Jules Nyquist Features at East of Edith on Monday, October 31!

More good news on the poetry front! This coming Monday, October 31st, at 7:00 pm, at the Projects 3614 High Street NE is, once again, our open mic night known as  East of Edith. This week you’ll get a chance to hear feature poet Jules Nyquist share her poetry! Now, I know it’s going to be Halloween night, so I’m making a suggestion that folks come in costume. Of course you don’t have to come in costume, but it would be cool if you did! Aaaaaaaaaand let’s just say that the venue is going to look extra spiffy, if you get my drift.

A refresher for you or if you’re new, about the East of Edith Open Mic at the Projects: all poets on the open mic are invited to share two poems, four minute limit (the poets can opt to either read their own work or works by other poets).  The East of Edith Open Mic night has been gathering speed and momentum and I am overjoyed to say that it’s just amazing how this reading has been progressing along. Please come early to get some juice or coffee and some snacks, read, listen, catch an outstanding feature…  and all for whatever you can offer for the hat pass. Which is to say,  pay what you can if you can. Come, enjoy the poetry. So much good poetry, every Monday night, at East of Edith.

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Jules lives in Albuquerque and is honored to be the featured poet at her favorite open mic.  Here’s a bit about Jules in her own words:  The moment I walked into the Projects and the East of Edith open mic, I was warmly welcomed. I had only been here a month and knew about three people, total, and the poets I saw on stage with their words and the words of other poets affected me immensely. I knew I had to keep coming back and I have, almost every week.  These poets are my dear friends, my comrades, and are so very supportive of everything I have read and performed for them.  Every week I discover new writer’s works that they share and the energy here is just amazing. The space is, too.  It truly is a group of troubadours spreading the word of poetry.

As for my background, I have an MFA in Writing and Literature (Poetry) from Bennington College, Vermont and my BA in Writing from Metro State University in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I didn’t start college until 20 years out of high school, have an arm’s length of jobs and careers on my resume and my first love has always been poetry.  I started writing poetry in my room in high school with the encouragement of a patient English teacher and I haven’t stopped writing since.  I like to experiment with form and my favorite is the sestina, along with an occasional villanelle.  My latest poetry manuscript is looking for a publisher, and my poems have been published in various journals including Adobe Walls, Malpais Review, Duke City Fix, Salamander, and 5 AM.  I’ve had fun in a couple of “Encyclopedia” Shows and I also like to read along with music and that may happen again tonight. I’ll be sharing some favorites from my chapbook “Appetites” and also some new ones.

I thank the Burque poetry community for the warm welcome and look forward to blending my poetry energy with all of yours on the open mic.  If you want to keep up with me and my poems, my website is www.julesnyquist.com

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The East of Edith Poetry Open Mic takes place every Monday night at the Projects, 3614 High Street NE. Sign-up to read between 6:30 and 6:50 pm.

Hope to see you all on Monday night!

-Rich Boucher

16 Poets at Edith of Edith Last Night – An Attempt At A Recap

My head is still a little dizzy from it. There’s still so much to think about after last night’s stellar East of Edith Open Mic at the Projects. I know that this word can easily be overused, but it was inspiring to see a full house on a Monday night for poetry; there were sixteen (yes, 16) poets on the open mic list last night, all of them reading intelligent, engaging and thought-provoking works of their own and poems by other authors, too. The flow of all the poems last night to me seemed quite remarkable; as the host, it was stunning to see how one poet’s contribution to the open mic seeming to perfectly complement the next poet’s contribution – this pattern carried out through the whole night and to me it almost seemed as if everyone was on the exact same wavelength – such a rare thing to witness and experience. And talk about range. The subjects for the poems last night were all over the map and just right. Survival of physical and emotional abuse, requiem,  current and topical rhapsodies in snark, Bob Dylan,  fantasy, terror, and fairy tales to name only a few of the places we were all taken to last night. There was so, so much range in the poems read last night; I have hosted hundreds of open mic nights in my time and I have to say that last night was one of the best.

It was (and is) an honor to host an event like this. I love how organically this reading is developing. It’s becoming quite strong, with its own characteristics fleshing themselves out week after week. In my experience it can take months, if not years, for a local poetry reading to begin to acquire the traits that this reading is already showing off. If you’re a poet and you’ve stopped by here for the first time today, reading this post, please come to the East of Edith and see for yourself what I’m describing here. A couple of quick words of thanks are in order here; thank you so much to all those who gave generously to the donation box; thank you to Mitch Rayes for hooking up the nice overhead fan and the new lights for the stage; thank you to Aaron Greenwood for bringing some nice fresh fruits for everyone, and thank you to Jules Nyquist for bringing some delicious pecans for everyone, as well!

Last night, in addition to the prize of getting to host East of Edith, I was also able to provide a (hopefully) fun prompt for the poets: share a phrase or a sentence, during your time at the mic, that you are sure no one could either begin a poem with or base a poem on. I’m anxious to learn (at some future point) what results may come of this. Here are the phrases I was able to collect, if you would like to try your hand at making a poem out of any of these results (if I missed a couple, I apologize; it was difficult to transcribe some of this as rapidly as they were delivered – I’m looking at YOU, Don McIver!):

“The Speaker of the House can be found on certain, but not all, beads of the Rosary.” – Reeves

“Literally nothing happened today.” – Krohn

“The road to salvation is a three-way with Palin and Beck.” – Greenwood

“When the doctors pulled the clarinet from my anus, I swore I’d have my revenge on that baboon.” – Maxson

“Great, I’m dead.” – Rayes

“The silly putty in his thong did not redound well upon the rebound.” – Crandall

“I ran into my grandmother at the orgy; my heart was a sinking galleon aboard the Titanic.” – Boucher

“A toast to Sir Edward Shakelton’s oldest bottle of whiskey, found buried & frozen at the South Pole.” – Nyquist

“Music goes up; music goes down; I speak but there is no sound.” – Dahvid

“Plutonium: I probably lit a candle – probably.” – Warren

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Thank you so much to Kenneth, Bob, Aaron, Teresa, Jules, Jennifer, Mitch, Nate, Sari, Stewart, Striving, Dahvid, Susy, Don, Eric, and Sirena. And thank you, Lisa Gill, for entrusting me with doing this thing last night.

All the best,

Rich Boucher

New Poetry Up on the Audio Archive!

 

 

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Everybody, let’s please welcome Jules Nyquist to the Audio Archive! Her poem,”Horizons” is now up on the Archive for your listening pleasure, edification, discernment, and enjoyment. She is accompanied on this poem by viola player Alicia Ultan, and it was a rare pleasure to attempt (and succeed) at a live recording of voice and instrument together. Give it a listen or two, if you please!

Spread the good works,

- Rich Boucher