June 11, 2009

Join us for a dynamic evening of music and poetry with Michael C. Ford and friends: Jim Bertolino, Anita K. Boyle, singer-songwriter Michael Garner, Chris Jarmick, Jack McCarthy, and Joannie Stangeland. Come prepared to witness the extraordinary!

Starts at 6:00 p.m. (note early start time), until about 9:15 p.m. A short/limited open mic reading will follow the main program as time allows.

Note: This bonus reading is in addition to our regular reading series usually on the third Thursday of each month.

Michael C. Ford was born on the Illinois side of Lake Michigan. His debut spoken-word vinyl, Language Commando, earned a Grammy nomination in 1986. His book of selected poems, Emergency Exits, was honored by a 1998 Pulitzer Prize nomination. In the summer of 1969, Michael gave his first poetry recital in company with Jack Hirschman and Jim Morrison. Over the years, he’s appeared in spoken-word concerts with a plethora of talents—most notably Charles Bukowski, Timothy Leary, Michael McClure, Macdonald Carey, Wanda Coleman, Robert Kelly, Ray Manzarek, Julian Priester, Ann Stanford, Dave Alvin, Henry Rollins, Edward Field, Gerald Locklin, Jim Carroll, and Jello Biafra. His latest projects include The Demented Chauffeur & Other Mysteries (an inflammatory book of American vicissitudes of violence and a nation of alienation; this is the final number in a trilogy that includes Nursery Rhyme Assassin and To Kiss the Blood Off Our Hands). He’s taught in middle schools and high schools through the PEN in the Classroom program and Big Read project, and also at many universities nationwide. He also recites at various venues, many times with musical accompaniment. Check him out with John Densmore, or here with Ray Manzarek.

James Bertolino is a widely published poet and prose writer, and his work has appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, Notre Dame Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, Paris Review, and many other magazines. His poetry has been reprinted internationally in anthologies from India, Italy, Great Britain, and the United States, including Century: 100 Major Modern Poets, published in England. Nine volumes of his poetry have issued from such publishers as Copper Canyon Press, Carnegie Mellon University Press, and the Quarterly Review of Literature Award Series. Egress Studio Press released his Pocket Animals: 60 Poems in 2002. His new collection, Finding Water, Holding Stone, is from Cherry Grove Collections. Bertolino taught creative writing for more than thirty years and for 2005–2006 was writer-in-residence at Willamette University in Oregon. He has since retired to a farm outside Bellingham, Washington.

Anita K. Boyle’s poems have appeared in Indiana Review, StringTown, The Raven Chronicles, Spoon River Poetry Review, Crab Creek Review, Stories with Grace, Margin, and in the anthologies Red Sky Morning and Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Poetry Collaboration in America. She was a winner of Seattle’s 2004 Red Sky Poetry Theatre competition and, in 2003, had an Espy Foundation writer’s residency in Oysterville, Washington. Her books include Bamboo Equals Loon and, in collaboration with James Bertolino, Bar Exams and Pub Proceedings from Egress Studio Press.

Michael Garner says that “There is music in my family. My mother sang in the church choir, and her father played and taught a number of instruments. Listening to my brothers’ old 45s, I would memorize the words to all the songs, but never had early aspirations to play musical instruments. It was the words I was most interested in, and I was writing poetry in grade school that Sister Robert Mary said was “a little different” for a good Catholic boy. During the renaissance of music in the 60s and early 70s, I was most attracted to the softer folk music of Boston and Greenwich Village, but also enjoyed the likes of the Southern California bands and blues from the deep south. I didn’t get my first guitar until I was 17, and wrote my first song at maybe 18. College was a ‘study all day, play all night’ affair. I formed a duet with long-time friend Marc Mattix, and we hit the bars and coffee houses. (Eventually, Marc taught me piano and violin, but he won’t admit to it.) After college, I got a real job and had a family, and music played a lesser role, although I continued to write songs. As the kids got older, I rekindled my taste for performing and produced a live CD, Woodinville Tracks, Live at Unity of Woodinville. A studio CD is in the works (where have you heard that before?). And Marc and I have come full circle to play together from time to time.” Check out his performance of “Never Going Back to Georgia.”

Christopher J. Jarmick had his first poem published when he was 12 in a national magazine (the editor thought he was 16 at the time). Born on the East Coast, Chris spent two decades in Los Angeles writing screenplays under pseudonyms, working on Emmy-winning PBS documentaries, and producing for Hard Copy and Entertainment Tonight. He’s called Seattle his home since the mid-90s. He curates and hosts several Seattle-area poetry readings, coauthored the suspense thriller, The Glass Cocoon, serves as president of PEN-Washington, is former executive vice president of the Washington Poets Association. His spoken-word CD, Radio Pictures and Other Aural Anxieties: Poem Sets to Bake Bread By, featuring Michael C. Ford, is moments away from being available for your listening pleasure.

Jack McCarthy calls himself a “standup poetry guy.” He began writing and performing poetry while living in the Boston area, where he was a member of Boston’s 1996 National Poetry Slam team. He has competed in numerous slams, winning many. Now based in the Seattle area, he often performs at local venues and tours nationally. His publications include two chapbooks, Actual Grace Notes and Too Old to Make Excuses (But Still Young Enough to Make Love), and, in 2003, a critically acclaimed full-length collection, Say Goodnight, Grace Notes. He has also produced an hour-long cassette tape, Poems for Hannah, and a CD, Breaking Down Outside a Gas Station. Poet Stephen Dobyns has written: “Jack McCarthy is one of the wonders of contemporary poetry.” His website is www.standupoet.net. Check out his performances of “The Whole Chilupa,” “Getting Beat Up By Girls,” or “On Defining Poetry.”

Joannie Kervran Stangeland is the author of two poetry chapbooks, A Steady Longing for Flight (winner for the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award) and Weathered Steps (Rose Alley Press). Her poems have appeared in numerous publications—most recently Iota Poetry and Valparaiso Poetry Review. In 2003, she was a Jack Straw Productions artist-in- residence. And for those technical details, Joannie has started the video series “A Writer’s Guide to Microsoft Office,” which you can view at Microsoft Office Online.