tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17975761566216808672024-03-12T22:59:16.521-05:00•Chance Operations•Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger477125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-77663528258953529992016-04-25T13:26:00.002-05:002018-02-09T09:19:40.496-06:00Final Chance Operations Reading at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, April 25<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR3OSow2UUtvMVDMRVzCY6Ic_3ooehAtskhbyGD81s1QM_OeWlcaEGXOn5bYowu7TNqFIctiW2tWYsFesnhZv69923foUfo_HF9vU9RF-vmxVe040-HuwHYDvFM5pcU6J-Q22o51pz-ynm/s1600/chris_n_tony.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR3OSow2UUtvMVDMRVzCY6Ic_3ooehAtskhbyGD81s1QM_OeWlcaEGXOn5bYowu7TNqFIctiW2tWYsFesnhZv69923foUfo_HF9vU9RF-vmxVe040-HuwHYDvFM5pcU6J-Q22o51pz-ynm/s400/chris_n_tony.jpg" height="272" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461022348260791730" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="400" /></a><br />
<center><i>Chris Parr and Tony Renner, co-founders of Chance Operations.</i></center><div style="text-align: center;">[Photo by Josh Maassen.]</div><br />
Ben Moeller-Gaa says "STL folks. This Monday we will bid adieu to the Chance Operations Reading Series. It was started in 2010 by the righteous Tony Renner and Chris Parr and has served the community well. I know I've had the pleasure of being a featured poet there several times. The final night will be a big Open Mic fest. If your free, pop on over for one last night. And bring a piece or two to read along with your two eyes and two ears for taking it in. Things begin at 7:30PM at the Tavern of Fine Arts, 313 Belt Avenue. As always, admission is free."<br />
<br />
Since our first reading in April 2010, Chance Operations has featured readers such as Robert Nazarene, Dwight Bitikofer, Richard Newman, Drucilla Wall, Kelli Allen, Kristina Marie Darling, Robert Earleywine, Steven Schreiner, award-winning Canadian poet Gary Geddes, and St. Louis' poet laureate Michael Castro.<br />
<br />
In addition to a full menu, Tavern of Fine Arts features beer from Civil Life Brewing Company on-tap as well as an extensive wine list.<br />
<br />
Chance Operations has been a monthly reading series co-curated by Chris Parr, professor of religious studies at Webster University, and artist Tony Renner.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-55925373776062063352016-03-25T08:39:00.002-05:002016-03-25T08:39:13.904-05:00Tony Renner Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, March 28<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4vAaHh3bnyyWY3oBXTgSqQvFsiLiZ1R479g8Rcs6vE2traEFaV5k4qDKNyXfjfs1_2GxkV7qZQ3YRu9QW4X97zAPRl7y7pqek-Y9Qh1gpfTSrFaAcpySyWvAJpCQiJ73_-krF7iU0pjq/s1600/tony+reading.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4vAaHh3bnyyWY3oBXTgSqQvFsiLiZ1R479g8Rcs6vE2traEFaV5k4qDKNyXfjfs1_2GxkV7qZQ3YRu9QW4X97zAPRl7y7pqek-Y9Qh1gpfTSrFaAcpySyWvAJpCQiJ73_-krF7iU0pjq/s400/tony+reading.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://contraptionstl.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tony Renner</a> will be one of the featured readers at the penultimate Chance Operation reading at the <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, March 28. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Matthew Freeman and Catherine Rankovic.<br />
<br />
Tony Renner is a late bloomer. He returned to writing poetry in 2009 when, after he ran out of the poems he had written as a high school student in 1978 to post on a blog, he began writing new poems so that he could post a poem-a-day for National Poetry Month. He has been published in Bad Shoe, A Handful of Stones, and Troubadour 21.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>On the Assassination of John F. Kennedy</i></b><br />
<br />
"The President's been shot," he said seriously.<br />
We heard about it; it was what we talked about.<br />
Brains and blood and bones in an upward curve<br />
And his body across the woman: that's what we imagined <br />
Though we'd be proven wrong by slow motion film<br />
Showing his body just as if we were there with him.<br />
But we didn't stop looking; we haven't stopped yet.<br />
<br />
<i><b>-- Tony Renner</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-63093082485469842772016-03-23T21:28:00.001-05:002016-03-23T21:30:02.396-05:00Matthew Freeman Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, March 28<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRGNBfaoI7zq_vaNW82Uo1voi08uZfqZl7W5pBg3t4tExHP8qdZFyeAFQaOZcDlzlnuXRTzTaVly_OAulCZ0ONUD5dt9-LLuRJ7xHTcBOXFot8EeEyAtryU9bvR3Ru8c24EPF0IjxVQXD/s1600/MattFreeman2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="362" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRGNBfaoI7zq_vaNW82Uo1voi08uZfqZl7W5pBg3t4tExHP8qdZFyeAFQaOZcDlzlnuXRTzTaVly_OAulCZ0ONUD5dt9-LLuRJ7xHTcBOXFot8EeEyAtryU9bvR3Ru8c24EPF0IjxVQXD/s400/MattFreeman2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Matthew Freeman will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, March 28.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Catherine Rankovic and Tony Renner.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free.<br />
<br />
Matthew Freeman woke up and found he was falling when as a teenager his football coach got him into Dylan Thomas and a dear girl friend introduced him to the romantics. So began a wild journey which would leave him expelled from school and committed to an asylum, and diagnosed with schizophrenia. After bouncing in and out of hospitals and drunk tanks he finally began his recovery. He has had four books published and has graduated from Saint Louis University, where he was awarded the Montesi prize, and is now an MFA student at the University of Missouri St. Louis, where he was awarded the Graduate Prize in poetry.<br />
<br />
Critics have high praise for Freeman’s poetry:<br />
<blockquote>“Gritty and real, full of personality (and personalities), urban St. Louis scenery and experience.” —- J. Gordon, Nightimes.com<br />
<br />
“Simultaneously hip, funny, and sad.” -— Dorothea Grossman, Poet<br />
<br />
“A microscope into the world of an extraordinarily talented schizophrenic.” —- Suzanne Shenkman.</blockquote><blockquote><b><i>Lake Woeishere</i></b><br />
<br />
When I hear Garrison Keilor talk about Lutherans<br />
in that light comedic kitsch<br />
on pusillanimous public radio<br />
amid the seemingly knowing chuckles<br />
of fat farts in the audience—<br />
oh my lord can you imagine someone<br />
taking a date there?—I myself<br />
don’t laugh but get very angry<br />
because this guy doesn’t know anything at all<br />
about Martin Luther or Lutherans.<br />
<br />
You’re not a real Lutheran until<br />
you’ve walked on your knees up the stairs of a monastery<br />
flagellating yourself with a bitter whip<br />
on each step ten times<br />
over guilt at having glimpsed<br />
the subtle bare momentary wrist<br />
of a heavily-clothed maiden<br />
in a congregation of stone Catholics.<br />
<br />
<b><i>-- Matthew Freeman</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-34785769241971451782016-03-23T08:16:00.000-05:002016-03-23T08:16:14.338-05:00 Catherine Rankovic Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, March 28<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgprRxDubV5KgVSLt469WlXcCe_Ix5HoN4kyasWjN6nOWMWOceaKQBOZ9GhgYbQZv0U9PoX4xiw7LKD64l_2-DJ9vdd_OYQqQyprXachmkr3-HFAP2K_ZBUrzeAmUro1rN0J9O7mvYesm1c/s1600/catherine-rankovic-2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgprRxDubV5KgVSLt469WlXcCe_Ix5HoN4kyasWjN6nOWMWOceaKQBOZ9GhgYbQZv0U9PoX4xiw7LKD64l_2-DJ9vdd_OYQqQyprXachmkr3-HFAP2K_ZBUrzeAmUro1rN0J9O7mvYesm1c/s400/catherine-rankovic-2015.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Catherine Rankovic will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, March 28 for the penultimate Chance Operations reading.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Matthew Freeman and Tony Renner.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free.<br />
<br />
Catherine Rankovic is the author of five books including <i>Meet Me: Writers in St. Louis</i>, <i>Fierce Consent and Other Poems</i>, and the new chapbook <i>Hide and Sex</i>, her first poetry collection in ten years. Catherine has an M.A. from Syracuse University and an M.F.A. from Washington University and has taught poetry and creative nonfiction writing in St. Louis since 1989, currently in the online M.F.A. program at Lindenwood University. Her essays and poems have appeared in <i>December</i>, <i>The Missouri Review</i>, <i>The Iowa Review</i>, <i>Boulevard</i>, <i>River Styx</i>,<i> Umbrella</i>, <i>The Progressive</i>, <i>Natural Bridge</i>, <i>Gulf Coast</i>, other journals, and four anthologies.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Micropenis</i></b><br />
<br />
I pretended not to notice.<br />
It wasn’t a lot to work with.<br />
We worked with it insofar<br />
And with energy and compensatory strategies<br />
Already in his repertoire.<br />
We worked the sheets off the bed.<br />
Near checkout time when he wouldn’t be offended<br />
I said, “This is Klaus. He was made in Germany.<br />
This is Buzz. This is Skippy the Second,<br />
And this is The Bunny. He was very expensive.”<br />
He said, “Do you have a preference?”<br />
I should have said right then<br />
"Let's go out for fried catfish" and ended this. <br />
<br />
<b>-- <i>Catherine Rankovic</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-74162257866904976412016-02-26T12:47:00.000-06:002016-02-26T12:47:28.502-06:00Chris Parr Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Leap Day!, Monday, February 29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbitsf4G11rrhXb8_MNpjFibhblDLL21Ah0MU_RFnv0geLAY1HmoOjZgFm0JlVNIp0fmQ7G8oyTmoQQvcUeqauQtwpc2k6OG6ISIAOZsvK_wmCLrtQ8-g_mN0nWdxxo-E0RSe3NGwM3yq/s1600/chris-parr-duffs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbitsf4G11rrhXb8_MNpjFibhblDLL21Ah0MU_RFnv0geLAY1HmoOjZgFm0JlVNIp0fmQ7G8oyTmoQQvcUeqauQtwpc2k6OG6ISIAOZsvK_wmCLrtQ8-g_mN0nWdxxo-E0RSe3NGwM3yq/s400/chris-parr-duffs.jpg" /></a></div><center><i>Photo by Colin Michael Shaw</i></center><br />
<a href="http://websterampersand.com/chris-parr/" target="0">Chris Parr</a>, co-founder of •chance operation•, will be a featured reader at Tavern of Fine Arts, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, February 29.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Buzz Spector and Jennifer Goldring.<br />
<br />
Chris is a performance poet who has read his work at art spaces, music venues, and poetry events, in his native New Zealand, as well as in Boston, New York and St. Louis.<br />
<br />
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GlyMHN_mEvPAM6AWyVhhDeh21obmGh565495XzPTnauXf_yjFlx-9_EhYG8HO3v1-iJbxPY3qVYzoIwgvSC0IMb3STIxU7BP8f7CeIcA-M_zzH8sJAnFEWG_oSFQPSTxZkTA3UO0pAPO/s1600/chance-operation-gift.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 219px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GlyMHN_mEvPAM6AWyVhhDeh21obmGh565495XzPTnauXf_yjFlx-9_EhYG8HO3v1-iJbxPY3qVYzoIwgvSC0IMb3STIxU7BP8f7CeIcA-M_zzH8sJAnFEWG_oSFQPSTxZkTA3UO0pAPO/s400/chance-operation-gift.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457098701933038578" /></a><center>© 2010 Christopher Parr</center>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-88970938653390477812016-02-26T12:19:00.001-06:002016-02-26T12:19:22.207-06:00Jennifer Goldring Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Leap Day!, Monday, February 29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2xF6QEzG6ito-AQ5Tqhp9PRegFqbK90-t9-_GtyR5t4eY-oEnkgpBvGgQNn87YeURPcxU1N4t2O_en85_mIEbPI9UZR0SPnXprZMOsUB0wauYc_bIiip0HMtlWSniZRe3UkGA1hO6VL3/s1600/10365586_10204036777862597_5293439722286787019_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2xF6QEzG6ito-AQ5Tqhp9PRegFqbK90-t9-_GtyR5t4eY-oEnkgpBvGgQNn87YeURPcxU1N4t2O_en85_mIEbPI9UZR0SPnXprZMOsUB0wauYc_bIiip0HMtlWSniZRe3UkGA1hO6VL3/s400/10365586_10204036777862597_5293439722286787019_o.jpg" /></a></div><div class="tr_bq"><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jennifer Goldring will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, February 29.</span></div><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also featured will be Buzz Spector and Chris Parr.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Open-mic follows the featured readers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Jennifer Goldring, originally from Arizona, received her MFA in Poetry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She was the University of Missouri - St. Louis's Poet Laureate for 2013. Jennifer has her BA in economics from Arizona State University. Despite her training she has given up on solving the world’s economic problems and now writes poetry, which she finds to be a much more meaningful endeavor. When she isn’t writing or taking photos she is Managing Editor for </span><i class="yiv8764167006" id="yiv8764167006yui_3_16_0_1_1437669027261_4997" style="background-color: white;">december </i><span style="background-color: white;">magazine. She lives in St. Louis with her two children and their small menagerie of pets. Her poetry can be found in </span><i class="yiv8764167006" id="yiv8764167006yui_3_16_0_1_1437669027261_4999" style="background-color: white;">Tar River Poetry, Architrave Press,</i><span style="background-color: white;"> and the anthology</span><i class="yiv8764167006" id="yiv8764167006yui_3_16_0_1_1437669027261_5001" style="background-color: white;"> Poetry with a Dash of Salt.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i class="yiv8764167006" style="background-color: white;"><br />
</i></span> <blockquote><b><i>Walking Along Euclid in Early Spring</i></b></blockquote><blockquote>Tonight the moon<br />
hangs in the sky orange<br />
and sliced like cantaloupe.<br />
A woman stands on tiptoe<br />
head tilted up, her tongue tip<br />
on her lip, arms open<br />
to that mysterious fruit in the sky.<br />
She is trying to take a bite<br />
and though she knows it is beyond<br />
her reach she will always salivate<br />
and ache for this juicy moon.<br />
The moonlight draws the gnat<br />
and lace-wing from the grass.<br />
The small gray bats dart<br />
above blooming dogwoods<br />
and feast.</blockquote><blockquote><b><i>-- Jennifer Goldring</i></b></blockquote><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i class="yiv8764167006" style="background-color: white;"></i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-3188206550704259842016-02-26T10:02:00.001-06:002016-02-26T10:02:33.296-06:00Buzz Spector Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Leap Day!, Monday, February 29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEionysjf_BFpn3j5mNuOEvHo7A0YR6yW7w93oY03QkQqNjimz3iTNjv_AXUtm4UjAmrwivEY09mi-fWG3kcPXrmpR9TaVhDFmBZsdWQxntfPLZLB7mkh-_O57Ky5G_QmDWK_brmWR7H8wSd/s1600/Buzz-conv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEionysjf_BFpn3j5mNuOEvHo7A0YR6yW7w93oY03QkQqNjimz3iTNjv_AXUtm4UjAmrwivEY09mi-fWG3kcPXrmpR9TaVhDFmBZsdWQxntfPLZLB7mkh-_O57Ky5G_QmDWK_brmWR7H8wSd/s400/Buzz-conv.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://mistakehouse.org/buzz-spector-interview/" target="0">Buzz Spector</a> will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a> on Monday, February 29.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click <a href="mailto:anthonyrenner@wustl.edu" target="_blank">here</a> to sign-up via e-mail.<br />
<br />
Buzz Spector was born in Chicago and was educated at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and then the University of Chicago, where he received the master of fine arts. Internationally recognized as an artist and critic, his work has been exhibited in museums throughout the United States and Europe, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Mattress Factory Art Museum (Pittsburgh), and the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art (Prato, Italy).<br />
<br />
Buzz is also a highly accomplished teacher who received the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teaching of Art Award in 2013. Having taught previously at Cornell University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he is currently Professor of Art at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.<br />
<br />
The subject matter of Buzz’s art typically involves an exploration of the idea of the book, the text, and the individual experience of perception through wide-ranging media including sculpture, photography, the artists’ book, printmaking, and installation. In 2012 Sara Ranchouse Publishing issued <i><a href="http://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/buzz-spector/" target="0">Buzzwords</a></i>, a collection of new page art and interviews with Spector spanning thirty years of his work and ideas.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Thread</i></b><br />
<br />
<i>for <a href="http://www.annhamiltonstudio.com/" target="0">Ann Hamilton</a></i><br />
<br />
Action’s auspices, to band or <br />
Braid a chain of events; <br />
Gossamer filaments of this story or that<br />
Lanyard, holding the line, <br />
Passing through in<br />
Procession, a ribbon of events in a <br />
Row, of greatening<br />
Scale or sequence; <br />
Set the track for <br />
Trains of thought to travel<br />
A way.<br />
<br />
<b><i>-- Buzz Spector</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-59521281588910960802016-01-25T10:37:00.001-06:002016-01-25T13:03:08.172-06:00Jason Vasser Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, January 25<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVojAVtfoiWZNWhiGWWQ7UXTCuR5gtDCXEtuNH7H3DQyZ9ofWe-Yl2iwZVFGFYdtUwFOc-dgkhmb6cIeabYCCgm6FT7v-NM1kAU9A59so0TnLZiLLMiZtjknM4n0L4WwHII8JnNcdWetM/s1600/jasonvasser1-199x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVojAVtfoiWZNWhiGWWQ7UXTCuR5gtDCXEtuNH7H3DQyZ9ofWe-Yl2iwZVFGFYdtUwFOc-dgkhmb6cIeabYCCgm6FT7v-NM1kAU9A59so0TnLZiLLMiZtjknM4n0L4WwHII8JnNcdWetM/s400/jasonvasser1-199x300.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://nurshaproject.com/" target="0">Jason Vasser</a> will be a featured reader at the •chance operations• reading at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, January 25.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE. [Note: Tavern of Fine Arts opens at 5:00 p.m. for pre-reading dinner and drinks, which will also be served throughout the evening.]<br />
<br />
Jason Vasser lives and writes in Saint Louis Missouri, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL). His poetry has appeared in <i>Blast Furnace</i>, <i>The Sphinx Magazine</i>, <i>Prairie Gold: An anthology of America’s Heartland</i>, among others and was recently featured in the <i>St. Louis Post Dispatch</i> in an article written by Jane Henderson titled <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/poetry-can-be-an-early-form-of-artistic-response-to/article_0c433e93-2903-5e73-a329-9542217c9a1c.html" target="0">“Poetry can be an early form of artistic response to trauma”</a>, in response to issues in Ferguson, Missouri. He is the author of the chapbook, <i>Agapornis</i> and has a full length collection of poems <i>Shrimp</i> forthcoming. <br />
<br />
Jason believes that building relationships sustains community. Over the past few of years, he has worked with the St. Louis Poetry Center (SLPC) as coordinator for the Poetry on the Plaza reading series and as Assistant Curator of Poetry at the Point, and endeavors to continue working to bring the literary community together through programming and collaboration. <br />
<br />
Now a board member at the St. Louis Poetry Center, Jason served as curator for the SLPC’s benefit gala honoring Dr. Maya Angelou. This event featured local literary legends, musicians, modern dancers, and an up and coming visual artist. While often working behind the scenes, Jason also reads his poetry at local events, large and small, to share in the recitation of poetry with his elders, contemporaries, and for the literary enthusiast. His work lives on and off the page as he performs spoken word poetry at some events, while also reading at others; Jason is a performance poet, activist for racial equality, and educator. <br />
<br />
With a degree in cultural anthropology and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing, Jason weaves art and science to bring to life the patterns in life that unite humanity, while also speaking to his experience as a minority. Tracing his ancestral homeland to the Bamileke people of Cameroon, in West Africa, Jason currently uses his poetry as a bridge to connect the past, present and future. <br />
<br />
Currently, Jason teaches English at Harris–Stowe State University. A member of various professional anthropological and literary organizations, he finds time to also volunteer his time with local chapters of his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.<br />
<br />
Jason says, “Regardless of your cultural background, poetry is a bridge we can use to communicate.”<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Poetica in the round</b> <br />
After Lawrence Fertinghetti</i><br />
<br />
Poets, lift your heads<br />
put down pencil and pen <br />
the sun is abound, though rain<br />
is around the corner, now is time<br />
to open your doors and <br />
greet the sky, <br />
the sprouts <br />
between concrete, <br />
<br />
come down<br />
come out, from your coffee houses,<br />
and Ivory towers, your soap boxes<br />
and greet the wind.<br />
<br />
Down from your gated,<br />
out from the ground level,<br />
the trees lean in desperate need<br />
lift them in verse – there is no time<br />
as we see ash, <br />
<br />
no more propaganda<br />
from the sidelines <br />
while Ferguson burns,<br />
Saint Louis burns,<br />
T.S. Elliot’s burns<br />
Sara Teasdale’s burns,<br />
Maya Angelou turns in her grave<br />
<br />
night and shadow approaches <br />
stay, don’t leave <br />
there is No time for the artist to hide<br />
in books, writing pads, laptops,<br />
libraries, we must take it to the street<br />
<br />
where voices are needed to guide<br />
take it to the ghetto,<br />
take it to the suburbs<br />
take it to where Delmar divides<br />
<br />
make time to listen,<br />
poetry isn’t a secret society<br />
we live, work, we write <br />
and play where everyone else does<br />
the hour of pondering is over,<br />
put down your mind<br />
pick up your heart<br />
<br />
The time for loving has come<br />
the time for hating has ended <br />
<br />
let’s talk like those around which we live<br />
and not use big words,<br />
treat every word like pepper<br />
to a chicken needed to feed the village.<br />
<br />
<b><i>-- Jason Vasser</i></b></blockquote><br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-84843377101175070102016-01-25T09:45:00.000-06:002016-01-25T10:40:50.146-06:00Mallory Nezam Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, January 25<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjhTLZRUNtMX-WmR7g1RblIjoqc0rGWdNrNqedpyWVFOpYzbtA_bxtNtbXIqLPd1QSilyXQVRR98bP9kAw4FMeDY3c78lQJ1Ft-q_Qab0fXmAyh5itbhdVksJy5jge6VnFOCtepTCDmQ1f/s1600/MNezam-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjhTLZRUNtMX-WmR7g1RblIjoqc0rGWdNrNqedpyWVFOpYzbtA_bxtNtbXIqLPd1QSilyXQVRR98bP9kAw4FMeDY3c78lQJ1Ft-q_Qab0fXmAyh5itbhdVksJy5jge6VnFOCtepTCDmQ1f/s400/MNezam-2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://stlcurator.com/stl-improv-anywhere-mallory-nezam/" target="0">Mallory Nezam</a> will be a featured reader at the •chance operations• reading at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, January 25.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE. [Note: Tavern of Fine Arts opens at 5:00 p.m. for pre-reading dinner and drinks, which will also be served throughout the evening.]<br />
<br />
Mallory Nezam is a public artist who provokes creative civic engagement and brings to life public spaces of her city. She is Founder & Director of STL Improv Anywhere and Co-Creator of <a href="http://thepoetreeproject.tumblr.com/" target="0">the Poetree Project</a>. In addition to public art, Nezam has been publishing short fiction, non-fiction and poetry for years. She published her first (and arguably her best) poem at the age of 10. Nezam's work can be found in <a href="http://piecrustmagazine.tumblr.com/" target="0"><i>P I E C R U S T Magazine</i></a>, the <i>Occidental Review</i>, and <i>Art Animal Magazine</i>. She has won awards for her creative non-fiction and short fiction.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Predpriyatie</i></b><br />
<br />
The light filtered in in a dirty way. The windowsill was dusty and pale walls hugged light around the room as though it were steam. This was the kind of light you could see.<br />
<br />
Ivelina’s wrist and watering can were illuminated as she stood arrested, staring out onto the rooftop patio. For a moment, this image held still until a house fly flew into focus and Iva’s gaze moved. She looked down at the empty watering can in her hand and then back out the window.<br />
<br />
Zachary came home that night with the sound of a door slamming. The sound triggered her animation as if he himself was nothing more than a door slam. A thump in her chest, and it went deeper. It was the first time she’d heard her heartbeat like this. It was the first time she had truly felt her heart beat. There were wisterias crawling up the gate grate, the slowly aging rust adding a decided charm to the roof. Rooftops like these were hard to find in Chelsea. They were even rarer for those making a living off of little more than hope, which for Zachary and Ivelina came in the form of naïveté and in accidents they couldn’t confront. Hanging trellises, wrap-around vines, potted plants and rows of gardenias made the roof seem simple and old. This is where Iva usually stopped for an 8 o’clock visit: water, rest, regain. The quiet communion with plants followed long days as a cocktail waitress. Most nights Iva continued on to Zachary’s studio, helping with boom mics, holding ladders, coffee runs. Thursday afternoons she was the pianist for the Vitrolics’ private parties. She is far more exceptional than anyone there ever notices, and more exceptional that she can comprehend herself.<br />
<br />
And then she heard him in the stairwell, a mixture of sounds, a hazy recognition of the corresponding movements. But today, she couldn’t envision these familiar gestures, losing the memory as though he were slowly disappearing. There are only so many sounds you can hear within a person: a stomach gurgle, a jaw click, a deep cough, a heartbeat. But this heartbeat was different. Have you ever felt a heartbeat within yourself and realized it was not your own? Have you ever felt a stranger’s heartbeat within your own body and realized it was a part of you?<br />
<br />
“Nie ne obichame tuk zaedno,” Ivelina’s mother would always say. “Why aren’t we loving here together?” She would say this when she was mad or when there was a disagreement between the two of them. Iva never used this with Zachary when there was a disagreement. She chose to keep silent. Iva’s low-leaning gaze focused on Zachary’s foot, his tattering blue Converses faded from the sun. He’d made his way into the kitchen, kept still at the entrance with one foot draping the border. Iva raised her eyes to scale his torso, identifying his structure.<br />
<br />
. . . .<br />
<br />
When his face came slowly into focus she could see in his gaze plain bewilderment. She followed his eyes to the puddle of water underneath her feet, her house shoes soaked through to an entirely different hue. She looked back up to Zachary, the watering can still in hand.<br />
<br />
“Well,” he uttered. “Did you fall asleep or something?” He looked at her. She felt him looking at her in the way that people watch news segments of things perturbing—concernedly, but distant. Iva moved her eyes to the watering can in her right hand, rust eating the edges near where the handle touched the base. A banjo struck up across the apartment alleyway and Iva’s hairs vibrated to the hum. Zachary looked disturbed and then began to speak, but didn’t. He only opened his mouth and inhaled. Iva’s head had turned slowly to the window.<br />
<br />
“I love strings.” The statement started emphatically and waned toward empty, toward solemn. She stood again facing Zachary with the watering can still clutched in her right hand. “Well, I would love it if you would get out of that puddle, Ivelina. What did you do to yourself?”<br />
<br />
“I—...” Iva lowered her eyes towards her feet again, turned toward the can. She looked back up to Zachary who never wore shoes indoors and who never understood her culture of house slippers.<br />
<br />
She carries the weight of her past life undetected. Ivelina is from a place where trains run slow and where the grace of a woman is in her silent curves. It wasn’t silence that made her leave home; it was the fear of it. On cold winter evenings, if she kept her breath low, she could uncover the sound of Nothing. There are some people who strive to find this. For others, for Ivelina, it is obscene and violating. When her grandfather closed her palm around an envelope full of money and the ticket, she heard that silence again.<br />
<br />
Her mother was waiting for her on the edge of the pond, half obscured by cattails swaying wantonly in the breeze. She touched Ivelina’s hand; they made a paper boat out of the envelope and she asked Ivelina if she wanted to jump in. Her mother smirked slightly as Iva turned to her, questioning.<br />
<br />
She realized she was moving toward noise.<br />
<br />
Noise was busses screeching, accents, accidents. It was cleaning someone else’s bathroom. Forgetting. It was hospitals and watering cans. It was not knowing enough English to get a job; but you didn’t have to know English to fuck.<br />
<br />
Zachary filled a cup with water and walked towards Ivelina. He wanted to say, “Neither of us will be all right.” She wanted to say, “I will plant flowers in your shoes. I will hang them on a telephone wire and plant flowers in your shoes.” Zachary took a sip of water and set it down on the table.<br />
<br />
“Are you going to help me tonight?” He brushed her arm, avoided her spill. He manufactured a grin to counter his earlier honesty and she imagined potting soil, digging holes in Bulgarian terrain and dropping soil in his shoes. She could see his look of pure and utter fear. She could feel his hand tremble. Where she could have trembled, too, the baby kept still.<br />
<br />
....<br />
<br />
The difference between who we are and what we become is a chasm that can echo like canyons until we construct our own solid ground. Ivelina left with two suitcases in hand, Zachary’s shoes tied to one. She walked down the road during the 8 o’clock evening lull. There were telephone wires overhead that she didn’t even notice.<br />
<br />
Zachary had expected that she would go home. But she went south. At a rest stop, she played piano for an empty bar. Mid-song she stopped, closed her eyes and imagined the baby taking over for her in the way that some trees can grow back from nothing. She sees their branches reaching up over the ledge of the window despite the hot, dry heat. Despite the dead wind that presses the walls of the room. This new home is a transition. It is not an instant; it is a length of time. They close their eyes and they are swaying like the trees.<br />
<br />
<b><i>-- Mallory Nezam</i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-34600000846283632922015-11-24T21:35:00.000-06:002016-01-25T09:59:24.925-06:00Julia Gordon-Bramer Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, November 30<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMqaiBXL1XYJFIpRST-cjpcaNcb4Oa_qImQPpIUOfZYxE4Zb8BN0ltSzzEwbQWnQjX5v9DeyVpJoT5CzV4LWVJrBvSSHrEvsyykjr5dvWXSeaZwua437j6H9Syz5m2NkCdCEuLzCGN4qKq/s1600/julia+gordon+bramer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMqaiBXL1XYJFIpRST-cjpcaNcb4Oa_qImQPpIUOfZYxE4Zb8BN0ltSzzEwbQWnQjX5v9DeyVpJoT5CzV4LWVJrBvSSHrEvsyykjr5dvWXSeaZwua437j6H9Syz5m2NkCdCEuLzCGN4qKq/s320/julia+gordon+bramer.jpg"/></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.bookeval.com/blog/item/463-sylvia-plath-tarot-julia-gordon-bramer" target="0">Julia Gordon-Bramer</a> will be one of three featured readers at the •chance operations• reading at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, November 30.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Phil Gounis and Ben Moeller-Gaa.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE. [Note: Tavern of Fine Arts opens at 5:00 p.m. for pre-reading dinner and drinks, which will also be served throughout the evening.]<br />
<br />
Julia Gordon-Bramer is a professional tarot card reader, writer, and scholar of Sylvia Plath. Her book, <i><a href="http://www.stlmag.com/arts/literary/in-the-cards%3A-julia-gordon-bramer's-%22fixed-stars-govern-a-li/" target="0">Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath</a></i> was published this year by Stephen F. Austin State University Press and can be ordered on Amazon. In 2013, the <i>Riverfront Times</i> called her St. Louis’ Best Local Poet.<br />
<blockquote><i><b>Conscious Uncoupling</i></b><br />
<br />
I’m sad about Gwyneth and Chris:<br />
how mean the press presses<br />
and paparazzi snap them running<br />
through airports with hoods up, <br />
sunglasses on, tears streaming. <br />
The Star is on display <br />
in my grocery stands, and its<br />
journalists crucify Gwyn’s talk <br />
show hyperbole, a down- <br />
play of pain. I don’t listen <br />
to Coldplay much and I don’t <br />
have time for movies, but it isn’t <br />
right. This public hunger to murder <br />
the famous, just because <br />
we are not. Maybe I’m sad <br />
for Gwyneth and Chris because <br />
every relationship is fragile, and we <br />
are all searching through our acts<br />
for story with substance, hoping<br />
we are more than just how we look,<br />
as we hide the wrinkles and seek <br />
ripples in the water, a turn of words <br />
to stay stuck in the brain. Something <br />
lasting. To live and be <br />
worth remembering. To teach our kids <br />
what love looks like on and off<br />
movie screens: sometimes breaking,<br />
sometimes broken, occasionally healed,<br />
and without Starbucks’ soundtracks.<br />
<br />
<i><b>-- Julia Gordon-Bramer</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-81870565432697492912015-11-22T18:40:00.000-06:002015-11-28T11:21:07.968-06:00Ben Moeller-Gaa Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, November 30<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIjZ5FK5TnXQYV9BUZfX0zImhCA6nzu6N9gzWLvN8Pyx7sQFSgzx0sapH94cSzHyrAZZ9pfCHFsb5edoSa7ZxQAkMKpWcJzfaGctMaWYH7dr9XMVrvKeQMK6ig0DA44NagWyS-BsDR7r84/s1600/benmoellergaa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIjZ5FK5TnXQYV9BUZfX0zImhCA6nzu6N9gzWLvN8Pyx7sQFSgzx0sapH94cSzHyrAZZ9pfCHFsb5edoSa7ZxQAkMKpWcJzfaGctMaWYH7dr9XMVrvKeQMK6ig0DA44NagWyS-BsDR7r84/s320/benmoellergaa.jpg" /></a></div><center><i>Photo courtesy of Mike Schrand / St. Louis Public Radio</I></center><br />
Ben Moeller-Gaa will be one of three featured readers at the •chance operations• reading at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, November 30.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Phil Gounis and Julia Gordon-Bramer.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE. [Note: Tavern of Fine Arts opens at 5:00 p.m. for pre-reading dinner and drinks, which will also be served throughout the evening.]<br />
<br />
Ben Moeller-Gaa is the author of two chapbooks, the Pushcart nominated <i>Wasp Shadows</i> (Folded Word 2014) and <i>Blowing on a Hot Soup Spoon</i> (poor metaphor design 2014). He has an English Writing degree from Knox College and has haiku published in <i>Acorn, Modern Haiku, Simply Haiku, A Hundred Gourds, The Heron's Nest, Frogpond, Shamrock, World Haiku Review</i> and others. He currently is a contributing editor to <i>River Styx</i>, works for Sigma-Aldrich and resides in St. Louis, MO with is wife and cat. Visit Ben's web site <a href="http://www.benmoellergaa.com" target="0">here</a> to learn more about Ben.<br />
<blockquote>all day rain<br />
the refrigerator's<br />
ommmm<br />
<br />
<i>Modern Haiku 46.3</i><br />
<br />
<br />
bumblebee<br />
i, too, am drunk<br />
with wild azaleas <br />
<br />
<i>Shamrock 32</i><br />
<br />
<br />
twilight<br />
losing count<br />
of blackberries<br />
<br />
<i>tinywords 15:2</i><br />
<br />
<i><b>-- Ben Moeller-Gaa</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-12819189009541537752015-11-22T18:24:00.000-06:002015-11-23T08:14:26.966-06:00Phil Gounis Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, November 30<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnecOiawLakK3iTkQOnJxqsa2uTsChgmdkFpRziQbRHa4xPtwEISH2b9mXkfbG7J5UoN3HxEM9YKW61MMYgNcRQAvDVu26_reWSi5RBDOn9tHUafwd_YgoKPfwuV6IWVWppQidWPYMTBNJ/s1600/phil-by-josh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnecOiawLakK3iTkQOnJxqsa2uTsChgmdkFpRziQbRHa4xPtwEISH2b9mXkfbG7J5UoN3HxEM9YKW61MMYgNcRQAvDVu26_reWSi5RBDOn9tHUafwd_YgoKPfwuV6IWVWppQidWPYMTBNJ/s400/phil-by-josh.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Phil Gounis will be one of three featured reader at the •chance operations• reading at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, November 30.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Ben Moeller-Gaa and Julia Gordon-Bramer.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE. [Note: Tavern of Fine Arts opens at 5:00 p.m. for pre-reading dinner and drinks, which will also be served throughout the evening.]<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.philipgounis.com" target="0">Phil Gounis</a> first came into public awareness in the early 1970s when he and several colleagues presented a series of experimental films in the Saint Louis region. During this period, Gounis also began to publish his poetry in several alternative press outlets and read on KDNA FM radio. Some of the participants in these readings later formed the nucleus of <i>River Styx</i> Magazine. In 1976, he initiated a weekly blues program on KCLC radio at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. His show featured recorded blues music spanning five decades and in studio performing artists. He also hosted and produced a monthly live poetry and jazz program entitled "Verbatim."<br />
<br />
In the early 1980s, Gounis contributed to the work of the Soulard Culture Squad. This group of poets and musicians performed throughout the historic Soulard area and published several poetry collections.Later he co-founded a magazine of politics and popular culture called Steamshovel Press. At the end of the decade and into the ’90s he took part in radio programs such as Off The Beaten Path, Poetry Beat and Literature for the Halibut on KDHX FM in St. Louis, Missouri.<br />
<br />
In 2005, Intangible Studios released his CD, <i>Form Matters</i>. Since then he has published two poetry collections <i>Some Of These Have Appeared</i> (Firecracker Press) and <i>Upgrading the Allusion</i> (JK Publishing).His work also appeared in <i>Flood Stage: An Anthology of Saint Louis Poets</i>. <br />
<blockquote><b><i>Music In The Air</b></i><br />
<br />
Keeps slept under the stairs<br />
he did not speak<br />
a word<br />
in his mind<br />
Keeps would repeat<br />
the same Prayer<br />
night after night<br />
it was night most of the time<br />
and freezing when it rained<br />
which was all the time<br />
still<br />
Keeps was faithful<br />
to the duty<br />
of keeping hope<br />
and bright expectation<br />
intact<br />
<br />
the day after Thanksgiving<br />
as dawn cracked<br />
Keeps awoke on his knees<br />
and heard a commotion<br />
up above his head<br />
he reached upward and felt the belt<br />
of an escalator<br />
and knew<br />
that his petitionary days<br />
were over<br />
<br />
<i><b>-- Phil Gounis</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-18767155948063605102015-10-12T17:20:00.000-05:002015-10-12T17:20:39.339-05:00Howard Schwartz Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, October 26<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV_snL43Ja-sy2y48gDmRaw0tR84k9w7BMXVcwwkKTAyxER0VMtmbVked8k7mI30-QkK_T1kYWxKkI0ij_X-IDQyE5Hj5QxnbqpYXGpDjGZxMuHPYF_y3l4jwb14xqXEgNsVCsqovile1-/s1600/howard-schwartz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV_snL43Ja-sy2y48gDmRaw0tR84k9w7BMXVcwwkKTAyxER0VMtmbVked8k7mI30-QkK_T1kYWxKkI0ij_X-IDQyE5Hj5QxnbqpYXGpDjGZxMuHPYF_y3l4jwb14xqXEgNsVCsqovile1-/s320/howard-schwartz.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Howard Schwartz will be one of three featured readers at the •chance operations• reading at the Tavern of Fine Arts, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, October 26.<br />
<br />
Other featured readers will be Allison Creighton and Jeff Friedman.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.umsl.edu/~schwartzh/" target="0">Howard Schwartz</a> is the author of five books of poems, <i><a href="http://www.stljewishlight.com/features/arts_culture/article_f7ad12fe-3115-11e3-ac5e-0019bb2963f4.html" target="0">Library of Dreams</a></i>, <i>Vessels</i>, <i>Gathering the Sparks</i>, <i>Sleepwalking Beneath the Stars</i>, and <i><a href="http://mayapplepress.com/breathing-in-the-dark-howard-schwartz/" target="0">Breathing in the Dark</a></i>. He is also the co-editor (with Anthony Rudolf) of Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets. His other books include <i>Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism</i>, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 2005, and <i>Leaves from the Garden of Eden: One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales</i>, published in 2008. He is a professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Swimming to Jerusalem</i></b><br />
<br />
The first time<br />
I went on a quest<br />
for forbidden fruit.<br />
<br />
The second time<br />
I built an ark<br />
and tried to get there by sea.<br />
<br />
The third time<br />
I came in search of my ancestor,<br />
Abraham.<br />
<br />
If the sun was hidden<br />
I let the stars<br />
guide me.<br />
<br />
If the tablets were broken<br />
I carved<br />
new ones.<br />
<br />
In the future<br />
my bones<br />
will roll to that city.<br />
<br />
Last night<br />
I dreamed<br />
I was swimming there.<br />
<br />
<b><i>-- Howard Schwartz</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-29418901315846604862015-10-12T09:09:00.001-05:002015-10-26T09:19:37.146-05:00Allison Creighton Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, October 26<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgi6AoOCZG1WrNRkSMn2EtN_21xWyYVK4NA4LtLrbb95JUNsntN30wvjklD-juBvZHudmFudnftUEPi3llefdrSjHcRJ7FIVC02Mgu-Y-T9u3yVDbTdFUiBhx9McZ5XyVK3wTzUajY_Vy/s1600/allison+jacket+photo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgi6AoOCZG1WrNRkSMn2EtN_21xWyYVK4NA4LtLrbb95JUNsntN30wvjklD-juBvZHudmFudnftUEPi3llefdrSjHcRJ7FIVC02Mgu-Y-T9u3yVDbTdFUiBhx9McZ5XyVK3wTzUajY_Vy/s320/allison+jacket+photo.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
Allison Creighton will be one of three featured readers at the •chance operations• reading at the Tavern of Fine Arts, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, October 26.<br />
<br />
Other featured readers will be Howard Schwartz and Jeff Friedman.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Open-mic follows the featured readers.<br />
<br />
Allison Creighton holds an MFA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She teaches part-time at Washington University in St. Louis and serves as a contributing editor for <i>River Styx</i>. Her work has appeared in <i>Potomac Review, Natural Bridge, The Mochila Review</i>, and two anthologies, and she received first prize in the 2010 Wednesday Club of St. Louis Original Poetry Contest. Her first book of poetry, <i>Drawing Down the Moon</i>, was published by Turning Point in 2015<br />
<blockquote><b><i>On a Night Too Hot for a Sheet</i></b><br />
<br />
Now that you have entered<br />
the space that surrounds me,<br />
we shall be as one.<br />
I will pull you inside with such a touch<br />
that the finest light will waver.<br />
Your lips are bittersweet<br />
as the root of love itself.<br />
<br />
One by one<br />
I hand you my secrets.<br />
My fear of the color orange<br />
and all its bold laughter.<br />
A secret buried in a meadow<br />
where no one goes.<br />
How I tried to bind<br />
two distant souls.<br />
Each way I struggled<br />
to force another to speak.<br />
The stark night<br />
when childhood vanished<br />
in an instant.<br />
Days my tires spun<br />
in lost rotations<br />
down a gravel road<br />
far from home.<br />
The shrinking blackout windows.<br />
Shadows of a phantom figure.<br />
The thorn caught in his beard.<br />
<br />
A tremor shifts across my body<br />
as I start to tell the secret<br />
too scared to breathe.<br />
Your eyes unblinking,<br />
hover above me.<br />
As you come closer,<br />
for a kiss,<br />
I can’t feel the soft wind<br />
of your breath on my lips.<br />
<br />
You wait and wait.<br />
<br />
You press yourself<br />
hard against me,<br />
a ghost.<br />
<br />
<i><b>--Allison Creighton</i></b> <br />
<br />
(published in <i>Winter Harvest: Jewish Writing in St. Louis</i>, and in <i>Drawing Down the Moon</i>)</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-75694712434880110792015-10-10T18:20:00.001-05:002015-10-12T09:10:53.598-05:00Jeff Friedman Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, October 26<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEhjGdBx-Xu17X4kBZxtUP4Da4nCcQI20-_SCoiz0p8PO683qRC559wMduCbJ35PnJBQpdb9PxHXJG9xrlKloYc8G8sEaCmQm0aItT_vp8OsgKjJMaQDVHOk4KhpXASbk3M49-rJL36dYq/s1600/pubphotofromjfriedman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEhjGdBx-Xu17X4kBZxtUP4Da4nCcQI20-_SCoiz0p8PO683qRC559wMduCbJ35PnJBQpdb9PxHXJG9xrlKloYc8G8sEaCmQm0aItT_vp8OsgKjJMaQDVHOk4KhpXASbk3M49-rJL36dYq/s400/pubphotofromjfriedman.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Jeff Friedman will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a> on Monday, October 26.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Howard Schwartz, and Allison Creighton.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click <a href="mailto:anthonyrenner@wustl.edu" target="_blank">here</a> to sign-up via e-mail.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.poetjefffriedman.com/" target="0">Jeff Friedman</a> has published six poetry collections, five with Carnegie Mellon University Press, including <i>Pretenders</i> (2014), <i>Working in Flour</i> (2011) and <i>Black Threads</i> (2008). His poems, mini stories and translations have appeared in <i>American Poetry Review, Poetry, New England Review, The Antioch Review, Poetry International, Hotel Amerika, Flash Fiction Funny, Missouri Review, Agni Online, The New Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish Poets, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Smokelong Quarterly, Boulevard, Natural Bridge, The Vestal Review</i>, and <i>The New Republic</i> and many other literary magazines. He has won numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellowship, the Milton Dorfman Poetry Prize, <i>The Missouri Review</i> Editor’s Prize, and two individual artist grants from the New Hampshire State Arts Council. Dzvinia Orlowsky’s and his translation of <i>Memorials</i> by Polish poet Mieczslaw Jastrun was published by Lavender Ink/Dialogos in August 2014.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Bear Fight</i></b><br />
<br />
When Liza fell in with the bear, I was more than disappointed as I had been in love with her since childhood. “What’s he got that I don’t?” I asked as we walked past the diner together. “He’s a bear.” She let go of my hand. “He gets a little jealous when I’m out with my friends.” “Why do you want to be with a bear anyway?” Two teenagers pushed past us with their skateboards. Balloon floated above Main Street, announcing a sale at the furniture shop. “Why do you want to be with me?” she asked. We parted ways when the light changed, but later I went to her home dressed as a bear. She opened the door. “Come in,” she said, putting her arms around me. “You don’t smell like a bear,” she said, Then in walked the bear, with a fierce look on his face. He growled and so did I. He cuffed me, so I cuffed him back. Then we grappled with each other, bear hugging until Liza stepped in between us and held out her hands. “I’m sick of bears,” she said. “Get out of here.” I ripped off my bear mask. “I’m not a bear,” I said. The bear ripped off his. “I quit this game,” he said. “I’m not a bear either.” Liza removed her mask, and she wasn’t Liza. We ran away as fast as we could. I made it back to my place and locked the door, turning on the outside light, but all night I heard her huffing.<br />
<br />
(Published in <i>Spillway</i>)<br />
<br />
<i><b>-- Jeff Friedman</i></b></blockquote><br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-44654565302205867262015-09-23T09:29:00.001-05:002015-09-23T09:30:03.945-05:00Buzz Spector Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, September 28<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEionysjf_BFpn3j5mNuOEvHo7A0YR6yW7w93oY03QkQqNjimz3iTNjv_AXUtm4UjAmrwivEY09mi-fWG3kcPXrmpR9TaVhDFmBZsdWQxntfPLZLB7mkh-_O57Ky5G_QmDWK_brmWR7H8wSd/s1600/Buzz-conv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEionysjf_BFpn3j5mNuOEvHo7A0YR6yW7w93oY03QkQqNjimz3iTNjv_AXUtm4UjAmrwivEY09mi-fWG3kcPXrmpR9TaVhDFmBZsdWQxntfPLZLB7mkh-_O57Ky5G_QmDWK_brmWR7H8wSd/s400/Buzz-conv.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://mistakehouse.org/buzz-spector-interview/" target="0">Buzz Spector</a> will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a> on Monday, September 28.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Eileen G'Sell and another reader still to be determined.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click <a href="mailto:anthonyrenner@wustl.edu" target="_blank">here</a> to sign-up via e-mail.<br />
<br />
Buzz Spector was born in Chicago and was educated at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and then the University of Chicago, where he received the master of fine arts. Internationally recognized as an artist and critic, his work has been exhibited in museums throughout the United States and Europe, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Mattress Factory Art Museum (Pittsburgh), and the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art (Prato, Italy).<br />
<br />
Buzz is also a highly accomplished teacher who received the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teaching of Art Award in 2013. Having taught previously at Cornell University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he is currently Professor of Art at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.<br />
<br />
The subject matter of Buzz’s art typically involves an exploration of the idea of the book, the text, and the individual experience of perception through wide-ranging media including sculpture, photography, the artists’ book, printmaking, and installation. In 2012 Sara Ranchouse Publishing issued <i><a href="http://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/buzz-spector/" target="0">Buzzwords</a></i>, a collection of new page art and interviews with Spector spanning thirty years of his work and ideas.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Thread</i></b><br />
<br />
<i>for <a href="http://www.annhamiltonstudio.com/" target="0">Ann Hamilton</a></i><br />
<br />
Action’s auspices, to band or <br />
Braid a chain of events; <br />
Gossamer filaments of this story or that<br />
Lanyard, holding the line, <br />
Passing through in<br />
Procession, a ribbon of events in a <br />
Row, of greatening<br />
Scale or sequence; <br />
Set the track for <br />
Trains of thought to travel<br />
A way.<br />
<br />
<b><i>-- Buzz Spector</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-51939386245106497972015-09-22T17:40:00.000-05:002015-09-23T09:20:00.358-05:00Eileen G'Sell Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, September 28<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhprWg0K8bVkkNb8KQ2PwaOT9UU4m_lfO1DaHvpUBYn0EdR73RhJl9usxYLueKiYjwMVN5H8PbrSqWWbEHeYsPK1PeTQVf8CGK3otNIYcH0S6ibfbRC6tXzXI91ydaQT7TNDGFR98-iPRee/s1600/Petalbombing2+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhprWg0K8bVkkNb8KQ2PwaOT9UU4m_lfO1DaHvpUBYn0EdR73RhJl9usxYLueKiYjwMVN5H8PbrSqWWbEHeYsPK1PeTQVf8CGK3otNIYcH0S6ibfbRC6tXzXI91ydaQT7TNDGFR98-iPRee/s400/Petalbombing2+%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Eileen G'Sell will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a> on Monday, September 28.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Buzz Spector and another reader still to be determined.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click <a href="mailto:anthonyrenner@wustl.edu" target="_blank">here</a> to sign-up via e-mail.<br />
<br />
Eileen G'Sell's nonfiction and poetry have been published in <i>Salon, <a href="http://bostonreview.net/poetry/eileen-gsell-world" target="0">the Boston Review</a>, DIAGRAM, Conduit, Ninth Letter</i>, and other journals. Her chapbook <i>Portrait of My Ex with Giant Burrito</i> is available from BOAAT Press. Since 2004, Eileen has mentored with Mentor St. Louis, now a division of Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club. She teaches writing and film at Washington University in St. Louis.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Portrait of My Ex with Giant Burrito</i></b><br />
<br />
Men have died for less, and I, for one, never asked for more. In the Pacific Northwest are a thousand restaurants, healthy girls, and slutty food. Trees that shade new money humbly greet you on the interstate; intricate tattoos peek from sturdy cotton sleeves. “I consume five thousand calories a day,” he said the day he met me. We spoke about weddings and Sly Stallone; we ranked our favorite dogs by breed. In the morning he kissed my forehead before leaving me for hashbrowns. But he didn’t. Or he couldn’t. And the trees never changed a thing. “Endings are my expertise,” I whisper to the ushers. They are bored with their professions. They are picketing our aisle. In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light.” It was the first—and best—joke ever told.<br />
<br />
<i><b>-- Eileen G'Sell</b></i></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-35369876396590365132015-08-27T18:42:00.000-05:002015-08-27T18:55:21.709-05:00David A.N. Jackson Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, August 31<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJOxxqfhRHoVk9-CSsmosxaFehy5pHxqvxr9FUpwCgBoyGAqsxY4T91GjVuayZdB5zSP-vosY1gHSxYaMeMxuQePQS201YkXdvr4yuUtok_Q6pYQRlPUaJk7IT8mC3qcUHKSUV-0sXHJ_/s1600/david+a.n.+jackson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJOxxqfhRHoVk9-CSsmosxaFehy5pHxqvxr9FUpwCgBoyGAqsxY4T91GjVuayZdB5zSP-vosY1gHSxYaMeMxuQePQS201YkXdvr4yuUtok_Q6pYQRlPUaJk7IT8mC3qcUHKSUV-0sXHJ_/s400/david+a.n.+jackson.jpg" width="263" /></a></div><br />
David A. N. Jackson will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a> on Monday, August 31.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Cheeraz Gormon and Treasure Shields Redmond.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click <a href="mailto:anthonyrenner@wustl.edu" target="_blank">here</a> to sign-up via e-mail.<br />
<br />
David A. N. Jackson is a multidisciplinary performer who's graced local, regional and national stages at a number of venues. He is an actor, visual artist, wood carver, drum carver and percussionist as well as a poet.<br />
<br />
Known around the city and throughout the region as D'Poet, David A. N. Jackson has long been appreciated as a profound and enlightened artist of multiple gifts, talents and abilities. He is an ever-evolving and accomplished percussionist, wood sculptor, artist, poet, and vocalist, just to list a few of his skills, as well as an avid community activist and teacher.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Imbalance of the Spirit</i></b><br />
<br />
like the breath of stagnant water<br />
family should not be<br />
upbringing<br />
And not just on memories<br />
instantly sensed<br />
It is not true, after all,<br />
to be born.<br />
toward evolution<br />
listen with attention<br />
for an initial rendezvous<br />
This creature is called a<br />
Heart Chakra<br />
make very careful study<br />
loosen heavy soil and leave it<br />
Planted beside peach trees<br />
Deep-rooting<br />
at the heart<br />
<br />
<b><i>-- David A. N. Jackson</i></b><br />
(c) D'POET 07.03.2015</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-56425692512963609382015-08-25T21:36:00.000-05:002015-08-27T18:57:36.270-05:00Cheeraz Gormon Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, August 31<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvbpVPMwwFvK4dYepMrtGjATEZ19a-RE2snIKu30myVjAJzH_MIneIV1NrNFAevnyVyUNQA8fG6QtLGBAcFRLCMAjoJWNkWLiP5-uEPWxwxIekB1i4mdd8SMCHIk5z1VaDWm1Dtv-OCVz5/s1600/cheeraz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvbpVPMwwFvK4dYepMrtGjATEZ19a-RE2snIKu30myVjAJzH_MIneIV1NrNFAevnyVyUNQA8fG6QtLGBAcFRLCMAjoJWNkWLiP5-uEPWxwxIekB1i4mdd8SMCHIk5z1VaDWm1Dtv-OCVz5/s400/cheeraz.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Cheeraz Gormon will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a> on Monday, August 31.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be David A. N. Jackson and Treasure Shields Redmond.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click <a href="mailto:anthonyrenner@wustl.edu" target="_blank">here</a> to sign-up via e-mail.<br />
<br />
Cheeraz Gormon is a life-long activist, internationally touring spoken word artist and published poet, documentary photographer turned award-winning advertising copywriter. Cheeraz is currently founder, strategist and storyteller of <a href="http://www.alchemy7creative.com/" target="0">Alchemy 7 Creative</a> located in St. Louis, Missouri.<br />
<br />
Click <a href="http://cheeraz.bandcamp.com/track/you" target="0">here</a> to listen to "Words" by Cheeraz Gormon; music by Brothers Lazaroff (Maurice Mo Egeston remix of "I Could Stay Here For the Rest My Life."<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Beautiful Boy</i></b><br />
<br />
<i>In loving memory of a young man I never met... for Terrence Sands</i><br />
<br />
Beautiful boy<br />
No one told you<br />
That this world would be so cruel<br />
That the cold would brush against your soul<br />
And chafe it<br />
Exposing you to pain<br />
That your mother dreamed of protecting you from<br />
As she watched her belly expand<br />
And that your father<br />
Upon seeing that you were a reflection of him<br />
A manchild<br />
Perhaps swallowed a deep breath<br />
Held it for as long as he could<br />
In hopes that the empty space would make a path for you<br />
<br />
I am a stranger to you<br />
But not to the ways of this world<br />
That you faced<br />
Until your eyes drifted<br />
<br />
Beautiful boy<br />
You have become an ancestor way too soon<br />
Your meeting with manhood<br />
Too short<br />
<br />
Beautiful boy<br />
I hope you know that your skin was Black<br />
But you were never soiled<br />
As this world may have made you believe<br />
Know that you were beautiful, boy<br />
<br />
You are now free<br />
To be what you may have always known you were<br />
<br />
Beautiful boy<br />
Fly<br />
And be<br />
Beautiful<br />
<br />
<b><i>-- Cheeraz Gormon</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-43592101736822878742015-08-25T13:33:00.001-05:002015-08-28T13:52:13.088-05:00Treasure Shields Redmond Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, August 31<div class="separator tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsApR41lGKNDFPncm_Mw5TZX84063KqndOVrCGWSbGknx3PoXyvjcUVDif7DE3ypGg5-AY9HDeQUvxm9uYEDG5efNDtpI5Jk-qr0GI9LnX1W3KybueeCklv7K9aR7xsZ_WQ5cMZuoX_Qe3/s1600/treasure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsApR41lGKNDFPncm_Mw5TZX84063KqndOVrCGWSbGknx3PoXyvjcUVDif7DE3ypGg5-AY9HDeQUvxm9uYEDG5efNDtpI5Jk-qr0GI9LnX1W3KybueeCklv7K9aR7xsZ_WQ5cMZuoX_Qe3/s400/treasure.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Treasure Shields Redmond will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, August 31.<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also featured will be David A. N. Jackson and Cheeraz Gormon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click <a href="mailto:anthonyrenner@wustl.edu" target="_blank">here</a> to sign-up via e-mail.<br />
<br />
A Mississippi native, Treasure Shields Redmond is a St. Louis based poet, performer and educator. She has published poetry in such notable anthologies as <i>Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam</i>, <i>Breaking Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade</i>; and in journals that include the <i>Sou'wester</i> and the <i>African American Review</i>. <br />
<br />
She has received a fellowship to the FineArts Works Center, and her poem, "around the time of medgar" was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Treasure is a Cave Canem fellow and has received an MFA from the University of Memphis. Presently, she divides her time between being an assistant professor of English at Southwestern Illinois College, and doctoral studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>caveat</i></b></blockquote><blockquote>the celluloid vision of jackie o<br />
reflexively reaching for kennedy's brains;<br />
too fast for even her<br />
aristocratic hands.<br />
did she think<br />
she could put it all back together?<br />
her archival papers<br />
(now cool to the touch)<br />
reveal she knew of his philandering --<br />
her mother counseled her to stay .<br />
so maybe that reflexive jump<br />
on the back of a motorcade<br />
was not as mothers flinch,<br />
watching deathless sons<br />
in football games.<br />
but more as a runner,<br />
anticipating the crisp gun shot.</blockquote><blockquote><b><i>-- Treasure Shields Redmond</i></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-26883188691057693282015-07-23T17:48:00.002-05:002015-07-25T11:28:22.972-05:00Marisol Ramirez Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, July 27<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRTdANX0PoHMOWpSAizZi6TAJMZj3qsp13kZ3PbV8NwVIk6ML9JrGIP7tyTioCpCsZSVuATFsbihuJmjQYZZYwBuDc_iwbe9m87OgvaTC4Vg-Sf5_Z9FYjJ-BtXSD7mtXieTZZHtLGP2gM/s1600/ramirez_marisol_300_375.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRTdANX0PoHMOWpSAizZi6TAJMZj3qsp13kZ3PbV8NwVIk6ML9JrGIP7tyTioCpCsZSVuATFsbihuJmjQYZZYwBuDc_iwbe9m87OgvaTC4Vg-Sf5_Z9FYjJ-BtXSD7mtXieTZZHtLGP2gM/s400/ramirez_marisol_300_375.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marisol Ramirez will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, July 27.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also featured will be Matthew Freeman and Jennifer Goldring.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free.</span><br />
<br />
Open-mic follows the featured readers.<br />
<br />
Marisol Ramirez came to her sense in the fall of 2011 and found the courage to call herself a poet. Earlier, she had tentatively been the future lawyer, the future teacher, the future marketing manager—never the writer. She took her first-ever workshop senior year of undergrad simply for pleasure. The problem with dabbling in passionate hobbies is that they might become careers. After graduating from the University of Arizona with a Bachelors in English, she moved across country, away from her Arizona border town, taco stands, open range, rattlesnakes, chorizo con huevos, purple mountain ranges, and flaming sunsets to join the MFA writing program at the University of Missouri St. Louis. In 2014, Ramirez was named the third UMSL poet laureate.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSvYu2ix57MysbSq9_C3Qqcq1YBgGSnZ3TnQ1f8WkXdd0S6ZlqBOh73RNU1clTwpa35Y2eediez8oycvUXa3dbpN3SIapRtDRelbwXqhmyZvEl0z-tLHM1PS_wrvDw1PsKqNkoI2gT9rN/s1600/marisol+poem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSvYu2ix57MysbSq9_C3Qqcq1YBgGSnZ3TnQ1f8WkXdd0S6ZlqBOh73RNU1clTwpa35Y2eediez8oycvUXa3dbpN3SIapRtDRelbwXqhmyZvEl0z-tLHM1PS_wrvDw1PsKqNkoI2gT9rN/s400/marisol+poem.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-75757463873595100922015-07-23T14:18:00.002-05:002015-07-23T14:18:10.130-05:00Jennifer Goldring Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, July 27.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmJjdb5n21iJf11XOShGueZsMibbO66-nLO9TzRqeqACbK-O9HuLdJLbUA3Yy7uEH33cOnsB-_D6WkNTZzeFthMqKwzGZS8hPaciqwxhblbU_lYsW0vNs7h7R7tB5Mvn0x0M2ezOfKHV_2/s1600/goldring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmJjdb5n21iJf11XOShGueZsMibbO66-nLO9TzRqeqACbK-O9HuLdJLbUA3Yy7uEH33cOnsB-_D6WkNTZzeFthMqKwzGZS8hPaciqwxhblbU_lYsW0vNs7h7R7tB5Mvn0x0M2ezOfKHV_2/s400/goldring.jpg" width="311" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jennifer Goldring will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, July 27.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also featured will be Matthew Freeman and Marisol Ramirez.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Open-mic follows the featured readers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Jennifer Goldring, originally from Arizona, received her MFA in Poetry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She was the University of Missouri - St. Louis's Poet Laureate for 2013. Jennifer has her BA in economics from Arizona State University. Despite her training she has given up on solving the world’s economic problems and now writes poetry, which she finds to be a much more meaningful endeavor. When she isn’t writing or taking photos she is Managing Editor for </span><i class="yiv8764167006" id="yiv8764167006yui_3_16_0_1_1437669027261_4997" style="background-color: white;">december </i><span style="background-color: white;">magazine. She lives in St. Louis with her two children and their small menagerie of pets. Her poetry can be found in </span><i class="yiv8764167006" id="yiv8764167006yui_3_16_0_1_1437669027261_4999" style="background-color: white;">Tar River Poetry, Architrave Press,</i><span style="background-color: white;"> and the anthology</span><i class="yiv8764167006" id="yiv8764167006yui_3_16_0_1_1437669027261_5001" style="background-color: white;"> Poetry with a Dash of Salt.</i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-84370507483711445572015-07-23T11:51:00.002-05:002015-07-23T11:56:17.659-05:00Matthew Freeman Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, July 27<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh03Zf7FtiThVbFfTnQPZILhPb5UyBWHXrcDn3bAIQuxeH5PnvCejdo4HJZSyzg84RnaWca6gY8zhPX9zfpLv-Bm9MKc1KRH8PeSYHZ9zdxNX4rAXTRWq7iMv5pQRqOd6aSFCneb0o2mgqI/s1600/matthew-freeman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh03Zf7FtiThVbFfTnQPZILhPb5UyBWHXrcDn3bAIQuxeH5PnvCejdo4HJZSyzg84RnaWca6gY8zhPX9zfpLv-Bm9MKc1KRH8PeSYHZ9zdxNX4rAXTRWq7iMv5pQRqOd6aSFCneb0o2mgqI/s400/matthew-freeman.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Matthew Freeman will be a featured reader at <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, July 27.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Jennifer Goldring and Marisol Ramirez.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free.<br />
<br />
Open-mic follows the featured readers.<br />
<br />
Matthew Freeman woke up and found he was falling when as a teenager his football coach got him into Dylan Thomas and a dear girl friend introduced him to the romantics. So began a wild journey which would leave him expelled from school and committed to an asylum, and diagnosed with schizophrenia. After bouncing in and out of hospitals and drunk tanks he finally began his recovery. He has had four books published and has graduated from Saint Louis University, where he was awarded the Montesi prize, and is now an MFA student at the University of Missouri St. Louis, where he was awarded the Graduate Prize in poetry.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><i>Finally I admit It: Yes, I Am a Bum</i></b><o:p> </o:p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Clear and terror filled my days I<br />
walked as a living affront to realities<br />
not bound,<br />
a thousand miles from my home,<br />
my cap pulled down over my eyes, </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
watching the freight trains roll by.<br />
(when you were sitting on the porch<br />
you could vaguely hear your<br />
father finally cry<br />
from the front room<br />
and you felt like—you<br />
didn’t know—maybe like you<br />
were made out of glass<br />
and could be broken<br />
by a conductor’s baton)<br />
<br />
And now I sit all day with the innocents,<br />
smokinging a cheap cigar,<br />
strumming on my gay guitar,<br />
singing with Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too,<br />
when THAT GUY comes in<br />
wearing a disguise<br />
and it is the PHONE AGAIN<br />
but star 69 does not work,<br />
the yellow birds gather round me,<br />
I look toward the dumpster for redemption<br />
and only beg the Lord<br />
to cast me out amongst the poor. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><i>-- Matthew Freeman</i></b></blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-28496789486984694052015-06-23T11:43:00.000-05:002015-07-23T11:44:00.188-05:00All Open-Mic at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, June 29Open-mic readers will be featured at the •chance operations• reading at the Tavern of Fine Arts, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, June 29.<br />
<br />
Admission is FREE. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1797576156621680867.post-80906159992459761562015-05-14T09:41:00.002-05:002015-05-22T08:10:03.541-05:00Brett Underwood Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, May 25<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibrwa_3IPmTbgadrvLYvRqkLcVxvAHTP09DrUeFIGrNTXs0VUK2q2wm6znRwrNK_zwPCIholsYXI7O-2jfM2kRLUWonakx92c50oE7yA1w4sfEWP0kKcygAucXyIXdzgUov-WZBeqd8SXo/s1600/brett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibrwa_3IPmTbgadrvLYvRqkLcVxvAHTP09DrUeFIGrNTXs0VUK2q2wm6znRwrNK_zwPCIholsYXI7O-2jfM2kRLUWonakx92c50oE7yA1w4sfEWP0kKcygAucXyIXdzgUov-WZBeqd8SXo/s400/brett.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Brett Underwood will be one of the featured readers at the Chance Operations reading at the <a href="http://tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com/" target="0">Tavern of Fine Arts</a>, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, May 25.<br />
<br />
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.<br />
<br />
Also featured will be Raphael Maurice and Cheeraz Gormon.<br />
<br />
Open-mic readers will step up to the mic throughout the evening.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://lungsofthecity.blogspot.com/" target="0">Brett Underwood</a> is a bartending gadabout who writes, promotes and produces happenings and mishaps in St. Louis, Missouri. He's quicker with the stink eye than verbal reprimands and favors the brushback pitch over preemptive warfare. He has the wingspan of an albatross and would prefer cash.<br />
<blockquote><b><i>Autumnal Delusion</b></i><br />
<br />
Funny racism or runny fascism while<br />
ye prisoners of hope and fall colors eat<br />
pumpkin-spiced cold meds and mucous to avoid<br />
neti pot death hot dogs and waitresses flying<br />
in every direction.<br />
<br />
Put wastoids in your gravitas.<br />
Load ether with lead-ladened muchmuck.<br />
Cough up gravy into your designer tissue.<br />
Oh, and Ichabod's head is off the top of the<br />
visitor’s dugout and kagarooing up<br />
the aisle in that horse's ass.<br />
van hit the soybean head shoot dead boy.<br />
<br />
Root for the one percent in your muumuu.<br />
Chug aluminum –bottled water and hoot.<br />
Live it up.<br />
Toss lewd verses to garbage. Your days are few.<br />
Your wool is worthless.<br />
Replay these days and they’ll go back<br />
and look at it stored on yourtube or<br />
reflected in a mirror coffin or<br />
another threat to the environment<br />
babbling DADA in a six-wheeled stroller. <br />
<br />
<b><i>-- Brett Underwood</b></i></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1