WCW – Lisa Marie Basile

Lisa Marie Basile

Lisa Marie Basile

Wednesday, January 7, 2015, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Lisa Marie Basile is the editor of Luna Luna Magazine and the small press Patasola Press. Her poetry and essays can be seen in Best American Poetry, Coldfront, Tin House, PEN American Center, Poets & Artists Magazine, PANK, The Nervous Breakdown, Huffington Post, Thrush Poetry Journal, Poetry Crush, and Prick of the Spindle, among others. She is the author of the chapbooks Andalucia (The Poetry Society of New York) and Triste (Dancing Girl Press) and of the full-length collection Apocryphal (Noctuary Press, 2014). Lisa Marie has edited for Sundress Publications and Weave Magazine. Her work has been nominated for the Best Small Fiction 2015 and the Best American Experimental Writing 2015 anthologies. She was the February 2014 feature poet for Poets & Artists Magazine, and has been named a top contemporary NYC poet to watch in features by The New York Daily News & Relapse Magazine. She is a graduate of The New School’s Masters in Fine Arts program for creative writing.

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

today my father came to pray
black denim & brown suede
a little tattoo of something holy
only he isn’t holy
he was raised at church & in fields of flora
in the back seat of the family Ambassador sedan
his eyes the color of that caballero tan
pinching his sister those pretty curls
setting fire to stacks of Playboy magazines.

WCW – Robert P. Langdon

Robert P. Langdon

Robert P. Langdon

Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Robert P. Langdon is a poet living in Northern NJ. He has worn many hats over the years, including Director of Sales and Marketing at a publishing house, Director and Curator at an art gallery, professional photographer and teacher. Robert lived in San Francisco for 13 years which helped raise his political and social consciousness and a strong appreciation for diversity and community in all it’s forms. These themes show up often in his writing.

Robert has been writing poetry and the occasional short fiction since the late 1980s. He began writing after being exposed to the poetry of Anne Sexton and discovering, through her writing, that poetry can be exciting and accessible. He is drawn to strong imagery and is influenced by confessional poetry and the works of Sexton, Sharon Olds, Diane Ackerman, Robert Lowell, Ai, and Gregory Orr among others. Robert’s own writing tends to focus on issues of identity and he uses poetry as a way to work through personal issues and reflect on meaningful events in his life. He recently released his first collection, The Candied Road Ahead: Poems & Stories available through Amazon.com in print and Kindle formats.

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

Malled

The Disney dream is a lie. Bambi has been rewritten.
No longer is it the danger of flames and firearms. It’s crossing
a four lane highway and being trapped against a median.
A warm blood Flower streaked by the wipers of a Humvee.

WCW – J. Scott Brownlee

J Scott Brownlee

J. Scott Brownlee

Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Originally from Llano, Texas, J. Scott Brownlee is a founding member of the Localists, a literary collective that emphasizes place-based writing of personal witness, cultural memory, and the aesthetically marginalized working class. His poems appear in The Kenyon Review, Narrative, Beloit Poetry Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Ninth Letter, Drunken Boat, RATTLE, The Greensboro Review, [PANK], BOXCAR Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He is the author of two chapbooks: Highway or Belief, which won the 2013 Button Poetry Prize, and Ascension, which won the 2014 Texas Review Press Robert Phillips Poetry Prize, and is a former Writers in the Public Schools Fellow at NYU. He currently lives in Brooklyn and is the Assistant Director of the University Learning Center for the College of Arts & Science at NYU.

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

Llano River, Sunrise

This morning dark, the light is turning
into morning. Slowly, clouds sift
sand and yellow perch. You walk beside
the river, falling in. Fish swim.
Fish swim the river. Falling in,
you walk beside the sand and yellow perch.
Clouds sift slowly into mourning:
this morning light. The dark turns
into mourning. Slowly, clouds sift
sand and yellow perch. You walk beside
the river, falling in. Fish swim
this morning dark. The light is
turning.

WCW – George Witte & Tina Kelley

WCW 10 1 14 blog

George Witte & Tina Kelley

Wednesday, October 1, 2014, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

George Witte has published three books of poems: Does She Have a Name? (NYQ Books, 2014), Deniability (Orchises Press, 2009), and The Apparitioners (Orchises Press, 2005). A New Jersey native, he works as the editor in chief of St. Martin’s Press and lives with his family in Ridgewood.

Tina Kelley’s second collection of poetry, Precise, was published in 2013 by Word Press, which also published her first collection, The Gospel of Galore, winner of a 2003 Washington State Book Award. She co-authored Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope, (2012) a national bestseller about homeless young people helped by Covenant House. She was a reporter at The New York Times for ten years, shared in a Pulitzer Prize in Public Service Journalism for being a part of the Times’ coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks, and wrote 121 Portraits of Grief, short descriptions of the victims. Her writing has appeared in Audubon, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Orion, People, Poetry Northwest, Poetry East, Southwest Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Best American Poetry 2009. She is on the staff of Covenant House and lives in Maplewood, NJ with her husband and two children.

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

GV – RWB poets read, Victoria Warne plays

On Friday September 5, 2014, Mark Fogarty, the host and producer of the GainVille Café Reading Series, will feature readings from the poets published in Red Wheelbarrow # 7. If you aren’t able to attend the launch on September 3rd please join us on the 5th. If you’ve already read on Sept. 3 come to GainVille and you can read the poems you didn’t have time for at the September 3rd launch!

Musical guest will be Victoria Warne, a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter who has performed extensively in the New York Metropolitan area. She has recorded with Danny Gottlieb, Spyro Gyra’s Julio Fernandez, and even shared the stage with legendary jazz great Billy Eckstine. She has recorded 2 CDs as a leader, Live At The Savoy and Fluorescence.

The GainVille Café is located at 17 Ames Ave., in Rutherford, NJ. The festivities start at 7 p.m.

A $7 cover includes coffee/tea and dessert.

Copies of Red Wheelbarrow # 7 will be available for purchase.

WCW – Launch of The Red Wheelbarrow Poets #7

Wednesday, September 3, 2014, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

—————

Friday, September 5, 2014, 7 p.m.

GainVille Cafe
Seventeen Ames Avenue, Rutherford NJ

The Red Wheelbarrow Poets will launch the gorgeous 7th edition of their yearly publication, The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, with readings at the William Carlos Williams Center in Rutherford, NJ on Wednesday, Sept. 3, and at GainVille Café, also Rutherford, Friday, Sept. 5, both at 7 PM.

The book features a stunning cover by Melanie Klein and the poetry and prose of a record 45 area writers who have either participated in the RWP’s long-running weekly poetry workshop or who have read their work at the Williams Center or GainVille Café in the past year. More than 15 interior drawings have been supplied by poet and artist Don Zirilli.

The overall theme of the book again is Dr. Williams’ observation that the epic is the local fully realized. Many of the writers in the volume adhere to Williams’ groundbreaking poetic philosophy of writing about the everyday in vibrant, “live” language.

This year’s featured poet is Mark Fogarty. He is a Rutherford poet, musician and journalist who has written three books of poetry published by White Chickens Press: Myshkin’s Blues, Peninsula, and Phantom Engineer.

The revival of poetry in Rutherford, Dr. Williams’ home town, began when poet John J. Trause, along with Jane Fisher, director of the Rutherford Public Library, founded the Williams Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County. From 2006 through 2012, John J. Trause ran the monthly readings at the Williams Center, featuring poets from the tri-state area as well as from further afield. This First Wednesday series now is run by the “Gang of Four” (Claudia Serea, John Barrale, Don Zirilli and Zorida Mohammed).

The RWP weekly poetry workshop at Rutherford Borough Hall, now in its seventh year, is run by Jim Klein, the leader of the Red Wheelbarrow Poets. It is free and open to all local poets.

The Red Wheelbarrow poets also read at the GainVille Café on the last Friday of each month in a music and poetry event organized by poet/musician Mark Fogarty with the participation of his friends and acquaintances in the music world. Recent featured musicians have included Lisa Bianco, George Pereny and Victoria Warne, who will perform at GainVille Sept. 5.

Both the Williams Center and the GainVille readings offer an open mic to poets who are also invited to submit their work for next year’s publication. Copies of the book will be on sale at both events and are also available online at http://www.lulu.com/shop/red-wheelbarrow-poets/rutherford-red-wheelbarrow-7/paperback/product-21760712.html.

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

WCW – Adele Kenny, Gail Fishman Gerwin, and Bob Rosenbloom


Adele Kenny
Gail Fishman Gerwin
Bob Rosenbloom

Wednesday, August 6, 2014, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Adele Kenny is the author of twenty-four books (poetry & nonfiction). Her poems, reviews, and articles have been published worldwide, and her poems have appeared in books and anthologies published by Crown, Tuttle, Shambhala, and McGraw-Hill. She is the recipient of various awards, including poetry fellowships from the NJ State Arts Council, first place Merit Book and Henderson Awards, a Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, a Writer’s Digest Poetry Award, and the 2012 International Book Award. She is founding director of the Carriage House Poetry Series and poetry editor of Tiferet. Website: www.Adelekenny.com.

Gail Fishman Gerwin’s memoir Sugar and Sand was a finalist for the 2010 Paterson Poetry Prize. Her second collection Dear Kinfolk, (www.chayacairnpress.com) earned a 2013 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. She also is the author of Bella’s Family, a two-act play about a Jewish immigrant family in the early 20th century; Dropping Names, a one-act play about old loves; and Women in Motion, a monologue set. Her poems, reviews, fiction, features, and essays appear in print and online. Gail, associate poetry editor of Tiferet, facilitates writing workshops at varied venues.

Robert Rosenbloom hosts a monthly poetry reading at the Bridgewater Public Library for the Somerset Poetry Group. His poetry has appeared in the Paterson Literary Review, US 1 Worksheets, Lips, Edison Literary Review, among others. He’s the author of a chapbook, Reunion, published by Finishing Line Press. He is a certified civil trial lawyer. He lives with his wife in Bound Brook.

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

ON TO OUR SIXTH YEAR AT GAINVILLE!

Come and join us in the Magic Circle at GainVille Café, Rutherford, NJ Friday, July 25 as we start our sixth year of bringing great poetry and music to Rutherford!

Our featured reader will be MICHAEL O’BRIEN, who will be reading poems inspired by a recent visit to France.

Musical feature will be BRENDAN FOGARTY, who will play the Irish pipes.

That’s followed by the Bring Your A Game Open Mic sponsored by the Red Wheelbarrow Poets.

17 Ames Ave., Rutherford, 7 pm.

A $6 cover includes coffee/tea and dessert.

WCW – ZORIDA MOHAMMED

Zorida Mohammed

Zorida Mohammed

Wednesday, July 2, 2014, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

ZORIDA MOHAMMED was born in Trinidad and came to the US when she was a teenager. She received an MSW from Fordham University School of Social Work and has worked in the mental health profession for 28 plus years. Her chapbook She Called Me Girlee was published recently by Finishing Line Press. Her poems have been published in The Caribbean Writer, Folio, Poem, The Atlanta ReviewThe Spoon River Poetry Review, Fulcrum #6 and #7, Phoebe, Oyez ReviewCompass Rose, The Dirty Goat # 20, Bayou Magazine, The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, The Distillery, Quercus Review, and other publications. She enjoys cooking and has many awards for horticulture. Zorida won a New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant for poetry in 1991-92.

Remember Dadee

I looked for a glow above your bed.
I looked in the rafters and corners,
but your life was gone.
It had slipped out under the eaves,
or the open half
of your Dutch door.

There was nothing but gravel in the street.

FIFTH ANNIVERSARY AT GAINVILLE!

Christine Santelli

Come and join us in the Magic Circle at GainVille Café, Rutherford, NJ on Friday, June 27 for our fifth anniversary of bringing great poetry and music to Rutherford!

Our poetry feature will be an Open Mic sponsored by the Red Wheelbarrow Poets for anyone who has read at GainVille during the past five years, invited poets and open mic readers alike. And bring your A game!

Very excited to have as musical guest CHRISTINE SANTELLI, a bluesy, ballsy belter from Jersey City.

17 Ames Ave., Rutherford, 7 pm.

A $6 cover includes coffee/tea and dessert.