The Tucson Poetry Festival celebrates its 28th year with the theme  Poetry Where You Are. They plan on addressing the questions, “Where does poetry reside? What makes it vital to our everyday lives? How can we bring poetry out of the classroom and the library and into the world around us?” I would add, how do we tell our stories with poetry?

Friday, April 2, opens with readings at the Club Congress followed by the Grand Slam, billed as” the biggest Slam Poetry event that Tucson has ever seen”.  If you’ve never been to a slam (or even if you have), be prepared to be amazed!

Saturday, April 3, brings more readings and workshops with poets  Manuel Paul Lopez, Gypsee Yo, Linda Russo, and Sonya Renee, and a panel moderated by Paul Fisher.  See the schedule of events for times and locations.

Events are at Club Congress, Tucson High Library and Casa Libre.  You can buy a festival pass at the venues for the whole weekend for $25 or pay for individual events.  The High School readings and panel discussion are free.

The Festival is co-sponsored by Ocotillo Literary Endeavor and POG. For more information, contact mewakamatsu@msn.com

Ocotillo Poetry Slam presents a totally new event that will, according to their email announcement, change the entire way you look at the world!

Join in the fun at Robots, Zombies, and Mad Scientists on Saturday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Mat Bevel Institute / Museum of Kinetic Sculpture, 530 N Stone Ave (just north of 6th St).  It’s an all ages show and for only five bucks you can witness ”an urgent, life-or-death spoken word showcase to help prepare our community for upcoming apocalyptic struggles.”

They will addressing questions like:

* What kind of apocalypse is best for OUR community?

* Should we place our trust in the Scientific Genius driven mad by his lust for power, or on the Genius Scientist driven insane by hubris?

* What kind of boundaries should you set for your own zombie as he reaches older, more challenging stages of decomposition?

You’ll see all new work by some of your favorite Arizona poets and help “take the next step into a promising world of wild anarchy and horror.”  The show will be hosted by Doc Luben, with Maya Asher as The Disciplinarian and will include a feature performance by Paulie Lipman as well as an Underdog Monsters Haiku Death Match.  Since it’s almost Halloween, you are, of course, invited to come in costume.

For more info or if you want to get on their email list, contact Lindsay Miller <linzm@email.arizona.edu>

I’m on vacation but I have an inspiration for a post so I’m writing this from Berkeley, California.

Arline Klatte & Beth Lisick

Seven years ago Beth Lisick and Arline Klatte invited six people from different backgrounds to tell ten-minute true stories at a San Francisco club.  Porchlight Storytelling was successful from the start, attracting a diverse Bay Area audience and storytellers from hipsters to dotcom execs.  I went to a show about 6 years ago and loved it so much that I imported the model to Tucson.

Writer/performer Beth (disclaimer, she’s my daughter-in-law) told me about the beginnings of Porchlight.  She was invited to tell a story at The Moth, the New York City storytelling event that came to San Francisco for a show, and a club owner suggested that she start a storytelling event in San Francisco.  Since she was involved in the poetry slam community where it was common to start new events, she decided to just do it.

Beth and Arline are easygoing hosts at this popular monthly event that attracts hundreds of people.  They’re a good team because they have different connections so they can feature a diverse group of storytellers.

Although it’s difficult to get everyone together for a rehearsal, Beth says it makes a better and more cohesive show when all the storytellers can hear each other’s story and get and give feedback.

Mostly the stories are well received but they did have an unpleasant surprise once when a volunteer from the audience told an unrehearsed story that turned out to be racist.  When Arline and Beth returned to the stage they weren’t sure how to handle it so they announced that they don’t agree with the views and opinion of all the storytellers.

After six years of running the event on their own, Porchlight was picked up for sponsorship by Friends of the San Francisco Library.  Beth and Arline are branching out into teaching and will be presenting a four-week workshops at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco.

Beth, besides being a published author, is half of the comedy duo Groomed for Success with Tara Jepsen, and she’s working on another book.