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

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

LPG Event in MAY at Outpost Performance Space

Mark your calendar….

Friday May 11th 7:30 pm

Beauty Is A Verb: Lisa Gill, Kenny Fries, Denise Leto, Natalie Illum, & Mary McGinnis

presented in partnership with the Local Poets Guild and Basement Films

Tonight’s performance showcases poets from Toronto, San Francisco, Washington DC, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, all of whom have some kind of a “disability.” This will be a night of unique perspectives and a celebration of the newly released Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability, from Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso, which has been named one of ALA’s Notable Books of 2012. Kenny Fries is the author of four books including, The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory, which received the Outstanding Book Award from the Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. Denise Leto is an experimental poet, writer, and editor. She was guest editor for Sinister Wisdom. She moves through the world with dystonia. Natalie E. Illum is the author of Spastic and produced the first-ever National Queer Slam, Capturing Fire. She has Spastic Cerebral Palsy and an excerpt from her memoir will be featured on This American Life. Mary McGinnis has been published in over 65 magazines and anthologies. Blind since birth, she has written with power and humor about the disability experience, wild pears, and the dreams she doesn’t remember. She is the author of Listening to Cactus. This evening’s host, Lisa Gill, will also share her own work. Gill is founder of Local Poets Guild, recipient of an NEA Fellowship, and the author of five books of poetry, including Caput Nili, which tells the story of how she got her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. This show is the kick-off event for (L)INK: THE WRITE DISABILITY which will continue discussions with the authors at the downtown Main Library on Saturday, May 12th.

$15/$10 Outpost Members & Students

17 Reasons to Attend P(EAR)

As you may or may not know, Local Poets Guild runs a series of talks about poetry, craft and aesthetics, that happens monthly at Acequia Booksellers. We’ve had some fabulous speakers already, the next one promises to be even more seductive.

At 3 pm on Sunday September 4th at Acequia 4019-4th ST. NW, we’ve got Barbara Rockman from Santa Fe who will be joined by Reed Adair Bobroff. They are going to surprise us! Both will address aspects of the work of poetry that matter to them: whether content, craft, aesthetics, vision, whatever their personal take on their talk I know this will be insightful and inspiring and get all of us in the audience thinking about what language and poetry means to us. I hope you’ll come join us in this free event and discussion.

Reed Adair Bobroff is Todich’ii’nii (Bitter Water) Navajo which he is close to but is only a portion of  his Spanish speaking; French, German, Russian, and Polish, mutt heritage. Born in Menlo Park, California and happily forced to move to Albuquerque, New Mexico at his young age of 4. He began writing poetry two years later and continues through to this day; where he is a 17-year-old slam poet attending the Native American Community Academy. He has competed on youth slam teams since he was 13 (starting at NACA); one of those teams being the 2010 Abq Unidos Poetry Slam Team which took third in the Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam and was featured on HBO’s Brave New Voices. Now a leader of the Duke City Youth Poetry Collective (a collaborative of Youth Poets based in Albuquerque), Reed believes firmly in the power of writing. At it’s best it prompts thinking, challenges the current narrative of thought, and instigates positive change.

Barbara Rockman, raised in western Massachusetts, lives in Santa Fe where she leads poetry workshops and teaches at Santa Fe Community College. Her poems appear in numerous journals and anthologies including Bellingham Review, Calyx, Cimarron Review, and Spoon River Poetry Review. She is editor of the anthology, Women Becoming Poems, and founder of “Community of Voices,” a reading and music series for emerging artists. She has received the Southwest Writers Prize, the New Mexico Discovery Award, The MacGuffin Poetry Award and Baskerville Publishers’ Prize. She earned her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is the author of the poetry collection, Sting and Nest, 2011.

Please join us. This promises to be a unique and fruitful conversation. And the 17 reasons to attend? there are well over 17 reasons to come out, but Reed is 17, and this is a chance to learn about his trajectory early and witness him grow into opportunities.

LPG presents P(EAR): POETICS AND POEMS

with Barbara Rockman and Reed Adair Bobroff

3 pm Sunday Sept 4

Acequia Bookseller 4019 4th St. NW

May Newsletter

Dear Poets and Friends of Poetry,
Local Poets Guild has quite a few events forthcoming in May and Early June and a number of opportunities to announce. First, remember to keep checking our website for updates and opportunities. On the website you’ll also notice an ever-growing roster of poets, as well as a new audio archive curated by Rich Boucher.

LAND IS Retreat had our second successful poet-in-residence and we are now accepting applications for May, June, July and August. We hope to accommodate poets looking for a writing retreat lasting anywhere from 4 days to a month. For information on how to apply, and to see pictures of the retreat, see http://localpoetsguild.wordpress.com/writers-residency/ We want to encourage people to take advantage of this opportunity for sustained work in solitude amid a beautiful rural setting.

ONGOING MONDAYS—”East of Edith” successfully launched in April. This is our new weekly open mic that takes place every Monday night at 7:00pm at the Projects, a warehouse theater located at 3614 High Street NE, which is East of Edith and just North of Candelaria. Starting next week, I’ll also be bringing snacks. We have had as many as eleven sharp readers per event, and each event has offered a great slice of community voices. Everyone welcome. Come join us every Monday night at 7pm.

MAY 15th—P(EAR): Poetics and Poems continues for its second month in a row with craft and aesthetics talks given by Gary Jackson, winner of the Cave Canem Prize whose book Missing You, Metropolis intersects with comics culture, and Larry Goodell, local poetry legend known to use song and masks and humor to facilitate his performances.  I’m very excited to hear both of these authors talk about what poetry means to them and know their talks will be eye-opening, both for their own work and for the heart of what poetry can be. Sunday May 15 at 3:00pm at Acequia Booksellers 4019-4th ST. NW.

MAY 22nd–Writing To Heal Classes begin this month, with a short presentation I’ll give about the power of writing to heal, followed by writing exercises led by Michelle Otero. The class will take place at 100 Silver Ave SW in the community room for Silver Gardens from 3-6 pm. RSVP your interest to me at localpoetsgu…@yahoo.com as I’ll need to let you into the building due to security. Local Poets Guild is alternating writing to heal classes and nonviolence workshops. Each component supports the other and we encourage you to consider attending both. $5 sugested donation.

MAY 25th–Verso Quatro returns with two out of town poets, Seth Walker of Houston and Joaquin
Zihuatenejo* of Dallas, who will join two locals, Mary Oishi and Jessica
Helen Lopez, who both have new books out with West End Press. The event will be moderated by Richard Vargas. Wednesday May 25th 7:00 pm at the Projects 3614 high Street NE. $5 suggested donation. (*awaiting confirmation)

JUNE 5th–Open Poetry Workshop will resume on Sunday June 5th from 2-5pm. Time will be spent writing and
looking at elements of craft. People are also encouraged to bring 5
copies of a poem to share in critique. Suggested Donation $10.

JUNE 9th–Triptych will take place again in early June. This reading series highlights three poets each time, with in depth features. Next up: Sarah McKinstry Brown, visiting from Nebraska, as well as ABQ poets Sari Krosinsky and Jazzmine Cuffee. All three women are serious forces to be reckoned with, three distinctive and fine voices, each making strides in the literary world. This will happen Thursday June 9th 7:00 pm at the Projects 3614 High Street NE. $5 suggested donation goes to pay for the space.

HOW TO REGISTER FOR A POET’S PAGE:
Write localpoetsguild at yahoo dot com and request our simple registration form. Fill it out and return it. We are now actively soliciting poets from both Albuquerque and elsewhere in New Mexico. In June, we’d like to make a push for Santa Fe poets. Let the dialogue flow around the state and let us celebrate each others’ work.

FORTHCOMING:
Local Poets Guild has collaborations in the works with Church of Beethoven, The Roost Creative Music Festival, Globalquerque, ISEA 2012, and more. We are making progress bit by bit and hopefully putting down a solid foundation for
future endeavors. Keep checking the website for opportunities.

Thanks for your support, beautiful community!!!

Regards,

Lisa Gill
Artistic Director

Local Poets Guild