RD Armstrong
Lummox Press
Mama's Hot Tamales
(2007)
Moonday Poetry Series
(2008)
Organic Soul Movement
(2007)
Phil Taggart - Askew Journal
(2011)
Interviews with poets, publishers & series' hosts
Jessica Goodheart is a poet, journalist and creator of an online essay series, "Poets on the Beat," in which noted Los Angeles-based poets reflect on the social issues of the day. The project, which she describes in this Poetry.LA interview, is a collaboration between Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center and the online news publication, Capital & Main, that is carrying the series. Goodheart, whose poetry has appeared in Best American Poetry and Antioch Review, is the author of the collection, Earthquake Season (Word Press, 2010).
RD Armstrong-a.k.a. Raindog-founded Lummox Press in 1995 and has published hundreds of poets across the U.S. and abroad, including books by individual poets, chapbooks, and the annual Lummox Poetry Anthology. Armstrong has authored several collections, most recently, Orphaned Words - Forgotten Poems from a Haphazard Life (Lummox Press, 2018). In 2010, following a hospital stay, he published E/OR: - Living Amongst the Mangled, poems about the struggles poor people have in the American healthcare system. (This interview was conducted in 2018. An interview from 2008 can be found here.)
Irene Sanchez, PhD., is an educator, poet, writer, artist, and public scholar focused on social justice. She has presented, keynoted, or moderated panels at over 50 colleges, universities, and conferences. Venues have included Harvard Univ., UCLA, Univ. of Washington-Seattle, UC Students of Color Conference, and the 2018 Latina Writers Conference in Los Angeles.
Matt Sedillo, author of For What I Might Do Tomorrow (Caza De Poesia, 2010), is a two-time national slam poet and grand slam champion of the Damn Slam Los Angeles 2011. His poems have appeared in anthologies alongside Amiri Baraka, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Luis Rodriguez and Jack Hirschman. Sedillo has brought his poetry of revolution to over 60 colleges and universities as a performer, speaker, and workshop leader.
Village Books in Pacific Palisades, before falling victim to a host of economic pressures, was the site of the Moonday poetry series founded in 2003. The series currently continues at Flintridge Bookstore in La Canada Flintridge, CA. In this 2008 interview, store owner Katie O'Laughlin and co-hosts Lois P. Jones and Alice Pero (founder) discuss the series and store's support of local poets' books.
Open mic M.C. Conney Williams (L.) and Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator Jawanza Dumisani (R.) discuss the workings of The World Stage poetry program.
Phil Taggart, Askew Poetry Journal co-founder/editor, with Marsha de la O, discusses the journal, the Ventura County poetry community, and his own poetry.
In this 2007 interview, poet Rick Lupert talks about Cobalt Poets, a very popular weekly reading series he hosted from 1994 to 2014 in Canoga Park, CA, and his tradition of publishing poster-size broadsides of featured poets' work. Lupert also discusses his own development as a poet.
Kate Gale, co-founder (with Mark Cull) and Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, Southern California's largest independent literary publisher, talks about her publishing philosophy and the history of Red Hen in this 2007 interview.
A.K. Toney is a poet and educator. His "Reading Is Poetry" program uses the poetry workshop model to help children, teens, and adults gain reading fluency and develop their own poet voices. It operates in the L.A. Unified School District and the wider community.
The Casa Romantica Reading Series hosted scores of nationally noted poets at an historic, ocean-view estate in San Clemente, CA, from 2004 to 2010. During that run, co-founders (left to right) Elisa Pulido, Lorene Delany-Ullman, and Michelle Mitchel-Foust sat down with PoetryLA to discuss the landmark series that produced quality CDs with samplings of each season's readers.
In a 2007 interview, Javis The Bravest and Jamie Butterfly talk about the Venetian Cosmos, a poetry and performance series they hosted at The Venice Contemporary gallery.
Redondo Poets hosts (L. to R.) Jim Doane, Stephany Prodromides and Larry Colker talk about their long- running reading series at Coffee Cartel in Redondo Beach.
This 2007 interview with Sarah Cruse and DJ Melaaza (Monica Ortiz), founders of the Organic Soul Movement reading and performance series, includes scenes from one of their events at the Industrial Cafe & Jazz in Culver City.
In a 2007 interview at the Ruskin Art Club, then based in a Mid-Wilshire house designated a Historic Cultural Monument, Elena Karina Byrne discusses the organization's poetry program. Today, the club is based at the University of Southern California.
In 2007, long time poetry hosts James "Boomer" Maverick (L.) and Rafael F.J. Alvarado (R.), sit down at one of their venues, Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe in L.A.'s Westlake District, and discuss their world with Poetry.LA.
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