Heads up: On the afternoon of November 6th 2021 I will be at the Avon Lake Public Library for an in person Read Write Local event featuring lots of local authors. Stay tuned to this blog or check https://alpl.org/programs for more information on that.
I'm grateful to the fabulous Mabel Howard for this clip from yesterday's 100 Thousand Poets for Change event during Erie's Blues and Jazz Fest. It comes from my poem "I Hear Change," which I opened with. I also read "Dry Cast," "Random Rules" and "I Am Not Ready to Die."
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
