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Visiting Writers Series: Mei-mei Berssenbrugge ’69

Reed College - Eliot Hall Chapel 3203 SE Woodstock, Portland, OR, United States

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge '69 was born in Beijing and grew up in Massachusetts. She is the author of 12 books of poetry including Empathy, Four Year Old Girl, I Love Artists and Hello, the Roses. A Treatise on Stars is forthcoming from New Directions Press along with a new edition of Empathy. She has collaborated with artists in the book arts and in theatre, including Frank Chin, Theodora Yoshikami, Richard Tuttle, Kiki Smith, Tan Dun, Davide Balula.  Forthcoming is an album with nature recordings by Rafael Sanchez. She graduated from Reed College in 1969, and her thesis was a book of poems. She lives in New Mexico and New York City.

Free

Wordlights Poetry ft. Brennan Lucas Staffieri

Rocking Frog Cafe 2511 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR, United States

Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings are presented by NovaPDX & Rocking Frog Cafe and curated by Portland poet Igor Brezhnev. On Saturday, March 21st, we'll have a feature from Brennan Lucas Staffieri and a long set poetry open mic! This show is hosted by Red O'Hare! OUR FEATURE: Brennan Lucas Staffieri Brennan Lucas Staffieri is a poet, playwright, podcaster, and director. He is currently a senior studying creative writing and theatre at Pacific University, and he founded and served as the president of the poetry club there, where he ran workshops and developed poetry programing for the campus. He is in the process of writing his first collection of poems, 41°43.5’ N, 49°56.8’ W, which explores grief aboard the sunken wreck of the RMS Titanic. He…

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Free

Un/Rooted: A Hybrid Form Event

Chapel Theatre 4107 SE Harrison St, Milwaukie, OR, United States

An engaging evening with some of Milwaukie and Portland's most talented hybrid artists performing works that integrate poetry or storytelling with other art forms on the themes of place, home, and rootedness (or lack of). Performers include Trevino Brings Plenty Alicia Jo Rabins, Jeff Alessandrelli, Emily Kepulis,Derek Hunter Wilson, Barry Brusseau, Jasmine Pettet, Chitra and Dao Strom. Please join us in supporting art in Milwaukie! The Chapel Theater is a 100-capacity converted church that has become the premier arts theater in Milwaukie, hosting plays, dance performances, classes, literary events and musical performances for the last two years. Beer, wine and pizza are available at all shows. You can buy a ticket ahead of time at the Brown Paper ticket link below. There will be sliding…

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$10

Poetry Reading: Judith Montgomery and Carol Barrett

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

In Mercy, local poet Judith Montgomery chronicles the story of caring for her husband as he endures cancer treatment. Though brutal in its technology, the medical world Montgomery describes is merciful in its human form, peopled by chemotherapy nurses whose expertise is matched by mercy, as they "lift the plumped / sac, poisons mixed to pour fire into flesh." Anyone who has had even the least brush with cancer will find here an honest and hopeful world, where suffering is lightened by the sight of butterflies, "mutable flames that glide as we-- / refugees from the cancer center, / and stunned by treatment-- / ... glide in luxurious / light, afloat in paradise." Pansies, Oregon poet Carol Barrett's collection of thirty slight, delicate vignettes, recounts…

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Free

CANCELED – Maggie Chula and Shawn Aveningo Sanders

Broadway Books 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

We are pleased to host poets Margaret Chula and Shawn Aveningo Sanders at 7 pm on Wednesday, March 25th, to read from their most recent books, Shadow Man and What She Was Wearing, respectively. In Shadow Man, Chula brings her father out of the shadows where he had been since 1957, the day her mother packed their five children—all under the age of ten—into the car and drove away. Over the years, Chula comes to accept the differences between a mother who wants China cups and a father content with Budweiser. Writing about these awkward, often heartbreaking, interactions with her estranged father, she discovers that there’s more than one truth and that each of us must find our own. Chula lived in Japan for twelve…

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Free

CANCELED – Poetry Reading: Linda Bierds & David Biespiel

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Northwest poets Linda Bierds & David Biespiel. The Hardy Tree is Washington poet Linda Bierds's latest collection. Focusing on figures such as Thomas Hardy, Alan Turing, Virginia Woolf, and the World War One poets, The Hardy Tree examines power, oppression and individual rights in ways that reverberate through our lives today. Uniting these themes is the issue of communication--the various methods and codes we use to reach one another. The book is arranged in four sections. The first visits Vladimir Nabokov as a child with alphabet blocks, Alan Turing at eleven writing home from boarding school with a "pen of his own making," Virginia Woolf as a teenager practicing her penmanship, and Wilfred Owen trying to draw a musical note from a…

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Free

CANCELED – Wordlights Poetry ft. Red O’Hare & Nicole Jean Turner

Rocking Frog Cafe 2511 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR, United States

Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings are presented by NovaPDX & Rocking Frog Cafe and curated by Portland poet Igor Brezhnev. On Saturday, March 28th, we'll have features from Red O'Hare & Nicole Jean Turner and a short set poetry open mic! This show is hosted by Igor Brezhnev! OUR FEATURES: Red O'Hare Red O'Hare is a Ashkenazi Jewish American poet from Oakland, California where she featured twice with Bay Area Generations. A product of Presbyterian missionaries from the Belgian Congo and Eastern European carny folk, Red has been performing poetry for 20 years with varying rates of success. She has recently released a poetry album Seaglass Strange (Lightship Press, 2019) and is currently working on a chapbook of poetry. Red works in a bakery and is…

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Free

VIRTUAL IPRC: Teen Poetry Time

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Zoom meetup link here FROM BRIAUNA: Hey, Y’all! Here is some information on what to expect out of Teen Poetry Time: First off, this event is for EVERYONE and you don’t need to have any writing experience to get something out of our time together. We will not be working with any poetic structure and there are no rules. You already have poetry within you, you are a living thing! We are going to be focused on reading/ listening to poems, generating new work with prompts and free writing. Here is freewriting explained I like to use tools in my writing practice, this includes oracle cards, objects, sounds, and other people’s poetry. In addition to a notebook and headphones, if you have objects that inspire…

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Free

CANCELED – A Poetry Reading by Rachel Zucker

Lewis & Clark - Frank Manor House 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road, Portland, OR, United States

Rachel Zucker is the author of ten books, including, most recently, SoundMachine (Wave Books, 2019). A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell Colony and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Zucker is an adjunct professor at New York University and the founder and host of the podcast Commonplace: Conversations with Poets (and Other People). Zucker is currently working on an immersive audio project (also called SoundMachine) and a book of lectures calledThe Poetics of Wrongness. Location: Frank Manor House

Free

FIRE DANCE: a virtual poetry reading

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Fire Dance is a virtual poetry event and fundraiser which will be held on April 7th at 7:30 PM. The suggested donation is $3-10, and all proceeds will go to the Portland Area Artists Emergency Relief Fund. Five Portland Area poets will read new work over ZOOM—let's keep the poetry community alive during this period of social distancing.

$3 – $10
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