May 12, 2014

Come down to Gatsby Books on May 12th for our 5th 2nd Monday Poetry Party! This month’s features will be a triple treat! RSVP on Facebook!

Rick Lupert recently received the Distinguished Service Award from Beyond Baroque, given to a Los Angeles based poet who has inspired public interest in poetry through his or her good works, and raised the pursuit and practice of poetry to new heights. Two-time Pushcart Prize nominated poet Rick Lupert has been involved in the Los Angeles poetry community since 1990. He served for two years as a co-director of the Valley Contemporary Poets, a nonprofit organization that produces readings and publications out of the San Fernando Valley. He has hosted the long running Cobalt Café reading series in Canoga Park since 1994 and is regularly featured at venues throughout Southern California. Lupert also created and maintains the Poetry Super Highway, an online resource and publication site for poets (PoetrySuperHighway.com). Currently, Rick works as a music teacher at synagogues in Southern California, and as a graphic art and web designer for anyone who would like to help pay his mortgage.

By day, Mary Animaux is a mild-mannered middle school teacher. At night she assumes her punk rock alter-ago, Mary Animaux, and creates havoc in dive bars all over SoCal in the bands White Murder and Jail Weddings. Her poems and songs deal with the topics of impulse control and delusion, and this one time when she accidentally became a cult leader. Her poems have been published in Pearl and several Bank-Heavy Press magazines.

Anna Badua spends her nights looking up at the stars, wishing she could visit them all. Since she can’t, she writes love poems to them. Some of those poems have appeared in Pearl, Chiron Review, San Pedro River Review and others.

Marianne and Anna will share the pages of a dual chapbook from Bank-Heavy Press, which may or may not be available at the reading.