2012 Poetry Participants

Listed in alphabetical order

Simone Beaubien

Annual Youth Poetry Slam – Saturday 2:00 PM

Simone Beaubien is a decade-plus-veteran of the New England slam poetry scene, seven-time competitor at the National Poetry Slam, and SlamMaster of the world-famous Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge. Called "the woman who made Wednesday night Saturday night" by Harlym125, she has hosted the Cantab's weekly show since 2004 and appeared as an MC from coast to coast, including the 2007 Individual World Poetry Slam Finals in Vancouver and the 2010 College Poetry Slam Invitational Finals in Boston. She competed on the Finals stage of the 2008 National Poetry Slam in Madison and proudly served as the Host City Director for the 2011 National Poetry Slam in Boston and Cambridge. She works as a paramedic in the greater Boston area.
Photo credit Marshall Goff.

Patricia Callan

Coffee with the Poets – Saturday 8:30 AM

Patricia Callan, playwright and poet, in collaboration with composer Yoko Nakatani, wrote the narration for “The Adventures of John Manjiro,”a suite of piano pieces performed frequently throughout the United States. Her poems have been published in The Lyric, So to Speak, Red Lights, The Poets’ Touchstone and other journals. She was a finalist in the 2011 Rita Dove Poetry Award Competition. Pat is a member of the Powow River Poets and The Tuesday Evening Poets.

Michael Cantor

Coffee with the Poets – Saturday 8:30 AM

Michael Cantor is the author of a new poetry collection, Life in the Second Circle (Able Muse Press, 2012) and The Performer, published in 2007. His poems have appeared in The Dark Horse, Raintown Review, SCR, Chimaera, Measure, Umbrella, and many other journals and anthologies. Honors include the New England Poetry Club Gretchen Warren and Erika Mumford Awards and First Prize in the NAA Poetry Competition. He has been a finalist for the Richard Wilbur, Nemerov, Morton Marr and Able Muse Book poetry awards. He resides on Plum Island with his wife, their cat, and far too many books, woks and condiments; is a long time Powow River Poets member, and administers the Powow River Poets Reading Program.

Robert W. Crawford

Coffee with the Poets – Saturday 8:30 AM

Robert W. Crawford lives in Chester, New Hampshire, on the shore of Whetstone Pond. His second book of poetry, The Empty Chair, won the 2011 Richard Wilbur Award and will appear in March 2012. His first book, Too Much Explanation Can Ruin a Man, was published in 2005. His poems have appeared in many national journals including The Formalist, First Things, Dark Horse, The Raintown Review, The Lyric, Measure, Light and Forbes. He is a two-time winner of the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, a trustee of the Robert Frost farm in Derry, New Hampshire, the co-founder of the Hyla Brook Poets, and a long-time member of Newburyport’s own Powow River Poets.

David Davis

Coffee with the Poets – Saturday 8:30 AM

David Davis has been a member of the Powow River Poets since 2005. He is an artificial intelligence researcher and high-tech entrepreneur with a long-term interest in writing. A story of his in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, anthologized and translated into multiple languages, was listed as one of the top 20 science fiction short stories of its year. Davis has edited or written five books in his area of technical expertise, has published one book of poetry, and is currently working on Poetry in The Field, an anthology of poems begun with notes taken on site.

Rhina P. Espaillat

The Poems & Songs of Alfred Nicol – Saturday 7:00 PM

Rhina P. Espaillat has published eight full-length books and three chapbooks, comprising poems, essays and short stories in both English and her native Spanish. She has also published translations in both directions, including work by St. John of the Cross, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz and Robert Frost, and has won various national awards, in the U.S.A and the Dominican Republic, for work in both languages, including the Richard Wilbur Award, the Nemerov Prize, The Robert Frost "Tree at My Window" Translation Prize, the May Sarton Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Salem State College.

Michele Leavitt

Coffee with the Poets – Saturday 8:30 AM

Michele Leavitt’s poems and prose appear most recently in The Humanist, Dogwood, The Journal, Mezzo Cammin,Passager and The Platte Valley Review. She is the winner of the Ohio State University’s 2010 William Allen Award for creative nonfiction. A chapbook, The Glass Transition, was published in 2010 by Finishing Line Press. Michele earned a law degree from Suffolk University in 1981, a Master of Arts in English Literature from Salem State College in 1989, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Vermont College in 1995. She lives in Unity, Maine, where she is affiliated with the Center for Environmental Arts and Humanities at Unity College.

John Lockwood

The Jazz Poetry of Robert Pinsky – Saturday 4:00 PM

"I basically learned on the bandstand. I got called for these gigs that I shouldn't have taken, I suppose, looking back. People just proceeded to shout and scream at me, and that's how I learned. Piecing things together. So when I teach it's the same thing. A student walks in, I teach them the tune, and—bang—we're off. It's pretty much playing all the time." John Lockwood is an Associate Professor at Berkeley College of Music in Boston. He has played with Dance Umbrella, Joe Henderson, Johnny Hartman, the Fringe, and many others.

Charles Martin

Signs and Wonders: Charles Martin – Saturday 11:00 AM

Charles Martin’s latest book of poems, Signs & Wonders, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in the spring of 2011. His verse translation of the Metamorphoses of Ovid received the Harold Morton Landon Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2004. In 2005, he received an Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His other books of poems include Steal The Bacon and What The Darkness Proposes, and a translation, The Poems of Catullus, all published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Other works include Catullus, a critical introduction to the Latin poet, published in Yale University Press’s Hermes Series. He is the recipient of a Bess Hokin Award from Poetry, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He served as Poet in Residence at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York from 2005 to 2009.
Photo by Johanna Keller.

Gail Mazur

The Poetry of Gail Mazur – Saturday 12:00 AM

In April 2011, University of Chicago Press Chicago published Gail Mazur’s 6th collection of poetry, Figures in a Landscape. Her book, Zeppo’s First Wife: New & Selected Poems, (Chicago, 2005) is winner of the 2006 Massachusetts Book Award, a finalist for the 2005 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize. She is author of four earlier books of poetry, Nightfire, The Pose of Happiness, The Common, and They Can’t Take That Away from Me (University of Chicago Press, 2001), which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001. Mazur was a 2009 Fellow in Poetry at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies, a 1996 Fellow at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and the 2005 recipient of the St. Botolph Club Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award. Gail Mazur is Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emerson College and Founding Director of the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, a weekly poetry reading series she ran for 29 years. She lives in Cambridge and Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she serves on the Writing Committee, the Board of Trustees, and the Summer Program Committee of the Fine Arts Work Center. She is an Advisory Editor to Agni and Ploughshares.

Bob Moses

The Jazz Poetry of Robert Pinsky – Saturday 4:00 PM

Drummer, composer, artist, poet, dancer, visionary, nature mystic: Bob Moses's life has been a continuous quest for vision, spirit, compassion, growth, and mastery in a multiplicity of art forms. A partial list of stellar musicians Bob Moses has worked and/or recorded with both as a leader and a sideman includes: Charles Mingus, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin, Dave Sanborn, Bill Frisell, Gregory Hines, Stan Strickland, Robert Pinsky, Sam Rivers, and many others. Bob Moses has composed, arranged and produced over ten albums which have been hailed by critics worldwide. The albums Bittersuite in the Ozone,Time Stood Still and Love Everlasting (the latter recorded with guitar genius Tisziji Munoz) all received five stars in Downbeat. Bob conducts workshops in both Europe and the U.S. and is currently an honors jazz department professor at one of the world's most prestigious music institutions, the New England Conservatory of Music.

Alfred Nicol

Opening Ceremony – Friday 6:00 PM

The Poems & Songs of Alfred Nicol – Saturday 7:00 PM

Alfred Nicol’s book of poetry, Elegy for Everyone, published in 2009, was chosen for the first Anita Dorn Memorial Prize. He received the 2004 Richard Wilbur Award for an earlier volume, Winter Light, of which Jay Parini, biographer of Robert Frost, said, "This is certainly among the finest new volumes of poetry I have read in years." Nicol has collaborated w/ poet Rhina Espaillat and classical guitarist John Tavano in making the CD Melopoeia. His most recent publication is Second Hand Second Mind, a collaboration with his sister, the artist Elise Nicol.

Kevin Pilkington

Kevin Pilkington Reads – Saturday 10:00 AM

Kevin Pilkington is a member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College and teaches a workshop in the graduate department at Manhattanville College. He is the author of six collections including the La Jolla Poets Press National Book Award winner Spare Change and Ready to Eat the Sky which was published by River City Publishing as part of their new poetry series and was a finalist for an Independent Publishers Books Award. A collection entitled In the Eyes of a Dog was published in September 2009 by New York Quarterly Books which won the 2011 New York Book Festival Award. His poetry has appeared in many anthologies including Birthday Poems: A Celebration, Western Wind, and Contemporary Poetry of New England. Over the years, he has been nominated for four Pushcarts and has appeared in Verse Daily. His poems and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including: The Harvard Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, Iowa Review, and Boston Review. A novel entitled Summer Shares will appear next summer from ArcheBooks.

Robert Pinsky

The Jazz Poetry of Robert Pinsky – Saturday 4:00 PM

Robert Pinsky was born and raised in the historic resort town of Long Branch, New Jersey. He graduated from Long Branch High School, as had his parents, and went on to college at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and then to graduate work at Stanford, where he held a Stegner Fellowship. Robert Pinsky’s Selected Poems was published in 2011. His recent anthology, with accompanying audio CD, is Essential Pleasures. His honors include the Harold Washington Award from the city of Chicago, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for his translation The Inferno of Dante and the PEN-Volcker Award. While serving an unprecedented three terms as United States Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project, including the videos that can be seen at www.favoritepoem.org.

Roll & Tumble

The Poems & Songs of Alfred Nicol – Saturday 7:00 PM

Roll & Tumble ( guitarist Frank Corso, piano player Curtis Haynes, harmonica player Justin Quinn, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Jon Ross and drummer Per Hanson ) came together in the late nineties around the shared conviction that the acoustic blues and roots music of the twenties, thirties, and forties were an unearthed musical treasure that had been forgotten in the fast paced modern world. For the next ten years they played clubs, festivals, and any other musical haunts that would have them. Along the way, they made three cd's of original and classic blues on their own "Flying Lady" record label. All were well reviewed and received national attention. Blues Revue magazine called Roll & Tumble's music; "a breath of fresh air after a long cold winter", and wrote; "not many people are playing this type of blues, anymore, and no one does it better than Roll & Tumble". After a hiatus of a few years, and recording and performing as the "Justin Quinn Band", Roll & Tumble has re-formed, with original members Ross, Quinn and Hanson, and the addition of bassist Dave Sag. As the music of the delta changed as it migrated north and discovered the electric guitar, Roll & Tumble have plugged in and expanded their repertoire to include the classic electric blues of the fifties and sixties.

Stan Strickland

The Jazz Poetry of Robert Pinsky – Saturday 4:00 PM

Singer, saxophonist, flutist, actor Stan Strickland has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, the Caribbean, New Zealand and the former Soviet Union. In addition to numerous radio and television appearances, Stan has performed in many clubs and concert halls, including Jordan and Symphony Halls in Boston, Carnegie Recital Hall and Town Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. His work has been featured on recordings by Bob Moses, Marty Erlich, Webster Lewis and Brute Force. Stan has performed with jazz greats Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Mann, Danilo Perez, Shirley Scott and Marlena Shaw. Stan has a M.A. degree from Lesley College in Expressive Arts Therapy where he is an adjunct professor. He also teaches at Berklee College of Music, Tufts University and Longy School of Music. Stan is Co-Executive Director of Express Yourself, a multidisciplinary team of professional artists, working in partnership with adolescents in public mental health residential facilities to produce multimedia performances that celebrate the restorative powers of serious art making.

John Tavano

The Poems & Songs of Alfred Nicol – Saturday 7:00 PM

John Tavano is a Classical Guitarist experienced in many styles of performing techniques including repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque period. Classical, Spanish Flamenco and the styles of Latin America. He has been concertizing for twenty five years, performing in clubs and restaurants throughout New England, New York, Paris, Mexico and Ireland. John is a staff musician at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, a member of the North Shore Musicians Association, and a classical guitar instructor in Haverhill and Newburyport MA. His CD 'La Gitana' was released in 2003. The recording features eight original compositions in the Latin/Samba ensemble tradition. Also included is music by Bach and Satie. His second CD "Avila" Ages of Romance. was released in 2005. This recording includes two guitar quartets, transcriptions from a contemporary opera and several original compositions.

Ann Tucker

The Poems & Songs of Alfred Nicol – Saturday 7:00 PM

Ann Tucker, soprano, is a featured concert soloist in the Newburyport and Northshore area. In the spring of 2010 she was invited to join the ensemble "Melopoeia" whose members include poets Rhina Espaillat and Alfred Nicol and classical guitarist and composer, John Tavano. Ann, whose father was born in Brazil, also sings Brazilian Bossa Nova music with guitarist John Tavano and they have had several performances of Bossa Nova and the Spanish music of Federico Garcia Lorca. You can find their music at www.bossabuena.com. In recent years she has worked with pianist Malgosia Smolarek on a varied program of classic artsong repertoire and songs from the Great American Songbook. Ann has studied voice with Dorothea Pliatska and Martha Peabody and currently studies with opera tenor, Neal Ferreira. She received a BFA from Miami University of Ohio and also studied at the American University of Beirut, the University of Mexico and the Escola Panamericana de Arte in Sao Paulo, Brazil.