Tribute Reading for Lawrence Ferlinghetti December 16, 2008

Oregon Literary Review co-hosts Third Tuesdays, a series of readings and performances held at Krakow Koffeehouse and Brew Pub, 3990 N. Interstate (at N. Shaver, next to The Alibi and a few blocks west of the N. Mississippi hip-zone), 7-8:30pm.

Readers and performers interested in participating should contact Julie Mae Madsen at maemadsen[at]gmail.com with an expression of interest and sample work.

December 16th is a special event reading works of Lawrence Ferlinghetti in honor of the 50th anniversary of his A Coney Island of the Mind.

Performers for December 16th are Aaron Kier, Ruth Oliver, Mindie Kniss, and Helen Gerhardt.

Mindie Kniss is currently pursuing an MFA in nonfiction from Pacific University. In 2006, she was awarded a Global Health Fellowship to live and work in Nairobi, Kenya, where much of her forthcoming memoir takes place.
Originally from Chicago, Mindie recently relocated to Portland, OR to reestablish her holistic coaching practice, Awaken Consciousness. Her work appears in the new book, Wake Up Women: Be Happy, Healthy & Wealthy. Mindie holds degrees in theology and metaphysics

Ruth Oliver is an otheremployed actress/comedian/writer, who worked for many years in the Chicago improvisational theater scene. She received a grant in support of her one woman show “Someone’s in the Kitchen with Mommy,” based on the Appalachian gossip in her grandmother’s kitchen, which was showcased in the Rhino In Winter Theater Festival. Locally, she performs her original and sometimes profane poetry at “Miz Kitty’s Parlour” as Miz Kitty’s occasional sidekick, the recurrently jilted “Bo Peep.”

Aaron is a candidate for MFA in Fiction at Pacific University, a reading editor for Silk Road literary journal, and finds it impossible to turn down a good dirty martini. His poetry and short works in both fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in five consecutive issues of City Works and on a defunct online journal. He now makes his home in Portland, where he hopes the dreary winter will encourage great strides toward the completion of his current novel.

Helen Gerhardt currently lives with her two sons in Beaverton, Oregon. She is active in local mental health advocacy efforts, and writes to explore the relationship of the natural world to psychology and spirituality. She has two poems forthcoming in the Summer 2009 edition of Calyx Journal, under the name Helen Puciloski.

Sample of titles to be read
Constantly Risking Absurdity
The Pennycandystore Beyond The El
Christ Climbed Down
Don't let that horse eat that violin
Oracle at Delphi
I Am Waiting
The World Is a Beautiful Place
Wild Dreams of a New Beginning
TENTATIVE DESCRIPTION OF A DINNER GIVEN TO PROMOTE THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT EISENHOWER

Also, February 17th at Krakow Koffeehouse will be Lord Buckley Night: in honor of the 50th anniversary of The Ivar Concert "So You Thought Hip Was New" (http://www.theseriouscomedysite.com/showreview.php?r_id=1087).

Performers will read Buckley's semantic units (see www.lordbuckley.com) with jazz drum accompaniment.

Spread the word and consider giving your rendition of swingin' hipological verbiage.

Lord Buckley was the man who wrote Gods Own Drunk, popularized and performed by Jimmy Buffett. Buckley was known for adapting classic literature into jive speak. His performance style was based off Vaudeville: loud, happy, outrageous and audacious. He put spin to Mark Antony's Funeral Oration, The Shooting of Dan McGroo, The Gettysburg Address, The Raven, and Macbeth (" Is This The Sticker?").

The man:

Performing Scrooge:

Readers don't have to bark like Buckley. Make your own wild sounds, cool and easy or leggy, leaping loops.

Mark Antony's Funeral Oration
"Hipsters, flipsters, and finger-poppin' daddies,
Knock me your lobes,
I came to lay Ceasar out,
Not to hip you to him."

Contact: Julie Madsen via maemadsen[at]gmail.com