Travel By Haiku – Los Angeles Release Party!

This Sunday, May 23rd at 4pm PCT (7pm EST), #TravelByHaiku is getting far out on the digital road. We’ll be teaming up with Tomorrow Today in Los Angeles for an online release party. You can tune in from anywhere in the world!

RSVP here: https://bit.ly/TBHpartyLA
You’ll have to RSVP to get the Zoom link. Tickets are FREE. You can also purchase a signed copy of the new book with your ticket.

The night will feature spoken word, music, live puppetry, dance, and video art performances by John Brantingham, Kendra Adler – Word As Movement, Phoenix (Jenna Love), Lance Robertson, Holly Zimbert, Erin White & Ethan Foote, Marian McLaughlin, Stephanie Beattie, Cameron Christopher Stuart, Augustus Depenbrock, and Rowan Vanskyver Killian

Don’t miss out on the adventure!

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8/23: Poets For Peace online zine release party!

AUGUST 23rd: at Poets For Peace Online Zine Release Party
LIVE on Zoom at 8pm EST
Join us on Sunday, August 23rd, 2020 at 8pm (EST) for an online release party for the Poets For Peace zines. There will be live readings performed by the poets and a community forum about the various mutual aid organizations that are necessary in our communities to keep this movement going.
performances by: Javan Howard, Lindo Yes, Kyky Renee Knight, Jay Morris, Elaina Valore, Jeremy M. Brownlowe, Julia Daye, Quentin The Poet, Marian McLaughlin, and Juan Camillo Garza
with music by Ludlow

FREE to watch. Purchase zines with your ticket.
[RSVP to receive the Zoom link]

Saturday, May 30th: Walt Whitman virtual reading at Artistry Above Ground Virtual Market

This Saturday, May 30th at 12pm, I’ll be performing a virtual reading of my favorite parts of Walt Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass for his 201st birthday, as part of Laurel Hill Cemetery’s #ArtistryAboveGroundMarket. I’ll also read from Joy Harjo’s An American Sunrise, a collection of poetry by our current poet laureate that offers an indigenous perspective on the American pastoral. This reading will be followed by a demo where I lead the audience through my writing process for spontaneous typewritten poetry.

Click here to RSVP and attend this virtual event on Zoom

As part of the virtual market, I’ll also be typing poetry on demand based on requests given in real time. Follow the link and sign up for a time to get a poem on any topic and support the other vendors at one of the coolest cemeteries in Philadelphia.

I think as a contemporary writer, it’s important to pay homage to the literary giants who drafted the modern canon before us. I think it’s also the task of every poet out there now to find ways to celebrate the writers who redraft and update this canon for the present moment. I’m excited to share these two narratives in celebration of one of Philly’s literary voices on his 201st trip around the sun. Hope to see you there!
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📸 by Alexa Lewis

Magic Manifestations – Stay Home, Stay Creative

For about two months now, Philadelphia has joined the world in quarantine. Out of the lockdown a whole world of collaboration has sprung. No distance is too much an obstacle for the power of the imagination.

It’s crazy to think I’ve been co-organizing in the #magicmanifestations livestreams for this long. In that time, I’ve had the privilege to share screen time with so many incredible writers, singers, dancers, illustrators, and fellow dreamers. Together we #manifestbyrequest an unending amount of dreams to be performed live for the entertainment of audiences based all around the world. Viewers give us a topic and we bring it to life in front of their eyes!

Did you miss the show? Well, you’re in luck! I decided it was high time to finally make a little montage of all the wild magic that we’ve created together.

Featured in the video are some of the folks based all around the country that I’ve created with. Go give them a follow! In order of appearance, they are: @drawingsbyrequest, @quentinthepoet, @movedtomove, @marianmclaughlin, @vianney.paul, @juliadayedot, and @lindoyes

The weather is getting nice out and it’s likely I’ll be stepping back from going live as often, in order to get out and enjoy it, but keep an eye out for more Magic Manifestations to come. In the meantime, you can continue to support the dream by requesting a poem or becoming a monthly patron.

POETS FOR PEACE, TOUR NO. 8: DAY 2 – RECAP

POETS FOR PEACE

Tour no. 8

Day 2 – Blacksburg, VA: recap

on the road with Marian McLaughlin (@marianmclaughlin) and Erin White (@movedtomove)

Morning ceremonies at the James River in Richmond. Reflecting on all the generations present at the reading the previous evening. Everyone from Erin’s parents and her father’s bandmates to the youthful presence of a 6 month old, wailing along to the Appalachian chords of his father playing the banjo.

We offer several marigolds to the James. A decree of peace to meet these tidal waters’ flow. Spring warmth at our shoulders. The future ahead of us.

The drive to Blacksburg is long, but gorgeous. Blue mountains. Green gables. Magenta redbud blossoms. Gradients of ecology expressing ecstasy. Virginia is for lovers.

The Hahn Horticultural Garden offers a backdrop of tulips and crocus. Coy pond trickling by. Lights and magic as the sun begins to fall behind the horizon line. There’s a report from the front lines of a movement stewarding the land in opposition to the Mountain Valley Pipeline. We hear the statistics of climate change. There are natural made scents passed around to go along with the poems. Poems about personal experience and bouts of sadness. About maintaining the sovereignty of the body. About a love so passionate it makes all the woes of modern society go away. The birds singing to the sun’s retreat. Collaborations between poets and nature.

At a certain point, the midsummer night’s dream is awaking. Marian McLaughlin providing the chorus. This is the type of place where magic is upon the eve. We like sprites glow purple and pink, as the moon rises above to light the scene.

Poets For Peace, tour no. 8: day 1 – recap

POETS FOR PEACE

Tour no. 8

Day 1 – Richmond, VA: recap

on the road with Marian McLaughlin (@marianmclaughlin) and Erin White (@movedtomove)

An ease of being settles upon the car as we leave the congestion of DC and enter the South. We write haikus into the car register, noticing the redbud tree blooms and the state mantra, Virginia Is For Lovers. Romance is on the horizon with the fabric of nature waking interweaving with the road.

Richmond is a green city with trees growing out of ruined mills and the James River flowing through providing relief for the 80 degree temperatures. Our host for the evening @earthfolkrva is a giant farm in the middle of a residential area of Southside. The residents are out working the land and already the land is rich with herbs and produce. We have several stages to choose from between an old farmhouse built in the late 1700s or the backdrop of a vintage camper. We decide to use the white facade of the garage for projections as the sun goes down.

Fellow Earth Folk arrive, and soon the night kicks off with a special charm. The White family is there and Erin’s father has brought his bluegrass band to set the mood for the get together. Appalachian lilts that set the spark to light the bonfire, as golden light reaches the trees from the sunset and all the birds above cry out from their roost sharing an excitement towards the evening’s warmth.

Erin and I perform haikus with accompanying movements and behind us a pack of Coydogs start to howl and wail their approval. This little patch of forest. Maintained by noble stewards. There is talk of the land and its original inhabitants. Meeting grounds between the Powhatan and Algonquin. The exchange is scored by Marian McLaughlin’s odes to the change we are seeing to the planet in our lifetime. Receding wilderness and extinction of species.

The open mic begins and in the voices I hear how synchronous it is the folks who have gathered here. True Earth Folk. Fellow Earth Lovers. Truth Seekers and Fairy Kin. Their words describe the experience to be one with nature. Wild Folk fearless before Late Stage Capitalism. The spirit they offer to the land is enough to save it for future generations.

4/9-4/13: Poets For Peace on tour in VA/DC/MD

Hey all,

The next Poets For Peace tour begins today in Richmond and will travel around Virginia before finishing out in Washington DC. I’ll be accompanied by singer-songwriter Marian McLaughlin, whose recent album speaks to the impacts of climate change and the experience of living during the Anthropocene extinction of the majority of species on this planet, and dancer, Erin White, who uses movement to bring attention to the oppressive forces placed on the femme form in our current society. We will be on tour all week and hope to see you at one of our stops!

Poets For Peace Tour with Marian McLaughlin & Erin White
APRIL 9: at Earth Folk Collective in Richmond, VA
with an open mic and community sharing
[RSVP on Facebook]

10: at Hahn Horticulture Garden in Blacksburg, VA
with Molly Zabeth Graham, Lauren Malhotra, Matt Dhillon, and Michael Giuseppi
[RSVP on Facebook]

11: DAY OFF in Charlottesville, VA

12: at 1605 Commune in Washington DC
[email me for details]

Poets For Peace is a collective movement of bringing hope and inspiration onto the road to combat the negative impacts of the Western war machine through dialogue and storytelling. This installment will be fronted by three performers: Marian McLaughlin, Erin White, and Marshall James Kavanaugh. Multi-instrumentalist Marian McLaughlin crafts lyrically-driven songs that stem from her stream-of-consciousness about humanity’s multifaceted relationship with our planet. With improvised movements, Erin White offers a grounded expression of the oppressive forces placed upon the femme form as it is forced to conform to roles outside its comfort. Together their poetic musings will direct the audience towards a sense of inner peace that will shine a beacon of light onto the darkness of the outer world.

upcoming solo performance:

APRIL 13: at The Holy Underground in Baltimore, MD
with Eva Aguila, Eric Barry Drasin, and New Age Video Aquarium
[RSVP on Facebook]

Winter Tour 2018 – Don’t Forget The Magic

 

Hey all, my tour kicks off today in Atlanta! I hope to see you out, somewhere along the East Coast. Ma Ja Ka has returned and is ready to share some light on the shadows. Don’t forget the magic! Shadow keep on, keepin’ on!

Ma Ja Ka – Poetry Tour, Winter 2018
DECEMBER 2018
4 – at The Bakery Atlanta in Atlanta, GA
6 – at Moon Lake Manor in Atlanta, GA
8 – at McDonalds in Athens, GA
8 – at The Mill in Athens, GA
9 – at Rainbow Cave in Savannah, GA
12 – at Whirligig Stage in Greeneville, NC
14 – at house show in Asheville, NC
15 – at Carriage House in Blacksburg, VA
18 – at Rhizome DC in Washington DC
19 – at The Crown in Baltimore, MD
20 – at The Random Tea Room & Curiosity Shop in Philadelphia, PA

Poets For Peace – on tour

POETS FOR PEACE
tour in August through the Southwest

Tomorrow, I will embark on the road again with Poets For Peace. It’s been nice to have the break to write for myself and catch up on other areas in my life, but with the increased aggression mounting in the Pacific from the United States war machine, I find myself drawn back into the endless peace walk I began with several other poets on the East Coast earlier this year.

This time I will be joined by wordsmiths Julia Daye and Anthony Carson both currently residing in Taos, NM. Last year, though sometimes it feels like much longer ago, we were on the road up to North Dakota in a caravan to Standing Rock. I think I can speak for all of us when I say our experiences there greatly changed our lives. It was there that we saw what America’s war machine looks like when it is turned against its own people. But it was also there that we discovered a great Peace manifesting in the people’s collective prayers, sharing traditions far older than this Western imperialism.

I’m excited to share the road with these great fellow Earth Protectors again. To share some light with our surrounding communities. To create dialogues of hope and progress. To channel peace and love. With this fire in our hearts we shall overcome.

Dates are below! Hope to see you out at one of our shows!

Poets For Peace Tour with Julia Daye and Anthony Carson

• 8/22 LIVE on 93.5FM KNCE
• 8/23 at Seventh Circle Music Collective in Denver, CO
• 8/24 at Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Cafe in Boulder, CO
• 8/25 at Ennui Gallery in Taos, NM

Dream Poet For Hire

Dream Poet For Hire services are open with a new season of abundance… I’ve been on the road for the last 2 months, heading from Philadelphia down to New Orleans and now out to New Mexico. I collected a lot of postcards and wrote a ton of haikus along the way. I’m stoked to share them with you.

Send an email to dreampoetforhire@gmail.com with your mailing address if you would like a personalized haiku sent to your mail box!