Category: Poetry

Change of Venue: Stay Gallery 11140 Downey Ave.

Gil Hagen-Hill was educated in southern California during the “placid” 1950’s  and “turbulent” 1960’s. He  received a B.A. in Theater Arts from C.S.U.L.A in 1973. Shortly  thereafter he became a member of  Scorpio Rising Theater founded by Alistair Hunter. From there to “The Burbage  Theater” ensemble housed  at the Century City Playhouse . . .some cable TV, a marriage, a beautiful  daughter, a divorce, another  marriage, a trip to Scandinavia, Ireland… He recently sold custom built  motorcycles, is now looking for a new incarnation.

Gil began writing poetry in high school and in college. In 1994 he began finding poetry more  important in his life – by 2000 his work had appeared in a number of poetry journals on the east coast  and mid -west.

He  has been published in Verses, Schuylkill Valley Art Journal and Rochester, New  York’s “Hazmat Literary Review.” On  the west coast he was proudly associated with Lummox Journal in its monthly  format as well working with  the Chief Lummox “Rain Dog” Armstrong on several projects including “Through a  Glass Darkly” and “Last Call.” He  has participated in writer’s work shops at Angels Gate Art Center.

His poetry is hard to classify – sometimes confessional sometimes surreal – but always  evocative.

New Location: Stay Gallery 11140 Downey Ave (& Firestone), Downey, CA 90241.  

Series curated by Lorine Parks, lorineparks@verizon.net    Open mic at 7:30 PM

On the third Thursday of the month, Wine+Words monthly poetry night happens at Mari’s Wine Bar.  The open mic begins at 7:30PM, with sign-ups before.  A prominent poet is featured as a guest reader at 8:00PM.  Lorine Parks curates the evening.

Thursday October 18, 7:30PM @ Mari’s Wine Bar

Kendall Evans won the 2010 Rhysling Award, long poem category, for “In the Astronaut Asylum Shadows,” in collaboration with Samantha Henderson, and in 2006 for “The Tin Man,” first published in Mythic Delerium. He has published over 100 poems in science fiction and horror magazines such as Amazing Stories. Fantastic Weird Tales, ASIMOV’S Science Fiction, Dreams and Nightmares. He has written “Night Ship to Never,” and “Red-Shifted in the Eyes of a Dragon.” Evans is at work on a ring cycle of four chapbook-length dramatic poems: The Mermaidens of Ceres, Battle Dance of the Valkyrie, Sieglinda’s Journey to the Stars, and The Rings of Ganymede.

Thursday September 20th is the next Wine+Words poetry night featuring Charlotte Innes.  The open mic begins at 7:45PM at Mari’s Wine Bar, 8222 Firestone Blvd in Downey, across from Porto’s.  The monthly series on the third Thursdays is curated by Lorine Parks, and this month will occur after the “Taste of Downey” event at the civic center.

Charlotte Innes’ new chapbook of poems Licking the Serpent was published in September 2011 by Finishing Line Press. Her first collection was Reading Ruskin in Los Angeles (Finishing Line Press, 2009). A former newspaper reporter and freelance writer, she now teaches creative writing classes at Hey Tutor and tutors students in Los Angeles.

Charlotte Innes is a native of England; the daughter of a Jewish refugee from Germany; a New Yorker for 12 years, and for the last 22 years, a Southern Californian, happily ensconced in Silver Lake. “I was first drawn to poetry through literary fiction. I remember distinctly: it was when I was reading Rikki Ducornet’s gorgeous (terrifying!) novels that I realized I was in love with words more than anything else in the world. And that, I think, is step one, a love affair with language. If you feel that way, you might well be a poet…. Who knows? That’s what’s exciting to me about poetry. You don’t always know what’s coming next, and then something builds in you, and you write it!” – from Connotation Press, an online magazine.