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Literary Portland Posts

Constellation #4 (April 20th): Genevieve DeGuzman, Jaye Nasir, Christopher Rose

After another packed house in March, Constellation returns on April 20th with an all-local lineup. As always, doors open at 6:45 and the reading starts around 7:15. Meet this month’s readers: Genevieve DeGuzman (she/her) is a Philippine-born poet, speculative writer, and lover of all things robot, chimera, and alien. As a poet, Genevieve won the Atticus Review contest, was a finalist for the Michelle Boisseau Prize selected by Traci Brimhall, and earned Best New Poets nominations. Most recently, her chapbook “Machine Learning” was a semi-finalist for the Black River Chapbook Competition by Black Lawrence Press. She was named a 2022 Oregon Literary Fellow and has earned fellowships from Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency and Vermont Studio Center. In a former life, she worked in international development…

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National Poetry Month: FREE Movie Night! Slam featuring poet Saul Williams

April is National Poetry Month! Come enjoy a free movie and stay for the open mic! Tonight’s film will be Slam (1998) featuring poet Saul Williams. A little about Slam and Saul Williams: Slam is a 1998 American independent drama film directed, co-written and co-produced by Marc Levin and starring and co-written by Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn. It tells the story of a young African-American man whose talent for poetry is hampered by his social background. Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film Slam and the 2013 jukebox musical Holler If…

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National Poetry Month: FREE Movie Night! The Last Poets

April is National Poetry Month! Come enjoy a free movie and stay for the open mic! Tonight’s film will highlight the groundbreakers and trailblazers of what is today’s hip-hop and spoken word–The Last Poets! A little about The Last Poets: The Last Poets are several groups of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African-American civil rights movement’s black nationalism. The name is taken from a poem by the South African revolutionary poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, who believed he was in the last era of poetry before guns would take over. The original users of that name were the trio of Abiodun Oyewole, Gylan Kain, and David Nelson. The versions of the group led by Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin and Umar Bin Hassan had the…

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Poets & Popcorn

Event starts at 5:30 All ages welcome. Free parking is available in the lot across the street until full. A creative writing workshop, open mic, and film screening community event at The Abbey. Poets and writers will engage in a 1-hour cross-genre / poetry writing workshop in conversation with the themes, subjects, and ideas of the selected film. A 45-minute community open mic will follow, inviting attendees to share new creative work and build literary community with each other. A free admission community film screening will conclude the event, encouraging donations and concession stand purchases beforehand. Workshop participants will be additionally encouraged to engage with the film as an ekphratic inspiration to continue their workshop drafts at a future date. Each stage of the event…

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Application Deadline: Environmental Writing Fellowship and Residency

[See Full Details and Apply Here] The forests of the Oregon Coast Range are part of a vast ecosystem spanning from Northern California to the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The Pacific temperate rainforest is, acre for acre, better than the Amazon Rainforest at absorbing and storing carbon. If left to grow, the majestic cedars, spruces, hemlocks, and firs can hold carbon for an astonishing 800 years or more. These forests are climate forests. As we work toward stabilizing the climate, there is no technology that can sequester carbon at the scale of maturing and ancient forests. Yet less than 10% of Oregon’s old-growth forest remains. Throughout the Oregon Coast Range, the patchwork scars of ongoing industrial clearcuts and wide-scale liquidation of ancient forests are…

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Gust Burns & dana jnnfrsn

Works on Paper: Experiments in Language and Sound presents GUST BURNS DANA JNNFRSN Saturday, March 18 7:30 pm (doors open 7:00) $10-20 suggested donation; no one turned away Passages Bookshop 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660 503-388-7665 ========================== GUST BURNS on hearing jimi comprises the presentation of a series of musical excerpts performed on turntable, alongside a series of texts. Through its recursive, multi-modal interweaving of subject and object, active affection and passive affectability, the performance presents a preliminary exploration of hearing and listening that positions practices/conditions of aurality within a larger political-ontological framework. Gust Burns is a theorist, critic, teacher, musician, and composer. Currently, he is finishing his dissertation, Aesthetic Ontology of Anti-Blackness: Prohibition and Persistence across Black Arts, at the University of Washington’s Department…

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Lisa Fishman, Richard Meier, & Joshua Beckman

Spare Room and Passages Bookshop present a poetry reading by LISA FISHMAN RICHARD MEIER JOSHUA BECKMAN Friday, March 17 Doors open at 7:00 pm; reading at 7:30 pm Admission free; no late entry Passages Bookshop 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660 Portland, OR 97209 503-388-7665 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Lisa Fishman‘s debut fiction collection, World Naked Bike Ride, has just been released by Gaspereau Press (Canada). Her seven books of poetry include Mad World, Mad Kings, Mad Composition (Wave), 24 Pages and other poems (Wave), F L O W E R…

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Lorraine Lupo, Kyle Schlesinger, Rodney Koeneke, & Adam Torres

Spare Room and Passages Bookshop present an evening of poetry and music ADAM TORRES LORRAINE LUPO KYLE SCHLESINGER RODNEY KOENEKE Thursday, March 16 Doors open at 7:00 pm; reading at 7:30 pm Admission free; no late entry Passages Bookshop 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660 Portland, OR 97209 503-388-7665 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Adam Torres released both Pearls to Swine and I Came to Sing the Song on Fat Possum Records in 2016 & 2017 respectively, from his then-home of Austin, Texas. After three years of touring far and wide, he…

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A Conversation with Comics Creator Maia Kobabe

To join us for this lively event, please register here. On Monday, March 13, Portland State University hosts Will Eisner Week 2023, celebrating sequential art and freedom of expression in a no-holds-barred conversation with creator Maia Kobabe (e/em/eir), author and illustrator of Gender Queer, the US’s most banned book of 2022! The Zoom discussion will be moderated by Dr. Susan Kirtley, director of PSU’s Comics Studies program, in conjunction with the department of English, the department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, and the Center for Urban Studies. Winner of the comics industry’s Ignatz Award, the American Library Association Alex Award, and the Stonewall Books Award, Maia Kobabe is a nonbinary, queer author and illustrator from the Northern California Bay Area,…

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Works on Paper: Neal Kosaly-Meyer performs Finnegans Wake

Works on Paper: Experiments in Language and Sound presents Neal Kosaly-Meyer A Finnegans Wake Project Saturday, March 11 5:30 pm: Doors open 6:00 pm: Lecture and discussion, followed by a short break 7:30 pm: Performance (2.5 hours without a break) $10-20 suggested donation; no one turned away Passages Bookshop 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660 503-388-7665 ========================== A Finnegans Wake Project, now in its eleventh year, is Neal Kosaly-Meyer’s effort to learn and perform, from memory, and with acute attention to musical detail, each of the seventeen episodes of James Joyce’s final novel Finnegans Wake. At Passages Bookshop, Kosaly-Meyer will present Part II, Chapter 1 (the ninth chapter), in its entirety, preceded by a short introductory lecture and a moderated discussion. ========================== Neal Kosaly-Meyer is a…

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