Sometimes Out Back – A Poem by Aaron Ambrose – (L)INK: The Write Disability

And today we get a message from poet Aaron Ambrose!

“Hey Albuquerque, I’m super excited to head on down the highway in my 87′ corolla with a stack of poems, a fresh haircut and whole lotta love for the most righteous and brilliant poetry community there is. I’m also thrilled that I get to be part of this series of disability centered events helping to connect poetry to the larger disability justice movement. This is my favorite piece right now.”

Sometimes out back

a host of sparrows explodes from the tree top outward in all directions
i can feel the lift of it
the stirring air and for that brilliant skyward moment
it all lifts with them
the heavy growl of traffic
the dangerous hum of humans
all the well lodged voices in my head that condemn me
trash
waste
sick
crazy
useless
its all your fault echoes
of my own voice falling in the heat from the bed
toward the dirty carpet
when will this
be over
the sounds they all lift
with the birds
exploding stirring up ghosts and history
and a sense of tomorrow
when there’s a chance of change
as good as a rest
i want to take off toward
and outward
take off lost and happy
take off yearsof lonely
keep this feeling well lodged inside
my chest
my chest brimming with sudden hope sparrows.

—

About Aaron:

Aaron Ambrose was raised working class in Rochester, NY and has called New Mexico home since 95′. Aaron is not only as queer as the day is long but also a step-parent, farmer, weaver, handyman and resale queen. A life navigating chronic illness/disability, addiction, homelessness, love, loss and so much more delivered her into the arms of poetry. With a natural flare for drama, the written word quickly progressed to spoken word many years ago. Aarons’ writing comes from the desire to not just survive but to connect, find joy, kick some ass and do something about the mess of the world.

You can hear Aaron as one of three features in a special edition of OUTspoken at the Cell Theater 7 pm Thursday May 10th (700 first street NW just south of Lomas… suggested $5 donation…

Or you can hear her along with Denise Leto of San Francisco, Kenny Fries of Toronto, Mary McGinnis of Santa Fe, Lisa Gill of Albuquerque, and Natalie E. Illum of Washington, DC on Friday, May 11 at 7:30 pm @ the Outpost Performance Space $15/10 members and students
And she’s also participating in our 4 pm panel discussion with other Link participants (WHICH PRECEDES A COMMUNITY OPEN MIC) at the downtown Library on May 12th.

For details on the full schedule, see http://localpoetsguild.wordpress.com/about-link-the-write-disability/

Much obliged,
Rich Boucher

Love Note to New Mexico – A Poem by Natalie Illum – (L)INK: The Write Disability

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love note to New Mexico

I met you at a New Year’s Eve Party in Taos.

I fell in love with the desert texture of your skin.

I came back for a wedding in Santa Fe, held

rose quartz and silinite to open my heart, burned

every break up letter in the Valley of Fires.

I believe in aliens and whiskey, so it makes sense

that I came back for him.  I am easy

as a bottomless lake.  I dreamed

of moving to Truth or Consequences once.

I still might, if only for the mineral water.

If only to trade skyscrapers for horizon.

I forget how gorgeous an O’Keefe is

once you leave the museum. Remember

how sunset is mystery, how lava

is thirsty. How I could find a red lotus

in a minefield of cattle bones. And now

Albuquerque, full of the rattle of poems.

I am coming for your borderline,

for the taste of ink and dust,

to talk into your arid,

and come up full.

Soon,

nei

***

Activist, poet and federal employee Natalie E. Illum is a founding board member of Mothertongue, a spoken word and creative writing non-profit for women and young girls for since 1998. She has an MFA in creative writing from American University and teaches poetry workshops in a variety of academic and community venues.

Her writing is included in Growing Up Girl (GirlChild Press) and Word
Warriors: 35 Women Leaders of the Spoken Word Revolution, an anthology
edited by Alix Olson (Seal Press) as well as other publications.  Her
poems were featured in in Feminist Studies, a scholarly journal edited
by Minnie Bruce Pratt, Natalie has collaborated with LAVA, an
acrobatic troupe in Brooklyn, perfecting her skills at performing
poetry upside down during the show Tides (www.lavalove.org). She has
self-published 2 chapbooks: Ground Lover and On Writers Block and
Acrobats.

Natalie has represented DC at the Women of the Worlds and Individual
World Poetry Slam competitions since 2008. She is the Executive
Producer of Capturing Fire, the first-ever National Queer Slam, which
premiered in Washington DC in March 2010. Her memoir, Spastic, is
being adapted into a solo show by Spoken Word legend Regie Cabico.  An
excerpt of the show will be featured on NPR’s Snap Judgment.

She was a featured poet in the 2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival of
Provocation and Witness (www.splitthisrock.org), and is honored to be
one of the poets included in the Full Moon On K Street, an anthology
that features poems about Washington DC from 1950 to the present
(Manic D. Press).

Natalie has performed with many nationally-recognized performers,
including Bitch, Michelle Tea, Alix Olson, Eileen Myles, Buddy
Wakefield and Andrea Gibson.  For more information, visit
www.natalieillum.net.

You can hear Natalie (along with Denise Leto of San Francisco,  Kenny Fries of Toronto, Mary McGinnis of Santa Fe, Lisa Gill of Albuquerque,  and Aaron Ambrose of Santa Fe on Friday, May 11 at  7:30 pm @ the Outpost Performance Space $15/10 members and students

For details on the full schedule, see http://localpoetsguild.wordpress.com/about-link-the-write-disability/

***

Much obliged,

Rich Boucher

Manuel Gonzalez Features at East of Edith on Monday, May 7th!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s time for some more good poetry news! This coming Monday, May 7th, at 7:00 pm, at the Projects 3614 High Street NE is our open mic night known as East of Edith. This week you’ll get a chance to hear feature poet Manuel Gonzalez  share his work!

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 very busy being awesome – have you been yet? You haven’t? How come? What’s up? Oh, really? That’s ok – you should still come to this and check it out. You should totally (for reals) come and listen or read or do BOTH. Please come early to get a cup of juice or coffee and some snacks and then enjoy on all the things happening at the microphone…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.

So. Here’s a little bit about Manuel:

Manuel is a performance poet who began his career in the poetry slam. He has represented Albuquerque many times on a national level as a member of the Albuquerque poetry slam team. Manuel has appeared on the PBS show, Colores, in “my word is my power.” He was one of the founding members of the poetry troupe The Angry Brown Poets. Manuel teaches workshops on self expression and poetry in high schools and youth detention centers. He also works with an art therapist to help incarcerated young men express themselves. He is one of the coaches and mentors for the Santa Fe High Poetry Slam team. Manuel is from Albuquerque, New Mexico. His mother’s family is from Barelas. His father’s family is from a small town in Northern New Mexico called Anton Chico, and his father was the lead singer of the band Manny and the Casanovas. He identifies himself as being Chicano.The history, culture, and spirituality of his people are among his inspirations. “I’m proud to be from New Mexico, and to me it’s more than just green chile and desert. It’s seeing the value of famila and respect. It’s the Rio Grande valley and Santuario de Chimayo. It is feasts, dance, poetry and prayer.” His connection to his culture helps him connect to his students. Manuel teaches poetry as a means for self expression. Looking within oneself and examining ones roots is the essence of the type of poetry he works with. Emotions, feelings, experiences, and prose as an historical and cultural context is the goal of his workshops. Self esteem, finding something to say, figuring out how to say it eloquently, and letting your voice be heard are just some of the benchmarks in Manuel’s workshop.

***

The East of Edith Poetry Open Mic takes place every Monday night (yes, 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

Greetings, Albuquerque! – A Poem by Kenny Fries – (L)INK: The Write Disability

Body Language

By Kenny Fries

 

What is a scar if not the memory of a once open wound?
You press your finger between my toes, slidethe soap up the side of my leg, until you reach
the scar with the two holes, where the pins wereinserted twenty years ago. Leaning back, I
remember how I pulled the pin from my leg, howin a waist-high cast, I dragged myself
from my room to show my parents what I had done.

Your hand on my scar brings me back to the tub
and I want to ask you: What do you feel

when you touch me there? I want you to ask me:
What are you feeling now? But we do not speak.

You drop the soap in the water and I continue
washing, alone. Do you know my father would

bathe my feet, as you do, as if it was the most
natural thing. But up to now, I have allowed

only two pair of hands to touch me there,
to be the salve for what still feels like an open wound.

The skin has healed but the scars grow deeper-
When you touch them what do they tell you about my life?

from the book “Anesthesia: Poems”

(Avocado Press, reprinted with permission of the author)

 

Kenny Fries (Toronto) is the author of The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory, which received the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights, and Body, Remember:  A Memoir, as well as editor of Staring Back:  The Disability Experience from the

Inside Out.  His books of poems include Anesthesia and Desert Walking.  He was a Creative Artist Fellow of the Japan/US Friendship Commission and the NEA, a Fulbright Scholar to Japan, and a recipient of a grant for innovative literature from the Creative Capital Foundation.  He teaches at Goddard College.

You can hear Kenny 7:00pm at the Cell Theater (700 1st Street) for OUTspken’s feature, open mic and slam—for a suggested donation of $5.

Plus catch him 7:30 pm Friday Night May 11th at the Outpost Performance Space $15 or $10 members.

He’ll also join the morning discussion about performance and presentation strategies at 10:30 am at Tricklock’s New Performance Laboratory on 110 Gold–he’s been lauded by the United Nations for his work.  And he’ll be one of three keynotes 2 pm Saturday at the Main Library downtown.

 

For details on the full schedule, see http://localpoetsguild.wordpress.com/about-link-the-write-disability/

 

Much Obliged,

Rich Boucher

…….and this just in! The First Annual Free Your Speech Poetry Party at the Harwood Art Center

This news comes to LPG from Aja Oishi:

 

This Friday, May 4, come celebrate the First Amendment with poetry!  The ACLU is holding its first annual Free Your Speech poetry party at the Harwood Art Center to benefit the law student ACLU chapter.  There will be a bake sale and silent auction, along with a reading from five fabulous Albuquerque poets: Lisa Gill, Tani Arness, Cathy Arellano, Damien Flores, and Erin Northern.  The featured poets will be reading from 8-9 pm, with an open mic to follow.

The law school chapter of the ACLU is raising funds to help bring Constitutional Law classes to local high schools; to send law student lobbyists toSanta Fe; and to provide a stipend for a summer position at the ACLU-NM.  We want to foster a strong alliance between progressive lawyers, activists and artists, and we believe in the power of the spoken word to build a progressive community.

Please come enjoy poetry and support the ACLU!

Date: Friday, May 4

Time: 8-10pm

Place: The Harwood Art Center, 7th and Mountain

Tickets: $5 suggested donation at the door

 

Dig it,

Rich Boucher

Reeves & Krosinsky to Feature at the Harwood!

Reeves & Krosinsky to Feature at the Harwood!

Robert Arthur Reeves and Sari Krosinsky read at the Harwood Art Center in the upstairs cafeteria on Wednesday, May 16, 7-8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) Books, chapbooks and CDs will be available for purchase, $7-10. Here’s a Google map to the venue. There will also be 30 minutes of open mic.

Krosinsky will read from her forthcoming book “god-chaser” and new material from the CD “Complications.” Reeves will read unpublished poems and selections from his latest books, “Because” and “The Dead Have Children.”

Reeves was born in Urbana, Illinois and grew up (so to speak) in the Boston area. As a baby he sat on Carl Sandburg’s lap. Allen Ginsberg recommended his teenage poetry to Gregory Corso. He lives in Albuquerque, N.M., where he has taught philosophy, religion and humanities at the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College. His poems have appeared in Fulcrum, Skidrow Penthouse, The Blind Man’s Rainbow, Arsenic Lobster, The Homestead Review, Adobe Walls and many other journals. He has published 11 poetry collections and a chapbook, “Yossele: A Tale in Poems,” with his partner Sari Krosinsky. Visit them at outerchildpoetry.com.

Krosinsky writes about the mundane in mythology and the sublime (and sublimely awful) in the ordinary. Her first full-length book, “god-chaser,” is forthcoming from CW Books. She publishes Fickle Muses, an online journal of mythic poetry and fiction. Her poems appear regularly in literary and genre magazines. She received a B.A. in religious studies and M.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico. She lives in Albuquerque, N.M., with her partner and cat.

 

Dig it,

Rich Boucher

Monday, April 23 – Benjamin Bormann Features at East of Edith!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming up this Monday night, April 23rd at 7pm, we will be having our regular open mic at the Projects (3614 High Street NE, East of Edith and just north of Candelaria through the open garage doors). Jules Nyquist will tackle hosting duties – thank you, Jules! – and this night looks to be a wonderful evening for poetry and for poetry in Albuquerque!

Here’s a little bit about Ben:

Benjamin Bormann has been writing and performing poetry in Albuquerque since 2005. In 2007, he was a finalist in the Albuquerque Grand Slam at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. He has been published in various local prints, including “Earth Ships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection“, “The Fixed and Free Anthology”, UNM’s “Medical Muse”, and “Artistica: A Poetry Zine”. He has featured at the Sumner & Dene art gallery poetry series “The Treehouse”, in the multi-art showcases “Les Artes Eclectic” and “The Dancing Cup”, and twice held spotlight features at the Sunday Spoken Word Series at the ABQ Center for Peace & Justice. His poetry strives to evoke a common, and ancient, sense of place and self, and explores the intimacy of the relationship between humanity and its home.

***

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

Seconding A Call for Submissions to 200 New Mexico Poems

 

Friends, there is a fantastic New Mexico-based online literary journal called 200NewMexicoPoems, and the editor, Lisa Hase-Jackson, is still looking for submissions! From the journal’s About page:

“200New MexicoPoems: 100 Poems Celebrating the Past, 100 More for the Future is a dynamic celebration ofNew Mexico’s centennial through poetry. Its mission is to promote a broader understanding of the state’s unusual beauty and delicate ecology as well as foster a greater awareness of its distinct blend of cultural influences. Above all, the project will show thatNew Mexico’s enchantment is derived from its people, its stories, and the aesthetics of its environment.”

If you have not checked out 200NewMexicoPoems yet, I urge you to do so! And submit, also, if you have not yet done so.

Full Disclosure: I have a poem published on there. But never mind that. Go and read all the other magnificent poems on there. This is a New Mexico-specific and quite remarkable literary journal!

Best,

Rich Boucher

Sunday Readings and Speaker This Week

On the second and fourth sundays of the month from noon to two, a small group of us get together and read essays about poetry. We usually get through about three essays, sharing the reading out loud one paragraph at a time, and then discussing each article and examining our own beliefs about writing and process.

I host this session at a community room in Silver Gardens apartments at 100 Silver Ave SW between 1st and 2nd streets by the train station. RSVP to me and I’ll send the articles in advance as PDFs so you can print them and have them ready to read from on Sunday. I will also send you my phone number so you can call if you are late. (Building has security and I have to let you in.)

This Sunday the 11th, we’ll read two articles, one hugo and one gluck, and then around 1 pm we’ll have a guest speaker. John Amen who is visiting will talk about poetry and we’ll continue the discussion.

Let me know if you want to come, nearartexperience at yahoo dot com.

Thanks,

lisa gill

The Luck of Listening

From the pen of Don McIver:

I am a lucky guy.   Not only am I blessed with creativity, good friends, love, and more, but I live in a town that is conscious, thoughtful and creative.   Sometimes I forget this.  Sometimes I crawl up on my soapbox and want to proclaim that things would be better if this didn’t happen, or things would be better is they listened to me.   But sometimes, I’m lucky, and I decide to listen.  And though I was on the bill, I was lucky because I got to listen.  On Sunday, March 5th, 2012, at the Outpost Performance Space, John Crawford, Amanda Sutton, and others decided to put together a really great line-up of people who needed to to vent but also add their voices to the chorus of voices about the injustice, the short-sightedness, the racism of the Tucson Unified School Districts not only living up to the letter of HB 2281, but going even further by banning certain texts.   As a teacher, this strikes me as stupid.   As an American, it strikes me as counter to everything we say we value.  And as a human, it strikes me as, simply, wrong.   So a day after being so blessed to hear the thoughtful words of fellow poets, I’m humbled and grateful.  I’m humbled that my words were part of the show, were part of the gestalt that made this night one for the record books.   So thank you Richard Vargas, Margaret Randall, Levi Romero, Mary Oishi, Gary Brower, Andrea Serrano, Jessica Helen Lopez, Hakim Bellamy, Carlos Contreras, Tanaya Winder, Yasmeen Najmi, and Brian Hendrickson.  In addition, thank you SWOP and Los Jardines Institute.  Words and ideas matter, and tonight they made the world…better.
Don McIver