UPDATE: Event Names, Feature Lineup

I have made the decision that only the events at Phoenix Coffee will be called "Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven." This will make promotional language easier to write and understand. (I've always found it challenging to explain the multiple venue format in a fast manner. Now, its simply "SNWTPH events are held every other month at Phoenix Coffee in South Euclid.") When we do have an event that uses the same format during the other months (such as November's show at Sonnets), it will be promoted with its own title.

Speaking of November 19th's Vending Machine: Poetry for Change event (see how easy that was), I am pleased to announce that the feature lineup will include Shelly Gracon-Nagy! She'll be joined by Andrew Tobias Line and the music of Glass Audrey!

Bad Stuff, Good Stuff...

If you're not connected to me on Facebook, you might not have heard... This past Friday, I was in an auto accident. I am okay, my only injuries were the ones caused by the airbags. (When will they finally give us a way to turn those blasted things off?) My laptop's screen was damaged, but it is still under the warranty plan. My car, however, did not survive the impact. I do have full coverage insurance, but as my car was 12 years old I am not expecting a very large payment from them to go towards getting a new set of wheels.

So, I need to generate some cash, and fast. No, I don't want donations, I don't believe in money-for-nothing. What I do want is to sell some chapbooks!

For a limited time, The Poet's Haven is offering all six chapbooks published in 2011 for the low price of $25.00 with FREE SHIPPING in the USA! That's like getting one of the books for free!

http://www.PoetsHaven.com/bookcontents.php?section=23&page=7

Please pass this offer on to all your poetry-inclined friends, associates, and cohorts!

Poet's Haven at INGENUITY FEST - Schedule of readings, signings, & performances

I need to preface this. There are DOZENS of poets I wanted to get on the schedule and a limited number of time-slots. Almost everyone on here was asked in real-time, either when I saw them at a poetry event or when they were signed on to Facebook's instant messenger. I apologize to anyone who was hoping for an invitation to read that didn't get one.

Friday and Saturday, readings and signings will take place at The Poet's Haven's booth. Sunday, readings will take place at the Coffee Shop Stage.

The booth will feature books from The Poet's Haven, Crisis Chronicles, Deep Cleveland, Seven Beers and a Hedgehog, Writing Knights, and more! We'll also have some CDs for sale, including new releases from Glass Audrey and Zach!

Here is the schedule of authors appearing and performing:

FRIDAY - Readings & Signings @ Poet's Haven Booth
05:00 PM Jacob King *
06:00 PM Azriel Johnson
07:00 PM John Burroughs
08:00 PM Steve Brightman
09:00 PM T.M. Göttl
10:00 PM Joshua Gage
11:00 PM J.E. Stanley
12:00 AM Michael Bernstein

SATURDAY - Readings & Signings @ Poet's Haven Booth
12:00 PM Christine Howey
01:00 PM (Steven B.) SMITH
02:00 PM Laraine Seidl *
03:00 PM AKeem Jamal Rollins
04:00 PM Ben Bartman *
05:00 PM Timothy House
06:00 PM Suspicious (Jessica Skrzypiec)
07:00 PM Jeff Kosiba *
08:00 PM Dianne Borsenik
09:00 PM Vladimir Swirynsky
10:00 PM Andrew Tobias Line *
11:00 PM Poets of "Brandt 21" (Russ Vidrick, Tom Orange, & More)
12:00 AM Robert Miltner

SUNDAY - Poetry Performances @ Coffee Shop Stage
12:00 PM Miguel Sandoval
12:30 PM Gina Tabasso
01:00 PM Christina Brooks **
01:30 PM Catherine Criswell
02:00 PM Julia Jones
02:30 PM Caira Lee
03:00 PM Carla Thompson-King
03:30 PM Skylark
04:00 PM Lake Effect Poetry Slam

LAKE EFFECT POETRY SLAM INFO: Lake Effect Poetry is the new name for Cleveland's National Poetry Slam team. This slam will be a qualifier for Cleveland's spot at Individual World Poetry Slam next month. IWPS will be held in Cleveland October 12-15. This slam will consist of a 1-minute round and a 4-minute round. A sign-up sheet will be available in the cafe 15 minutes before the slam begins. If you want to compete, be there on time! The top four poets will get points and qualify to compete in the finals held 9/23 at the Root Cafe in Lakewood. The winner of that slam will be representing Cleveland at IWPS.

* = poets with books published by The Poet's Haven
** = poet with book to be published by The Poet's Haven

Ingenuity Fest is held on the lower level of the Detroit-Superior bridge. The Poet's Haven's booth will be located on the east side of the bridge, near the Doodle Bar. Visit http://ingenuitycleveland.com for more info on the festival and for a map of the bridge. The Doodle Bar is the beer & cocktail vendor close to the eastern entrance.

I hope to see you there!

EVENT NEWS!!! SCHEDULE CHANGES!!!

I've once again fallen behind posting on this blog, but this time you may understand why. I hate posting bad news, even if that bad news puts things in motion that lead to some wonderful news. Read on...

First, the bad news: The café that has been home to The Poet's Haven's Akron shows for the past two years has chosen to discontinue hosting our poetry events. It is their loss, and that is all I will say on the matter.

If you know me at all, you know that I do not allow things like this to be set-backs, that I find a way to turn them into opportunities. In other words, the rest of this post is good news. :-)

We will not be having a Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven event in September... Instead, The Poet's Haven will be at INGENUITY FEST in Cleveland, September 16th through 18th! We will have a booth set up selling books, CDs, and more from not only The Poet's Haven, but from other Ohio-based small presses and independent creators as well. Each hour of the festival Friday and Saturday, we will have a different author hanging out at the booth, reading some of their work and signing their books (or CDs) for anyone that buys one. Then on Sunday, the poets will take over the coffeehouse stage! The readings begin at noon, and will lead up to a LAKE EFFECT POETRY SLAM at 4:00! (Lake Effect Poetry is the organization formerly known as Dragon Inc.) This slam will be a qualifier event for Lake Effect's spot at Individual World Poetry Slam (IWPS)!

Speaking of IWPS... Our Cleveland shows will continue to be held at Phoenix Coffee in South Euclid every "even-numbered" month (February, April, etc.), with one exception: There will be no Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven event in October. Why? Individual World Poetry Slam is coming to Cleveland, and the finals are scheduled at the same time our show would normally take place. IWPS is one of the largest poetry events on the planet. It would be foolish to try to promote a poetry show up against that. Plus, I want to be there, cheering on Cleveland's poets that will be in the competition.

November 19th will see a special Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven event at Sonnet's Café in Wadsworth! One of the featured poets will be Andrew Tobias Line! The featured musician will be Meganne Stepka, possibly with the rest of Glass Audrey! The second featured poet will be announced soon. This event will also include the "Vending Machine: Poetry for Change" food-drive! Bring a non-perishable food donation for the Akron-Canton Foodbank to the show and you will recieve a copy of "Vending Machine: Poetry for Change volume 2." A donation to the food-drive is the ONLY way to get a copy of this anthology!

December 17th, we will resume our bimonthly schedule at Phoenix Coffee.

What is the plan for the "odd-numbered" months in 2012? At this time, I am planning to have the show go back its nomadic roots. However, rather than an open-mic show every month, I want to take The Poet's Haven to more festivals and events like Ingenuity. Having the odd months free will allow me to do that.

The poetry scene is often described as incestuous. The same small group of poets frequent the same handful of shows every month, and the same poets make the feature rounds when they have new books or CDs to promote. In order to have the scene grow, we need to build our audience. We need to take poetry and put it in front of folks that have never experienced poetry the way it should be. That is what I want to do.


I'll be posting the schedule of readings and signings Ingenuity in a few days. Stay tuned!

Poetry Gallery # 6 FULL! :-)

I've been so busy working on chapbooks and worrying about live events (more on that another day) that I've fallen quite behind on the online galleries' submission queue. I was shocked to discover today that the Poetry 6 gallery had gone over 1000 pages!

The Poetry 7 gallery is now open and all new online poetry publications will be placed there. :-)

CD review: "Little Waves" by Glass Audrey

Glass Audrey vocalist Meganne Stepka featured at a Poet's Haven event in 2009.  Since then, I've tried to catch as many of her performances as possible.  (In other words, yes, I am a fan.)  Now at last, she and partner Michael Roberts have completed Glass Audrey's first full length album!

In the past I have described Glass Audrey's sound as like Sarah McLachlan doing vocals for Pearl Jam.  I hereby retract that statement.  The complex lyrics and musical styling is much more akin to "Boys for Pele" era Tori Amos, with hints of influence from Siouxie and the Banshees, Heart, The Pretenders, and The Cure.  Each track takes the listener on an emotional journey, an auditory rollercoaster ride.

The one and only negative thing I can say about this album is that a few of the tracks use too much echo on the vocals.  Meganne's voice is well suited to a raw, unfiltered sound, and the studio effects layered over her voice end up covering the nuances one hears in her live performances.

All said, the album gets my highest recommendation.  But don't just take my word for it, listen to it yourself on Glass Audrey's Bandcamp page and then order the full album download:
http://music.glassaudrey.com

DRAGON INC. team hosting 24-hour poetry marathon fundraiser event!

Cleveland, Ohio's DRAGON INC. is having a 24-hour poetry marathon event at Phoenix Coffee on West 9th Street in downtown Cleveland, starting at 8:00 PM this Friday! This is a fundraiser event, raising money to help Cleveland's National Poetry Slam team get to Boston. Anyone can feature! Time on the mic is just $1 per minute, with a minimum of 10 minutes.

The event will be broadcast on Ustream, so poets performing here will be seen and heard by folks all over the planet (and possibly beyond). There will also be a big screen and computer set up so that poets not able to attend the show in person can perform live via Skype!

Performers of all types are welcome. If you would like to play music*, stage a play, or do an interpretive dance, time is available. (* Due to licensing restrictions, music performed must be original or in public domain.)

To reserve a time-slot, contact AKeem Jamal Rollins (Dragon Inc.'s coach). (There's a contact form on the Dragon Inc. website, if you are unable to contact AKeem via Facebook.)

http://www.DragonIncSlam.com

Event page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120150718079534


(Huge thanks and apologies to Scott Woods for allowing us to steal his fundraising idea.)

(And because I know someone will ask, I am assisting the Dragon Inc. team at this event, being their tech-guy. This is not a Poet's Haven event.)

I've been interviewed!

Check it out, Tanisha Herrin interviewed me for the Akron Poetry Examiner:
http://www.examiner.com/poetry-in-akron/interview-with-vertigo-xi-an-xavier-and-the-poet-s-haven

:-)

New Chapbooks

More that I keep forgetting to post here on the blog: The Poet's Haven released two new chapbooks this month!

Andrew Tobias Line's "Street Corner Poetry" launched on June 10th at his Deep Cleveland feature!

Jeff Kosiba's "Seasons of Discontent: Spring & Summer" was released at the June 18th Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven event in Cleveland!

Andrew's book was rushed to print as he is part of Cleveland's Dragon Inc. slam team and will be doing some heavy promotion and fund-raising leading up to the team's trip to National Poetry Slam.  We now resume our normal bimonthly release schedule.  :-)

These books can be purchased at several independent bookstores around north-east Ohio (and if you are interested in carrying Poet's Haven chapbooks at your retail establishment, dealer inquiries are welcome), purchased at any live Poet's Haven event, or ordered online.

July First Friday - CHALK THE WALK & POETRY TO THE PEOPLE

It's time for Canton First Friday's CHALK THE WALK event, and this year we're taking part in a big way!  We will again be assembling a street team to cover the walkways with short poems, and we also want poem submissions for the street team to use!

For info on submitting poems:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=166382496761460

For info on joining our street team:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=185174014869063

Then, we're taking a month off from the normal open-mic and slam event and instead bringing POETRY TO THE PEOPLE!  Poets will be performing all over the downtown arts district, out amid the crowd of people!  The goal is to let folks who wouldn't normally come to a poetry event hear how awesome performance poetry is (and hopefully get some of those people to check out some poetry events in the future).  Poetry performances will start at 6:00, and will conclude with members of DRAGON INC. (who will be sending Cleveland's team to National Poetry Slam) performing on "THE POET'S HAVEN STAGE" (YES!) from 9:00 to 10:00!

Here's the schedule of performing poets:

• 6:00 - BEN BARTMAN - at the Rubber Duckie (corner of 5th and Cleveland Ave.)
• 6:20 - HERE BE DRAGONS (Jennifer Cline & John Cezanne) - at 4th and Cleveland (across from the Buzzbin Stage)
• 7:00 - CHRISTINA BROOKS - outside Second April Gallerie (324 Cleveland Ave.)
• 7:20 - STEVE BRIGHTMAN - at the Rhino (corner of 4th and Cleveland Ave.)
• 7:40 - CARLA THOMPSON & JACOB KING - at the Shutterbug (the mosquito, corner of 5th and Cleveland Ave.)
• 8:20 - ARIJA LEE - outside Arcadia Grill (Court Ave., the parking lot behind Second April)
• 8:40 - KONKRETE ROSE - at the Saxophone (corner of 3rd and Market Ave.)
• 9:00 - DRAGON INC. (with AKeem Rollins, Andrew Line, Caira Lee) - The Poet's Haven Stage (at 3rd and Court Ave.)

The locations are subject to some tweaking.  I'll have the most up-to-date schedule posted at Citizen X during the event.

I hope to see everyone there!