Thursday, August 16, 7pm – Poetry
Steven Allen May and Plan B Present
Michele Belluomini, Ebony Malaika Collier, Daniel Collins, Arlo Druzba, Steven Allen May, Tree Riesner, Paul Siegell, Jim Warner
Michele Belluomini’s work has appeared in journals such as American Writing, “NOW! (then)”: The Eternal Now Poetry Anthology, APR: Philly Edition 99, The Mad Poets Review, Sinister Wisdom, the Helen Review , and The Mulberry Poets & Writers Daybook; as well as in the collection The Dreambook: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women. Michele reads her poetry at a number of venues throughout the Philadelphia area. She has been a recipient of a Leeway Foundation “Window of Opportunity” award for travel to Mexico to collect Huichol Indian mythology and folklore. She is a Literature librarian at the Free Library of Philadelphia where she helps coordinate the “Monday Poets” poetry series. In 2000, she won the Giovanni’s Room Bookstore International Poetry Competition Award. Her previous book, Translations from the Dark, was published by Blue Deer Editions in 1993.
Ebony Malaika Collier has been writing poetry since she was in high school. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Temple University. She has also attended workshops with C.S. Giscombe, Leonard Gontarek, Aeren Yeats Perry and Donna Wolf-Palacio. She has been a feature at the Black Womens Arts Festival, Mad Poets Festival, Milano’s Pizza series, the Eternal Now Series and numerous other places. She co-organized and co-hosted the Verve Poetry Festival. She put together Capricorn Chaos a party, performance and artwork exhibit showcasing herself and her Capricorn friends at Sanctuary Wholistic Arts in 2010. In 2012, she donned the organizer/hostess hats again with the Capricorn Celebration of poets featuring Adriann “The Pen” Bautista, Aziza Zenzile Kinteh and Shayna SheNess Israel. She is now a member of the poetry collective Wings of Worth. She is a web events correspondent for Apiary Magazine in Philadelphia.
Dan Collins has been a part of Philadelphia’s alternative folk scene since 2005. His debut album, “You Can’t Go Home”, was released independently in October, 2010. Dan has been featured on Gene Shay’s folk show on WXPN, on Radio Volta and UPENN Radio WQHS. He regularly performs at Philadelphia’s finest venues, including the World Cafe, The Tin Angel, the Khyber, Tritone, The Fire, The Hinge Cafe, and Connie’s Ric Rac, also making appearances at The Bitter End, Caffe Vivaldi, 169 Bar and Pianos in New York City. The new album was produced in Philadelphia and Collins’ unique songwriting style is enriched by local musicians including acclaimed Cellist Michael Ronstadt, Katie Barbato (The Sleepwells), Jon Thompson and Patrick Hughes (Oud Blues Band, West Philadelphia Orchestra), Sean Lee (Amnesia Star Hotel), and Tom Spiker (Calvin Weston’s Big Tree, Mobile Pleasure Lounge). Plan B Press published his first chapbook of go & why in 2007.
Arlo Druzba has completed his 13th book of poetry/artbooks. His work has appeared limitedly in Berks County and elsewhere. Although he currently lives in Toronto, is about two months time he will be calling Australia his home.
stevenallenmay misses being in Philadelphia. He is the author of two books of poetry, Plastic Sunrise (2003) and frac ture dev elopment (2006) and the assembler of Spontaneous Chili (2001). He co-founded and runs Plan B Press. He created Bardfest in Berks County, PA and formed the Berks Bards, a 501 c3 poetry organization, in 1999. He earned a Masters Degree in Arts Management at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA in 2006. In addition to creating, curating, and hosting events in the Mid-Atlantic region, he is a stay-at-home Dad. He was the former host of The Eternal Now! series which took place at Robins Bookstore from 2002-2003. He is proud of the relationships he has with poets from Philly to DC, and beyond and looks forward to an ever more interconnected poetry universe in the future. The future, of course, being NOW!
Tree Riesner has published three poetry chapbooks: Inscapes (Finishing Line Press), Angel Poison (Pudding House Publications) and Liminalog ,a collection of ghazals and sijo (Inmates Run The Asylum Press). EK, a full-length collection of ekphrastic poems, is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press in 2012.
Paul Siegell is the author of three books of poetry: wild life rifle fire (Otoliths Books, 2010), jambandbootleg (A-Head Publishing, 2009) and Poemergency Room (Otoliths Books, 2008). Paul is a senior editor at Painted Bride Quarterly, and has contributed to American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Rattle and many other fine journals. Kindly find more of Paul’s work – and t-shirts – at ReVeLeR @ eYeLeVeL.
Jim Warner is the author of two poetry collections Too Bad It’s Poetry and Social Studies (Paper Kite Press). His poetry has appeared in The North American Reviews, Word Riot, Drunken Boat, Cause and Effect, and various other journals. Jim is a the former Assistant Director of Graduate Creative Writing Programs at Wilkes University and currently hosts The AWP All-Collegiate Afterhours Poetry Slam. Check out whoismisterjim.tumblr.com for more information.
