OPA Units – News

Eugene-Springfield Chapter

Tuesday, October 23, 2012, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., Tuesday October 23, 2012, Springfield Public Library, 225 5th Street (inside City Hall), Springfield, OR  97477. Poets Bette Lynch Husted (Pendleton), Sam Roderick Roxas-Chua (Eugene) and Jana Zvibleman (Corvallis) will be reading at our bi-annual Springfield Reading series.

This event, now in its ninth year, is ably organized by Nancy Carol Moody and Sharon Munson, and is co-produced by the Eugene/Springfield chapter of OPA and the Springfield Public Library as part of the library’s Arts, Culture and Education series. Please join us!

Contact for more information: cathy (at) cathymcguire.com

Marys Peak Poets

Several Marys Peak Poets read at the Open Mic and six of the judges of the Fall Festival Youth Poetry Contest came to the Fall Festival Open Mic for the youthful contest winners and adult poets.  Judges attending: Sandy Lizut, Karen Stevens,Ellen Hamill, Linda Gelbrich, Betty McCauley and Be Davison Herrara who dedicated the reading as part of an International Reading for Peace and Justice.  Linda Varsell Smith was MC and Court Smith staffed the registration table.

Linda Varsell Smith

 

Mid-valley Poetry Society

(that’s any and all in the Salem area who care about poetry) will be held at 1 p.m. next Saturday, June 11, in room 102 of the Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE. (We haven’t confirmed the room yet, but will let you know if there’s a change.)

As usual, we’ll read and talk about poems (our own or by others), and share news of poetry events and activities in which we’re involved.

 

Portland Unit News

We would both like to send our heartfelt wishes to Christine Delea and thank her for her hard-working and inspiring service to OPA. We will miss her humor and energy at future events. Also, we want to express our support for the board as it incorporates new faces into the organization and together, faces the changes over the coming years both within and without the OPA.

We continue our reading series on the third Tuesday of every month but have changed venues to In Other Words feminist bookstore and community center. It is a great venue and we are very happy with our new home for the series. On June 21st, we have Cindy Williams-Gutierrez and Maggie Chula along with Kendra Carpenter who will accompany the poems by playing the cello. On July 19th, we have Carter McKenzie and Jessica Lamb. All of our events start at 7 p.m. and have an open mic., writing prompts and of course, cookies for Marv.  More info at www.figuresofspeechpdx.wordpress.com.

We have been teaching creative writing in an assisted living center for almost a year now. We’ve stumbled here and there, learned from our mistakes and now feel confident we have a good model for expanding the program to other centers.  We have 12 sessions of class descriptions written (1 per month) and a process that the residents, and administrators both enjoy and appreciate. If you’d like more information about this project, send us a line at [email protected] and we’ll talk.

We are committed to poetry and make as many events as possible. We encourage you to be the audience in your community. What poetry needs is all of us to be there and listen.

Steve Williams and Constance Hall [email protected]

The Rogue Valley unit  

 On May 12 the Rogue Valley chapter put on the fourth annual Poetry & Pie event at the Medford Library, co-sponsored by the Jackson County Library System. It was attended by about 60 people who read a poem to the group in exchange for a piece of delicious pie. The library made a display of poetry books from which readers could choose if they had not brought their own poem.

On May 8 our chapter collaborated with the Rogue Community College Humanities Department on “Voices of Oregon,” with Oregon Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen as our honored guest. “Voices” celebrated this year’s poetry prize winners, with OPA Fall and Spring contest winners, OPA Student Contest winners, Poetry Out Loud winners, and others reading the poems that won awards. An open mic followed.

The membership voted to contribute $100 to defray this year’s Student Contest deficit.

Carol Brockfield will be stepping down as chapter facilitator at the end of the summer, and members Linda Barnes, Dee Chadwell, Sally Erhman and Charlotte Abernathy have formed a committee to plan and implement next year’s activities.

Charlotte Abernathy’s poem “Cellar Shower” was liked by both dueling judges in the OPA Spring contest, who awarded her third prize and first honorable mention. Sara-Lynne Simpson, who mentors her students in writing poetry, won first prize in the Free Verse and third prize in New Poets. Judson Hyatt won first prize from judge Kyle Archibald in Dueling Judges for his poem “Blue Cheese.”

 

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