January 7, 2016 6 to 8 p.m. at the GoggleWorks for the poetry of Alexandra Papoutsis

Join Berks Bards in welcoming Alexandra Papoutsis to First Thursday.

Papoutsis was the 2014 Berks County Scholastic Poet Laureate. She graduated from Wilson High School in 2015, and currently attends Albright College where she studies Accounting. At Albright she is a part of the Honors Program, and also received the Shirk Scholarship which is based on community service involvement. In her free time she enjoys playing soccer, hanging out with her friends, and reading. She loves to inspire people and hopes to eventually publish some of her works.

An open mic will follow the reading.  

Berks Bards is supported in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts administered locally by the Berks Arts Council and by the Friends of Berks County Libraries.

A Double Header: Tuesday Open Mic 6-8 p.m. at Cafe Bold in West Reading and Wednesday 6-8 at RACC with poet Christine Lincoln

Celebrate
the word and the season of joy with us! 

Poetry @ Six Event at Reading Area Community
College, Ravens Lounge

Wednesday, December 9th at 6:00
pm

We are honored to welcome CHRISTINE LINCOLN!

Open Mic

This event is free and open to the students and
staff at RACC and the general public.

Light refreshments
will be served.

Liz Stanley

Berks Bards

Christine Lincoln writes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. She is the award-winning
author of Sap Rising (Random House), a novel of international acclaim. She was
the first author to represent the United States in South Africa’s annual Year
of the Writer Celebration. She has appeared on NPR, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and
has been featured as a “Phenomenal Woman” in O: The Oprah Magazine. Her stories
have appeared on stage at Symphony Space and Word Theatre, read and performed
by Don Cheadle, Gary Dourdan, and Lizan Mitchell. Just recently her short
story, Bug Juice, was chosen for a project with Audible Books and Word Theatre.
She is also a recipient of the Sophie Kerr Literary Prize. Christine has been
hailed as one of the rising, new voices of contemporary fiction and she is
currently at work on her novel A Generation Comes. She is founder of the R.L.
Coombs Fellowship, a writing fellowship and residency that will award its first
scholarship in 2016 to an emerging woman writer of color or diverse ethnic
background. Her monthly article, “The Writers Voice” can be found online with
York Daily Record.

First Thursday, December 2, 2015 at 6 p.m. at the GoggleWorks featuring poet Criag Czury

Join Berks Bards in welcoming Craig Czury to First Thurday.



Czury published his first book of poetry entitled Janus Peeking in 1980. The
book received the 1980 First Book Award from the Montana Arts Council. From there,
Czury went on to publish 15 more collections of poetry. Czury’s work
illustrates the pain and emptiness of the depression-stricken Pennsylvania
coal-mining region. The following is an excerpt from his poem entitled,
“Coalscape:”



all this black dust / black cinder and glass ground up / in the spine of
a torn-out trainbed / smoke rising out of birch on the culm bank / when it
begins to rain





One of his most notable collections is God’s Shiny
Glass Eye, published in 1987. This collection revolved around Czury’s vision of
the coal country where he grew up. Critic Michael
Basinski is quoted on the FootHills Publishing site as saying, “The poet’s
imagination and the anthracite world intimately merge to produce a poetry that
is poignantly barren and stripped of any artificial embellishment. It is an
angry poetry, but its passion is restrained and boils beneath the structure of
the book.”



An open mic follows.



This event is free and open to the public. 



It is sponsored in part by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, and supported through the Berks Arts Council, which administers funding locally.

November 5, 2015 6-8 p.m. at the GoggleWorks with poet Edwin Romond and an open mic

Please join Berks Bards in welcoming Edwin Romond back to the GoggleWorks for a poetry reading.

Edwin Romond is the author of eight collections of poetry
and has been awarded fellowships from
the National Endowment for the Arts and from both the New Jersey and
Pennsylvania State Councils on the Arts. His work has twice been featured on
NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac and he is the recipient of the 2013 New
Jersey Poetry Prize for his poem, “Champion.” He wrote the book, music, and
lyrics for two musical plays, Robin Hood and A Family Life, that were
produced at New Jersey community theaters and Spitball Magazine
recently published his first short story. His new poetry collection, Home
Team: Poems about Baseball, will be released in spring of 2016.

He was a public school teacher and counselor for 32 years
and now works in the poetry program of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Edwin
Romond lives in Wind Gap, PA with his wife, Mary, their son, Liam, and their
dog, “Oscar.”

This event is free and open to the public. It is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts through a grant that is administered locally by the Berks Arts Council.

Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015 6-8 p.m. at the GoggleWorks featuring four poets from York

Please welcome our friends and awesome poets from the City of York, PA,
for First Thursday Poetry at the GoggleWorks, October 1st, at 6:00 pm.

Carla Christopher
Kenneth Vincent Walker
Jim Mills
Dustin Nispel

Open Mic to follow.

This is a free event open to the public, sponsored by Berks Bards and supported in part
with a grant from the PA Partners in the Arts.  Additional support from the Friends of the
Berks County Public Libraries, members and volunteers with Berks Bards.

Liz Stanley
Berks Bards
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bios

Carla
Christopher was York, PA's 4th Poet Laureate and the City's 2014 Arts
& Cultural Community Liaison. She is the host of York's longest
still-active running reading, 'It's NOT the King's English', held 3rd
Fridays at King's Courtyard Artist Collective. She is also the director
of PoemSugar Independent Press/Community Arts Ink and the host of
Culture & Main; York's Weekly Cultural Showcase on WRCT.


Kenneth Vincent Walker is a "New Formalist" poet, a hybrid, blending
classical/traditional and lyrical poetry with a jazzy, beat-like
sensibility.

Jim Mills is a 5th Generation Florida native, but
don't hold that against him.  He can still say 'Can I Get You A Drink
Awhile?' as well as any other Pennsyltuckian!  He and his 3 lovely cats
enjoy their fabulous home in York City.  His poetry, while sometimes
funny and sometimes grim, is like is his life - a sad thing, but his
own.

Dustin Nispel is a spoken word artist hailing from York PA.
He is Author of The Tower a collection of poem and is a multi award
winning poet. He has been writing for 15 years and performing his poetry
for nearly 13 years. He is co-owner of The Rooted Artist Collective
located in downtown York. Visit his Website at denpoetry.com

Tuesday, September 8, 2015 at Cafe Bold in West Reading 6-8 p.m. for a poetry open mic with Bee HiveQueen as hostess sponsored by Berks Bards

Please come and join the more than 150 local writers, including poets, essayists, novelists and short story writers who seek interaction, support and an appreciative audience for their work through Berks Bards, The Pagoda Writers and Writers Without Borders, the weekly critique group.

First Thursday September 3, 2015 6 p.m. at the GoggleWorks with York's Poet Laureate Christine Lincoln

Welcome to Reading the award-winning Poet Laureate of York, PA

The Phenomenal Christine Lincoln

First Thursday Poetry, September 3rd at 6:00 pm

The GoggleWorks Cafe', First Floor

Open Mic

Liz Stanley
Berks Bards
zilabets@hotmail.com

Bio

Christine
Lincoln writes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. She is the
award-winning author of Sap Rising (Random House), a novel of
international acclaim. She was the first author to represent the United
States in South Africa’s annual Year of the Writer Celebration. She has
appeared on NPR, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and has been featured as a
“Phenomenal Woman” in O: The Oprah Magazine. Her stories have appeared
on stage at Symphony Space and Word Theatre, read and performed by Don
Cheadle, Gary Dourdan, and Lizan Mitchell. Just recently her short
story, Bug Juice, was chosen for a project with Audible Books and Word
Theatre. She is also a recipient of the Sophie Kerr Literary Prize.
Christine has been hailed as one of the rising, new voices of
contemporary fiction and she is currently at work on her novel A
Generation Comes. She is founder of the R.L. Coombs Fellowship, a
writing fellowship and residency that will award its first scholarship
in 2016 to an emerging woman writer of color or diverse ethnic
background. Her monthly article, “The Writers Voice” can be found online
with York Daily Record.