Reading: Lehigh Valley Poetry Group

Join the Lehigh Valley Poetry Group for a FREE reading outside at Book, and Puppet Co. 22 Centre Square, Easton, PA. Or join us online through Facebook! We will kick off this year’s Easton Book festival with a poetry reading featuring host E. Lynn Alexander and members of our program partner, the Lehigh Valley Poetry Collective.

Lehigh Valley Poetry is a loose collective of poets in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas who work together to promote local poetry events, workshops, micro presses, arts nonprofits, publications, and more. They also host monthly open mic events.

Featuring: Burton Stehly, Rebecca Migdal, Damian Rucci, Jon Lawrence, Chloe Cole, Andrew Vuono, Sara Bowman, Misty Prostko, Darrell Parry, Cleveland Wall, and more! The Big Easy Easton Brass will be joining the festivities starting at 7:00 outside of Book and Puppet. www.lehighvalleypoetry.org

E. Lynn Alexander (event host): Lynn is a local poet, small press publisher, and Co-Vice President on the board of the Easton Book Festival, an organization she has worked with since 2020. She also organizes poetry events and workshops with the Lehigh Valley Poetry Collective, including open mic events and performances in the area–a scene she has been involved with since 2014.  Some of her programs include Lehigh Valley Poetry Salon (with Darrell Parry), Words in the Ward, and Tuesday Muse, with Cleveland Wall. She cofounded Collapse Press in 2021 and sponsors The Friday Collapse monthly reading series, now on year two.

Rebecca Migdal is a performer, artist, author, and founder of Yippee Skippy Puppet Theater (Easton, PA.) She teaches design at East Stroudsburg University. A contributing editor at World War 3 Illustrated, the New York-based, collectively-published yearly anthology of activist, sequential art. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Jungian Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Burton Stehly began writing when someone asked him what some lyrics meant to a song he had written. That led to the book Beauty Among Thorns. Upon opening the book, song lyrics are on one side and poems are on the other side, with the stories behind them. It is the story of a member of a touring band and the people they meet along the way. He later released “Random Milestones,” a spoken word CD and book, which contains different compilations of his stories and musings from years of story slams, improv shows, and stand-up comedy.

Jon Lawrence currently teaches English and Creative Writing at Liberty High School. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. His poetry reviews and poetry have been published in Newfound, Tofu Ink Arts Press, and American Writers Review. Chat with him about poems or The Grateful Dead on Twitter @JonLawrence1116

Damian Rucci is a poet and organizer of the NJ Poetry Renaissance. He is the author of seven books of poetry, the most recent of which is Corrupt the Youth & Poets Ruin Everything. Host of Puff Puff Poems & seven other poetry shows, Damian is the official Poet Laureate of every 711 in New Jersey.

Misty Prostko is an 18-year-old poet from Bethlehem, PA. They started getting involved with the local poetry scene in 2019 and have loved it ever since. They don’t have any public works out right now, but it’s something they would love to do in the future! They’ve also been a featured performer with 610poetry and attended many open mics in the area.

Chloe Cole-Wilson is the project coordinator at VYH’s Project Silk, which provides a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth offering health services and support. She is also the founder and creative director of Basement Poetry and a local activist who has made her mark in the community through arts and advocacy.

Sara Bowman is a compulsive writer and impulsive human, She has been writing and making trouble since she got her first ink pen. While the troublemaking has somewhat subsided, this mother of three and upstanding member of the proletariat still plays with words, exploring the battlegrounds of heart & soul, society, and self. She is currently working on her forthcoming collection of poems, Heart Atlas.

Andrew Vuono is a forklift-certified art school dropout punk rock poet from Bethlehem, PA. Founder and organizer of 610poetry, he believes poetry belongs to everyone, especially the marginalized, disenfranchised, and working class. He has a new chapbook called Under a Bridge of Dreams, published by Between Shadows Press.

Cleveland Wall is a poet, teaching artist, and librarian in Bethlehem, PA. She performs with interactive poetry troupe No River Twice and with the  combo The Starry Eyes. She is the author of Let X=X (Kelsay Books, 2019) and many small, hand-made chapbooks. Current obsessions include dream life, embodied poetics, ephemeral art, and the power of persistent, incremental change.

Darrell Parry is an enthusiastic proponent of open mics, indie presses, and indie bookstores. He has haunted the Pennsylvania reading scene for decades. His book, Twists: Gathered Ephemera was released from Parisian Phoenix Publishing in January 2022. He currently cohosts the Lehigh Valley Poetry Virtual Salon with E. Lynn Alexander on Zoom the first Monday of every month. He also edits Stick Figure Quarterly.