Poetry Slams - Video Droid "Haven Cafe"

Please check our "October 17 Post" (click on the words "Poetry Slam" located below in the 'Labels:' listings) for details about the UUCSR Writers sponsoring the "Poetry Slams" at the "Haven Cafe" in the Video Droid located at 1901 Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa, CA. That Oct 17 Post has been edited and the information is current as of Wednesday, November 9, 2011.

UUCSR Writers Presents NaNoWriMo

"one day, I'd like to write a novel"
November is National Novel Writing Month
Join the Write-In's!

Bash out a 50,000-word novel in 30 days • Every Monday in November
6:00 to 8:00 pm • Free - Open to the General Public.

Monday, October 31 - Introduction and Guidelines Meeting
Mondays, November 7, 14, 21, 28 - Write-In's!
Meet in the "Green Room" at UUCSR, 547 Mendocino Avenue
Read Chris Baty's book, NO PLOT? NO PROBLEM! A Low Stress, High Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 days. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2004
Visit: NaNoWriMo.org

UUCSR - Unitarian Universalist Congregation Santa Rosa Glaser Center,
547 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401, 707-568-5381
UUCSR Writers e-mail: GGdeB@aol.com

UUCSR Writers Re: Sonoma County Library Poetry Slams

Due to the Sonoma County Library lack of funds and cut back in hours, they cannot offer the Poetry Slams in 2011 - 2012.

The UUCSR Writers has picked up the baton and will sponsor the Poetry Slams. Mark Lowe has, most enthusiastically, agreed to have the Slams at the "Haven Cafe" in Video Droid -- one of the few remaining Independent, Authentic Video Stores in Sonoma County. The Video Droid is located at 1901 Mendocino Avenue in the Santa Rosa JC area. It's in the same parking lot as Big Lots and CVS Pharmacy. Parking is free.

SLAM - EMCEE
Tom J. Mariani, UUCSR Writers Poet Laureate
or Guest Former Slam Winner.

2011 - 2012 SCHEDULE
The Third Friday of each month except December
Monthly Slams: Oct 21, Nov 18, Jan 20, Feb 17, Mar 16. Apr 20, May 18
Grand Slam: June 15

POETRY SLAMS: each Slam begins at 7 p.m.
SIGN UP to perform 6:45 - 7:10 p.m.

PRIZES
MONTHLY SLAMS
1st Place - gift worth $50
2nd Place - gift worth $30
3rd Place - gift worth $20

GRAND SLAM
1st Place - $125
2nd Place - $75
3rd place - $50

Poetry Slam RULES

• Each slam will have an open microphone session prior to the Poetry Slam. At the open microphone session, 1 poem, by any poet, may be read, with a time limit of 3 minutes.

• For the poetry slam, there are three rounds. Each contestant is limited to 1 poem per round with a time limit of 3 minutes. Bring 3 poems. The timer begins as soon as the contestant begins to speak.

• Contestants may not participate in both the open microphone and the poetry slam. They must choose one or the other.

• First, second and third place winners at each slam will be asked to compete in the grand slam held on June 15, 2012. Once a contestant wins first place they cannot compete again at the next Monthly Slam competition. They are welcomed to any open microphone session.

•The poetry slam is a solo event. There shall be no accompaniment of any kind. Slam is judged on content and performance.

• 5 slam judges will be selected randomly from the audience and must be 16 years or older, and must be able to produce proof of eligibility. Judges may not be slam participants The emcee and Video Droid staff persons can stand in as judges if needed.

• Sign ups will begin at 6:45 and will end at 7:10.

Information
Tom J. Mariani, marianis@sonic.net
Georgette G. deBlois, GGdeB@aol.com
http://uucsrwriters.blogspot.com

UUCSR - Unitarian Universalist Congregation Santa Rosa, Glaser Center, 707-568-5381, 547 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401, http://www.uusantarosa.org/

95% of the Mission of the UUCSR Writers is Community Outreach. Membership at UUCSR is not required. Our Writers are "out there" each in his/her unique way encouraging potential and established authors to join us for the pleasure of "writing". We all have the same goal -- to keep the written word alive.

UUCSR Writers Forum, Saturday, Oct 8, from 10-4pm

"From Chaucer to Tweets"

UUCSR Writers Presents a free all-day "Forum" on Saturday, October 8, with Speakers and Panels on writing craft, language, technology, and an afternoon poetry panel.

Music Provided by: Andy Graham and his musical SLAPEROO... Andy is a musician, performer, and inventor of the SLAPEROO, a brand-new kind of electric tuned percussion instrument.

Schedule 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

10:00 am - 10:40 am - David Templeton - "Film Noire and the Screen Writer"
Presentation and discussion about the Balance between the Work of the Screen Writer and the Need of the Craftsperson to find his/her audience. David is a Writer/Journalist, Actor and Manager/Artistic Director of the Glaser Center. He is currently well known for his, very successful, one man performance of Wretch Like Me.

10:45 am - 11:25 am - Steve Boga - "Memoir Writings" How to Write your Life Stories". Steve is well known for his "Memoir" classes in the community and is Adjunct faculty at the Santa Rosa Junior College. His most recent work addresses the question, "What is Memoir? Memoirs are written memories clustered around a theme, a piece of your life told in details. The theme may be travel, life on a farm, a career, a city, the theater, any aspect of life. Memoirs tell of particular times or episodes. They are not narrative of a long life history, for that is autobiography. Instead, they are selected parts: the trips, the jobs, the people. A memoir can be as long as a page, a chapter, or a book."

11:30 am - 12:15 pm - Catharine Bramkamp - "The Sound and Fury - tensely texting and talking about Twitter". With all the talk of twitter, texting - micro blogs, blogs, web sites, pod casts, it's a wonder writers don't weep. Language has always evolved, but aided by an explosion of technology, the evolution is now fast and furious. What does this mean for the creators of stories and the writers of words? Come join the evolution.

12:30 pm - 1:15 pm - Kerry Rego - "How digital platforms are affecting the writer and the publishing process". Kerry is a Social Media & Technology Consultant working with individuals, businesses, government and non-profits. Since 2006, she has been educating, implementing, and training staff on new media tools. She is passionate about inspirting and educating others on how people and technology together can change the world.

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Poetry Panel and Audience Q/A

Tom J. Mariani - Poetry Wrangler/Moderator - Tom's poetry has been published in Vintage Voices: the Sound of a Thousand Leaves, 2011, Continent of Light, 2011 (Amazon.com), First leaves (Santa Rosa Junior College, 2002, 2009), is the author of several chapbooks, and has two short stories and one poem published in Kembel Scott's SoMa Literary Review. His editorials have appeared in the Press Democrat, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Bohemian, He is also active at the international level, Coffee Connection Poets www.coffeeconnectionpoets.com - England, UK.

Vilma Ginzberg - The fifth Healdsburg Literary Laureate 2008/2009, hosts the Healdsburg Literary Guild's monthly Third Sunday Salon. She has published two books of poetry, Colors of Glass, and Murmurs & Outcries and was co-editor, with Doug Stout, of the anthology Present at the Creation, a collection of 80 poems by 37 Sonoma County poets on the experience of writing poetry.

Granny Vee - Margo van Veen, French Teacher, Translator, Environmentalist, Political Activist, Satirist. First Prize in nationwide Alliance Francaise Essay contest, Winner of an SRJC Literary Award

Bill Brewster - Construction: Architectural design, general contracting, and performance. Graphic Arts: Video production, photography, illustration and painting, commercial art. Writing: Copywriting/marketing/advertising, non fiction, instructional. Music: Songwriting, performance, recording, and studio operations.

Andrew Mayer - Host/organizer of the Poetry SoCoCo readings

Persia Woolley - Perhaps best known for her Guinevere trilogy about King Arthur’s wife, Guinevere. This trilogy comprises Child of the Northern Spring (1987), Queen of the Summer Stars (1990) and Guinevere: The Legend in Autumn (1993). She also has written a number of works on writing, How to Write and Sell Historical Fiction.

Questions about the exciting afternoon devoted to poetry are to be directed to Tom at marianis@sonic.net.

2:35 pm - 3:15 pm - Bill Brewster - "Motivation, the need to write. Inspiration, what needs to be accomplished". The purpose of the artist is to create art that generates an emotional and intellectual response. To appreciate art those who read it, see it, or hear it, need to feel it.

3:20 pm - 4:00 pm - Mystery Guest Appearance and Open Mike

Bookstore
Speakers' and Panelists' Books will be for sale. Meet the authors, get your book signed.

Date, Time, and Place
Saturday, October 8, from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Unitarian Universalist Congregation Santa Rosa
Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino Ave., 707-568-5381
Santa Rosa, California 95401

Volunteers
Get involved in this, well-tempered to our times, Writers and Poets "Forum". We need people to help: set-up/take-down before and after the event, greeters, floaters, Author's Assistants, clean-up, e-mail list clip board clerk, etc..

For more details, Contact: GGdeB@aol.com

This is a Free Event...No charge.

UUCSR Writers "Editing Your Sentences"

UUCSR Writers August, Monday Editing Study Groups (Please help spread the word...)
"Editing Your Sentences" Grammar and Punctuation Study Groups. Save the following Monday evenings in August if you are interested in editing a "work in progress" word by word, sentence by sentence.

Note: This is a UUCSR Writers Community Outreach Project. It is free and open to the general public. We will have three groups working at the same time at different tables. Writers working with Writers, Poets working with Poets and Credentialed teachers available to work with Junior High and High School students, who need/want Remedial English assistance. Diane McCurdy, M.A. English and KRCB Film Reviewer, has put together a team of our local Credentialed teachers to volunteer their time to be available for all three groups. Our Latino Community is encouraged to participate.

Four Mondays in August, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Monday, August 2, Forum Room, Sonoma County Central Library, 3rd and E Streets, Santa Rosa
Monday, August 9, Board Room, UUCSR, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa
Monday, August 16, Forum Room, Rincon Valley Regional Library, 6959 Montecito Blvd. Santa Rosa
Monday, August 23, Board Room UUCSR, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa

Would you like to help at the Writers', Poets or Remedial English tables? Send me an e-mail.

Georgette G. deBlois
GGdeB@aol.com

The Lesson of the Sorting Hat

You are a first-year student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You boarded the train at Station 9 3/4 and the Hogwarts Express has transported you to Hogwarts.

You disembark from the train and are met by the groundskeeper Hagrid. You are ferried across the lake and ushered into the great hall.

Now you face the pivotal moment that will forever define your career at Hogwarts. When the Sorting Hat is placed upon your head, into which house will you be placed? Gryffindor? Slytherin? Ravenclaw? Or Hufflepuff?

When we first encounter the Sorting Hat, it is Harry Potter’s first year at Hogwarts. The hat’s recitation provides our first introduction to the very different values that each school’s founder most prized:

By Gryffindor, the bravest were

Prized far beyond the rest;

For Ravenclaw, the cleverest

Would always be the best;

For Hufflepuff, hard workers were

Most worthy of admission;

And power-hungry Slytherin

Loved those of great ambition

— “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”

In successive years, however, the hat’s recitation takes on an edge of warning:

“Though I must fulfill my duty

And must quarter every year

Still I wonder whether sorting

May not bring the end I fear.”

— “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”

The hat’s concern takes on a note of validity when you consider that from sorting onward, students at Hogwarts socialize exclusively with people in their own house. Harry Potter, the Weasley clan, Hermione and Neville Longbottom. Gryffindors socialize with Gryffindors and their arch rivals are in Slytherin....

Original homily presented Sept. 6, 2009
to the Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County

UUCSR Writers Present • July Write-Ins!

The UUCSR Writers Present • July Write-Ins!
Monday Nights in July, 5:00 pm - 8:30 pm
In the Board Room, UUCSR, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa

Free • Open to the Public

Whatever your writing endeavor, fiction or non fiction, you are invited to spend Monday evenings in July at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Santa Rosa, writing, talking with other writers, and enjoying brief presentations by experienced writers.

Socializing and Open Writing time begins at 5:00 pm
Experienced Writer Presentations: 6:00 - 6:30 pm
Open Writing time to work on your own Work in Progress: 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Guest Speaker Presentations 6:00 - 6:30 pm
July 6 • Georgette G. deBlois, Host
“Welcome” Q and A • Open Discussion
The Pleasure of Company, “Writing”...

July 13 • Reverend Christopher Bell, Unitarian Universalist Minister
Writing Sermons and Prayers

July 20 • David Templeton, Writer/Journalist
“Wretch Like Me” Writing about my “self”

July 27 • Dorris Lee, Author, Educator
“Reader’s Edge” Writing Less to say “More”

Focus
Whatever your creative endeavor: fiction, non fiction, memoirs, letters, history, biography, short story, the Great American novel, poetry, essays, dissertation, thesis, song lyrics, report, term paper, cook book, web pages, blogging, twittering, etc., our focus is to provide an atmosphere where serious writers improve and hone their writing skills.

The UUCSR Writers is open to the novice, the more experienced, and the published author. Membership at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Santa Rosa (UUCSR) is not required.

Information
UUCSR Writers, Georgette G. deBlois, GGdeB@aol.com, http://uucsrwriters.blogspot.com
Coffee will be available. Please bring your own sandwich/snacks, beverages.