Mystic Babylon: S.F. Open Mic Poetry Podcast/TV

This is John Rhodes segment of the San Francisco

Open Mic Poetry Podcast Public Access TV Show.

Ken Saffran is the featured reader in John Rhodes' segment of the San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast Public Access TV Show:

Ken Saffran has poems published in the Haight Ashbury

Literary Journal, Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review and

upcoming in Ambush and Nerve Cowboy. His chapbook

Strange Animal was published by 3300 Press. Although he

grew up in the Midwest, he always had Far West

sensibilities, so it was inevitable that he move to San

Francisco and join the great tribe of poets in the Bay Area.

This Clara Hsu's segment of the San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show and her featured reader will be Selene Steese.

About Selene:
Selene is co-host of her own reading series, Oakland S.O.U.P.,
which happens every first and third Thursday, and I am
a very prolific writer. I write at least two poems per week,
and I'm currently working on three novels, one of which
is complete. Songs sneak up on me at any time,
demanding to be sung and writing themselves
as I open my mouth and hear the sounds come out.

This is Clara Hsu's segment of John Rhode's San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show. Barbara Belle-Diamond is a well-known fixture in the open mics of San Francisco and runs her own open mic at the Celtic Coffee Company at 142 Mcallister, on Saturdays 3-5:30pm.

Andrena Zawinski Reads:
This is John Rhodes' San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show cohosted by Clara Hsu. In this segment Andrena Zawinski of http://poetrymagazine.com reads her poetry. Here is her bio:

Andrena Zawinski lives and teaches writing in Oakland, CA but
was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Her full collection of poems,
Traveling in Reflected Light, was released in 1995 by Pig Iron Press
as a Kenneth Patchen competition winner. Her chapbooks include
Greatest Hits 1991-2001 (2002) as part of Pudding House's archival and
invitational Series and Taking the Road Where It Leads (2008) from Poets
Corner Press with two collections forthcoming in 2009. She founded
and runs a Women’s Poetry Potluck and Salon in the San Francisco
Bay Area. Her individual poems have appeared in Quarterly West, Gulf Coast,
Slipstream, Rattle, Many Mountains Moving, Pacific Review, The Progressive
Magazine and many others. Zawinski has been Features Editor at
PoetryMagazine.com since 2000.

This is Clara Hsu's segment of John Rhodes' Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV show. Here is a rather windy bio of Avotcja who is the featured poet in this segment:

POET/PLAYWRIGHT/MULTI-PERCUSSIONIST/PHOTOGRAPHER/TEACHER

This is John Rhodes and this the the San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show. Lucille Lang Day is the featured poet in this segment.

Below is her Bio.

Lucille Lang Day is the author of eight poetry collections and chapbooks, including The Curvature of Blue (Cervena Barva, 2009) and The Book of Answers (Finishing Line, 2006), from which she'll read today. She has also published a children's book, Chain Letter (Heyday, 2005), and her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared widely in magazines and anthologies. She is the founder and director of a small press, Scarlet Tanager Books, and also served for 17 years as the director of the Hall of Health, a museum in Berkeley. Her website is http://lucillelangday.com

Please also watch the second segment with 2nd cohost Clara Hsu and the 2nd featured poet Avotcja.

Hello. This is Clara Hsu's second segment of the San Francisco poetry podcast TV show produced by John Rhodes. The featured poet for the second segemnt is Steve Mackin.
Steve Mackin's muse's and inspiration's are the English and Celtic Bards. He takes his style from Yates Shakespeare and Dylan Thomas. He has been a fixture in the open mics of San Francisco Especially the Sacred Grounds Cafe'.

Dana Teen Lomax Reads:
Dana Teen Lomax is the author of Disclosure (Black Radish Books, forthcoming in 2010), Curren¢y (Palm Press, 2006), Room (a+bend press, 1998), and the co-editor of Letters to Poets: Conversations about Poetics, Politics, and Community (Saturnalia Books, 2008). She’s currently writing Shhh! Lullabies for a Tired Nation and editing the Kindergarde: Avant-Garde Poems, Plays, Stories & Songs for Children illustrated anthology. She teaches at San Francisco State University and well as in Marin and San Francisco Juvenile Halls; Dana lives in San Quentin with her radical family.

I John Rhodes reads one poem.

Hello. This is John Rhodes producer and cohost of San Francisco Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast/TV. In this podcast we have segment 2 of the Mystic Path on the San Francisco Podcast/TV Show. Clara Hsu will be performing a duet with Bill Mercer in this second podcast segment. You can find out more about Clara hsu by going to http://clarahsu.com . Clara Hsu's song is sung to the poem of Li Po, titled Night Thoughts. To find out when this show airs look on the Bay Area Video Coalition Web Site at: http://www.bavc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1884&Itemid=1806 . On the right you can click on Schedule Channel 76 too. It airs there too.

Hello. This is John Rhodes producer and cohost of San Francisco Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast/TV. In this podcast we have segment 1 of the Mystic Path on the San Francisco Podcast/TV Show.

Clara Hsu will be performing a duet with Bill Mercer Part 1 in this podcast, and Part two in the second podcast.

You can find out more about Clara hsu by going to http://clarahsu.com . Clara Hsu's song is sung to the poem of Li Po, titled Night Thoughts.

To find out when this show airs look on the Bay Area Video Coalition Web Site at: http://www.bavc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1884&Itemid=1806 . On the right you can click on  Schedule Channel 76 too. It airs there too.

This is the 2nd segment of John Rhodes and Clara Hsu's San Francisco Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV. In this segment Clara Hsu will introduce Richard Loranger.

Richard Loranger has been doing poetry performances and visual art for over 25 years He spent 9 years in college in the New York area teaching writing and literature. You can find some of his writing at: http://wepress.org

This is the first segment of John Rhodes and Clara Hsu's San francisco Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV. In this segment John Rhodes will introduce Ana Elsner. Below is a quote from one of Ana Elsners Bios. You can find Ana at: http://www.redroom.com/author/ana-elsner/bio or also, http://anaelsner.blogspot.com/ . "To create true poetry requires hunger and passion, and Ana Elsner has it, in spades." –Lawrence Ferlinghetti Ana Elsner was born in the British sector of postwar Germany and was educated in Europe and the U.S. During her studies at Georgetown University, she decided to make her home in the States. Ana Elsner holds a Magister Artium in Applied Linguistics (Sprachwissenschaft). She taught ESL and later worked at two publishing houses. Eventually, she pursued a career in business and is now retired and living in Northern California. Ana Elsner is engaged in writing broad ranging prose and poetry. She supports a variety of humanitarian causes as a volunteer and adviser. Ana Elsner's writing gives testimony about the human condition as observed through her eyes. She has given solo readings on live Internet radio and video broadcasts and on Public Access TV. She is a frequent featured speaker at libraries, seminars and other educational venues. She conducts informal poetry workshops and supports creative writing in any literary genre

This is Clara Hsu's segment of John Rhodes San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV. She will interview Jeanne Lupton.
An article in the San Francsisco Examiner said about Jeane Lupton:

Lupton enjoys writing Japanese tanka. Her chapbook, but then you danced with poems in this form, was published in 2007 by Raw Art Press. Lupton's distant cousin, Cather, once wrote that only great artists know how difficult it is to tell the truth. The East Bay poet takes Cather’s admonition to write as truthfully as possible to heart. "I like to invoke the spirits of my writing ancestors," Lupton says, "and I often feel them smiling down on me."

For more about Jeanne Lupton go to:
http://jeannelupton.com
For more about the Host Clara Hsu go to:
http://clarahsu.com
For more about the producer 2nd host of these shows, John Rhodes, go to:
http://rhodespoetry.com .

Welcome to John Rhodes’ San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast/TV Show, known as Mystic Babylon on the internet. It can be found at: http://mysticbabylon.podomatic.com Hi there. This is the first segment of my show and Joan Gelfand is featuring this segment. Marty Castleberg will muscially accompany her. In the second segment, host Clara Hsu will introduce Jeanne Lutpon. Joan Gelfand is one of the busiest poets I know. Today she will be instrumentally accompanied by Marty Castleberg, so we are in for a good show. Joan has many accolades, but her accolades that I thought most interesting are her work as President of The Women’s National Book Association, and her work with CPITS, which is short for California Poets in the Schools. Just to note: I have met numerous poets who have worked with CPITS including Robert Hass the one time poet laureate of the U.S. All the power to you, Joan. If you want to find out more about Joan go to http://joangelfand.com . Please also visit: http://rhodespoetry.com

This is the first segment of San Francisco's Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV which is now co-hosted by John Rhodes and Clara Hsu. For more about Clara go to: http://clarahsu.com . In this segment John will introduce Don Brennan. Don is a main staple to the open mics of San Francisco. You can find Don Here: http://mysticbabylon.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-10-15T14_21_47-07_00 in the Mystic Babylon archives too. He has a blog at http://slouchingtowardspoetry.blogspot.com where he is posted installments of his novel Barbaria. To enlarge this video from the web page press Ctrl and +. To shrink it press Ctrl and -.

This is John Rhodes San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV co-hosted by Clara Hsu. The poet in this 2nd segment hosted by Clara is Stephanie Manning. Stephanie Manning often writes poems while commuting, riding the trains in the San Francisco Bay Area and has spearheaded attempts to preserve Indian Shell-mounds in the bay area. To enlarge this video from the main web page press Ctrl and + at the same time. Press Ctrl and - to shrink.

This is John Rhodes' San Francisco Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV. This is my higher resolution podcast which expands well on large TV sets.

To find a list of all my podcasts go to:
http://rhodespoetry.com

The poet reading today is Roz Spafford. Below is a little bit about Roz and her writings.

Roz Spafford’s new book of poems is Requiem, winner of the 2008 Gell Poetry Prize, with a foreword by Carl Dennis: “All the poems in Requiem may be read as attempts to confront the presence of death in our lives . . .What is remarkable about this steady focus, which offers no easy consolations, is that it leads to a book that is more challenging than it is querulous or elegiac. . .a book that confronts our limitations in a way that makes us feel larger rather than diminished.” Roz Spafford has been a writer, teacher, and activist for the last three decades. She wrote book reviews and a newspaper column of media and cultural criticism called “Mediations” for much of that time. Her poetry and fiction have been widely published in literary magazines.

Welcome to San Francisco’s Open Mic Poetry Podcast/TV show and welcome to Moe’s Bookstore in Berkeley. This is a Poetry Flash magazine poetry reading taking place there at Moe’s.
Cynthia Kraman is reading.
Cynthia’s fourth book of Poems is out which is “The Touch”.
Cynthia’s life has faced some extremes. She, began a Punk Rock Group called “China’s Comidas” which roughly translates as Chinese Food. On the other side of her life she has a P.H.D. in Medieval Literature. Richard Silberg of Poetry Flash has said that those extremes can be found in her poetry. Quoting Richard, he said, “At the same time as Cynthia has ‘elan, she has formalism and structure too.” He further said that her impetuosity helps define her strict form.
I, John Rhodes will close the show with a poem or two from one of my books.
The public access station no longer has a studio to record in but fortunately I have some Professional camcorders and the show is continuing. Please be understanding in the sense that I am still getting used to the new set up. The sound is the hardest. You might notice some improvements too. I am giving up the fake Bluescreen backdrops for regular backdrops which will increase the resolution on large TV screens.
I also have a new web site I created specifically for “Poetry Flash” at www.poetryflashvideos.blip.tv, so please check that out if you can. I guess that is about it. I’ll fade out of this and the poetry segment will start shortly.

Jack and Adelle Foley, and Lenore Weiss read:
This is the San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show hosted by me, John Rhodes.
Today we are having on Jack and Adelle Foley, and Lenore Weiss.

Jack Foley is an innovative, widely-published poet and critic who, with his wife, Adelle, performs poetry frequently in the San Francisco Bay Area: together, they perform choral pieces, duets. Jack has published a number of books of both poetry and criticism. For more than twenty years, he has hosted a show of interviews and poetry presentations on Berkeley radio station KPFA. His show, Cover to Cover airs Wednesdays at 3.

Adelle Foley is a haiku poet, a financial analyst, a newspaper columnist, and an Oakland arts activist. Both Michael McClure and Dana Gioia have praised her book, Along the Bloodline.

Lenore Weiss is a well-known Bay Area Poet. Lenore’s latest publication is “Sh'ma Yis'rael” from Pudding House Publications.

Hello. This is John Rhodes’ San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast/TV.
I was talking with Joyce Jenkins of Poetry Flash Magazine about possibly working with Poetry Flash to create some videos for them.
If you don’t know who Poetry Flash is it is a very prominent West Coast Poetry Magazine.
The conversation with Joyce was positive in the extent that we got far enough to prepare this video for her.
This video is taken from the Berkeley Poetry Festival where Joyce Jenkins got an honorary award given to her by a Berkeley Councilman.
I will read at the end a poem of mine dedicated to Jan Kerouac who I knew in Yelapa, Mexico.

Hello. This is John Rhodes with his San Francisco Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show. Today we have on Edward Mycue.
San Francisco poet Edward Mycue was born in Niagara Falls, New York, and raised in Texas from age eleven. He has been a Teaching Fellow at North Texas State, a Lowell Fellow at Boston University, a WGBH-TV Boston intern, a Macdowell Colony Fellow, a Peace Corps teacher in Ghana; spent three wanderyears in Europe--a shipyard in Rotterdam, wine, vegetable, chestnut harvests in southern France, teaching about American literature in Denmark, delivering refrigerators and washing machines in the then West Berlin.

Edward now lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Some of Ed’s books are: DAMAGE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY published by Panjandrum Press, San Francisco, 1973 and ROOT ROUTE & RANGE THE SONG RETURNS from Paper Castle in Melbourne, Australia . In the next decade came THE SINGING MAN MY FATHER GAVE ME from Menard Press in London, England and THE TORN STAR, EDWARD and the chapbooks NO ONE FOR FREE, GRATE COUNTRY , IDOLINO, NEXT YEARS' WORDS and THE SINGING SURGEON. in the 1990's came PINK GARDENS BROWN TREES and BECAUSE WE SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE (both of those from England) and the chapbook LIFE IS BUILT FROM THE INSIDE OUT. In 2000 came NIGHTBOATS and most recently MINDWALKING NEW & SELECTED POEMS 1937-2007.

Hello. This is John Rhodes poetry special known as Mystic Babylon on the Internet. Today we are having
on the poet laureate of Marin county.
Albert Flynn DeSilver has recently begun his tenure as Marin County California's first poet laureate.
He is the author, most recently of "Letters to Early Street," published Spring 2007 from
La Alameda/University of New Mexico Press, and "Walking Tooth & Cloud," published January 2007 from
French Connection Press in Paris.
Andrei Codrescu has said about "Letters to Early Street:" "This is one of our poets and we
stand behind him (or to his side) in any fight, physical or literary, he might be involved in. Except
maybe the situation he describes thus: "A stuffed moose has just capsized in my bed."
Albert has published more than one hundred poems in literary journals worldwide including
Zyzzyva, New American Writing, Jubilat, Jacket from Australia), Poetry Kanto from Japan, Van Gogh¹s Ear
from France, Hanging Loose, Exquisite Corpse, and many others.
Some of his letters in correspondence with the poet Paul Hoover will be featured in the new
book "Letters to Poets" just out from Saturnalia Books.
A visual poem of his will be featured in a public art work in collaboration with the artist Paul Kos,
and built on the banks of the Sacramento River in late 2009.

Hello. This is John Rhodes with a new Open Mic Poetry Show. This is San Francisco Mystic Babylon Open Mic Poetry Podcast/TV. Today we have on the 23rd Street Poets. The 23rd street poets put out an anthology of there poems. This anthology includes: Eileen Malone, Alice Rogoff, Sally Frye, Cesar Love, and Tressa Berman.
Eileen Malone has published prolifically in journals and anthologies, and has earned prestigious prizes. She is the author of The Complete Guide to Writers Groups, Conferences and Workshops, and her award winning chapbook Letters with Taloned Claws. Eileen currently chairs the Soul-Making Literary Competition and hosts Pen Women Presents where she interviews creative people talking about creativity for San Francisco Access Channel 29. Eileen has a web site at: www.eileenmalone.us
Alice Elizabeth Rogoff has been published in many literary magazines and community newspapers, plus she is editor of the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal and also edited anthologies for the Noe Valley Poets Workshop. Her poetry book Mural was a 2004 winner in the Blue Light Press Book Award. She won in Poets 11 in San Francisco in 2007. She is a member of the Northern California Media Workers Guild, and the Bay Area Labor Heritage Chorus.
Cesar Love is a Latino poet influenced by the Chinese masters, Li Po and Tu Fu. His favorite poet is Pablo Neruda, although Cesar says his own work is nothing like Neruda's.
Tressa Berman, an 'anthro-poetica,' writes non-fiction, essays, short stories and poems. The poems collected in the 23rd Street Poets express a moment in time witnessed with four other poets, and the life events marked within that shared time. In addition to various publications, Tressa recently returned from the Vermont Studio Center where she was a writer-in-residence in the snowy Green Mountains.
Sally Frye has lived in San Francisco’s Mission District for nearly two decades. Her poetry has been published a few times and she has done many readings over the years. Her love for poetry is very strong. Her philosophy of social change is characterized by egalitarianism. She has worked as a typist and secretary for many years, including in medical settings, and has done freelance work from home, including a book about the Dalai Lama.

Janell Moon reads.

This is John Rhodes' San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show.

Just below I have a description of some of Janell Moon's works.

Main Street Rag selected Janell Moon's latest book, Riding Free in the Blue Studebaker, for publication as a winner in its National Main Street Rag Poetry Contest. In 2006, RAW ArT PRESS, published her book, Beyond Midnight. Janell's other poetry books include The Mouth of Home, published by Arctos Press. Chestnut Hills Press awarded her The Stonewall Prize and published her fourth chapbook. She also won the Salt Hill National Prize from Syracuse University in New York. She is a reader with the Bay Area Poets for Peace Project and has been published in many literary journals including Americas, Runes, Calyz, and The Michigan Review.

"Janell Moon’s poetry unwraps the mysteries of the ordinary. It is at once familiar, and full of surprises.. She shows us, again and again, that indeed we can get there from here." -- Diane di Prima, author of Memoirs of a Beatnik and Loba

To purchase Riding Free in the Blue Studebaker, please email Janell at janellmoon@gmail.com. Her other books may be purchased at amazon.com.

Note: If you want to watch my last 20 or so TV shows etc. on your iPod, I advise you download my feed in iTunes entitled:
"San Francisco Poetry: iPod Version". It's icon is pretty much the same as the Mystic Babylon one, but, as I said, the title is different. You can also stream them from the side-bar here and also at:
http://sanfranciscopoetry.blip.tv . Those files are much quicker to download than the ones on this site (Also lower resolution which isn't needed for iPod downloads).

Carolyn Kleefeld reads: Hello. This is John Rhodes with my monthly Open Mic Poetry Special. Today we are going to have on a poet named Carolyn Kleefeld from Big Sur.
Carolyn, has been a close friend to Laura Huxley the late wife of Aldous Huxley who is most well known for his books, Brave New World, and also Doors of Perception.
Carolyn is a Big Sur artist, philosopher and evolutionary thinker whose innovative visual art and writing have been used for over twenty years in the fields of human consciousness and creativity.
Carolyn has at least 9 books out. Some of those are: Satan Sleeps with the Holy: Word Paintings, Soul Seeds: Revelations and Drawings, and Alchemy of Possibility: Reinventing your Mythology.
I will put Carolyn’s paintings in back of her as she reads. If you would like to find out more about Carolyn go to: http://www.carolynmarykleefeld.com .

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