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.

 

Home again (briefly) then off to Massachusetts this weekend!

What a wonderful mini-tour with Jeanette Powers! I can't thank our friends in Toledo, Cleveland, Connecticut, Woodstock, New York City and Long Island enough. I dropped Jeanette off at the airport a little while ago and am now feverishly working on catching up on hundreds of things that need done between now and Friday, when I'll drive nine hours back to New England to launch the next leg of my tour.

Saturday (9/28) at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday (9/29) at 1:30 p.m. I will have the privilege of performing at the 2019 North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival in Orange, Massachusetts, hosted by U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate Paul Richmond and Human Error Publishing.

Then on Friday, October 4th, Crisis Chronicles Press and I will head to Frostburg, Maryland for the Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival....

If I owe you a message, I promise I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Any books I still owe folks will go into the mail by tomorrow. I am so grateful for your kind wishes and support.

https://www.facebook.com/events/699906550468769/.

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.

My 2018 Climbing up the Neck of America Tour!

With my western poetry trip (which Dianne and I called our Stabbing into the Heart of America tour) and the Kleft Crisis festival and the Haiku Society of America's Spring Meeting behind me, I am preparing to head northeast for what I am now calling my Climbing up the Neck of America tour. But it begins this week in Cleveland.

8 May at 7 p.m. in Cleveland, Ohio 

Incite: A Poetic Conversation: Dianne Borensik + John Burroughs. RA Washington discusses poetry, small presses and more with Borsenik and Burroughs at Guide to Kulchur Books, 5222 Lorain Avenue, 44102. 

10 May at 7 p.m. in Cleveland, Ohio 

Broadsides & Ephemera w/ John Burroughs at Loganberry Books, 13015 Larchmere Boulevard, 44120. Includes open mic, hosted by Paul Ryland.

17 May at 7 p.m. in Portsmouth, New Hampshire 

Beat Night featuring John Burroughs, Jeff Stern and Stephen Haven at the Portsmouth Book and Bar, 40 Pleasant Street, 03801.

19 May at 2 p.m. in Clinton, Connecticut 

Len Fried, Alan Kleiman and John Burroughs will read at the Henry Carter Hull Library, 10 Killingworth Turnpike, 06413

20 May from 2 to 10 p.m. in Northford, Connecticut 

Sol’s Path Launch featuring Leslie McGrath, Terry Blackhawk and John Burroughs, hosted by Meg Harris at the Sol’s Path Writing Center, 1785 Middletown Avenue, 06472.

22 May at 7 p.m. in Portland, Maine 

Loss and Foundering By John Burroughs at Longfellow Books, 1 Monument Way, 04101.

24 May at 7 p.m. in Woonsocket, Rhode Island  

May Poetry Reading featuring John Burroughs plus open mic at Millrace, 40 South Main Street, 02895. [My appearance had to be canceled in favor of a funeral and will hopefully be rescheduled.]

26 May at 1:30 p.m. in Somerville, Massachusetts  

Stephen Haven, Gloria Mindock, and John Burroughs at Arts at the Armory, Červená Barva Press Studio, Basement, B8, 191 Highland Avenue, 02143.

1 June at 1 p.m. in Nyack, New York 

Write! hosted by Siwsan Gimprich at La Fontana, 95 S. Broadway, 10960.

1 June at 4:30 p.m. in Nyack, New York 

Write! hosted by River River at the Carson McCullers House, 131 S. Broadway, 10960.

2 June at 3:30 p.m. at 7 p.m. in New Hartford, Connecticut 

National Beat Poetry Festival featuring John Burroughs, Tchalla Williams, special guest William DeVault and musical guest George Porto, plus open mic at The The Licia & Mason Beekley Community Library, 10 Central Avenue, 06057.

3 June at 7 p.m. in Peekskill, New York 

John Burroughs and others will perform during the Bean Runner Open Mic presented by The Artist Collective at the BeanRunner Café, 201 S. Division Street, 10566.

4 June at 8 p.m. in Buffalo, New York  

Poets Storm Nietzsche’s featuring John Burroughs, Dianne Borsenik, Julio Montalvo Valentin and Jennifer Skelton at Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen Street, 14201.

And stay tuned for more. To see my full, ever-evolving 2018 poetry event schedule, please click here.