The Mad Poets Blog

A Smattering of Young Voices:  Adam Coben, Anna Mendoza, and Alla Vilnyanskaya

Featured readings, followed by an open mic
Hosted by Autumn Konopka

Milkboy Acoustic Cafe
824 West Lancaster Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
(610) 527-0690

*See the full schedule for this series.

About the Readers

Adam Coben began writing rap in 93′ while smoking blunts in the back seat of his Toyota Forerunner. He performed in countless ciphers until he was nineteen. Then he found Ginsberg. His work evolved to a surrealistic form of dynamic imagery, when he was given the opportunity to read at Northeastern’s radio station with Tony Trugillio and others. Luckily this is where he was also first published. He came back to Philly and began to read/perform at the Painted Bride, and Vincent’s Cafe. He decided to go the Jack Keroauc School of Disebodied Poetics to start a poetic revolution. He quickly became one of the most sought after performance poets at the school. He performed at the Fox Theater (the lone rep from the Kerouac school) as part of performance poetry night. He also was featured at the Left Hand Bookstore for his work as well as at Penny Lane Coffeehouse, where Ginsberg also performed many, many times. Returning back to Philly Adam became a ninth grade English teacher and continued to write; but with performance on hold for some time. Then he was given the opportunity to sing, perform and read his work at the Tin Angel. In the last year he has been featured at Robin’s bookstore, and Voices and Visions. He also started a reading/open mic in East Falls, which is quickly growing into a budding poetic community. (Email Adam Coben at adamreal2000@yahoo.com for details). He has been published in Spectrum Magazine, Besides Person, Young Jewish Voices, HiNge Online and N.U.T.S journal. Also he is currently starting his own on line journal called NakedHowl and a chapbook entitled The Red In Black on White.

Anna Mendoza is a senior English-Creative Writing double major at Bryn Mawr College and a student of poetry and fiction. Growing up in Vancouver, Canada, she was awarded 1st prize in numerous writing contests for students in her province. In 2005-06 she appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Poets in the News series and in 2006 won 1st prize in FOUND Magazine’s writing competition for MFA students across the country. She would like to dedicate her first reading that isn’t an Open Mike reading, creative writing class reading, or college lit mag reading to the rest of Professor Karl Kirchwey’s muses-in-training.

Alla Vilnyanskaya was born in the Ukraine and moved to the states with her family in 1989. She has been writing since she was 16 years old. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in writing with a Poetry track. She currently works as an Admin Asst at the McNeil center at the University of Pennsylvania, and aspires to earn her MFA in poetry writing. She has been published in several online magazines including the Aurora Review, Scars, Lost Beat Poetry and Flutter. This is her first “Featured” reading.