The Planet Earth Poetry reading series is a launching pad for the energies of writers and poets established and not. It is a place where words are most important. A venue in which all manner of poets and writers are welcome; a place for excellence, innovation, collaboration, diverse projects and experiments. The evening begins at 7:30 with an open mic, followed by a featured reader(s). Planet Earth Poetry is located at Hillside Coffee and Tea (formerly The Moka House), 1633 Hillside Ave (across from Bolen Books). Sign-up for the open mic begins at 7pm.
AND THE SEASON BEGINS!
Starting September 19, Planet Earth Poetry happens every Friday night at Hillside Coffee and Tea.
Do you put your poets in alphabetical order?
Friday, September 19, 2014
READ A FAVOURITE POEM & BOOK SALE
Opening night of Planet Earth Poetry is a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders. Featured readers tonight are all of you! This is the night where everyone brings to the open mike a poem written by one of their favourite poets. One poem; maximum 3 minutes.
Part of the fundraiser is a table full of books to buy: $5 each for the latest in poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
Planet Earth Poetry has not raised its cover charge since inception. This season, we will maintain our minimum $3 cover, but are suggesting everyone put $5 in the hat, to help support bringing poets from across BC and Canada (and sometimes even farther away) to read at our nationally recognized reading series.
Kate Braid’s new memoir, Journeywoman.
Friday, September 26, 2014
KATE BRAID & JOHN TERPSTRA
Kate Braid has written and co-edited five books of poetry and four of nonfiction, most recently Journeywoman: Swinging a Hammer in a Man's World, a memoir of her 15 years in construction. See katebraid.com
Since post-war women started working in the trades in the 1970s, very little has been written about their experiences. In poetry and prose, with humour, compassion and courage, Kate Braid tells how she became a carpenter building houses, bridges and high-rises. It was not an easy career choice but she loved the work and slowly carved a place for herself, asking herself and then those who would challenge her, why shouldn’t a woman be a carpenter?
John Terpstra reads from his latest collection Naked Trees.
John Terpstra has published nine books of poetry and four of creative non-fiction. Along the way he has won a few prizes and been short-listed for a few more. A plaque with one of his poems, called “Giants,” is mounted on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, overlooking the city of Hamilton, where he lives and works as a furniture maker.
Naked Trees is a meditation on urban trees. It explores the life and death of these trees and the people who live with them. We see the trees through the eyes of a child, who finds her tree friendly and inviting, or view the tree’s life through the thoughts of a leaf, promised flight, but denied it by the capricious wind. Terpstra finishes the collection with a section on varieties, composed of poems on individual tree types such as prunus serotina and utility pole.