Thousands of students across the country are bringing poetry to life by competing in this year's Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest. This is the contest's fifth year, and it is growing rapidly, influencing thousands of high school students to learn and perform poetry. Kristin Margolis, the California state contact from the California Arts Council, said that "there is an incredible demand for the program, with 300,000 participants nationwide this year." "California has the most competing in the nation," Margolis said. "We will have 40,000 students from 27 counties, which is a big jump from the 24 counties that competed last year and 20 counties the year before that." The progr

Master Barber Shop was established in 1958 and was acquired by Earlie D. and Mary Brown in December of 1974. During that time, the shop was located on Stockton Blvd. and 7th Ave. Since those early days, Master Barber & Beauty Shop, has had several locations. Each location being better than the last. In 1989, sons Rodney and Marichal, joined the family business. The late owner and master barber, Earlie D. Brown, established business in the hair industry in the mid 1940's with Brown's Barber Shop (two locations, San Francisco and Marin City). What started out as nothing more than a dream and a dime and a nail in his pocket has turned into a family business. He died in February 1998. Mary Br

Terry Moore (T Mo) In Sacramento, we are very fortunate to have award-winning spoken word poet Terry Moore as part of our poetry scene. While he has performed his poetry all around the country, he organizes and hosts plenty of local events to showcase other artists from the Capital region and beyond. Terry hosts The Show, the popular Saturday night series in Oak Park. You’ll see him there on the last Saturday of every month, taking videos, making sure everyone is comfortable, getting young people to participate, and introducing acts with warmth and style. But when T-Mo takes the stage to speak his own pieces, the intensity goes up. Working smoothly, often with a two- or three- piece band

Born and raised in Sacramento, Kathy Kieth now lives in Pollock Pines. A musician, music teacher, music therapist, psychologist and poet, her work has been published in many journals, including Atlanta Review, California Quarterly, Main Street Rag, Möbius, Potpourri, Ekphrasis, PDQ, Poetry Now, Slant, and Tiger’s Eye. Kathy has also published four chapbooks: Night Full of Owls from White Heron Press, Keeping Time in the Clock Shop from PWJ Publishing, Why We Have Sternums from Rattlesnake Press, and Sex—For Animals from Rattlesnake Press. She was also nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize. In the last six years, Ms. Kieth has published hundreds of Sacramento-area poets in her quart

John Allen Cann plays with images and language to create new worlds where we can see ourselves in a new light. In “Spectral Thoughts,” the poet recasts an 18th century Japanese haiku master as an American trucker, so that we might create something new, surprise the sun? Basho steadies the steering wheel of his semi rolling across the blank wilds of middle America. Perhaps Cann sees himself as this traveler/poet, or perhaps like Wallace Stevens, he’s insisting that creativity is indispensible. Later in the same poem, talking about Humpty Dumpty, the poet reminds us, “only imagination/can make our eggman/whole again.” These poetic flights are intellectual pursuit in Cann’s world; watching

You could chat with Jim Moose for a while and not find out that he’s a World War II veteran or a retired attorney, but you might be able to figure it out through his poetry. Jim uses regular rhythms and rhyme in his poetry – you can hear that classic lilt of iambic pentameter in much of his work. It’s bouncy and generally easy to follow. But Jim’s wide range of topics – old friends, war scenes, historical poems, mountain hikes and courtroom scenes – set him apart from most poets I know. Check out this selection of pieces from his new book Hotchpot – you’ll find humor and wisdom, sorrow and joy, and a unique look at the world in the poetry of James M. Moose. Jim Moose, pere (James M. Moose

  Cynthia Linville’s poems blend images and personal story to create pieces that stay in the reader’s mind. When the narrator of one of the poems encounters a lover from long ago, the conversation’s real, the setting is real: "Yeah, I heard." And now over greasy bacon and sticky orange juice, no more guilt. The poet weaves detail and commentary together deftly in Nevermore, again as the narrator reflects on an acquaintance from the past: Pasts like ours (filled with wooden crosses and beatings in schoolhouses) require a greater escape velocity than other pasts do. Cynthia Linville teaches English at California State University, Sacramento and serves as poetry editor of Poetry Now and

frank andrick frank andrick has lived in San Francisco, Paris, Lockeford and Sacramento, where he has been an integral part of the poetry scene for many years. Deeply influenced by French poets such as Verlaine and Baudelaire, andrick’s poetry flirts with surrealism at times, but I think of him as a romantic as well – one who believes that art, and the sharing of it, can redeem humanity to some extent. As a regular host at Luna’s Café on Thursday nights, frank often mixes poetry with music, and he recently produced a mixed-media event which included films from the 1930s as background for his poetic work. Frank also edits WTF, Rattlesnake Press’s quarterly journal of the literary and visu

Monday night, October 26 - Sacramento Poetry Day - help the Sacramento Poetry Center celebrate its 30th anniversary. 1719 25th Street - (25th and R) 7:30 PM - Free Admission.

Jennifer O’Neill-Pickering As both a visual artist and poet, Jennifer O’Neill-Pickering brings a painterly eye to her words on the page. She shows us “the dark blur of crows,” and comments on “silver threads of light/illuminating something you can’t hold/and therefore can never lose.” From "turquoise unions" to "apricot light," a strong visual sensibility is at work in her poetry. When she was growing up, Jennifer he wanted to be an artist and a poet. Her early years were spent in the rural community of Tierra Buena, fifty miles north of Sacramento, with a view of the Sutter Buttes. Today, Jennifer wears many hats, as artists often do: mother, wife, writer, artist, teacher, graphic arti

  SPC Presents Frank Andrick's ELEMENTS An evening of poetry, prose, storytelling, film, cine-poems, sound and music on October 12th 1719 25th Street (25th and R) featuring Christopher Fairman, Josh Fernandez, Wendy Rivara, and David Houston and Strings plus screenings of films by Man Ray and Stan Brakhage Mon. Oct. 12, 2009  At 7:30 PM Host: Bob Stanley refreshments and a poetic meet and greet at 7:30 Free. Donations Accepted. 1) The show starts at 8:00PM sharp with a short film plus poem and songs by Chris Fairman. 2) Segue into a set by Frank Andrick reading/performing poems interpolated with films by Man Ray, Stan Brakhage, etc. with an additional few poems with Wendy Rivera on

County Lines – October 10, 2009 Ann Wehrman In Ann Wehrman’s poetry, she savors the richness of nature in simple activities – the sun glimmers through redwood trees, feet splash into puddles and break up the reflection of the moon. She paints a city life, paying bills, getting mail, walking the concrete path, but finds details in the treasures the city holds: The trees rise, olives and hundreds more release their bounty of oxygen, shade, texture. Some are fuchsia or white with summer… In more than one way, Ms. Wehrman’s work reminds me of that of Mary Oliver, whose early poems startle the reader with their attentiveness to nature, and their message – that we must be attentive to nature

Most 20-year-olds don't play over 15 instruments or write three songs per week. Nor have they traveled and lived all over the United States. But Sacramento musician Autumn Sky didn't grow up in a so-called "normal" household. Having played hundreds of shows, the ambitious Sky is on the rise. Sky (she uses her middle name instead of her last name, Hall) was born in Paradise, Calif. She and her family lived out of a Volkswagen Beetle near Puget Sound in Washington and spent time in Oregon and Wisconson before settling in Sacramento. She also recalled living in a log cabin in Mendocino as part of a nudist colony. "There is a whole [photo] album that my parents have and it's all these babi

In his poetry, Joe Atkins works to represent the syntax of spoken American conversations. Some of his poems also give a nod to the “flarf” school of poetry (which employs google searches, and found internet poems). As a contemporary poet, Joe gets bored with many of poetry’s traditional themes: the self, individuality, that eternal striving for uniqueness. “Poetically,” Joe says, “I'm just attempting to actively engage with our moment and so that we might know what it was.” Check out how he creates a kind of surrealistic world out of word-pixels in his work.Yr name dotted together with clouds, Scripted into the blu iris of an atmosphere, Consumed in blinking night. A taste of the future

Dennis Hock teaches creative writing at Cosumnes River College. Instrumental in developing the Sutterwriters program in 2003, he continues to work in hospitals and retreat centers with groups that use expressive writing as a healing process. An accomplished poet, Dennis is the author of The Secret Cup: Poems of Grief and Healing. Dennis’s work often offers the reader a choice – find meaning in the image – or not. He shows us that not every moment is transcendent. At times, nature or a human connection can bring a kind of salvation, but in Mockingbird, he questions the easy path to such revelation of meaning: See how complex and varied and multitudinous I am, I warble. Yet I don't feel aud

Don't miss Tim Kahl's reading on Sept 7 at 7:30 pm SPC is at 1719 25th Street (25th and R)   Join us for refreshments and poetry on Labor Day at SPC, asTim Kahl reads from his new book. Translator, teacher, poet, and editor, Tim also appears as Victor Schnickelfritz at the poetry and poetics blog The Great American Pinup.  "Possessing Yourself," his new book from CustomWords, reveals the wide swath of Tim's imagination! Check it out Monday night Sept 7.

JoAnn Anglin JoAnn Anglin grew up in South Sacramento, attended local schools, then worked for the State of California, writing copy for exhibits, newsletters and brochures. JoAnn has written poetry her whole life, and she has also written numerous articles on the arts and poetry. JoAnn coaches students in the national Poetry Out Loud program, and when she works with students, she encourages poetry writing as an accessible art and a tool for personal expression. Active with Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol (Writers of the New Sun) Ms. Anglin has been published on-line and in a number of anthologies including The Sacramento Anthology, The Pagan Muse, and in Voces del Nuevo Sol. Rattlesnake Pr

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Milton Bowens would like to believe that when you look at his art work you're not merely viewing paintings, his personal opinion or guarded pieces of his soul. You the viewer are being asked to confront history, truth, cultural stereo types and engage the possibilities of the future. Because when he paints he is not just engaging the viewer or confronting the critic over artistic merit, style and validity, he is confronting the use of art as a tool to communicate. He is asking questions, He is seeking solutions. Born and raised in Oakland, Calif., Milton Bowens is the fifth boy of ten children. Milton’s artistic promise began at the age of five with nothing more than a few pencils and cut

The Sacramento Poetry Center and  The Sacramento Room present A Favorite Poem Reading Wednesday, September 2.       5:30pm to 7:30pm at    The Sacramento Room       Central Library, Second Floor      828 I Street Join your fellow Citizens in an evening of fine verse! Hosted by Mary Zeppa and Bob Stanley FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC  Readers will include: Carlos Alcala, Sacramento Bee                             Jeffrey Callison, KXJZ Marcus Crowder, Sacramento Bee                        Clare Ellis, the Sacramento Room Richard Hansen, the Book Collector                     Muriel Johnson, California Arts Council Sheree Meyer, Chair, CSUS English Dep’t           Don NOTTOLI, Coun