A BUSY JUNE: FEATURES, ARTICLES, VIDEOS, TRANSLATIONS & MORE!

 Note: Click on images to enlarge for better viewing

A Rick Lupert Creation

Wow! I don’t know how people keep up with so many things! Guess they must have bigger brains and more energy than I.

A busy week for me. I’ll be the feature reader twice this week: Tuesday night at Cobalt Poets hosted by Rick Lupert, and Thursday at Canyon Poets hosted by Katerina Canyon. These are terrific opportunities to read poetic expressions I typically can’t read in open mic settings and I’m grateful to Rick and Katerina for giving me these opportunities.

My favorite musical offering thus far

Chip Williford, Co-host of Poetry Street has confirmed that Takudzwa “Taku” Chikepe (AKA VaChikepe the Poet) will be the featured reader on Poetry Street’s open mic on Saturday, June 25, from 2 – 4pm EDT. Taku will also join Chip on The Heart of the East End radio show hosted by Gianna Volpe on NPR’s WLIW 88.3FM on June 20 at 10:25am EDT.

Cover of TSR #59

You may know that Taku is also the founder and publisher of The Sailors Review (TSR) and both Mr. Williford and I appear in the most recent issue (June 2022) of TSR. And, VaChikepe the Poet has a newly released musical cut which you can check out on YouTube. There are apparently no limits to this man’s talent! You might have to change the name to “VaChikepe and the 101 Sailors,” Taku 😉.

Eric Epstein signing Hiram
Larew's Magic from Mud Ajar

Other things that have sparked my interest include Eric Epstein’s captivating American Sign Language (ASL) translation of Hiram Larew’s poem, Magic, the first poem in Hiram’s Mud Ajar collection. I’m not a good enough singer to sing Eric’s praises adequately, nor a good enough writer to do what he did justice in written word. I will only say that I am hoping that Eric will translate at least one of my pieces and strongly suggest that you check it out! There is also a video detailing Eric’s process of translating Magic that I found enlightening as well.

I have to thank Heidi Kasa who was kind enough to collaborate with me on creating a video (3 mins) of her poem Current and Never Events. It’s a poem that complements a piece a wrote, Moment-Us Decision, and both address the abortion issue. Both of these videos will be highlighted in the Free Speech Individual playlists of The Human RoomOpen Voice (THROV) initiative spearheaded by C.C. Arshagra with a heavy duty assist from Kathleen Hulser.

Speaking of collaborations, almost all who attended the May 31^st

edition of SpoFest’s Writing Prompt and Rough Draft (WPRD) collaborated on creating an exquisite corpse poem, which SpoFest and O I C Studios founder James Bryant and I, then, collaborated on converting to video format (see video here). Somehow, Lee Eric Freedman managed to handle his co-host duties AND compile the exquisite corpse simultaneously! We had a great time and will be doing another exquisite corpse at the Tuesday,June 28 edition of SpoFest’s WPRD!

Angela Yuriko Smith has agreed to administer the exquisite corpse going forward, and James and I are planning a little “Wake” for the following day where we unveil the lovely body live on Facebook. More details on that later but come join the fun and help create some of the most exquisite corpses the poetry graveyard has ever seen!

Ok, the old man is out of gas and if there’s something I forgot- highly likely-just chalk it up to my failing mind. Until next…Think it, feel it, write it, speak it, revel in it....

Art by Caleb Chisha

Wait! This just in: I’m no art critic, but if you check out and like Caleb Chisha’s work (begins p.36 of TSR) and you feel like taking a moment or two to further his efforts, you can nominate him for the Best PaintingArtist of the year here or at https://www.zikomoawards.com/. HisFacebook also has some wonderful work!