Tuesday February 28, 7pm – Poetry

Anne Waldman author of The Iovis Trilogy – Colors in the Mechanism of Concealment ($40.00 coffee House Press)

Published for the first time in its entirety, this major epic poem assures Anne Waldman’s place in the pantheon of contemporary poetry.

The Iovis Trilogy, Waldman’s monumental feminist epic, traverses epochs, cultures, and genres to create a visionary call to poetic arms. Iovis details the misdeeds of the Patriarch, and with a fierce imagination queries and subverts his warmongering. All of Waldman’s themes come into focus—friendship, motherhood, politics, and Buddhist wisdom. This is epic poetry that goes beyond the old injunction “to include history”—its effort is to change history.

“Begun in the 1980s, this mammoth work may be the summit of [Waldman’s] career and . . . an attempt at a new world history, a radical re-creation myth, an homage to Blake’s epics and Pound’s cantos, and a mystic or matriarchal answer to the male-dominated civilization that we have known. . . . A book to admire, to pay homage to, to get lost in, Waldman’s epic goes splendidly on and on, mixing the shamanistic with the diaristic, the topical with the prayerful, incorporating almost everything . . . ”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“This Virgilian epic song, a vast written performance that must be acknowledged for its “orality of intention,” is an expression of knowledge—embodied and disembodied, material and transcendental, violent and pacifist, visionary and starkly realist, present and transhistorical. To read it, to move across its many pages, is to invite a demand for and a belief in freedom that is platonic and phonemic. The three books collected in The Iovis Trilogy . . . together show the force of Waldman’s galloping collection of forms as a vibration of knowledge through ceaseless experiment, a sensorium through which the roundness of self burrows in to win the furthest circumference.”—The Poetry Project Newsletter

“Waldman takes you by the collar and slams you down with language, image, and message, leaving you breathless and shattered in the aftermath of her incantatory vision. . . . The poems repeat themselves, wrap around themselves, glide through linguistic holes that only the poet herself could have seen. They trumpet, blare, and whisper vision upon vision of a world gone crazy with war and patriarchal mores, then proceed to share another vision, one of healing and peace. . . . This is a book of action, a poetic clarion call. Huge and weighty, it will be compared to The Cantos and Paterson. It is neither. It is Iovis; it is an act of incendiary love, and it stands alone.”—Powells.com

Tuesday February 14, 7pm – Poetry

The Moonstone Poetry Series Presents The National Black Arts Spoken Word Tour in How Love Got Lost, Strayed or Stolen

Poetry and Spoken Word Performances about the trials and tribulations of finding and being in love. Featured Readings and Open Mic. Contact Maurice Henderson @ 215-987-7918

Tuesday, January 24, 7pm – Poetry
The Moonstone Poetry Series Presents
Diane Sahms- Guarnieri & g emil reutter

Diane Sahms- Guarnieri is a Philadelphia Poet. She is a graduate of East Stroudsburg State University and has performed post graduate work at Holy Family University. Her work has been published widely in the small and electronic press, Images of Being, her first full length collection was released in September of 2011. Currently the Poetry Editor of The Fox Chase Review (2009 –present), Diane served on the Editorial Board of Philadelphia Stories Magazine (2007-2009), founded The Fox Chase Reading Series “2nd Tuesdays Poetry Open Mic” (2009-2011), founded The Center City Poets Workshop (2006-2011). Diane has performed her poetry at venues along the east coast of The United States.

g emil reutter lives and writes in the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia. Eight collections of his poetry and prose have been published, the latest, Carvings released in November of 2010. He is the founder of The Fox Chase Review and The Fox Chase Reading Series.

Tuesday, November 22, 7pm
Moonstone Poetry Series Presents

Tuesday, November 8, 7pm – Poetry
Moonstone Poetry Series Presents

Tuesday, October 25, 7pm – Poetry
The Moonstone Poetry Series Presents
Kiraat & Ray Brown

KIRAAT.  This is the pseudonym chosen by Anthony James William, Jr. to write and publish his poetry.  It is an acronym for Keeping It Real At All Time.  Anthony was born in Philadelphia but received his early education in Virginia.  His family returned to Philadelphia in his late teens and has called Philly home ever since.  He is the father of Javonte’ and an uncle to Christopher and Aaleyah. Kiraat’s journey to poetry came out of a need to deal with life and its challenges.  His poetry bravely exposes and discusses the taboo and hidden issues facing us all today, from addiction to mental health he relentlessly poets a penetrating truth.  His work has a tender poignancy yet it has a strength, a rawness and a precision to slice through sentimentality.  His most recent work can be found in The River Poet’s Journal and in his chapbook Natalie and Other Selected Poems.

“Ray Brown’s poetry is for everyman – and woman. His easily read poems give just enough for the mind to draw an image that can be completed – made into rich imagery - when they blend with the reader’s own experiences. Ray’s words are sometimes assembled in a way that makes a phrase glow with a human warmth that is so intense that the words burn into a place – maybe it’s memory – that stirs the soul.”
Mary McAvoy, author, “Love’s Compass”