Showing posts with label performance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label performance. Show all posts

Recap: Breaking Ground Poets @ the Vintage Theater

Posted by Unknown | Posted in , , , , , , , , , | Posted on Monday, October 29, 2012

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There's a storm blowin' in. Sometime. At least that's what they say. I'm not particularly worried, though. I've weathered the storms before. All kinds of them. Some of them worse than others. They say this one is a big one. Panic and scrambling people clearing the shelves of milk and eggs. All I grabbed this morning was some coffee and tea.


The weekend was long. Incredible, but long. Full of surprises and poetic beauty. On Saturday night, the Breaking Ground Poets, led by Tunkhannock Area teacher Katie Wisnosky, held their first poetry slam of the season. I had been invited to be a judge in the event. I was, to say the least, blown away.

Lauren Zuniga @ the Vintage Theater
The Vintage Theater in down town Scranton was packed. It was a a sight to behold on a Saturday night to see so many people out supporting poetry when they could have been at any number of Halloween parties and gatherings. 

Lauren Zuniga, a nationally touring poet and teaching artist, opened the night with a half hour performance. Zuniga moved effortlessly from piece to piece, delivering her words with beautiful sincerity. For the remainder of the night, she MC'd the event introducing the student poets while interacting with the crowd and keeping the momentum going.

What can I say about the students? It's difficult to come up with the words. Judging them was no easy task, either. All of the poets ranged in age from 16 to 18. The imagery and delivery of their work was simply impressive. Those students stepped onto the stage, ripped open their chests, and poured out everything beating against their ribs. We all ate it up and were belly-full by the end of the night.

Lauren Zuniga and the Breaking Ground Poets
Now I find myself a bit nervous. Nervous to step into a room with some of these students and lead a workshop. Nervous to partake in the next slam where the students will take on the adults. Somehow, I've been roped in to competing against them. I've got to sharpen that dagger pencil and scrawl something impressive because these students aren't going to go down easy. They've got fight. They've got heart. And none of them are afraid to use it. To bare it all. I commend them. 

Nervous or not, I'm excited to work with them. I'm excited that something like this is taking place with the youth in Tunkhannock and all around the area. Kids excited about poetry? Who would have thought. Much respect to Katie Wisnosky for pushing forward and on to make this happen.

And here's to the students. In the wake of the storm, I sit here contemplating my own words. They've inspired my own thoughts and I can feel my own words beating and pounding on my ribs. They need out. Where's my typer...



Prose in Pubs & What You Missed

Posted by Unknown | Posted in , , , , , , , , , , , , | Posted on Wednesday, January 25, 2012

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Laura E.J. Moran @ Prose in Pubs
Photo from Amye Archer
It was another exciting night at Prose in Pubs this past weekend. Not only was I able to be part of it, but, as always, the people I met, writers I listened to and good vibes I received were incredible. Friends from the Endless Mountain Writer's group, who meet every Thursday at the Dietrich theater in Tunkhannock, came out for moral support. New friends, who I'd met at the last reading in Hawley, PA, made a trip out as well.

My reading went well. Like the last, I shared new works with the crowd. They were received well and, at the end of the night, I was approached by someone telling me that some of my words had hit a connection him. For that alone, I am grateful for that night. For that moment where someone within the crowd caught my words and felt them as I did.

Dawn Leas, who I had heard read a few times before, was incredible. The way she frames her world within a poem, the imagery she paints for the reader or, in this case, the listener is vivid. Close your eyes, and you can see.

Gale Martin, one of the only novelists to read at Prose in Pubs as far as I can remember, read from her new book Don Juan in Hankey, PA. Hysterical. Her humor brings a whole new side to opera. Don Juan is the story of a small-town opera company who decide to stage a performance of Mozart's famous work to save their opera house from foreclosure. Just the idea of Don Juan performed in some rural, dirt road community is hilarious in itself but, the way Gale writes, brings a whole new level to the hilarity of the idea. Look for a review here as soon as I finish the book. If you cannot wait, check it out on Amazon. Link below.

The feature, Laura E.J. Moran, brought an excellent performance to Jack's Draft House with a mixture of laughs, heartache and, simply put, life.  Laura comes from the same poetic camp as past reader Jason Carney, who's work you can see in an earlier post. Her words are raw. Dusty in that real, worked way of hard work. Words chiseled using a sledgehammer and a bit of whiskey. Or, as Laura mentioned, lots of Pabst.

If you missed this Prose in Pubs or if you haven't attended one yet, you best get a move on. You're missing out on one of the most incredible nights in north east Pennsylvania. This isn't simply poems and prose. It's a night of connections. Of finding a corner of life that may be missing in your own. At the very least, come and have a drink. You've got nothing to lose.

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Please check out these links to learn more about the readers:
-Gale Martin's Don Juan in Hankey, PA
-Dawn Leas's site & her chapbook I Know When to Keep Quiet
-Laura E.J. Moran's site


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