17 Poets! Literary and Performance Series
Upcoming Events
SPRING SEASON 2013
All shows followed by an open mic.
Limited Sign up begins at 7:30 PM
Limited Sign up begins at 7:30 PM
Readings begin at 8pm, NOLA Time
May 16
Mel Coyle and Quo Vadis Gex Breaux and Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes
Mel Coyle is from Chicago and other places where the corn grows. She co-edits the journal TENDE RLOIN and curates ColdCuts, a fabulous reading series in New Orleans. Some say she looks like an elf. The chapbook OPERA TRANS OPERA written with Jenn Marie Nunes is now available through aliceblue.
Quo Vadis Gex Breaux has published poetry, essays and creative non-fiction in a number of anthologies. She is the Executive Director of the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal where she works with volunteers dedicated to recovering New Orleans. She and her husband live in New Orleans. They have four sons.
Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes is a mother, wife, daughter, educator, event producer, spoken word artist, and community servant. Rooted in the cultural soil of New Orleans and watered by the writings of her literary idols, Asali has grown to bask in the sun of her literary heritage—from the sages who transformed Pharaoh to God in Ancient Kemet, to the spy boys who chant the way clear for the big chiefs on Mardi Gras day. She has presented her brand of “activist poetry” on stages
Mel Coyle and Quo Vadis Gex Breaux and Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes
Mel Coyle is from Chicago and other places where the corn grows. She co-edits the journal TENDE RLOIN and curates ColdCuts, a fabulous reading series in New Orleans. Some say she looks like an elf. The chapbook OPERA TRANS OPERA written with Jenn Marie Nunes is now available through aliceblue.
Quo Vadis Gex Breaux has published poetry, essays and creative non-fiction in a number of anthologies. She is the Executive Director of the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal where she works with volunteers dedicated to recovering New Orleans. She and her husband live in New Orleans. They have four sons.
Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes is a mother, wife, daughter, educator, event producer, spoken word artist, and community servant. Rooted in the cultural soil of New Orleans and watered by the writings of her literary idols, Asali has grown to bask in the sun of her literary heritage—from the sages who transformed Pharaoh to God in Ancient Kemet, to the spy boys who chant the way clear for the big chiefs on Mardi Gras day. She has presented her brand of “activist poetry” on stages
and in classrooms across the country, and is a highly sought speaker on community development issues. In addition to authoring the Essence Empowerment Seminars, she coordinates the Congo Square African Marketplace, has taught spoken word, social justice, and service learning at Tulane University, and co-founded the Akoben Words-In-Action Festival and is Executive Producer of the Tremé 200 Festival, which celebrates the nation’s oldest African-American neighborhood. Her examination of post-Katrina roles in transforming the lives of women in the Gulf Coast is included in Swimming Upstream, the play she co-authored with a distinguished group of NOLA writers. She is creating her definitive work, To Each His Own, a collection of short stories exploring life and culture in Faubourg Tremé. Asali seeks opportunities to forward her mission of societal change through art and her vision of social justice for all humanity.
May 23
Megan Kaminski, Jonathan Brown and Book Signing for Jimmy Ross' new collection
Say What? from Lavender Ink
Megan Kaminski's first book of poetry is Desiring Map (Coconut Books 2012). She is also the author of six chapbooks, This Place (Dusie, 2013), Gemology (Little Red Leaves Textile Series, 2012), favored daughter (Dancing Girl Press, 2012), collection (Dusie, 2011), carry catastrophe (Grey Book Press, 2010), and Across Soft Ruins (Scantily Clad Press, 2009). She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas, where she directs the Creative Writing Exchange and the Undergraduate Reading Series and is the faculty sponsor for Siren, a national journal of undergraduate writing. She also curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence.
Jonathan Brown has an MA from the New College of California. He is currently working on his MFA in Poetry at University of New Orleans.
May 30
C. S. Carrier and A Scribe Called Quess
C. S. Carrier is the author of Mantle (H_NGM_N BKS, 2012) and After Dayton (Four Way Books, 2008). His chapbooks include Postcard Feat (Hinchas de Poesia, 2010), Lyric (horse less press, 2008), and The 16s (Katalanche Press, 2007). His poems have appeared in numerous journals including Horse Less Review, Indefinite Space, Little Red Leaves, and Upstairs at Duroc. He earned an MFA from the Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currently, he divides his time between Lafayette, where he is pursuing a PhD in English (with a concentration in creative writing) at the University of Louisiana, and Clarksville, AR, where he lives with his person Dawn Holder.
Michael “Quess?” Moore is a poet, educator, and an actor in that order. His writing and work with youth as a poet led him to the classroom where he most recently spent four years as an English teacher—3 as a middle school teacher at Martin Behrman Charter Elementary and one as a freshman teacher in NOCCA’s Academic Studio. He is a founding member of Team SNO (Slam New Orleans), New Orleans’ first slam poetry team since Katrina, and the only 2 time national championship team the city has ever produced. He’s also a member of VOIC’D (Voices Organized in Creative Dissent), a collective of actors with a focus on social justice, whose last production, “Lockdown,” received critical acclaim and sold out audiences several nights in a row. He has produced a self-titled CD, “A Scribe Called Quess?” and his debut book of poetry, Blind Visionz, can be found at www.lulu.com.
June 6
Brad Richard and Chris Tonelli and Megan Burns
Brad Richard's Motion Studies won the 2010 Washington Prize from The Word Works. He is also the author of the collection Habitations (Portals Press, New Orleans, 2000) and the limited edition chapbook The Men in the Dark (Lowlands Press, Stuttgart, Germany, 2004). He is a recipient of fellowships from the Surdna Foundation, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and poetry winner in the Poets & Writers' 2002 Writers Exchange competition, he is chair of creative writing at Lusher Charter High school in New Orleans.
Chris Tonelli is one of the founding editors of Birds, LLC, an independent poetry press. He also founded and curates the So and So Series and edits the So and So Magazine. He is the author of four chapbooks, most recently No Theater (Brave Men Press) and For People Who Like Gravity and Other People (Rope-A-Dope Press), and his first full-length collection is The Trees Around (Birds, LLC). New work can be found in or is forthcoming from jubilat, Fou, La Fovea, and Leveler. He works at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he lives with his wife, Allison, and their two kids, Miles and Vera.
May 23
Megan Kaminski, Jonathan Brown and Book Signing for Jimmy Ross' new collection
Say What? from Lavender Ink
Megan Kaminski's first book of poetry is Desiring Map (Coconut Books 2012). She is also the author of six chapbooks, This Place (Dusie, 2013), Gemology (Little Red Leaves Textile Series, 2012), favored daughter (Dancing Girl Press, 2012), collection (Dusie, 2011), carry catastrophe (Grey Book Press, 2010), and Across Soft Ruins (Scantily Clad Press, 2009). She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas, where she directs the Creative Writing Exchange and the Undergraduate Reading Series and is the faculty sponsor for Siren, a national journal of undergraduate writing. She also curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence.
Jonathan Brown has an MA from the New College of California. He is currently working on his MFA in Poetry at University of New Orleans.
May 30
C. S. Carrier and A Scribe Called Quess
C. S. Carrier is the author of Mantle (H_NGM_N BKS, 2012) and After Dayton (Four Way Books, 2008). His chapbooks include Postcard Feat (Hinchas de Poesia, 2010), Lyric (horse less press, 2008), and The 16s (Katalanche Press, 2007). His poems have appeared in numerous journals including Horse Less Review, Indefinite Space, Little Red Leaves, and Upstairs at Duroc. He earned an MFA from the Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currently, he divides his time between Lafayette, where he is pursuing a PhD in English (with a concentration in creative writing) at the University of Louisiana, and Clarksville, AR, where he lives with his person Dawn Holder.
Michael “Quess?” Moore is a poet, educator, and an actor in that order. His writing and work with youth as a poet led him to the classroom where he most recently spent four years as an English teacher—3 as a middle school teacher at Martin Behrman Charter Elementary and one as a freshman teacher in NOCCA’s Academic Studio. He is a founding member of Team SNO (Slam New Orleans), New Orleans’ first slam poetry team since Katrina, and the only 2 time national championship team the city has ever produced. He’s also a member of VOIC’D (Voices Organized in Creative Dissent), a collective of actors with a focus on social justice, whose last production, “Lockdown,” received critical acclaim and sold out audiences several nights in a row. He has produced a self-titled CD, “A Scribe Called Quess?” and his debut book of poetry, Blind Visionz, can be found at www.lulu.com.
June 6
Brad Richard and Chris Tonelli and Megan Burns
Brad Richard's Motion Studies won the 2010 Washington Prize from The Word Works. He is also the author of the collection Habitations (Portals Press, New Orleans, 2000) and the limited edition chapbook The Men in the Dark (Lowlands Press, Stuttgart, Germany, 2004). He is a recipient of fellowships from the Surdna Foundation, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and poetry winner in the Poets & Writers' 2002 Writers Exchange competition, he is chair of creative writing at Lusher Charter High school in New Orleans.
Chris Tonelli is one of the founding editors of Birds, LLC, an independent poetry press. He also founded and curates the So and So Series and edits the So and So Magazine. He is the author of four chapbooks, most recently No Theater (Brave Men Press) and For People Who Like Gravity and Other People (Rope-A-Dope Press), and his first full-length collection is The Trees Around (Birds, LLC). New work can be found in or is forthcoming from jubilat, Fou, La Fovea, and Leveler. He works at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he lives with his wife, Allison, and their two kids, Miles and Vera.
Megan Burns edits the poetry magazine, Solid Quarter (solidquarter.blogspot.com). She has two books Memorial + Sight Lines (2008) and Sound and Basin (2013) published by Lavender Ink. She has two recent chapbooks: irrational knowledge (Fell Swoop press, 2012) and a city/ bottle boned (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). Her chapbook Dollbaby is forthcoming from Horseless Press. Her 30 Days of Weezy project is annotated over at Rap Genius.
