It's National Poetry Month, so allow us to briefly interrupt our regular scheduled programming to celebrate the poets among us and share with you all things poetry!
POETRY ON THE RADIO!
That's right! For two whole months now, we've been recording some of our favorite local poets (and we've got a whole lot more on our wish-list!) to send over to the awesome DJ's over at KUZU 92.9 to play on the air! Special shoutout to Topher from Brains of Paradise for playing us on his program every Monday at 10 p.m. It's a thrill to get some poetry on the radio. If you're curious, we shared one of these tracks, Ode to the Spiderweb by Maureen Leak, in our features series in March and will probably add some to our Bandcamp for your listening pleasure throughout the month.
So far we've recorded and/or featured the brilliant poetics of Maureen Leak, Bess Whitby, Machele Johnson, Ryan Creery, Seth Malloy, Sebastian Paramo, courtney marie, Paul Koniecki, Reverie Evolving, courtney marie, Sean Enfield, Mike Soto, and Ellie Gonzalez! What other poets would you love to hear on the radio?
Some of DFW's finest radio-famous poets. (left to right: Paul Koniecki, Reverie Evolving, courtney marie, Sean Enfield, Mike Soto, and Ellie Gonzalez)
SPIDERWEB ON THE INTERWEB
Click to read Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi's gorgeous concrete poem, Impolite Mythology.
We've been hard at work publishing awesomeness on our FEATURES series this year! Take some time for yourself to enjoy the poetry we've already showcased, including beautiful work by Marie DeNoon, Nadia Wolnisty, Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi, and Nate Logan. If you've performed at Spiderweb Salon before, or if you hope to someday, please consider sending us a submission. We want to celebrate the poets! Of course, we like to see everything and anything people send our way: visual art, flash fiction, flash essay, video/film, music, and the like, but this month we want to see our inbox overflowing with POETRY! Can you help us?
And don't forget our National Poetry Month Celebration 2017, where we published the work of a Spiderpoet every single day and ended the month with a POETRY PARTY! We're going to be digging into the archives a little bit this month to remind you of this wonderful work, if you're into this sort of thing, check and double-check that you're following us on Facebook and signed up for our email list! We might even share poetry stuff to Instagram, but that depends who's running the show over there on any given day.
PODCASTS, TOO!
If you're more of a podcast listener, we've got poetry there for you, too. SPIDERWEB SALON: THE LITERARY PODCAST, produced in collaboration with Pariah Art in Dallas, TX, and hosted by courtney marie, has featured poetry and interviews with many poets and writers, including R. Flowers Rivera, Paula Jane Mendoza, and Colin Winnette!
See? We make poetry extra fun!
DENTON'S POETRY COMMUNITY
We hear all the time that there's not enough readings or open mics in Denton to satiate the poetry-hungry masses. The truth is they exist, they're just tough to find and don't always have the support they're worthy of. Even our collective has been around for almost six years now and yet we still have some folks that are only just now finding us! If you're looking for the poetic community in Denton, of course come hang out with us, but also be sure to check out Lost Poet Lounge and the American Literary Review, who both host regular events in town. Keep an eye out for slam events like the super cool one the Denton Black Film Festival put on at the GDAC earlier this year, and don't sleep on house show events like Cool Schmool either! && if you can manage to make it out to Dallas, do it if only to attend a Dark Moon Poetry & Art event. You won't regret it.
So get out of the house every now and then to go listen to some poets. Poetry is good for your heart. Also, shoutout/RIP to those Denton poetry nights of yore, disbanded but never forgotten, among them Denton's Punk Poetry Society and Kraken Reading Series.
UPCOMING POETRY EVENTS!!
Catch Spiderweb Salon and a whole mess of poetry at our VERY RARE showcase in Dallas, TX on April 14, 2018! The location is a secret, but if you ask nice we'll give you the address and even send you a postcard invitation in the mail!! (If you are a Patreon subscriber, your invite is already going in the mail this week because you are awesome and we love you.)
Check out our poetry workshop with Caitlin Pryor and Sebastian Paramo on April 28!
We're also hosting a POETRY WORKSHOP at the end of the month for our Happy Hour Art Workshop Series at Dan's Silverleaf. Come learn with experienced poets & teachers Caitlin Pryor and Sebastian Paramo. All levels of poetic experience are welcome and encouraged to attend. Come learn a little bit about poetry, hang out with some of the best poets around, improve your craft, and write a little something yourself! April 28 from 4pm-6pm.
Want to write/perform some weird poetry with us? We're taking submissions via email for SPIDERCON, our next big public event taking place in early summer. Think D&D meets comic-con meets star wars meets harry potter fanfic meets your strange cousin's weird alien abduction stories. More details to come soon! Send us something bizarre and otherworldly to be a part of this showcase!
Most poets love hugs. We also love it when you buy our books! (Edyka Chilome & courtney marie after performing together at Spiderweb Salon Loves You in 2017, photo by Leah Jones)
SUPPORT LOCAL POETS 4EVER!
How? Read local poets! Buy our books and our art! Hook a poet up with a drink at the next reading you attend! Tell us when you sincerely enjoy our work! Share our stuff online! Talk about poetry with your friends! Let us know you love us!
We're going to spend some time this month compiling a MASSIVE list of local poets who have books/art/zines for sale, so if you qualify, PLEASE send us links and info to our email, spiderwebsalon@gmail.com. Stay tuned for more about this project! WE SUPPORT YOU!