WordParty September 2011 - Highlights

September was a busy month. Jennifer's dad Edward Barone was in town from New York City and was invited to be the featured poet at Caffe Roma in North Beach :

On Sept 15th - Jennifer Barone was the featured poet at the Reader's Cafe Poetry series along with Walter Gomez, poet and activist. Hosted by Jack Hirschman. Check out the Reader's Cafe for new featured poets every Thursday night at 6:30pm.

On September 17th, we were part of the fantastic event "Pablo con Pablo" in honor of the poet Pablo Neruda at the Delancy Street Screening Room. The event was a multi-media performance which included short films in reference to Pablo Neruda, poetry, music, dance and photography. Featured poets included: Pablo Rosales, Avotcja, Jacques Korn, Cara Vida, Jennifer Barone, Ingrid Keir, Steven Gray, Arthur Sheridan and was hosted by Marc Kockinos.


On September 20th, the WordParty's theme was 100 Thousand Poets for Change! It was a cool and intimate night, the weather outside was balmy and many poetry events were in the air. Our favorite poets came by to give us their take on the theme which included Jennifer running for the president of Love, Ingrid who gave us a piece about what "not" to say to a pregnant lady, Bear laid down the voodoo soul with "my baby's done changed the lock on my door". Diamond Dave came by to tell us his history of Viracocha, Ted Walker, Steven Gray, Jonathan Siegal, Justice Sweet, QR Hand Jr. and Pablo Rosales all came through with diverse and powerful pieces about change. Jennifer ended the night singing "Fever" with the band, and the party continued!


On September 24th, we joined "100 Thousand Poets for Change!" and poets around the globe. Jennifer went from the Beat Museum > City Hall to join friends and poets in the movement for change, peace, love and poetry! Check out our event page on their site and post your poems:
http://www.bigbridge.org/100thousandpoetsforchange/?p=1947#comment-3294

Hoping to get more event re-cap videos posted soon... stay tuned... and see you next month for these great events:
LitQuake - OutofOur & Switchback
Saturday October 15th, 8:30pm-9:30pm at Mission Pie: 2901 Mission St (as 25th) SF CA

WordParty Bocce Ball Tournament - to raise funds for our first CD of featured WordParty poets!
Sunday October 16, 11am at Joe DiMaggio Bocce Ball Court, $15 per person
Visit www.thewordparty.com for more details!

August 2011 WP recap

August started off great. Jennifer and Daniel were the featured poets at the Open Heart Poetry open mic on Thursday August 4th, hosted by the one and only Marc Kockinos. He is such an elegant host, it's inspiring. Please go and support this open mic, one of the best in the city! Wish we had footage or a photo to share, but we were too busy getting down and reading about food to the sax while people were chowing on verse and drinking hot tea. Delicious tea and great poets at Om Shan Tea, every Thursday!

Our August installment of the WordParty had Martin Hickel of the Sausalito reading series, Sunset Poetry by the Bay co-hosting with Jennifer Barone. He did a great job, even after being asked on the spot to jump in and help host, what a professional! Here's a pic of Martin, kicking it off right:

Some favorite and fellow poets stopped by to grace us with a poem including: Steven Gray, Sarah Page, Danilee, Matthew Rodgers and Jessie Whiley who we haven't seen in too long. Jon O read a great poem called "a snail called Muni" in which he griped about the slow service of our favorite Muni transit system. Atypcl read a harsh poem about Obama. Steven Low read a poem about receiving an unemployment letter in the mail. Cesar Love read about Oedipus. Ellerie Ballard had a very short poem "I love you, I love you too. That's enough" - very endearing. Geordie Van Der Bosch our percussionist got up and read some of Steven Gray's poems from his new book with the band. Renaldo, Buford Buntin and Justice Sweet all read new pieces! Here's a photo of one of our new favorites, Bradly Werley, reading a rap poem called the "Rahj of Love" - too funny. We love him:

Our man about town, Evan Karp had uploaded some great video footage from the OutofOur event at Arte Internationale in North Beach. Featured poets included Jack Hirschman, Joan (J. R.) Brady, Annie Klopfer, Jimmy Mankind, Cara Vida, Mel Clay, Chris Cole, and Steven Gray, and Jennifer Barone & the Nova Jazz Band representing the WordParty. Check out Jennifer Barone reading her poems about "the slow migration of the North Beach poets", "Chinatown alleys at night", "the Poetry of Pasta" and "Hey, I'm Naked Up Here" with accompaniment by Nova Jazz: Daniel Heffez (sax), SteveShain (bass) and Geordie Van Der Bosch (congas):

September is going to be a hot month for poetry. Come on out for the next upcoming readings:

Edward Barone (Jennifer's dad) is going to be the featured poet at Caffe Roma.
Friday Sept 2nd -7pm. Open mic to follow.

Walter Gomez Jennifer Barone featuring at Fort Mason's Reader's Caffe, 
hosted by Jack Hirschman Location: Readers Cafe, Fort Mason - Building C
Date: Thursday September 15th, 2011 | Time: 6:30pm

WordParty Sept. 20th Theme:100 Thousand Poets for Change! Bring your poems about what you want to change in the world and get ready to kick-off a world-wide poetry celebration.

The WordParty Joins Diamond Dave at 100 Thousand Poets for Change at City Hall:

Date: Tuesday September 24th - Location: The steps of SF City Hall | Time: TBD

Check out www.thewordparty.com for more...

July 2011 Highlights - Music-themed WordParty, OutofOur Release, Welcome Sierra

July was a happening month for poetry. LaborFest took over the city and we were lucky enough to catch some moving readings with Alice Rogoff and Andrea Zawinski at City Lights, very inspiring. Ted Walker had a theatrical performance at Viracocha, or what he lovingly calls the "V-cave," with his original play "Babble on Babylon." Check out his photographs on facebook, he even made some wicked costumes, impressive stuff. We are hoping that he does it again!

The July installment of the WordParty had our very own Bear as Jennifer's guest co-host. Bear had been wanting to do a special theme night for a long time about "Music" of course, his favorite subject. Poets were invited to bring poems inspired by the theme or even read song lyrics as if they were poems. Some of the highlights of the night were Bear reading "Rock Lobster" as a poem along with Luther Vandross' "Never too much." Ted Walker's poetic version of the "The Highlander" and Dan Brady doing Bob Dylan, QR Hand Jr was there along with Steve Arnston... The list goes on and on, too much fun, great performances... Nova Jazz was happy with our musical theme of course:

OutofOur had their issue 11 release party at the new Art Internationale art space in North Beach. Jennifer Barone read along with Nova Jazz to represent the WordParty. Jack Hirschman read along with Steven Gray, Cara Vida and more. Here's a photo of Sarah Page welcoming guests and handing out the latest issue of OutofOur, look for the WordParty's ad in the back and a poem by Jennifer.

In other news of July, Ingrid had a baby girl on Monday July 25, 2011 named Sierra. Truly one of her greatest works of art. We can't wait for her first poem, maybe we'll have a third co-hostess in the future? Welcome little Sierra!

WordParty June 21, 2011 - Highlights

For some reason the June installment of the WordParty was a wild madhouse. Could it be because I printed out the old sign-up sheet, which had more slots for poets than the allotted time? Sorry Jonathan... I promise to bring the right sign-up sheet this month as we went 1/2 hour over our regularly scheduled time slot at Viracocha, but we were just having too much fun! Some of the highlights of the night were Harmon Leon bringing his special brand of poetic comedy and laptop humor by running a slide show of his famous "ironic, not ironic" piece. Rudy Waltz gave us a great "farewell" poem as he was heading out of town for a little bit. Kirk Lumpkin graced our stage with his wonderful jazz poem and many, many more... Here are two photos of some more favorites: Steve Arnston and friends who gave us a poem with interpretive dance:

and our very own Geordie Van Der Bosch, conga player - who read an intuitive poem from the top of his head which he dedicated to the one and only Gil Scott Heron, R.I.P. called "This Poem Will NOT be Read" after Gil's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." We're trying to get Geordie to give us a copy of his poem, but apparently he doesn't want it to be read, ha ha! 

See you - 3rd Tuesday in July at Viracocha where Bear will be my guest co-host running with the theme of poetry inspired by music! Come on down. –  Jennifer Barone

National Poetry Month at the WordParty!

I don't know what to say, last night was just AMAZING. High-energy, lots of laughs, inspiring poetry and jazz. Something must be in there air because everyone was amped and no one wanted to leave, we ran a 1/2 hour over, but our friends at Viracocha didn't seem to mind too much as they were having a good time too. EK Keith stopped by to do a lottery drawing for one lucky poet to read at the upcoming Poems Under the Dome at City Hall. We are proud to announce that one of our favorites - CaraVida - was the winner! WordParty regular Ted Walker showed up with a poem he wrote just for the night, see below. Hope you are continuing to write a poem every day... - the Word Party


This Happening at the V-Cave
by Theodore Walker

We kids drop down to the V-cave,
spitting words and daring brave.
Dudes dressed in retro duds and
birds displayed to impress studs
with retro flair
they toss their hair.
Hipster shoes and
moody blues and
cats too cool for school.
Where word-party love
fits jazz on like a glove
banging sounds from GVB
tapping tight on congas-whee!
Colin-stands up and slaps bass
hits it so hard, I lose my place!
Dan Heffez, man..whats to say?
blowin the sax, listen to him play!
Carl sometimes sits in and with a grin
laying down Gabrielite horn to my chagrin.
Man, you just have to see
this happening at the Vee!

I’m not kiddin’ I’m not foolin’
I mean, yeah this site is coolin
me out. V-cave filled with hipsters
tricksters, and finger-poppin daddies
like Lord Buckley, and man we had it!
We sang outta key, outta tune
we sang through Poetry Month into June
and beyond.

So cats, lemme hip ya to the scene
here at V-cave it’s always a scream
and thank you to Jennie B
and Ingrid that mama to be
Hang on babies, give up hollers and shouts
to the Word Party, Poetry month, and I’m out!

The WordParty Relaunches Website

Hello Everyone,

Just in time for National Poetry Month, we here at the WordParty are proud to announce the relaunch of our newly redesigned website!  

Please go to http://thewordparty.com to check it out!

Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts Rd 13 Re-cap

Photos by C. Theodore Walker. Drawing of Jennifer Barone & Daniel Heffez by Ann Cohen. Click here for more photos of the show.

Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts Rd 13 was on fire in a heavenly place. I had never been to the First Unitarian Universalist Church (Martin Luther King Room, 1187 Franklin) in San Francisco, but not only is it a gorgeous and open church, the Universalists seem to be open to many belief systems and there were boards with a Pagan circle gathering and other spiritualist paths announced. This made us feel at home to read anything we wanted to and just be ourselves. Gracious hosts: Daniel Yaryan and guest host Kirk Lumpkin, who ended the night with an ode to the beats - conjured the spirits with music and an eclectic mix of local poets including: Latif Harris w/ Phil Deal on sax, Joyce Jenkins, Sam Sax, Kathleen Wood, Tom Stolmar, Dee Allen, Steve Arnston and WordParty congo player - Geordie Van Der Bosch and yours truly - Jennifer Barone & Daniel Heffez on sax performed and had a great time!

National Women's History Month

It is March, and the birds are singing. Spring is just around the corner, and we are ready to celebrate! This month is also National Women's History Month, so please bring poems that celebrate women and womanhood to read at this month's installment of WordParty poetry & jazz open mic!