February 2012
6 posts
The Skinny on Poetry Festival Santa Cruz
This Sunday!!
POETRY FESTIVAL SANTA CRUZ takes place on February 12, 2012 at the Cocoanut Grove — Grand Ballroom (400 Beach Street, Santa Cruz). Doors open at 3 p.m. and the show starts at 3:30 p.m. There will also be a SPARRING ARTISTS EXCHANGE concurrently in the Bay View Room (adja…cent classic Casino window room) with books, art, memorabilia and photography. The festival is...
So Do the Streets
The original Polytechnic High School
Became Trade Tech College.
10th Street became Olympic Blvd.
Fort Street changed to Broadway.
Strawberry fields were on Hollywood Blvd,
It used to be called Prospect Avenue.
American Avenue became Long Beach Blvd.
Brooklyn Avenue became Avenida Caesar Chavez,
Santa Barbara Avenue became Martin Luther King.
Grand Avenue was once Charity Street.
Times...
February 19th, 2012
Café Cultural
1726 South Vermont Ave. Los Angeles, 90007
Poetry Reading:
“The Discovery Series”
presents
Featured Poet: Mike the Poet
Introducing
Discovery Poet: Trevon Kelley
Sunday, February 19, 2012
2 PM
Open Reading to Follow
Admission Free
A Presentation of the El Salvador Community & Cultural Corridor of Los Angeles
Celebrating L.A. Authors with a Poem →
L.A. Letters,
My weekly column
for KCET..
L.A. Authors
this week…
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs blamed the Projects
on “the Radiant City” of Le Corbusier.
The City of Towers
became a den of iniquity.
Twenty-four skyscrapers;
the City as a Park.
What sounded great on paper,
Played out different in New York.
January 2012
13 posts
Sunday February 5, 2011 at the LAst Bookstore:... →
Douglas Kearney will be featuring with us at the LAst Bookstore
on Sunday February 5th.. His bio is below & check the link for more info..
Douglas Kearney’s work as a poet, performer and librettist has been featured in many fine publications and venues in print, in-the-flesh and in digital code. His first full-length collection of poems, Fear, Some, was published in 2006 (Red Hen Press)....
Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts @ the Talking Stick...
Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts
returns to Southern California
for a Spar at the Talking Stick in Venice —
1411 Lincoln Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
January 28, 2012 at 7 p.m.
Hosted/produced
by Mike The Poet. Featuring: Steve Abee, Iris Berry,
Lisa Cherry, Ordell Cordova, Cheryl Fidelman, MichaeL C. Ford,
Ellyn… Maybe, Chuck Rosenthal, Elena Secota, Gail Wronsky,
V. LAzaro Zamora, Annisa,...
L.A. Letters #1: Lionel Rolfe & Johnny Otis →
The link connects
to my new column
for KCET titled,
“L.A. Letters.”
This edition covers
Lionel Rolfe & Johnny Otis.
Pop Up Poetry -- "Love is Living Large in Los...
The Studio for Southern California History hosts a “pop up” gallery
to celebrate 2012’s Chinese New Year of the Dragon at a weekend
gallery space at
818 N. Hill Street
in the commercial lobby
of the Best Western Hotel.
This “pop up” gallery celebrates “Love is Living LARG…E in Los Angeles,”
the Studio’s online exhibit dedicated to...
LAnguage with Mike the PoeT: 1/22/2012
Hosted by Mike the PoeT.. Open Reading before the feature. Statement Magazine is Cal State LA’s … Award Winning Literary Journal. Come see some seven of the city’s best young poets reading their work along with celebrated author Eric Priestley. Priestley will be reading from his latest work FOR KEEPS. Published by Otis Books: Seismicity. A founding member of the Watts...
LAndscapes of Memory
Landscapes of memory
Overlap geographies.
Narrative lives within the landmarks;
Sacred sites hold pieces of the heart.
Link to LAst Bookstore event on January 22. →
December 2011
15 posts
Occupy This -- A Live Streamed Poetry Event
This Saturday,
January 7, 2012
from 7:00pm until 11:30pm…
“We declare ourselves to be free. There is no debt, no cage, no jail cell that can contain us because we are already free.” –Josefina Lopez Casa 0101 and The Roots and Wings Project unite forces for Occupy This! a Poetry Event organized and hosted by artists and activis…ts Jesse Bliss and Josefina Lopez. The evening...
My Column about City Lights Publishing.. →
In December 2011 I wrote 4 columns
for Poets & Writers Magazine’s website..
There are brief reviews of the new books
by David Meltzer, Will Alexander & Ry Cooder..
Districts...
Downtown Los Angeles holds districts within districts. The area is large enough to have several small neighborhoods but small enough to be a tight-knit community. Though the districts have some outlined boundaries, the districts of downtown are smaller sub-districts of the bigger downtown. For instance, the Old Bank District is completely within the Historic Core. The Broadway Theater District is...
Dada Notes
Notes on Dada
After Tristan Tzara
Sound Poems
New Art
Cabaret Voltaire
Peoples Art Under
The Bridges of Paris
In the shadow of
Architectural Ribs.
Discrete detectives
set sixteen suicides
into the Russian night.
Recite French rites
Geographic Futurist Map Poems:
Marinetti’s Backbone,
Apollinaire’s Little Car.
Thank You Tristan Tzara.
Watering Holes
Libraries are monuments,
Bookstores are watering holes,
Get a book to get full.
Books heal souls for those
Who serve them faithfully,
Books alone are free..
Between MeaLs
Junot Diaz, Johnathan Lethem,
Dave Eggers, Jane Jacobs.
Lewis Mumford, PauL Goldberger
Hemingway & his Code Hero;
This is Not a Novel
City Terrace Field Manual
Variations on a Theme Park
The Seven Lamps of Architecture
Morning Breaks in the Elevator
My Vocabulary Did This To Me
Poetry As Insurgent Art
The Colossus of New York
Midnight at the Barrelhouse
Between Meals.
The Society of the...
Notes on Calvino & Steinberg..
Meta-literature
Levels of reality, Layers of mythology
Epistemologically
The phantoms of the Imagination
Laboratory conditions
Operators of metaphysics
Ghosts of cybernetics
Science of language, Graphic acrobatics
The pen, the hand, the artist, the man,
The cat, the desk,
Construct perspective,
A story within a story,
Story, information,
Story, information,
Creative NonFiction.
Mike Sonksen Is Alive in Los Angeles →
Blog for Poets & Writers…
P&W-supported spoken-word artist Mike Sonksen, author of I am Alive in Los Angeles, blogs about the L.A. poetry scene.
Folklore on the LAst Bookstore.. →
Weekends as Marathons
Weekends like marathons
Running around town
Hanging with Family,
two Poetry performances,
this is my daughter sleeping
Saturday on our way to Emi’s art show..
Thanks to Jeremy Sole
& Anne Carmack
for the photo..
The Studio For Southern California..
Saturday December 10
I will be performing a set
of poems at
The Studio for Southern California History 977 N. Hill Street Los Angeles, CA 90012
7.30PM.. For more info
on a full day of events
check below..
Taken from Website of The Studio for Southern Caifornia:
The STUDIO CELEBRATES ECHO PARK COMMUNITY PARADE AND THE STUDIO WITHOUT WALLS
Los Angeles, CA – Thursday, December 8, 2011...
Sunday Afternoon Poetry-- 12/11/2011
Check the Poets
throwing down
in 10,000 Sqare Feet
at the
LAst Bookstore
on
Sunday
December 11th
at 5pm…
Spoken Word
& Live Music
Hosted by
Mike the PoeT
Special Muscial Guest
Ice Truck
453 South Spring Street
(5th & Spring)
Enter on 5th..
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 488-0599
Here is a few paragraphs
about the bookstore from their website:
The...
What does it mean to be a poet? →
I’m blogging this month
for Poets & Writers Magazine,
this week’s article asks the question:
What does it mean to be a poet?
PoetiC SoundCLouD →
Here are a few recordings
of mine on Soundcloud..
“The OraL Tradition” Words by Mike the...
November 2011
17 posts
December 11th @ the LAst Bookstore
I’m hosting my next Spoken Word
& Live Music Affair at the LAst Bookstore
on Sunday December 11th at 4.30pm..
4.30 to 7pm..
453 S. Spring Street..
Spring & 5th across
from the Alexandria HoteL..
Feature will be Michael Rothenberg along
with many other great poets &
A set of Live Music by Akiko Murakata..
More info to follow very soon,
this is just the first...
600-foot section of road quietly slips into ocean →
The coastline where San Pedro
meets Rancho Palos Verdes
is beautiful & dangerous…
November 22nd...
Tuesday November 22nd
Poetry & Live Music
returns to the
Stella Adler Theater..
Come see many of LA’s
finest poets share
their work in a 99-seat theater.
6773 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028 2nd flr
8PM Free..
Hosted by MtP…
Krokeshi Dolls.. →
Krokeshi Dolls are the handmade dolls my wife Emi makes.
KOkeshi are traditional Japanese dolls made of wood. One characteristic of Kokeshi dolls is their lack of arms and legs. The KROkeshi doll is a CROcheted version of the traditional doll…..
Get it?!…KROkeshi!!
Check the link
to view them..
Night & the City! →
I will be hosting Pam Ward & Cheryl Klein channeling Chandler
on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 3 p.m. at the Gemini Manor,
1341 N. Mariposa Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027.
Bookmark your favorite Chandler passage
and join us at this open reading!
More info on the link….
Recording of my poem
“The OraL...