Join us on Monday, April 20, 2015, for “April in Paris,” a reading in English about all things French, featuring Jeanine Stevens, frank andrick and Ann Privateer. Free. French refreshments. Bring your poem about France to read at the open mic.
Jeanine Stevens: My interest in French culture began as a child when I studied ballet. I would travel cross town by bus to see dance movies with French subtitles. When designing a “Women’s Studies Program” at American River College, I read de Beauvoir, Nin and Colette. I incorporated some of their philosophies into the coursework. In 2004, I was fortunate to travel to France and visit the prehistoric caves. Robert Creeley was guest lecturer. We had many discussions about the concept of vast amounts of “time” and human habitation. After taking “Poetry in Translation,” with William O’Daly at U.C. Davis, I began writing versions and variations of works by de Beauvoir, Verlaine, Apollinaire and Guillevic, some of which are included in my chapbook, “Women in Cafés.”
frank andrick is a poet, prose writer and storyteller born in Montreal, Canada. He is the co-host of the popular, much awarded “Poetry Unplugged @ Luna’s” and he is also the anchor/producer of the two-hour literary radio program, The Pomo Literati, broadcast on KUSF-in-exile & the net/web globally. He is the co-editor with Rachel Leibrock of WTF?! a quarterly arts journal. He performs his writing, solo, in various music and sound collaborations including Chatoyant, a spoken word ~ sound ~ noise ensemble. He has a thing for dead French guy and dead French lesbian writers from past centuries. As an international journalist published in Germany, Russia, France, England, the U.S. and more, he has interviewed Nirvana, The Cure, NWA, U2, and Sonic Youth just to name a few. He has read his poems and Baudelaire’s in Paris.
Ann Privateer: Poetry was an early grounding influence. Trying to find my way, I spent time in nature jotting down thoughts and creating word lists. Looking up into the maple trees in Cleveland Heights, Ohio where I grew up inspired me to write. When I moved to Los Angeles for college, I was fascinated by magnolia trees. Marriage and another move to raise children brought different sensations from place and pine trees. Now retired, I spend time in Paris, France visiting family. My poems have appeared in Manzanita, Poetry Now, Tapestries, Entering, and Tiger Eyes to name a few.
