The Mad Poets Blog

This comes from Victor Schwartzman at the Guild of Outsider Writers. If you have been published in the small press or operate a small or alternative press you may want to check this out. The link is  http://www.outsiderwriters.org/content/view/508/1/

To go directly to the petition site click here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/amazoncom-should-create-an-alternative-literature-section

Mad Poet Ashraf Osman maintains a poetry calender that includes Mad Poet Events as well as other Philadelphia area poetry events. If you would like to see what is going on please visit the calender here: http://freecal.brownbearsw.com/PhillyPoetry If you want to add an event please follow the directions or contact Ashraf. You can also visit the Philly Poetry Site at : http://www.phillypoetry.com/

The final reading of 2007 at the Last Word Bookshop in University City was a blast. Leonard Gontarek, the host, presented a diverse group of poets consisting of Robyn Alter-Bielana, Ish Klein & Amy Ouzooian. Philadelphia poets Amy Small McKinney and Louis McKee were also in attendance with the standing room crowd. It was a good evening of poetry in University City.

FROM EILEEN D’ANGELO

TOMORROW - OCTOBER 7th!  NOON TO FIVE PM ! 

    The 20th ANNUAL MAD POETS FESTIVAL !

All day poetry readings between noon and five, reception follows, light refreshments served all day.  Special Guest: Daniel Hoffman will read at five pm. Check the line-up of incredible poets below ! Don’t miss a minute of this annual mad poets party !  Held in in Parlor at  MEDIA BOROUGH HALL, which is between 3rd and 4th Streets and Jackson & Monroe Streets in Media.  ()Don’t feed the meters, the meter maids are OFF!)    This event is held in conjunction with the Media Food & Arts Festival on State Street in Media.  There are bands in the streets, arts, crafts, and all the local restaurants put out booths with fantastic food for this festival.  We are 2 blocks back at Media Borough Hall. 

    State St. is closed to traffic, but you can take MONROE STREET , back to the Media Borough Hall, and cross through the street fair. Monroe will not be closed, but Jackson Street will be closed.  Below the Festlval Schedule will be directions.  HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE !  Be well, Eileen

2007 MAD POETS FESTIVAL SCHEDULE – APPROX. TIMES

FIRST SET HOSTED BY G. EMIL REUTTER

    BETWEEN NOON AND 1 PM

ROCKY MARCELLUS

KRYSTLE MARCELLUS

DANIEL MARCELLUS

JOY ROSE

LYNN BLUE

DUYEN DeGAIN

KASIA NEWCOMER

ALICE WOOTSON

CHRISTOPHER BROADBELT

DAVID KOZINSKI

SHORT BREAK  (No more than 10 min.)

  2^ND SET HOSTED BY EILEEN D’ANGELO

    BETWEEN  1 PM AND 2 PM  

BETH PHILLIPS BROWN

NATHALIE ANDERSON

RICHARD MOYER

CLAUDIA BEECHMAN

BRIAN SAMMOND

WILLIAM HETZNECKER

STEVE CONCERT

CAROL CLARK WILLIAMS

JOANNE LEVAN

SHORT BREAK

* 3^RD SET HOSTED BY EMILIANO MARTIN  

BETWEEN 2 PM AND 3 PM  

DIANE GUARNIERI

TAMARA OAKMAN

LINDA FISCHER

GLENN McLAUGHLIN

STEVE DELIA

JOE DORAZIO

NAIMA LESLIE WILLIAMS

BROOKE PALMA

ANTHONY PALMA

SHORT BREAK * 

4^TH SET HOSTED BY GLENN McLAUGHLIN

BETWEEN 3 AND 4 PM

EMILIANO MARTIN

G. EMIL REUTTER

JOYCE MEYERS

ED KRIZEK

AMY LAUB

PETER BAROTH

THERESE HALSCHEID

DAVE WORRELL

KIM GEK LIN SHORT

SHORT BREAK *

5^th set  HOSTED BY JOANNE LEVA

BETWEEN 4 AND 5 PM

KATE WILDING

RAY GREENBLATT

RICHARD S. BANK

JC TODD

LEONARD GONTAREK

DANIEL MOORE

AAREN Y. PERRY
LOUIS McKEE

WD EHRHART

DANIEL HOFFMAN

RECEPTION FOLLOWS*  /MINGLING / MUNCHIES

 Mel Brake was raised in Philadelphia, PA. He graduated with a B.S. degree from West Chester University. He has written poetry as a method of healing, self love and to express his inner thoughts and feelings.  He was a guest speaker on The October Gallery Radio Show, WHAT 1340 AM discussing and reading his work.  He was the featured poet with Live Poets Society of Media, PA. , Mad Poets Society of Media, PA and Poet and Prophets of Swarthmore, PA  Recently, he was featured poet at Robin’s Book Store by Philadelphia Poets. Some of his works appear in the current issue of Philadelphia Poets Journal, Mad Poets Review Fall 2007 and Writing Outside the Lines Winter 2007. This coming Spring 2008, he will be featured at the Manayunk Art Center Philadelphia, PA.

The Interview:

Q. You have the title Poet Laureate. Tell us of the experience and duties of the Poet Laureate.  

I would hope that when and if Delaware County has a program for Poet Laureate that it would be a great opportunity to showcase the wonderful local talent in the area. Both Bucks and Montgomery Counties have a Poet Laureate program and why not Delaware County. I chose to honor myself with the title of Poet Laureate with the same boldness as Neil Armstrong claimed rights to the moon.  Besides my sister-in-law thought it was a good idea. I guess you can say that I am forward thinking.

Q. What drew you to poetry as a form of expression?

I would say love. I feel there is no better way for me to express love for myself and others than through poetry. For many years, I was on a personal quest to find myself and odyssey if you will. Growing up, I watched epic movies which depicted the main character who would climb the tops of mountains or take a long journey in foreign lands for self discovery or to profess his or her love for someone else. For me, poetry is that inner journey where I can find myself and find love.

Q. You have recently had work accepted for publication at a number of magazines. Many poets find the submission process to literary magazines to be difficult. What has your experience with having your work accepted?

I am very happy that Mad Poets Review, Philadelphia Poets and others have accepted my work for publication.  The experience for me is like when I was a child and I would hope that Santa Claus brought me everything I wanted, even though I knew that my mom was really acting like Santa Claus. The anticipation and the desire can be a challenge because I want all my works to be published, but realistically as one editor said to me in a rejection letter, “it’s all relative”. No one likes rejection but it’s a matter of finding the right editor who sees merits in ones poetry. Recently, I went to an open mic in
New York City and after reading a few poems this editor on the spot said I want to publish your poems. Like Tony the Tiger would say, it feels GREAT to have ones poetry accepted for publication.

Q. Over the past year you have read your work at a cross section of poetry venues in the Delaware Valley. In some areas audience size has increased dramatically; to what do you attribute the increased interest in poets?

Family and friends. Someone had commented, the majority of people who showed up to my readings were family members. And what is wrong with that?  When I first began reading, I would ask people who knew me to come to my readings.  I don’t know where I would be without the support of my mom, brothers, sisters and friends, because initially no one knew me. The good news is when they show up, they are exposed to different styles of poets and poetry and they may want to be apart of another reading without me begging or blackmailing them. Aside from the support of family and friends, I think audience size will continue to increase for poetry readings as the numbers of readings continue to increase all over the Delaware Valley.

Q. What poets, past and present do you read and who are your favorites?

Some of my favorite poets to read are Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Nikki Giovanni and even the Russian Poet Sergey Yesenin to name a few. There is a special connection when I find a quiet place and read a book of poetry by one of these poetic giants.

Q. You are at the Mad Poets Bon Fire, the crowd is leaving or going camping as you sit on a bench and watch the fire dim. A poet sits next you and begins a conversation. Who would you want that poet to be and why?

This is a good question. I would want that poet to be myself. I feel that I have so much more to learn about poetry and it’s an art form that I have only discovered. As I mentioned in a previous answer, I am on a personal journey of self-discovery and poetry is my medium. I have learned so much from having talks with poets such as Lynn Blue, Arlene Bernstein, Rosemary Capalleo and many others. But at the end of the day, I am responsible for my own growth as a poet and I am still learning to find my own voice among so many very good poets everywhere.

Q. Are you working on any collections and should we anticipate seeing your work soon?

I am reaching out to editors to have more of my work published. I feel that it is just a matter of time before my poetry is published in the form of a chapbook or series of collections. And if any editors are reading this, well reach out and touch a brother. Until then, I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of a journal where my work is published.

Q. Tell us about Mel Brake.  

Well, it has been said by others that I am a man of mysteries and this is true. But if anyone reads or listens to my poetry they will find me somewhere in between the lines. George, I want to thank you and Mad Poets Society. Peace Love and Light.

To schedule Mel Brake for a reading please contact him at mbrake1@msn.com

Wednesday Sept. 26th 7PM TO 8:45PM

Mad Poets Society Open Mic

Hosted by Richard Moyer

Gryphon Café [Directions]
105 W. Lancaster Avenue (Rt. 30)
Wayne, PA 19087
(Next to the Anthony Wayne Theatre)
610-688-1988

Justin Vitiello, Professor Emeritus of Italian at Temple University is an intricate part of the poetry scene in the City of Philadelphia. Vitiello has traveled the globe, published over twenty works of poetry and essays in English, Spanish and Italian. A peace activist, Vitiello was active in the Civil Rights movement and Anti-War movements during the Vietnam era, protested the proliferation of nuclear weapons during the cold war, boldly stood as a non-violent reformer to the Mafia in Sicily and conducted research for the Ghandi Peace Foundation in India. In the midst of this whirlwind of activity Vitiello continues to curate the long running Moonstone Poetry Series at Robins Bookstore in Philadelphia. He has provided a stage for new and established poets, mentored hundreds of poets and provided beautiful works for others to read. A citizen of the globe, Vitiello remains uniquely Philadelphia.

The Interview: 

Q. You recently retired after thirty-three years at Temple University. What are your plans and what can we expect to see from Justin Vitiello? 

 I now have a website: www.justinvitello.net. I’m in the process of including critical comments and bibliography. After 33 years at Temple, I plan to continue living as I have done as a peace and human rights activist, scholar and critic, poet, globe trotter. As I travel I write more and more. Now, after a free year traveling in Mexico, Peru’ and Italy, I have 3 new poetic works in progress:(1) Viajes en espanol/Spanish trips (Odi anarchi/Anarchist odess (3) Ultime poesie familari ed etniche/Last family and ethnic trips…

 Q. I enjoyed reading “poppies and thistles”, (Whirlwind Press). Poet Elizabeth Pallitto describes the book, “It is the precise intersection of these domains of life that the relentless imagination of Justin Vitiello is at its best”. Share with us the inspiration for this volume of work

     What inspired “poppies and thistles”? 40 years of living and traveling in Spain. The reader can get a feel for the experience of being, living and loving in a new land and culture. I went to Spain before I ever visited Italy, but felt very much at home as soon as I got off the USS Constitution at Algecrias. That experience is my inspiration. 

Q. Labyrinths and Volcanoes: Windings through
Sicily, (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1881901165/smarterbooks-20) examines Sicilian realities; please tell us of the journey that inspired the book.

The journey that inspires “Labyrinths and Volcanoes” is expressed, I hope clearly in the chapter of the book “Train South: Journey Through Time”. Significantly I pass Naples, (of my grandparents origins), to go to Sicily to work with Danilo Dolci, (an anti-mafioso and pro-Gandhian). More and more, as I studied the Island and made friends, I stayed and wrote so much scholarly and poetic work about it. By the way, the book is in Italian, winner of a major prize in Sicily.

Q. The Moonstone Poetry Series is woven into the fabric of the Philadelphia Poetry scene. It has provided a forum for established and emerging poets to present their work. To what do you attribute the success of the series and your motivation to continue hosting the series?

As to the Moonstone PoetrySeries, credit is due to the Robin Family and Herschell Baron, (6pm on 9/25 to hear his daughter read). I started reading at the store in 1982, at an open, and Herschell and I just
“Hit it off”. That’s a hint to Robin’s success: Openness to alternative and radical literature, diverse ethnical and sexual movements, independent thinking, however you view it. Larry asked me to organize this series as I was retiring from Temple. I am very happy to be part of this major cultural action in the city. Too bad WHYY ignores it.   

Q. You have authored twenty volumes of work, do you have a favorite? 

My favorite book? The one I just published (”poppies and thistles”). Or the first creative work I got into print? (II carro del pesce di Vanzetti/Vanzetti’s Fish Cart). Or all my kids? I’ve never repeated myself. All my babies are unique.  

 Q. You have been on the poetry scene in Philadelphia for many years. There seems to be a recent outburst of poetic growth in the city. The audiences of many readings are populated by fellow poets. Do you see a time when poetry will extend out once again to lovers of poetry and not just poets?

 As to the poetry scene, I still don’t think we go out to reach the general public or even the public of Border’s and Barnes and Noble. You’re right we reach fellow poets and aspiring ones, and certain ethnic and gender groups who gravitate around the neighborhood. Will we eventually attract more people? Well Shelley said poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. But I’m not so opitimistic. Many poets die unappreciated.

Q. Please share with us who your favorite poets were as you developed your poetic style.

My favorite poets: that’s easy, (as soon you will be able to read on my webiste in critiques): Lorca, Antonio Machado, Ungaretti, (all of whom I have translated), and Dylan Thomas… At first in my 20’s I was to imitative of them, but I hope now I have my own voice.

Q. What is your greater love, creating new poetry or translating poetry?

Creating my own work in American, Italian, Spanish, transposing my different versions back and forth. But I also love translating the poets I love most, besides those mentioned above: Ciullo d’Alcamo, Michelangelo, Gaspara Stampa, Lope de Vega, Gongora, Quevedo….

Q. You have traveled the globe yet you return home to your adopted City of
Philadelphia. What drew you to this city and what keeps you here?

Yes, I’ve been lucky to travel- and it shows in my poetry-but I lived in Philly because of my job at Temple and my son’s growth here. Now, living in Center City, I don’t put it down in contrast to my birthplace, NYC. It’s very liveable here. I don’t need a car. I can walk and take public transport most places I want to go. So I enjoy the city for what it offers. Before I make another global trot to live in Italy, Spain, whatever for the rest of my life, I’m happy to be doing what I do.

To learn more about Justin Vitiello please visit www.justinvitiello.net and the Moonstone Poetry Series and other events at Robins Bookstore please visit http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/       

CAConrad has been a fixture on the Philadelphia poetry scene for many years. He is passionate about poetry and in particular poetry in Philadelphia. His passion extends to a number of political and social causes in the city and at one point time he considered running for Mayor of Philadelphia. CA has been published internationally and has toured reading his work throughout the
United States. His first love is Philadelphia and if you hear a discussion or are at a reading downtown you will either hear CA or hear someone speaking of his work. He is a regular contributor to the Philly Sound Poets Blog, has been a guest editor at a number of literary journals and has published a number of works to include The Frank Poems, advancedELVIScourse and his recent full length collection Deviant Propulsion. You can visit with CAConrad at his blog  http://caconrad.blogspot.com/

What Others Say about CA and Deviant Propulsion:

“Conrad is a fearless combination of the out front & tenderness, subtlety in the literary equivalent of outrageous drag….” Ron Silliman 

“Deviance for CAConrad is survival; deviance is an act of faith: a religion against religions; it’s a private, vulnerable deviance distinct from the grand malevolent brand. There is something loving and lonely about Conrad’s deviance. His poems propel deviancy–his deviancy–into the poetry. In a country that wrongly casts poets and poetry itself as deviant Conrad’s poems here are unflinching. That is, the poems are not about deviancy, each in its own artful way, is an act of deviancy itself” – Tom Devaney. 

“I’ve been living with and loving Conrad’s work, and his person — his entire being; the man is radiant! — for years and years. Having the book here is almost as pleasurable as being in the man’s physical presence.” – Joe Massey 

“CA Conrad is committed to numerous political issues, most notably economic disparity and gay rights. His first collection of poems, Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press), has Publishers’ Weekly comparing him to Allen Ginsberg. Indeed, Conrad’s poems have that sexy playfulness and the willingness to expose hypocrisy that leads through Ginsberg back to Walt Whitman, with a bit of the New York Schools (Frank O’Hara and Ted Berrigan in particular) thrown in to keep it humorous.” – Kevin Thurston

 THE INTEVIEW: 

Q. What direction is life taking CAConard?

A.  Most of my family in the dirty little rural Pennsylvania world I grew up in worked at the factory making coffins.  Direction is a wondrous idea from there.  The factory was closed down during Bill Clinton’s NAFTA reign of terror, so no one back home can proudly say they’re making coffins bound for George Bush’s reign of terror in Iraq.  What direction?  Aren’t we all headed down the up stairs at this point?  What a relief our slide into destruction might actually wind up being, right?  It was a beautiful day today.  It’s okay to enjoy the day.  It’s okay to get the Love.  In fact it’s essential to get the Love.  Every moment we can we had better do so now.  Everyday I feel like storing each beautiful thing I smell and feel and hear. Do it for those burning alive in the deserts of Iraq.  It’s going to be a terrible day when we all finally understand how much we contribute to suffering.  Tattoos that read I SUPPORT IMPERIALISM WITH THE TAXES I PAY!  In the end what do we deserve?  If we could understand punishment as a nation the way Germany was asked to understand it half a century ago, what would it be?  As a nation we must all pay, not just our leaders who made it happen.  And not just the leaders who allowed it to happen.  But the tax payers who fund this war and continue to fund this war.  The you and me of the equation.  The consumer with the house so full the storage rental so full.  Everything’s got to stop soon. The direction of this nation is erasing any pencil marks making plans on the map.  If freedom is this damnation of bullets at other souls than I don’t want it.  Fuck my direction.  I have no idea how to make this world work.  I have no idea how to make money.  I have no idea what to do when the rent goes through the roof.  I have no particular angst at the moment either way about it. Last week I was at work in Rittenhouse Square and a man had a heart attack on the third floor of the parking garage next door and drove his car through the wall and out onto the street and flipped upsidedown and I never saw so much blood.  It was as if every drop of blood was wrung out of him.  And people said to me they thought it was a movie being shot.  And other people said they though it had something to do with terrorists.  And everywhere I looked people were standing there with their cellphones taking pictures of it.  And calling friends and sending the pictures.  “DO YOU SEE IT!?” It’s funny how we have to actually KNOW someone to care about their death.  Maybe we don’t care about the death of the trees in the woods because we don’t know them.  Maybe we don’t care about the end of the polar bears because we don’t know them.  Maybe we’re not selfish, maybe we’re just big stupid babies who need to actually know, really connect and know to care.  Maybe we are selfish because we don’t bother connecting.  Maybe we have no idea what we deserve.  Maybe we deserve whatever is coming toward us right now.  Maybe the Light we keep hearing about is the path the bullet that hits you takes but you can’t tell anyone about it because you’re quiet, and gone. The light thrown from the sun is beautiful this time of year, end of summer, in Philadelphia.  It’s painfully beautiful.  What direction?  My direction is American and not noble.  If I were noble I would have the courage to stop paying my taxes and stop funding an evil I know, and you know, is happening in our names whether or not we choose to say it’s in our names.  I participate.  I am here with you in this dark feast, gliding in and out of the calendar as if someone else is going to make this story have a nicer plot.  Our brutality is daily in Iraq, in the supermarket, the butcher, the child labor, the need to believe in the consumption of joy brushing teeth with a toothbrush someone’s hands made somewhere in the world who we don’t know and don’t want to know.  A spasm of recognition as the alarm goes off.  Hello hands, hello yourself they say.

 Q. What would you say was safer; being trapped in a high rise on fire or an evening drinking with Joe Massey?

 A.  HAHAHA!  I LOVE this question!  I don’t feel unsafe around Joe at all as he’s a trusted friend, but my inclination is to say it’s safer in a high rise fire because it would be funnier.  He’s famous of course for his readings, getting drunk and saying things at the microphone you never, ever forget you heard him say.  My favorite time was when he wanted me to shove a Rolling Rock bottle up his ass in the bathroom after a reading, and I said, “JOE THERE’S NO LUBRICANT IN THIS PLACE!”  Lubricant is often on my mind but later I realized there was soap, which I hadn’t thought of at the time.  Yes, you look back and think to yourself, JESUS!  WHY DID I FORGET ABOUT SOAP!? And also his girlfriend (from that time) was there and wasn’t too happy about him asking me to do this.  Girlfriends are always an issue to consider of course, besides soap I mean.  She was very nice and I wonder sometimes where she is.  Anyway, soap, Joe, high rise fires. Now if Joe had asked to shove a bottle up my ass instead it would have turned into a different story.  And that’s all I’m going to say as I need to leave SOMETHING to your imagination! 

Q. Deviant Propulsion, (Soft Skull Press), was your first full length collection published. What effect did the positive reception of the book have on your current writing and when can we expect to see another volume of work? 

A. What?  What is this question?  What? I’m still queer, so the book didn’t make me heterosexual.  Was that a goal?  I don’t think so.  But I’m one of the few queers who will actually admit that our odd race of deviants are going to subvert this world.  It’s only a matter of time.  Oh yes, you hear stories all the time of queers wanting to get married, wanting to settle down, blah blah blah, have babies and prove how NORMAL we are.  Oh yes, you hear these things.  But we’re not normal, we’re odd, and some of us will hide it.  But we’re not normal, and yes we’re here to confiscate the things the national mind holds pure.  Even those (especially those) who pretend to want a normal life do this.  As an honest queer I’m telling you I’m always ready to take a giant shit on the holiest of cloth you offer.  What the hell was the question again?  Oh, I’m confused. But my current work isn’t something I would say is a result in any way of the Soft Skull book.  Soft Skull is a marvelous blessing of course as they take very good care of their authors.  But I’ve recently completed a series called (Soma)tic Midge, which is coming out later this year from Jack Kimball’s FAUX Press.  These (Soma)tic poems were written in a series of 7 colors where I would eat a single color all day long, then write.  Several of these have been published online:

RED on listenlight:  http://listenlight.net/07/conrad/ ORANGE on MiPOesia: http://www.mipoesias.com/2007/conrad_ca.htm  GREEN on Sawbuck:  http://sawbuckpoems.blogspot.com/2007/04/caconrad.html BLUE on Coconut:  http://www.coconutpoetry.org/conrad1.htm 

And now I’m working on other (Soma)tic poems, and have developed a free blog which will contain weekly updates with a new (Soma)tic exercise each week.  Here’s where it can be found:  http://somaticpoetryexercises.blogspot.com/ Poetry is the CENTER of my world, and has been so for most of my life.  The ways to get the poems out is infinite, and no one should be afraid of writing them. It’s kind of funny to hear poets CONCERNED about their poems lasting for hundreds of years when the world is such a dangerous place, and threatened.  It will be a miracle if there is anyone left in a hundred years to read them. Now is the time to say FUCK YOU to those who would tell us how to write.  Just write!  And if you’re having trouble getting started then maybe try one of my (Soma)tic Poetry Exercises, or make one up yourself.  What is most important is making space in your life for the writing.  And getting out of the pain of routine, and to not allow the pain of routine to become a routine of pain which files down our sharp edges.  We must keep sharp to keep alive, keep as alive as we can.

 Q. If you were sitting on a bench in Rittenhouse Square and an unexpected person sat down next to you, who would you want that person to be? 

A.  Franz Kafka, my first Love.  I’ve never Loved another man like Kafka.  It breaks my heart over and over and over and over thinking about the dumb fucking luck to be born decades too late.  But I would LOVE Kafka to sit next to me in Rittenhouse Square on a bench!  And I would want it to be a bench where we could see the little goat statue, you know that statue?  He’s a little goat, and a little pissed or playful, and he’s getting his horns ready to RAM someone! But Kafka, yes.  And I mean the dead Kafka.  Capital D, Dead Kafka.  I’d like to nibble his Dead ear, listen close for his Dead pulse that never appears, and of course ask him what he’s been up to all day.  “Where were you earlier Dead Kafka my dear?  Oh, don’t answer, your jaw hurts, I know, I know, don’t worry.” It would be even better if Dead Kafka were some kind of freak literary zombie vampire, and I would GLADLY let him chew on my wrist and drink my blood, a little snack from my wrist.  Ah, Dead Kafka, my dear one. There’s a Kafka altar in my apartment, and a lot of Elvis things as well.  The Kafka and Elvis connection is bigger than most people realize.  Two special forces with separate beams of energy, but when combined, WHOA, let me tell you, IT! IS! like breakfast with a CASSANDRA! 

Q. Who were your major influences growing up and who currently influences you as a poet? 

A. Kafka turned me on first.  Turned me on in the sense that the imagination suddenly had this GASH in the side of the wall someone else had put up in front of me, and I could see through.  Poets, early influences?  Molly Russakoff came to my high school to give a reading.  I was in a bad way out there in deep, rural Pennsylvania.  My life was so fucked up, and unsafe in an extreme way surrounded by fascists who were not armchair fascists.  But Molly told me to read Joseph Ceravolo, Alice Notley, Ron Padgett, and off I went!  I had already discovered Kafka, my mind was already ready and open.  Molly gave me this silver platter.  I’m always in debt to her for this. But influences now?  You mean poets whose work I Love and am STARTLED BY now?  My friends!  No doubt about it!  The best poems I’ve ever read in my life are by my friends!  Frank Sherlock, Dorothea Lasky, Ish Klein, Ryan Eckes, Linh Dinh, Jessica White, Jenn McCreary, Brenda Iijima, Joe Massey, Laura Jaramillo, John Coletti, Erica Kaufman, Stacy Szymaszek, Carol Mirakove, Brett Evans, Magdalena Zurawski, Kathryn Pringle, Jocelyn Saidenberg, Divya Victor, the list goes on.  These are the poets I read and feel a velocity of color, ingenuity, problem solving, entire new structure, sand, wood, metal, wickedly honest, and like none of it ever imagined in my past.  The fucking pyramids could be rebuilt in a day! 

Q. You have been active for a number of years in the Philadelphia poetry scene and all its ebbs and flows. What directions do see poetry as an influence in Philadelphia moving? 

A.  Hmm. Philadelphia is a bucket of shit now that the rich are taking control.  Fuck the rich!  They have NO IDEA what this city was like in 1986 when I first moved here!  Yeah, now they want to claim this town, call it their own, say it’s building an arts scene. Building an arts scene!?  Wow!  They know NOTHING!  In 1986 I moved into the Imperial Hotel, just a teenager at the time.  And the center city area was The Zulli Nation, named after landlord Al Zulli.  He was a generous guy, and his friends Doug and Cindy were my crazy, generous landlords.  They all loved artists, and kept the rents low, and we could afford to create things, write, paint, whatever we wanted, and NOT have to fight all the time like we do now!  Now these rich greedy scumbags are here to cut everyone’s balls off and make everyone work and work and work.  Unless you’re fortunate to have money, it’s going to be rough in this town soon, very soon. I’m planning on opening The Philadelphia Poetry Hotel one day to make room for poor and working class poets who want to move to the city and WRITE!  I meet young poets all the time now who are the age I was in 1986 and they can’t do what I did!  My rent was 210 a month in The Zulli Nation.  That same apartment is now almost 1500 a month.  And people say stupid shit all the time like, “Well, you have to consider inflation.”  What!?  This city is 300 years old!  How can you excuse THAT as inflation?  That’s NOT inflation, that’s GREED! http://poetryhotel.blogspot.com/ Greed wants to stand in the way of the history of art, and I’m going to do my best to stand in the way of greed, at least for some poets.  My goal is to open this hotel and have it be cheap rent so poets only have to work a part time job like I did when I first moved here.  Then they can spend their time in the libraries and bookstores, and museums, learning, writing, reading, learning, writing, reading, being beautiful.everyone’s got no time for bullshit, which is what I Love most about Philadelphia.  You want bullshit, fuck yourself and look elsewhere because we’re BUSY! Philadelphia is not a place I ever intend to leave.  They’ll have to drag me out of this town clawing and screaming.  This city is where I learned to write poems.  This city is always ready to give that to anyone who wants it.  I truly did understand how to Love the world here in poetry.  And I learned that I need NO ONE’S permission to do that.  And I learned that I need NO ONE’S direction but my own in how to do that. Some people say (especially ignorant newcomers) that this is a mean town.  First, GO HOME if that’s the case!  But second, there is a grace, a powerful grace in a city where everyone’s got no time for bullshit, which is what I Love most about Philadelphia.  You want bullshit, fuck yourself and look elsewhere because we’re BUSY!

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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>