Tuesday, August 23, 2011

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...

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

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!