Tomorrow evening …

THE GREEN LINE CAFE POETRY SERIES

& POETRY IN COMMON

PRESENT:


WHAT DOES PHILADELPHIA
POETRY MEAN TO YOU?


With: CHARLOTTE BOULAY,
CHARLES CARR & FRANK WILSON

HOSTED BY
LEONARD GONTAREK

This event will be a discussion and reading.
The poets will read poems written in Philadelphia,
written about Philadelphia, and poems by Philadelphia poets
(past and present). They will discuss how they see
the Philadelphia Poetry Scene, how Philadelphia has
been a home to them and their poetry, how they came
to choose Philadelphia, and how it has been good for
their poetry (or otherwise).

There will be an audience Q & A.



TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017  7 PM



45TH & LOCUST STREETS,
Philadelphia, PA

Please Note The Address –
There Are Other Green Line Cafes


http://greenlinecafe.com/


This Event Is Free



Charlotte Boulay grew up in the Boston area and attended St. Lawrence University. She earned her MFA from the University of Michigan, where she taught composition and creative writing for five years. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, The Boston Review, and Crazyhorse, among other journals. Foxes on the Trampoline is her first book, and was published in April 2014 by Ecco Press/HarperCollins. She lives with her husband in Philadelphia.




Charles Carr from Philadelphia was educated at LaSalle and Bryn Mawr College, where he earned a Masters in American History.   Charles has worked in social and community development services for 44 years.  Charles has also been active in raising funds for various missions and organizations serving the poorest of the poor In Haiti.  In 2007 Charles was The Mad Poets Review First Prize Winner for his poem “Waiting To Come North”.  In 2009 Cradle Press of St. Louis published Charles's first book of poetry: paradise, pennsylvania. In January 2014 Haitian Mud Pies And Other Poems was published by The Moonstone Arts Center.  Charles’ work has been published locally by the Painted Bride Review, Apiary, Fox Chase Review, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, Mad Poets, Philadelphia Stories, Moonstone Poetry Anthology, Poetry Ink as well as The Blue Collar Review and Generations of Poetry.  Charles hosts the Moonstone Poetry series at Fergie’s once per month  He has been a guest host for the Philadelphia Poetry Festival and a guest co-host for the Green Line Poetry Series in Philadelphia.  In 2014 Charles read poems in The Garden of Remembrance in Dublin Ireland in honor of Poets for Peace.  In 2017 he will host Philly Loves Poetry a monthly broadcast by Philly Cam which will focus on the various organizations , poets and venues show  how people in Philly love poetry.




Frank Wilson Introduces Himself:
Assiduously following the course of least resistance has been the key to Frank Wilson’s success. Admirers have attributed this to his mastery of existential jujitsu, detractors to indolence and inertia.
Either way, it has served him well. Faced in college with a choice between his principal interests, medieval history and English lit, he realized immediately that the former would entail a mastery of Latin and other languages that could be had only by an effort he was disinclined to expend, while the latter required only an already demonstrated facility with his native tongue.  English lit won hands down.
Through a process of elimination he went from being book critic of his college newspaper to arts and entertainment editor to editor. He had a well-paying job as an editor lined up even before graduation. Things were looking grand. But then, thinking life as a college professor might suit his laid-back approach to life, Wilson decided he should put in some time in graduate school. Unfortunately — or perhaps not — he realized that the tedium and toadiness of  academe were not for him.
Thus began his years as a kind of 20th-century Goliard, delivering a lecture here, placing an article there, editing books for the likes of Philadelphia’s venerable J.B. Lippincott Co. and others, even landing a column in a local weekly. It was not to last. Publishers began cost-cutting and editing contracts dried up. The weekly went belly-up.
Happily, a friend got Wilson a job at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Less happily, it was at the ground floor, doing things like the racing charts. But the pay and benefits weren’t bad, and the work was hardly onerous, leaving Wilson time to review books, write poetry and pursue his lifelong interest in world-class partying.
The partying took its toll, however, and he was forced to give that up. At last he seemed as staid as everyone else, so naturally he was promoted, first to the copy desk, where he won a first prize for headline writing from the Society of Professional Journalists, then to book editor. He had come full-circle, doing what he had done in college, but also what he had always wanted to do.  Unfortunately, it proved to be an ongoing — and eventually losing — battle with space cuts, budget cuts, and managerial obtuseness. In February 2008 he retired. Now he just blogs away at Books, Inq. —  The Epilogue and writes — articles, reviews, poems. Oh, and he also has time now for that best of all activities: life itself.