Performing at Erie's Blues and Jazz Fest on September 25th

I will have the privilege of performing from the same stage as several fantastic word artists this Saturday, September 25th, during the 100 Thousand Poets for Change event at Erie's Jazz and Blues Fest in Erie, Pennsylvania. This will be my first trip outside of Ohio in eighteen months.

The poetry will begin at 4:30 p.m. (Eastern) at the Frontier Park Amphitheater, hosted by Thasia Anne and featuring the following poets.

4:30 - Matt Borczon

4:39 - Sean Thomas Dougherty

4:47 - Barbara Crone

4:55 - Mabel Howard

5:03 - Kim Noyes

5:11 - John Burroughs

5:19 - Abdullah Washington

Then at 5:30 p.m. Erie County Poet Laureate Dr. Chuck Joy will host an open mic. We hope to see you there!

Frontier Park
1501 W. 6th Street
Erie, Pennsylvania 16505

Join us for Poetry in the Park, Cleveland Heights, 9/10/2021

I will have the pleasure of reading with some fine poets on Friday September 10th at 5:30 p.m. Eastern at Harvey Pekar Park, near the corner of Coventry Road and Euclid Heights Boulevard in Cleveland Heights. This is an outdoor event. The authors' books will available for sale right down the street at Mac's Backs Books on Coventry. Hope to see you there! For more info and to RSVP, click the image.

Lineup:

Cat  Russell
John Burroughs
Doc Janning
Sara Minges (all the way from Nashville, TN)
Shelley Chernin
Barbara Marie Minney

Broadsides & Ephemera Open Mic to Feature John Burroughs 9/9/2021

This Thursday, September 9th at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, I'll have the honor of being the featured poet for Loganberry Books' Broadsides and Ephemera reading series. This was going to be my first full live and in-person reading in over a year and a half. But understandably, "due to concerns over the Delta variant and rising rates of Covid," the bookstore has decided to move upcoming events to Zoom. The good news is now you can easily attend online even if you live nowhere near Cleveland. So I hope you will. And please share something during the open mic portion of the event as well. Totally free show.

RSVP on Facebook.

Click here to join us!
Zoom ID: 664 283 9349
Password: weluvotis

https://store.loganberrybooks.com/welcome-loganberry-books

 

Videos from this Year's National & International Beat Poetry Festival

As mentioned in a previous post, I had the honor of participating in the 2021 National and International Beat Poetry Festival this past weekend. There were two components to the festival this year: live in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, and online via Zoom. Because I was in the Hocking Hills on Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday for my daughter's wedding, I sent in a short video to the festival organizers ahead of time and then was unexpectedly able to join in a live Zoom as well.

Because I was so distracted with so many good things, I totally spaced out and ended up reading the same poem ("Way Erred Scenes inside a Jazz Mine") both times. That was not my intent!  Oops - It looks like I read two different poems ("Alarm Blocks" and "Way Erred Scenes inside a Jazz Mine") after all. Apparently my brain still hasn't recovered from the weekend (or I need 20 more hours of sleep). Here are the video links:

Day one: https://youtu.be/-z5mlj4YEZ4

Day two: https://youtu.be/CQY3wgD_2lc

Coincidentally, on both days I appear shortly after the one hour and nine minute mark.

Many thanks to online host Chryssa Velissariou, to National Beat Poetry Foundation CEO Debbie Tosun Kilday to and everyone else who helped out and/or participated in this year's festivities. Hopefully I'll be able to attend in person in 2022.

http://nationalbeatpoetryfoundation.org/

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.

"John Burroughs: Poetry of Percussion" on Poetry Spotlight

I am honored to appear on this week's episode of Poetry Spotlight, a podcast hosted by Jeremy Jusek for the Ohio Poetry Association. I was exhausted from moving when we talked, but we still had a good conversation. I also read two poems.

More info: https://sites.google.com/a/ohiopoetryassn.com/the-ohio-poetry-association/podcast

http://ohiopoetry.org
https://www.facebook.com/ohiopoetry
Twitter: @ohiopoetry

Crisis Chronicles Press reissues Matilda's Battle Waltz by Tracie Morell as a free e-book

In 2015, Crisis Chronicles Press had the honor of publishing poet Tracie Morell's Matilda's Battle Waltz (CC#70) in paperback. For some time recently, it has been sold out and unavailable. But now, at the author's request, we are happy to re-release this marvelous series of poems (with illustrations by Kris Risto) as a free e-book. Read Matilda's Battle Waltz on Issuu or email jc@crisischronicles.com for a pdf copy.

“Tracie Morell’s work exhibits a lyrical acuity which illuminates and devastates. She leads us on a harrowing and electrifying journey through the life of Matilda, a being who dances on the brink of existence between what is marginalized and what has risen above to live in rarified air. Morell has no fear; our eyes blaze and dilate with Matilda, as we bear witness to our collective ruin. Morell’s poems celebrate the connections between the interior and exterior world and in doing so, take us closer to both.”
     —Kelly Boyker, Poetry Editor at Menacing Hedge

August 17: Avon Lake Public Library presents Read/Write/Local: Unbound featuring John Burroughs with special guests Doc Janning and Shelley Chernin

I very much enjoyed reading for and facilitating the Bronx Book Fair's "Literary Jam Sessions Part II" via Zoom yesterday afternoon. That was my first event since April.

You won't have to wait so long for my next one, for the Read/Write/Local: Unbound series, which will happen August 17th at 7 p.m., hosted by the Avon Lake Public Library online. I will be joined in reading and conversation by two outstanding local poets: Shelley Chernin (author of The Vigil) and Doc Janning (Poet Laureate of South Euclid). Hope to see you there!

For more info, click here.
RSVP on Facebook.
Zoom link.

2021 Bronx Book Fair

The annual Bronx Book Fair is happening virtually again this weekend (July 30th and 31st) and I'm thrilled to be part of it as a reader and facilitator, alongside some remarkable authors including fellow Beat Poets Laureate George Wallace, William F. DeVault and Carlo Parcelli. For more information on all the Fair's happenings, follow their Facebook page. The session I'm facilitating will happen on Saturday the 31st and is the second of two Literary Jam Sessions that will begin at 5 p.m Eastern. Tune in on Zoom.

Mourning Mom and Leda

Today, May 5th, is the eight anniversary of Mom's death and I am still reeling from my dog Leda's passing two days ago. Here they are together on April 7th 2008 in my music room in Elyria when Leda was just a puppy. I can't help but recall what Patricia Kennealy said to Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's film The Doors: "Death does not part, only lack of love." And there is no lack whatsoever.