Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Fresno poets Michael Meyerhofer and Angela Chaidez Vincent

MoSt Poetry welcomes featured poets Michael Meyerhofer and Angela Chaidez Vincent for its May  Second Tuesday Poetry series–this month at Bookish–Modesto’s very own, very new, and very exciting bookstore! 

Where: Bookish Bookstore, 811 W. Roseburg Avenue, Modesto CA 95350
When: Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 7:00 pm

Hosted by Modesto poet laureate emeritus Gillian Wegener;  open mic follows featured poets. Please sign up at event. 

Michael Meyerhofer

 

Headshot of Michael Meyerhofer in a black short-sleeved t-shirt, standing in front of foggy-topped mountains in the distance with golden grass in the immediate background.

 

Michael Meyerhofer is the author of five books of poetry—including What To Do If You’re Buried Alive (free from Doubleback Books). His work has appeared in The Sun, Missouri Review, Southern Review, Brevity, Rattle, and other journals. He’s also the author of a fantasy series and Poetry Editor of Atticus Review. For more info and an embarrassing childhood photo, visit troublewithhammers.com.

About WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE BURIED ALIVE

The poems in What To Do If You’re Buried Alive are tenderly masculine, self-deprecating and humorous. They are the poems of an adult male poet looking back at childhood and puberty with anything  but rose-colored glasses. He shows us how we see ourselves often through time—with a mixture of cringe and understanding.

Mary Biddinger, author of A Sunny Place with Adequate Water, writes, “With a compassionate eye, and his trademark sense of humor that hooks readers from the very first page, Meyerhofer sends us back to our earliest memories, and shows us a world of heartbreak and wonder.” And Jon Tribble, author of Natural State, adds “Through pain and loss, Meyerhofer’s poems are harrowing prayers searching for ‘the charms of language’ that might lead to forgiveness, to redemption, to love.”

Angela Chaidez Vincent

Headshot of poet Angela Chaidez Vincent, wearing teal-colored velvet blazer and white blouse against a solid dark background

Image credit: © Adrianne Mathiowetz Photography

Angela Chaidez Vincent writes poetry and fiction and has a background of livelihoods in engineering, mathematics, and programming. Her debut poetry collection ARENA GLOW (April 2024, Tourane Press) features poems about women with a daredevil oblique. Angela’s work has appeared in Oxford Review of Books, North American Review, 32 Poems, Atticus Review, and Bellevue Literary Review, among others. She lives in Fresno, California and is online at angelachaidezvincent.com.

 

Youth Poet Laureate’s Painless Poetry: Open Mic Performance

Saturday, Apr. 20, 2 pm
Join Faith Delgado, 2023-24 Stanislaus County Youth Poet Laureate, in this final installment of Painless Poetry. Come show off what you’ve been working on these past months! Connect with Stanislaus County Youth Poet Laureate Faith Delgado if you’d like more information: faithd@mostpoetry.org
Light refreshments will be served while they last.

Bloom Where Planted: Four Central Valley Poets for National Poetry Month

Join us for our next Second Tuesday Poetry on April 9, 2024, as we present four Central Valley poets to help us honor National Poetry Month.

Featuring Kristy Lauron, Elizabeth Sousa, Jazmarie LaTour,  and Kevin Walton with open mic following featured poets.

When: Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: The Artist Lab at Prospect Theater Project, 1218 K Street, Modesto CA 95354.  Plenty of street parking, free! We are also welcome to park across the street at the Stanislaus County Law Library. 
Open Mic Sign-up: https://forms.gle/rcwsEcyk7paszWk27(4 mins per poet or 2 pieces, whichever is shorter)

Our Featured Poets

Kristy Lauron

My name is Kristy Lauron and I am a published poet. I was born and raised in Stockton and have been immersed in the arts since childhood. I believe art is necessary for healing and sharing of our human existence. My poetry is a reflection of my self journey, offering insights to my trials and tribulations, all wrapped up in love.

Jazmarie LaTour

Jazmarie is the Poet Laureate of her hometown Stockton, Ca. She is an artisan, healer, mediation leader, and dreamer who uses writing to attune to the frequency and deep call of the Earth, her Ancestors, and the Great Spirit that leads her. Her love for spoken word performance has given her the courage to speak from her heart to anyone who will listen. Her love for the written word has given her the courage to allow others to hold a piece of her heart right in their hands. She is the author of the collection The Nature of Her, which can be ordered from the thenatureofher.com.

Elizabeth Sousa

Elizabeth Sousa is a poet from Turlock, a Type One Diabetes advocate, and an aspiring badass. She was co-organizer of the 2016 Writers Resist reading at the Prospect Theater Project, and she has performed her pieces on stages throughout the Central Valley.

Kevin Walton

Kevin is a poet and raconteur who founded a Facebook group, To the Prose Pros, a space where he shares his work and offers a forum for others to contribute.  He lives in Modesto with his wife, artist Traci Bookman.

MoSt Poetry Book Club

Join host Salvatore Salerno for a discussion of The Art of Drowning by Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate Emeritus. MoSt Book Club will meet Monday, April 22, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. in the Maker Space of the Stanislaus County Library, 1500 I Street, Modesto CA. Participants may pick up a free copy of The Art of Drowning at the library reference desk prior to the meeting. This MoSt event is free and open to the public.

Ekphrasis: Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Rhony Bhopla and Lynn Hansen

Ekphrastic poetry has come to be defined as poems written about works of art; however, in ancient Greece, the term ekphrasis was applied to the skill of describing a thing with vivid detail. —Getty Museum

We invite you to join the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center at Second Tuesday Poetry as we feature visual artist/poet Rhony Bhopla and Lynn Hansen of Modesto. Both poets will share their poems accompanied by images. With open mic following featured poets. Hosted by Stella Beratlis. 

Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm PST
Place: Artist Lab, Prospect Theater Project, 1214 K Street, Modesto, 95354
Open mic sign-up form (3 min per poet): https://forms.gle/RnPGLFptHija15RU8

 

RHONY BHOPLA

Headshot of poet Rhony Bhopla

 

Rhony Bhopla is a poet and visual artist whose poems and book reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in PRISM International, The Hopper, Notre Dame Review, Cherry Moon: Emerging Voices from the Asian Diaspora, Northwest Review, and Harvard Review. She is a member of the Mapmakers Alumni Institute, and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University. 

 

 

 

 

LYNN HANSEN

Photo of poet Lynn Hansen

 

Lynn M. Hansen is Faculty Emerita from Modesto Junior College Biological Sciences and a member of Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and the National League of American Pen Women, Modesto Branch. A new collection of travel poems, In the Presence of the Moai: Poetry and Prose of Travel, was published in November 2023. In addition to her other poetry collections, Flicker and The Journey to Sky Avenue, she has written an historical novel about the life of her grandmother.