Upcoming Event: Inaugural Event at SecondStory Repertory - Poetry, Art Exhibit, Salon

You say you want more art events in Redmond? Visual art, poetry, theater? Yes, we are planning a super-fun, multiple-arts-celebrating event on October 6th, now that you asked! Here's the info:

Who:
New Redmond Poet Laureate Jeannine Hall Gailey and artist Michaela Eaves

Where:
SecondStory Repertory at the Redmond Town Center

When:
October 6th, 4-6 PM

What is it?
Jeannine Hall Gailey reads geek-themed poetry from her first two books, Becoming the Villainess and She Returns to the Floating World, and hosts a Q&A about poetry in Redmond. Local artist Michaela Eaves provides an art exhibit of mermaids, monsters, zombies, and other poetry-related subject matter. Snacks and drinks are provided. And the event is free! Come and bring all your friends!

Geek Girl Con Poetry Panel and other Redmond Poet Laureate Business

Where in the World is Redmond's Poet Laureate, you ask?

Last weekend, I presented a panel on Geek Girl Poetry at the sprawlingly successful second Geek Girl Con.

A little write up of our panel is up at Paperdroids. Here's an excerpt:
“Monster Brides, Robots, Superheroines, and Anime Girls: Geek Girl Poets!” was devoted entirely to geek-themed poetry. Jeannine Hall Gailey, author of She Returns to the Floating World (Kitsune Books) and Becoming the Villainess (Steel Toe Books), and Lana H. Ayers, author of A New Red (Pecan Grove Press), read some of their own poems, as well as poems from other women about female characters in pop-culture. It was a funny, inspiring panel and a good way to start the second day of the conference."
Thanks to Chelsea Novak for the shout out!
Despite being the first-thing-in-the-morning panel on Sunday, the second day of the Con, we had a lively, attentive audience who asked lots of questions and hailed from cities as far away as San Francisco! The audience actually cheered when I told them my Redmond Poet Laureate slogan: "Geeks for Poetry, Poetry for Geeks!"
If you're at all into any and all of the following: comic books, anime, science fiction, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or anything Joss-Whedon-related, post-apocalypse, amazons, unicorns, robots, women working in tech, cons where people actually shower, dressing up in costumes...you should definitely consider next year's Geek Girl Con. (And yes, males are welcome at Geek Girl Con...) Thanks to Jennifer K. Stuller for organizing this fantastic conference!

I'm conjuring up all kinds of poetry fun for fall 2012. Stay tuned!

What Kind of Poetry Activities Are You Looking for In Redmond?

So, I'm finalizing my proposal for a year's worth of poetry activities, and I'd love to hear from you what kinds of poetry activities, programs, readings, panels, workshops, etc Redmond needs. What do you feel we have covered already, and what are we missing?

I'd love to get your feedback on some of my ideas, including:

--Poetry readings with featured artist exhibits and salons
--Geek Talks - Poetry panels with local poets about subjects that might be familiar to Redmond-ites - math, science, computer code, comic books, etc...
--Redmond Reads Poetry - a Community Reading Series that would pick one book per quarter to read together. The Redmond library will provide some copies of the book to check out, and Soul Food Books will carry the quarterly book choice as well. (Open Books in Wallingford is a great choice for poetry book shopping outside Redmond...) The library will also host one reading and Q&A by the author of the chosen book.
--Panels on Cross-Cultural Poetry
--Teen workshops, Outreach events in Seattle to let people know about Redmond poetry programs...

What do you think? Let me know in the comments..

A New Poet Laureate, A New Place to Find Poetry

H there! My name is Jeannine Hall Gailey, and I'm Redmond's new Poet Laureate! Since Redmond's known for its technology brainpower, and a lot of the poetry in my books has been inspired by subjects like comic book superheroines, Japanese pop culture, and robots, I think it's appropriate that the slogan for my term is "Poetry for Geeks; Geeks for Poetry."

I'm hoping to create in this blog a Redmond community resource to find out about all the cool poetry stuff going on in Redmond. I hope that can be a great launch pad for you all to tell me what you are looking for in terms of information, kinds of events, and ways to connect to other poets in the Redmond area. What are you looking for from your new Poet Laureate? I'd like to know! Would you like to see more readings? workshops? I'm hoping to build up our community calender to show all kinds of poetry-related events in our neighborhoods as well.