Events

Thurs 9/9  7-8:30pm MSR Reading& Open Mic Series (every 2nd  Thursday) Featured readers: Robert Abbate (Courage of Straw) & Malaika Albrecht (Lessons in Forgetting) Every Second Thursday at 7pm, co-hosts Debra Kaufman and Stan Absher will start the evening by introducing two MSR authors as featured readers, followed by an Open Mic.  Readers, writers and appreciators of poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction are invited to join in. In Courage of Straw, Robert Abbate addresses the difficult issues of religious faith and personal relationships in a fine-tuned formal music that sounds in the heart as resonantly as it does to the ear. These poems, stark in revelations of abuses afflicted upon the saints and martyrs, wrestle with angels.  Robert teaches English composition and philosophy at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in Concord, North Carolina. His ms., Courage of Straw, was a finalist for the Bright Hill Press Poetry Book Contest in 2005 and for the John Ciardi Poetry Prize from BkMk Press in 2006. In Lessons in Forgetting, Malaika King Albrecht writes about her mother's Alzheimer's and the family's responses to the disease often called "the long goodbye." These poems are lessons in honesty, patience, humor and a love that transcends family bonds. Malaika is the founding editor of Redheaded Stepchild, an online magazine that only accepts poems that have been rejected elsewhere. A former rape crisis and substance abuse counselor, she facilitates poetry therapy groups for her clients. The Main Street Rag Publishing Company, a bindery and a publisher based in Charlotte, has published a quarterly print magazine since 1996. Among its features are poetry, short fiction, photography and graphic images, essays, interviews, reviews, cartoons and commentary.  MSR also publishes poetry through their annual chapbook and full-length poetry collection contests.  They also help writers self-publish their works; from design, layout and printing to shipping the books out.