Thursday, December 6, 2018

December 6, 2018 (Bill of Rights Day Reading)

Bill of Rights Day Reading
A Benefit for the ACLU
December 6, 2018

Curated by Joan Bauer and Emily Mohn-Slate 
Hosted by the White Whale Bookstore

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From L-R: Cameron Barnett, Emily Mohn-Slate, Sheila Carter-Jones, Mike Schneider, Justin Vicari, Arlene Weiner, Don Wentworth, Celeste Gainey, Joy Katz, Adriana Ramirez, Malcolm Friend, Joan Bauer & Jan Hamilton

Emily Mohn-Slate Introduction

Emily Mohn-Slate - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download
 
Joan Bauer Introduction
 
Joan Bauer - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download


Cameron Barnett holds an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was poetry editor for Hot Metal Bridge, and co-coordinator of Pitt’s Speakeasy Reading Series. He teaches middle school at Falk Laboratory School, and serves as an editor of Pittsburgh Poetry Journal and a board member of The Bridge Series. His work has been nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize, the 82nd Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Prize. His first collection, The Drowning Boy's Guide to Water (Autumn House Press, 2018), was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award.  

Cameron Barnett - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download 

Sheila L. Carter-Jones is the author of Three Birds Deep selected by Elizabeth Alexander as the 2012 winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Book Award and the chapbook Blackberry Cobbler Song. Her chapbook Crooked Star Dreambook was named Honorable Mention for the 2013 New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Contest. Sheila is a fellow of Cave Canem, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and a Walter Dakin Fellow of the 2015 Sewanee Writers' Conference. She has been described by Herbert Woodward Martin as one who writes with "immediacy of tone, voice and language."  

Sheila Carter-Jones - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download 

Malcolm Friend is a poet originally from the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. He received his BA from Vanderbilt University and his MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of the chapbook mxd kd mixtape (Glass Poetry, 2017), and has received awards and fellowships from organizations including CantoMundo, VONA/Voices of Our Nations, Backbone Press, the Center for African American Poetry & Poetics, and the University of Memphis. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including La Respuesta magazine, Vinyl, Word Riot, The Acentos Review, and Pretty Owl Poetry. His first full-length book of poetry, Our Brusies Kept Singing Purple, the winner of the Hillary Gravendyk Prize, was published by the Inlandia Institute in 2018. 

Malcolm Friend - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download 

Celeste Gainey is the author of the full-length poetry collection, the GAFFER (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, 2015), and the chapbook In the land of speculation & seismography (Seven Kitchens Press, 2011), runner-up for the 2010 Robin Becker Prize. The first woman to be admitted to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) as a gaffer, she has spent many years working with light in film and architecture. www.celestegainey.com 

Celeste Gainey - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

Joy Katz has three books of poems; her manuscript in progress, White: An Abstract, documents every minute of whiteness in her life. Her honors include a Stegner fellowship and grants from the NEA, the Heinz Foundation, the Barbara Deming Fund, and Dickinson House in Belgium. She is also a social practice artist, collaborating with musicians, theater practitioners, and choreographers in the pro-beauty, anti-racist art collective IfYouReallyLoveMe. She teachers in Carlow’s Madwomen in the Attic workshops for women and is an editor-at-large for Copper Nickel.  

Joy Katz - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download  

Adriana E. Ramírez is a Mexican-Colombian nonfiction writer, storyteller, critic, and performance poet based in Pittsburgh. She’s the winner of the 2015 PEN/Fusion Emerging Writer’s Prize, for her nonfiction novella, Dead Boys (Little A, 2016). In 2016, she was named “Critic At Large” by the Los Angeles Times’ Book Section.  Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary HubGuernica/ PEN America, ConvolutionHEArt, Apogee, and Nerve.com. She is the author of two small-press poetry books—The Swallows (Blue Sketch Press, reissued 2016) and Trusting in Imaginary Spaces (Tired Hearts Press, 2010)—as well as the nonfiction editor of DISMANTLE (Thread Makes Blanket Press, 2014). Ramírez co-founded Aster(ix) Journal in 2013 with novelist Angie Cruz.  Once a nationally ranked slam poet, she co-founded the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective (home of the Steel City Slam) and the infamous Nasty Slam. She was featured in the 2014 Legends of Poetry Slam Showcase and TEDxHouston, as well as the 2016 Three Rivers Arts Festival. Her debut full-length nonfiction book, The Violence, is forthcoming from Scribner (2018). 

Adriana Ramirez - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download 

Mike Schneider has published in many journals, including Notre Dame Review, New Ohio Review and Poetry. In 2012 he received The Florida Review Editors Award in Poetry. In 2017 he won the Robert Phillips Prize from Texas Review Press, which published his second chapbook, How Many Faces Do You Have? 

Mike Schneider - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download  

Justin Vicari is a poet, cultural critic, and translator. His first collection of poems, The Professional Weepers (Pavement Saw, 2011), won the Transcontinental Award. He is the author of a new collection, In Search of Lost Joy (Main Street Rag, 2018). He has also published monographs on filmmakers Gus Van Sant and Nicolas Winding Refn. 

Justin Vicari - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download  

Arlene Weiner is the author of two poetry collections: City Bird (Ragged Sky, 2016) and Escape Velocity (Ragged Sky, 2006), of which Poet Joy Katz wrote, “I want to keep my favorite of these beautifully alert, surprising poems with me as I grow old.” A MacDowell Colony fellow in 2008, Arlene has been a Shakespeare scholar, a cardiology technician, a college instructor, an editor, and a research associate in educational applications of cognitive science. Her poetry has been published in journals including Off the CoastPleiadesPoet Lore, and U.S. 1 Worksheets, anthologized, and read by Garrison Keillor on his Writer’s Almanac. She also writes plays. Her play Findings was produced by Pittsburgh Playwrights Company in March 2017. 

Arlene Weiner - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download 

Don Wentworth's work reflects his interest in the revelatory nature of brief, haiku-like moments in everyday life.  His poetry has appeared in Modern Haiku, bottle rockets, Frogpond, and Rolling Stone, as well as a number of anthologies.  He is the author of three poetry collections from Six Gallery Press: Past All Traps (2011), Yield to the Willow (2014), and With a Deepening Presence (2016).  Don has two new poetry books forthcoming: a collection of ghazals from Low Ghost and a collaborative collection of tanka written with the British haiku poet, Joy McCall. 

Don Wentworth - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download 

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Saturday, November 10, 2018

November 10, 2018 (Glorious Women Poets)

Glorious Women Poets

On Saturday night Jimmy Cvetic and Gloria Sztukowski hosted a poetry reading to benefit WPAL (Western Pennsylvania Police Athletic League). On hand to participate were 11 local poets. Below you will find photographs of the event along with a recording of each poet's performance.

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Leslie Anne Mcilroy - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Joan Bauer - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Marianne Trale - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Romella Kitchens - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Lynn Emanuel - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Jan Beatty - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Kayla Sargeson - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Daniela Buccilli - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Lori Jakiela - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Shirley Stevens - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)






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Sheila Carter-Jones - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)







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Thursday, August 9, 2018

August 9, 2018 (Jason Baldinger/John Dorsey Book Launch)

Jason Baldinger/John Dorsey Book Launch
August 9, 2018

Jason Baldinger and John Dorsey celebrated the release of two recent books (Baldinger’s This Useless Beauty and Baldinger/Dorsey’s Ugly Side of the Lake). Contributors to this event, besides Baldinger and Dorsey, included Nikki Allen, Victor Clevenger and Vanessa Vesch. Stephanie Brea hosted.

Featured Readers and Performers
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Standing L-R: Hernan Brizuela, John Dorsey, Nikki Allen, Jason Baldinger, Victor Clevenger, Vanessa Vesch & Brian Sproul

Stephanie Brea Introduces Vanessa Vesch 

Stephanie Brea Intro - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download 

Vanessa Vesch is a writer and musician whose poetic work explores anarchist and feminist resistance, language, sound, and bereavement among other themes. To date, she has authored 17 micro-chapbooks, and her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Gourd, B.E. Quarterly, Steel City Revolt, Shades of Gray, and on the now-sadly-departed radio show, Prosody. Through her band, Sweetheart of the Barricades, Vesch (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lyrics and song writing) presents a scorching blues, “yinsurgent-country,” and rock project in celebration of Pittsburgh’s rich labor history, working-class culture, and outlaw folklore. The quartet, comprised of Vesch with Brian Sproul (lead guitar), Hernan Brizuela (vocal harmonies, harmonicas, saxophone), and Jeremy Papay (drums), recently featured on the Saturday Light Brigade, and their debut EP, recorded at MixHaas Studio (produced by Chris “Lurch” Rudyk) will release in the fall of 2018. More love, rage, and ranch at www.sweetheartofthebarricades.com
(Bio Credit: Six Gallery Press) 

Vanessa Vesch - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

Stephanie Brea Introduces Victor Clevenger 

Stephanie Brea Intro - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

When not traveling highways across America, Victor Clevenger spends his days in a Madhouse and his nights writing poetry. Selected pieces of his work have appeared in print magazines and journals around the world, as well as at a variety of places online. In 2017, Victor was nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology, as well as a Pushcart Prize. His most recent published collections of poetry include a split book with Tom Farris titled Ginger Roots Are Best Taken Orally (EMP, 2018) and A Finger in the Hornets’ Nest (Red Flag Press, 2018).
(Bio Credit: Six Gallery Press)

Victor Clevenger - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

Stephanie Brea Introduces Nikki Allen  

Stephanie Brea Intro - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

Nikki Allen is a lover & a writer—with hair an animal & heart clumsy tiger. Scribbling because she must with nearly 20 years of stages in her gut. She has read in cities across the US at music festivals, war protests, backyards and art openings. She is the author of numerous books, including Gutter of Eden, Quite Like Yes, and Ligaments of Light/Tigering the Shoulders (Night Ballet Press). Her work has appeared in Nailed, Crash, The New Yinzer, out of nothing, Profane Journal (Pushcart Prize nominee ‘14/’15) and Encyclopedia Destructica among others. Allen has also contributed vocals to tracks by recording artists Poogie Bell (Question Song) and Jack Wilson (NYC). She believes in revolution, strong coffee, the hard knocks & the sweetness. 
(Bio Credit: Six Gallery Press) 

Nikki Allen - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

Stephanie Brea Introduces John Dorsey  

Stephanie Brea Intro - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

John Dorsey has been writing poetry since the late 1980’s and has been involved in the publishing community for more than two decades. He is the author of around 50 books and chapbooks, a few of the most recent being Being the Fire (Tangerine Press, 2016) and Shoot the Messenger (Red Flag Press, 2017), the latter was funded by Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s English Department. An 11-time Pushcart Prize nominee, his work has appeared more than 2,000 magazines and anthologies from around the world. He has read or spoken at colleges and universities such as the University of Toledo, Assumption College, Cleveland State University, Seton Hill University, University of the Arts, Erie Community College, Southeast Missouri State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, as well as other assorted venues covering 49 states. For several years Dorsey served as a judge for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo’s Art in Tarta Project, which chose poems to be presented on city transit buses. In 2006, he won the Toledo City Paper’s annual poetry and fiction competition, and would go on to serve as a judge the following year, before being named the city’s Best Literary Artist in their 2014 reader poll. In 2010, he also served as a judge for Grievous Jones Press’ Grievous Prize issued in Cardiff, Wales, and in 2013 for the Standing Rock Cultural Arts Open Chapbook Competition in Kent, Ohio. From 2003-2012, he served as an Artist-in-Residence at the Collingwood Arts Center in Toledo, Ohio and in 2015, Dorsey was awarded a Visiting Artist Residency by the Osage Arts Community in Belle, MO, where he currently resides. In 2017 he received a two appointment to serve as Belle’s first city Poet Laureate from Mayor Steve Vogt and has gone on to found the city’s first literary publication the Gasconade Review, which he edits with Jason Ryberg. He is a graduate of the University of Arts’ Writing for Film and Television program, completing his education there in 2002, and 2017 he served as the subject for a poetry documentary by NYC filmmaker Carson Parish. He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com 
(Bio Credit: Six Gallery Press) 

John Dorsey - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

Stephanie Brea Introduces Jason Baldinger  

Stephanie Brea Intro - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

Jason Baldinger is a poet hailing from Pittsburgh and recently finished a stint as writer in residence at the Osage Arts Community. He’s the author of several books, the most recent are This Useless Beauty (Alien Buddha Press), The Ugly Side of the Lake (Night Ballet Press) written with John Dorsey and the chaplet Fumbles Revelations (Grackle and Crow) which are available now. The collection Fragments of a Rainy Season (Six Gallery Press) and the split book with James Benger Little Fires Hiding (Spartan Press) are forthcoming. Recent publications include the Low Ghost Anthology Unconditional Surrender, The Dope Fiend Daily, Outlaw Poetry, Uppagus, Lilliput Review, Rusty Truck, Dirtbag Review, In Between Hangovers, Your One Phone Call, Winedrunk Sidewalk, Anti-Heroin Chic, Nerve Cowboy Concrete Meat Press, Zombie Logic Press, Ramingo’s Porch, Rye Whiskey Review, Red Fez, Blue Hour Review and Heartland! Poetry of Love, Solidarity and Resistance. You can hear Jason read poems on recent and forthcoming releases by Theremonster and Sub Pop Recording artist The Gotobeds as well as at jasonbaldinger.bandcamp.com 
(Bio Credit: Six Gallery Press)

Jason Baldinger - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download

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Thursday, August 2, 2018

August 2, 2018 (The Jimmy & Nick Show)

The Jimmy & Nick Show
August 2, 2018

The Roberto Clemente Museum hosted a hastily improvised reception that featured readings by Nick Nolte and Jimmy Cvetic. Below you will find a recording of the event. And photographs!

But first, here is a link to the story about Jimmy and Nick that aired on WESA-FM after the event: WESA Story About Jimmy & Nick by Bill O'Driscoll 

The Jimmy & Nick Show - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download 

 Gloria
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 Jimmy
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 Jimmy & Santa Claus
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Nick & Jimmy
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Nick & Jimmy
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Nick
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  Jimmy
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