Seattle Poetry Event: Sonya Renee Taylor & A Little Truth on Your Shirt

Condor Book Tours presents:

Award-Winning Performance Poet & Social Activist 

Sonya Renee Taylor 

to Visit Seattle in Honor of Women's History Month

Seattle Poetry SLAM * Seattle Central Community College Women in Society * Elliot Bay Book Company 

 March 1 & 2

Sonya Renee Taylor, easily one of the most distinguished, accomplished, and recognizable women in the world of Performance Poetry, will be performing in several events in the Seattle area on Tuesday, March 1^st and Wednesday, March 2^nd.

Sonya Renee Taylor will kick off her Seattle tour as featured poet at Seattle Poetry SLAM Tuesday, March 1, 2011 from 8:30pm-10pm at the Rebar.

On Wednesday March 2^nd, Sonya Renee will be the guest lecturer at Seattle Central Community College’s Women in Society Lecture Series. This is a free event and open to the public, and is scheduled in conjunction with the 3^rd annual Free Women’s Health Fair at SCCC. Sonya Renee’s presentation will take place in BE-1110 from 12:00-1:50pm. The health fair runs from 9am to 2pm.

On Wednesday evening, Sonya Renee will give a reading of her poetry book, A Little Truth on Your Shirt (Girlchild Press, 2010) at Elliot Bay Book Company. The reading will take place from 5pm-6pm followed by a book-signing event.  

About Sonya Renee Taylor

After a meteoric rise to super-stardom in Spoken Word in 2004, Sonya has redefined the role and impact of women in performance poetry. Her recently released debut poetry book, A Little Truth on Your Shirt (GirlChild Press, 2010), incorporates a few of her performance pieces with new poems written for the page, with the same commitment to her roots as a humanitarian and social justice activist. 

Sonya’s poetry has been translated into multiple languages, used as curriculum in universities across the country and abroad, and as a tool for community and national action for organizations such as the Black AIDS Institute, HIV Campus Education, and Gloria Steinem’s reproductive rights organization, Choice USA. 

Sonya Renee has also seen commercial success with appearances on HBO, Oxygen Network, BET, CNN, and MTV. To learn more about Sonya Renee, please visit her online EPK.

Check out Sonya performing Still Life, one of my favorite of Sonya's poems:

  



Please support our local indie book stores--come out to the Elliot Bay reading on Wed March 2nd 5pm!!!

eSe Teatro: Seattle Latinos Take Stage, and The Central Heating Lab at ACT present "Passport"

Saturday February 26 and Saturday March 5th

eSe Teatro: Seattle Latinos Take Stage

present Gustavo Ott's "Passport"

 

One Play, Two Languages, Four Actors.  No Theater Ensemble Has Ever Attempted a Bilingual Presentation Like This.

eSe Teatro and The Central Heating Lab: on the Cutting Edge.

eSe Teatro: Seattle Latinos Take Stage, and The Central Heating Lab at ACT present a staged reading of Venezuelan Playwright Gustavo Ott’s dramatic piece entitled, Passport. 

Translated by Heather L McKay, directed by Arlene Martinez-Vickers, Passport will be performed bilingually (Spanish/English).

In this staged reading performed in Spanish/English, Eugene finds himself falsely imprisoned in a foreign country, surrounded by a language he can’t understand. His search for answers becomes a desperate journey to comprehend beyond language and cultural barriers.

En un país extraño con un idioma que él no entiende, un simple malentendido lleva a la detención de Eugenio. Una búsqueda por respuestas se convierte en un intento desesperado de comprender, a pesar de las barreras de idioma y cultural. 

The cast includes: Erwin Galan, Michael Blum, Gerald Alejandro Ford and Meg Savlov.

Gustavo Ott, playwright, screenwriter, novelist and director  has received many international awards.  

Passport responds to eSe Teatro’s mission to present contemporary pieces that represent the Latino experience to Seattle audiences, in English and/or Spanish.

Saturday, February 26 7:30pm at A Contemporary Theater (ACT)

Admission $5.00
7th Ave & Union St in Downtown Seattle.

In conjunction with The Central Heating Lab at ACT

Pre-purchase Tickets

Saturday, March 5, 2pm at Burien Little Theatre followed by a panel discussion on immigration, 

Admission $5.00

437 Southwest 144th Street Burien, WA

hosted by Latinos for Community Transformation.

eSe Teatro’s mission is to empower local Latino artists to generate, produce, present, and promote Latino theater, including bilingual, Spanglish and Spanish-speaking theater.” “eSe Teatro” is a collective of professionally trained local Latino theatre artists actively providing a creative home for Latino Artists to explore their craft.

For more information / Para más información: www.eseteatro.org or by email

Upcoming Poetry Event--Seattle

Photographic Letters: An afternoon of poetry.

A reading of new work by author Eugenia Toledo.

 

Seattle Public Library, Downtown.

Saturday - January 15^th, 2011

2 pm – 4 pm

Level 4, Room 2

 

Over the past two years, Eugenia Toledo has been working on a poetic project titled "Photographic Letters."  Her poems have been inspired and based upon the theme of: The Life of Latino People in the Northwest. This project follows the photographic work of the documentary photographer Hugo Ludeña. 

During the creation of this work, Toledo has applied the poetic process called "Ekphrastic Poetry." An Ekphrastic process begins with inspiration from another piece of artwork. In “Photographic Letters” the poems are written response to the images.  

 

The project has been supported by 2010 City Artist Project program from the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

Eugenia Toledo, a native from Temuco – Chile, has a Ph.D. in Latin American and Spanish Literature from the University of Washington. Most of her work is a result of research and collective experience. 

 

She has an unpublished book called Map Traces, and two published books of poetry called Arquitectura de Ausencias (Architecture of Absences) and Tiempo de metales y volcanes (Time of Metals and Volcanoes).

 

This presentation at the Seattle Public Library will be a bilingual reading with the assistance of translators Susan Sola and Anne Greeott.

 

Read some of Eugenia Toledo's poetry in Spanish or English

 

For more information about the event, please visit: www.eugeniatoledo.com

 

 

This project supported by the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs thru:

2010 CityArtist Project 

Eugenia Toledo

Cyber Monday Book Buying Event: Buy Books Win Big!!

LATINO BUSINESSES COME TOGETHER TO SUPPORT LATINO AUTHORS IN BOOK BUYING EVENT

 

On Cyber Monday November 29^th Latino artists and businesses are coming together to encourage shoppers to buy books from Latino authors as gifts for the holidays.

Nilki Benitez Communications (NBComm) is hosting a one-day book-buying event at their book publicity service website Condor Book Tours (http://condorbooktours.com) 

Partnering with Latino owned and operated businesses such as graphic designer Rafael Esquer’s http://alfalfa-seeds.com and Kathy Cano-Murillo’s http://CraftyChica.com, NBComm will offer incentives for shoppers to buy a minimum of two (2) books from Latino authors.

Shoppers who purchase at least two (2) books from Condor Book Tours’ Amazon affiliate store Condor Books http://condorbooktours.com/index.php?pr=BookStore and send a proof of purchase via email to info@condorbooktours.com will be entered to win an autographed copy of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Oscar Hijuelo’s latest novel, Beautiful Maria of My Soul.

In addition to the grandprize, the first 5 shoppers to send a proof of purchase of a minimum of two (2) books will win a CD from the Afro-Cuban Miami-based band, Palo! The first 10 shoppers will receive gifts from CraftyChica.com and the first 25 shoppers will receive 40% discount coupons to alfalfa-seeds.com. There will also be random gift giveaways to shoppers with qualifying purchases. 

In order to qualify for prizes and giveaways, shoppers must be residents of the United States, must have purchased a minimum of 2 books through Condor Book Tours’ Amazon store, Condor Books, and purchases must be made between 12am and 11:59pm Pacific time November 29^th.

Condor Books is an Amazon affiliate store. All commissions earned through sales made through Condor Books year-round are donated annually to an organization supporting Literacy in the Americas.

Check out more details for this awesome event by visiting:
http://condorbooktours.com/index.php?pr=Holiday_Book_Event


Here's the link to buy books on Cyber Monday:
http://condorbooktours.com/index.php?pr=BookStore

Hope to see you there!!

NBComm is a consulting business specializing in publicity, new media, and written content for artists and authors.

 

Reading of Joyce Carol Oates' I Stand Before You Naked to benefit Safe Horizon

photo credit chrisfelver.com

On Sunday November 28th, John Jay College in New York City will host a special reading of Joyce Carol Oates' I Stand Before You Naked to raise funds for the nonprofit organization Safe Horizons.

Safe Horizons is the largest victims’ services agency in the United States, with more than 60 locations serving more than 250,000 children, adults, and families affected by crime and abuse throughout New York City each year. Safe Horizon provides support to victims of domestic violence, child abuse, human trafficking, rape and sexual assault, homeless youth and families of homicide victims.

About the Event (from Safe Horizons):


Spend an evening with award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates for a special reading of I Stand Before You Naked, to benefit Safe Horizon, at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College in New York City on Sunday, November 28th.



I Stand Before You Naked explores the lives of "women oppressed by their husbands, their lovers, and themselves – a searing look at misplaced love, infidelity, prostitution, and the primal desire to be loved."

The reading, directed by Bill Connington, stars Tony-nominated actress Stephanie D’Abruzzo (Avenue Q, It Must Be Him). Joyce Carol Oates will join faculty experts from John Jay College in a free panel discussion on the oppression of women at 5:30 to 6:30.

Tickets for the I Stand Before You Naked performance are $20 to $30 and post-show reception tickets are available for $35. All proceeds will benefit Safe Horizon.

Purchase I Stand Before You Naked tickets today!
By Phone: 212.352.3101
Online: Go to https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/789025



Venue: The Gerald Lynch Theater, John Jay College of Criminal Justice - City University of New York, 899 10th Avenue (between 58th and 59th Streets), New York, NY.

Born in the USA: Writing Contest Submission Alert for Writers in WA, OR, ID, & MT

 photo credit culture mob

Seattle's Richard Hugo House is a thriving center for literary arts that supports the creation of new works. 

Their mission is to provide writers with resources, and to "connect audiences with the world of writing, foster the creation of new work and promote the literary arts as a vital part of our culture."

As part of their Hugo Literary Series, a program devoted entirely to commissioned new works, the Hugo House is currently accepting previously unpublished poems, short stories, personal essays or plays for their New Works Competition. 

About the New Works competition from Richard Hugo House:

As part of the Hugo Literary Series, Richard Hugo House seeks previously unpublished poems, short stories, personal essays or plays, of no more than 1500 words.

The theme is Born in the U.S.A., and the winner will receive $500, publication in City Arts Magazine and an invitation to read at the final Hugo Literary Series event on March 18, 2011 alongside authors Alan Chong Lau, Victor LaValle and Debra Magpie Earling.  

Entries must be received by January 10, 2011.

The theme: All manuscripts must reflect the theme, Born in the U.S.A., using the prompt below as a jumping point:

Since the birth of our nation, we’ve grappled with the uncomfortable question of who gets to be American and why. My ancestors came over on the Mayflower; yours made the “middle passage” on a slave ship. Your grandparents were interned in a prison camp during WWII; you serve in the U.S. Army today. My older sister can be deported because she was born before our parents crossed the border, but I’m a citizen because I was born here. Our declaration says all men are created equal; our pledge to the flag says we are one nation, indivisible—so why do so many of us still hyphenate our nationality?  Whether you were born in Sarah Palin’s “real America,” The Daily Show’s “fake America” or somewhere in between, what does being American mean to you?

Submission Format: Five copies of the manuscript typed, double-spaced, pages numbered, in 12-point standard font. No name of author on entries; include cover page with name, address, phone, email, entry titles and genres. One cover page is sufficient for the five copies of your entry. SASE #10 for notification and SASE with sufficient postage if you would like manuscript returned.

Entry restrictions: The New Works Competitions are only open to residents of Washington state, Oregon, Idaho or Montana.

Entry fee: $10.00.
Submissions may be sent to Richard Hugo House, c/o New Works Competition, 1634 11th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122.

*********
Even if you don't enter the contest, this is a great writing prompt. Let me know if you decide to use Born in the USA as a prompt. I wrote a poem inspired by the facebook group Poets Responding to SB1070 that I'm thinking of polishing into shape to submit...what will you submit?

Now Accepting Submissions Alert: (and this one's for a great cause!)

The anthology A Bowl of Bread: Poetry of Community is currently accepting submissions, deadline November 30, 2010.

Clare House of Hospitality. Bloomington, Illinois 

(photo credit: Shae Davidson)

A Bowl of Bread: Poetry of Community will explore the ideas of community and hospitality, tracing the ways in which sharing and shared experience draw us out of ourselves and build a deeper, more nuanced society.

Proceeds from A Bowl of Bread will benefit Clare House of Hospitality, a central Illinois Catholic Worker house that offers a food pantry and soup kitchen and works to strengthen community life by encouraging service and nurturing radical openness.

Clare House is currently seeking submissions from a broad range of contributors, including new poets and established authors as well as voices from central Illinois and people from farther afield. The range of perspectives will help create a richer picture of the anthology's central theme.

Anyone interested in contributing should send up to three poems, roughly ten to fifty lines each, along with a biography of up to twenty words.

Please send submissions in the body of an email (no attachments!) before 30 November 2010 to:

bowlofbreadATpeacemailDOTcom
or
shae.davidsonATgmailDOTcom

To learn more about A Bowl of Bread: Poetry of Community, check out our Q&A with Shae Davidson, Project Director:


Shae, how did this project develop?

The idea for the project first started to take shape while I was reading Poets for Peace, the anthology edited by Timothy Crowley. Inspired by the work of Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, Crowley had started working with members of the North Carolina Writers' Network to create a collection of "poems for peace," but the project took on broader meaning after the 9/11 attacks. Crowley's collection really made me think of the connection between local social action, community, and creation.

What is your involvement in the project?

I'll be directing the project. My doctoral work in history explored the way shared ideals and notions of community play out in daily life, and helped me put the core idea for the project together. I've published a few collections of poetry and have served as an editor with tinywords. Over the past two years I have been very active in food justice programs in central Illinois, including efforts to make farmers' markets more accessible to lower-income families and finding ways to get more fresh, locally-produced food into emergency food programs. Prior to that, I served as a member of the Creative Synthesis Collaborative, a think that focused on the connection between creativity and community.

Where will the anthology be distributed?

Most of the special events related to the anthology will be held in central Illinois, and the book will be available in stores in the area. You will also be able to find A Bowl of Bread at Amazon.com, and we're hoping that we can make it available through other Catholic Worker communities.

What do you hope this project accomplishes?

Clare House is well known in central Illinois, and residents have been very generous over the years that the house has been open. Hopefully, the anthology helps people think beyond the basic image of a soup kitchen or pantry, though, and leads readers to consider the many ways that the cycle of connection, generosity, and gratitude play out in the community and in their own lives.

*********

If you belong to an organization, such as a Catholic Worker community, like Shae mentions, please contact Shae Davidson to see how you and your organization or group can help distribute the Bowl of Bread anthology so that it can be accessible to a broader audience.

Bags of food ready for distribution to community at Clare House of Hospitality

(photo credit: Shae Davidson)

Free Upcoming Event for Latina Writers!

Thanks to editor extraordinaire Marcela Landres for alerting me to this fascinating author panel and event taking place at the Newark Public Library on November 6, 2010 from 2-4pm featuring women writers, editors, and playwrights of Latin American heritage coming together to debate the benefits and pitfalls of being known as a 'Latina author'. 

Admission is free. No registration is required.

The Ups and Downs of Being a Latina Writer

WHAT: An author panel, Coloring Outside the Identity Lines: The Upside  and Downside of Being a Latina Writer. Admission is free. No registration is required.

WHEN: November 6, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

WHERE: Newark Public Library, 5 Washington Street, Newark, NJ

WHO: Marcela Landres, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Michele Carlo, Raquel
Ortiz, Linda Nieves-Powell, Caridad Pineiro, and Dahlma Llanos
Figueroa. Moderated by: Liz Llorente

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit
http://www.npl.org/Pages/ProgramsExhibits/Exhibits/hhm10.html (then scroll way down)

And while you're there, check out all the other fantastic programs the Newark Public Library is offering to the Latino community! I think they each deserve a post of their own!

Panel Discussion and Presentation of Hispanic New York: A Source Book

The Hispanic New York Project (hosted by Columbia University's Center for American Studies) is proud to present the publication of Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook (Columbia University Press, 2010) edited by Claudio Iván Remeseira with the following event:

HISPANIC NEW YORK AND THE LATINOIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES

Panel Discussion & Presentation of 

Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook 

(Columbia University Press, 2010)

with:

 Paul Berman

Gabriel Haslip-Viera

Milagros Ricourt

Frances Negrón-Muntaner

Virginia Sánchez Korrol

Claudio Iván Remeseira (editor)

 

Moderated by RAY SUAREZ

SEPTEMBER 15, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 pm

 At Columbia University's Davis Auditorium

Morris A. Schapiro Center

530 West 120^th Street

(between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue)

For directions, click here

 

FREE ACCESS – SEATS ARE LIMITED - FIRST COME FIRST SERVED 

In order to ensure a seat, we suggest arriving 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the event

A Reception Will Follow

 

Co-sponsored by Columbia University's

 Center for American Studies

and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race and by The New-York Historical Society

**************************************************************************

Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook

 Edited by Claudio Iván Remeseira (576 pages) paper copies ISBN 978-0-231-14819-1 regular price $29.95

Order it at Columbia University Press and enter code HIS 20 for 20% off discount

   

Cloth copies ISBN 978-0-231-14818-4 regular price $89.50, $71.60 after discount. Regular shipping and handling costs apply. 

About: 

The Hispanic New York Project is hosted by Columbia University's Center for American Studies, whose director is the noted literary critic and scholar Andrew Delbanco.  The main goals of HNYP are to promote the Latino and Latin American cultural heritage of New York City and to serve as a venue for communication and collaboration among writers, artists and intellectuals. 

 

The HNYP is directed by writer and journalist Claudio Iván Remeseira

 

HNYP To learn more about The Hispanic New York Project, please visit http://hispanicnewyorkproject.blogspot.com

From Uphook Press: Hell Strung and Crooked

Our friends at Uphook Press celebrate the release of their 2nd anthology:

hell strung and crooked

Poetry taken to the edge and back round again

Featuring forty-one poets, hell strung and crooked also includes interviews with National Book Award winner Mark Doty, and the Danish writer-performer Claus Ankersen.

Lenore Balliro, Samantha Barrow, Paul M. L. Belanger, Alex O. Bleecker, Meredith Devney, Malaika Favorite, Joseph Fritsch, Christian Georgescu, Robert Gibbons, Thomas Gibney, Deborah Hauser, Suzanne Heagy, Aimee Herman, R. Nemo Hill, Vicki Iorio, Kit Kennedy, Stephen Kopel, David Lawton, Richard Loranger, E. K. Mortenson, Nancy Carol Moody, Puma Perl, John Marcus Powell, Bob Quatrone, Seraphime Rhyianir, Lynn Samsel, Jackie Sheeler, Mary McLaughlin Slechta, Elliot D. Smith, Laura L. Snyder, Francesca Sphynx, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Charles F. Thielman, Andrew Topel, John J. Trause, Geoffrey Kagan Trenchard, Stephanie Valente, Jacob Victorine, Ocean Vuong, Bruce Weber, and Laura Madeline Wiseman.

 hell struck and crooked

published September 1st 2010

ISBN: 978-0-9799792-2-4

144 pages

$15 

Available from Amazon, at readings, and at The Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday Sept 12th.

Upcoming September Events
  
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 8th 7pm

KGB Bar

85 East 4th St (between Bowery and 2nd Ave), New York City

Free

Featuring: R. Nemo Hill, Vicki Iorio, David Lawton, E. K. Mortenson, Puma Perl, John Marcus Powell, Jackie Sheeler, Elliott D. Smith, Ocean Vuong, Bruce Weber

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 21^st  6pm

The Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia Street (between Bleecker and W4th St), New York City

$7 entry includes one house drink

Featuring: Joseph Fritsch, Christian Georgescu, Robert Gibbons, Deborah Hauser, Bob Quatrone, Francesca Sphynx, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, John J. Trause, Geoffrey Kagan Trenchard, Stephanie Valente, Jacob Victorine

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 23^rd  7pm

ArtRage Gallery

505 Hawley Ave, Syracuse, NY

Free but donation requested for gallery

Featuring: Joseph Fritsch, Robert Gibbons, Mary McLaughlin Slechta

Plus open mic 

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 24^th  7pm

the river's end bookstore

19 West Bridge Street, Oswego, NY

Free

Featuring: Joseph Fritsch, Robert Gibbons, Mary McLaughlin Slechta

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 12^th 

The Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday September 12th