Author: Kristin Kowalski Ferragut

Fabulous Spring Finale/Eve Burton’s Workshops

Thanks to all who came out for our last reading of the spring, we so enjoyed hearing Kim Roberts, Eve Burton, and Clarence Williams share their poetry.  I am getting ready to post a longer piece about this, but as I mentioned at the reading, many good things have happened in the last year as a result of this reading series including the opportunity for poets to network and connect professionally.

Last night I attended one of Eve Burton’s poetry workshops at the Quince Orchard Library and was thrilled when one of the poems that she used as an example for the exercise we were doing was a poem that Kim Roberts read at the reading!  If you’re looking for a poetry workshop in the Gaithersburg area, check it out, the next one is July 12th at the Quince Orchard Library, 7 pm.  The assignment for the workshop is to write a list poem, so give it a try and bring a poem to share!  Eve also leads workshops for teens and children, you can find the information on the QO Library site.

 

June 10th Reading With Kim Roberts, Camisha Jones, Clarence Williams, and Eve Burton

Please join us on June 10th for our final reading of the spring with featured poets Kim Roberts, Camisha Jones, Clarence Williams, and Eve Burton, upstairs at the Gaithersburg Library, 2-4 pm. The reading is hosted by Lucinda Marshall and will be followed by an Open Mic.
Kim RobertsKim Roberts is the author of five books of poems, most recently The Scientific Method (WordTech Editions, 2017). Her book of walking tours, A Literary Guide to Washington, DC: Walking in the Footsteps of American Authors from Francis Scott Key to Zora Neale Hurston was recently published by the University of Virginia Press. Roberts is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities DC, and the DC Commission on the Arts, and most recently the recipient of a Rose Library Research Fellowship from Emory University, She has been a writer-in-residence at 17 art colonies and retreats. Individual poems of hers have been published in Barrow Street, New Letters, Ohio Review, Southwest Review, Verse Daily, Virginia Quarterly Review, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day project; and the title poem from her latest book was featured at last year’s National March for Science as part of the Wick Poetry Center’s Science Stanzas Project. She is the founding editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly.

Clarence WilliamsClarence Williams is a U.S. veteran who began writing poetry during his 20 years of service in the US Navy. He also possesses a broad range of expertise having spent many years as a program manager of logistics, engineering, and IT development projects, as well as an instructor and course developer, and he also won the Government Computer News 2006 Gala Award for Technology Innovations in Government Information Technology.
He began attending the DiVerse Gaithersburg Poetry Reading and Open Mic program in 2018, and it has inspired him to continue writing and sharing his work during open mic.

Eve BurtonIn 2001, Eve Burton started a Storytelling Club for young children at the Twinbrook Community Library. The next year she added a Poetry Club for young children, and she’s been engaged in Poetry Creation Activities ever since. She now leads a Poetry Club for young children as well as Adult and Teen Poetry Writing Groups at Quince Orchard Library and hosts a group of adult women who gather in her home to write poetry and eat dessert twice each month. Eve still tells stories, both on her own and with the Twinbrook Tellers of the Dogwood Dogs 4H Club, which she leads. Her poetry often reflects her fondness for a good tale. Recently Lucinda Marshall invited Eve to join the Diverse Poetry workshopping group and to read her poems at the June reading.

Camisha Jones - Photo by Brandon Woods
Photo by Brandon Woods

Camisha L. Jones is the author of the poetry chapbook Flare (Finishing Line Press, 2017) and a recipient of a 2017 Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship from The Loft Literary Center. Through both, she breaks silence around issues of invisible disability as someone living with hearing loss and chronic pain. Her poems can be found at Button Poetry, The Deaf Poets Society, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Typo, Rogue Agent, pluck!, Unfolding the Soul of Black Deaf Expressions, and The Quarry, Split This Rock’s social justice poetry database. She is also published in Let’s Get Real: What People of Color Can’t Say and Whites Won’t Ask about Racism , Class Lives: Stories from Across Our Economic Divide, and The Day Tajon Got Shot. A fellow of The Watering Hole, Camisha is Managing Director at Split This Rock, a national non-profit in DC that cultivates, teaches, and celebrates poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes social change. Find her on Facebook as Poet Camisha Jones, on Twitter and Instagram as 1Camisha, and online at her blog.

Poetry Programs At The Quince Orchard Library

Eve Burton, one of the librarians at the Quince Orchard Library in Gaithersburg and a poet herself, facilitates poetry programs for kids, teens, and adults.  They meet as follows:

Quince Orchard Library Poetry Programs:

  • Poetry Club for ages 6-12:  2nd Tuesday each month, 4:00 p.m
  • Teen Poetry Writing Group for teens 13+:  3rd Tuesday each month, 4:00 p.m.
  • Poetry Evenings for adults: 2nd Thursday each month, 7:00 p.m.

The library is located at 15831 Quince Orchard Rd, Gaithersburg, MD 20878 and for more information, you can reach Eve by calling the library, (240) 777-0200.

Reviews of Books By DiVerse Gaithersburg Featured Poets On The Savvy Verse & Wit Website

Many thanks to Serena Agusto-Cox for reviewing several books by poets who have read at the DiVerse Gaithersburg readings on her most excellent website, Savvy Verse & Wit.  She recently reviewed Alan King’s Point Blank and Marlena Chertock’s On That One-Way Trip To Mars and Crumb-Sized and rumor has it she may be reviewing a few more in the near future!

Here is an excerpt from her review of Crumb-Sized:

Crumb-Sized: Poems by Marlena Chertock, who read at the Fourth DiVerse Gaithersburg Poetry Reading, is a short and powerful collection about body image, space, and pain, but it is also a collection of exploration. She explores the strength within herself to do more and cope with more, to “push” through the pain in physical therapy, and to stand tall among those in the forest who are “healthier.”

Obviously, not only should you read these poetry books, you should also go check out Serena’s site and read her reviews.  A gifted writer herself, Serena was one of the featured poets at the first reading at Chesapeake Framing last summer and can often be found sitting in the front row of our readings taking photos and shooting Facebook Live video.  Literary citizenship at its finest, we are so lucky to have Serena as part of our poetry community!

Mother’s Day Poetry Reading–May 13th with Laura Shovan, Paulette Beete, and Jay Hall Carpenter

Please join us on Mother’s Day, May 13th for another excellent afternoon of poetry with Laura Shovan, Paulette Beete, and Jay Hall Carpenter, upstairs at the Gaithersburg Library, 2-4 pm. The reading will be followed by an Open Mic. The reading will be hosted by Lucinda Marshall.

SAMSUNG CSCLaura Shovan is a former editor of Little Patuxent Review. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize. Laura edited Life in Me Like Grass on Fire: Love Poems and co-edited Voices Fly: An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artists-in-Residence Program, for which she teaches. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, her award-winning children’s novel-in-verse, is about students protesting the closing of their school.

Copyright 2015 Carrie Holbo PhotographyPaulette Beete’s poems, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in journals including Crab Orchard Review,Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Gargoyle, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly, among many others, and in the anthologies Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC and Saints of Hysteria (with Danna Ephland). She has also published two chapbooks of poetry: Blues for a Pretty Girl (Finishing Line Press) and Voice Lessons (Plan B Press). She has been a Winter Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and several of her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and blogs at TheHomeBeete. Find her on Twitter @mouthflowers or as Paulette Beete Writer on Facebook.

Jay Hall CarpenterJay Hall Carpenter has been a professional artist for over 40 years, beginning as a sculptor for the Washington National Cathedral, and winning numerous national awards for his work. His first poetry collection, Dark and Light (2012), was followed by 101 Limericks Inappropriate For All Occasions (2107), and will be followed next year by a third, as yet untitled, collection. He has written poetry, plays, and children’s books throughout his career and now sculpts and writes in Silver Spring, MD.

Pictures From Our April Reading

Thank you to our wonderful featured readers in April–Kateema Lee, Marlena Chertock, and Joseph Ross, and to Mayor Jud Ashman for telling us about the upcoming Gaithersburg Book Festival!

Joseph Ross
Marlena Chertock
Kateema Lee
Mayor Jud Ashman

Where Would You Like To See/Hear Poetry? Some Ideas (Updated)

Want to see more poetry in Gaithersburg?  Here are some of the terrific ideas that we came up with at our April reading for how to make that happen.  I’ll also post this list on our Facebook page where we can discuss it and you can add more ideas in the comments.

  1. Have a poetry contest.
  2. Have a poetry contest for kids.
  3. Display poetry in art galleries.
  4. Have readings at charity events.
  5. Televise poetry readings on local access stations and/or broadcast on local radio stations.
  6. Put featured poems/poets on flyers advertising the DiVerse Gaithersburg Poetry Reading and put them on community bulletin boards (Starbucks, grocery stores, etc.).
  7. Write poems on sidewalks.
  8. Put poetry on bus stops, benches, and the sides of buses.
  9. Hold poetry slams.
  10. Have cooperative writing events where poets get together and write.
  11. Have a poetry bulletin board at the Gaithersburg Book Festival (GBF) where people can post poems.
  12. Connect with the English department at Montgomery County Community College.
  13. Hold a kids-oriented poetry event/reading.
  14. Hang poems/quotes from poets from lampposts.
  15. Haiku signs in flower beds (an idea that has been done in DC).
  16. A zine.
  17. Put poems on the sides of buildings.
  18. Poetry workshops at assisted living/senior centers.
  19. Have poets visit schools.
  20. Poetry walks.
  21. Have a poetry podcast.
  22. Put poems at/have poetry events at the train station and/or Lake Forest Mall.
  23. Appoint a city and/or GBF Poet Laureate.
  24. Ask the city to issue a National Poetry Month proclamation.
  25. Look for tie-ins with GBF.

April 8th Poets: Marlena Chertock, Joseph Ross, and Kateema Lee With Special Guest Mayor Jud Ashman

Please join us on April 8th for another excellent afternoon of poetry with Marlena Chertock, Joseph Ross, and Kateema Lee, with special guest Mayor Jud Ashman, upstairs at the Gaithersburg Library, 2-4 pm. The reading will be followed by an Open Mic.

MarlenaChertock_11102017_3977Marlena Chertock has two books of poetry, Crumb-sized (Unnamed Press, 2017) and On that one-way trip to Mars (Bottlecap Press, 2016). She lives in Washington, D.C. and serves as the poetry editor of District Lit. Marlena is a graduate of the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House and uses her skeletal dysplasia and chronic pain as a bridge to scientific poetry. Her poems and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Breath & Shadow, The Deaf Poets Society, The Fem, Paper Darts, Wordgathering, and more.

JRIPSJoseph Ross is the author of three books of poetry: Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013) and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many places including, The Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly and Drumvoices Revue. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He recently served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society in Howard County, Maryland. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C.

Lee_photo2Kateema Lee is a Washington, D.C. native. Her recent work has been published in print and online journals such as Pirene’s Fountain, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, African American Review, Gargoyle, and others. Her chapbook, Almost Invisible, was published in August 2017. Kateema’s next collection of poems, Musings of a Netflix Binge Viewer, is forthcoming (June 2018). She is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, a Callaloo fellow, and a participant of The Home School.

Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman will also be joining us to talk about the upcoming Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 19th.

Another Terrific Reading!

We had another wonderful reading on Sunday, with great thanks to Maritza Rivera, Jennifer Wallace, and Michele Wolf!  Maritza explained Blackjack Poetry, a form of poetry that she invented and led us in a group poetry writing exercise which was great fun.  We also discovered that in addition to being great poets, they all had something else in common–mango poems.  Who knew!  Great to see so many returning people in the audience and at the open mic, community building in progress!