Midstream Reading Series
When: Thursday March 9, 7:30–8:30pm. 2017
Where: Blue Moon building, corner of 39th and (3820) East Lake. Upstairs.
Best to arrive 10-20 minutes early to get coffee and food/dessert from the Blue Moon, and to be seated by 7:30 so we can begin on time. And, the venue will easily hold about 30; after that, standing or floor-sitting room only. The early bird gets the seat. Please occupy the close seats first. Be an up-front person.
Musical Prelude: 6:45 - 7:20 .Black gospel and old-time banjo blues, played by John Wenstrom (banjo, mandolin) and John Magnuson (guitar) open at 6:40; hang out before at the Blue Moon.
Original poems and stories read/performed by their creators:
Michael S Moos, Greg Ruud, Maureen Skelly, River Urke, TBA-Man
Michael S. Moos is the author of A Long Way to See (MN Book Award nominee), Morning Windows (MN Voices Winner) and Hawk Hover. He has received NEA, Loft-McKnight, and MN State Arts Board awards, and has an MFA from Columbia University. He has been a writer-in-residence for the Academy of American Poets, the O’Neil Theater Center/National Theater of the Deaf, and a visiting writer for state arts councils in Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. The NEA made two documentary films of his work as a visiting poet: Like Silent Thunder and Slowly the Singing Began. He has recent or forthcoming poems in Atlanta Review, The Midwest Quarterly, Cottonwood, Briar Cliff Review, Great River Review, Plainsongs, and Notre Dame Review. He was recently nominated for a 2017 Pushcart Prize. He divides his time between St. Paul and the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Greg Ruud has written and performed stories and poetry all his life, all 69 years so far. A former teacher at St Kate's for the 4 year RN nurses Program, he became more interested in the class held there in the healing art of Poetry Therapy. Over the last 20 plus years he has met with 16 or more mostly women every two months as a part of the Minnesota Poetry Therapy Network. Through the group, he has come into his own as a writer of screenplays, short stories, and prose.
Maureen Skelly. Exploring oral tradition, Maureen worked with Susu Jeffrey's Poetry for the People, and Roy McBride's The Dream Band in the interim between the Beats and Spoken Word /Slams. She performed with Tim Gadban's bands Red Cloud, Wolves and Ravens, and hosted The Northland Literary Review on KFAI Radio ..She has organized ten large poetry events in the region including Bread and Poetry, A Food Shelf Benefit with Meridel LeSeur, Singing the Way North, A Benefit for Manidou Geezhigance, and most recently Confluence, A Gratitude Ceremony,-opening and closing the 35th Women and Spirituality Conference in Mankato. She served on the board of The Powderhorn Writers Festival, which transformed a Neighborhood. Maureen has taught at the Loft, been poet in residence in elementary schools and teaches in her grandchildren’s schools. She has published in numerous anthologies and will read from a manuscript in progress, "Taking Care of the Eighty Year Olds."
River Maria Urke has the heart of a poet and the eyes of an artist. She lives in Stillwater, Minnesota with her teenage daughter, Willow and all their pets. River’s poetic writings and artistic touches reflect her Ojibwe heritage along with the ponderings she has being a forty something American mother living with the progression of Multiple Sclerosis. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Stumbled & Standing and When Spirits Touch, and a non-fiction, Women’s Obsession with Shoes. River is a contributor in four anthologies including the 2014 St Paul Almanac and the 2016 Martin Lake Workshop. She won the 2013 Made Here poetry contest in Minneapolis and her words took stage in 2014 in The Blacker the Berry theatre performance. River is the facilitator of the Mulberry Street Poets in Stillwater and a member of the TGI Frybread poetry group in Minneapolis. website- www.rivermaria.com
Before and after: The Blue Moon, downstairs, has coffee, sandwiches, desserts. Merlin’s Rest, a bar/restaurant 3 blocks west, has a full bar, good food, a late hours kitchen, reserved seating..
For further information:David Shove shove001@umn.edu 651-636-5672
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