7 PM FRIDAY…
Our spring series continues with poetry readings organized by Pittsburgh area poet Scott Silsbe. Join us each month at 7:00 pm for readings by selected local poets, a little bit of music and a lot of relaxed comradery. Acoustic music provided! Donations welcome. Featured readers: Mike Good, Stephanie Brea, Karen Lillis & Sarah Shotland. BYOB.
Please join us- this will be our last reading in our spring series. See you in the fall!
8PM THURSDAY…
The REWIND Reading Series is back at it again.
WHAT IS REWIND?
REWIND is what happens when people share their angsty adolescent selves on a stage to a room full of adults. These are real people sharing their real, unedited journals, poems, songs, etc. for laughter, tears and unabashed nostalgia. In other words, it takes guts, yo.Brave presenters this round:
Kris Collins
Deena November
Janette Schafer
Sarah Shotland
Meghan Tutolo (host)Do you have an idea for REWIND? Message Meghan Tutolo a brief bit about what you want to share and why you want to share it.
Don’t forget to join the REWIND Reading Series group for news on events and calls for readers. ✨
7PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 26…
Celebrate the publication of Kristofer Collins’ new poetry collection ‘Salsa Night at Hilo Town Tavern’ by Hyacinth Girl Press! Featuring readings by Chelsea Bodnar, Deesha Philyaw, Bart Solarczyk, and Kristofer Collins.
This is a FREE event. BYOB.
Chelsea Bodnar once transcribed her favorite horror movie word-for-word.
Kristofer Collins is the publisher and senior editor of Low Ghost Press. He is the books editor for Pittsburgh Magazine and a frequent contributor to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His latest poetry collection, Salsa Night at Hilo Town Tavern was published by Hyacinth Girl Press in 2017. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife Dr. Anna Johnson and their two cats.
Deesha Philyaw is the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband. Her writing has appeared in numerous outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Full Grown People, Apogee Journal, brevity, and Dead Housekeeping. Deesha’s work includes a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2016. At The Rumpus, Deesha inaugurated and curates a monthly interview column called VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color.
Bart Solarczyk grew up on Pittsburgh’s Southside & now lives in Ross Township. His poems have recently appeared in Lilliput Review, Big Hammer, Rasputin & Nixes Mate Review. His latest chapbook, Right Direction, was published in November of 2016 as one of Lilliput Review’s Modest Proposal series.
ALSO 7PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 26…
Join us for a memorable evening of words!
Scott Silsbe, Gretchen Uhrinek, Sarah Shotland, B. Diehl, & Kat Giordano are excited to share their writing with you.
Free event. BYOB. ♥
8PM THIS WEDNESDAY…
The Bridge Series unites the Pittsburgh literary and activist communities to raise awareness and funds for local organizations fighting the good fight in these troubling times.
The series convenes the last Wednesday of each month at The Brillobox. Each installment will feature Pittsburgh’s finest writers and a special guest organization (with proceeds from the evening going directly to that organization).
$5 cover.
Tonight will feature readings from:
Veronica Corpuz is a poet and multimedia artist based in Wilkinsburg. The former director of the Three Rivers Arts Festival, she has previously served as the program assistant for the Poetry Project in New York City; as adjunct professor at Naropa and Chatham universities; and as guest speaker and poet at New York University and the Kelly Writers House at University of Pennsylvania. She is currently working on a memoir of prose poems about her late husband, Michael Grzymkowski, and his battle with brain cancer.
Deesha Philyaw is the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband. Her writing on parenting, race, gender, and pop culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, EBONY, Essence, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh CityPaper, Full Grown People, brevity, Dead Housekeeping, The Establishment, Catapult, ESPN’s The Undefeated, and elsewhere. Deesha’s work includes a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2016 and a forthcoming short story in Apogee Journal. At The Rumpus, she inaugurated and curates an interview column called VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color. Deesha is a fellow at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction. She is currently working on a novel as a well as a short story collection called The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.
Sarah Shotland is the author of the novel Junkette, and a playwright whose work has been widely produced nationally and internationally. She is the co-founder and program coordinator of the Words Without Walls program, and teaches in the MFA program at Chatham University. She’s currently working on a collection of essays about her experiences working in jails and prisons.
Our guest organization for the evening is Words Without Walls.
Words Without Walls is a creative partnership between Chatham University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program, and the Allegheny County Jail, State Correctional Institution of Pittsburgh, and Sojourner House, a residential treatment facility for mothers and their children. Words Without Walls teaches 18 creative writing classes per year, serving about 300 men, women, and youth annually. In addition to teaching creative writing courses, Words Without Walls publishes chapbooks and anthologies of the best of our students’ work; holds readings featuring Words Without Walls writers; and runs a reading series that brings critically acclaimed writers to Pittsburgh to engage with students. This year, Words Without Walls began the Maenad Fellowship, a new initiative that brought eight women in recovery from drugs and alcohol to Chatham’s campus for 12 weeks to take part in master classes and readings. The first cohort of the Maenad Fellowship graduated from the program just last week. The work of Words Without Walls is funded by the NEA, the NEH, The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Heinz Foundation, and the Staunton Farm Foundation.
Littsburgh interviews Jen Ashburn about it here.
TOMORROW…
SARAH SHOTLAND is the author of Junkette (White Gorilla Press 2014). She is a novelist and playwright whose work has been performed in New Orleans, Dallas, Austin, Chicago and Florida; and internationally in Chongqing, PRC and Madrid, Spain. Her most recent play, Cereus Moonlight, was commissioned by miR Theater. After opening on the Space Coast of Florida, it played at the 25th annual Rhino Fest in Chicago.She is the co-founder and Program Coordinator of Words Without Walls, which brings creative writing classes to jails, prisons and rehabilitation centers in Pittsburgh, PA. She is co-editor of the literary anthology Words without Walls: Writers on Addiction, Violence & Incarceration with Sheryl St. Germain, due out from Trinity University Press in spring of 2015.
She teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Chatham University and is a member of the Literary Arts faculty at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts.
JASON BALDINGER has spent a life in odd jobs, if only poetry was the strangest of them he’d have far less to talk about. Somewhere in time he has traveled the country, and wrote a few books. The latest of which “The Lower 48” (Six Gallery Press) and the chapbook “The Studs Terkel Blues” (Night Ballet Press) as well as the Anthologies Lipsmack! (Night Ballet Press) and Good Noise (Thrasher Press) are all available now. A short litany of publishing credits include: The New Yinzer, Shatter Wig Press, Blast Furnace, B.E. Quarterly and Fuck Art, Let’s Dance. You can also hear audio of some poems on the bandcamp website by just typing in his name.
SEAN THOMAS DOUGHERTY grew up in an interracial politically radical family. He is the author or editor of thirteen books including All You Ask for Is Longing: Poems 1994- 2014 (2014 BOA Editions) and Scything Grace (2013 Etruscan Press) . His awards include two Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowships in Poetry, an appearance in Best American Poetry 2014, and a US Fulbright Lectureship to the Balkans. Known for his electrifying performances he has performed at hundreds of venues across North America and Europe including the South Carolina Literary Festival, the Old Dominion Literary Festival, the Dodge Poetry Festival, the Bardfest Series in Budapest Hungary, and across Albania and Macedonia where he appeared on national television. Among his many jobs he has worked as a college lecturer, a truck loader, a factory packer, a warehouse man, a sod layer, and currently works at a pool hall in Erie, PA , and tours widely for performances.
Six Gallery Press 