The Mad Poets Blog

Tuesday September 11, 6pm – Poetry-Robins Book Store- 108 S. 13^th,
Philadelphia, Pa.

A Tribute to Sandy Crimmins Readers: Michelle Belluomini, Dan Collins, Eileen D’Angelo, Denise Larrabee, Jim Mancinelli, stevenallenmay, Dennis O’Donnell, Maria Raha, Joy Stocke

Michele A. Belluomini is a poet, storyteller, and librarian. Her work has been published in many journals including Poetry Motel, The MadPoets Review, American Writing, APR: Philly Edition, Philadelphia Poets and, most recently, in the anthology, COMMONWEALTH: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania, as well as in Philly Ink. She has read in many places throughout the area, for the NJ Council on the Arts, and in New York. She helps to coordinate the Monday Poets reading series at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Dan Collins has been a performing poet with the grassroots collective Compassionately Stoneground Books (Ithaca, NY) since 1993. His first publication from Plan B Press, of go & why, was released in the spring of 2007. He’s performed his poetry recently at Live at the Kelly Writers’ House on WXPN Philadelphia, Wolfgang Books (Phoenixville, PA), Robin’s Bookstore (Philadelphia), Chaplin’s Music Cafe (Spring City), the Delaware Art Museum, Wells College (NY), and Moosewood Cafe Ithaca, NY). Dan’s primary influences are his fellow C. Stoneground and Plan B Press poets, including Glen Ahart, Joshua McCardle, Maria Raha, Daniel J. Kiely, Liam F. O’Kane, James Feenaughty, Lee Francis III, stevenallenmay, Lamont B. Steptoe, Sandy Crimmins, Shane Tea French, John Sinclair, and many more.

Jim Mancinelli is a Philadelphia poet, schooled in the alleyways of South Philly, listening to Italian folk tales, looking at people upside-down, and freed by a beat with a beat. Jim has published in Sea Change, the Schuylkill Valley Journal for the Arts, in multiple issues of Philadelphia Poets, in NOW! (then), a poetry anthology comprised of poets who have read for the Eternal NOW! poetry series at Robin’s Bookstore, and in Poetry Ink, an anthology of Philadelphia poets published in 2006 by Plan B Press. He has been a featured reader for Poets + Prophets, Giovanni’s Room, Voices and Visions, and at Robin’s Bookstore for the Eternal Now! Poetry Series in Philadelphia. Jim represented Robin’s Bookstore’s Eternal Now! Poetry Series at the 2nd Annual Philadelphia Poetry Festival at the Central Library. He has read in Wilmington at the Buzz Café and was invited to read at the Italian-American Festival on June 6, 2004 in Philadelphia. In March of 2006, Jim was a featured reader in the Monday Night Series at the Central Library. In 2005 and in 2006, Jim was part of the 215 Literary Festival. His first chapbook, Primer, is self-published. A collection of poems, In Deep, was published by Plan B Press appeared in August, 2004. Two poetic political broadsides, A Bundle of Sticks, and A Proud Son Writes Home, are self-published indictments of the Bush administration’s policies and the oppression of the GLBT community. Jim has also been a judge for three consecutive years in the Plan B Press poetry chapbook contest and the short fiction contest. Jim has an ongoing series of poems he calls daliesques informed by the work of Salvador Dalí. He is currently at work on a new series of spiritual pieces, The Bartimeus Poems. Jim proudly lives in Philadelphia with his partner Dave, his three guitars, and Petey the Needy, their dog.

Maria Raha is an editor, and author of the nonfiction book Cinderella’s Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground, published by Seal Press in 2005. She also contributes to Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, and is working on her second nonfiction book, to be published by Seal in 2008. Her poetry has been published in a many a long-forgotten ‘zine. New to Philadelphia, her life continues to be an unbridled, passionate pursuit of outsiders, fellow cowgirls and politicized art.

Joy E. Stocke is Executive Editor of the online magazine, Wild River Review,www.wildriverreview.com In addition, she is founding partner of Writers Corner USA www.writerscornerusa.com, where she consults with writers at all levels, specializing in book proposals and book length manuscripts.

Eileen D’Angelo a paralegal by day and a mad poet at night, has been nominated for a Governor’s Award in the Arts and a Pushcart Prize in Poetry.  She judged
Philadelphia area poets in open auditions for the HBO pilot/series, Def Poetry Jam  and also for the Four State Poetry Slam, sponsored by Minority Business Focus, at New Market Caberet in Philadelphia.   Her manuscript, True Tales from the Home Front, was a finalist in both the University of North Carolina’s Palanquin Press Chapbook Competition and Byline Chapbook Competition.  She has read her work on several television arts programs — most recently on “Poet’s Pause” on BCTV-Berks County Community Television, WXPN’s (88.5 fm) World Cafe Live, and Cafe Improve, a live television broadcast in Princeton, NJ, and surrounding areas. She was interviewed by Kenn Michael for WBIY (88.1 fm) for the Lehigh Valley and by Dee Patel of KYW-1060 News Radio in
Philadelphia. A two time finalist in the Allen Ginsberg Competition sponsored by the Paterson Literary Review, Eileen has been the Director of the Mad Poets Society since 1988 and has coordinated hundreds of events, over 60 poetry readings per year since 1990.  She has served as Editor of the Mad Poets Review since the first issue in 1990, and has been a Contributing Editor for the literary journal, HELLAS, A Journal of Arts and Humanities.

Anna Mendoza, Alla Vilnyanshkaya and Adam Coben wowed a packed house at Milk Boys in Bryn Mawr on Thursday evening. The standing room only crowd of over 70 enjoyed the poetry of the trio of features and an outstanding open mic.  The event was hosted by the effervescent Autumn Konopka who kept the evening flowing. There are many events this month offered by the Mad Poets Society, please check out the calendar over here and come out and enjoy>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A Little Winter Madness, poets to be announced

Featured readings
Hosted by Arlene Bernstein

Lori Cosgrove Design
643 Chester Pike
Prospect Park, PA 19076
610-633-8519

*See full schedule for this series. 

A Little Autumn Madness, featuring Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore and other poets to be announced.

Featured readings
Hosted by Arlene Bernstein

Lori Cosgrove Design
643 Chester Pike
Prospect Park
(Right off Rt. 420)

*See the full schedule for this series.

Diane Sahms-Guarnieri & Tom Devaney

Featured Readings followed by open mic
Hosted by Autumn Konopka

Milkboy Acoustic Cafe
824 W. Lancaster Ave.
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
610-527-0690

*See the full schedule for this series.

Courtney Bambrick & Barbara Torode

Featured Reading followed by open mic
Hosted by Autumn Konopka

Milkboy Acoustic Cafe
824 W. Lancaster Ave.
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
610-527-0690

*See the full schedule for this reading.

Jenn McCreary & Chris McCreary

Featured reading followed by open mic
Hosted by Autumn Konopka

Milkboy Acoustic Cafe
824 W. Lancaster Ave.
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
610-527-0690

*See full schedule for this series.

About the Poets… (Continued)

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.

Dear Poets,

As Eileen D’Angelo likes to say, COME OUT AND PLAY!  Laugh, beam, giggle, grin, titter, roar, smile, smirk, and let it all hang out at another fun meeting of the Mad Poets Society Critique Circle THIS Wednesday September 5, 2007 at 7:00 pm.

Bring your sense of humor and 10 copies of an original poem in progress for positive, constructive feedback on your writing, and the company of other local poets.

   9 East State Street, Media, PA 19063 (across State Street from Trader Joe’s)
    Jim Pierson, Manager
    JPierson@Harvestbooks .com,  www.HarvestBooks.com, 610-566-3191

Come early and shop — many books are only $1 or $2 — you can’t afford to NOT shop here!

If you have any questions, please call or email me. See you there!

Adam Coben hosts the Blam reading series held in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. He has performed his work at numerous venues in Philadelphia and the United States. Adam attended the Jack Keroauc School of Disembodied Poetics and has had his work published in Spectrum Magazine, Besides Person, Young Jewish Voices, Hinge Online and N.U.T.S. journal. Adam currently has two projects in the works, Naked Howl a developing on line journal and a chapbook in progress entitled, “The Red in Black on White”. He will be reading his works on September 6^th for the Mad Poets at the Milk Boy Café in Bryn Mawr with poets Anna Mendoza and Alla Vilnyanskaya. 

The Interview:

Q.  As a performance poet who also writes do you find it difficult to put poetry that is well liked live to paper and have it appreciated by those who read it?

Wow- this is a question I have ruminated about a lot.  Early on in my writing journey I wrote a lot for myself as the listener; then transitioned to doing performance/spoken word poetry.   The change occurred after I heard a spoken word poet; I think his name was Kahlil, in this underground poetry club in
Boston.  This was around 1993 and I had been writing these short confessional poems, that all ended in ellipsis.  I saw him and was completely blown away.  I subsequently found the Beats and started writing performance pieces.  I think it took me years to realize that my pieces were for an intended listening audience.  I liked the thrill of the audience being startled, or laughing, and crying.  The older I get, as a poet, the more I look at my poems as pieces of art on the page.   I think many poets go through the transition, from writing because they have to (emotional crisis), to writing to please an audience, to writing for the sake of their own artistic voice or center.  As I work to be more and more published I realize that my voice changes due to the fact that I’m analyzing my poetry for how it moves on the page.  I want my work to transport the reader- not necessarily to the experience that I’m conveying (although that’s wonderful) but beyond to a new internal emotional, psychological, social, or spiritual shift.  I want them to have their own poetic revolution every time they hear a piece of mine.  I’m also not overly concerned about what people like- I want to challenge them to go beyond their self when they listen to my work; if this happens in performance or on the page than I’m lucky.  I have to stay true to my ever evolving voice- if an audience gets it I’m even more blissed out.

 Q. The “Blam” reading series in East Falls is getting a lot of “buzz”. Please describe an evening at the series. 

 I’m very excited about Blam!!!  A perspiring earth shaking evening starts with our guests/poets/writers/performers arriving around 7pm and we all eat, drink (The Set Table is BYO), communicate for about a half hour, so the libations of conversation, food and drink fuel us.  Many artists contact me to sign up for the reading/open mic in advance, for those who did not sign up in advance,  I pass around a sheet for all to set their slot.  I usually give a short intro for each poet/performer.  We have an eclectic mixture of performers- newbies, lyricists, spoken word artists, story tellers, emo-poets, comedic gut busters, hip hop heads, surrealist realist imagists and the list could go on; but I’m not good at categorizing.  Then we let the night roll- each performer gets 7 minutes.  We have had folks like Tamara Oakman, Peter Baroth, Michael Kennedy, Mel Brake, Michael Cohen, J-knivez, and Courtney Bambrick.  People have told me, after two separate readings that they have been “the best open mics they have been to.”  Shit, I hope that continues. For me, I threw it together because poetry, art..etc…is about community/revolution and fun.  I have too much fun.  We are also now highlighting a different community/charitable organization at each open mic.  They get time to speak, recruit volunteers and raise awareness.  I believe poetry - in order to be relevant- must stay connected to its service roots.  To be a poet is to serve the community; so it’s our duty to help social causes. 

Q.  You are currently developing an on line journal tentatively entitled “Naked Howl”, will the journal be monthly or quarterly and what is the targeted audience?

NakedHowl is still in its first stage of conception right now.  I intend to have it be quarterly- and will have space for poetry, fiction, non-fiction, small films, political rants, and music.  I am working with Ms. Arlene Ang, who resides in Italy, and we are just beginning to piece it together.  NakedHowl’s title is gleamed from two aspects of Ginsberg.  “Naked”comes from a story in his Biography, Dharma Lion, by Michael Schumacher.  Ginsberg was heckled on stage by some asshole and Ginsberg proceeded to strip his clothes off and scare the heckler out and shouted, “The poet is always naked on stage.”  The story leads me to adopt the poetic name Naked, for several years due to the frank quality of my work, and join it to Ginsberg’s masterpiece for the Web journal’s name.  The target audience needs to still be formulated, but will probably service the edgy- off beat mind altering work I know and love; from such a text as the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.

Q. Your attendance at the Jack Keroauc School of Disembodied Poetics had a major impact on your view of poetics. Please describe the impact and the resulting transformation. 

The strangest impact the school had on me was being anti-poetic for a while afterwards.  I wanted poetry to strip down consciousness when I was at the Kerouac School.  I wanted an all out revolution. I wanted the poets I was hanging with to tear up money and use poetry as a means of commerce.  I was definitely an anomaly at the time at the school.  I was very much full of fire at the time and the place was too watery- too emotional and less actualized. I actually threw out everything that I owned- including my poetry- I was a monk on fire- I got burned out due to my own flame. I was probably just a lost ego maniac, who was suffering with samasara.  Finding my ground in what I was taught- which essentially was traditional workshopping, along with mind bending/calming conscience techniques (meditation/chanting/tai chi), made me crave a balance for my work.  I think it has only really begun to materialize in the last year.  I am balancing the written poem, the performance, with creating community and expanding it.  So in a sense- poetry has become commerce for better or worse- a definite marriage made in balance.

Q.  Your poem “A cold blush in four parts” was published at the Hinge (http://www.hingeonline.com/works_literary.php?contribID=202&vi=7:4 ). The poem is trim yet the images stunning. Is this poem reflective of your work overall?

This piece is probably reflective of my work in its purist form; but to say overall would not be fair to the rest of my pieces.  I have gone through a recent phase where a lot of my work was structured in about 4-7 stanzas; but I have written monster pieces and even shorter pieces.  I have now come to a place where I am using stanzas with four lines a lot, and the imagery is mixing with wry humor or philosophical emotional charges.  More and more I’m seeing the poems in my head as I drive, walk, meditate or shit.  I guess I do have a tendency to want a poem to be bare bones and to catch the reader off guard in its brevity.  I want the reader to read the piece and elongate the poem in their heart’s eye; if they have to.

Q. Music currently dominates a new generation as it develops; as a ninth grade English teacher do you see an increased awareness of poetry and a desire to write poetry with your students?

I’m not sure that an increased awareness for the poetry that comes off the page is occurring, but my students are so inundated with music lyrics they are definitely closet poets.  For the majority of students- poetry evokes fear and vulnerability and I teach at Dobbins; where these two qualities are hidden with a false state of bravado.  Many of my students love rap, and R&B.  They are tantalized by the creativity of certain lyricists- Young Jeezy, Kanye West, Jay Z, to name a few.  I do force my students to write poetry and place almost no restrictions on the content.  They get to write sonnets, haiku, stream of consciousness poems, list poems, and more.  It becomes a good outlet for the frustrations that my teenagers have. 

Q. You are currently working on a chapbook entitled “The Red in Black on White” when should we anticipate completion and what direction is the work moving in?

I’m targeting late October, but I’m taking a wait and see attitude right now.  I just got word three of my pieces will be published in pipebombmagazine.org and I have pieces pending in several other publications.  I’m curious which pieces will be accepted and that may effect how I proceed with the chapbook.  I have been working (gratefully) with Leonard Gontarek- one on one for the last two months- as a sounding board/poetic mentor- to see what pieces will work best together in a book of about 25 pieces.  I also have written so frequently that I tend to look at the poems I have produced today, rather than two months ago.  The pieces that will probably be in my chapbook will be erotic pieces focused on my wife, political pieces and short narrative pieces; actually all of the pieces are 18 lines or less.

Q. On September 6^th you will be reading at the Milk Boy Café in Bryn Mawr with poets Anna Mendoza and Alla Vilnyanshkaya. I have seen the three of you read your works before and anticipate a dynamic evening of po from the three of you. What can folks expect from Adam Coben on the 6^th?

Laughter, laughter, laughter, gratitude, drooling, drooling, water drinking, exhibitionist behavior, blowing kisses to my wife as long as she is there, laughter, ah poetry.