AMONG 100,000 POETS FOR CHANGE!

So grateful to have been part of 100,000 Poets for Change yesterday. We raised funds and brought attention to a local program to help kids exposed to domestic violence, as well as the plight of survivors from Typhoon Haiyan! The venue last night was my favorite for a poetry reading--an art gallery! Wonderful to meet the folks at Slack Collective Art Studios and Gallery. Great to meet Janet Stickmon who presented words as music to a painter Angeli Lata who made a work of art and finished it during her reading! As well as dancer Emee LaRose--what I love: multi-genre! The evening was elevated by the lovely, earnest words of the Open Mic poets. I didn't even have to touch the tamales to have a great time! Not to mention having successfully recruited Sheila Bare, into participating in the Open Mic of what was her first poetry reading, as both attendant and participant -- always a delight to see a the birth of a new poet!

MORE INFO with pics at the Verses Typhoon Yolanda book blog.  Here was the painting finished on stage to the music of Janet's poetry reading:

Here also were the movingly earnest community organizers:

As it is said: It's all good...!