Video: "Bully for You" and "Aim High" at the 2025 National Beat Poetry Festival

Recorded by Paul Richmond for the National Beat Poetry Foundation on 29 August 2025 at Canton Town Hall in Collinsville, Connecticut. Introduction by Virginia Shreve. I was one of 20 Beat Poets Laureate who read that night and I shared two poems: "Bully for You" and "Aim High," both written for the Tupelo Press 30/30 in March 2025 (a few months before the death of my biological father, which I referenced in the introduction to my second poem).

Video permalink: https://youtu.be/UnEhDDLyYO8. 

August 29-31: National Beat Poetry Festival in Connecticut

I very much look forward to being part of this year's National Beat Poetry Festival featuring fine poets from across the country and around the world. Labor Day weekend in Connecticut. Hope to see you there!

Friday evening's event will be held at 7 p.m. at the Canton Town Hall Auditorium, 4 Market Street, Collinsville, CT. 

Saturday's and Sunday's events will be held at 22 River Road, Barkhamsted, CT. 

To the National Beat Poetry Festival this weekend - plus more travel and coming events

We just got back from the vet (sweet boy Bart has an ear infection) and I'm still working on feverishly on catching up on myriad tasks after four out-of-town trips and two power outages in the past month and a half. Thursday, I hit the road again and am very much looking forward to these fab events:

30 August thru 1 September 2024 in Collinsville and Barkhamsted, Connecticut
The National Beat Poetry Foundation's annual National and International Beat Poetry Festival will feature poets from across the United States and as far away as Europe and India. Friday's events will be held at Canton Town Hall, 4 Market Street, 06022; Saturday's and Sunday's events will be held at 22 River Road, 06063. Click here for more details.

3 September 2024 in Lowell, Massachusetts
Beat Night at the Worthern House Cafe will feature PW Covington, John Burroughs, Joe Kidd and Sheila Burke, plus Paul Richmond, hosted by new U.S. Beat Poet Laureate Mark Lipman at 141 Worthen Street, 01852.

10 September 2024 in Corning, New York (and ONLINE)
Poets in Play presents a featured reading by John Burroughs and open mic, co-curated by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and Foothills Publishing at 79 West Market Street, 14830 (and on Zoom).

19 thru 21 September in Kent, Ohio
The Wick Poetry Center celebrates 40 years with keynote speakers Padraig Ó Tuama, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, and Adrian Matejka, plus much more.

27 & 28 September in Frostburg, Maryland
The Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts presents their 19th annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival. Crisis Chronicles Press will have a table in the book fair.

3 October 2024 at 6 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky
Poetry at the /'tāb-əl/ presents Matt Hart and John Burroughs, plus open mic, at Kenwick Table, 201 Owsley Avenue, 40502. More details forthcoming.

4 October 2024 at 6 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky
Teen Howl Poetry Series presents John Burroughs and more, plus open mic, at Third Street Stuff & Coffee, 257 N Limestone #1, 40507. More details forthcoming.

6 October 2024 at 4 p.m. in Elizabethtown, Kentucky
A live reading and poetry open mic featuring John Burroughs, hosted by A.S. Coomer at Flywheel Brewing, 218 S Mulberry Street, 42701

14 December 2024 at noon - ONLINE
Poets Building Bridges, hosted by George Wallace, will feature poets from Cleveland, Ohio (John Burroughs, Judith Mansour and Dianne Borsenik); Bolton, UK (Linda Downs, David Wigmore and Laura Taylor); and Flower Litter Poets (Mimi German, Karlostheunhappy and Pankhuri Sinha). Event will be broadcast on Zoom.

 

National and International Beat Poetry Festival: August 30th through September 1st

I'll have the joy of joining stellar poets from across the United States and as far away as Sweden at this year's National and International Beat Poetry Festival, August 30th through September 1st in Connecticut.

The National Beat Poetry Foundation has just posted their program on Facebook and I've copied it here. Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

Back in the Saddle in July: Evansville, Insomniacathon & WV Writers

Though I've been super busy off the radar, it's hard to believe it's been nine months since I've been on tour. But I'm about to get back at it this month:

 

7/16 in Evansville, Indiana, I'll have the privilege of reading with Dan Sullivan and Jennifer Browne at the Bokeh Lounge (one of my favorite places to return) for Poetry Speaks: Tonight We Sail.

 

7/20 online, I'll present "Risking Absurdity for the Sake of the Poem," a poetry workshop sponsored by West Virginia Writers, Inc. Free for all members.

 

7/26-28 in Louisville, Kentucky: The final Insomniacathon (tickets and schedule available at https://stphilipcampus.org/insomniacathon-2024). I'll be reading around 5 p.m. on Saturday the 27th.

 

 

And then after that:

 

8/30-9/1 in Barkhamsted, CT: the Nat’l & Int’l Beat Poetry Festival 2024.

 

9/10 in Corning, New York (details forthcoming).

 

9/27-28 in Frostburg, MD: the Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival.

 

10/3 in Lexington, KY: Poetry at the /'tāb-əl/ (reading with Matt Hart).

 

10/4 in Lexington, KY: Teen Howl Poetry Series.

 

10/6 in Elizabethtown, KY at Flywheel Brewing.

 

For more, please visit http://jesuscrisis.blogspot.com/p/featured-readings.html.

National Beat Poetry Festival happening September 1st thru 3rd

I am thrilled to be participating in the National Beat Poetry Festival again this year in Connecticut. Here is the schedule of events:

Friday September 1st 2023 from 7 to 10 p.m. (In Person)

 Location: Canton Town Hall, 4 Market St # 100, Collinsville, CT 06019.

7pm to 8pm – Beat Poets Laureate from around the country read.
8pm to 8:30pm – Open Mic.
8:30pm to 9:45pm – Do It Now (poet Paul Richmond, percussionist Tony Vacca, and guitarist John Sheldon) perform.


Saturday September 2nd 2023 from 1 to 9 p.m. (In Person)

Location: 22 River Rd, Pleasant Valley/Barkhamsted, CT 06063 (outside in back of the house, under the tents; park along the side of the long driveway).

1pm to 2:30pm – New Beat Laureates receive their awards and read.
2:30pm to 4:30pm Open Mic (sign up when you arrive).
4:30pm to 5:30pm – Ernest Brute & Object Echo perform.
6pm to 9pm – Beat Laureates celebration continues.


Sunday September 3rd 2023 from 1 to 3 p.m. (In Person)

Location: 22 River Rd, Pleasant Valley/Barkhamsted, CT 06063.

1pm-3pm – an informal gathering of poets with readings.


Sunday September 3rd 2023 from 1 to 6 p.m. (Online)

The festival will also include an online component for those who cannot attend the in-person events. To participate, email a photo of yourself to nbpf15@gmail.com and say what state or country you live in. Then a few days before the event, you will receive the Zoom link in a email. Those unable to come to the online zoom may also participate virtually by sending in an up to 3 min video using the free program  WeTransfer.com

So many thanks to the National Beat Poetry Foundation, CEO Debbie Tosun Kilday, as well as Paul Richmond and Chryssa Velissariou, for all they do to make these events happen and support the work of poets.

For more information, visit https://nationalbeatpoetryfoundation.org/.

National Beat Poetry Festival and more in September!

I've been trying hard to catch up, friends. So many things to do, emails to answer, commitments to fulfill before I hit the road on the 1st. I feel like I need 30 hours per day - but I'll get there. So tired, but so grateful. I very much look forward to traveling again, seeing friends and hearing a mix of favorite and new (to me) voices at these upcoming events.

9/2 thru 9/4 in New Hartford, CT:
Nat’l & Int’l Beat Poetry Festival 2022
Where Jami Cassady, Ron Whitehead, Carl Spiby, Paul Richmond, Chris Vannoy, Annie Petrie Sauter, Pamela Twining, RescuePoetix, Sandra Feen, Dane Ince, Johnny Depp, Joe Kidd and I will be honored by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. and poets from all over will be reading. Congratulations to the other award recipients and many thanks to Debbie Tosun Kilday and the NBPF!

9/7 in Portsmouth, NH:
The Hoot Poetry Reading at Portsmouth Book and Bar
Where Maggie Dietz and I will be the featured poets. Many thanks to Claire Conroy and the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Project!

9/9 in Cleveland, OH:
Inkubator Conference at the Cleveland Public Library. Many thanks to Literary Cleveland!

9/10 in Toledo, OH:
Uncloistered Poetry Live! at The Attic On Adams
Where Pauletta Hansel, Miles Budimir, Jennifer Pullen and I will be the featured poets. Many thanks to Jonie McIntire!

And more to be announced soon!

 

 

 

 

National and International Beat Poetry Festival: September 3rd, 4th, 5th

The National and International Beat Poetry Festival will be happening this weekend in Connecticut and online. Congratulations to the fab writers receiving awards! [See right.] I won't be attending in person because my step-daughter is getting married on September 4th. But the festival has graciously invited me to participate online. So I get to do both after all!

Watch the Beat Fest online on the National Beat Poetry Foundation's YouTube channel.

For updates and more information, join their Facebook group.

Also, http://nationalbeatpoetryfoundation.org/.

 

National Beat Poetry Foundation CEO Debbie Tosun Kilday posted the following on Facebook:

John Burroughs, Ohio Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021), will be performing via Zoom on the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. YouTube Channel in celebration of the Nat’l & Inter’l Beat Poetry Festival. Host: Chryssa Velissariou from Greece. 

 

John Burroughs serves as the 2019-2021 Beat Poet Laureate for the State of Ohio and as the publisher of Crisis Chronicles Press. His most recent book is Rattle and Numb: Selected and New Poems (Venetian Spider Press). You may find him at crisischronicles.com or walking his dog Bart around Greater Cleveland.

My poem "What They Did" featured 12/3 in Winedrunk Sidewalk

I am pleased to report that my poem "What They Did" is featured today (day 1416) in Winedrunk Sidewalk. Many thanks to editor John Grochalski for including it—and for keeping up the good fight!

For daily resistance poems, follow winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com.

Permalink to just my poem: https://winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com/2020/12/day-fourteen-hundred-and-sixteen.html.


Poem Process:

I wrote a lot of the first draft of this poem on 1 June 2018 during Write! hosted by River River at the Carson McCullers House in Nyack, New York. On that particular day, one of the workshop prompts was "What they did [was]...." A couple of days later, I edited the rough piece a little and added most of the section from "What they did was spit" through "white Jesus / made in our image." But it still didn't feel finished.

Fast forward to 2020. I found the unfinished handwritten piece while going through a pile of paperwork in my office, found it still unsettlingly relevant, and dusted it off to try out at a couple of Zoom readings. Finally, in late November I decided to transcribe it into a Word document and strengthen and (as much as possible) finish it. One glaring item was that my original ending had alluded to the then still-pending 2020 Presidential election. In the wake of Trump's loss, that ending no longer seemed to work, so I replaced it with the six final lines you now see.

[12/24/2020 UPDATE: When I originally posted this blog entry I said I began this poem during a workshop in Amherst, Ohio. I was wrong. Today, going through other old papers, I realized that while I had the date correct, I had misremembered the location. The poem was begun on 1 June 2018 in Nyack, New York, and I've corrected the paragraph above accordingly. Side note: this was the same day I wrote "Odd Missive," which is the final poem in my book Rattle and Numb.]

[12/23/2024 UPDATE: I've continued to revise this poem, including a newer version in my 2023 collection, The Wrest of the Worthwhile. Then in the lead-up to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential election, Poets Against Racism and Hate USA featured this newer version on their website. As of today, I'm still working on it.]

Video: Live at the National Beat Poetry Festival, 8/31/2019

Here I am on the second day of the National Beat Poetry Festival on Saturday 31 August 2019 in New Hartford, Connecticut. In this clip Debbie Tosun Kilday, the CEO of the National Beat Poetry Foundation, presents me with the Ohio Beat Poet Laureate Award for 2019-2021, and then I read two signature poems, "Bloodshot" and "Lens."

Video by U.S. Beat Poet Laureate Paul Richmond of Human Error Publishing.
Festival hosted by Shaw Israel Izikson & Debbie Tosun Kilday.

Video permalink: https://youtu.be/ovt465FqtPc.

photo by Tammi Truax

More videos are available and/or forthcoming on the National Beat Poetry Foundation's YouTube channel.

Touring with Kansas City Poet Jeanette Powers This Month!

art/photo by Jeanette Powers

Finally home from the first of three trips to the east coast this month. I will spend today and tomorrow catching up on a million things, including hundreds of emails, a stack of bills, packaging and mailing books, running to Akron to pick up the 2nd printing of Nicole Hennessy's Gypsy Queen, mowing the lawn, getting a pdf proof for Nick Gardner's forthcoming Crisis Chronicles Press book (So Marvelously Far) to him and cleaning my house. Then Sunday, 9/8, in Toledo I will meet up with one of my favorite poets/artists/humans, Jeanette Powers of Kansas City, where we will have the privilege of reading with Barbara Sabol and Clarissa Jakobsons for Uncloistered Poetry at Calvino's Restaurant and Wine Bar.

After that, I will emcee two readings featuring Jeanette in the Cleveland area:

• Tues. 9/10 - Poetry+ featuring Jeanette Powers & Dianne Borsenik at Art on Madison in Lakewood, Ohio.
• Wed. 9/11 - Michelle R. Smith, Rikki Santer & Jeanette Powers at Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

And then Jeanette's tour will continue as we head to the east coast for these events:

• Sun. 9/15 - Fall into Poetry at Sol’s Path (feat. Jake St. John, Meg Harris, Jeanette and me) in Northford, Connecticut.
• Tues. 9/17 (my birthday) - Woodstock Open Mic Poetry with John Burroughs & Jeanette Powers.
• Fri. 9/20 (her birthday) - Puma Perl's Birthday Bash Pandemonium (feat. Puma Perl and Friends, Annie Petrie, Jeanette, me and more) in New York City.
• Sat. 9/21 - Celebrate Poetry & Prose (feat. John Greiner, Jeanette and me) in Oceanside, New York.
• Sun. 9/22 - Poetry Street with John Burroughs and Jeanette Powers in Riverhead, New York.

Then we'll drive back to Cleveland, Jeanette will fly home, and at the end of the month I'll drive east again to read with U.S. Beat Poet Laureate Paul Richmond and others on 9/28 and 9/29 at the Word Stage at Garlic & Arts Festival in Orange, Massachusetts.

And if that wasn't enough, in October, I'll be heading to Maryland, Kansas City and North Carolina, among other places.

2019 National Beat Poetry Festival - 8/30 thru 9/1 in Connecticut

*Copied from the National Beat & International Beat Poetry Festival Bulletin Board*

The National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. will host their annual 3 day, National Beat Poetry Festival, one of the largest gatherings in the US, of Beat Poets from the US and worldwide.

Master of Ceremonies: Darlene Fernandez.

Locations & Times:

Friday, August 30, 2019, Noelke Gallery, 15 Water Street, Torrington, CT, starting at 7:00pm. Readings and spoken word. Music by Podunk Throwbacks. Plus an open mic.

Saturday August 31, 2019, The Licia & Mason Beekley Community Library, 10 Center Street, New Hartford, CT, 2:00pm-6:00pm. Ten new Beat Poets Laureate will be named and honored at a special awards ceremony for their dedication and contributions to their respective communities for their love of writing, poetry, spoken word and the arts.
Music by Tony Vacca. Plus an open mic.

Sunday September 1, 2019, Farm River Cafe, 526 Main Street, New Hartford, CT from 2:00pm to 5:00. Readings, spoken word, and musicians should plan on coming to share their talents. Plus an open mic.

All aficionados of Poetry, Music, & the Arts are cordially invited to attend this cultural enriching three day event.

Books and merchandise from many different artists will be available for purchase all three days and at all three event venues.

Poets will be reading their poetry all three days from our newest poetry anthology called, We Are Beat from Local Gems Press [pre-order here].

This years award recipients are:

Paul Richmond: National Beat Poet Laureate USA (2019-2020)

Donna Anne Allard - International Beat Poet Laureate, Canada (2019-2020)

Dr. Chryssa Velissariou: Greece Beat Poet Laureate - (2019-Lifetime) from Larisa, Greece

John Burroughs - State of Ohio Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

BLW (Babs) McGrory - State of Delaware Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

Ron Whitehead - State of Kentucky Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

Richard Wayne Horton - State of Massachusetts Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

William David Sovern - State of Indiana Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

Kate Lamberg - State of New York, Long Island Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

Nordette N. Adams - State of Louisiana Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

I would like to express my gratitude to Debbie Tosun Kilday and Colin Haskins of the National Beat Poetry Foundation. You may contact them with any questions about this and/or future events at: NBPF15@GMAIL.COM.