Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Kathleen Cerveny is COMING TO TERMS!

As we continue to celebrate National Poetry Month, NightBallet Press is very excited to announce the publication of Coming to Terms by Cleveland Heights poet and visual artist Kathleen Cerveny!
 
 
 
 
Coming to Terms is Cerveny's first collection of poems.  Containing 56 pages of 41 poems in a narrative arc, Coming to Terms is passionate and visceral.  Titles suggest the alchemy that sparkles and sizzles throughout:

"Uncoupled"
"Falling Asleep at the Shoreline of a Pond"
"Too Much and Not Enough"
"Twirling"
"Unaccustomed as I was to public orgasms,"
"Trigger Point"
"Rung"
"Incantation"
"How to Build a Fire"
"My Father Climbed a Mountain Every Day"
"Waiting for the Mouse to Die"
"Forsythia"
"The centipedes in my shower"
"Leavesand Leaving"

In her poems,

Birds drop shards of broken song
into the afternoon like chips of flint.


and
 
A broken shell
reveals its spiraled stair.

Her "Forsythia" is (excerpt):


Waterfall of honeyed promise
                  Buttered signal flags of April
                                                Bangled arms of gypsy dancers


For prancing, can-can galaxy
                 canary-spangled chorus line
                                   For kicking up the day


These poems wink at you, sharing secrets and self-discovery.  They remember, reflect, reveal, rejoice, anticipate, question, and dream.  They bewitch. They breathe fire.  They whisper in your ear.  They sing arias. 
 
                                
       
Kathleen Cerveny is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art (BFA) and of the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Creative Writing Program (MFA).  During the 1970s and ’80s Kathleen exhibited her ceramics locally and nationally.  From 1987-90 she was Cleveland Public Radio’s first producer and broadcast journalist for the arts, winning more than 15 top awards and producing many features for National Public Radio.  Since 1991 Kathleen has been the Director of Arts Initiatives for the Cleveland Foundation, the country’s first community foundation. 

Her poems have appeared in the Southern New Hampshire University Journal: Amoskeag, the e-journal Shaking Like a Mountain, and in journals published by Pudding House Press, among others.  A poem of Kathleen’s was selected for inclusion in an anthology published by Future Cycle Press, Poems for Malala Yousafzai.  Kathleen is the 2014 recipient of the Robert Bergman Award from the Cleveland Arts Prize, and is the 2013-15 Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights.
 


Coming to Terms is printed on textured snow-white paper, with a textured white cardstock cover and a lilac-lavender cardstock insert.  The gorgeous cover photo was taken by New York poet and photographer George Wallace. You can pick up a copy for yourself, have it signed, and hear the poet read her own work at several upcoming events! 

On Thursday, April 16, 2015, Kathleen Cerveny will be the featured poet at  the Third Thursday reading at the Root CafĂ©, 852 W. Bath Road, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 7:30 PM, with an open mic to follow. This is the public debut of Coming to Terms, and the first time she'll be reading from the book.

On Saturday, April 18, 2015 Kathleen will be doing her farewell reading as Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights, accompanied by Jeanne Marie Beaumont, her mentor from the University of Southern Maine, Stonecoast Creative Writing Program.  The event will be held at 7:30 PM at Heights Arts, 2175 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio (216-371-3457).

On Monday, May 4, 2015, Kathleen will be one of the featured readers at Monday at Mahall's in Lakewood, Ohio. The event will start at 7:30pm; the address is Mahall's, 13200 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio, with an open mic to follow.  Co-feature is Stephen Haven.  NightBallet Press will be there with Kathleen's Coming to Terms, as well as a selection of other recent NBP publications!

If you are unable to attend these readings, you may purchase a copy of Coming to Terms right here for only $10 plus $4, or through Amazon.  The link to PayPal is below; order your copy today!



Friday, April 3, 2015

NightBallet Press Celebrates National Poetry Month 2015!


April is National Poetry Month, and NightBallet Press couldn't be more excited about it!  We have several exciting announcements and upcoming publications to celebrate our love of, passion for, and dedication to poetry:
NightBallet Press is thrilled to announce that Cleveland will host an event for the National Beat Poetry Festival in September of this year!

"The National Beat Poetry Festival, as a non-profit organization, is dedicated to hosting, collaborating, and fostering joint partnerships for Beat-themed poetry readings, workshops, plays, radio shows and much more, locally and across America...and even internationally at times.  The collaborations and joint partnerships extend to individuals, organizations, and representatives of universities and colleges. NBPF supports the further development and exposure of non-traditional poetry from people of all ages and backgrounds within communities where interest is significant and/or where interest needs support. The Beat Generation's significant writings and history of its original prime movers lives on from its inception in the early 1940's, and its legacy continues today by way of new writers, poets and artists of disparate influences and means of expression. The NBFP is committed to not only supporting venues in existence, but also in developing new venues where cultural preservation and the works of new artists can show yesterday meeting the living voices of today. NBFP's activities promote literacy and open exchange dialogue which incorporates the Beat history and art at its base, to break boundaries and bridge cultures with new thought, ideas, and free expression."

Confirmed participating cities and states, with the administrators of the events in parentheses, include

Connecticut (Festival Headquarters, Free Poets Collective)
Massachusetts (Lori Desrosiers)
New York City (Nicole Goodwin)
Indiana (William Sovern)
Kansas City, Missouri (Jason Ryberg)
Pittsburgh, PA (Jim D. Deuchars)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Amelia Matus)
Long Island, NY (Kat Lamberg)
Berkeley, CA (Harold Adler)
Oklahoma (Benjamin Myers)
Fredonia, NY (Vincent Quatroche)
San Luis Obispo, CA (Kevin Patrick Sullivan)
Chicago, IL (Charlie Newman)
Clearwater, FL (Larry Jaffe)
West Virginia  (William DeVault)
Poland (Anna Zapalska)
Mumbai, India (Sunil Sharma)
and
Cleveland (Dianne Borsenik)

This is going to be BIG, and we are especially pleased and honored to represent the Festival in Cleveland, home of d. a. levy.  "As poet, artist and publisher, d.a. levy was an important literary and underground figure in Cleveland's emerging poetry and small/alternative press scene in the early 1960s and continued to be until his untimely death in 1968."  (Read more about levy HERE)

We will post more details as the Cleveland event's location and featured poets are confirmed.  But one thing is certainCleveland will feel the BEAT this coming September!  And we want YOU to plan on being a part of Cleveland's heartBeat!
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Margie Shaheed's recently published Onomatopoeia received a wonderful review from Lorraine Currelley at Mom Egg Review.  Currelley writes:
 
 

"I became a passenger on a journey of exploding colors, passion and emotions. Stopping to digest and to breathe in familiar experiences and images. Margie Shaheed’s poems and stories pull at you, demanding your full attention."  

                                   

Check out Onomatopoeia HERE.

Read the entire Mom Egg review of Onomatopoeia HERE!

And if you have the opportunity to hear Margie Shaheed read, don't miss it...she is an exciting and dynamic poet!

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NightBallet plans on publishing several books this month of April, so you'll want to keep an eye out for new work by Ohioans Kathleen Cerveny (Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights 2013-2014) and Steve Brightman, and New Yorker Alan Catlin!


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Be sure to check the Cleveland Poetics Blog Calendar for local poetry events.  Check out Cuyahoga County Public Library's daily poem and poetry prompt at Read + Write: 30 Days of PoetryWrite a poem.  Attend a reading.  Buy a book.  Hug a poet.  Join with us in celebrating the glorious art of poetry!