Events

Fri 9/24  7pm-8pm Poetry Reading: Jeffery Beam & Ricky Garni Gospel Earth, Jeffery Beam's big book of little poems [in various forms including monostitches, micropoems, American sentences, small stones, small poem sequences, & minimalist poetry] - has already received acclaim for its transcendent, lush beauty, its minimal sacrament, & its simplicity & physicality. Described by the poet as a work intended to "invigorate the startling propulsion of haiku’s accessible simplicity & minimalism, while creating a more active canvas", Gospel Earth's titles read like the new Gnostic gospel the collection sets out to be: An Invocation, The Light Begins, The Green Man's Man, Revelation of the Cloud, Bridge of a Thousand Whys, Treatise of the Daisy, MountSeaEden, Listen.  Naturalist Janet Lembke asserts that "Beam does not see humankind as separate from all else but rather as an intrinsic part of creation sharing equally with moth, acanthus leaf, black gum, & nuthatch. Although the book contains many little poems there are also a number of short poem sequences, & a few longer poems.  Most of the poems have been collected previously in chapbooks, limited editions, & published in literary magazines.   Beam’s poems have appeared in innumerable publications. His works have received numerous awards & grants including four American Library Association Notable Book & Stonewall Award nominations, two Pushcart nominations, an IPPY Ten Best Books Award, an Audie Award, an AIGA 50 Best Books Award, a Writer’s Digest Editor award for best E-Zine poetry outlet, a Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant, a Duke University Chronicle award, a Provost Award for Public Service from the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Public Service, & a grant from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation. He has also appeared on the long list for the Lambda Book Award.  His work as an educator through poetry was highlighted in The Compassionate Classroom: Lessons that Nurture Wisdom & Empathy by Jane Dalton & Lyn Fairchild. Beam is also well-respected as an editor & for his work on behalf of poetry on the national & international scene.  Since 1974 Beam has given close to 900 poetry readings, lectures, & panel discussions throughout North Carolina, on the East Coast, in the South, & in Canada & Italy.  He was inducted into the North Carolina Writers Conference, was an invited guest to the Durham Public Library's Centennial NC Writers Gala, & a Parade Marshal for the NC Gay Pride Festival.  His papers are on deposit in the University of North Carolina's North Carolina's Writers Manuscript Collection.   Born & raised in Kannapolis, North Carolina, Jeffrey Beam lives in Hillsborough, NC with his partner of 30 years. Beam is also a photographer & is represented by Through This Lens Gallery in Durham, North Carolina. Ricky Garni Ricky Garni is a graduate of Duke University and long time resident of North Carolina. He has worked over the years as a teacher, recording engineer, wine merchant, graphic designer and organizer of poetry events, ranging from James Thurber Poetry Slams to Love Letter Fests. Mr. Garni began writing poetry in 1978, and has produced 25 volumes of prose and verse since that time. He is presently working on a collection of stewy collages based upon 50 sitcoms from 1950 to 1990, entitled TELEFRICASSEE, as well as a book of small and endless observations entitled THE ETERNAL JOURNALS OF CRISPY FLOTILLA. His work has been published in print magazines, anthologies and online over 200 times, and he has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize on four occasions, and received an Honorable Mention from Pushcart in 2001. Over the years, Mr. Garni has worked as a teacher, a recording engineer and arranger, a wine merchant, and a graphic designer. In the mid-90s, he organized a series of readings in the Triangle: 101 Secret Wing Dings. Slated for 2011 is The 1865 Project, in which the audience and speakers will be either younger than 18 or older than 65, and all invited to share parts of the world and history that they dearly love and wish to voice and preserve. Mr. Garni is presently in the process of completing Make It Wavy, a compilation accepted for publication by Oyster Boy Review's Off the Cuff Books. His long-term favorite enterprise is a collection of autobiographical comic multimedia poems entitled The Eternal Journals Of Crispy Flotilla.