Bard Fest 2021 — We Welcome You Virtually!

 

All events below are free and only limited with participants in the case of offerings for children and teens.

 

Join Jesse Alexander on Zoom!
When: Thursday, April 1st, 2021, at 6 pm EST
Where: TinyURL.com/VirtualBard to reach us on Zoom
If required, please enter the Meeting ID 759 062 6042

 

 

 

Poetry for Adults with Dr. T
When: Wednesday, April 14th, 2021, at 7 pm EST
Where: Zoom; register here with Ephrata Public Library

 

 

An Open Mic for Teens—Poetry in Action: A YOUTH Poetry Reading and Conversation on Equity and Compassion
Sign-Up Deadline: Saturday, April 10, 2021 for teens anywhere, ages 13-19; email UIK@InterfaithSonoma.org to sign up to read; please also register in advance
When: Saturday, April 17th, 2021, at 5 pm PST (*not EST; this is based in California)
Where: Zoom; register here
This is a Sonoma County United In Kindness event:
https://www.facebook.com/SonomaCountyUnitedinKindness/
http://interfaithsonoma.org/declaration/

 

Poetry for Kids with Dr. T (ages 6-12)
When: Wednesday, April 21st, 2021, at 4 pm EST
Where: Zoom; register here with Ephrata Public Library

 

 

Beyond Words, a poetry workshop by Berks County Poet Laureate Anthony Orozco
When: Wednesday, April 21st, 2021, at 6.15 pm EST; virtual doors open at 6 pm EST
Where: Join via Zoom with no registration required
Description: This workshop examines the oral tradition of poetry and how to present your work in ways that give more to your listeners. Take your completed poems or works in progress to the next level.
Stay Tuned! RACC will be sharing the digital version of the ceremony honoring Anthony and bringing him into his 9th Berks County Poet Laureate position officially during April 2021.

 

Berks Bards' Second Annual Earth Poems Reading
When: Saturday, April 24th, 2021, at 2 pm EST
Where: Join via Zoom at TinyURL.com/VirtualBard with no registration required

This year's 6 featured poets include ones from across 2 continents and 3 time zones—

Hiram Larew’s fourth collection of poems, Undone, was published in 2018 by FootHills Publishing. His poems have been nominated for four Pushcarts, and have appeared in recent issues of Poetry South, Contemporary American Voices and Best Poetry Online. He has received an Individual Artist grant from the Prince George’s (Maryland, USA) Arts and Humanities Council for his The Poetry Poster Project as well as a Creativity Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council and support from the United Nations for his Poetry X Hunger initiative which encourages poets to contribute to local and worldwide anti-hunger efforts. He lives in Maryland.

Kara Valore is a Poet, Therapeutic Emotional Support Teacher, and mother of three children.  Her poetry has appeared in GrassLimb, Skinny Poetry Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, Red Rose Review, Reclaiming Our Voices Anthology, and Bards Against Hunger Pennsylvania Anthology. Her work has placed in the Writer’s Eye Competition, various Pennsylvania Poetry Society Prize Anthologies and YorkFest Literary Competitions.

Doreena Jennings is from Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and has been writing from the age of twelve. Her writing is like a diary, reflecting life’s ever-changing emotional landscape. She writes about her early life, the echo of relationships in nature, and the tragic death of her son. She is a member of the award-winning ‘Carlow Writers Co-op.’ She has written several short plays, memoir and short stories. These days her main focus is on poetry. She has delivered her work to live audiences in Chicago, Sweden, Wales, Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Currently working on her debut collection, she had contributed to many local anthologies, the Blue Nib literary magazine and is a regular contributor to international online poetry groups in both Wales and Ennis.  She has been featured on Open Mic of the Air a Vermont-based radio programme, lead by Charlie Rossiter. She has also featured in The Gifts and Glow of Poetry readings by Irish based poets, hosted by poet Hiram Larew, to bring new voices to American audiences.

Sterling McKee is a spoken word poet from Coatesvilles who studied communications and media at Kutztown University in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and completed his degree in 2020 as a first-generation college graduate. While on campus, he worked as a part of financial aid and community assistance. He's also been involved with marketing efforts through the Lehigh Valley-based nonprofit known as the Haydenfilms Institute; it is geared toward connecting and supporting student filmmakers in their drive to make an indelible impact in today's world. He recently relocated to Chicago.

Elizabeth Dodd teaches poetry, creative nonfiction, and literature & environment courses at Kansas State University where she is a University Distinguished Professor. She is the author of six books, including Archetypal Light (poems) and Horizon’s Lens (essays). With Derek Sheffield and Simmons Buntin, she is co-editor of Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy, a collection of poems and essays published in 2020. Her essay collection In the Mind’s Eye won the Best Book Award from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. She is Nonfiction Editor for Terrain.org, the oldest online journal of place-based writing. Her poems and essays have recently appeared journals including Tin House, The Laurel Review, The Fourth River, The Iowa Review, and Places Journal as well as the anthologies Poetics for the More-Than-Human World and The Tallgrass Reader. Elizabeth lives in the Flint Hills region of Kansas and serves on the Board of Trustees for Audubon of Kansas.

E. Paul White is a writer and educator based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He organizes and hosts a monthly reading series called The Turning Wheel at DogStar Books, which he has beendoing since 2015. He holds a MA in English and is an adjunct instructor at the Center for Creative Exploration at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. His writing has appeared in the Schuylkill Valley Journal, SundogLit, Fledgling Rag, and elsewhere.

 

Let's Write a Poem - About Nature! (for kids)
When: Now through Monday, May 31st, 2021
Where: Watch this video prompt via Kutztown Community Library for details and perks
Also See: www.kutztownlibrary.org/branch/kutztown/youth

Berks Bards' One-Minute Poems
When: Throughout April 2021!
Where: bctv.org & youtube.com/user/BCTVORG1

 

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And see our latest three monthly featured poet readings, including two open mics now since February, below. We recommend enjoying poetry readings over dinner in your home. =)

 

November 2020, December 2020, & January 2021 Poetry Readings with Berks Bards—Now Available on YouTube.

We have been working to share First Thursday poetry readings to our YouTube channel whenever possible since 2020, in transitioning to Zoom from in-person events by April of last year.

Below are our three most recent recordings for you to enjoy again or if you weren't able to be a part of our audience in recent months.

RACC Announces Anthony Orozco as 9th Berks County Poet Laureate.

 (Photo Credit: Mateo Toro)

Reading Area Community College recently announced that Anthony Orozco has been named the 9th Berks County Poet Laureate for 2021 and 2022.

We as Berks Bards are absolutely elated and so grateful to hear this news. In recent years, we've watched Orozco's unique and heart-driven force of goodness through his way with language in how he lifts people up through his performances of poetry. And we've also loved seeing him delve into teaching poetry workshops at Barrio Alegría in the City of Reading, often with a packed classroom of enthusiastic students eager to learn from his craft, to help them on their paths in finding strength in their own language and turns of phrasing.

In 2019, as a journalist who is seasoned in documenting stories and memories from the people he meets, he curated a breakthrough project of community-weaved voices through local writers in Pen Street: City of Poems, inspired by Penn Street in downtown Reading.

And his poem ''A Restless Glimmer'' especially matches a great need in the world since 2020 into now, in how it brings recognition to what we feel inside and the hope we want to have, collectively. See it online here on YouTube.

Last month, we highlighted Orozco as our January 2021 featured poet in bringing you all into a very different kind of new year, feeling that he was the perfect fit for this in what his energy and vision offers. If you weren't able to be there for the poetry reading on Zoom, feel free to check it out here on our YouTube channel; and if you're open to new ideas in 2021, we recommend watching poetry readings while you enjoy dinner, to savor the artistry of a poet while you nourish yourself and maybe also while spending time with loved ones, to share these experiences alongside one another, with a fork or spoon in hand.

Learn more about Berks County's poet laureateship sponsored by RACC and also about Orozco through BCTV.

Remembering Berks County Poet Doug Arnold, Former Host of Our BCTV Show Called, ''Poets' Pause.''

In late August, Doug Arnold, a local poet who hosted our show Poets' Pause on BCTV before it was in the hands of Berks Bards to manage—passed away at the age of 73. Here is his obituary.

Marilyn Klimcho, as a part of our team of volunteers for Berks Bards for decades, took the proverbial baton of hosting Poets' Pause on bctv.org from Doug a few years ago; she puts an incredible amount of time into scheduling local and regional poets in Pennsylvania as well as some from out of state, reading their books, and preparing for interviews with them. Seeing the work she does has taught us a lot about the television-specific dedication and investment Doug handled on behalf of the community, and for poetry, before her.

 

As a tribute to Doug, we wanted to share a poem by him, and this one, we feel, is ultimately a phenomenal example of how language has the unique ability to keep flowing onward and to help others by way of a certain writer's mind and heart through inspiration, relating, chipping away at the often complex art of healing in our hard world, and needed understanding. When we save and also share a poet's words, both the poet and the poem continue to teach us. We are honored to bring you this poem by Doug, now, and encourage you to pass it onward, if its impact stirs you enough to want it to keep floating along in our world.

 

The Travels
of Dangerous Thoughts
By Doug Arnold

Most thoughts pass casually through,
zephyrs, barely ruffling our meadows,
without enough presence to seize or shape
any finite space. Don't call them back;
they're all part of what was never meant to be.

However, once in a while, a solemn figure strides
from the tall grass, and at first glance we believe
it to be just another discredited unicorn. But,
the prudent eye sees that it is a substantive thought,
a real one with the symmetry of two horns,
and enough gravitas to anchor its hooves. Why else
except that it knew that time was in heat,
would it have now emerged? Eventually it'll be driven
into the herd where even this thought
will also be milked and then slaughtered,
Yet, unlike the others, it is not barren, so
                   its offspring bears watching.

This poem was written by Doug Arnold on the 22nd of May in 2011.

Join Susan Sonde on Zoom August 6th, 2020 at 6 pm

Join Susan Sonde on Zoom August 6th, 2020 at 6 pm

Berks Bards welcomes Susan Sonde to join us online on Zoom!

When: August 6th, 2020 at 6 pm

Where: TinyURL.com/VirtualBard

If required, please enter the Meeting ID 759 062 6042

Below is a sample prose poem from our featured poet:

FELINE PASTORAL, FELINE BLUES

My black and white tuxedo cat stares up at me. His world was once a cane, the hours took turns beating him; hung him like a slab of meat in their abattoirs. Rage cut his tongue in two. Tonight the wind retaliates. The leaves prattle on and on without surcease. Dust hurls itself at passersby. UPS delivers daily

the long insomnia-riddled nights. Clocks grow surly and the Devil leaps from a deviant’s throat. East to west, stove tops hustle, pushing kettles beyond their boiling points. The world’s gone rogue, juggles live bands and hand grenades while it wire walks. Sighs and whispers say all’s ending, yet the clouds still patrol the morning skies, yellow-gray in their gray barges.

Query the sounds a mad woman hears. Query the thoughts her mind shapes, the cries snow makes falling knife-like towards her throat.

What if the fork that nestles in a napkin’s folds ransacked the cloth in which it shelters and thinking for itself just long enough, found a heart in which to thrust itself? What if sunset called and no one came, or the sand on beaches

decried their emptiness…absence of footfall saddening them. Oh sunset your ravens worry me, your chicks are poorly loved. Deafening are the blows dealt the one who receives them. In air silence resonates, holds secrets to the stars and compound interest.

Some believe in the benefits of believing; invest heavily in the concept of an afterlife: standing room only, angels crowding about them, wings stuffed inside Hawaiian shirts; leis caged around their pale white throats.

Oh child of aging bone and fur, oblivious on your cushion. I kneel beside you…starving inmate invited to a banquet. Let’s enter our eternal rest together: ours the chair in which no one’s ever sat, ours the sea in which no protozoan ever swam. No doors lead out that don’t lead in.

No knowledge there of the weather, none of the blues. No shuteye to offer the departing.

Read the biography of Susan Sonde below:

Well-Versed: A Collaboration Between Art Plus Gallery in West Reading & Berks Bards.

Last Friday, Art Plus Gallery in West Reading hosted its opening for an exhibit called Art Well-Versed. This came together as a project of the gallery collaborating with Berks Bards through a recent call for submissions we offered, partnering as Berks County-based nonprofits.

The call for submissions involved having folks visit to pick pieces of art to write poems about for this collaboration, pairing one finalized poem with each piece of art. Some artists wrote poems about their own art, while a good number of poets who had no ties to the art brought their imaginations and inspiration to the page based on what it stirred in them, upon seeing the pieces.

A total of 20 local poets contributed, and the exhibit opening celebrated the poetry with a reading by many of the poets sharing their penned words in-person. Dozens of  people filtered throughout the gallery's space to enjoy the whims of words and local art on display by so many talented artists in our region.

Stop into the gallery soon to see this exhibit!

(Hours)

Wednesdays-Saturdays: 12 pm - 7 pm
Sundays: 11 am - 4 pm
Closed Monday & Tuesdays