John Burroughs performs his poem "Lens" w/ music at Nia Coffeehouse 03-2...

NightBallet had the good fortune to attend the Nia Coffeehouse poetry reading on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. The theme was "BEING AT PEACE IN OUR COMMUNITY": Poems of Power, Words of Life Against Violence and Brutality, and the event was held at St. Alban Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Cavana Faithwalker emceed and John Burroughs featured, along with Steven B. Smith and Kathy Smith, and Vince Robinson and the Jazz Poets (joined by Wanda Sobieska) dazzled with cool jazz grooves. "Lens", a new poem written and published--in a very limited edition of 30 by Crisis Chronicles Press especially for the event by John Burroughs earlier in the day--debuted with a bang. 

John Burroughs was published by NBP last year in the broadside "Low Kay Shun"; Steven B. Smith has two poems in the upcoming NBP anthology Buzzkill: Apocalypse, and Kathy Smith is working on a manuscript of poems entitled Firecracker Mandelas for NBP. Now, if we could only figure out how to get that sweet jazz between NBP covers!

April is National Poetry Month, and NightBallet has plenty of surprises in store for you!  Stay tuned for more exciting videos as we continue to gather the spoken word performances of NBP poets, and watch for the release of several new chaps over the coming weeks.  We're going to WALLOW in poetry, people!

CALL FOR PHOTO SUBMISSIONS

As most of you know, NightBallet Press will be publishing Buzzkill: Apocalypse, an End of the World Anthology, this year.  Along with "end of the world" poems (see an earlier blog on this site for details), I'm interested in ORIGINAL photographs that might fit the theme.  Let me be clear here:  I'm NOT interested in images taken from Google or some other photo site.  I want only your OWN original photos.  Suggestions of what I'm looking for include photos of air raid or tornado shelters or signage, tornados or giant hail, damage done by tornados, hurricanes, forest fires, etc, atomic symbols, graffiti or signage that might say something apocalyptic, and so on.  You can send me a link to the photo, or include it in the body of an email to nightballetpress@gmail.com, with PHOTO SUBMISSION- (your name) in the subject line, so I can find it when I need it.  The deadline for both poetry and photograph submissions is May Day, May 1, 2012, with a projected publication date of Summer Solstice, June 21, 2012.  I can't wait to see what you send me!

Sometimes, Illinois by Steve Brightman is published!

Ohio poet Steve Brightman's brand new NightBallet Press chap Sometimes, Illinois, is published!

 It debuted at the Mac's Back's event in Cleveland Heights last night, where Steve Brightman gave a simply delicious reading from his book:

NightBallet is very pleased to publish this fine poet, who uses both brevity and wit to create pithy little poems that pack a punch.  Seek him out and buy a copy of Sometimes, Illinois, or order yours on this website from NightBallet today!

Ohio poets Jim Lang (Coyote Moon, NightBallet Press 2012) and Bree (the melody, I swear, it's just around that way, Crisis Chronicles Press, 2011) also gave fantastic readings last night.  Jim Lang brought his own unique brand of performance, along with his wonderful, autobiographical poems:

Crisis Chronicles poet Bree began her reading with a song, and continued with a good number of beautiful, lyrical poems:

Many thanks to these three poets, who made March's combined NightBallet Press/Crisis Chronicles Press/Mac's Back's Books on Coventry event an exciting, satisfying, outstanding evening of poetry!  Special thanks to Suzanne DeGaetano for giving NightBallet and Crisis Chronicles the opportunity to bring this event to life.

Brightman, Bree and Lang, PLUS Updates!

NightBallet is very pleased to announce the upcoming Jim Lang- Steve Brightman- Bree reading, a NightBallet Press/Crisis Chronicles Press/Mac's Backs collaboration.  The event will take place at Mac's Back's Books on Coventry, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Hts, OH, on Wednesday, March 14, at 7 PM.  That's only one week from today!  Jim Lang will be reading from his new chap, Coyote Moon, published just last month by NBP, Bree will be reading from the melody, i swear, it's just around that way, published recently by CCP, and Steve Brightman will be reading from his brand new chap, Sometimes, Illinois, which NBP will be publishing this weekend!  Open mic will follow the features.  Having been intimate with both Lang's and Brightman's poems, and having read Bree's book as well, I promise you an evening of poetry you won't soon forget- hope you can join us!

Updates:  My day job has been brutal lately, and I've fallen a little behind on my publishing schedule.  However, if you are one of the NBP poets waiting to have your chapbook published, be assured I haven't forgotten you.  I've been working on multiple manuscripts, formatting whenever I had the time, and I'll be publishing several more chaps soon.  The next one is Elise Geither's Monologues For Poets, a truly delightful collection of themed poems and play excerpts.  She has seen the proposed chapbook cover, so I'm posting it here (Steve Brightman has not seen his cover, so I'm going to save his for a future posting).

The photo, by the way, is from a pic taken at John Burroughs' house at Christmas- it's the beautiful smile of his granddaughter, Jada.

Check out the new video in the left column- Chansonette Buck reads poems from her NBP chap blood oranges.   I'll be posting more videos of poets in the future, so stay tuned.

Heather Ann Schmidt tells me that she was stopped by an Indian woman on the street in Chicago, who bought her chap Batik on the spot.  Have poetry, will travel!

Cleveland poet Jean Brandt has promised me a manuscript (yay!) and so has Elyria poet John Burroughs.  And I've started collecting poems for the 2012 NightBallet Press Broadside Series, including a half-English, half-Spanish poem from Skylark Bruce. We'll have an exciting year here at NBP!  I'll be posting more updates as we go along.  For now, hope to see you at a local poetry reading soon!