spoken word et. al. Saturday Night

8PM at Hookah Joe's, October 25th, local spoken word artists Poetix Vanguard (w/ Glenis Redmond) will be performing, among many other acts. This includes  Live Calculus by Josie Mosie, which I don't know what that is and regret I will miss since I am going to see my Momma. This should be a fascinating event, and is named Variable 2.0.

POETRY READING @ HARVEST RECORDS

Jennifer Callahan, founder and editor of PIG, a local literary journal, is hosting an inaugural reading:

SATURDAY, JUNE 21,@ HARVEST RECORDS IN WEST ASHEVILLE, ON HAYWOOD RD., 7:00.

Those reading include: Chall Gray, Hope Rinehart, Mara Simmons, Mark Prudowsky, Shad Marsh, Jaye Bartell and Jennifer Callahan.

The reading also includes an art exhibit featuring Brad Reagan's paintings. Letterpress broadsides of some of the poems in Pig will be available for sale.

Megan Mulhearn, a local musician, will bookend the readings with music.

Food will be provided. Please bring beverages with you!

Warren Wilson Public Lecture & Reading Schedule

From Warren Wilson College's website, a condensed schedule of the MFA Program's public reading and lectures:

The public is welcome to attend the morning lectures and evening readings in fiction and poetry offered during the Master of Fine Arts Program for Writers’ winter residency. Events last approximately one hour. Admission is free. For more information, call the MFA Office: (828) 771-3715.

Readings will begin at 8:15pm in the Fellowship Hall behind the Chapel unless indicated otherwise.

READINGS
by MFA faculty and graduating students
Thursday, January 3 : Brooks Haxton, Anthony Doerr, Barbara Ras, Dominic Smith
Friday, January 4 : Marianne Boruch, Charles D’Ambrosio, Van Jordan, Michael Martone
Saturday, January 5 : C.J. Hribal, Debra Allbery, Debra Spark, Steve Orlen
Sunday, January 6 – in Gladfelter, Canon Lounge : David Haynes, Betty Adcock, Victor LaValle, Heather McHugh
Monday, January 7 : Wilton Barnhardt, Jennifer Grotz, Maud Casey, Maurice Manning
Wednesday, January 9 : Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Megan Staffel, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Peter Turchi
Thursday, January 10 : Graduating student readings: Amy Cloud, Kira Obolensky, Henry Kearney, Matthew Simmons, Maeve Kinkead
Friday, January 11 : Graduating student readings: Sara Bauer, Kande Culver, J.J. Penna, Tom McHenry, Mark Prudowsky
Saturday, January 12 – 4:30pm, followed by Graduation Ceremony
Graduating student readings: Allison Paige, Justin Bigos, Sunil Rao, Scott Challener

Faculty Lectures
All lectures will be held in the Fellowship Hall behind the Chapel.
Friday, January 4 – 11:15am: MAURICE MANNING: In Kind: Some Thoughts on Sympathy
Wednesday, January 9 – 9:15am: DEBRA ALLBERY: ‘When Light Went Forth Looking for the Eye’: A Meditation on the Contemporary Ekphrastic Poem
Thursday, January 10 – 9:15am: JENNIFER GROTZ : The Pathetic Fallacy
Friday, January 11 – 9:15am: DEBRA SPARK: New Wave Fabulism
Saturday, January 12 – 9:30am: HEATHER McHUGH: Matters of Letters
Saturday, January 12 – 10:45am: C.J. HRIBAL: Vision and (Re)vision

I Love You Sweatheart: Overpass Love Poetry

If you've lived in the area long enough you might have seen it. A piece of graffiti that said this:

I LOVE YOU SWEATHEART

Sometime in the early 90s or thereabouts, this phrase was famously spray-painted "SURRENDER DOROTHY"-style on an overpass on the way from Black Mountain to Asheville.

And if you remember it, did you know about this poem? I heard Garrison Keillor read it on the Writer's Almanac one morning a few years ago.

"I Love You Sweatheart" by Thomas Lux

A man risked his life to write the words.
A man hung upside down (an idiot friend
holding his legs?) with spray paint
to write the words on a girder fifty feet above
a highway. And his beloved,
the next morning driving to work...?
His words are not (meant to be) so unique.
Does she recognize his handwriting?
Did he hint to her at her doorstep the night before
of "something special, darling, tomorrow"?
And did he call her at work
expecting her to faint with delight
at his celebration of her, his passion, his risk?
She will know I love her now,
the world will know my love for her!
A man risked his life to write the world.
Love is like this at the bone, we hope, love
is like this, Sweatheart, all sore and dumb
and dangerous, ignited, blessed--always,
regardless, no exceptions,
always in blazing matters like these: blessed.

"I Love You Sweatheart" appears in Lux's "New and Selected Poems: 1975-1995" (Houghton Mifflin Co).

According to Wikipedia, Lux is a "core faculty member" at the Warren Wilson M.F.A. program for writers, which explains how he encountered this lost piece of overpass poetry.

Open Mic at The Dripolator

New Open Mic @ The Dripolator, 8:20 PM

If you are reading this tonight... come join the two dozen peoples hanging out, singing, reading, listening to beautiful souls at The Dripolator. We'll be here for another two hours.

Welcome to the Flood poetry reading series

Flood Fine Art Center

Friday February 16, 7 PM

Poetry reading featuring local poets:
Britt Kaufmann
Matthew Mulder
Brian Sneeden
Barbara Gravelle

Flood Fine Art Center located in the Phil Mechanic Studios, 109 Roberts St., Asheville, NC 28801.

This is an ongoing poetry series that began in December (2006) and will be held on the third Friday of every month. The reading is more than just a cultural event--it is a fund raiser to assist in the renovations of the Flood Fine Art Center.

Press release here and here.