8/5/19 LeeLee Aint Msbehavin Features

8/5/19 LeeLee Aint Msbehavin   host Elaine

If you don't know LeeLee, you should and trust you are in for a treat. Three-time National Poetry Award nominee. Published author of "Untamed Pen", as well as an erotic cd titled "Freaky Tales". She's been featured on stages across the country and her voice has been heard around the world on several online radio shows. Her writings cover a variety of topics from the brutal reality of racism, to more adult content of a sexual nature. Prepare to go on the poetic ride of your life with the talented, the tantalizing LeeLee Ain't Msbehavin'

Photographs (Of You) I chased you in my dreams… Down hollow halls with walls covered with pictures of you From my birth to your death My heart wept because you’re no longer here It’s been twelve years… Twelve long lonely years of not having you near There was movement in each photograph that I passed Snapshots from my childhood Where you stood A constant fixture In my life I wipe the tears from my eyes That blinded my view of you All I could see were those pictures on the wall… Each was a happy memory replayed as I grew up with my siblings That loving feeling I felt when you hugged me Your presence when I gave birth to my sons Your smile beamed like the sun Which always made my heart dance I glance down the hall only to see you turn the corner Further away from my grasp This was my last chance to reach out and grab your hand I know that God reserved a spot for you in the promise land But I still need you… You were the super glue that held my heart together It shattered as I watched you go upstairs to Heaven You turned facing me Embraced me and stayed just long enough to sweep up the broken pieces Mending them back whole You hugged me one last time Telling me it was time to go home You said I won’t be alone because you inserted a piece of yourself within the valves that keeps me alive Inside of those picture frames are moments that will never die So for now its goodbye Don’t cry my love Because up above Beyond those stairs Is where I need to be You said to me as you walked away As I retreat down hollow halls with walls covered with pictures of you The sun shined brighter than it ever had Was momentarily sad But then I realized that all your years on this earth You prepared to be with Jesus You didn’t leave us Because your spirit will always be with us… I still dream of you though

7/29/19 Avotcja Birthday Celebration !

7/29/19 Avotcja Birthday Celebration   host JIm

Poet/Playwright/Multi-Percussionist/Photographer/Teacher  
Avotcja has been published in English & Spanish in the USA, Mexico & Europe, and in more Anthologies than she remembers. She is an award winning Poet & multi-instrumentalist who has opened for Betty Carter in New York City, Peru's Susana Baca at San Francisco’s Encuentro Popular & Cuba’s Gema y Pável, played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bobi & Luis Cespedes, John Handy, Sonido Afro Latina, Dimensions Dance Theater, Black Poets With Attitudes, Bombarengue, Nikki Giovanni, Los Angeles' Build An Ark, Dwight Trible, Diamano Coura West African Dance Co., Terry Garthwaite, Big Black, The Bay Area Blues Society & Caribeana Etc. Shared stages with Sonia Sanchez, Piri Thomas, Janice Mirikitani, Diane DiPrima, Michael Franti, Jayne Cortez, & with Jose Montoya's Royal Chicano Air Force & is a Bay Area icon with her group Avotcja & Modúpue.  Avotcja was the opening act for the legendary Poet Pat Parker the last three years of her life. She both composed & performed the film score for the Danish documentary MuNu. Her Poetry &/or music has been recorded by Piri Thomas, Famoudou Don Moyé (of The Art Ensemble Of Chicago), Bobby Matos Latin Jazz Ensemble, & performed by The Purple Moon Dance Project, and was the 1st Poetry performed by New York's Dance Mobile. She's appeared at The Lorraine Hansberry Theater in S. F., The Asian-American Jazz Festival in Chicago, as well as The Asian-American Jazz Festival in San Francisco.  She's been featured 5 times at Afro-Solo, twice at San Francisco's Carnival, The Scottish Rite Temple & Yoshi's in Oakland & San Francisco, Jose Castellar's play "Man From San Juan", Club Le Monmartre in Copenhagen Denmark, Stanford University, at San Francisco’s Brava Theater For The Arts with Cine Acción, New York's Henry Street Settlement Theater and The Women On The Way Festival in San Francisco. Avotcja a is popular Bay Area DeeJay & Radio Personality, and the founder/Director of "The Clean Scene Theater Project (AKA) Proyecto Teatral De La Escena Sobria". She continues to teach Creative Writing, Storytelling & Drama in Public Schools & thanks to the California Arts Council she was also an Artist in Residence at the Milestones Project & San Francisco Penal System. Avotcja is a proud member of DAMO (Disability Advocates Of Minorities  Organization), PEN Oakland, California Poets In The Schools,  IWWG & is an  ASCAP recording artist.
On May 10th 2014 the 12th Annual Berkeley Poetry Festival honored AVOTCJA with its Lifetime Achievement Award for the truly valuable creative and community work that she has accomplished. 
Website: www.Avotcja.org

Email: LaVerdadMusical@yahoo.com

7/29/19 Avotcja Birthday Celebration

7/29/19 Avotcja Birthday Celebration   host JIm

Poet/Playwright/Multi-Percussionist/Photographer/Teacher  
Avotcja has been published in English & Spanish in the USA, Mexico & Europe, and in more Anthologies than she remembers. She is an award winning Poet & multi-instrumentalist who has opened for Betty Carter in New York City, Peru's Susana Baca at San Francisco’s Encuentro Popular & Cuba’s Gema y Pável, played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bobi & Luis Cespedes, John Handy, Sonido Afro Latina, Dimensions Dance Theater, Black Poets With Attitudes, Bombarengue, Nikki Giovanni, Los Angeles' Build An Ark, Dwight Trible, Diamano Coura West African Dance Co., Terry Garthwaite, Big Black, The Bay Area Blues Society & Caribeana Etc. Shared stages with Sonia Sanchez, Piri Thomas, Janice Mirikitani, Diane DiPrima, Michael Franti, Jayne Cortez, & with Jose Montoya's Royal Chicano Air Force & is a Bay Area icon with her group Avotcja & Modúpue.  Avotcja was the opening act for the legendary Poet Pat Parker the last three years of her life. She both composed & performed the film score for the Danish documentary MuNu. Her Poetry &/or music has been recorded by Piri Thomas, Famoudou Don Moyé (of The Art Ensemble Of Chicago), Bobby Matos Latin Jazz Ensemble, & performed by The Purple Moon Dance Project, and was the 1st Poetry performed by New York's Dance Mobile. She's appeared at The Lorraine Hansberry Theater in S. F., The Asian-American Jazz Festival in Chicago, as well as The Asian-American Jazz Festival in San Francisco.  She's been featured 5 times at Afro-Solo, twice at San Francisco's Carnival, The Scottish Rite Temple & Yoshi's in Oakland & San Francisco, Jose Castellar's play "Man From San Juan", Club Le Monmartre in Copenhagen Denmark, Stanford University, at San Francisco’s Brava Theater For The Arts with Cine Acción, New York's Henry Street Settlement Theater and The Women On The Way Festival in San Francisco. Avotcja a is popular Bay Area DeeJay & Radio Personality, and the founder/Director of "The Clean Scene Theater Project (AKA) Proyecto Teatral De La Escena Sobria". She continues to teach Creative Writing, Storytelling & Drama in Public Schools & thanks to the California Arts Council she was also an Artist in Residence at the Milestones Project & San Francisco Penal System. Avotcja is a proud member of DAMO (Disability Advocates Of Minorities  Organization), PEN Oakland, California Poets In The Schools,  IWWG & is an  ASCAP recording artist.
On May 10th 2014 the 12th Annual Berkeley Poetry Festival honored AVOTCJA with its Lifetime Achievement Award for the truly valuable creative and community work that she has accomplished. 
Website: www.Avotcja.org

Email: LaVerdadMusical@yahoo.com

John Argue Features 7/22

7/22/19 John Argue hosted by Gary

John Argue taught acting for many years, and in the ‘80s started doing drama therapy with children and with hospitalized adults. He shifted over completely to working with Parkinson’s people in 1985 and continued for 32 years. He retired two years ago and returned to his first love, poetry.

Foregiveness is not
some words you say
to the one who wronged you
Forgiveness is
giving up
your revenge.

7/15/19 Robert Coats features

7/15/19 Robert Coats  hosted by Bruce

Robert Coats has been writing poetry for 40 years.  His work as an environmental scientist takes him outdoors and sometimes provides inspiration and material.  He is drawn to poetry rooted in the West and reflecting a strong sense of place. A native Californian by birth (his great-grandparents having come by covered wagon in 1859), he spent part of his youth in the deciduous forests of Maryland, and the mountains of northeastern Nevada. His poems have appeared in Orion, Windfall, Canary, Song of the San Joaquin, the Pudding House anthology Fresh Water and a full-length book—The Harsh Green World—published in 2015 by Sugartown Publishing.  Awards include first and third prizes in Menlo College’s “Wallace Stevens Where Are You” contest (1998), first prize in the 1994 contest of the American Society on Aging, and first prize in Word Worth’s 2010 poetry contest.  Details of his professional work can be found at www.hydroikos.com.

WHAT TO DO ON AUGUST 26TH

Go to Rock Lake, Plumas country.

Before sunrise, stand

on the slate ledge that juts the lake.

Look to the western shore,

watch sunlight creep down

the red bank of schist.

Now turn east, look up

to the canyon rim

where Jacob’s ladders converge

at a dark hemlock

silhouetted

against the bright sky.

In the moment before

the sun crests the wall

the entire tree--bole,

branches, foliage--

will flash

into silver filigree.

Then the orb’s leading edge

will clear the jagged ridge, shooting

gold deep into liquid indigo

warming your face

flooding you

with light.

7/8/19 Barbara Atkinson features

7/8/19 Barbara Atkinson hosted by Jim

Barbara Atkinson identifies as a  bicoastal writer and performer, transplanted a few times between Bucks County PA and Berkeley CA. She is also a scientist, social organizer, and dance enthusiast. After teaching herself to read, she earned a Bachelor of Rhymes degree from kindergarten, her most prized diploma. In the many intervening years, she has written numerous poems (rhyming, metered, both, and neither), short stories, cartoons, songs & song lyrics, tributes in verse, and paraphrases of popular classics. Sometimes this erupts into spoken word, with venues ranging from summer camps to PTA benefits to soccer team family picnics to holiday parties at her workplace and more. 

Barbara's poetry has been occasionally published, beginning with the Nutshell literary magazine of Moorestown Senior High School in New Jersey, then the Penn Women's Literary Magazine in Philadelphia, and a chapbook entitled "Poets in the Pews" by the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, and most recently in Turning Point Journal, Elders Action Network Spring Issue on Earth Relations. Ms. Atkinson volunteered in Nicaragua from the 1980s through 2000s on solar energy projects, traveled and worked in Central and South America, and composed a few of her poems in Spanish. Her current labor of love is being full-time mom of a teenage daughter, some of whose multiple talents are writing and drama. "Poetry is when the family reunion in your head stops and it's just you talking..."

Solar Benediction

Fishes

            we are           

                        gasping for comfort

                                                             of warmth and motion

            familiar

                        we have burned our ancestors

                                     spilled poisons in the waters

                                     cracked earthquakes underground

                                     squeezed the last drops from the sands

As the majestic icebergs melt

    and tempests violently toss the air

           roaring louder

We look upward to the sun

            burning out more slowly than any

                                                              body

            generating winds

                        and tides

                                     and green food

Lunches are never free           still

            humble            desperate

                        we raise our arms

                                     trying to catch

                                                 the loaves and the fishes

Poetic Reflections Spring 2019 - The Elders Action Network Journal