HART ROCK Poetry Series and Open Mic will present a reading and Open-Mike on the fourth Friday of each month at 7:00pm unless otherwise announced. The event is FREE and OPEN to the Public - Come Eat Drink, Listen, Enjoy! The series is produced and hosted by Patricia C. Coleman and Peggy Squires. Patricia and Peggy are members of 5 Women Poets andPatricia is also a member of the Bloomington Storytellers Guild and has been presenting, producing and hosting poetry and multi media presentations for more than a decade. Before the move to Rachael's Cafe, this series was preciously offered as the Runcible Spoon Poetry Series, produced and hosted by Patricia for more than five years until the move to Rachael's Cafe.

Margaret Squires became co-host and producer of the HART ROCK Poetry Series and Open-mic in January of 2010.

For further information about the series and future readings contact Patricia.

Patricia C. Coleman, is available to support your presentation skills or to host your event. She brings over 15 years experience as a presenting poet, storyteller, host and reader presenting in coffeehouses, libraries, theaters, on college campuses, in worship services, including reading in service with the Dahlia Lama.

She is co-host and producer of Hart Rock Poetry Series and Open-mic and previously hosted and produced the Runcible Spoon Poetry Series for over five years before the programs move to Rachael's Cafe where she now co-host with Peggy Squires. Email her to set up an appointment.

Quilter's Comfort
Teas now being served at the Runcible Spoon, Max's , Rachael's Cafe, ROOTS on the Square, and the Players Pub where it is the official local tea! Stop in, relax and enjoy one of QCT teas - Patricia's Delicious Original Blend, Cold Thyme, I LOVE Me, Owl and Pussy Cat's Berry Green, Players Pub Bluesy Green, All Ears or Orange Earl Green! Available for purchase at Bloomingfoods Downtown and East Side.Players Pub and by appointment in the Reiki Wellness office in Bloomington, Indiana!

Lemonstone is a Reading Series presented by the Writers Guild presents visiting poet Christine Rhein and classical guitarist Maja Radovanlija 7-8:30 p.m. April 29 at Sweet Claire Gourmet Bakery, 309 E. Third St.

10 p.m. Fridays, Poetry Revival, a weekly performance event for writers, readers, musicians and more at the Michael Lindsay Studio, 110 E. Sixth St.

The Writers Guild is part of the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington. Learn more online at www.bloomingtonarts.org.

He has been featured at several venues for performances and discussions including The Americana Music Series, Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC), Indiana State University, a P.I.E. (Partners In Education) class, W.R.A.P.S. (Writers, Readers, and Poets Society) Conference, The Grey Box Theatre at Central Middle School, a live variety radio show on WFHB, The Red Room at The Bartholomew County Public Library, and a Theatre and Humanities class sponsored by New Leaf-New Life at the Monroe County Correctional Center. He is positive that poetry is an inspiring vehicle to bring communities and even planets closer together.

Matthew lives in Columbus, Indiana where he is known as a hair guru, son, husband, father, brother, friend, dog owner, streaker, tea drinker and vegetarian who sometimes craves steak. Minding My Chaos, his first collection of poetry, is available now.

Barb Schwegman has been a local educator in Bloomington since 1990. She has been writing and reading her writing since 1987. This reading is dedicated to the many friends she has been blessed with throughout her life.

"New Beginnings - Emerging from the Dark" with Eric Rensberger and Jenny Kander

Eric Rensberger has lived in Bloomington since 1979. He was already writing poetry when he moved to town, and he has found Bloomington to be a very nurturing place for his writing. He hopes to continue exploring what a poem can say. Writing poetry is fun for him. His collected works, including previously-published chapbooks, can be found at www.ericrensbergerpoetry.net.

Jenny Kander - Bloomington resident for the past eighteen years, is quite sure that in the Beginning, the Word was Poem. Taboo, her first chapbook, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2004. In 2010 Pudding House Press published her 2nd chapbook, The Altering Air. Her dysfunctional family is comprised of 3 interesting cats, Dora, Eli and Miles Joseph.

Christopher Gudal was born here in Bloomington and is a graduate of Indiana University. I draw a lot of my inspiration for my poems from both the classics and a great deal of modern beat poetry. I generally find a great deal of art, specifically poetry as an incredible way to express myself, and think that everyone could use a little poetic expression in their life.

Virginia F. Thomas was born in Southern Indiana and spent her childhood running feral in the woods around her parents' house. In 2009, she graduated from IU with a BS in Mad Science, but immediately found that constructing a sinister laboratory would cost serious dough and has since been pursuing her career as a writer. She is especially fond of getting lost, making art, and throwing back the occasional hoppy beer.

Joel Barker was born 1985 in Indianapolis, raised in Bloomington by the Barker family as Joel Jacob, and graduated with a Bachelor's from Indiana University on December 19, 2009. Love has mainly come to J. Jacob through infatuation, the main fuel of his earlier work. He has found both his work and love are equally complex. Even though his artistic interests are numerous-painting, digital video/animation, music, performance-his focus is on a career in poetry; to support this, he currently holds a part-time position as a cashier.

Amanda Wrigley can often be found hunched over a napkin scribbling poetry at one of her favorite Bloomington restaurants, and thinks that napkin poetry excels anything written carefully in journals at home. When not writing, she's most likely to be out riding one of her horses or taking the dogs for a walk on Rails to Trails.

"Poetry Celebration" with Filiz Cicek and Bronislava Volková

Filiz Cicek is a Turkish-Georgian-born American visual and performance artist and scholar-journalist. Her work has been exhibited in major galleries and museums in Istanbul, New York, California, Chicago, and the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. She serves as a regional coordinator for The Feminist Art Project based in New York City. She teaches a Gender Sexuality and Popular Culture course at IU. Cicek's poetic aesthetics are informed and influenced by Rumi, Yunus Emre, Pir Sultan Abdal, Nazim Hikmet, Pablo Neruda, Margaret Atwood, Sylvia Plath among others, as well as the singer song writers, ballads, story tellers and poets within her family. Cicek uses poetry as a creative outlet at times to celebrate the joys and perils of life.

Bronislava Volková (Professor Emerita of Slavic Languages and Literatures and former Director of the Czech Program at IU) is an exile poet and scholar from Czechoslovakia residing currently in Bloomington, IN. She has published ten books of existential and metaphysical poetry in Czech and English, two books on linguistic and literary semiotics, and most recently Up The Devil's Back: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Czech Poetry (with Clarice Cloutier, 2008) and And Drink We Will from Delectable Wells… (2011, with its Czech version preceding in 2010). Her poetry has been widely reviewed and translated into various languages. She has also written on a wide variety of topics, such as Czech poetry, Czech popular culture, issues of exile, gender, race, nationalism, prejudice and emotive signs. Since 2000, she is also active as a visual artist and a director of multimedia performances of poetry. In 2009, she has received an "award for significant contribution to culture and scholarship" from the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in Prague. More information is available at bronislavavolkova.com

"Women's Words" with Women Writing for a Change - honoring the Creative Aging Initiative of Bloomington, Indiana's Commission on Aging which "Challenges the community to shwocase the talents and skills of both established and first-time older artist and performers; cultivate intergerational understanding through dialogue, sharing, traditions and storytelling; enhance awareness about the value of creative engagement to adult health and well being during May which is considered Older American's Month.

Veda Stanfield has been around for so long that she knows many strange things and she continues to find out more odd stuff all the time. She is a self-taught painter, dreamer, gardener, urban chicken keeper, mother and grandmother. She writes to amuse herself and to help herself see what is going on in her very own life. She is grateful for the support of everyone involved with WWf(a)C for listening and always presuming good will.

Mitch Aurich hails from NJ, where she started out upstairs in her great-grandma's house overlooking RR yards in an urban, immigrant neighborhood. Throughout the sometimes wild - and occasionally scary journey since, artistic pursuits, including those in Nature, have saved sanity and soul on a regular basis!

Rebekah Spivey has been happily living in the Bloomington Community since 1965. But she has found a home with Women Writing for a Change. She writes poetry, short stories and is working on a couple of novels. I was told that writers usually mention cats. So there, that's done.
Nancy Long has been a member of the WWf(a)C community for over five years. She is madly in love…With people and poetry!

Deborah Hutchison lives with her husband in a log cabin in the woods of Brown County, and divides her time among writing, immersion in nature, musical performance, and the practice of spiritual direction. When she was a child, she believed everything was alive. Nothing yet has convinced her otherwise.

Glenda Breeden - another longtime member of Women Writing for a Change - writes songs, poems, and stories in the woods, in the middle of her steering wheel, in her dreams, the bathtub, and almost everywhere. She's a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, friend, all those wonderful things that often come with being a woman. She is in her 7th decade of life and loving it.

The format has remained the same. A member reads a recent work, the others mull it over, and then there is time for written and oral critiques. So the process goes—around the table until all have had their turn. From the beginning coffee, tea, and cookies have been a necessary part of the ritual. Meetings happen every two weeks or so. Until 2006 we took summers off but now meet year-round.

Since the group’s founding, three others have joined the circle. Judy, Lee, and Suzanne were met during poetry classes at the Waldron. There have been some leaves of absence from our circle—getting married, finishing and publishing a novel, spending winters in Florida, occasional unavoidable obligations of earning a living, assorted grand tours, etc.—but none have been permanent. We’re grateful for that.

Lee James Chapman wrote his first, terrible, poems at age 15 but spent most of his life energy helping physicists smash atoms at Fermilab. Between quarks he wrote songs and poems and set poems of Emily Dickinson to music. While a member of the Naperville Writer’s Group in Illinois he had several poems published. He set a collection of Bloomington poets’ poems, including some of his own, for voice and piano, and produced a performance of them in Bloomington. He has been a member of the Free-Range Poets since 2005.

Jack King is a New Yorker by birth—a Hoosier by choice. He moved to Bloomington with his wife Sylvia and their three children in 1974 to take a position with the now defunct Center for University Ministry at Indiana University. While in town he has practiced—and retired from—at least three distinct careers. Through all three he wrote—lectures, a thesis or two, sermons, résumés, funding proposals, newsletters, etc. Now he writes poetry as a means of self expression, exploration, and spiritual discipline. The third retirement seems to be final.

Judy Lafferty Beerman, A native of Kansas, Judy moved to the Bloomington area in the late 1980’s. A retired Interior Designer for Residential Programs and Services, Indiana University, her experiences as a wife and mother and her appreciation of nature and the out-of-doors are strong influences on her poetry. Judy has been a member of the Free Range Poetry Group since 2002.

Jerry Smith and wife Betty, having lived in Bloomington for forty years, now call it home. Jerry “wakes to sleep and takes his waking slow.” He’s too old to try a new art form and too young to stop writing. He has 100 favorite poets and 1000 favorite poems. Don’t ask for the list. It’s not compiled and constantly changes. He tries to read 50 poems for each one written but seldom succeeds. Betty is his most helpful critic and daughter Linda and son Paul, his most prized accomplishments (with Betty). He has been writing poetry seriously, though not without humor, since 1996. His poems have been published in several magazines and anthologies.

Suzanne Sturgeon lives on a farm in Owen County with her husband, Michael Tracy, and three cats, Lancelot, Murphy, and Bear. Michael and the cats are instrumental in the poetry writing process—from inspiration to revisions. She began writing poetry by taking classes at the John Waldron Art Center, where she met members of the Free-Range Poets. An attorney in private practice in Bloomington, Indiana, her Monday-through-Friday writing consists of motions, wills, and trusts.

Bob Taylor, In the 70’s, I wanted to record memories from childhood on a small Iowa farm and thought that poetry could be a way to proceed. Upon taking them to a knowledgeable poet he noted that there was a child in there but probably they were not poems. Haiku and tanka style offered some improvement, along with graduate courses and workshops. As a student and professor of psychology, I find the power of story with dense structure, image, and metaphor useful and healthy for me. Honing skills with this writing group is most gratifying.

Ian Woollen, walks his dog in Bryan Park almost every day. Poems have surfaced in Zone 3, Porcupine, and Red Dancefloor. His short stories have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Onthebus, and The Mid-American Review, from which he received a Sherwood Anderson Prize. His novel, Stakeout on Millennium Drive, won the 2006 'Best Books of Indiana' Fiction Award.

WINTER OPEN-MIC - Introducing new co-host and producers, Margaret Squires

Poetry Month Celebration! with with Peter Bethanis and Patricia C. Coleman

Peter Bethanis's poems have appeared in over fifty literary journals including Poetry, Tar River Poetry, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Lullwater Review, Country Journal, and Cape Rock Review among others. In 1995 he was selected by James Dickey as winner of the Eve of St. Agnes Poetry Prize sponsored by Negative Capability. He has been twice selected by Joseph Parisi as a featured poet on Poetry Magazine's website, and has been a finalist in the National Poetry Series, The Robert Frost Poetry Prize, and the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. He is the author of two books, "Dada and Surrealism for Beginners" from Random House, and a collection of poems, "American Future," from Entasis Press. American future has been reviewed in several literary journals including Rattle. Peter earned his MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and has been teaching for twenty years. He is currently a professor in the writing program at Ball State University where he has taught for over a decade.

Patricia C. Coleman is a member of 5 Women Poets and became involved in storytelling through the Bloomington Storytellers Guild more than 15 years ago. Her poems have appeared in a few literary journals and books including Sketchbook, Matrix Mag, Linen Weave of Bloomington Poets and the Green Dove Peace Poetry Gallery. She has been involved in a variety of poetry, book and multi-media projects.

"Mother Words" with Julia Dadds and Frida Westford

Julia Dadds Julia Heimer Dadds never knows what's going to happen next but she can usually count on poetry. A resident of Bloomington long enough to remember Rapps Pizza and The Two Bit Rush, she sometimes organizes efforts around justice, schooling and families. She aims to abbreviate Piled Higher and Deeper to PhD sometimes soon. Most days boil down to mothering, gardening, and contemplating emptiness.

(She says to take what we like of that and leave the rest, and then adds:) If you need official type stuff: Board member at CJAM, YSB, involved at UU Church, Tibetan study, Used to direct Head Start, teaching as an AI at IU, PhD in Curriculum Studies. Sometimes works for Option 6.

Frida Westford is a longtime Bloomington resident. She enjoys writing formal poetry, particularly medieval forms, though she also writes free verse. "Immigration Rap" has recently appeared in the March-April 2010 issue of Star*Line, the magazine of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Other poems have appeared in publications such as Byline, Friends Journal (a Quaker publication), The Black Lily and The Wheel. Some of her poems are inspired by two cats for whom she and her husband, John Daschke, are "staff."

She also writes short fantasy fiction. She currently co-leads the South Central Indiana Fiction Interface, a writers' critique group focused on the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres.
Open-mic follows the featured presenters with readers having up to three minutes to share their own, or another's works.

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BEGINNINGS - LOTUS with Nancy Pulley and Jade Sylvan

Nancy Pulley's new chapbook Dream Puzzle was published this spring by Art in the Heartland Publishing. Nancy is a graduate of Indiana Central College-now the University of Indianapolis. A previous chapbook, Tremolo of Light, was the winner of the 2nd Indiana Poetry Chapbook Contest sponsored by the Writer's Center of Indiana. Her poems have appeared in The Flying Island, Arts Indiana Literary Supplement, Passages North, Plainsong, The Sycamore Review, the Humpback Barn Collection and A Linen Weave of Themes, a collection of poetry on tape, as well as other journals and publications. For information, go to www.nancypulley.com.

Writer and performer Jade Sylvan sows new ground in contemporary poetry with The Spark Singer. Incorporating performance, philosophy, sensationalism, tradition, science, religion, and internet meta-culture, Sylvan pulls verse into the future with proven mastery of a vast range of poetic forms. Her evocative images, economical and precise diction, and fresh uncompromising point of view are the driving force behind her extraordinary momentum. Sylvan succeeds in breaking through the current pigeonholes of slam and academic writing. The result is a strikingly new voice.

Sylvan, a self confessed geek, was born of a family of scientists. She spent her adult education studying world religion, esoteric mysticism, the occult, sustainable design, and rock & roll history. After college, she traveled extensively, becoming acquainted with most of the best bars in the Western World and learning how to pour a proper glass of absinthe in both the French and Bohemian styles. She settled in Boston in 2007 and in a short time made a powerful splash in the independent literary community. Her work has been widely published online and she has performed across the country alongside such poetry icons as Regie Gibson and Jack McCarthy.

Spuyten Duyvil is one of New York City's most ambitious independent publishing houses. Recent critically-acclaimed works include Nona Casper's Little Book of Days, Tsipi Keller's Jackpot, and Robert Creeley's Day Book of a Virtual Poet. For more information, contact Spuyten Duyvil at prod.dept@spuytenduyvil.net or 718-398-9067.

Here's what people are saying about Sylvan's poetry:
Jade Sylvan's poems are ornaments to holidays that don't exist yet. Something with candles. Our first instinct is to treat them with extreme care, but not out of fragility, just the understanding that the sacred has occurred. Magic. Too much of the world fit into this small ritual. - Brian Ellis, author of Uncontrolled Experiments in Freedom.

Jade Sylvan transcribes our strangers and familiar scripts to the page without the fear of romanticizing the bottle in the artist's hand, the kid slumming in expensive shoes, the husk of smoke rubbed voices. She then casts them alongside literary and mythological icons, not flinching as she offers the notion that we often do not learn from history. In a time when many writers are attempting to bow down to the reader or listener, Jade's work is unapologetic without being violent or cruel. - James Caroline, author of Neon Hospital
Fine, fine poetry, both in craft and performance. - Ryk McIntyre

The flood of passion that generated these poems saturates every sandbag piled up to hem it in. - Tom Daley, Online School of Poetry

David Keppel is a writer and activist living in Bloomington.

Salih Altoma is a poet and has been a professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures at Indiana University since 1964.

Kadhim Shaaban was born in Bagdad, Iraq. He came to Indiana University in 1965. He is interested in poetry and related issues of metaphoric and rhetorical language.

Patricia C. Coleman is a member of 5 Women Poets and the Bloomington Storytellers Guild. She makes art, practices Reiki and is a peace, wellness and community activist.

Julia Heimer Dadds writes poetry because it tells her to. She loves her 3 boys, husband, parents, maaaarvelous many friends because they are SO deep and wonderful. She's wrapping up a gradual degree in Education and working very part time for Community Justice and Mediation as Development Coordinator because she loves doing these. She's accepting suggestions for the next right things to do….

Bill and Glenda Breeden, members of this community since the mid-80's, have been celebrating Valentines Day together as best friends and lovers for more than forty years. Teenage sweethearts, young parents, middle-aged grandparents, Glenda and Bill believe whole heartedly in the work and play of long term relationships, and hope to laugh, cry, and sing together for another forty years.

Paul Swanson came to Indiana six years ago to work on a farm in Paoli, fell in
love with Bloomington and has been living here since. He works as both
teacher and International Student Coordinator at Harmony School, and
teaches courses including critical thinking, cultural arts, history,
language, and music. Outside of teaching, Paul spends his time playing
guitar and bass, training martial arts, and telling stories. He is
currently on a campaign to convince the world that stories are more than
simple diversions; the stories that we tell about ourselves and the world
are at the heart of our struggle to find meaning out of life.

Women's Words - Women's Voices with Barb Schwegman, Amanda Wrigley and Silja Weber. Join us for a diverse palate of womens voices through poetry, storytelling and more ? in honor of Women's History Month.

Barb Schwegman has lived in Bloomington since 1980. She is a local school teacher wanting to do more writing, and more public reading. Barb mostly writes about family relationships.

Silja Weber - I grew up in Germany and moved to the USA in 2000. I have a 7 year old daughter who continually keeps me on my toes, concerning correct English and everything else. My original job was to have been high school teaching, but coming here, I fell in love with American Sign Language and went back to school to become an interpreter. Language in any shape and guise is fascinating to me. I have used written language as catalyst and therapy since I was 13, but am still wary of calling the end product 'poetry'. Another lifelong companion is music, and I have a keen interest in the environment (including all those diverse humans), natural building, and what is maybe best called creative inconsistency.

Amanda Wrigley writes poetry the way some people keep a journal, compulsively and often daily. Any experience or phrase that fires her imagination goes right to paper, often only as a fragment of thought- and sometimes, later, those fragments become a poem. She works at IU, has completed graduate seminary work, and plans to work on an MFA in poetry starting next year. She breeds and trains horses, loves to garden when she gets the chance, and has a penchant for finding and rescuing stray animals in her spare time.

For OUR Earth - POETS SPEAK - this month join us as we celebrate poetry and honor our earth! Program with Storyteller Brandi Hartman, Musician Alex Voiles from Harmony School, and Poets from South High School: Matthew Bower, Jessica Hewitt, Ariel Walden, Miriam Kerler, Levi Rogers and Miranda Stinson.

Brandi Hartman is a member of the Bloomington Storytellers Guild. Folktales from around the world, especially those featuring "wise women", are a large part of her repertoire. She has often told at "Wintertelling" in the Monroe County Public Library, the Bloomington Senior Center, and been a guest in the Runcible Spoon Poetry Series. This program features the fold tale "How the Oceans Began"

Alex Voiles is a student at Harmony School and will share with us a gift of music.

Matthew Bower is the name that I was given by my mother and father on June 20th of 1990. I am the sibling to my older brother Mark, my older sister Michelle, and my younger brother Michael. We have lived in Bloomington all of our lives, but eventually I plan to see what else is out there and take the opportunity to travel some day. I enjoy spending time outside and just relaxing with some good friends spending the time to the best of our abilities.

Jessica Hewitt is 18 years old and was born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana. She enjoys eating donut sticks and spending mindless hours on her i-pod and computer. She finds poetry to be a release of her inner thoughts. Writing has just recently become a constant in her everyday life, and she hopes it continues to be that way.

Ariel Walden; the name I was given and have always used, a sprite destined for freedom. Bloomington, Indiana; an adventure for the past sixteen years, the magical fairytale land I found when I was just a child. Colorado; the land I will soon call home, deep in the greenery of the mountain. Writing; a natural feeling, the expression I have become accustomed to without second thought. The stars; where my mind may wander and dream to write of the endless beauty around.

Miriam Kerler is a sophomore at Bloomington High School South. I have a very supportive family; my brother, father, and mother all motivate me to achieve all I can and persevere with all that I set out to accomplish, whether this be academic, athletic, or as simple as my love for writing. Nature provides a great deal of inspiration for my writing as I love to spend time in the outdoors, either cycling, running, or simply walking around Bloomington's beautiful campus. I hope to pursue a career in journalism but to also continue writing poetry as a hobby.

Levi Rogers is a senior at Bloomington High School South. If you were trying to describe me in a nutshell, then I guess I would be the average Hoosier boy with some non-conventional characteristics. My father is a cutter at Indiana Limestone; he is also the president of the stone cutters' union, so I get to be around all of the politics and get taught the trade in the process. After commencement, I plan to attend the 2009 IU Groups Program and continue on at IU in the fall semester. Overall, Bloomington is my home; it has given me so many opportunities that just don't come about in other communities.

Miranda Stinson has been writing for six years, and last summer she attended the Iowa Young Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. She writes mainly fiction but lately has been experimenting with poetry and memoir. She is sixteen and a senior at Bloomington High School South. Next year she hopes to pursue a BFA in writing at the University of Evansville.