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Category: Local Events
SwEP Soiree: The Poetry Event of the Year!
Join Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC for the poetry event of the year!
This December recognizes five years of publishing and we have a lot to celebrate:
We have a new anthology, Parade, featuring new poetry from Jessica Helen Lopez, Kevin Barger, SaraEve Fermin, Wil Gibson, Courtney Butler, Matthew Brown, Kat Heatherington, and many more.
We have a new logo created by the amazing Krystal Wood-Kofonow which we have plastered all over stickers, t-shirts, bags, and more.
We have SwEP Swag donated by one of our most dedicated patrons.
We will be releasing our new commercial created by Gina Falcone.
We will be viewing a photo slideshow constructed by Gina Marselle.
Join us for the festivities on December 15th at Tortuga Gallery from 6-9.
We will incorporate music and poetry throughout the night beginning at 6pm and going till 9pm, with a toast at 7:30pm.
Poetry Performers include:
Bassam, Emily Bjustrom, Courtney Butler, Kat Heatherington, Zachary Kluckman, Manuel Gonzalez, Sarita Gonzalez, Jessica Helen Lopez, Kristian Macaron, Manuel Montoya, Mary Oishi, More TBA
Musical Guest:
Kai Ocean
Merchandising! Merchandising! Merchandising!
Although we are after a fun and radical celebration, we have another goal of raising money for future ISBNs. All proceeds from the event will go towards purchasing new ISBNs for our future publications. There will be special pricing on books and merchandise, and an anonymous donation jar to help us reach this goals. An size donation will get you in the door, but a minimum 5$ donation will get you a SwEP Swag bag.
All available books will be priced at 10$ each or three for 20$. Bring cash or credit card (a 1$ service charge will be added for credit card purchases).
SwEP Swag bags (value $25-$30) will include a variety of Swimming with Elephants Publications merchandise and books. Get a SwEP Swag bag with a minimum $5 donation. We have a limited number of SwEP Swag bags, so get there early to get your hands on one.
We will also have a limited number of other merchandise for sale. Get there early to get dips. If we run out of what you are looking for, you can prepay for an order to be delivered to your home.
Gift wrapping available (as long as your tip our wrapper).
Please note: The Swimming with Elephants Flamethrower is not available at this time.
Food and Drink
This is a pot luck, bring your own beverage event.
Please attempt to bring reusable plates/cups etc. View Tortuga’s Zero Waste Goals for more information.
Stop by to for a toast, wish us luck for the next five years, and sign our memory book.
After party destination to be determined.
Bookwork Book Release: Mary and Aja Oishi’s Rock Paper Scissors
Mother daughter poets, Mary & Aja Oishi, read from their new Swimming With Elephants Publications collection, Rock Paper Scissors.
“…this collection carries both the beauty of human resilience and the searing pain of postatomic burning carnage. The poetry, like hope, is an obstinate and sturdy survivor, for ‘what could i do but write songs.’ These verses often push the envelope, asking questions that make more sense than our grammar. ‘are you out there in the stealth night on the edge of blue? listening/ are you loving me for sending you this fix of heartbreak/ slid down metal, taut and wound. electric. are you?’ …haunting, resonant odes and the rhythmic power of promises and truth, poems spread across Hiroshima and Barcelona, Laos and Albuquerque. These poems bring the world into a familial embrace, but spit out the naked power of truth, both personal and political, as if it were a well-chewed chicken bone, gnawed raw. Through it all, this mother-daughter poetic duo reminds us that, in the beauty of human hope, ‘nothing sacred can be lost.’”
–Carmen Tafolla, State Poet Laureate of Texas
Mary Oishi has two poetic voices: one stark and simple like that of her Japanese ancestors, and one that echoes the rhythms of preachers from her upbringing by her American father’s fundamentalist relatives. Both voices sing her songs of truth and social justice. She is the author of Spirit Birds They Told Me (2011) and is one of twelve U.S. poets in 12 Poetas: Antologia De Nuevos Poetas Estadounidenses (2017), a project of the Mexican Ministry of Culture. Her poems have appeared in Mas Tequila Review, Malpais Review, Harwood Anthology, Sinister Wisdom, and other print and digital publications. Oishi is a public radio personality since 1996, most at KUNM-FM Albuquerque, where she hosts The Blues Show.
Aja Oishi lives in northern New Mexico. Her writing draws from ecology, anthropology, and the years she spent in Spain, Japan, and New Zealand. She revels in the uncaged world and makes a living (and a life) by fighting for prisoners as an appellate public defender. This is her first collection of poetry.
Event date:
Friday, June 8, 2018 – 6:00pm
Event address:
4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Albuquerque, NM 87107
Pick up this new release from Bookworks ABQ or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Beau Williams Live in ABQ
Join New England poet Beau Williams on his Nail Gun and a Love Letter tour as he performs at El Chante: Casa de Cultura on Monday, June 4, 2018 from 7pm-9pm.
Heralding from Portland, Maine, Beau Williams describes himself as a “fairly optimistic” poet, and what better way to describe his newest collection of poetry from Swimming with Elephants Publications than as “fairly optimistic.” Bittersweet journeys to bar floors and the bottoms of bottles, Nail Gun and a Love Letter is reminiscent of beat poetry days and the pilgrimages we must take to find ourselves.
Click here to learn more about this collection by reading the review by Maxine Peseke.
The show will be at El Chante Casa de Cultura (804 Park Ave SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102) on June 4, 2018. It will begin at 7 pm with a short Open Mic, following by the featured performer, Beau Williams.
Copies of his latest release, Nail Gun and a Love Letter, will be available for purchase and signing.
You may also pick up Beau Williams’, Nail Gun and a Love Letter, from Bookworks ABQ or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Keep your eyes open for Beau Williams as he continues his tour across the country. He may soon be coming to a town near you!
Upcoming Event: Poetry for a Cause
Swimming with Elephants Publications is excited to be part of the evening, Poetry for a Cause, sponsoring the Supportive Housing Coalition of New Mexico. Come out to see see a wonderful evening of performance and poetry. You will find special deals on all available SwEP publications with a percentage of all sales being donated to SHC.
Learn more about SHC and the event by clicking here.
