by acclaimed writers such as Jack Hirschman, Jane Hirshfield, Kay Ryan, Paul Hoover, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who reside right here in the Bay Area.
AIS Radio. The LightHouse Access to Information Services (AIS) is a reading service that broadcasts throughout the Bay Area and beyond via the second audio program (SAP) of KTVU Television Channel 2. They are also heard live on the internet at http://www.lighthouse-sf.org/audio/streaming.php.
Monday, June 13, 2005, at 7 PM. Feature with open mic at Poetry Express, hosted by Mark States, Nance Wogan and Jim Barnard. Priya Indian Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. (near University Ave.), Berkeley, CA. 510-644-3977. Ask for special seating for poetry reading; 20% off dinner.
Monday, May 2, 2005, at 7 PM. Co-feature with Marvin R. Hiemstra plus open mic at The Last Word at Pegasus Books Downtown, hosted by Randy Fingland, Dale Jensen and Tim Donnelly. 2349 Shattuck Ave. (corner of Durant), Berkeley, CA, 510-649-1320. Free!
Marvin R. Hiemstra, editor of the Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review, has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in poetry. A performance poet, humorist, and piano teacher, Marv is author of seven poetry collections and books and essays about writing craft and Dutch history. Information: drollmarv@aol.com.
Saturday, March 19, 2005, 2-4 PM. Prose Feature plus a rare Prose Open Mic at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, in the Lakeshore district near Lake Merritt in Oakland. 510-238-7344. Bring 7 minutes of your own fiction or nonfiction to read. Free! (And free 4-hour parking as marked under the freeway across from the library.)
Thursday, January 20, 2005, at 7 PM. Joint Feature with Hew Wolff plus open mic at WORD BEAT, hosted by Debra Grace Khattab, David Gollub and Jeremy Siegel, Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. (near Dwight Way), Berkeley, CA, 510-549-1128.
Monday, December 6, 2004, 6 PM to 9 PM. WoW! Art Salon: an evening of my poetry and prose and Gerard Dunphy's sculpture, with open mic, at Café Arrivederci (an Italian Restaurant), 11 G Street (near 2nd Street), San Rafael, CA, 415-453-6427.
WoW! Art Salons is a regular Monday-night open mic in which both a visual and a performing artist is featured at the Café Arrivederci, an Italian restaurant in San Rafael. Those featured give their presentations to an audience of friends and fellow artists and performers, who meanwhile have ordered food and wine to increase the conviviality. Art promoter Angar Mora emcees the featured performances and the open mic, encouraging spectators to contribute views and ideas of their own about the art on show.
To arrange guaranteed reservations for the show, call Angar Mora (rather than the main restaurant line) before 3 PM Monday at 415-897-7313. Guaranteeing a seat for arrival before 6 PM requires a cash prepayment of the $7.00 minimum. Open seating after 6 PM.
Tuesday, October 5, 2004, at 7:30 PM. Solo Feature (plus open mic) at Poetry Diversified, “where sound meets song meets word meets poetry,” hosted by Mark G., Muteado and Chokwadi, World Ground Café, 3726 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA, 510-482-2933.
Saturday, October 2, 2004, 12 noon to 4 PM. I'll be reading my poem “Abuelita (Grandmother)”, which won third prize in this year's Artists Embassy International's Dancing Poetry Contest, at the 11th Annual Dancing Poetry Festival at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Florence Gould Theatre, Lincoln Park, 100 34th Avenue at Clement Street, San Francisco, California. A dozen international and local dance companies and solo artists will be performing dances, some of them choreographed to grand-prize-winning poems. Price of the ticket ($15 for adults, $12 for seniors, $8 for students and youth 12-17, and $4 for children under 12) includes admission to the art museum. Tickets can be ordered at www.dancingpoetry.org or from Artists Embassy International at 415-681-0614.
Tuesday, September 7, 2004, at 7:30 PM. My husband, Hew Wolff, will perform his first full-length solo poetry feature (plus open mic) at Poetry Diversified, hosted by Mark G., Muteado and Chokwadi, World Ground Café, 3726 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA, 510-482-2933. Hew delivers all his lovely formal poetry by memory; read some of it here.
Friday, March 26, 2004. Featured reader in the “Take a Poem from Your Heart” poetry series. 7:00 PM to 9:15 PM at Lottie Motts Coffee Shop, 4900 Rainier Ave. S, Seattle, WA 98118. The event includes an open mic: sign-up at 6:50 PM.
Thursday, October 2, 2003 at 7:00 PM. Featured Reader of my fiction and creative nonfiction at First Thursdays Poetry Series at the Albany Library. I will read 40 minutes of my short stories, to be followed by an open mic for prose. Enjoy exquisite cookies baked by series organizer, librarian and Albany Journal columnist Julie Winkelstein. Bring five minutes of your own fiction or creative nonfiction to read at the open mic afterward (sign up at 7:00 PM).
Prose Night Open Mic Featuring Jan Steckel Thursday, October 2, 2003, 7:00-9:00 PM Edith Stone Room Albany Library 1247 Marin Ave. (corner of Masonic) Albany, CA 510-527-3720Saturday, September 27, 2003, at 8:00 PM. Featured reader at the Perverts Put Out erotica salon, 848 Community Space, 848 Divisadero, San Francisco, CA. Sponsored by Black Books publishing.
From the Black Books web site:
“Another installment of this long-running and ever-popular literary smut-salon! Always humorous, irreverent, and fun. Come experience the cutting edge of erotic fiction, with presentations by local writers including Carol Queen, Bill Brent, Simon Sheppard, horehound stillpoint and Jan Steckel.”
Monday, August 11, 2003 at 7:00 PM. Group Feature at Poetry Express at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.(near University Ave.), Berkeley, CA, 510-644-3977. Featuring participants in Mark States' Public Speaking for Poets Workshop at the Berkeley Arts Center: Chokwadi, Diana Quartermaine, Indigo, Selene Steese, Susan Field and Jan Steckel.
Saturday, August 2, 2003 at 7:30 PM. Group Feature at Boadecia's Books, 398 Colusa Avenue, Kensington, CA, 510-559-9184. Check the Boadecia's Books web site at www.bookpride.com for directions to store and more information:
“Poetry reading with students of Cat Ruiz's Poetry Performance Workshop. Come hear some fine poets read their work. This event is free, and everyone is welcome.”
Readers will include Cat Ruiz, Hew Wolff, Arlene Merryman, Diana Quartermaine and Jan Steckel.
Saturday, August 2, 2003 at 6:00 PM. Poetry Performance Workshop by widely published Seattle poet, writing teacher and poetry reading organizer Cat Ruiz, at Boadecia's Books, 398 Colusa Avenue, Kensington, CA, 510-559-9184.
Be a Featured Reader! All participants in the workshop may read their poetry if they wish in a public performance at the bookstore at 7:30 PM the same evening. Check the Boadecia's Books web site at www.bookpride.com for directions to store and more information.
Fee for workshop: $15
From the Boadecia's Books web site: “Cat Ruiz presents a workshop designed to help poets read their work at open mikes and readings. She will discuss presentation skills and give feedback. Attendees should bring some of their poetry, since a public reading follows.”
Cat Ruiz is a Seattle-based poet-teacher, who has written, published and presented her poetry for over ten years. She has a MA in the Humanities with a focus on Poetics and teaches in Washington State. For further information, contact Cat at clruiz2001@yahoo.com.
Saturday, July 26, 2003, at 8:00 PM. Featured reader of my short story “Debbie Does Salad” from Clean Sheets online literary erotica magazine at the Perverts Put Out erotica salon, 848 Community Space, 848 Divisadero, San Francisco, CA. Sponsored by Black Books publishing.
From the Black Books web site:
“Another installment of this long-running and ever-popular literary smut-salon! Always humorous, irreverent, and fun. Come experience the cutting edge of erotic fiction, with presentations by local and visiting writer/performers including Bill Brent, Charlie Anders, Simon Sheppard, M. Christian, and Jan Steckel.”
Saturday, June 14, 2003, at 3 PM. Featured reader of my poems from the anthology WomanPrayers at BookSmart, 17145 S. Monterey Rd. at 2nd St., Morgan Hill, CA, 408-778-6467. Map at www.mybooksmart.com. See Saturday, May 17 calendar entry for further details.
Saturday, May 17, 2003, at 7:30 PM. Featured reader of anthology WomanPrayers (HarperSF) edited by Mary Ford-Grabowsky. I will read my contributions to the anthology along with five other local contributors to the book, and the editor will speak and sign copies. Other readers are Janine Canan, Christina Hutchins, Stephanie Marohn, Betty McAfee, and Dorothy Walters. Free, with refreshments served. Boadecia's Books, 398 Colusa Avenue, Kensington, CA, 510-559-9184. Directions at www.bookpride.com.
FOR MORE ABOUT THE READING AND WOMANPRAYERS, CLICK HERE.
Thursday, February 20, 2003. Featured reader in the Take A Poem Into Your Heart poetry series. Lottie Motts Coffee Shop, 4900 Rainier Ave. S, Seattle.