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.
Live on zoom. archived on Youtube. For Season 2 visit our YouTube Channel >>
Trailer Park Quarterly: Rebecca Schumejda | Jason Baldinger | Curtis Hayes | Wendy Rainey
Rebecca Schumejda is the author of several full-length collections including Falling Forward (sunnyoutside press), Cadillac Men (NYQ Books), Waiting at the Dead End Diner (Bottom Dog Press) and Our One-Way Street (NYQ Books). Her latest book, Something Like Forgiveness, a single epic poem accompanied by collage art by Hosho McCreesh, is out from Stubborn Mule Press. She received her MA in Poetics from San Francisco State University and her BA from SUNY New Paltz.
Jason Baldinger is a poet and photographer from Pittsburgh, PA. He’s penned fifteen books of poetry the newest of which include: A History of Backroads Misplaced: Selected Poems 2010-2020 (Kung Fu Treachery), and This Still Life (Kung Fu Treachery) with James Benger. His first book of photography, Lazarus, is forthcoming. His work has appeared across a wide variety of print journals and online. You can hear him read his work on Bandcamp and on lps by The Gotobeds and Theremonster.
Curtis Hayes has worked as a grip, gaffer, and set builder in the film industry. He’s been a truck driver, a boat rigger, a print journalist and a screenwriter. Along the way, he earned a BA in English from Cal State Long Beach, where he studied poetry and short stories with Gerald Locklin. A non-fiction collaboration with photographer Eric Hameister and designer Dave McClain, resulted in I Am Jesse James, a top-ten New York Times Bestseller for Penguin/Viking Books.
Wendy Rainey is author of Hollywood Church: Short Stories and Poems and Girl on the Highway. She is a 2022 recipient of the Annie Menebroker Poetry Award and a runner-up in the 2022 Angela Consolo Mankiewicz Poetry Prize. She studied poetry with Jack Grapes and creative writing with Gerald Locklin.
Erie PA: Chuck Joy | Mabel Howard | Todd Paropacic
Chuck Joy‘s parents are from western New York, Chuck grew up in Erie PA, USA. BA, Fordham University (Rose Hill); MD, University of Pittsburgh. Publishing poetry since 1980. Current title: Vinyl (What Why Aesthetics). Also available: Percussive (Turning Point); Said the Growling Dog (Nirala Publications); Theme of Line (Red Giant Books). Magazines: Poets’ Hall the Magazine, poetrybay, Main Street Rag. Host, weekly poetry events: Erie Book Store, Calamari’s Tavern. Poet Laureate, Erie County Pennsylvania, 2018-2021.
Mabeline Howard “The Marketing Artist” is a poet, nonprofit leader, marketing, entrepreneur, and creator of Poetry and Soul Food. An Erie native, she uses her artistic talents to bridge gaps and foster equity. Her Express Yourself Open Mic Tour featured 11 Erie Poets whose work was published in Pratik Magazine. She has shared poetry on many stages, most notably Express Yourself On The Mic with Miss Mabeline and the Poetry X-Change, which she curated and produced.
Todd Paropacic is a poet, lounge singer-songwriter, digital painter, husband, and video game enthusiast from Erie, Pennsylvania. He’s published two collections of poetry and is the voice in a board-and-voice music duo. He works in an art museum and lives with his wife, five cats and two dogs in a house on a hill.
South Cumbria UK: Ann Grant | Rowland Crowland | Emma Purshouse | John Alexander Scott
Ann Grant is a writer with MS based in Cumbria, UK. Her poems have been included in The Poeming Pigeon, This Place I Know by Handstand Press, Survivor UK Zine CSA issue and Ink, Sweat & Tears. She hosts Verbalise spoken word open mics at Brewery Arts.
John Alexander Scott is a Performance Poet, writer, creative writing tutor and environmental activist. He regularly performs, headlines and comperes at open mic nights throughout Cumbria and North Lancashire, UK. In 2017, 2018 and 2021 he performed solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe; 2019 at the Bearded Theory Festival. In April 2020 he released an album of his poems to music by Martin Dewar called “No Other Gods”. Several tracks were played on BBC Radio Cumbria and BBC 6 Music.
Emma Purshouse is a lively and original performance poet and novelist. She was the first Poet Laureate for the City of Wolverhampton, is a slam winner and regularly performs at spoken word venues and literature festivals across the country. Emma has won, been longlisted and shortlisted in many poetry competitions including a 3rd place in the National Poetry Prize.
Rowland Crowland is the King of Goblin Poetry. He is one of the most engaging performance poets performing in venues in the North West of England. In 2017 he published his first collection Beggar’s. He collaborated with Bryan Griffin on a book of poems Word Dancing in 2021. His poems concern nature, spirit, chip shops, factories, witches, the wind, the Buddha and goblins.
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POETS BUILDING BRIDGES is produced by Poetrybay Productions for the Walt Whitman Birthplace.
