SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2011, 7pm

On Sunday, December 11, 2011, at 7pm, The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series features poetry readings by Frank Sherlock & Barbara Henning, and visual art by Dana M. Osburn.

FRANK SHERLOCK is the author of Over Here (Factory School), Feast Day Gone & Coming (Cy Gist), The City Real & Imagined (Factory School), a collaboration with CA Conrad, and Ready-to-Eat Individual (Lavender Ink) with Brett Evans. Sherlock is also the author of Neighbor Ballads, a public poetry installation project with Erik Ruin that celebrates South Philadelphia's immigrant communities.

BARBARA HENNING is an American poet and fiction writer. She is the author of eight books of poetry, three novels, a series of photo-poem pamphlets and most recently a collection of interviews, Looking Up Harryette Mullen: Sleeping with the Dictionary and Other Works (Belladonna 2010). Her work has been published in numerous journals. Her most recent books of poetry are Cities and Memory (Chax Press, 2010) and a conceptual project, a collection of sonnets composed from 999 passages from 999 books in her collection, entitled My Autobiography (United Artists Books, 2007). Her latest novel isThirty Miles to Rosebud (BlazeVOX 2009).

DANA M. OSBURN is a Philadelphia-based video and installation artist. She received her BFA from Moore College of Art & Design in 2010, after completing dual theses in Fine Art: 2D and Photography & Digital Arts. Her recent group exhibitions include: “Let's Play Nice,” Synergy Space, Philadelphia, PA; “I Love Mitch Hedberg,” PhilaMOCA , Philadelphia, PA and “Scape” LaunchPad, Brooklyn, NY. Osburn is also a founding member of the Great and Terrible Artists' Collective, active in Philadelphia and New York City. Her curatorial projects included the exhibition “I Got Rosacea Just For This Party,” as well as the audience-participatory event “It's Video Wednesday.”

This all happens at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia PA.  Will be very amazing.  Please come!!

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2011, 7pm

On Sunday, November 13, 2011, at 7pm, THE JUBILANT THICKET LITERARY SERIES features poetry readings by Patrick Lucy & Daniel Coudriet, poetry & storytelling by Asher Lewis & prose by Angelo Colavita.

PATRICK LUCY lives and works in Philadelphia. He's a member of the New Philadelphia Poets and the author of two chapbooks, LIVE FIELDS: GROWTHS 1-5 (self released) and WILLIAM (con/crescent press, forthcoming). Recent work has appeared or will shortly in Gulf Coast, elimae, Revista Laboratorio, Wheelhouse and more. Patrick keeps notes and catalogues ephemera at catchconfetti.com.

DANIEL COUDRIET lives with his wife and son in Richmond, Virginia, and in Carcarañá, Argentina. He is the author of Say Sand (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2010) and Parade (Blue Hour Press, 2011). His poems and translations of Argentinean poetry have made recent appearances in Verse, Boston Review, Bateau, The Laurel Review, Parcel, Typo, and elsewhere.

ASHER LEWIS was birthed inside a Russian Jewish mystical tradition.  His hobbies include woodworking, long walks on the beach, collapsing space/time. He has work forthcoming in The Atlantic, The New Yorker.  When he asks how you're doing, he's interested in how you're doing.  He's a writer/existential crimefighter and a stealth ninja of kindness.  He believes love is the answer but how do we figure out the right questions.

ANGELO COLAVITA has been reading stories and poems throughout his
native Philadelphia for the past decade. Rooted in Existentialism,
Post-Modernism, Surrealism and the Occult, and drawing influence from
the likes of Robert Montgomery Bird, Samuel Beckett and Donald
Barthelme, Angelo has been called "Jacques Derrida's worst
night-terror." In addition to his literary work, he has written and
produced two theatre pieces, "Audience" and "The Cage & The
Hearteater." A monthly reading series, "Handsome Devils," organized by
Angelo, is set to begin in early 2012.  He has been published on various sites online, in Moonstone
Arts' "Poetry Ink" Anthology (Moonstone/Plan B Press), and most
recently in Apiary Issue #2 (Spring/Summer 2011).

This all happens, as usual, at the wonderful Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.  Come, come come!!!

SUNDAY, October 9, 2011, 5pm

On Sunday, October 9th 2011 at 5pm, The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series presents poetry by Travis MacDonald, prose by Abbi Dion & cultural criticism from femininja Maria Raha.

TRAVIS MACDONALD’s first book, The O Mission Repo, is available from Fact-Simile Editions (www.fact-simile.com) and his second collection, N7ostradamus was released by BlazeVox books in late 2010. Basho's Phonebook, an e-chap of experimental translations is available at E-ratio. He currently lives, writes and looks for work in Philadelphia.

ABBI DION writes for the blog Career Girls (www.careergirls.blogspot.com) and runs the WineO Reading Series (http://www.thewineoreadingseries.blogspot.com/). She hails from St. Paul, Minnesota and grew up reading Little House on the Prairie, Sweet Valley High, Christopher Pike, Anna Akhmatova and Pär Lagerkvist. She currently works for Temple University as a Higher Education Administrator and lives in Philadelphia with her soon-to-be hubby and their dogchild, Henri.


MARIARAHA (born 1972) is an American author and rock journalist from New York. She graduated from Ithaca College.  She specializes in the American rock underground. She has worked for major music publications such as Vibe and Spin as well as magazines like Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture.  She also contributed to the anthology "Young Wives' Tales : New Adventures in Love and Partnership" with the short story "Pillow Talk" (2001), and "The W Effect: Bush's War on Women", Feminist Press, (2004).  In 2005 she released the book Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground. The book was published by Seal Press.  Maria is managing editor of Swingset, an art and music journal based in New York City. She currently lives in Philadelphia, PA.

This all occurs, as always at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia PA.  Will be AMAZING!!  Please come.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011, 5pm

On Sunday, September 11, 2011, at 5pm, The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series presents readings by poets Pattie McCarthy & Brian Carpenter & music by omnitonik (Lilla Kultsar). 

PATTIE MCCARTHY is the author of Table Alphabetical of Hard Words, Verso, & bk of (h)rs, all from Apogee Press -- as well as L&O, forthcoming this year from Little Red Leaves.  She teaches Literature & Creative Writing at Temple University & is a 2011 Pew Fellow in the Arts.

BRIAN CARPENTER has been living in Philadelphia since 2005, after moving from his native habitat of Seattle & spending two years in the Poetics program at the University of Maine.  He has self-published two books of poems (Aspect Cycle, Bluest Keys), & one box (Small Seasons).  An earlier prose poem, The Green Island Problem, is available through Vancouver’s Kootenay School of Writing collective.  He currently works as an audio archivist of Native American language recordings.


OMNITONIK  grew up in Budapest, Hungary behind the iron curtain, but has never seen it. She liked hitchhiking through Eastern Europe and taking long train rides there. She has been musically involved with herself for a few decades and is still getting a kick out of it. She has not been trained as a guitarist, so keen listening and hightened sense of patience are very much appreciated. She finds music as a vibrational element, and rhythm, to be her great connectors to particular states of being that she draws from and plunges into when inspired. She chizzles her lyrics with care: some songs she has been working on for years and some are pieces of popcorn from Pallas Athena. 

This all occurs at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.  Will be amazing.  Please come.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 2011, 5pm

On Sunday, August 14, 2011, at 5pm, The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series features poetry readings by Carlos Soto Roman & Sueyeun Juliette Lee, plus film/music by James Short & Maurice Wright.

CARLOS SOTO ROMAN is a Chilean poet who is currently living and attending school in Philadelphia. Carlos is responsible for the Elective Infinities project, and works with the New Philadelphia Poets to help change the face of poetry throughout the city.

SUEYEUN JULIETTE LEE grew up three miles from the CIA. She currently lives in Pittsburgh, where she edits Corollary Press. Her books include That Gorgeous Feeling (Coconut Press, 2008) and UNDERGROUND NATIONAL (Factory School, 2010).   

JAMES SHORT researches the potential of video as a development in the medium of writing. He has exhibited his motion picture studies in more than fifty group and solo exhibitions, most recently the 3LD Art & Technology Center in Manhattan, the SINErgy Project Space & Gallery in Philadelphia, and The Intermedia Festival of Telematic Arts at Indiana University Purdue University. He also visually scores music, dance and theatrical productions, and collaborates on butoh stage performances. He lives in Philadelphia.

MAURICE WRIGHT was born in Virginia, and has worked with computer music for over 40 years. His works for computer sound and images have been featured at festivals in England, Sweden, Germany, Canada and South Korea in the past few years alone. A student of Mario Davidovsky and Charles Dodge at Columbia University, he has lived in Philadelphia since 1980, teaching music composition at Temple University. He would like you to visit his website: mauricewright.org .


Promises to be a beautiful experience.  Please come.  This all occurs, as usual, at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.

SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2011, 5pm

On Sunday, July 10th, 2011, at 5pm The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series presents poetry by Hailey Higdon & Vladimir Zykov, as well as a lecture + Q&A by Sam Durso on Virginia Woolf.

HAILEY HIGDON lives in Philadelphia, PA, where she teaches pre-kindergarten & runs the small, small press, what to us (press).  She is the author of The Palinode Project, which can be read & accessed at www.palinodeproject.blogspot.com.  Her newest chapbook, How to Grow Almost Everything, was recently published.  She is originally from Nashville, Tennessee.

VLADIMIR ZYKOV is a founding member of forgodot.com:  research in poetry.  His areas of interest include procedural & ambient listening, movement & space, dialectics, shamanism & bioenergetic analysis.  His work has been exhibited at the ICA Philadelphia & the Kelly Writers House, & will appear in Against Expressionism, a forthcoming anthology of conceptual writing edited by Craig Dworkin & Kenneth Goldsmith.

SAM DURSO divides time between arts & politics, having most recently run the writing program at the University of the Arts, where he was an assistant professor of Literature, & managed a City Council campaign.  He is the political director of the progressive group Philly For Change & blogs on Young Philly Politics.  He has written & directed plays & may have given Tina Fey her first speaking role.  He believes everyone should read A Room of One's Own in high school.

This all happens at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.  Please come!

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2011, 5PM

On Sunday, June 12th, 2011, at 5pm, The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series presents a celebration of (Soma)tics, featuring a reading & discussion by CAConrad, and films by Courtney Shumway.

CACONRAD is the son of white trash asphyxiation.  His childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother & helping her shoplift.

COURTNEY SHUMWAY is a series of movements contained within a female body centered out of nowhere & existing forever tomorrow beside you.  They were hungry so she fed them.  8.  All at once.  She is least relevant in the early morning & highly significant at any other time of day, unless the sun is up.  She has gone mad with your waiting & fills herself with things untold.  In spite of knowing better, she speaks constantly, resulting in her continued presence & frequent misgivings.  She is deeply honored to bear, among other tragedies, the affliction of poet.

This will be an amazing day in the history of the world & poetry.  Please come.  This happens, as ever, at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, at 5pm EST.

SUNDAY, MAY 8th, 2011, 5pm

The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series presents poetry by Dorothea Lasky & Stan Mir, as well as a lecture + Q&A about the concept of understanding in tragic poetry by William McGuire.

DOROTHEA LASKY is an American poet.  She was born in St. Louis, Missouri on March 27, 1978.  Lasky earned her BA in Classics & Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis.  She earned her MFA in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers, & her Ed.M. in Arts & Education from Harvard University.

STAN MIR is the author of two books of poetry, Song & Glass (Subito Press, 2010) & The Lacustrine Suite (Pavement Saw Press, 2011), as well as the chapbooks Flight Patterns & Test Patterns, both published by JR Vansant.  His work has also appeared in Fascicle, Ixnay, LVNG & The Poker.  Currently he lives in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.

WILLIAM McGUIRE bravely sacrificed a normal social life in order to read old books with odd titles.  He enjoys poetry, philosophy, & sleazy detective novels, but not in that order.

This all occurs, as usual, at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia PA.  Please come.  Will be stupendous.

SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 2011, 5PM

On Sunday, April 10th, 2011, at 5pm, THE JUBILANT THICKET LITERARY SERIES features poetry by Joe Hall & Wade Fletcher, & visual poetry by Francesca Costanzo.

JOE HALL is the founder & co-organizer (with Wade Fletcher) of the Washington, D.C. area reading series Cheryl's Gone.  His first book, Pigafetta Is My Wife, was published by Black Ocean Press in April 2010.  He is also an avid collector of bloody noses.

WADE FLETCHER lives in Falls Church, VA with his wife & their wonderful new son.  He teaches composition, literature, & poetry at two of the George Universities:  Mason & Washington, & also serves as assistant manager for Fall of the Book, a yearly literary arts festival.  He completed his MFA in poetry in 2008 at GMU, where he held the Heritage Writer Fellowship.  A former poetry editor for Phoebe, he now coordinates Cheryl's Gone, a monthly multi-genre reading & performance series in Washington D.C.  His chapbook, Snitch Culture, was published in 2007, & recent poems have appeared in Barrelhouse & Versal.

FRANCESCA COSTANZO sought refuge in her room for writing poetry at the age of five.  At age six, she took photographs at family gatherings.  Now, she blends the two together to create a mood, an emotion, a sequence in time.  Never knowing the final outcome, she manipulates her piece until words jump off the pages & images pop like firecrackers.  Like still moving pictures showing what just was, & what has been forever captured in time.

This all occurs, as usual, at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia.  Please come!

SUNDAY, MARCH 13th, 2011, 5pm

On Sunday, March 13th, 2011, The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series features poetry by Lauren Ireland, film by Brian Melton, & a lecture plus Q&A by Nicholas Deboer on Ezra Pound's The Cantos.

LAUREN IRELAND  grew up in coastal Virginia & southern Maryland.  Currently an editor at Lungfull! Magazine, she also curates the monthly poetry series The Readings at Chrystie Street, & edits Invisible Magazine with Steve Roberts.  Her poems have appeared in Sixth Finch, Conduit, Caketrain, & Bateau, among others; a chapbook is forthcoming from Factory Hollow Press.  She lives in Brooklyn.

BRIAN MELTON is a freelance cinematographer who's worked on indie films such as Great World of Sound, which premiered at Sundance in 2007 & the Oscar-nominated Junebug.  In February of 2007, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded Brian the ASC Heritage Award for Cinematography for his work on the 16mm short film Red Autumn.  Since then, he has shot several projects including an HD feature directed by Stephen Cone called The Chritians, which made its debut in November of 2008 at Chicago's Gene Siskel film center, a Joshua Harrell music video that is currently running on MTV's LOGO network, & Cowboy Funeral, an upcoming independent feature produced by Crosswater Entertainment.  Brian is an alumnus of the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking.  He currently lives in Philadelphia.

NICHOLAS DEBOER was born at 1024pm with a temperature of 29.1 degrees farenheit.  The wind gust a bit, around 5.8 mph under a clear sky in Chicago, Illinois.  It was the Michael Reece Hospital, designed by Walter Gropius.  He certainly still likes to think about it.  Later on, he attended schools, they were nice schools & some of his friends were met there.  He found out that he could get obsessed with things by the age of 11, when his mother told him he could listen to their vinyl & found a photograph of Edgar Poe in the Beatles' seventh album.  It got worse, over time.  By his early 20s he found out that he really liked Guy Debord & the Situationist International, & really thought it was important at 18 to watch Citizen Kane something like 100 times.  Now, it's Ezra Pound, then it's Charles Olson.  He went to Naropa & Western Michigan University.  People have been nice enough to take some of his words in poetry journals, such as Fact-Simile, Bombay Gin & other(s).  He was born on the 23rd of October, 1981.

This all happens at 5pm at The Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.  Please come!

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13th, 2011, 7pm

On Sunday, February 13th, at 7pm, The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series features Poetic Fiction by Jonathan Pogoda, Poetry by Quincy Scott Jones, & Bardic Tales & Magic by Elizabeth Kirwin.

JONATHAN POGODA received his MFA from Naropa University in 2005.  He lives in Brooklyn & works as a librarian.  His band plays around Brooklyn occasionally.  He is busy working on a couple of novels.  He edits Puzzled America, a literary journal.

QUINCY SCOTT JONES earned a Bachelor's Degree from Brown University, a Master's Degree in English & Creative Writing from Temple University, & $100 once for working as a supermarket clown.  He currently writes, teaches, & performs in the Philadelphia area, & is adjunct professor of Creative Writing at Arcadia University & an adjunct instructor at Temple University.  He is the creator & host of New Directions of Black Poetics, a semiannual panel of writers & scholars discussing their relation to the African-American community & literary tradition.  He taught Arcadia University's first ever Poetry On Page & Stage class, a course exploring the possibilities in the relationship between poetry as spoken performance as well as performance on the page.

ELIZABETH KIRWIN is the editor & publisher of FairiesInAmerica.com, a neo-pagan website that tracks the faery movement in North America.  Kirwin & Liam Sckhot, an eclectic music composer, have been collaborating on Fairy Gothic Ballads for three years.  Kirwin has created a male character, an 18th century Irish Bard.  The Bard collects stories of the land & people & the legendary tales & magic of the Irish.  She performs these ballads as a man.  Elizabeth Kirwin is an Internet Entrepreneur, & she's based in Asheville, NC.

All of this will take place at THE WALKING FISH THEATRE, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.  Please come.  This will be a varied & MAGICAL evening.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 9th, 2011, 7PM

The Jubilant Thicket Literary Series features poetry by Jamie Townsend & Brenda Iijima, & music by members of Cuddle Magic.

JAMIE TOWNSEND has poems published or forthcoming in Bombay Gin, The Cultural Society, Gam, Diagram, Fact-Simile, Wheelhouse, Volt, & Jacket.  With Nicholas DeBoer, he edits con/crescent press, a chapbook publisher & print magazine focused on discursive essay/creative nonfiction, & curates the upcoming c/c reading series.  He writes & performs with The New Philadelphia Poets, & lives right around the block in East Kensington.

BRENDA IIJIMA is the author of If Not Metamorphic (Ahsahta Press, 2010), Revv. You'll-Ution (Displaced Press, 2009), Subsistence Equipment (Faux Press, 2008), Animate, Inanimate Aims (Litmus, 2007) & Around Sea (O Books, 2004).  She edited the collection Eco Language Reader (Nightboat Books, 2010), & is a visual artist.  She lives in Brooklyn, NY, & teaches at The Cooper Union.

CUDDLE MAGIC is a large ensemble & songwriting collective band based in Brooklyn & Philadelphia.  With nary an electric guitar in sight, Cuddle Magic uses a quiet 20th century pallette -- vibraphone, clarinet, muted trumpet, banjo, ukulele, violin, vocal counterpoint, etc. -- to create a rhythmically sophisticated folk music from an imaginary folk.

A mesmerizing evening will ensue.  Please come.  This all occurs, as always, at Germ Books & Gallery, 2005 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.  Hosted by Debrah Morkun.