George Wallace and Walt Whitman Birthplace proudly present season two 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. THIS IS A ZOOM ONLY EVENT.
Season One triangulated groups by location — from the US, UK, Italy, South America, the Balkans, the Near East and India.
(47) Poets Building Bridges: A World Poetry Day Triangulation Project – Day 1 – 5Mar2022 – YouTube
In Season Two, 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.
Live on zoom. archived on Youtube.
Erie PA: Chuck Joy | Matt Borczon | Mark Borczon
Chuck Joy, publishing fun poetry since 1980. Early poems in Medicinal Purposes and early appearances at the Orange Bear and did graduate from Fordham University (Rose Hill) but born in Cleveland and lives in Erie, about as far away as you can be from Philadelphia and still be in Pennsylvania. More about Chuck: www.chuckjoy.com Chuck Joy, publishing fun poetry since 1980. Early poems in Medicinal Purposes and early appearances at the Orange Bear and did graduate from Fordham University (Rose Hill) but born in Cleveland and lives in Erie, about as far away as you can be from Philadelphia and still be in Pennsylvania. More about Chuck: www.chuckjoy.com
Matt Borczon recently retired from the US Navy and lives works and writes in Erie Pa. He is the author of 17 books of poetry the most recent, PTSD a living will, is available from Rust Belt Press.
Mark Borczon Is a poet from Erie Pennsylvania. He is a custodian at Penn West university. He has 3 children and lives with his long term fiance Janice.
South Asian Diaspora: Pramila Venkateswaran | Sophia Naz | Indran Amirthanayagam | Usha Akelia
Pramila Venkateswaran, poet laureate of Suffolk County, Long Island (2013-15) and co-director of Matwaala: South Asian Diaspora Poetry Festival, is the author of Thirtha (Yuganta Press, 2002) Behind Dark Waters (Plain View Press, 2008), Draw Me Inmost (Stockport Flats, 2009), Trace (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Thirteen Days to Let Go (Aldrich Press, 2015), Slow Ripening (Local Gems, 2016), The Singer of Alleppey (Shanti Arts, 2018), and more recently, We are Not a Museum (Finishing Line Press, 2022). She has performed the poetry internationally, including at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and the Festival Internacional De Poesia De Granada. An award winning poet, she teaches English and Women’s Studies at Nassau Community College, New York. Author of numerous essays on poetics as well as creative non-fiction, she is also the 2011 Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island Poet of the Year. Her critical essays on Dalit poetry appear in recent issues of International Women’s Studies Journal, Journal of Contemporary Poetics, and Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics. She leads writing workshops for breast cancer patients in their healing journey. She is a founding member of Women Included, a transnational feminist association and the current President of NOW Suffolk, Long Island.
Sophia Naz is a bilingual poet, artist, author, editor and translator. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize; in 2016 for creative nonfiction and in 2018 for poetry. Her work features in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Poets, The Night Heron Barks, Singing in the Dark:A Global Anthology of Poetry Under Lockdown, Berfrois,The Bombay Literary Magazine, Rattle, The Punch Magazine, Poetry At Sangam, Poetry International Rotterdam, The Adirondack Review, The Wire, Chicago Quarterly Review, Blaze Vox, Scroll, The Daily O, Cafe Dissensus, RAIOT, Ideas And Futures, Chapati Mystery, Guftugu, Pratik, Gallerie International, Coldnoon, VAYAVYA, The Bangalore Review, Papercuts, Madras Courier, The Yearbook of Indian Poetry and many others. She has authored the poetry collections; Peripheries (Cyberhex 2015), Pointillism (Copper Coin 2017) Date Palms (City Press 2017) Open Zero (Yoda Press 2021), and Shehnaz, a biography (Penguin Random House 2019). Her website is www.SophiaNaz.com
Indran Amirthanayagam is an award winning poet, editor, publisher, translator, you tube host and diplomat. He has published twenty two books and writes in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian
Usha Akelia has authored nine books that include poetry, one chapbook and two musical dramas. Her latest poetry book is I will not bear you sons, published by Spinifex, Australia. She earned an MSt. in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, UK. She is the founder of Matwaala (www.matwaala.com) and www.the-pov.com, a website of curated interviews. She was selected as a Creative Ambassador for the city of Austin in 2019 & 2015. She is widely anthologized and has been invited to numerous international poetry festivals all over the world.
St. Louis: Brett Underwood | Andrew Belz | Stefene Russell
Brett Lars Underwood is a St. Louis writer, bartender and promoter of happenings and mishaps. He is the author of MUSH (Spartan Press, 2018) and MUSHARONA (Kung Fu Treachery Press, 2020).
Aaron Belz has an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and a Ph.D. in American Literature from Saint Louis University. He has published four full-length collections of poetry, most recently Soft Launch (Persea, 2019), and given readings at venues across the country, ranging from universities to comedy clubs. He is online at belz.net and on Twitter at @aaronbelz
Stefene Russell is the food reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune. She’s the former culture editor for St. Louis Magazine and was the 2018 poet-in-residence at Laumeier Sculpture Park. Her books include Inferna (2013, Intagliata Press), The Possum Codex (2015, Otis Nebula), and 47 Incantatory Essays (Spartan Press, 2019). Find her on Instagram (@stafene7) or on Facebook or Twitter (@voltarine).
POETS BUILDING BRIDGES is produced by Poetrybay Productions for the Walt Whitman Birthplace.
