Robert Peake

I will be reading as a featured poet in the Artist’s Union Gallery’s annual Erotic Poetry Benefit. This reading celebrates the erotic in the broadest sense - works that evoke yearning, longing, and loss, as well as the more traditional praises of desire and tributes to the beloved. The reading will be held in conjunction with the gallery’s annual erotic art exhibit, and all proceeds go to benefit the gallery’s good works. The event starts on Saturday, Feb. 10th at 7:00 pm and there is a $10 donation at the door. The gallery is located at 330 South California Street in Ventura.

Christopher Buckley gave an excellent reading tonight at the Artist’s Union Gallery, followed by a first-string lineup of local poets at the open mic. I kept getting the sense that we poets are part of the same baseball team, stepping up to bat at the podium. Tonight we cleared the bench in Chris’ honor, celebrating news of his latest publication and huddling around the glow of words to keep warm.

Thanks to Roe Estep for hosting a fun, casual evening of open mic poetry at the Artist’s Union Gallery in Ventura. A little more about the reading series, including news of some prominent upcoming poets, is available here.

I had the privilege of attending a celebration of (Cafe) SOLO and its patron saint, Glenna Luschei tonight at the Artist’s Union Gallery in Ventura. Hosted by its principal editors, Kevin Patrick Sullivan, Chryss Yost, and Jackson Wheeler, the event celebrating a magnificent forty years of publication featured forty poets published in this iconic literary periodical. Poets gathered here to read from Ventura, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Luis Obispo counties as well as one poet from New York. Just a few of the remarkable readers gathered this evening included: the omnipresent Richard Beban, Doris Vernon, Enid Osborne, Teka-Lark Lo, Mel Weisberg, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Barry Spacks, and my own master class teacher and the coordinator of the LA Poetry Festival, Suzanne Lummis. Poets spoke of and paid tribute to the generous spirit of Glenna Luschei and the achievement of such a long run of such a venerable and significant publication. The place was packed, the night was warm. I’m told the cake was excellent. Better still, the poetry, the spirit of the place, and the celebration.