Sacred Grove Reading Series

a reading series in tuscaloosa, alabama 💯😎💋 2014-2017 👍 curated by jd scott 👽🌳 sacred grove homepage 🍄

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Sacred Grove Reading Series hits the road this spring to take part in the 2017 New Orleans Poetry Festival! Our five readers will be reading in the Rooftop Room of the New Orleans Healing Center. Check out nolapoetry.com for more about the NOPF & sacredgrovereadingseries.weebly.com for more about Sacred Grove. ♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕♕ Rushelle Frazier is a permaculture designer, gardener, herbalist, teacher, spoken word and visual artist based in Worcester, MA. Born in Queens, NY, she has been involved with hosting poetry readings, workshops, and other cultural events throughout the East coast for over a decade. Rushelle is a member of the 2002 and 2015 Worcester Adult Slam Team, co-coach of the 2004 Worcester Youth Slam Team and the 2010 Savannah Youth Slam Team. Rushelle was voted Best Female Poet at the 2006 Savannah Spoken Word Festival. Rushelle founded Savannah, GA's Tongue! Open Mouth and Music Show, as well as Worcester, MA's Dirty Gerund Poetry Show and is co-founder of The Ladyface Players, a women's performance troupe. She is the host of The Hot Spot at Nine Dot Gallery in Worcester, MA She has been facilitating permaculture workshops and apprentice teaching design courses for the past four years, and has self-published seven chapbooks and recorded one poetry CD. Her two latest releases, Heavy Honey and Breakup Sauce, are for sale at DoubleBunny Press. Rushelle is the president of the Worcester County Poetry Association. Lauren Hunter is the author of HUMAN ACHIEVEMENTS (forthcoming from Birds, LLC) and the chapbook My Own Fires (Brothel Books 2011). She serves as the Managing Editor for Telephone & is the co-founder/curator of Electric Pumas, an occasional reading series/web presence based in NYC. Lauren currently lives in her hometown of Durham, North Carolina. Kwoya Fagin Maples is a writer from Charleston, S.C. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and is a graduate Cave Canem Fellow. In addition to a chapbook publication by Finishing Line Press entitled Something of Yours (2010) her work is published in several journals and anthologies including The African-American Review, PLUCK, Cave Canem Anthology XIII, The Birmingham Poetry Review, Right Hand Pointing and Sow’s Ear Poetry Review. Her current manuscript, MEND, tells the story of women who were the experimental subjects of Dr. James Marion Sims of Montgomery, Alabama. This work received a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. Maples teaches Creative Writing at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and organizes a three-dimensional poetry exhibit which features poetry and visual art including original paintings, photography, installations and film. Jenn Marie Nunes is the author of numerous chapbooks, including JUNED, winner of the YesYes Books 2015 Vinyl 45s Chapbook Contest and the collaborative Hymn: An Ovulution (Bloof Books 2015). Her work appears in such journals as ACTION YES, Tupelo Quarterly, Black Warrior Review, Ninth Letter, [PANK], and Dreginald, and she is co-founding editor of TENDE RLOIN, an online gallery for poetry. Her first full-length collection, AND/OR (2015), was the winner of the Switchback Books’ Queer Voices Award. Tim Jones-Yelvington is the author of two prose chapbooks, Evan's House and the Other Boys who Live There (Rose Metal Press) and Daniel, Damned (Solar Luxuriance), and one poetry chapbook, Become On Yr Face (forthcoming from New Michigan Press, winner of the Diagram Chapbook Contest), and a full-length fiction collection, This is a Dance Movie! (Tiny Hardcore Press) . His poetry and prose have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Puerto Del Sol, Harpur Palate, and many others.

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Come out to the last Sacred Grove of the spring season before fall into a permanent slumber! Also, for those hitting the road to the New Orleans Poetry Festival, Sacred Grove will be reading the next day and all three of our readers will be performing then too: Sacred Grove Reading Series at NOPF 2017! As always, the reading is free and open to the public (ages 19+) at Icon Tuscaloosa. Rushelle Frazier is a permaculture designer, gardener, herbalist, teacher, spoken word and visual artist based in Worcester, MA. Born in Queens, NY, she has been involved with hosting poetry readings, workshops, and other cultural events throughout the East coast for over a decade. Rushelle is a member of the 2002 and 2015 Worcester Adult Slam Team, co-coach of the 2004 Worcester Youth Slam Team and the 2010 Savannah Youth Slam Team. Rushelle was voted Best Female Poet at the 2006 Savannah Spoken Word Festival. Rushelle founded Savannah, GA's Tongue! Open Mouth and Music Show, as well as Worcester, MA's Dirty Gerund Poetry Show and is co-founder of The Ladyface Players, a women's performance troupe. She is the host of The Hot Spot at Nine Dot Gallery in Worcester, MA She has been facilitating permaculture workshops and apprentice teaching design courses for the past four years, and has self-published seven chapbooks and recorded one poetry CD. Her two latest releases, Heavy Honey and Breakup Sauce, are for sale at DoubleBunny Press. Rushelle is the president of the Worcester County Poetry Association. Lauren Hunter is the author of HUMAN ACHIEVEMENTS (forthcoming from Birds, LLC) and the chapbook My Own Fires (Brothel Books 2011). She serves as the Managing Editor for Telephone & is the co-founder/curator of Electric Pumas, an occasional reading series/web presence based in NYC. Lauren currently lives in her hometown of Durham, North Carolina. Tim Jones-Yelvington is the author of two prose chapbooks, Evan's House and the Other Boys who Live There (Rose Metal Press) and Daniel, Damned (Solar Luxuriance), and one poetry chapbook, Become On Yr Face (forthcoming from New Michigan Press, winner of the Diagram Chapbook Contest), and a full-length fiction collection, This is a Dance Movie! (Tiny Hardcore Press) . His poetry and prose have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Puerto Del Sol, Harpur Palate, and many others.

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Save the date for next month’s Sacred Grove Reading Series!

Ching-In Chen is the author of 'The Heart's Traffic' (Arktoi Books) and 'recombinant' (Kelsey Street Press) and co-editor of 'The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities' (South End Press; AK Press) and 'Here is a Pen: an Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets' (Achiote Press). A Kundiman, Lambda, Watering Hole and Callaloo Fellow, they are part of the Macondo and Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation writing communities. Their work has appeared in 'The Best American Experimental Writing', 'The &NOW Awards 3: The Best Innovative Writing,' and 'Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics.' They are a senior editor of 'The Conversant' and a poetry editor for 'Texas Review.' They currently teach creative writing and world literature at Sam Houston State University. www.chinginchen.com

Kristen Iskandrian’s first novel, MOTHEREST, is being published by Twelve/Hachette this August. Other work appears or is forthcoming in Tin House, Zyzzyva, Epoch, and Ploughshares, among others. Born and raised in the Philadelphia area to immigrant parents, she has lived much of her adult life in the South – first in Georgia for over a decade, and currently in Birmingham, Alabama.

Keegan Lester is the winner of the 2016 Slope Editions Book Prize, selected by Mary Ruefle, for his collection this shouldn’t be beautiful but it was & it was all i had, so i drew it. He is an American poet splitting time between New York City and Morgantown, West Virginia. His work is published in or forthcoming from the Boston Review, The Atlas Review, Powder Keg, BOAAT Journal, The Journal, Phantom Books, Tinderbox, CutBank, and Sixth Finch, among others, and has been featured on NPR, The New School Writing Blog, and Coldfront Magazine. He is the co-founder and poetry editor for the journal Souvenir Lit.

Isabelle Shepherd is a poet from West Virginia. She was a runner-up in the 2015 Pinch Literary Awards, judged by Ada Limón, and a finalist in the NC State Poetry Competition, judged by Yusef Komunyakaa. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, DIALOGIST, Sixth Finch, and elsewhere. She is an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

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Last night’s Sacred Grove Reading Series featuring Kallie Falandays, Ashley M. Jones, and Caroline Crew!

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Two magical girl poets coming thru to read to you next month in Tuscaloosa!

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Sacred Grove Reading Series & Seminar Series returns this week with two AMAZING poets via the Odes For You tour! The Odes For You tour is the two-woman poetry performance of celebrated, internationally touring poets Shira Erlichman and Angel Nafis. Through interwoven poems, monologues, songs and jokes, these poets engage each other and the audience in the vibrant and unstoppable song of celebration. Sacred Grove Seminar Series Date: Tuesday, January 17th Time: 3:00-4:30PM Where: Morgan Hall, Room 301 Sacred Grove Reading Series Date: Tuesday, January 17th Time: 7:30-9:00PM Where: Icon, 516 Greensboro Ave (Ages 19+) [FB Event for Reading] BOTH THE SEMINAR & THE READING ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ SACRED GROVE SEMINAR DESCRIPTION: What is the function of your writing beyond the page? How can you synthesize your work into a tool for your communities and the world? How can your work work for you? In this seminar, internationally touring, award winning poets Angel Nafis and Shira Erlichman will discuss their ODES FOR YOU TOUR practices and praxis including subverting the standard ode through radical iterations of praise. In the current political climate, bringing ODES FOR YOU to colleges, universities and theaters across the US reimagines poetic-political engagement. Leading workshops engaging ode as a tool not only for praise but empowerment, and by privileging personal narrative in their writing, Nafis and Erlichman unlock a sustainable working-artist practice. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ Angel Nafis is an Ann Arbor, Michigan native and Cave Canem graduate fellow. She is a recipient of the Millay Colony residency and a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Her work has appeared in The Rattling Wall, The BreakBeat Poets Anthology, MUZZLE Magazine, The Rumpus, Poetry Magazine and more. She has represented NYC at both the National Poetry Slam and the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is an Urban Word NYC Mentor and the founder, curator, and host of the Greenlight Poetry Salon. She is the author of BlackGirl Mansion (Red Beard / New School Poetics, 2012). With poet Morgan Parker she is The Other Black Girl Collective, an internationally touring Black Feminist poetry duo. She earned her BA at Hunter College and is an MFA candidate in poetry at Warren Wilson College. Facilitating writing workshops and reading poems globally, she lives in Brooklyn. Shira Erlichman is a poet, musician and visual artist. A three time Pushcart Prize nominee, her work can be found in The Huffington Post, PBS Poetry, The Massachusetts Review, BUST Magazine, BuzzFeed Reader and The Baffler, among others. She holds a BA from Hampshire College and was awarded a residency by the Millay Colony and the James Merrill Fellowship by the Vermont Studio Center. As a musician she’s performed her experimental pop-folk across the US, sharing stages with TuNe-YaRdS, CocoRosie and Mirah. Her new album "Subtle Creature" premiered in October 2016 in BUST Magazine, who hailed it as "a must-listen" and a "spectacular mystery." An Israeli immigrant raised in Massachusetts, she now lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their orange cat. Learn more at www.officialshira.com.

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SACRED GROVE: LGBTQ+ HISTORY MONTH MARATHON READING ft. Kayleb Candrilli, Emily Coon, Kit Emslie, shelley feller, JD Scott, Sophie Strohmeier, L. Lamar Wilson, & more! When: Thursday, October 6 @ 8:00pm (doors at 7:00pm) Where: Icon Bar, 516 Greensboro Avenue, Tuscaloosa, AL FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! AGES 19+! FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/149682062149048/ Come out and celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month with Sacred Grove! Not only is October when the Druid City celebrates Pride, but it's also a month-long annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of related civil rights movements. We'll be having a marathon reading to celebrate and honor LGBTQ+ pasts, both cultural and personal.

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Carrie Lorig & Nick Sturm performing at Sacred Grove Reading Series.

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Carrie Lorig is the author of The Pulp vs. The Throne (Artifice Books), a book of poems and essays. Her chapbooks include The Book of Repulsive Women (Essay Press), which was chosen by Lily Hoang for the Essay Press Chapbook Competition, Reading as a Wildflower Activist (H_NGM_N), and NODS (Magic Helicopter Press). She is curator for the Emory University reading and performance series Literature is Alive @ Emory. Nick Sturm is the author of How We Light, published by H_NGM_N, and is currently working on the manuscript Another Mona Bone Jakon. His poems, collaborations, and essays, including scholarly work on Ted Berrigan and Alice Notley, have appeared in Black Warrior Review, PEN, Fanzine, Chicago Review, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014, and elsewhere. He is Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama and lives in Atlanta.

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Elizabeth Hughey & Rodrigo Toscano reading for Sacred Grove Reading Series #8.

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Welcome back to the Sacred Grove! Our first reading of the fall will feature Elizabeth Hughey and Rodrigo Toscano. As always, Sacred Grove is free and open to the public. Elizabeth Hughey is the author two poetry collections: Sunday Houses the Sunday House (University of Iowa Press) and Guest Host (National Poetry Review Press). She is a recipient of Poetry Fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. After earning an MFA in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Elizabeth moved back to her hometown, Birmingham, Alabama. Together with her husband, Chip Brantley, she founded the the Desert Island Supply Co. (DISCO), a literary arts center in Birmingham. DISCO’s mission is to give students the creative tools they need to explore and document their worlds. DISCO’s space in Birmingham also serves as a hub for creative community projects and events. Rodrigo Toscano’s newest book of poetry is Explosion Rocks Springfield (Fence Books, 2016) His previous books include, Deck of Deeds, Collapsible Poetics Theater (a National Poetry Series selection), To Leveling Swerve, Platform, Partisans, and The Disparities. His poetry has appeared in the anthologies Voices Without Borders, Diasporic Avant Gardes, Imagined Theatres, In the Criminal’s Cabinet, Earth Bound, and Best American Poetry. Toscano has received a New York State Fellowship in Poetry. His poetics plays have been performed at the Disney Redcat Theater and Ontological-Hysteric Poet’s Theater Festival. His radio pieces have aired on WPIX FM, KAOS Public Radio, WNYU, and PS.1 Radio. His poetry has been translated into French, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese, Norwegian and Catalan. He works for the Labor Institute in conjunction with the United Steelworkers, the National Institute for Environmental Health Science, Communication Workers of America, and National Day Laborers Organizing Network. Originally, from San Diego, and after 16 years, in Brooklyn, NY, Toscano now lives in New Orleans.

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A photo (from March) of Adam Atkinson, Kwoya Fagin Maples, and Alina Stefanescu from our final reading of the season. See you all in the fall!

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Adam Atkinson is an Instructor of Creative Writing at Interlochen Arts Academy and a doctoral student in fag poetics at the University of Utah. He is one sixth of the poetry collective Line Assembly. His poems have appeared recently in Dreginald, Makeout Creek, Twelfth House, and bathroom stalls across the U.S. Kwoya Fagin Maples is a writer from Charleston, S.C. She holds an MFA from the University of Alabama and is a graduate Cave Canem Fellow. In addition to a chapbook publication by Finishing Line Press entitled Something of Yours (2010) she has published widely in several journals including The African-American Review, PLUCK! and the Sow’s Ear Poetry Review. She currently has a manuscript in progress which has received a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. She also organizes an annual 3-dimensional poetry exhibit. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and teaches Creative Writing at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania, raised in Alabama, and reared by the love-ghost of Tom Waits and Hannah Arendt. Her chapbook, Objects in Vases, is forthcoming from Anchor Plume (March 2016). She lives in Tuscaloosa with her partner and three small native mammal species. She lacks an MFA, which is comparable to lacking oxygen but also slightly different. Her story, "White Tennis Shoes", won the 2015 Ryan R. Gibbs Flash Fiction Award. You can read her syllables in current issues of PoemMemoirStory, Tinge Magazine, Jellyfish Review, New Delta Review, Lunch Ticket, and others. More online at www.alinastefanescu.com.

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Reading this Friday at The University of Alabama’s Sella-Granata Gallery. Gorgeous poster art by @emilysu!

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Last night at Sacred Grove Reading Series: S. Whitney Holmes, Abraham Smith, and Janaka Stucky

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S. Whitney Holmes is the author of Room Where I Get What I Want (Black Ocean, 2015) and of the chapbook Method of Loci (dancing girl press, 2013). She acts as executive director for the feminist press Switchback Books and is also an editor for The Offending Adam. She was born and raised in West Virginia, earned her M.F.A. from the University of Alabama, and currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, Poetry Northwest, Barrelhouse, and others. ⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱ Abraham Smith hails from Ladysmith, Wisconsin. His poetry collections — via Action Books — are Only Jesus Could Icefish in Summer (2014); Hank (2010); and Whim Man Mammon (2007). His reading highlights include stints at the Academy of American Poets’ Rooftop Reading Series and Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Smith winters as Instructor of English at University of Alabama; Smith summers as farmhand (Farmall tractor rider) on Hawks’ Highland Farm. ⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱⚱ Janaka Stucky is the author of The Truth Is We Are Perfect and the Publisher of Black Ocean as well as its annual poetry journal, Handsome. He is also the author of two chapbooks: Your Name Is The Only Freedom and The World Will Deny It For You. His poems have appeared in such journals as Denver Quarterly, Fence and North American Review, and his articles have been published by The Huffington Post and The Poetry Foundation. He is a two-time National Haiku Champion and in 2010 he was voted “Boston’s Best Poet” in the Boston Phoenix.

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Last night marks the fifth & final event in the “first season” of Sacred Grove Reading Series! Thanks to everyone who came out & made this all a success. See y’all in the fall!