Sacramento Poetry Center Presents Leanne Grabel & John Dooley, two Portland poets. Mere pictures can’t do their words justice.
Leanne Grabel is a writer, illustrator, performance poet, semi-retired special education teacher, and co-founder of Portland’s poetry fount of the 90s, Cafe Lena. Grabel’s collection of illustrated prose poems, Gold Shoes, was just published by Finishing Line Press (April 2018). Individual poems have been recently published in Cloudbank, After Hour, The Opiate, Badlands Review, Cream City Review, VoiceCatcher, The Tishman Review, Rat’s Ass Review, Gobshite Quarterly. Grabel’s graphic memoir TAINTED is being serialized in The Opiate.
PROFILE by Danielle Vermette:
http://www.orartswatch.org/conversations-with-leanne-grabel/
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John Dooley is a retired poetry slammer (three years on the Portland Nationals team), a former columnist, and features writer. He has nine spoken-word albums to his credit, and 40-some small press publications. Recent appearances: John Natsoulas Gallery, Mighty Mike McGee’s Comedy vs. Tragedy, Aqus Café, Big Legrowlski’s Neon Dreams 2, and opened for Hammel On Trial for three Pacific Northwest Performances. He is a two-time winner of Comedy Central’s @Midnight #HashtagWars, and lives near an owl, in Jennings Lodge, Oregon.
John’s albums Oral Foibles, and Oral Foibles II – The Jackening are on Amazon, Billboard Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and iTunes. His ancillary audio adventures include: Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Show (KDVS), Indiefeed Performance Poetry, RC Weslowski’s Oh No Not Another Podcast, and radio appearances on KHSU, KBOO, KMUD, and Poetica – ABC Australia.
You can learn more about him at JohnDooleyOralFoibles.com
“John Dooley somehow makes me simultaneously love and despair for humanity. In “Oral Foibles,” John’s first solo album, he reveals himself to be a cross between Salvador Dali and Charles Bukowski, but with a sharper-edged sense of humor than either. These tracks break-dance their way across our pop culture landscape and psychoses without a moment of mercy. Through John’s lens, human existence is just so freakishly absurd that laughing at it and enjoying the ride is probably our only valid option. He’s a joy and a wonder, and one of the most insightful performance artists working today. Listen and love. Listen and despair.”
Wess Mongo Jolley, President, The Performance Poetry Preservation Project
Oral Foibles II – The Jackening
Good Old Fashioned Respect
John Dooley
Winter. Ago.
We met behind the iconic Rainier
National Park entrance sign.
Immediately, Dad grabbed my new hat
and threw it in the snow, stomped on it,
ground it in, then jumped up and down
on it. He kicked it aside.
Ashen snow feathered us. His glory
steamed.
He wore a hip holster holding a wild-
westerly .22 revolver, but kept it in
check. Normally, he would have shot it
up, being both a new hat, and my new
hat, but… not here.
Then, even gun-nuts respected National
Parks, respected rules, yet kept time-
honored traditions alive, by adapting
mindfully.
