April 7, 2011, 6 pm First Thursday in BardFest 2011 features Lisa Alexander Baron and Bill Van Buskirk at the GoggleWorks Cucina Cafe

Join Berks Bards in welcoming local poets Lisa Alexander Baron and Bill Van Buskirk for a poetry reading at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading. An open microphone follows the couple's performance.

January 6, 2011 First Thursday Poetry Open Mic 6 to 8 pm Cucina Cafe at the GoggleWorks

Join us for FIRST THURSDAY POETRY at the GoggleWorks

Thursday, January 6, 2011

6:00 pm at the Cucina Cafe' (1st Floor)

Theme: Questions That Really Matter

Open Mic

This event is free and open to the public. Sponsored by Berks Bards, with support from a grant from the PA Partners in the Arts, funded annually by the PA State Legislature, and administered locally by the Berks Arts Council. Additional support from the Friends of the Berks County Libraries, and from members and friends of Berks Bards.


Questions That Really Matter

Do ladybugs dance? Do lightning bugs thunder?
Do crickets ever sneeze? Does a toad's mind wander?
Do owls ever smile? Do they tuck their ears under?
I wonder, I wonder, I wonder.

What are you grateful for?

What do you want to do before you die?

April 1st , 2010 First Thursday 6 pm at the Cucina Cafe in the GoggleWorks featuring Berks County Poet Laureate Heather Thomas

Dr. Heather H. Thomas is an award winning poet and professor of English at Kutztown University where she has taught since 1988. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.A. In English/Creative Writing from Temple University. Her Ph. D. was also earned at Temple. Thomas is the author of seven books of poetry including her most recent work, Blue Ruby. Some of her works have been translated into Spanish and published in Argentina. Her work has appeared in the anthology Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and in more than thirty print and online journals including American Letters and Commentary, Chain, 13^th Moon, and mid)rib. Thomas is an associate poetry editor for the online magazine 5Trope and has published literary criticism, journalism as well as fiction and non-fiction essays. She has given readings in Argentina, Ireland and Russia as well as traveled the United States. She has won awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative American Poetry and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Currently Thomas is serving as Berks County's Poet Laureate. Following the reading will be a book signing and an open microphone.