POETSWEDNESDAY & More

Susanna Rich

Susanna Rich will be performing ashes, ashes: A Poet Responds to the Holocaust at the Barron Arts Center on May 9^th, at 8 PM.

She is an Emmy-nominated poet, Fulbright Scholar in Creative Writing, and recipient of Kean University's Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching. In January of this year, Kennedy Center Award Winning Director Ernest Wiggins and Rich launched Wild Nights Productions, LLC, the umbrella company for her one-woman, audience-interactive poetry performances.  These include Television Daddy, The Drive Home, and, most recently, ashes, ashes: A Poet Responds to the Holocaust—all on tour.  Robert Bieselin of The Record calls these productions "High Volume" poetry.   Others have praised their work as "cinematic, entertaining, accessible, and always memorable…fearless…much more than you expected…illuminating."

Since portraying Anne Frank in her Pope Pius XII High School senior class play, Rich has been committed to promoting interfaith understanding and world peace. In ashes, ashes, she embodies and enacts the testimonies of Holocaust victims, survivors, and liberators—ranging over fifteen separate points of view. Weaving the past with the present; poetry with art, music, and stagecraft; this production is remembrance and hope — a vigil for as well as a celebration of human dignity and love. 

ashes, ashes has a long history,  Rich began writing poems for ashes, ashes while co-anchoring videotaped testimonies with Bernie Weinstein in the Oral History Project at Kean University. Subsequently, artist Jo Jochnowitz and she toured our paired works to numerous high schools as part of the New Jersey School of the Arts, and exhibited in galleries, colleges, and community centers. 

The legendary Sister Rose Thering, OP, an early and enthusiastic supporter of ashes, ashes, wrote:  “Susanna Rich and Jo Jochnowitz lay bare their souls to see and to speak that which is too hard to see, that which is unspeakable.  The poems and drawings in ashes, ashes are beautiful enough in sound and form to captivate us, while at the same time providing the catharsis necessary to fully confront reality and therefore to honor remembrance.”

Paul Winkler, Executive Director of the New Jersey State Council on Holocaust Education, recommends ashes, ashes as a vehicle to fulfill the state mandate on Holocaust and Genocide studies.  Thier tour of New Jersey schools was launched last December.

 

Please visit www.wildnightsproductions.com, especially their video features and reviews on the ashes, ashes subpage, http://www.wildnightsproductions.com/ashes-ashes.html

 

John Amen

 

John Amen is the author of three collections of poetry: Christening the Dancer (Uccelli Press, 2003), More of Me Disappears (Cross-Cultural Communications, 2005), and At the Threshold of Alchemy (Presa, 2009). His collaborative work with Daniel Y. Harris, The New Arcana, will be released by NYQ Press in September 2012. His work has appeared in numerous journals nationally and internationally and been translated into Spanish, French, Hungarian, and Hebrew. In addition, he has released two folk/folk rock CDs: All I’ll Never Need (Cool Midget 2004) and Ridiculous Empire (2008). He is also an artist, working primarily with acrylics on canvas. Further information is available on his website: www.johnamen.com. Amen travels widely giving readings, doing musical performances, and conducting workshops. He founded and continues to edit The Pedestal Magazine (www.thepedestalmagazine.com).

 

Edwin Romond

Edwin Romond’s most recent book of poetry is Alone with Love Songs (Grayson Books.) He is the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Arts Councils. He is a five time Pushcart Prize nominee and Garrison Keillor has featured his poems on NPR. In addition to his poetry, Romond has written the book, music, and lyrics for two musical plays, Robin Hood and A Family Life, that were produced at New Jersey community theaters.

 

A native of Woodbridge, NJ, Edwin Romond now lives in Wind Gap, PA with his wife and son.

www.edwinromond.com

Diane Lockward

Diane Lockward is the author of three poetry books, most recently, Temptation by Water (Wind Publications, 2010). Her poems have been included in such anthologies as Poetry Daily: 360 Poems from the World's Most Popular Poetry Website and Garrison Keillor's Good Poems for Hard Times and in such journals as Harvard Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner. Her work has also been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writer’s Almanac.

Diane Lockward

Andrew Lowe

BIOGRAPHY

 

Andrew Lowe is a resident of New Jersey and graduate of Middlesex County College and Kean University. While attending MCC, he was a member of the Art & Photography Club, as well as a designer and the literary editor of Myriad, the student-run, literary and arts magazine on campus, which garnered numerous awards and recognitions from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association of Columbia University. Andrew has previously written for the Mirror, a newspaper publication in Central Jersey and most recently was a guest communications coordinator with Disney Cruise Line. He currently works as a freelance graphic designer and does work for non-profit organizations in a design collaborative he helped co-found.

Andrew Lowe

Andrew Lowe

Chris Rockwell

Chris Rockwell has been performing hip-hop music and spoken word poetry for the last ten years. He is a two-time nationally competing slam poet, and in 2006 was central New Jersey's Grand Slam Champion. In 2010 he was named Poet Laureate of Asbury Park. His production, engineering, and vocal work are featured on the album Reunion by Jimmy C, which was nominated for a Hawaiian Music Award. His timeless love is Marilyn Monroe, and his favorite candy is Sour Jacks.

D.M. Dutcher (Dutch)

D. M. Dutcher (Dutch) is a Rutgers graduate who works as a fine woodworker and carpenter. He served for several years on the production staff of the George Street playhouse creating stage sets, has been a featured poet at libraries, art centers, cafes, and bookstores throughout NJ, and has directed several reading series, including those at Butterfields' Cafe, the Somerville Public Library, and the Highland Park Public Library.

Phill Provance is the creator of the forthcoming Ace Hoyle online comic series, as well as a poet, reviewer, editor and journalist. His publication credits including work for WizardUniverse.com and InQuest Gamer, PokerMaster.org, GamblingPlanet.org, The Baltimore Sun, USAToday.com (Reprint/Link), Alternet.com (Reprint/Link), Word Riot, decomP magazinE, Heartbreaker Magazine, Word Salad, Orbis: International Literary Journal, The Axe Factory Review, The Idiom, and many others.

He recently bought a large house in Connellsville, PA where he lives by himself. Friends and curiosity seekers are encouraged to visit.

Tim Lowe

Tim Lowe is an Edison resident and graduated Kean University with an English degree in 2010. While at Kean he was awarded two scholarships in English excellence, an honorable mention in its annual poetry contest, and recently joined the Academy of American Poets. He's a regular reader here at the Baron Arts Center and also attends readings in South Brunswick, Union, Fanwood, Red Bank, and New York. He plans on attending graduate school next year for either creative writing to become a English teacher.