The Mad Poets Blog

It’s a busy week, so I’ll skip all the witty preamble and get straight to the particulars. I’ll post more on each reading throughout the week. Be sure to follow us on twitter (@MadPoetsSociety) so you’re in the know.

Tues., Oct. 5th, 7-10pm: Open mic for poets & musicians at Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, hosted by Stu O’Connor and Mary Kathryn Morgeneier. Sign up at 6:30pm.

Wed., Oct. 6th, 7pm: Potpourri of Poetry, a new MPS series at the Park House Cafe in Ridley Park. The debut reading will feature Dave Worrell, followed by an open mic. This reading is free & open to the public. Hosted by Camelia Nocella.

Thurs., Oct. 7th, 7pm: Book party for Bill Van Buskirk, winner of the Mad Poets’ Joie DeVivre Book Award. Van Buskirk will read and sign copies of his winning book, This Wild Joy that Thrills Outside the Law, selected by renowned Philadelphia poet and editor Louis McKee. This free event will be held at the Delaware County Institute of Science.

Sat., Oct. 9th, 2-5pm: The Business of Words Workshop, led by Tamara Oakman, at the Blue Grotto in West Philadelphia.

Sat., Oct. 9th, 7pm: Therese Halscheid & Aaren Perry read for the Otherwise – Poetry at Churchill series in Pottstown.

Today’s the day — the 23rd annual Mad Poets Festival happens this afternoon from noon – 5p (????) at Medial Borough Hall, 3rd & Jackson Streets in Media, Pa.

And you know how there are usually 40+ poets?  This year its 59!!! (With 8 more on “standby”). We’re really excited to have former U.S. poet laureate Daniel Hoffman making a special guest appearance to read our last poem of the day.

Each poet will read for 5 minutes — just check out the incredible line up.

First Set
Host: RICHARD MOYER

12p – ROCKY MARCELLUS
12:05 – SHARON RITROVATO
12:10 – CHERYL FILIPPONE
12:15 – RON FISCHMAN
12:20 – RACHEL VOHRA
12:25 – BARBARA TORODE
12:30 – CAROL CLARK
12:35  – BRIAN SAMMOND
12:40  – MEL BRAKE
12:45  – MICHELLE DOUGHERTY
12:50 –  JANET SADLER
12:55  – DONALD LaBRANCHE
1:00  – MISSY GROTZ
1:05 –  PRABHA NAYAK PRABHU

Second Set
Host: MEL BRAKE

1:10 – RICHARD MOYER
1:15 – DAVE WORRELL
1:20 – BETTI KAHN
1:25 – CONNIE BERESIN
1:30 – AWILDA CASTRO
1:35 – BILL DANKS
1:40 – ALICE WOOTSON
1:45 – JOYCE MEYERS
1:50 –  JANET MASON
1:55 – J. MASE III
2:00 -  JOE ROARTY
2:05 – MUSIC from SILVER WIND

Third Set
Host:  EMILIANO MARTIN

2:10 – KENNETH WOLMAN
2:15  – KARL WENCLAS
2:20 – ED KRIZEK
2:25 – KASIA NEWCOMER
2:30 – NICK LUTWYCHE
2:35 – LISA LUTWYCHE
2:40 – CAROL CLARK WILLIAMS
2:45 – BILL HOLMES
2:50 –  RUTH ROUFF
2:55 – CHARLES CARR
3:00 – SUSAN H. ROBBINS
3:05 – TAMARA OAKMAN

Fourth Set
Host:  TAMARA OAKMAN

3:10 -  STU O’CONNOR
3:15 – STEVE DELIA
3:20 – DEVIN COHEN
3:25 – AMY SMALL Mc-KINNEY
3:30 –  AZIZA KINTEH
3:35 –  JANET SPANGLER
3:40 – JOANNE LEVA
3:45 – EMILIANO MARTIN
3:50 – LIZ CHANG
3:55 – MICHELE BELLUOMINI
4:00 – LEONARD GONTAREK
4:05 -  MUSIC from SILVER WIND

Fifth Set
Host: LEONARD GONTAREK

4:10 –PHILADELPHIA’S VOICES OF A DIFFERENT DREAM, SUSAN WINDLE & ELLEN MASON
4:15 – AMY LAUB
4:20 – GABRIELLE BC “PLUMDRAGONESS”
4:25 – LISA BARON
4:30 – MARY LOU STREZNEWSKI
4:35 –  RAY GREENBLATT
4:40 – ANN RUSSEK
4:45 – PETER BAROTH
4:50-  BILL VAN BUSKIRK
4:55 – DANIEL ABDAL-HAYY MOORE
5:00 – DANIEL HOFFMAN.

The Mad Poets Society is honored to be hosting so many talented poets in one venue in afternoon. See you there!

The September open mic at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr was a close one. The audience was really split & the majority of our readers grabbed the exact same number of votes. Our leader — Linda Fischer — eeked it out, snagging one extra vote with a poem she said was brand new & that she was just trying out. I’d say it’s a keeper, Linda!

This month, we also had an honorable mention: “I don’t think poetry is about competition” also got a vote. Three cheers. Because I double checked and “I don’t think poetry is about competition” wasn’t even on the sign up sheet. I don’t remember hearing him/her read. Perhaps I was in the loo.   …okay, seriously people, get over yourselves. The contest keeps it interesting.

Alright, snark exorcised.

So, while the monthly results keep us on our toes, it’s the final tally that will give us our November reader. And right now, here’s how it stands:

1st: Elliot Levy
2nd: Howard Lieberman
3rd (tie): Betti Kahn & Stephen Delia

If this little voting experiment has taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen. I can’t wait till our next reading, Oct 14th 7pm, when this all gets decided! Not only that, but we’ve got two awesome poets lined up. See you then.

Friday, September 24 at 7:15 PM Poetry is Aloud and Alive at the Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Mt. Airy.

Poet Bruce Niedt

This month’s featured reader is Bruce Niedt. A federal employee from southern New Jersey, Bruce is a “beneficent bureaucrat” as opposed to the other varieties.  For the past decade or so Bruce has been writing intensely.  Prior to that he was understandably distracted from his literary pursuits as he and his wife raised four sons.  He returned to writing with a vengeance, evidently having saved up lots of inspiration.

Bruce’s poems are accessible and surprising.  They make the reader rethink the commonplace.  In his hands an orange is not just fruit, a breeze is not just wind.  Bruce sees things very clearly and from unusual angles, and shares his vision in an exquisitely reader-friendly style.  His work has appeared in Writers’ Journal, The Fairfield Review, Byline, Red River Review, and Mad Poets Review, among many others in Australia and the U.K. as well as the U.S.  Bruce is a member of the excellent Quick and Dirty Poets and is co-editor of their journal Up and Under: The QND Review.

Bruce Niedt has won the Byline Short Fiction and Poetry Prize for 2003 and first prize for poetry at the Philadelphia Writers Conference (2006, 2007).  He also appeared as a contestant on the television game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Bruce is a poet, not a millionaire.

The featured reading will be followed by the open-reading-in-the-round hosted by Mike Cohen.  All are invited to read a few minutes’ worth of their own poetry (or someone else’s) or just to listen and enjoy.

The crisp air and falling leaves means its time again for another Mad Poets Bonfire. This Saturday, devoted scout master & bonfire leader, Richard Bank, will keep the fire going and lead us in channelling our inner wild things. Come one, come all.

We’ve got the campsite at Ridley Creek Park from around 4p this Saturday Sept 18th till around midday Sunday. It’s free. You can stay for a little while or camp overnight. Bring your own rations, your own accommodations, your instruments and your poems — and be prepared to howl at the moon. This is an all ages kinda thing, but be warned its also uncensored. If you don’t want your little ones being influenced by the forces of untamed poets, leave them at home. For full details & directions, check out the Bonfire page.

If you’re on the loose this Thursday, make sure to drop by the Delaware County Institute of Science in Media for a wonderful poetry reading featuring Harriet Levin Millan and Jeffrey Ethan Lee.

Poet Harriet Levin Millan

Prize winning poet Harriet Levin Millan is the author of two books of poetry.  Her debut collection, The Christmas Show (Beacon Press) was chosen by Eavan Boland for a Barnard New Women Poet’s Prize. That book also won the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award.  The Philadelphia Inquirer named it a Notable Book of the Year. Her second book, Girl in Cap and Gown (Mammoth Books) was a 2009 National Poetry Series Finalist. A PEW Fellowship in the Arts Winner in Poetry and a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she co-directs the Program in Writing and Publishing at Drexel University.  Her story, “Yalla!,” which is part of a novel she is writing about the Reunion Project that seeks to reunite Lost Boys of Sudan with their mothers, will appear in the Kenyon Review in January 2011.

Poet Jeffrey Ethan Lee

Jeffrey Ethan Lee has been Senior Poetry Editor of Many Mountains Moving, Inc., a 501(c)(3) since 2007. Lee’s poetry book, identity papers (Ghost Road Press, 2006) was a 2007 Colorado Book Award finalist. His first full-length poetry book, invisible sister (Many Mountains Moving Press, 2004) was praised in American Book Review, North American Review, and Rain Taxi Review, among others. Lee won the 2002 Sow’s Ear Poetry Chapbook prize ($1,000) for The Sylf (2003), created identity papers for Drimala Records, published Strangers in a Homeland (chapbook with Ashland Poetry Press, 2001). He also published hundreds of poems, stories and essays in North American Review, African American Review, American Poetry Review, Xconnect, Crab Orchard Review, Crazyhorse, Crosscurrents, Green Mountain Review, Washington Square, & Other Voices. He also won the first Tupelo Press award for literary fiction in 2001 for a novel, The Autobiography of Somebody Else. He has a Ph.D. in British Romanticism and an MFA from NYU. Text and audio samples can be found here, here, here and here.

This month’s reading, hosted by Brian Sammond, will also be your LAST CHANCE to read and/or vote in the Science Institute’s open mic contest. The Institute has kept its ballot box sealed all year long, and after this last reading, we’ll crack it open to find out who will win the coveted featured reading spot in October. Oooooh the anticipation!

As always, the reading starts at 7pm at the Delaware County Institute of Science, 11 Veterans Square, Media, PA 19063.

Downer of the week:

Tonight’s Mad Poets Critique Circle, facilitated by the illustrious Amy Laub, at the Coffee Club in Media, PA is cancelled. Boo!

We’ll see you next month (Wed, Oct 13th). Bring 10 copies of your poems and a supportive, creative spirit open to sharing, learning and growing as a poet.

It’s almost that time again. The annual Mad Poets Festival is mere weeks away, so mark you’re calendars and get yourself signed up ASAP if you’d like to participate in this 5 hour extravaganza of poetry!

The particulars:

The Mad Poets Festival
Sunday, October 3rd
12p – 5p
Media Borough Hall
3rd and Jackson Streets
Media, PA

Every year, the Mad Poets Festival takes place in conjunction with the Media Food & Crafts Festival, which features bands in the streets, unique crafts, all types of art — and every kind of food you can imagine. So head down to State Street for some great eats & then head over to Media Borough hall to get some fine poetry to go with it. The Festival will spotlight more than 40 poets and musicians. If you’d like to be one of them, contact Eileen D’Angelo ASAP, make sure to “FESTIVAL” in the subject line of your email.

This year, the Mad Poets Festival will again be a fundraiser for CityTeam Ministries of Chester. We ask readers and attendees to bring nonperishable food items and/or to purchase a cup of the delicious chili that CityTeam will be selling for just $1 a cup at the event.

After a summer of audio hiccups and absentee readers, I’m excited to welcome September and the promise of cooler weather, pumpkin spice everything, and a full slate of awesome featured readings at Milkboy in Bryn Mawr.

This month, we’ve got three excellent writers:

Michele A. Belluomini is a poet and storyteller.  Her work has been published in many journals and in several anthologies –including most recently, COMMONWEALTH: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania. Her chapbook, Crazy Mary & Others was published by Plan B Press in 2004.  A retired librarian, she helped to coordinate the Monday Poets series at the Free Library of Philadelphia for 15 years.

Poet Joyce Meyers

Joyce Meyers taught English at the high school and college levels, then practiced law in Philadelphia for nearly three decades.  Her poems have appeared in The Comstock Review, Atlanta Review, Slant, The Great American Poetry Show, The Ledge, and Mad Poets Review, among others.  She has received several International Merit Awards from Atlanta Review,  and two of her poems were selected for publication prizes in Atlanta Review’s 2010 International Poetry Contest.  Her first chapbook, Wild Mushrooms, was published by Plan B Press in 2007.  Her second chapbook, Shapes of Love, is scheduled for release later this month from Finishing Line Press.

Novelist Marc Schuster

Marc Schuster is the author of The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl, which will be reprinted by The Permanent Press in 2011. When he isn’t writing, he’s the Associate Fiction Editor at Philadelphia Stories magazine and an English professor at Montgomery County Community College.

In addition to our great lineup, the riveting, edge-of-your seat action continues in our Open Mic Contest. Only 2 months left to garner enough votes to earn a featured reading in November. Right now, it looks like Elliot Levy has it locked up, but since I have no way to actually get in touch with him to tell him that, things could still go any which way!

As always the fun begins at 7pm at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr (next to the Bryn Mawr Film Institute). Be there or… I guess you’ll be someplace else, and we’ll miss you, but we’ll be having lots of fun without you and probably talking about you behind your back. So just keep that in mind.

Though we took a little blogging hiatus over the summer, the Mad Poets reading action didn’t rest. At least not at Milkboy. Though we encountered some unexpected audio challenges, we powered through them — seriously you people can project & I’m very proud of you — and we’re looking forward to another great mixed-genre reading this week.

Of course we’ve had wonderful & accomplished featured readers at Milkboy, but the real heat this summer was in our Open Mic Contest — which continues to prove that in poetry nothing is predictable!

After 6 months of readings, here’s how it stands:

In 3rd place, with 9 votes a piece, we have a tie between long-time Mad Poets and Milkboy diehards Steve Delia & Betti Kahn.

In 2nd place, with 10 votes, is Howard Lieberman, who was new to this series at the beginning of 2010, but quickly became a devoted regular.

And finally, Elliot “the kid” Levy (as he was affectionately dubbed by one of his fans last month) sits comfortably in 1st place with 15 total votes. Here’s the kicker: Elliot has amassed this substantial lead with only two appearances in our open mic. TWO. That’s it. Both times he stole the show, or at least he stole all the votes. The trouble is I don’t have a slightest idea how to find this prodigy. Not a phone number, not an email. Perhaps there’s a bat signal I can shine into the night sky. But if there is, I don’t know it. So Elliot, if you’re out there googling yourself & you’ve come across this desperate plea, please get in touch because there’s a very good chance you’ll be winning a featured reading.

Then again, as the Elliot story proves, anything can happen with a good poem and a microphone. We’ve still got 2 more months of readings before this thing is locked up. So those of you who still want your shot, persevere. Bring it. We’ll see ya Thursday.