August 22, 2008 - Speculative Poetry Party

(l to r): Drew Morse, Denise Dumars, Samantha Henderson, Kendall Evans, Gwynne Garfinkle
(bottom): Greg Stewart
(not pictured): Debbie Kolodji

On Friday night, August 22, 2008, Greg Stewart hosted a speculative poetry get-together at his home in West Los Angeles in honor of Drew Morse, the Science Fiction Poetry Association Rhysling Chair, who was visiting from Cleveland.

After poetry gossip and Chinese food, the group wrote two exquisite corpses and did a poetry read-around.

Note: An exquisite corpse is a collaboration where each participant adds to the work in sequence, resulting in a collaborative poem or drawing. Two methods were used Friday night. For the first poem, each person wrote a line and folded the page down so the next participant could not see any of what had been previously written. For the second, each poet wrote two lines, folding the paper so only the last line was visible. The results were interesting. Perhaps they will be published someday.

Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Night - April 14th

Kendall Evans and Denise Dumars

April 14th - Monday Night Poetry, Pasadena, CA

On Monday, April 14 at 8:00 p.m. Monday Night Poetry will feature a special science fiction and fantasty poetry night featuring Denise Dumars and Kendall Evans. Deborah P Kolodji and Don Kingfisher Campbell are the co-hosts.

The reading will be at the Santa Catalina Branch of the Pasadena Public Library on 999 E. Washington Blvd. in Pasadena. Enter to the rear of the library.

Attendees will receive copies of Sci Fi Fan 2 a special anthology containing a mix of sf poetry pros with local poets. The line-up is: Linda D. Addison, Ruth Berman, Anthony G. Bernstein, CaLokie, Don Kingfisher Campbell, Alan Cook, James S. Dorr, Denise Dumars, Peg Duthie, Engleman, Kendall Evans, Dan Garcia-Black, Jo Gerrard, Samantha Henderson, Patricia Kelly, Justin Kibbe, Deborah P Kolodji, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Dan Lambert, Geoffrey A. Landis, Sandra Lindow, Janis Lukstein, Radomir Luza, Mira Mataric, Nate Mohatt, Don Newton, Ruth Nolan, Terrie Leigh Relf, Ann K. Schwader, Marge Simon, G. Murray Thomas, Maja Trochimczyk, Mary Turzillo, Frida Westford, and Stephen M. Wilson.

Additional copies will be available at the reading for $10 each or can be ordered electronically through a paypal payment to sensitive@earthlink.net and including $2 for shipping ($12 total).

Museum of Jurassic Technology Workshop

Yoon Ha Lee, Deborah P Kolodji, Denise Dumars, W. Gregory Stewart,
Nancy Ellis Taylor, Sharon Hawley, Lois P. Jones, Kath Abela Wilson,
Kendall Evans

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, the Southland Poets of the Fantastic held their Spring quarterly workshop at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. A total of nine poets participated in this wonderfully surreal and beautifully strange day of poetry.

Seven of us started the day at Govinda's, which some say is one of the best vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles, a place of very inexpensive but utterly fabulous food located in a Hari Krishna temple. No one sang Hari Krishna or tried to convert us, but the atmosphere was otherworldly and fitting for a group of speculative poets. After feasting on black bean soup and vegetable curry and all sorts of other delicious things, we walked a few blocks to the museum.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology almost defies the ability to adequately describe it other than it is, by its nature, a sort of speculative poem. It might be best explored cold, with no idea that most of the exhibits are surreal poetic jokes delivered with a serious, straight face. It is much darker than most museums which adds to the incredible otherworldly atmosphere. Upstairs is a tea room, where the group met for prompt sharing, our writing session, and poetry reading (of our just written poems).

It was a wonderful day of speculative poetry.