October 30, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: "Vending Machine: Poetry for Change"

Poet's Haven to Release New Magazine as Part of Food Drive on November 20
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Massillon, Ohio, United States of America
October 30, 2010

The Poet's Haven announces the release of a new magazine as part of Love Initiative's Music for Meals food drive.

The Poet's Haven has teamed with The Love Initiative to bring the Music for Meals food drive to "Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven" on November 20th.  As an added incentive for donations, The Poet's Haven will be publishing a limited edition chapbook/zine titled "Vending Machine: Poetry for Change," that will be given FREE to anyone who donates non-perishable food items during the show.  Food donations will go to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.



November 20th's "Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven" event will be at the Angel Falls Coffee Company in Akron, and will feature poets Steve Brightman and Eric "Verbal Influence" Odum.

Steve Brightman is 1/4 cup dijon and whole grain mustard, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup ground coffee, and 1/4 cup deep dark molasses. He lives in Kent, Ohio, with his pionus parrot and thinks that PNC park is the finest cathedral in North America. His poems have been featured in "Pudding House," "Kansas City Voices," "Origami Condom," "My Favorite Bullet," and he was included in the Ohio Bicentennial Anthology titled "I Have My Own Song For It: Modern Poems about Ohio."

Eric "Verbal Influence" Odum is a 20 year old poet hailing from Cleveland, Ohio. He has been part of Playhouse Square's SlamU! program for the past five years. He is a peer mentor, running workshops and working on a personal level with teens on performance and writing. He was part of Cleveland's National Youth Poetry Slam team for the past three years. He also runs a poetry group called Spit Poet Spit, which performed at Urbean Joe’s Coffee this past September. Eric is the founding member of an after school poetry group called New Age Poets. He started writing at the age of nine and began performing at fifteen. He has released one chapbook, "Unspoken Declarations," and has a CD in the works called "Verbal Therapy."

Angel Falls Coffee is located at 792 West Market Street, Akron, Ohio 44303, in Akron's Highland Square district.

October 25, 2010

Seeking Poetry Submissions! "Poetry for Change" benefits Foodbank


The Poet's Haven, in collaboration with The Love Initiative, is seeking poetry submissions inspired by The Love Initiative statement:

"The world doesn't change in one big sweeping moment.
It is a continual journey.
Humanity's awakening.
This journey starts not with thousands but with one.
One.
The world of one person can change in an instant.
It just takes a minute.
This is that minute."

These poems will be published by The Poet's Haven as a chapbook titled "Vending Machine: Poetry for Change," and will be given FREE to all who donate non-perishable food items at the Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven event on November 20, 2010 at Angel Falls in Akron, Ohio. This project is part of the Love Initiative's regional "Music for Meals" holiday food drive.


Submission Guidelines:

- Poems must be no longer than 60 lines. Poems 30 lines or less are preferred.
 

- Deadline for submissions is November 7, 2010.
 

- E-mail submissions to VendingMachine [at] PoetsHaven.com.

- As this is part of a charity project to benefit the Akron-Canton Foodbank, we are unfortunately unable to provide contributors' copies.


http://www.PoetsHaven.com
http://www.theloveinitiative.com

Visit the Music for Meals event page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118151621578940


Additional notes (aka the fine print): While The Poet's Haven is publishing this chapbook/zine, this project is separate from the PoetsHaven.com galleries. Submissions for this publication MUST be made to the above listed e-mail address, NOT to the online galleries. Authors retain the right to have their submissions published elsewhere, as long as the other publishers do not require first-time or exclusive rights. Previously published material is acceptable though discouraged. The Poet's Haven retains the right to republish this material at a later date (IE: next year) as a free e-book download. Space is limited, and not every submission will be published.

October 23, 2010

Random Stuff, Site News

So, I'm on Facebook today, and under their "People You May Know" thing on the side of the page, I see a picture of a hot chick wearing very skimpy attire.  Being your A-typical hetero male, I click her name to see a larger photo.  Under said larger photo, Facebook asks me if I'd like to poke her.  You can't tell me that's not a sexual innuendo.

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If you're not supposed to eat the brownie first, why do you have to take it out of the TV dinner tray half-way through cooking the rest of the meal?

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There's been problems with the website going down on a regular basis.  Regular as in every freaking night, around about the same time.  HTML pages will still load, but anything that uses the SQL databases (like, say, the galleries) cannot be viewed.  There is nothing on Poet's Haven that would be causing this, which leads me to believe that something else on the shared server I rent from is causing it to go down.
 For this reason, I have decided to migrate servers once again.

This move should be quick and easy.  When it starts, I will close the site to submissions.  If you do not see the submission link as you browse the gallery, this is why.  When the move is complete, the site on the new server will be open to submissions.  This way, no submissions are lost in the transition.

This also gives me the opportunity to make some behind-the-scenes changes to how things are set up.  I've been wanting to shut down some other sites I no longer have need for, and this will allow me to make Poet's Haven the primary site on my account instead of dependent to a site I no longer use.

October 21, 2010

Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven in 2011!

After moving the show around the past three years, and then settling into a same-location-every-other-month routine this year, I have decided to find the show a home in Cleveland.  I am pleased to announce that next year's Cleveland shows will all be held at Phoenix Coffee in South Euclid, and our Akron shows will continue at Angel Falls!

For those who aren't aware, here's the details:  "Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven" takes place on the third Saturday of each month.  Odd-numbered months (January, March, May, etc.), the show is in Akron at the Angel Falls Coffee Company.  Even-numbered months (February, April, June, etc.), the show is in Cleveland (or, to be more precise, a few minutes east of Cleveland Heights) at Phoenix Coffee in South Euclid.  These shows start at 7:00 PM (real-time, not "poetry-standard-time") and will be ALL AGES / UNMODERATED events.  Each show will have featured poets and performers.  Watch this blog for announcements about who the features will be.

October 14, 2010

Thumbs Down - Common Grounds Coffee

I've been taking advantage of my mini-vacation this week to do some things that I've never gotten around to doing.  I FINALLY got to check out the Common Grounds Coffee Bar tonight.  I thought this place was in Cleveland's Ohio City district, but it was actually way out by airport, at the intersection of Lorain and Rocky River.  They are open 24-7-365!  How cool is that?  The place is small, but it could be made to work for a poetry show.  Cash only, no credit cards accepted, but that can be dealt with.  There was a Wallgreens across the street for access to quick cash.  The reason I walked out without getting anything and didn't come back?  It was 12:30 AM and the place was full of kids.  Not a problem.  Many of these kids were likely minors, out violating Ohio's curfew laws.  Okay, still not a problem to me, though I would be worried about the cops (who were out in massive force on Cleveland's east side tonight) coming in to hassle them.  The big problem?  Damned near every one of these kids is smoking.  The place is full of smoke.  You can see it in the air, it is seeping out the doors.  To my knowledge, Common Grounds is NOT a hookah bar.

Yes, I voted for the smoking ban here in Ohio, and yes, I'd vote for it again.  The many bars that closed, claiming it hurt their business?  News flash: It was the economy, stupid.  Smokers are the minority, and now the rest of us can patronize bars and cafes that we would have previously avoided due to smoke.  If your establishment ignores the law and allows indoor smoking, you will not receive my business.  Period.  I will walk out and go someplace else.

(For the record, though, I have no issue whatsoever with bars and restaurants that built enclosed patios for smokers.)

Common Grounds can be scratched off the list of places I'd consider setting up a show at.  For that matter, scratch them off the list of places that I'll attend someone else's show at.  So disappointing.

October 13, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: The Poet's Haven Celebrates Thirteen Years

The Poet's Haven Celebrates Thirteen Years
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Massillon, Ohio, United States of America
October 13, 2010

The Poet's Haven, publisher of an online literary journal and podcast series and promoter of live poetry and music events in northeast Ohio, announces the thirteenth anniversary of the press's official launch and the upcoming event schedule.

The Poet's Haven started out as publisher Vertigo Xi'an Xavier's personal webpage on America Online back in late 1995.  Over the course of 1996 and early 1997, the small page began accepting and publishing submissions from other writers and artists.  By October 1997, it had grown to the point that it was relaunched at PoetsHaven.com and The Poet's Haven made its official debut as an online press.  Today, PoetsHaven.com features over 6,000 pages of poetry, stories, and artwork, and has published work from more than 2,000 creators.

Celebrating the press's tenth anniversary in 2007, the first "Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven" open-mic event was held, recording the live performances for a podcast.  A second event was scheduled in April 2008, a third the following June, and from there the shows eventually became a regular monthly event.  "Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven" shows are now held on the third Saturday of each month, rotating between Akron, Ohio and Cleveland, Ohio each month.

The Poet's Haven has also taken over promotion of the poetry slam that is held during Canton, Ohio's First Friday festival.  The show has been expanded to include featured poets as well as the open-mic and slam competitions.  Arts in Stark sponsors the poetry slam, with $50, $30, and $20 prizes going to first, second, and third place in the competition.


Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven will be at Phoenix Coffee in South Euclid on October 16, featuring music from Nick Wilkinson and with featured poets Jill Riga and Lee McKinstry.

Nick Wilkinson began his music career sometime around his sophomore year of high school with a few friends. Playing bass and doing vocals, the punk-ish band was rocking the world, or at least small parts of Ohio. After that project dissolved, Nick began attending the University of Akron. Now wielding a beat up Johnson acoustic guitar and pretending he knows a thing or two about a thing or two, he writes and plays songs about those things or twos.

Jill Riga graduated in 2007 with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the first graduating class of the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program. She is also a fairly decent dancer and smells good. Her favorite shoe is the left one. Her poetry has appeared in Moonlit Magazine and in the drug-induced visions of used car salesmen everywhere.

Lee McKinstry is a 19-year-old Cleveland Native who has been writing, doodling, and somehow marking up papers since she was five.  She is currently a student at the College of Wooster.  She has participated in Playhouse Square's SlamU! program, and has been on Cleveland's National Youth Poetry Slam team the past two years.  She spends most of her time in flannel, looking for lost pens.


November 20's Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven event will be at Angel Falls in Akron, with featured poets Steve Brightman and Eric "Verbal Influence" Odum.

Steve Brightman is 1/4 cup dijon and whole grain mustard, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup ground coffee, and 1/4 cup deep dark molasses. He lives in Kent, Ohio, with his pionus parrot and thinks that PNC park is the finest cathedral in North America. His poems have been featured in "Pudding House," "Kansas City Voices," "Origami Condom," "My Favorite Bullet," and he was included in the Ohio Bicentennial Anthology titled "I Have My Own Song For It: Modern Poems about Ohio."

Eric "Verbal Influence" Odum is a 20-year-old poet hailing from Cleveland, Ohio. He has been part of Playhouse Square's SlamU! program for the past five years. He is a peer mentor, running workshops and working on a personal level with teens on performance and writing. He was part of Cleveland's National Youth Poetry Slam team for the past three years. He also runs a poetry group called Spit Poet Spit, which performed at Urbean Joe’s Coffee this past September. Eric is the founding member of an after school poetry group called New Age Poets. He started writing at the age of nine and began performing at fifteen. He has released one chapbook, "Unspoken Declarations," and has a CD in the works called "Verbal Therapy."


Canton's First Friday Poetry Spectacular will feature Trenchcoat Manifesto on November 5 and Robert Miltner on December 3.

Trenchcoat Manifesto is poet Tom Adams and artist/musician Richard Hearn. Adams and Hearn combine spoken word and audio samples (both found and manufactured) with original music and multi-media art for spinning tales culled from just-beneath-the-surface of everyday life and the abstract and sometimes bizarre depths of the human condition.  Tom Adams began developing his craft in the mid 1980's and has performed his work at open-mics and organized poetry events around the Northeast Ohio area and beyond, including Mac's Backs, Border's Books, the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, the Barking Spider Tavern, Spaces Gallery, and Shakespeare & Company in Paris. Tom has published chapbooks of his work, including "Lament for The Fallen Soldier."  Richard Hearn has been involved in the Northeast Ohio art and music scene since 1980, playing in local underground "alt.art" bands of note - Uzizi and Breakfast In India, and working in the visual mediums of painting, photography and mixed-media sculpture. In the late 80’s, Richard worked on more experimental audio projects, including cut-up assemblages of field recordings and an early collaboration with Tom Adams, before forming his own band, Angst Café (1989-1995) which released the EP "Sad Venus." Besides performing at local clubs and regional festivals, Angst Café presented multimedia events at venues around Northeast Ohio that included performances by local poets and artists. During this period Richard also began to experiment with digital photography, at first by digitizing his 35mm film images for further treatment in PhotoShop, to working entirely in the digital realm, and later experimenting with analog/digital video loops.

Robert Miltner teaches literature and creative writing at Kent State Stark. He is the author of "Hotel Utopia," selected by Tim Seibles as winner of the New Rivers Press book prize, and a dozen chapbooks, including "Against the Simple" (Wick chapbook award). Miltner has published poems in "Artful Dodge," "Barrow Street," "LIT," "Diagram," "Pleiades," "Prose Poem," "Sleeping Fish," and "Sentence," and short fiction in "Istanbul Literary Review," "Apple Valley Review," "Storyglossia," "Ophelia Street," "Perigee," and "Christmas Stories from Ohio." He is working on a novel, "Tempest," and edits "The Raymond Carver Review" (http://dept.kent.edu/english/RCR/).


For more information on The Poet's Haven and Poet's Haven events, visit:
http://www.PoetsHaven.com
http://www.facebook.com/PoetsHaven
http://www.facebook.com/FirstFridayPoetry


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October 2, 2010

True story.

Starting with last night's First Friday Poetry Spectacular, we have changed the order of things so that the open-mic now starts first.  It is about 8:00, and a kid (I'll be nice and won't identify him here) arrives and walks up to me.

"I was here earlier, but didn't see the list.  Can I still go?"

"When were you here?"

"That guy was still going."

"What guy?"

"The headliner guy."

"You mean the featured poet?"

"Yeah, he was still reading when I got here earlier."

"Hmmm. That's strange.  'Cause he hasn't read yet."

"What?"

"Yeah, we changed the order.  The open-mic starts first now."

"Oh, well, I guess I wasn't here then..."

"You can still sign up for the slam, the list is over by the sign."

He walks over to put his name on the list for the slam, and I duck back stage so nobody sees me cracking up laughing.