Poetry News – November, 2017

The Abel Meeropol Social Justice Writing Award will be presented to Patricia Smith, Gateway Arts, Holyoke, 3:30-5pm. Click for Tickets (FREE)

Update from Smith College Poetry Calendar:

Poetry Reading: Celebrating Smith Poets with Hedgerow Books  
Tuesday, November 14, 7:30 PM

The Smith Poetry Center continues its 20th Anniversary celebration with a celebration of Smith poets reading some of their newest work.  Mary A. Koncel will be releasing her new collection of poetry, The Last Blonde. Koncel was an instructor for many years at the Jacobson Center for Writing at Smith. Maya Janson will introduce her debut collection,Murmur & Crush. Janson is a lecturer in poetry at Smith and an Ada ’87. She describes herself as a poet who looks “inward and outward at the same time.” Andrea Stone will share her latest collection, American Spelling: Story in Verse. Stone is an Assistant Professor of English at Smith, where she teaches courses on the literatures of the African diaspora from the 18th century to the present. All poets are published by Hedgerow Books. This event is free and open to the public. 

Smith Alumnae Conference Hall, 33 Elm Street, Northampton, MA

Poetry Reading: Bunkong Tuon at Smith College 
Wednesday, November 15, 12:00 PM 

Cambodian American poet Bunkong Tuon will read at the Poetry Center. Tuon is a writer, critic, and associate professor of English at Union College in Schenectady, NY. His criticism on Southeast Asian American literature has been published in Comparative Literature Studies, MELUS, Mosaic, and Children’s Literature Quarterly, among others. His poetry has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Chiron Review, Consequence,Poetry Quarterly, The Mekong Review, Numero Cinq, and others. He is a contributor toCultural Weekly. Gruel, his first poetry collection, was published in 2015. His forthcoming book is entitled And So I Was Blessed.  This event is free and open to the public. 

Poetry Center, Wright Hall, Smith College

Weaving Voices: “One Year Later” Open Mic
Friday, November 10, 7:00 – 9:00 PM 

Weaving Voices holds it’s Fall ’17 Open Mic, “One Year Later,” this Friday! “One Year Later” will allow reflection on the Smith community and other issues concerning Smith students of color since the 2016 Presidential Election. Weaving Voices was started in 2010 by a group of students of color discussing what was missing at Smith. They realized events were very specific to each cultural organization and there were limited spaces where all students of color could come together. Weaving Voices was created as an intimate and safe forum to go across color lines and to proactively build an intentional community for Smith students of color. It privileged storytelling as its vehicle. Smith students of color share poetry, spoken word, free verse, and performance art. Organizers Angelina Hua, Sabrina Ko, Traci Williams AC, Zoya Azhar, and Camille Ollivierre co-host.Yacine Fall and Glenda Perez are the emcee’s. Note: Only Smith students of color perform. This event is free and open to the public.

Graham Hall, Hillyer Lower Level, Smith College

Poetry Workshop: Justice Ameer at Smith College  
Friday, November 17, 5:00 – 6:00 PM  

SpitFire, Smith’s spoken word, slam, and performance poetry organization will host a generative poetry workshop led by poet Justice Ameer. Ameer is a Black genderfluid and transfeminine poet based in Providence, RI. Xyr work is a practice in becoming unapologetic and unafraid. Xe is a Pink Door Fellow and is three-time semifinalist at CUPSI, and competed at the 2016 National Poetry Slam and 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam. You can find xyr work on Glass Poetry Press and Wusgood Mag. This event is free. FIVE COLLEGE students are invited.

Campus Center, Room #102, Smith College

Open Mic: A SpitFire & Labrys Collaboration
Saturday, November 18, 7:30 PM 
SpitFire teams up with Labrys, a Smith College art and literature magazine, to bring you a great opportunity to hear and practice performance poetry. Labrys is currently Smith’s only student-run publication of art and creative writing. Its mission is to share uncensored work produced by Smith students with the greater community. SpitFire Chairs Ewan Hilland Evelyn Parker and Labrys Editor Julia Falkner co-host. Refreshments will be served. This event is free. FIVE COLLEGE students are invited.  
Campus Center TV Lounge, Garden Level, Smith College

Poetry Reading: Live Lit 
Friday, November 10, 7:00 PM  
Live Lit Students in the M.F.A. Program at the University of Massachusetts read from their recent work. Evenings usually include a mix of poetry and fiction. This event is free and open to the public.
Amherst Books, 8 Main Street, Amherst, MA 

Poetry Discussion: Hedgerow Books Poets     
Monday, November 13, 7:00 PM 

Forbes Library continues Mondays’ Poetry Discussion Series with works by Hedgerow Books’ poets Mary A. Koncel, Maya Janson, and Andrea Stone. Copies of poems are provided for each participant. No prior preparation or reading required. For a full list of discussions and more information, visit forbeslibrary.org. This event is free and open to the public. 

Calvin Coolidge Museum, Forbes Library, Northampton, MA 

 

Poetry Reading: Vievee Francis    
Monday, November 13, 8:00 PM 

Vievee Francis will read from her newest collection of poetry, Forest Primeval. This collection has been described as “fearless, full-throated, whip-smart, and can come at you from just about any angle.” Francis’ other books include Blue-Tail Fly and Horse in the Dark, which won the Cave Canem Northwestern University Prize for a second collection. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Best American Poetry, and Angels of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry. Francis serves as an associate editor of Callaloo and an associate professor of English at dartmouth College. Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public. 

Amherst Books, 8 Main Street, Amherst, MA  

 

Pulp Slam: Poetry & Music Open Mic 30 Poems in November! 
Friday, November 17, 8:30 PM  November 1 – 30, 2017 

Pulp Slam is a three-part poetry and music show at Eastworks. Every 1st and 3rd Friday, it hosts a poetry slam, a poetry feature, and a “Can’t believe It’s Not Poetry” open mic.Justice Ameer is this week’s featured artist. Open Mic sign-up begins when doors open at 7:30 pm. Open Mic begins at 8:30 pm. All ages welcomed. $5 admission. Ages 17 and under get in free. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. For more information, visit pulpslam.com. This event is open to the public. 

Eastworks, Room #160, 116 Pleasant Street, Easthampton, MA

 

Baron Wormser will be reading from his new novel Tom o’ Vietnam, at Amherst Books, 8 Main St., Amherst, at 7 pm on November 17th

Baron Wormser’s fifteenth book, Tom o’ Vietnam, traces the travels of a Vietnam vet in the fall of 1982. Tom o’ Vietnam is a very American road novel but also an evocation and investigation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Like Tom o’ Bedlam, Tom is hiding out, “impersonating a person,” as he puts it. Tom journeys on one bus after another across a landscape that makes him wonder what he was fighting for. From Santa Fe to Washington, D.C., he meets fellow Americans who have their own stories to tell and who wonder about his. Along the way he spends time with his three sisters, all the while attempting to deal with the demons of the war and the ghosts of the Shakespearean tragedy he carries with him. Tom o’ Vietnam blends poetry, history, and dark wit, as it bears witness to the depths of eloquence and grief, anger and endurance.

 

Writers Read Monthly Reading Series
Tue. Nov. 28, 5:30pm
at the Lee Library
100 Main St. Lee, MA