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.
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81536786664
NEURONAUTIC PRESS
Matthew Hupert is a writer and multi-media artist from New York City. Matthew hosts several poetry reading series, including the annual showcase for New York voices, Night in the Naked City, and the monthly series NeuroNautic Institute Presents, & Don’t Bogart that Poem my Friend. He is a recipient of the 2020 New York Acker Award for Show Organizer and Host He has 2 full length collections, Ism is a Retrovirus (2011- Three Rooms Press) and Secular Pantheism (2019 – NeuroNautic Press). He is also the author of several chapbooks, & his writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.
The winner of numerous grants from the Staten Island Council of the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes and NYC Commission of Human Rights to name a few. Thomas Fucaloro has been on six national slam teams. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the New School and is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press. He is an adjunct professor at Wagner College, BMCC and CSI where he teaches various poetry and literature courses. Thomas is cofounder of Poetry in the Park, WORDPLAY, Creating Space, Poetry in Motion and Creativity Meets Geek. Thomas has released 2 full lengths: It Starts From the Belly and Blooms and Inheriting Craziness is a Soft Halo of Light by Three Rooms Press. He also has 4 chapbooks: Mistakes Disguised as Stars (Tired Hearts Press), Depression Cupcakes (Yes, Poetry), There is Always Tomorrow (Mad Gleam Press) and The Only Gardening I Do is When I Give Up by Finishing Line Press. His new chapbook LE(t)GO is out by Neuronautic Press.
melissa christine goodrum is the editor of four print anthologies and the author of two full-length poetry collections: definitions uprising (NY Quarterly Press) and something sweet & filled with blood (great weather for MEDIA).
Robert Anthony Gibbons is a multidimensional artist and poet living in the New York area. He has taken a retreat from the business of poetry for self care and healing. This will be the first he performs since going on much needed sabbatical.
TAMPA BAY POETS FLA
For his entire professional career, Larry Jaffe has been using his art to promote human rights. He was Poet-In-Residence at the Autry Museum, a featured poet in Chrysler’s Spirit in the Words poetry program, helped spearhead the United Nations Dialogue among Civilizations through Poetry project, Pushcart Nominee. He is a Lifetime New Generation Beat Poet Laureate, Poet in Residence at the Jack Kerouac House in St. Pete.
Gianna Russo is the inaugural Wordsmith of The City of Tampa. She is the author of the poetry collections, All I See is Your Glinting: 90 Days in the Pandemic, with photographer Jenny Carey (Madville Publishing, 2022); One House Down (Madville Publishing, 2019) and Moonflower, winner of a Florida Book Award.
Peter Meinke is the recipient of many awards, including the Olivet Prize, the Paumanok Award, three Poetry Society of America Awards, the Flannery O’Connor Award, and two NEA Fellowships. In 2009 he was appointed the first Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg, Florida. He was appointed the Poet Laureate of the State of Florida in 2015.
Gregory Byrd’s poems have appeared widely in journals such as the Tampa Review, Apalachee Review, Cortland Review, Poeteka (Albania, in translation). Among his poetry books are Salt and Iron (Snake Nation, 2014), At Penuel (Split Oak, 2011) and Florida Straits (Yellowjacket Press, 2005). The Name for the God Who Speaks won the Robert Phillips Prize in 2018. He has received a Creative Pinellas Rapid Returns Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, an SPC Distinguished Teaching Award and a Pushcart Prize Nomination.
CAUCASUS POETS
Arturo Desimone is a self-taught writer, translator, poet and visual artist born and raised on Aruba in a family that has its roots in Argentina, Poland and Siberia. He has lived in Aruba, in Holland, in Argentina and, briefly, in Tunisia. His poetry has been translated into Arabic, Kurdish, and Spanish, and published in literary journals in the UK, USA, Caribbean and Australia. In 2023 he was artistic director and founder of the first international meeting of poets in Aruba. A Lover of Tunisia and the multilingual poetry collection Mare Nostrum / Costa Nostra (2019). He wrote his most recent book of poems, “Kibocacion Entre Luz y Boca” in the language of Aruba. Last year he curated the first nation-wide meeting of mutlilingual poets in Argentina.
Aysel Baxilova is a poet from Azerbaijan, currently living in San Antonio, Texas. Drawing inspiration from the rich traditions of Russian literature and Soviet Azerbaijani literary movements, Aysel’s work often weaves complex narratives that explore the human condition and the struggles of those marginalized by society. Today, Aysel’s writing focuses on the urgent issues of displacement, and the refugee experience, the situation of women in the Caucasus and speaking out against the destructive forces of war, especially in the Caucasus region. In her work, Aysel advocates for peace and gender equality. In a bold, self-reflective statement about her creative process, she humorously describes herself as a “traitor” for making a man the central character of her feminist poems. Her most recent works explore a poignant love story between a Mexican man and an Azerbaijani woman.
Günel Movlud is an Azerbaijani poet and translator who was born in the Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan, in 1981. At the age of 12 she had to leave Karabakh with her parents because of the conflict with Armenia. She studied theater arts at Baku University and worked as a journalist for local newspapers on Azerbaijani social issues. In 2004, he published his first book of poems The Darkness and Us. More recently, the books 5XL and Response at the End of the Afternoon appeared. She has often written and published poems and essays under the pseudonym “Imanova Gunel”. The Azeri journalist, translator, and poet was exiled by the government and she has lived in Norway since 2016, where she has won the “Words on Borders” poetry prize in 2017. In 2019, she was published in Aschehoug anthology of refugee poets, To kiss a desert. To kiss a wall.
Alexander Selimov is an award-winning poet, writer, performing artist, and literature professor who grew up in the Caucasus region and is of Lezgi ancestry. He holds the titles of ‘Universal Ambassador of Culture’ and ‘Distinguished Poet’, awarded by the Bolivian Association of Writers, the Governor of Tarija, and UNESCO. He is also an Honorary Member of the Association of Writers of Tarija (Bolivia). Influenced by his experience living in Havana, Cuba, and his studies in Hispanic Literature, he has won a silver medal at the LIFFT-2019 Eurasian Literary Festival (Baku, Azerbaijan), and was named “Poet of the year” at the 7th International Boao Poetry Festival in Bangkok Thailand.
