The Mad Poets Blog

We are pleased to announce the second edition of the Fox Chase Review is now live and on line at Fox Chase Review . This edition contains the work of the featured poets for 2009 at the Mad Poets Society Fox Chase Reading Series held at 3 Sisters Corner Café in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia.

Featured in this edition are:Mike Cohen, Thomas Devaney,  Diane Sahms-Guarnieri,  J.C. Todd,Justin Vitiello,  Ellen Peckham, Chad Parenteau, Ray Greenblatt, Amy King,  Amy Ouzoonian, Vincent Quatroche,  Timothy Gager,Frank Sherlock, CA Conrad, Louis McKee, Beth Phillips Brown, Mel Brake, and Adam Meora

We hope you enjoy the work of these poets and explore the literary links and our 2009

schedule for the MPS Fox Chase Reading Series at Fox Chase Review . 

  Light of Unity Association

   www.myspace.com/light_of_unity 

Poets Devour
America for Charity:It’s Arsenic Pizza!                           

 Philadelphia, PA – The Light of Unity Association (LOU), comes together from the farthest corners of Pennsylvania to unite their skills – serenity, commentary, beauty, gospel, obscurity, absurdity, sexuality, gothic horror and a little bit of blues – to present a multi-genre attack. Arsenic Pizza will blow the audience away with work ranging from hellish to ticklish in a balance of rough & smooth, yin & yang  spoken word-poetry-music  genius. This one time only, if-you-miss-this-you-will-never-forgive-yourself show will be at

The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street (Near the Bridge Movie Theater), on Thursday, September 4^th 2008 at 7:00 p.m.  Part tragedy, part rock concert, part comedic meditation, the Light of Unity quickly switches between poets and passions to show the realities and complexities of Rape, War, Poverty and our Environmental Impact. Quincy Scott Jones, performance veteran/college professor says, “It’s like watching Fox News, except we occasionally throw in an accurate fact or two.”  LOU will be joined by longtime well-known revolutionary poet Yolanda Wisher and Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore whom has been a component in unity and peacemaking for thirty years. To bring it all together is Rick Szybowski with a live, musical mastery that would make Beethoven’s dust turn over in Jimi Hendrix’s grave.  Arsenic Pizza: No surrender. No mercy. No anchovies. 

LISTINGS INFORMATION: 

What:     Arsenic Pizza:    Interdisciplinary

When:    Thursday, September 4^th 2008 at 7:00 p.m. , doors open at 6:30p.m.

Where:   The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104(Near the Bridge Movie Theater)Ticket:    $10, purchase at the door or through the Live Arts and Philly Fringe Box Office ($5, students and patrons under 25) FESTIVAL INFORMATION The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe runs from August 29 – September 13, 2008. The Festival Box Office will open for phone [(215) 413-1318] and walk up sales [location TBA] in August 18th. Festival Guides, which the include dates, times, and venues for all performances for both Festivals, will be available mid-August at all Festival venues, and other locations throughout the city.  The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe were originally founded in 1997 as the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Today, the Live Arts Festival serves as a series of selected cutting-edge, boundary-breaking performing arts events, created by some of the most renowned contemporary artists from our region and around the world. The Fringe serves as a collective home for artists bringing their work to audiences in every conceivable form – in traditional and untraditional venues, using new artistic forms and established ones, breaking rules or refining them. The Philly Fringe Festival, visit www.liveartsandfringe.com FOR MORE INFORMATION: 

…about The Light of Unity Association, contact toakman@arcadia.edu 

…about Arsenic Pizza, visit www.myspace.com/light_of_unity

…about The Rotunda, visit www.therotunda.org/

…about Germantown Poets, visit www.gfsnet.org/gpf/gpf.html

…about The American Red Cross, visit www.redcross.org/

On Thursday, August 14, 2008, at 7:00 p.m., the Mad Poets Society will present a poetry reading featuring Camille Norvaisis and Alyce Wilson, followed by an open mike, at the Milk Boy Acoustic Café (in the Bryn Mawr Film Institute) 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, hosted by Joseph Dorazio.    

           Alyce Wilson received her MFA in poetry from Pennsylvania State University, and co-founded the online literary quarterly Wild Violet, with the goal of making the arts more accessible to contemporary readers. In 2003, she published her first book of poetry, “Picturebook of the Martyrs,” and is has just completed her second book of poetry. At the moment she is in the research stage for her next project: a book on wedding planning entitled “My Wedding, My Way: Real Women, Real Weddings, Real Budgets.”         

Camille Norvaisas lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and operates her own sign business.  She started writing poetry after taking an inspiring class with Dr. Christopher Bursk fourteen years ago. Her most recent recognition was as a finalist in the Mad Poets Competition for her poem “Paukstukas.” She was twice named 1^st runner-up in the Bucks County Poet Laureate Competition and is a co-poetry editor at the Schuylkill Valley Journal. Currently she is working on a chapbook titled, “Perhaps It Was Adam With The Apple.”

It was hot and it was July at 3 Sisters Corner Café the venue that hosts the MPS Fox Chase Reading Series. It was another packed house to hear the poetics of Glenn McLaughlin and Arlene Bernstein. Following the features for the open mic were Bob Finkelstein, Arthur Krasnow, Sincere Melody and J. Knivez.

The final reading for the Fox Chase Series for 2008 is Sept. 27^th at 2pm when MacGregor Rucker and Autumn Konopka will feature. For more information on the poets reading in Fox Chase or for the 2009 schedule please visit www.foxchasereview.org

MPS Fox Chase Reading Series on Saturday, July 26 @2pm features Poets Glenn McLaughlin and Arlene Bernstein 3 Sister Corner Café ,7950 Oxford Ave., (corner of Barnes and Loney), Philadelphia, Pa.19111

In 2004, Arlene Bernstein created Friends of Poetry as a vehicle for performing her poetry and to highlight local poets and musicians, which she does regularly throughout the Main Line/Philadelphia/Media area in coffee shops, libraries, book stores, and private salons. She is a member of Mad Poets Society, New Philadelphia Poets, Freshmeadow Poets of Flushing, NY, and the
Bonnie Baillis Havertown Poetry Circle . Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize (for a poem and an essay), she has also won contests locally and been published in many local and far-flung journals. She also writes fiction. 

Glenn McLaughlin is a former plastics sales representative and a soon-to-be-former COO of a bio-medical start-up company. While he started reading and writing at age appropriate times in his life those activities did not include poetry until he was well into his fifth decade (not required for his chemistry degree). In the decade since, he has been published in several regional and online journals, published a volume of poems (”Something Catches,” Roland Street , 2006) and has been invited to read at the Philadelphia Library plus numerous venues throughout the mid-Atlantic area. He conceived of and hosts the poetry series “Otherwise – Poetry at Churchill” in Pottstown, PA where he resides with his wife and their numerous pets, his children having reached the point of self-sufficiency and flown the coop though still easily able to show up for dinner.

It was a hot Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia and even hotter at the MPS Fox Chase Reading Series at the 3 Sisters Corner Café in Fox Chase. The series hosted by G Emil Reutter and Kristine Grow featured Poets Vincent Quatroche of Fredonia New York and Alla Vilnyanskaya of Ardmore Pennsylvania who shared their poetry with a packed house. Following the features, poets Paul Selbst, Bob Finklestein, Diane Sahms-Guarnieri and Arthur Krasnow delighted the crowd with their work. Liz and Kristin of 3 Sisters Corner Café served up hot and cold drinks and treats from the 3 Sisters Menu.

The MPS Fox Chase Reading Series resumes on July 26 at 2pm with featured poets Arlene Bernstein and Glenn McLaughlin.  

Adam Meora and Tamara Oakman shared their poetic stylings on June 19th at the Mad Poets Society Delaware County Institute of Science Reading hosted by Eileen D’Angelo. Meora and Oakman embraced the crowd and brought them on a roller coaster ride of emotions during this outstanding reading.  

The Fox Chase Reading Series presents Poets Vincent Quatroche and Alla Vilnyanskaya at The 3 Sisters Corner Café at Barnes and Loney Streets, June 28^th at 2pm.

Vincent Quatroche is poet and Professor from Fredonia State University in New York. He has recorded several cd’s to include “Matador from Another Planet” and “In Dreamthink” Vincent has published several volumes of poetry and prose most recently “Cyberstein”.  His website is www.rubbereden.com .

Alla Vilnyanskaya was born in the Ukraine and moved to the U.S. when she was 8 years old. She has been writing poetry since the age of sixteen. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Communications and writing with a poetry track. She has been published in online journals such as Flutter, Aurora Review and Lost Beat Poetry. and the Fox Chase Review. You can visit her website at: http://www.tushkanchik.com

You can visit the Fox Chase Review at www.foxchasereview.org

In the middle of a Philadelphia Heat Wave Richard Bank curator of the MPS Blue Grotto Series welcomed the Center City Poets to feature at the Grotto. The Poets read to a large crowd gathered in The Blue Grotto created by Artist Randy Dalton. Diane Sahms-Guarnieri hosted her fellow poets Mary Brucker, Eileen Moeller, Cheryl Mercier, Walt Feldman, Rafi Levi, Paul Selbst and Liz Quiqley.

The Blue Grotto is located at the Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave. in
Philadelphia. The Grotto a creation of Randy Dalton features over a hundred blue light sculptures, models and memorabilia. For more information call 215-779-4566.

MAD POETS OPEN MIKE NIGHT

AT TAYLOR’S AT THE OLDE MILL

            On Thursday, May 22, 2008, at 7:00 p.m., Mad Poets Society will present a Mad Poets Open Mike Night, featuring poets and musicians from the Philadelphia and five county area.   This special event will be hosted by Joseph Dorazio.  Taylor’s at the Olde Mill is located at 200 W. Marshall St., Norristown, PA 19401.

Each month, Mad Poets will present a special musical guest, to kick off the open mike.  This exciting new series, which will be held on fourth Thursdays through 2008, offers an entertaining open forum for musicians, poets, singer-songwriters, drummers–  anything goes!   Anyone who enjoys listening to poetry and music is welcome.  Share your own poetry or your favorite poets’ work!  Bring your musical instruments, home- grown tunes or cover music, it is a warm and welcoming crowd. 

            In addition, you can have an incredible dinner at Taylor’s, a four story grist mill (circa 1880), and order from the extensive menu, specializing in American cuisine, in a rustic, historic setting on the banks of Stoney Creek. And there’s valet parking to make your life easier. 

            Join us for an entertaining evening.  Throughout 2008, the remaining special events will be held on June 26, September 25, and October 23.  The event is free and open to the public.

            For directions or reservations, contact Taylor’s at the Olde Mill at 610-272-2011, or see the website at www.taylorsoldemill.com  For information about this or other Mad Poet events, see www.madpoetssociety.com, or contact Eileen D’Angelo at 586-9318.