George Wallace and Walt Whitman Birthplace proudly present season three of POETS BUILDING BRIDGES: A TRIANGULATION PROJECT, inaugurated in March 2022 with the purpose of enhancing dialogue between communities of writers across the US and internationally. Based on a shared small-group experience, these Saturday zoom sessions engage three distinct and well defined communities of poets with each other to share work and foster further interaction. In Season Three, POETS BUILDING BRIDGES will build on that experience, triangulating national and international groups based not only on location but additionally offering key small press publications an opportunity to form a participating group.

THIS IS A ZOOM ONLY EVENT. 

Find Zoom Information Below.

Live on zoom. archived on Youtube. For Season 2 visit our YouTube Channel >>

GWFM Press: Jane Ormerod  |  David Lawton  |  Thomas Fucaloro

Jane Ormerod is an artist and the author of the full-length poetry collections Welcome to the Museum of Cattle and Recreational Vehicles on Fire (both from Three Rooms Press). In addition, her work has appeared in anthologies and journals including From the Inside: NYC through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here (Blue Light Press, 2022) and From Somewhere to Nowhere: The End of the American Dream, A founding editor of great weather for MEDIA, Jane is the recipient of a 2020 NYC Acker Award in publishing for her contribution to the avant-garde community.

David Lawton is the author of Sharp Blue Stream (Three Rooms Press) and the chapbook Inspiritive (Moonstone Arts), and has had his work published in numerous journals and anthologies. David is a graduate of the theatre program at Boston University, where he was also a Guest Artist in the graduate play writing classes taught by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. For ten years he was a background vocalist in the New York underground band Leisure Class. At the band’s de facto headquarters in the Chelsea Hotel, he befriended Beat godfather Herbert Huncke and San Francisco poet Marty Matz, and was inspired by their embodiment of the written word. David also collaborates with poet Aimee Herman in the poemusic collective Hydrogen Junkbox on their album Pixie Dust.

Thomas Fucaloro is a poet. He is the winner of numerous grants from the Staten Island Council of the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, and the NYC Commission of Human Rights to name a few.

Beat/Not Beat: Rich Ferguson  |  Alexis Rhone Fancher  |  Conney Williams  |  Kathleen Florence  | Matt Sedillo

L.A. poet/spoken-word performer Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Moby, and other esteemed poets and musicians.  He is a featured performer in the film, What About Me? featuring Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, k.d. lang, and others. His poetry and award-winning spoken-word music videos have appeared in numerous anthologies and festivals. Ferguson is the lead editor of an anthology of CA poets entitled Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press). He has been selected by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. (NBPF), to serve as U.S. Beat Poet Laureate (Sep 23 to Sep 24).

Alexis Rhone Fancher is published in Best American Poetry, Rattle, Verse Daily, The American Journal of Poetry, Plume, Diode, and elsewhere. She’s authored ten poetry collections, most recently EROTIC: New & Selected (NYQ Books), and DUETS (Small Harbor Press) an ekphrastic chapbook written with Virginia poet,  Cynthia Atkins. BRAZEN , an erotic, full-length collection, the follow up to EROTIC, published in 2023, again from NYQ. A coffee table book of Alexis’ photographs of Southern California poets will be published by Moon Tide Press in 2024. She lives in the Mojave Desert with her husband, Fancher.

Kathleen Florence writes, directs and performs for film and stage. Her poetry and visual art has been featured in Maintenant 10 – 17, Arteidolia, AIR Gallery and The Poetry Collection at the University of Buffalo. More:  https://kathleenflorence.blogspot.com

Conney D. Williams is a Los Angeles based poet, actor and performance artist originally from Shreveport, Louisiana where he worked as a radio personality. His latest poetry collection entitled “The Distance of Observation” was released on World Stage Press in August 2021. He is also the co-founder of World Stage Press. He released two critically acclaimed cds (2015) of his poetry accompanied by music: “Unsettled Water” and “River&Moan.” A community activist, he has worked with youth for over 35 years and was an ordained minister and Youth Pastor in the Church of God in Christ.

Middle East Poets: Deema Mahmoud  |  Nour Nasra

Deema Mahmoud, is an Egyptian poet with a BS degree in Computer Sciences and Statistics. She has published five books of poetry, all in Arabic, and is winner of the “Helmi Salem Prize for New Poetry 2021.” Many of  her  poems  have been  translated  into other languages.

Nour Nasra is a poet, writer and translator who studied translation at Literature College, Tishreen University. She is based in Dubai and works as the Literary Programs Manager at Kutubna Cultural Center in Dubai.  Winner of the first prize for poetry creativity at New Delmoun Publishing House in Damascus in 2017, she is third-place winner of a short story competition at the culture center in Tartous, Syria. Author of two poetry books and seven translated books, many of her poems have been translated into Spanish, Romanian, and English languages, and published in international magazines in many European countries.

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POETS BUILDING BRIDGES is produced by Poetrybay Productions for the Walt Whitman Birthplace.