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This edition of POETRY MATTERS – Thursday April 21st at STAY GALLERY- welcomes back ZZyZx Writerz.

7:00 pm: Doors Open
7:30 pm: Open Mike

STAY Gallery
11140 Downey Avenue
Downey, CA 90241

The ZZYZX Writerz descended from the rib of a CSULA writing group, where most of the current members met in 2011. Their writing is as diverse as the neighborhoods they hail from! Since their formation they have written two group anthologies: “A Three Hour Tour” in 2013 and “Exit 23” in 2015.

The ZZyZx Writerz group hosts monthly read arounds and open mics within the Alhambra/El Sereno neighborhoods. They are also the organizers of Poetrypalooza, a month-long celebration of poetry in life that hosts events in dozens of creative neighborhoods across Southern California.

Poetry Matters also features an open mike. We welcome first-time readers and everyone else with a poem to share.

Curated by Lorine Parks.

Poetry Matters welcomes Peggy Dobreer to read from her book in the lake of your bones at Stay Gallery on February 18th. Peggy is an educator, poet, public speaker, and she was a Pushcart nominee for Best of the Small Press for Cadence Collective.

Dobreer’s poems come out of a life of art, dance, love, political involvement, travel, and “the cauldron of Los Angeles,” the poet Richard Garcia has said, “In their music you will hear the urban landscape, Spanish, and even ancient Sanskrit.  Come dance with Peggy Dobreer’s poems. You’ll be thankful that you did.”  Dobreer will perform her poems February 18 at Stay Gallery 11140 Downey Avenue, in downtown Downey, preceded by an open mike at 7:30 pm.

In The Lake of Your Bones is a poetry book that opens like a revelation. Peggy Dobreer blends memory, meditation, nature, sensuality, and takes us to the lucid territory between intuition and wisdom, between desire and surrender. Peggy is a member of The Hollywood Institute of Poetics, and Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter.

Poetry Matters is curated by Lorine Parks.

This edition of POETRY MATTERS – Thursday January 21st at STAY GALLERY- will feature Kathleen Goldman and her new book “Down River”

Goldman grew up in Wisconsin near the banks of the Mississippi River. She now lives in Manhattan Beach, California, with her husband and children. A journalist by training, she discovered a new career teaching pre-school after her children were born. She has taught creative writing to elementary school children and adults.  Her poems have appeared in the anthology 13 Los Angeles Poets, and in periodicals including Northeast, Pearl, Spillway and Myriad.

“The joy of reading Kathy Goldman’s poems is this: she can see the ordinary world so carefully, so clearly, so tenderly, that it becomes extraordinary – even transcendent.”  — Anthony Lee, PhD, author of This Poem Means

Poetry Matters also features an open mike. We welcome first-time readers and everyone else with a poem to share. Doors open at 7 p.m. The open mike begins at 7:30. Poetry Matters is free and open to the public.

Curated by Lorine Parks.

This edition of POETRY MATTERS – Thursday December 17th at STAY GALLERY- will feature Downey’s own Trista Dominqu and the launch of her new book “So Cali.”

Trista Dominqu was born and raised in Southern California. Her work is influenced by her mixed ancestry and working class roots. She learned to weave stories into poetry from conversations while sitting in a rocking chair with her grandmother.

Sarah Thursday, founder of Cadence Collective and Co-host of the Second Mondays Poetry Party, says “Trista Dominqu’s collection, So Cali, reads like a family photo album … with childhood moments of trolley rides, anthills, avocados, pool dives, and June bugs. It zooms out to a working class neighborhood, with baseball caps and flannels, young mothers and gutter kids, local libraries and Spanish teachers, and sons with protective mothers. … You will close these pages with images so tangible, vibrant, and immediate, you will confuse them with memories of your own.”

Dominqu’s first book, “The Beauty of Muttliness,” debuted in 2013 at Poetry Matters. She has also performed at such venues as the La Puente art walk, Poetry Palooza and the Green Salon. Her work has appeared in Full of Crow and Cadence Collective online poetry magazines, and multiple anthologies by Cadence Collective, Lummox Press and Lucid Moose Lit.
Poetry Matters also features an open mike. We welcome first-time readers and everyone else with a poem to share. Doors open at 7 p.m. The open mike begins at 7:30. Poetry Matters is free and open to the public.

Curated by Lorine Parks.

Stay Gallery is located at 11140 Downey Ave in Downey.