OPA Units

About the OPA Units

 

Please check Unit News for the most up-to-date information.

EUGENE-SPRINGFIELD

The chapter head is Cathy McGuire.  No meetings, but two events: a biannual reading series and an outreach to high school poets. Contact form for Eugene/Springfield.

MARYS PEAK POETS

The Marys Peak Poets meet on the last Sunday of the month at 7 at  471 NW Hemlock Ave, Corvallis,  Everyone is welcome and you can bring a poem you want critiqued (please bring 10 copies).  Since the meeting falls on Easter in April, some poets might not be able to come this month.

For directions call:  541-753-3335 or to contact the Mary’s Peak Unit by e-mail, use the OPA Contact form for the Mary’s Peak Unit.

The chapter head is Linda Varsell Smith.

PORTLAND

A reading series on the third Tuesday of every month at In Other Words feminist bookstore and community center. The unit heads are Constance Hall and Steve Williams. To contact the Portland Unit by e-mail, use the OPA Contact form for the Portland Unit.

ROGUE VALLEY

Our chapter meets at the Medford Library on the second Saturday of each month (except December, when we party at 1010 S. Oakdale Avenue in Medford). We also have a crit group that meets on the third Saturday. (Participation in this group group is currently limited to the present ten members.)

 

To contact the Rogue Valley Unit by e-mail, use the OPA Contact form for the Rogue Valley Unit.


 

MID-VALLEY POETRY SOCIETY

The MVPS is an open group of poets and poetry aficionados in Salem and surrounding communities. Co-founded in 2010 by Eleanor Berry and the late Virginia Corrie-Cozart, its mission is to create community among poets and poetry aficionados, to be a nexus for poetry activities and resources, and to promote appreciation for poetry throughout the greater Salem area.

The group meets monthly, except July, August, and December, on second Saturdays. The meetings are open to anyone in the greater Salem area with an interest in poetry.

The MVPS has a number of ongoing programs and activities. Since 2012 members have written a monthly column on Oregon poets for the Salem Statesman Journal. In addition, for the past couple of years MVPS member Steve Slemenda has been hosting a twice-monthly half-hour program, Poetry on the Air, on Salem’s community radio station, KMUZ.

For several years, MVPS members have also shared poems through a poetry box in a local coffee house. During COVID-19 pandemic closures, poems have been shared via email instead.

  Since 2013, the group has organized “Poetry in Performance” events, featuring poets for whom performance is an integral part of their art. These have evolved into an annual series of three such events per year, usually with partial grant-funding. Featured poets often perform in collaboration with artists in other media. Each event includes an open mic segment.

In addition to programs organized by the MVPS, Salem is fortunate to have Marc Janssen’s Salem Poetry Project, which has been holding weekly Thursday-evening readings with featured poets and open mics since January 2016, continuing via Zoom during the COVID-19 closures. The Poetry Project and the MVPS are mutually supportive.

The MVPS regularly collaborates with visual arts organizations in the Salem area. For several years it has joined with Artists in Action on Paint the Town / Write the Town, an annual program in which visual artists and poets create works at designated sites over the summer, then exhibit and perform them in the fall. In 2020-2021 the MVPS is collaborating with the Salem Art Association on a program of joint residencies for poets and visual artists.

To contact the Mid-Valley Poetry Society by e-mail, use the OPA Contact form for the Salem Unit.

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