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, DECEMBER 13…
Tastier than a fruitcake, easier to assemble than a Fisher-Price playhouse, for the FIFTH year in a row, we are bringing some of Pittsburgh’s finest writers together to entertain you with tales of their holiday work experiences. This year, our readers will also play Secret Santa with each other, because nothing says “I’m broke” more effectively than “I WROTE you this gift.”
$5 suggested donation, proceeds benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
Hosted by Jason Baldinger (who was once run over by a Black Friday crowd on a rampage for office supplies) and Stephanie Brea (who once lifted her skirt and flashed an entire roomful of folks during an especially spirited performance of “Jingle Bells”).
This year’s roster of writers includes
Bob Pajich
Vanessa Vesch
Deesha Philyaw
Bob Walicki
Bart Solarczyk
Adam Matcho
Lori Jakiela
Matt Ussia
Meghan Tutolo
Andrea Laurion
Melanie Dione
Nathan Kukulski
Aaliyah Thomasand more (maybe) TBA.
8PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 9…
Join Jason Baldinger and John Dorsey for the release of two recent books (Baldinger’s “This Useless Beauty” and Baldinger/John Dorsey’s “Ugly Side of the Lake”). Readers include Baldinger, Dorsey, Nikki Allen, Victor Clevenger and Vanessa Vesch. The illustrious Stephanie Brea will be our host. $5 gets you in, show starts at 8pm. After the reading there will be music from locals Pond Hockey and the Dumplings.
Here are bios for the folks that read them:
Nikki Allen is a lover & a writer—with hair an animal & heart clumsy tiger. Scribbling because she must with nearly 20 years of stages in her gut. She has read in cities across the US at music festivals, war protests, backyards and art openings. She is the author of numerous books, including Gutter of Eden, Quite Like Yes, and Ligaments of Light/Tigering the Shoulders(Night Ballet Press). Her work has appeared in Nailed, Crash, The New Yinzer, out of nothing, Profane Journal(Pushcart Prize nominee ‘14/’15) and Encyclopedia Destructica among others. Allen has also contributed vocals to tracks by recording artists Poogie Bell (Question Song) and Jack Wilson (NYC). She believes in revolution, strong coffee, the hard knocks & the sweetness.
Jason Baldinger is a poet hailing from Pittsburgh and recently finished a stint as writer in residence at the Osage Arts Community. He’s the author of several books, the most recent are This Useless Beauty (Alien Buddha Press), The Ugly Side of the Lake (Night Ballet Press) written with John Dorsey and the chaplet Fumbles Revelations (Grackle and Crow) which are available now. The collection Fragments of a Rainy Season (Six Gallery Press) and the split book with James Benger Little Fires Hiding (Spartan Press) are forthcoming. Recent publications include the Low Ghost Anthology Unconditional Surrender, The Dope Fiend Daily, Outlaw Poetry, Uppagus, Lilliput Review, Rusty Truck, Dirtbag Review, In Between Hangovers, Your One Phone Call, Winedrunk Sidewalk, Anti-Heroin Chic, Nerve Cowboy Concrete Meat Press, Zombie Logic Press, Ramingo’s Porch, Rye Whiskey Review, Red Fez, Blue Hour Review and Heartland! Poetry of Love, Solidarity and Resistance. You can hear Jason read poems on recent and forthcoming releases by Theremonster and Sub Pop Recording artist The Gotobeds as well as at jasonbaldinger.bandcamp.com
When not traveling highways across America, Victor Clevenger spends his days in a Madhouse and his nights writing poetry. Selected pieces of his work have appeared in print magazines and journals around the world, as well as at a variety of places online. In 2017, Victor was nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology, as well as a Pushcart Prize. His most recent published collections of poetry include a split book with Tom Farris titled Ginger Roots Are Best Taken Orally (EMP, 2018) and A Finger in the Hornets’ Nest (Red Flag Press, 2018).
John Dorsey has been writing poetry since the late 1980’s and has been involved in the publishing community for more than two decades. He is the author of around 50 books and chapbooks, a few of the most recent being Being the Fire (Tangerine Press, 2016) and Shoot the Messenger (Red Flag Press, 2017), the latter was funded by Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s English Department. An 11-time Pushcart Prize nominee, his work has appeared more than 2,000 magazines and anthologies from around the world. He has read or spoken at colleges and universities such as the University of Toledo, Assumption College, Cleveland State University, Seton Hill University, University of the Arts, Erie Community College, Southeast Missouri State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, as well as other assorted venues covering 49 states. For several years Dorsey served as a judge for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo’s Art in Tarta Project, which chose poems to be presented on city transit buses. In 2006, he won the Toledo City Paper’s annual poetry and fiction competition, and would go on to serve as a judge the following year, before being named the city’s Best Literary Artist in their 2014 reader poll. In 2010, he also served as a judge for Grievous Jones Press’ Grievous Prize issued in Cardiff, Wales, and in 2013 for the Standing Rock Cultural Arts Open Chapbook Competition in Kent, Ohio. From 2003-2012, he served as an Artist-in-Residence at the Collingwood Arts Center in Toledo, Ohio and In 2015, Dorsey was awarded a Visiting Artist Residency by the Osage Arts Community in Belle, MO, where he currently resides. In 2017 he received a two appointment to serve as Belle’s first city Poet Laureate from Mayor Steve Vogt and has gone on to found the city’s first literary publication the Gasconade Review, which he edits with Jason Ryberg. He is a graduate of the University of Arts’ Writing for Film and Television program, completing his education there in 2002, and 2017 he served as the subject for a poetry documentary by NYC filmmaker Carson Parish. He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com
Vanessa Vesch is a writer and musician whose poetic work explores anarchist and feminist resistance, language, sound, and bereavement among other themes. To date, she has authored 17 micro-chapbooks, and her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Gourd, B.E. Quarterly, Steel City Revolt, Shades of Gray, and on the now-sadly-departed radio show, Prosody. Through her band, Sweetheart of the Barricades, Vesch (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lyrics and song writing) presents a scorching blues, “yinsurgent-country,” and rock project in celebration of Pittsburgh’s rich labor history, working-class culture, and outlaw folklore. The quartet, comprised of Vesch with Brian Sproul (lead guitar), Hernan Brizuela (vocal harmonies, harmonicas, saxophone), and Jeremy Papay (drums), recently featured on the Saturday Light Brigade, and their debut EP, recorded at MixHaas Studio (produced by Chris “Lurch” Rudyk) will release in the fall of 2018. More love, rage, and ranch at www.sweetheartofthebarricades.com
8PM THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15…
In these dark times we could all use a little more love.
Join Low Ghost Press as we celebrate the publication of ‘Unconditional Surrender: An Anthology of Love Poems’ featuring readings by Angele Ellis, Robert Walicki, Jen Ashburn, Don Wentworth, Stephanie Brea, Sheila Carter-Jones, Richard Gegick, Dave Newman, Lori Jakiela, Bob Pajich, Jason Baldinger, Meghan Tutolo, Bart Solarczyk, and Nancy Krygowski.
Poets will also be deejaying their favorite tunes.
Come dance to the poems & groove to the poetry of pop!!
This event is FREE.
We’ll be taking up a collection for Planned Parenthood of Western PA during the event.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17…
Two new books & two readings! The Ghost of Literature Present will pay a terrifying visit today!
6PM at White Whale in Bloomfield, welcome two writers from Arkansas to Pittsburgh (& welcome their books to your noodle by buying & reading them, too). Free readings & refreshments, possibly including actual goulash.
Scotty Lewis, a 2015 graduate of the Arkansas Writers MFA Program, is debuting his first book of poetry, Arkansas Ghoulash.
Here’s an interview w/ Scotty talking about the book, & here’s another one.
Mark Spitzer, novelist, poet, essayist and literary translator, grew up in Minneapolis where he earned his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota in 1990. He then moved to the Rockies, where he earned his Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado. After living on the road for some time, he found himself in Paris, as Writer in Residence for three years at the bohemian bookstore Shakespeare and Company, where he translated French criminals and misanthropes. In 1997 he moved to Louisiana, became Assistant Editor of the legendary lit journal Exquisite Corpse, and earned an MFA from Louisiana State University. He taught creative writing and lit for five years at Truman State University and is now an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Central Arkansas.
Alan Olifson is an award-winning humor columnist, public radio commentator, comedian and regular host of Pittsburgh’s monthly Moth StorySLAMs. He created the acclaimed storytelling series WordPlay in his hometown of Los Angeles which he now produces in Pittsburgh along with Bricolage Production Company as part of their regular season. He’s hosted storytelling events for conferences, schools and, believe it or not, bridal showers. His book, Manchild: My Life Without Adult Supervision, is now out on Six Gallery Press. Alan relocated to Pittsburgh with his wife and two children years ago but never tires of hearing people complain about “traffic.”
John Thomas Menesini is the author of The Last Great Glass Meat Million (Six Gallery Press, 2003), e pit ap h (Convergence, 2007), endo: Poems & Sketches 2007 – 2011 (Six Gallery Press, 2011), and Gloom Hearts & Opioids (Six Gallery Press, 2015). His poems have appeared in numerous publications in Ireland, Scotland, England, and the US, thus garnering dozens of fans across the globe.
Rick Claypool grew up in a small town in western Pennsylvania called Leechburg, but he currently lives in Pittsburgh. By day he works for Public Citizen, a nonprofit organization that fights corporate power. Leech Girl Lives (Spaceboy Books, 2017) is his first novel.
At 8PM, head over to Brillobox for Bah Humbug 4: Writers (Still) Wrestle the Holiday Spirit…
Tastier than a fruitcake, easier to assemble than a Fisher Price playhouse, for the FOURTH year in a row, we are bringing some of Pittsburgh’s finest writers together to entertain you with tales of their holiday work experiences.
$5 suggested donation, proceeds benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
The readers will channel their inner-Sedaris, and offer up tales from their time as food service employees, retail workers, and other assorted time-card punchers during the bleak months of November and December. They will attempt to locate their hoilday spirit. Or THE holiday spirits (aka, Jim, Jack and maybe even Johnny).
Just like signing the group birthday card or buying overpriced crap from your co-worker’s kid’s school fundraiser, UGLY HOLIDAY SWEATERS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED.
Hosted by Jason Baldinger (who was once run over by a Black Friday crowd on a rampage for office supplies), and Stephanie Brea (who probably stole that art book she gave you for Christmas in 2001).
The Lineup:
Becky Corrigan
Angele Ellis
Rich Gegick
Lori Jakiela
Andrea Laurion
Deesha Philyaw
Meghan Tutolo
Matt Ussia
Bob Walicki
8PM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25…
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:
Adam Matcho was formerly employed as a gas station attendant, sandwich artist, novelty shop clerk, gold buyer, and obituary writer. Now, he tells people he is the poet laureate of Johnstown. His poems have been published in literary magazines and his books include: “The Novelty Essays” (WPA Press), “Six Dollars an Hour: Confessions of a Gemini Writer” (Liquid Paper Press) and “Love Songs From Flood City” (Low Ghost Press).
Stephanie Brea is a writer, teacher, and event organizer. She has 10+ years of experience facilitating creative writing workshops for local schools and non-profit organizations including Pittsburgh Public Schools, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Literary Arts Boom, The Warhol, Winchester Thurston, and Penn Trafford High School. Like most writers, she could list a bunch of places her work has been published, but who really reads those lists anyway? She is the co-founder of Pizza Poems PGH, which delivers hot, fresh poetry via pizza boxes for National Poetry Month in April.
Damon Young is the editor-in-chief of VSB. He is also a columnist for GQ.com And he’s working on a book of essays to be published by Ecco (HarperCollins). Damon is busy. He lives in Pittsburgh, and he really likes pancakes. Reach him at damon@verysmartbrothas.com. Or don’t. Whatever.
Our guest organization for the evening is Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania.
The mission of Planned Parenthood of Western PA (PPWP) is to provide comprehensive and complementary health care to those in need of services; disseminate information about human sexuality and the need for family planning and responsible parenthood; and advocate public policies which guarantee these rights and ensure access to such services. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-western-pennsylvania
& here’s a Littsburgh interview w/ Meghan Tutolo, who put this one together.
8PM THIS SUNDAY…
Tastier than a fruitcake, easier to assemble than a Fisher Price playhouse, we are bringing some of Pittsburgh’s finest writers together to entertain you with tales of their holiday work experiences.
*** Suggested $5 donation, with all proceeds going to the ACLU.
These folks will channel their inner-Sedaris, offering up tales from their time as food service employees, retail workers, and other assorted time-card punchers during the bleak months of November and December. They will attempt to locate their hoilday spirit. Or THE holiday spirits (aka, Jim, Jack and maybe even Johnny).
Just like signing the group birthday card or buying overpriced crap from your co-worker’s kid’s school fundraiser, UGLY HOLIDAY SWEATERS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED.
We are now in our THIRD year, which means we have lasted longer than those cheap discount outlet socks your mom puts in your Xmas stocking.
Hosted by Jason Baldinger (who was once run over by a Black Friday stampede on a rampage for office supplies), and Stephanie Brea (who probably stole that art book she gave you for Christmas in 2001)
The Lineup:
Ben Gwin
Lori Jakiela
Meghan Tutolo
Bob Walicki
Andrea Laurion
Angele Ellis
Rich Gegick
Bob Pajich
Matt Ussia
THIS THURSDAY…
The event will be hosted at Pints on Penn (3523 Penn Avenue), with the reading beginning at 7pm and ending at 9pm on Thursday, December 8th.
This is the sixth issue of the After Happy Hour Review. We invite all to join us. Books may be available for purchase and guests can purchase food and drinks from Pints on Penn.
8PM THIS SATURDAY…
Are you feeling lucky? For our second Coffee Buddha After-Hours event of the year, we are doing something a little different: READING ROULETTE & other assorted literary parlor games of chance. Think of this event as one part Victorian-era parlor games, one part Las Vegas coke-fuled bender, one part literary reading.
Our specially designed (i.e., homemade) roulette wheel determines who reads and for how long. Our pool of participants includes the following fine folks, but they will only read if their name comes up (and only one poem or short fiction/essay excerpt at a time! If someone ends up reading three times in a row, the wheel is rigged):
Bart Solarczyk got his knuckles slapped with a ruler many times after being caught cheating at bingo by the Catholic nuns who ran the church’s weekly games. Since then, he has completely abstained from any type of gambling, even innocuous scratch off tickets.
Bob Walicki: It’s difficult for some folks to leave casinos. Bob doesn’t have this problem, except for the Rivers Casino’s free beverage station.
Angele Ellis was once part of a gambling ring that ran numbers and took backroom bets out of a barbershop in Oakland. If you owed her enough money, she was known to cut off your pinkie finger and use it to stir her coffee.
Richard L. Gegick has had his thumbs broken by bookies on at least three occasions.
Meghan Tutolo spent most of her childhood playing Crazy 8’s with New Kensington mob veterans in the Donut Shop on 5th Avenue, while her parents played the “cherry machines” in the back.
Scott Silsbe is well versed in the Mega Touch machine found at the end of many a dive bar. His powers of observation are keen, and as such, he will beat you at the naked lady game.
Megan Bell plays Russian Roulette every day, “a man’s sport,” with a bullet called life (–yeah mama, called life).
Kris Collins’ grandfather was Amarillo Slim, one of a group of Texan gamblers known for inventing Texas Hold ‘Em style poker. As such, his poker face is all genetics and will make grown men weep.
Nikki Allen
If we are lucky, guest appearances by John Korn + more.
Plus, your hosts for the evening:
Jason Baldinger doesn’t know when to hold them or when to fold them. He has a really hard time distinguishing when he should walk away and when he should run.
Stephanie Brea once gambled with senior citizens on a boat in international waters (she lost $40 and got mild food poisoning) and her father helped build the pirate ship that sets itself on fire and sinks every hour at Treasure Island in Los Vegas. She would want to be married by black leather-era Elvis.
In addition to roulette, we will be competing in other literary parlor games including “fiction-ary” and other TBA. ALL ATTENDEES WILL BE ENCOURAGED TO PARTICIPATE.
Maybe we will even have prizes.
If the weather is nice, we will have a fire and some (spiked) cider and some s’mores.
THIS SATURDAY…
10 Pittsburgh Poets, 10 Minutes each and one pretty big campfire! Coffee Buddha After Hours has a gaggle of writers including Kris Collins, Scott Silsbe, Dan Shapiro, John Korn, Bart Solarcyzk, Jason Baldinger, Stephanie Brea, Christine Stroud, Meghan Tutolo and Kelly Scarff to help ease you into the swing of the new season (forget the fact the season will almost be a month old already)
$5 gets you in, there will be Hot Cider and the making for smores, plus some hot dogs (regular and veggie). Readers start at 8:30 the event is 21+ and BYOB (an important detail if you’d like to spike your cider).
THIS MONDAY…
Bands aren’t the only folks who enjoy a good stage and this ain’t no sausage party. Join us at Bayardstown Social Club, where a few of Pittsburgh’s finest female literati will read poems and short fiction outdoors by the glow of patio lights and a campfire. We will have beer from Rock Bottom – Pittsburgh and we will end the night with a s’mores party, but we are encouraging additional potluck contributions. This will be a feast – both gastronomic and auditory.
Rain or shine. 7 pm. Free + open to the public
(if you ever wanted to check out Bayardstown without a membership, this is your chance)
Bringing together women from some of the various factions of the Pittsburgh lit scene, we have the following readers:
Angele Ellis watched Buddhist monks dance under a theatre marquee featuring her haiku, after winning Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ G-20 Haiku Contest. Her poetry, fiction (including excerpts of novels in progress), and reviews have appeared in fifty publications and ten anthologies. She is author of Arab on Radar (Six Gallery Press), whose poems won her an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Spared (A Main Street Rag Editors’ Choice Chapbook). She lives in Friendship, both a Pittsburgh neighborhood and a state of mind.
Taylor Grieshober lives in Wilkinsburg, where she writes, bakes tarts, and speaks softly to her cats. She also directs the low-rent, high-caliber reading series The New Yinzer Presents. Recently, Taye Diggs began following her on Twitter and it’s probably one of the best things that will ever happen to her. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the 2015 Best of the Net anthology. Follow her @harshcharms.
Deena November received her MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry from Carlow University. In 2005, she co-edited the anthology I JUST HOPE IT’S LETHAL: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy for Houghton Mifflin. Her poems have also appeared in Nerve Cowboy, Chiron Review, Voices in the Attic, and Keyhole Magazine among other publications. In 2012, Hyacinth Girl Press published her first chapbook titled, Dick Wad. She has taught Poetry and Creative Writing at Seton Hill University and Women’s Studies and Literature at Carlow University. Currently she teaches at Robert Morris University. She recently created Staghorn Poetry Series readings and workshops. Deena lives in Pittsburgh and can often be spotted smelling the flowers with her babies at Phipps Conservatory.
Jess Simms earned her MFA from Chatham University. Her fiction has been published in Weave Magazine, and Ampersand Review, among others, and she is a founding member of the Haven.
Christine Stroud was raised in North Carolina, but currently lives in Pittsburgh, PA. In March 2014 her chapbook The Buried Return was released by Finishing Line Press. She works as the Senior Editor of Autumn House Press.
Hosted by Stephanie Brea, whose poems have been published in some places (just like everyone else). Thanks to her day job, she knows which of the -cores (hardcore, math core, grindcore et al.) have a hyphen. She is bad at math, but just calculated that she has been hosting or co-hosting literary events for 10+ years. She prefers the teepee method of building a fire to the log cabin.
Six Gallery Press 