Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Listen to the First Blend of 2010


Ryan Eckes

Below you will find the recording of January's Blend at the Blue Banana on South Street. It was by far the best turnout we've seen, and you, dear audience and fans, are to thank for that. We hope you continue to support PAPP events in the same, generous way!

The featured performers were, in order: Ryan Eckes, poet; John Todd, guitarist and singer; and Dan "the Man" Schall, poet. The open mic, which was eclectically mystifying, is included. If you prefer to download the files, or use a non-flash format, please just follow this link.



Also, let it be known that Blend will indeed continue in February, but it will no longer be a Poetic Arts Performance Project (PAPP) event. It was very great hosting it, but time has moved Blend in a new direction. We hope it continues to be as strong as it has been. Please make sure you check Blend out on Thursday, February 4th, when Cassendre Xavier and Jacob Russell will perform their work.

Friday, December 18, 2009

January Blend

COME TO BLEND @ BLUE BANANAS CAFE ON JANUARY 7th---features followed by an OPEN MIC--bring poems/songs--appetite--$5 cover--food and drink available for purchase, validated parking!

http://bluebananascafe.com/

Dan “the man” Schall: Born and raised in Philly, Dan recently earned a B.A. in English with a minor in Creative Writing from Arcadia University, and is currently attending the graduate program and teaching English composition there. He also publishes a quarterly chapbook, The Fridge Door, which showcases and celebrates the varied emotions and influences of writing across many curricula. His poetry is best described as "the real, the observed and imagined, fraught with as much disappointment and hope as is reflected in our human condition."

Ryan Eckes was born in Northeast Philadelphia and now he writes poems and teaches writing at Temple University and Community College of Philadelphia. You can find some of his writing on his blog, Old News (ryaneckes.blogspot.com) and in his chapbook when i come here (Plan B Press, 2007).

Jonathon Todd is a poet/musician from Blakeslee Pennsylvania, currently living in Northeast Philadelphia. Jonathon blends his love of language and imagery with a love for jazz, blues, and folk music. Jonathon is also working on a poem/short story collection. He is currently performing in various places in Philadelphia/Northeast Pennsylvania.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Listen to Blend

This past Thursday the Blue Banana continued our tradition. The Blend poetry series featured Stephanie Durann Seymour and Sueyeun Juliette Lee, two very different poets with very different styles whose performances were both striking and powerful.

You can listen to these, as well as our open-mic friends with old and new faces, by utilizing the embedded tool below, or clicking this link.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

December Blend

Apologies for the late update. Here are the details on this Thursday's poetry event!


Blend



Poetry and Music
at the Blue Banana

Featuring:
Sueyeun Juliette Lee (poet)
Jesse Schurr (singer songwriter)
Stephanie Durann Seymour (verbal alchemist)
Includes an open mic.
Cost: $5
Where: 223 South Street, Philadelphia
When: 7:15pm to 9:30pm.

Sueyeun Juliette Lee currently lives in Philadelphia where she edits Corollary Press, a small chapbook series dedicated to new work by writers of color. Her books include: Perfect Villagers (Octopus Books) and Mental Commitment Robots (Portable Press at Yo Yo Labs), ,She also has a new book titled Underground National forthcoming from Factory School in 2010.

Jesse Schurr is the lead singer of the Jesse Schurr Band. She has performed with her band at the TLA, Grapestreet Pub, World Cafe and The North Star Bar. Her style is sensual storytelling with a magical sense of musicianship.

Stephanie Durann is a writer from Philadelphia, PA who has performed under various reading series, festivals and cabarets in the city including Poets and Prophets, LadyFest Philly, Univers-all Voices, Black Women’s Arts Festival, Off Season! at the Sedgwick Theater, Eternal Now, and Women’s Writing & Spoken Word Series. She won Honorable Mention for her poetry in Byline Magazine in 2001 and was one of four winners of the Power99fm/Def Poetry Jam Contest in 2002. Her work was also featured in several publication including Hinge Online and The Worcester Review. She was also a participant in the National Book Foundation Summer Writing Camp in 2004. She was also and intern for the Philadelphia City Paper in the mid-90’s and a freelance writer for the University City Review and PAWPrint (Philadelphia Area Writers) Magazine, and hopes to restart her freelancing career. She produced her first chapbook, The Rites of Individual Passage in 2003 and is currently working on her second book.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Upcoming Symposium

This month's topic is Venues: Aesthetics, People, Politics, Readings and Performance
Join some of the amazing individuals who run some of the hottest poetic and mixed performance venues in Philadelphia as they tell us how it works, why they do it, what's their vision and how you can do it too.....

On this Symposium there will be Crucial (Panoramic Poetry), Autumn Konopka (Mad Poets), St. Skribbly LaCroix (The Last Word), Natalie Felix (CCE), and Ryan Eckes (Chapter and Verse) This event will be moderated by Courtney Bambrick.

The event costs $3. Proceeds to benefit Kids of Kadiogne.

When: Sunday, December 13, 2009 (2-4:30pm)
Where: 4226 Spruce Street, Philadelphia

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Chapter and Verse

Adam Meora, director of PAPP, read just yesterday at the Chapterhouse cafe and gallery located near 9th and Bainbridge. It was a good time. The other two featured readers were the lovely Tara Betts and Paul Siegell.

We encourage you to listen to the reading if you didn't get the chance.

Monday, November 9, 2009

The Second PAPP Symposium is Available for Stream and Download



Unlock your listening ears and get ready to ruffle some feathers. The second PAPP symposium is available to download in MP3 form, or merely stream for our world wide wave web, just below!



Alternatively, go here to the directory website to download the tracks in a different way.

Special thanks to Debrah Morkun, Ms. Wise, Ashraf Osman, Frank Sherlock, and Frank Walsh for making the panel discussions lively and contemplative. And thanks to the audience for keeping attention and providing the guests with impenetrable insight and imperial inquiry.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Download the Recording of November's Blend

If you want to download any of the reading/performance from this past Thursday, featuring great sets by poet Peter Baroth and guitarist Mark Toxiclife, click the link below. Files are in MP3 format.

Download

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

2nd Symposium Details

PAPP Presents: The Symposium

Identity, Community, Race, Ethnicity, Sex, Sexuality and Philly Poetry

Moderated by Debrah Morkun:
with Alyesha Wise/Aka Ms. Wise, Frank Walsh, Ashraf Osman, Frank Sherlock and perhaps another special guest

Where: University City Arts League
When: Sunday, November 8, 2009 (2:00pm - 4:30pm)
Cost: $3.00
Some proceeds to benefit Rubye's Kids

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Listen to the PAPP Symposium

Thanks to everyone coming out to PAPP's first poetry symposium featuring a wonderful panel, a wonderful audience, and a wonderful discussion. The event was recorded with an audio device and the resulting digital sound files can be downloaded here:

http://www.box.net/shared/d77b4n66cu

Please share this link with as many people as you. It's important not only to PAPP but to the poetry circles of the Greater Philadelphia Area. Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

PAPP's Symposium Series: What is Philadelphia Poetry?



What is Philadelphia Poetry? Who is Philadelphia Poetry? Where is Philadelphia Poetry? Why is Philadelphia Poetry? Join us as we consult some of the most moving and shaking poets in the Philadelphia area today as they discuss these and more questions over the next several months as part of PAPP's Symposium Series.

Our first panel of poets will address the question: What is a Philadelphia Poetics? This event will be moderated by Adam Meora. Panelists will include:
  • Debrah Morkun, founding member of the New Philadelphia Poets
  • CAConrad, author of Advanced Elvis Course and The Book of Frank
  • Tamara Oakman, director of the Light of Unity reading series and the Business of Words workshops
  • Sherod Smallman, host and organizer of Fuze at Infusion Cafe in Germantown
  • and Michelle Myers of Yellow Rage
When: Sunday, October 11, 2009
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Where: University City Arts League (4226 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA)
Cost: $3.00

Facebook Link

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Some News

A few updates as the summer drifts shut:

Blend this week was a great success! Thank you everyone for coming out, supporting, eating, and performing, including our features, poets Aaren Perry and Sarah Heady, and musician Lilla Kultsar. And it was good to see the open mic remaining strong, thanks to Vernon Jordan, D. H. Kerby, Dave Worrell, Brian Sammond, Amber Penniston, Mike Mannel, and Jeff Brennan. We hope to see everyone on the first Thursday of each month.

Secondly, please join us this Tuesday, September 8th, for a great reading at the Blue Grotto Reading Series in West Philadelphia (at the Community Ed Center (CEC) on Drexel's campus, 3500 Lancaster Ave). This phenomenal event, a first of its kind, will feature the members of the Poetic Arts Performance Project, including (with more TBA): St. Skribbly Lacroix, Adam Meora, Courtney Bambrick, Greg Bem, Ian Wolf, Ebony Collier, John Todd, and Frank Walsh. More information can be found here.

Thirdly, we've got some other great events coming up, but are still waiting on some of the media/loose ends to be tied. Keep a lookout for those!

Fourthly, there's been an unfortunate drowning of the camera that was used to take pictures and videos of the events. We're still getting kinks worked out, but if you have any media that can be displayed, email us.

If you want to join the mailing list, send an email to the PAPP's director.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The August Blend Event was a Success!

Thank you to everyone for coming out to Blend at the Blue Banana the other day. Anna Evans and Michelle Christine Garza were wonderful, and the open mic was the most eclectic and entertaining in some time.

Here are some pictures I took. The videos are currently being uploaded (Youtube link here).  If anyone else has any media, please comment on this post and we can work out putting it on the blog!


Director of PAPP, Adam "Naked" Meora



Poet Anna Evans (New Jersey)



Michelle Christine Garza (Pennsylvania)

Monday, August 3, 2009

August Light of Unity Event

FOOD, FUN, POETRY, MUSIC, FREE!

AUGUST 4, 2009 AT 6p.m.

The Light of Unity

Artist’s and Writer’s Series

Featuring:

Dan “the man” Schall: Born and raised in Philly, Dan recently earned a B.A. in English with a minor in Creative Writing from Arcadia University, and is currently attending the graduate program there, as well. He also publishes a quarterly chapbook, The Fridge Door, which showcases and celebrates the varied emotions and influences of writing across many curricula.

Ian Wolf: has been writing poetry and studying music for 15 years. He has performed at open mics for 10 years; recently at Blam!, The Mermaid Inn, and the Light of Unity Festival, and the University City Arts League.

Jeff Ingram: is a poet, professor, farmer, fly-fisherman, adventurer, and devoted husband to his wife, Kim. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Wisconsin Review, Lake Effect: A Journal of the Literary Arts, Bucks County Writer, Drexel Online Journal, Paumanok Review, and Salt Lake City Weekly. 

Paul Siegell: is the author of jambandbootleg (A-Head, 2009) and Poemergency Room (Otoliths Books, 2008). He is a staff editor at Painted Bride Quarterly and has contributed to The American Poetry Review. He has also been featured in Paste Magazine and the Philadelphia City Paper. paulsiegell.blogspot.com.

Ebony Malaika Collier: is a poet dwelling in the Philadelphia area. A core member of Philadelphia Poetic Arts Performance Project, she has read at various venues including the Black Women’s Arts Festival, Mad Poets Festival 2008, Poetry Ink at Robins/Moonstone.

The Alien Architect: says, “EYE used to define myself as an mc, NOW eye've come to find, passed my shell, that its empty, CUS... reducing 1's inner to an outer title is lible to stifle whats all the while compiled past this plastic recitle. EYE dont wanna transform in to a performance, on stage, afraid of being borin for them addorin fans. IM the ALIEN ARCHITECT, THE SECRET IDENTITY, THE ABSTRACT FICTION WRITER.”

Tamara Oakman: a graduate of Temple University with a BA in English, has won awards in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and drama. She has been published by Many Mountains Moving, Philadelphia Stories, Mad Poets Review, and other journals; reads poetry and fiction everywhere in Philadelphia and the tri-state area; and is completing her Master's of English at Arcadia University.

***

Parkway Central Library


Skyline Room; 4th Floor

1901 Vine Street

Philadelphia; PA 19103

(Cross Streets: (between 19th and 20th Streets
on the Parkway)


Open Mic


Questions: Tamara Oakman, Director – thebusinessofwords@gmail.com