Youth Poet Laureate Rhiannon McGavin’s “Art Class” Poem
In my kindergarten art class, sunlight dripped through finger paint covered windows.
I learned the primaries, red blue yellow, you could make the whole rainbow from just three colors.
you’re older when you tell yourself you only looked at female anatomical models for reference
but this girl made me understand why they say, pretty as a painting. ...
Excerpt from the sensual love poem “Honey Suckle Kisses” by Synthia SAINT JAMES + Happy 50th Anniversary Synthia! – Find out more…
You were so stunningly radiant
magically majestic
yet so very real
when I first laid eyes on you
The soft light in the dimly lit room
highlighted and tenderly
embraced your face
like in an exquisite oil painting
from another period
time and place
The essence of the Renaissance
mixed with a touch
of the French Impressionist ...
Polavision by Susan Hayden – A captivating poetic Memoir inspired by a Terence Winch poem
"Around 1966, I was bitten after hours by a standard poodle named Coco. My pediatrician had to make a house call to give me a tetanus shot. I wanted to marry Dr Sokoloff and faked sick all the time so he would have to examine me. I was three. He was James Coburn’s double. I’d seen “Ride Lonesome”; I already knew my future husband would be like a steak at The Palm, a Prime Porterhouse; rough-hewn on the outside, tender underneath."
Library Girl “Susan Hayden” says in Interview, Don’t be Quiet – Your Words Matter!
Susan Hayden is the Creator/Producer & Curator of the monthly, mixed-genre literary series, Library Girl, now in its 9thyear at the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, CA. In 2015, she was presented with the Bruria Finkel/Artist In The Community Award by the Santa Monica Arts Commission for her “significant contributions to the energetic discourse within Santa Monica’s arts community.” Susan’s proudest achievement has been raising her son, singer-songwriter Mason Summit.
Three thought-provoking poems by Jim Stone on Montana, Love, Cowboys, Tequila, and the Tango
Jim Stone is a poet and professor. He has been a cowboy, marine, carpenter and rodeo bronc-rider. Graduating summa cum laude in Social Justice from the University of Washington, he accepted a professorship in sociology at Jamestown University in Jamestown, North Dakota.
Poems: Linda J. Albertano and Her Brother, James AA Stone
Virtue rides into town on a
convertible Clydesdale. She's wrapped
in blue-and-white
stars
and is eating an apple concoction.
Ah, Virtue! They want
you.
Your symbols
are so succulent! They want to use
you
for purposes of personal
adornment.
Virtue drinks nothing but
water
from glaciers and the sap of lacebark
pine.
Rhonda: Blood, Sweat, and Fears – Molly Kirschenbaum (Moollz) Delves Into All Things Woman with Her Exploration of Sexuality, Body Love, and the Fierce Female Form for International Women’s Day
Moollz orders a decaf peppermint tea. She doesn’t vibe with caffeine, despite managing the rigors of being a student at Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University. “I’m studying music business, music theory, composition, production, and engineering,” she rattles off as if she’s studying basic arithmetic. She hopes to delve further into songwriting, film scoring, and multi media branding as well as honing her craft as a songwriter and composer. (from Natalie Durkin's "Intergalactic and Intuitive Moollz")
Luis Rodriguez’s Post Laureate updates: Vroman’s, KCET, FX-TV’s Snowfall, Tia Chucha Press, a new book + more
Pasadena's Vroman's Bookstore "Walk of Fame" dedication to Luis Rodriguez by Luis J. Rodriguez [hoot_dropcap]I finished my term as Los Angeles Poet Laureate at the end of 2016.[/hoot_dropcap] In two years, I spoke or read poetry to an estimated 25,000 people in...
Poet, playwright and Ruskin Group Theatre’s Library Girl SUSAN HAYDEN with introduction by Linda J. Albertano
Upon meeting the vivid, lovely and spirited Susan Hayden, you’d doubt that the word “shy” existed anywhere in her lexicon. Yet it dwells in her internal complexity, a kind of haunting vulnerability that ultimately cements your trust in her generous warmth.
“The Wandering Song” Central American Writing in the United States, prelude by Leticia Hernández-Linares
The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, Tia Chucha Press, 2017 (Northwestern University Press distributor) Prelude by Leticia Hernández-Linares LA MISIóN, SAN FRANCISCO November 28, 2016 HOME WAS BEHIND US, always somewhere else. Born...
The Wandering Song: New literary anthology from Tia Chucha Press – The press that began with Chicago Poetry, and poet laureate emeritus Luis Rodriguez
The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States is a multi-genre collection of poems, short stories, essays, memoir, novel excerpts, and creative nonfiction. The book showcases writers who render a multiplicity of experiences as refugees from the wars of the 1980s to those who barely remember the homeland, or who were born in el norte.
Hispanic Heritage Month ushers in the new cultural literati of the 21st century, starting with post-Laureate Luis Rodriguez
People's Sonnet #1 by Luis Rodriguez A shadow hangs where my country should glow. Despite glories shaped as skyscrapers or sound. More wars, more prisons, less safe, still low. Massive cities teeter on shifting ground. Glittering lights, music tracks hide the...
Feature: LUIS RODRIGUEZ – Post Laureate Updates
Luis Rodriguez - Three questions From the LA Times Review of books Interviewed by Barbara Lieberman Luis Rodriguez knows that Los Angeles is a “great poetry town.” His tenure as Poet Laureate went from 2014 to 2016. It may have come to an end but for Rodriguez,...
A Red Hen Press review: Laurel Ann Bogen writes poetry for those who think they dont like poetry, review by Steve Kowit
Those as hunts treasure must go alone, at night, and when they find it they have to leave a little of their blood behind them. — Loren. Alone I sniffed for buried treasure the tumble of night in your wandering eye I chose you for your swagger and cutlass...
United States Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman is an auspicious, Artistic Angeleno
by Natalie Durkin photograph: Courtesy of Black Enterprise Magazine “It’s fantastic to be a poet in L.A., and to be an Angeleno.” That’s right, our country’s chosen wordsmith is one of our city’s own. Amanda Gorman was born near Los Angeles International Airport,...
We the Young People: Reflecting on Our Nation’s Birthday with Amanda Gorman, United States Youth Poet Laureate
“We the People” by Amanda Gorman, The U.S. Youth Poet Laureate We the people live in a less than perfect union That accuses the vulnerable and never the top class and race When children are 'illegal' and intolerance bans humans I wonder who 'we the people' are in...
We the Young People: Reflecting on Our Nation’s Birthday with Rhiannon McGavin, 2016 Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate
I go to the streets in a summer dress, today,
because I’m afraid of a new year with the locked air of a suitcase
a cold I may not feel and all I wanted was feeling
I wanted a blue jacket that smelled like thyme and you
Exclusive Father’s Day Interview: Davis MacDonald introduces The Judge and tells us why he writes mysteries around social issues relevant today
The second book, "The Island," deals with a dysfunctional town, which Avalon (Catalina Island) is with the various competing interest in it. Disfunction in an economic sense and a cultural sense are the difficulties and conflicts under the surface in this town. Its...
Three Rooms Press and Beyond Baroque Present LA DADA: Performance and new book release with Linda J. Albertano, S.A. Griffin and more…
Linda Albertano, Arlondriah Lenyea, Heather Rabun, Glenn Rodriguez We caught up with Linda Albertano to get the low-down about DADA, what it means, what it does, how she became a DADAist, and the theme of this year's new LA-DADA book release (Maintenant11)...
