About 30 people made their way to the Oro Valley library last night to enjoy Monsoon Voices, a new addition to the Tucson spoken word scene.  Four writers and one musician offered their work at the event billed as a “live literary magazine of poetry, prose and song”.

As a midtowner, I always feel like I need to leave a trail of breadcrumbs when I venture out to the surrounding areas, but a number of people told me they liked having a literary event in their neck of the woods.  I still can’t help thinking that there would be a bigger audience (and this event deserves that) if they were more centrally located.

Founders Traci and Patrick Moore (appropriately, they met at a poetry reading) began the series in Phoenix in 2007.  After moving to Tucson, they added a second series down here and they put on events about every 8 weeks.  What’s unique about this event is that writers & musicians submit their work and it’s juried for quality and acceptability.  Each performer is limited to 6 minutes.  The Moores are looking for “solid writing that entertains, inspires and educates our audience”.   This is not your open mic where anything goes.

Last night’s lineup included poet, teacher and editor of the online poetry journal, Voices on the Wind, Leslie Clark; short story writer, Michele Finn Johnson; singer songwriter, Amber Gaia; humorous essayist and columnist for the now defunct Desert Dog News, Hollis Fingold; and poet and editor-in-chief of Moon Journal Press, Mary Ber.  To round out the evening, the Moores read from Arizona poets David Chrolton and Mary Sojourner’s work.  Although the event is free, donations are happily accepted.

The next Monsoon Voices will be held on September 12 and the deadline for submissions is August 22.  Submission guidelines for writing and music can be found at www.monsoonvoices.wordpress.com.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 9:58 am and is filed under Arts. Tags for this post: poetry reading, prose reading, spoken word, storytelling, Tucson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.