Monday, April 7, 2014 6 p.m. at RACC with slam poet Perry "Vision" DiVirgillio

On Monday April 7, 2014, experience the power of Spoken Word with Perry “Vision” DiVirgillio at the Raven’s Lounge in the Student Union at RACC with an open mic to follow the reading.

Vision is an accomplished poet, actor and teacher. He won the Alternative Soul award for best Spoken Word Performer. In 2012 he was featured on CNN's Black in America 5, hosted by Soledad O'Brien. Vision is a founding member of Spoken Soul 215, Philadelphia's premier spoken word collective which hosts the epic monthly event, "The Harvest." He is the artistic director of the Philadelphia Youth Poetry team who won the 2011 Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam. Last fall Vision was featured on TV One's Verses and Flow alongside Raheem Devaughn.

First Thursay, April 3, 2014 at 6 p.m. at the GoggleWorks featuring Elizabeth Stanley and Naimon Lyons

Kick off BardFest 2014 at First Thursday, April 3, 2014, at 6 p.m. where you can join Berks Bards for the poetry of Elizabeth Stanley and Naimon Lyons at Mi Casa Su Casa Café in the GoggleWorks. An open mic will follow the reading.

Watch BCTV throughout the month of April to catch glimpses of local poets.

Welcome to Bard Fest 2014 

Throughout the month of April catch 22 of your favorite local poets reading one-minute poems on BCTV!

Highlights include:

Elaine Soltis

Heather Thomas

Craig Czury

Elizabeth Stanley

Patrick Klimcho

Emily Hayes Whittle

L. T. James

among others

Want a DVD of all of the poets? 

Contact BCTV to purchase your copy.

Thursday, March 6 at 6 p.m. at the GoggleWorks featuring Bill Van Buskirk and Lisa Alexander Baron

Sure signs of Spring!  Two fine poets featured for First Thursday Poetry this week!

BILL VAN BUSKIRK

LISA BARON

Thursday, March 6, 2014 at 6:00 pm

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, 1st Floor Cafe', Reading, PA

Open Mic

This event is free and open to the general public. 

Liz Stanley
~Berks Bards

BIOS

Lisa Alexander Baron
is the author of  Reading the Alphabet of  Trees and Sting and Tell. 
Her poems have appeared  in  Paterson Literary Review, The Fourth River,
Green Hills Literary Lantern, Thema, Steam Ticket, and Potomac Review. 
She is a retired lawyer and high school English teacher.  Recent work
reflects using visual art as a prompt for a poem. She is a recent
graduate of the MFA in Poetry program at Vermont College of  Fine
Arts.           

Bill Van Buskirk grew up in Manayunk
section of Philadelphia. He has published poetry in the Comstock Review,
Paterson Literary Review, LIPS, and Philadelphia Poets. His book: This
Wild Joy that Thrills Outside the Law won the Joie de Vivre Poetry
Contest sponsored by the Mad Poet’s Review. He lives in Allentown with
his poet-wife Lisa Baron and two children— Elizabeth and Sam. He teaches
at La Salle University.

SIGN UP TO TAPE A 1-MINUTE POEM FOR BROADCAST ON BCTV IN APRIL

Dear Berks Bards poets and writers,

Once again Berks Bards is seeking poets with one-minute poems for taping at BCTV studios, 645 Penn Street, Reading, PA, with appointments available on two dates in March:

Wednesday March 5th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm

Wednesday March 12th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm

These one-minute poems will be broadcast on BCTV during the month of April as part of National Poetry Month and BardFest 2014.

There is a $10 fee per poem payable to Berks Bards at the time of the taping to help defray the costs of editing and broadcasting. Cash or check acceptable.

Please contact Marilyn Klimcho at klimcho@msn.com for your taping slot, and for more information.

Taping is by appointment only and space is limited.

Sign up today!

Poets will have approximately ten minutes in which to tape multiple "takes" if needed.

Liz Stanley
Marilyn L.T. Klimcho
~Berks Bards

P.S. See the BCTV Archives for Berks Bards One-Minute Poems from last year at www.bctv.org.

Thursday February 6, 2014 at 6 p.m. at the GoggleWorks featuring poets Emily Hayes Whittle and Mary Arguelles

Join us for First Thursday Poetry (if the winter weather permits)
February 6th at 6:00 pm

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Mi Casa Su Casa Cafe'

Emily Hayes Whittle and Mary Arguelles are featured poets

Open Mic.

Sponsored by Berks Bards with support from a grant from the PA Partners in the Arts,
administered locally by the Berks Arts Council.  Additional support from Friends of the
Berks County Public Libraries, members and volunteers of Berks Bards, and poets near and far.

Liz Stanley
~Berks Bards
zilabets@hotmail.com

BIO

Emily Hayes Whittle is
a poet, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.  She fell in love
with poetry and the natural world as a child, and though the present
state of the world and environment causes her much sorrow, she finds
light for her path through poetry, her family and her Celtic Christian
and Cherokee Indian spiritual inheritance.  Emily primarily sees her
poetry as a writer's struggle to find faith and sanity in a world often
veiled in violence and darkness.    
Emily was born in Maplewood, Missouri, has worked an an LPN and began
college when her three children were in elementary school.  Her husband,
Gary R. Whittle, also a poet, passed away in 2012.  Both Emily and Gary
enjoyed and attended Berks Bards.  Emily currently lives in Reading,
PA.
     Emily's poetry has been published in various literary magazines including: Kalliope, American Writing, Passager, Poetic Page, The Awakenings  Review, Writers' Ink, and several of her poems have been translated into Japanese and appeared in three bi-lingual editions of The Plaza (Tokyo).  She also has had a book, Shadows and Light, published by Foothills Publishing.

Mary Arguelles lives
in West Reading with her husband.  They have three children and three
grandchildren.  She graduated from Alvernia University, and works as a
pharmacy technician at Healthsouth Reading Rehabilitation Hospital.     In 2005, she won the Central PA Magazine
Writing Contest with her short story, "Memorial Day" which appeared in
the April 2005 edition of the magazine.  Her non-fiction has appeared in Newsweek, New Mother, Baby Talk, and Salt magazines.  Her essay entitled, "Mending Petals" is slated to appear in the Spring 2014 edition of the Bellevue Literary Review.
     As far as poetry goes, Mary has been reading and writing poetry since the third grade. Her poems have appeared in Writers' Ink. About poetry, Mary loves this quote from Christian Wiman, the editor of Poetry Magazine:
"Let us remember…that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so
that we might fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live
them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less
apt to destroy both."

Monday, January 27, 2014 at 6 p.m. in the Raven's Lounge at Reading Area Community College featuring poet Patricia Hanahoe-Dosch

Join us for a mid-winter celebration of poetry Monday, January 27, 2014, at 6:00 pm, in the Raven's Lounge, Student Union Building, Reading Area Community College, 10 South Second St, Reading, PA  19603.  Free parking is available in the Front Street Garage.

Featured poet is Patricia Hanahoe-Dosch, world traveler and professor of English at Harrisburg Community College in Lancaster.  Book signing and open mic to follow the featured poet.

This is the second in the 2013-2014 Bruce H. Stanley Memorial Poetry Series, sponsored by The Foundation for RACC.  Additional support is provided by Berks Bards, a grassroots poetry organization whose aim is to support the lively art of poetry in Reading and Berks County.

Berks Bards is supported in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts as administered by the Berks Arts Council.

The event is free and open to students and the general public.  For more information: 610-607-6239.

Please pass the word.  Bring poems.  Bring friends.  Bring your friends' poems.

Liz Stanley
~Berks Bards