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!
