Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series (3rd Thursday of the month)

FREE ADMISSION

(DONATIONS GRACIOUSLY ACCEPTED)

The Season’s first session of the Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series will begin on January 16th. All sessions will take place in the Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery, 156 River Road, Willington, CT.

The Featured Readers for January 25th include Sarah Blanchard and Pat Mottola.

The show’s format will consist of two open mic segments as well as a segment for the featured artist. Intermission will give audience and poet the chance to meet one another and the opportunity to purchase signed publications.

The open-mic segments will provide the opportunity for audience members to read their own original work. We are planning to allow for two half-hour sessions, one at the beginning of the event, and the other at the end. Readers will be given up to five minutes to present, and we will have a signup sheet.

Sarah Blanchard’s award-winning fiction, non-fiction, and poems have appeared in many journals and podcasts including Calyx, Yankee, Welter, PenDust Radio, and Sixfold. She published a collection of short stories in 2023 and a psychological suspense novel in 2024. Her first book of poems, River, Horse, Morning was released in December. Her current project is another novel, a murder mystery set in Putnam. Sarah grew up in Connecticut and lived for 25 years in Pomfret, where she helped to found the Wolf Den Writers Group in the late 1980s. After two decades living elsewhere, she's come home to northeastern Connecticut. She is a member of the Connecticut Poetry Society, the Worcester County (MA) Poetry Association, Sisters in Crime, and the North Carolina Poetry Society. She lives in Putnam with her husband Rich while they build a new home in Woodstock.

Pat Mottola teaches Creative Writing at Southern Connecticut State University, where she earned both an M.S. in Art Education and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Pat is President of the Connecticut Poetry Society. Her work is published in journals across the country. On a global scale, she mentors Afghan women writers living in Afghanistan and beyond. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Under the Red Dress (Five Oaks Press), After Hours (Five Oaks Press), and A Town Like That (Grayson Books). Pat was the recipient of the prestigious CSCU system-wide Board of Regents Outstanding Teacher Award in 2019, as well as the J. Philip Smith Outstanding Teacher Award in 2021. Pat is the Poet Laureate of Cheshire, CT.

Writers who are interested in featuring should reach out to Steve Veilleux by email: Veilleuxs50@gmail.com or phone 860-324-4942.

Please join us for EC-CHAP’s NEW Spoken Word Series! This program is hosted by the "Eastern Connecticut Center for History, Art, and Performance" (EC-CHAP) and Steve Veilleux. Doors 6:00pm / Presentation 6:30pm. Free Admission - Donations Accepted

Soft drinks and snacks available. We are pleased to offer our exclusive "BYOB&F" model - Bring Your Own Beverage & Food TM (Wine & Beer Only - I.D. Required).

For more information, please call 518-791-9474.

Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series (3rd Thursday of the month)

FREE ADMISSION

(DONATIONS GRACIOUSLY ACCEPTED)

Welcome to the Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series!. All sessions will take place in the Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery, 156 River Road, Willington, CT.

The Featured Readers for February 20th include Claudia McGhee and Janet E. Aalfs.

The show’s format will consist of two open mic segments as well as a segment for the featured artist. Intermission will give audience and poet the chance to meet one another and the opportunity to purchase signed publications.

The open-mic segments will provide the opportunity for audience members to read their own original work. We are planning to allow for two half-hour sessions, one at the beginning of the event, and the other at the end. Readers will be given up to five minutes to present, and we will have a signup sheet.

Claudia McGhee has dealt in and with words for decades as a software technical writer, poet, fiction writer, journalist, eBook producer, and editor. Thomas Lux said of Claudia's chapbook, Paperlight (Finishing Line Press):

“There are many ways to read the simple but loaded title, Paperlight. I choose to read it as light on a page being some-thing written on that page. I choose the affirmative light. And this book’s pages are washed in the light of lucid, piercing, and original poems.”

Claudia has studied with Billy Collins, Carolyn Forché, Dana Gioia, Marie Howe, Kate Knapp Johnson, Galway Kinnell, Thomas Lux, and Paul Violi. Most recently, her poems appeared in Tiny Seed Journal, Voices of the Grieving Heart anthology, the New Haven-based zine Circumference, and her local Neighbors newspapers. Claudia loves attending open mics, and was one of the poets featured in the online “Poems from Connecticut’s Four Corners” program sponsored by the Ridgefield Library (CT). While her technical writing has been translated into six languages and distributed worldwide, now that she is retired, she is working hard to ensure her words read properly in American English.

Janet E. Aalfs is a multidisciplinary artist, arts educator, and activist. Poet laureate of Northampton, MA (2003-2005), 8th-degree black belt, and healing movement instructor, Janet is founder and director of Lotus Peace Arts at Heron's Bridge/Valley Women's Martial Arts, a non-profit community school since 1977. She is the recipient of awards for her teaching as well as prizes for her poetry, and has been featured at many events including the Dodge Poetry Festival. Janet enjoys performing spoken word combined with martial arts dance that she calls Poemotion©. Her poems have been widely published, including 3 full-length collections, most recently What the Dead Want Me To Know (Human Error Publishing, 2022), and several chapbooks.

Writers who are interested in featuring should reach out to Steve Veilleux by email: Veilleuxs50@gmail.com or phone 860-324-4942.

Please join us for EC-CHAP’s NEW Spoken Word Series! This program is hosted by the "Eastern Connecticut Center for History, Art, and Performance" (EC-CHAP) and Steve Veilleux. Doors 6:00pm / Presentation 6:30pm. Free Admission - Donations Accepted

Soft drinks and snacks available. We are pleased to offer our exclusive "BYOB&F" model - Bring Your Own Beverage & Food TM (Wine & Beer Only - I.D. Required).

For more information, please call 518-791-9474.

Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series (3rd Thursday of the month)

FREE ADMISSION

(DONATIONS GRACIOUSLY ACCEPTED)

Welcome to the Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series!. All sessions will take place in the Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery, 156 River Road, Willington, CT.

The Featured Readers for March 20th include Robert Eugene Perry and Julia Paul.

The show’s format will consist of two open mic segments as well as a segment for the featured artist. Intermission will give audience and poet the chance to meet one another and the opportunity to purchase signed publications.

The open-mic segments will provide the opportunity for audience members to read their own original work. We are planning to allow for two half-hour sessions, one at the beginning of the event, and the other at the end. Readers will be given up to five minutes to present, and we will have a signup sheet.

Robert Eugene Perry is a native of Massachusetts and the author of six books. His most recent collection of poetry Earthsongs, was published by Human Error Publishing in 2022. A combined re-release of his earlier chapbooks was released as Sacred Mystic Dance on his own imprint Metaphysical Fox Press in 2024.

His poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies & publications, he was a finalist in the 2023 Beals Prize for Poetry and his poem Heard Steet/ Hadwen Park in Winter was a winner in WCPA’s 2024 Poems in and out of Places. Perry has emceed the monthly Open Mic at Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster, MA (USA) since May 2017.

For more information, please visit: https://roberteugeneperry.myportfolio.com

Writers who are interested in featuring should reach out to Steve Veilleux by email: Veilleuxs50@gmail.com or phone 860-324-4942.

Please join us for EC-CHAP’s NEW Spoken Word Series! This program is hosted by the "Eastern Connecticut Center for History, Art, and Performance" (EC-CHAP) and Steve Veilleux. Doors 6:00pm / Presentation 6:30pm. Free Admission - Donations Accepted

Soft drinks and snacks available. We are pleased to offer our exclusive "BYOB&F" model - Bring Your Own Beverage & Food TM (Wine & Beer Only - I.D. Required).

For more information, please call 518-791-9474.

Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series (3rd Thursday of the month)

FREE ADMISSION

(DONATIONS GRACIOUSLY ACCEPTED)

Welcome to the Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series!. All sessions will take place in the Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery, 156 River Road, Willington, CT.

The Featured Readers for April 17th include Paul Richmond and MW Murphy.

The show’s format will consist of two open mic segments as well as a segment for the featured artist. Intermission will give audience and poet the chance to meet one another and the opportunity to purchase signed publications.

The open-mic segments will provide the opportunity for audience members to read their own original work. We are planning to allow for two half-hour sessions, one at the beginning of the event, and the other at the end. Readers will be given up to five minutes to present, and we will have a signup sheet.

Paul Richmond was awarded Beat Poet Laureate three times. He is best described as political, deadpan and wryly humorous delivered in his own style. He has been called, “Assassin of Apathy” He has performed nationally and internationally. He created the project “Do It Now.” He is also a publisher of over 55 writers and has 7 books himself.

For more. - www.humanerrorpublishing.com

MW Murphy writes both fiction & poetry. She has a piece in the anthology Gathered Light (Three O’Clock Press, 2013), and a short story in the anthology A Shadow Map (CCM, 2017). Her work has also appeared in two online poetry mags “Breadcrumbs Magazine” (2019), and “Yes Poetry” (2020, 2021), as well as in the ”Connecticut Bards Anthology” (2023, 2024) and “We Are Beat” anthologies (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), and the “CC&D Anthology” (2023, 2024). MW was a “featured poet” at the Rose Room (Webster, MA) in May 2023. She has done readings from her fiction & poetry at various events in bookstores, coffee houses, and parks.

Writers who are interested in featuring should reach out to Steve Veilleux by email: Veilleuxs50@gmail.com or phone 860-324-4942.

Please join us for EC-CHAP’s NEW Spoken Word Series! This program is hosted by the "Eastern Connecticut Center for History, Art, and Performance" (EC-CHAP) and Steve Veilleux. Doors 6:00pm / Presentation 6:30pm. Free Admission - Donations Accepted

Soft drinks and snacks available. We are pleased to offer our exclusive "BYOB&F" model - Bring Your Own Beverage & Food TM (Wine & Beer Only - I.D. Required).

For more information, please call 518-791-9474.

Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series (3rd Thursday of the month)

FREE ADMISSION

(DONATIONS GRACIOUSLY ACCEPTED)

Welcome to the Dye & Bleach House Poetry Series!. All sessions will take place in the Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery, 156 River Road, Willington, CT.

The Featured Readers for May 15th include Karen Warinsky and Susan Powers.

The show’s format will consist of two open mic segments as well as a segment for the featured artist. Intermission will give audience and poet the chance to meet one another and the opportunity to purchase signed publications.

The open-mic segments will provide the opportunity for audience members to read their own original work. We are planning to allow for two half-hour sessions, one at the beginning of the event, and the other at the end. Readers will be given up to five minutes to present, and we will have a signup sheet.

Karen Warinsky is retired from careers in media and teaching and her poetry appears in several anthologies including Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands, the 2019 Mizmor Anthology, and lit mags including Blue Heron, Circumference and Consilience. She is a former finalist of the Montreal International Poetry Contest, and just learned one of her poems is nominated for the 2023 Best of the Net Award. Her books are Gold in Autumn and Sunrise Ruby from Human Error Publishing, and Dining with War just released from Alien Buddha Press. She writes about everything including politics and spirituality and sets up poetry readings as coordinator of CT-based Poets at Large.

Susan Powers has been writing stories and poems since she was a small child, and writing continues to be a major force in her life. Susan has taught in a variety of settings including high schools, colleges, and overseas teaching. Currently she is serving as Scotland, CT’s inaugural poet laureate, and she is grateful for the vibrant and remarkable community of local writers and poets. You will find her poems in the Orenaug Mountain Journal and Sixfold magazine.

Writers who are interested in featuring should reach out to Steve Veilleux by email: Veilleuxs50@gmail.com or phone 860-324-4942.

Please join us for EC-CHAP’s NEW Spoken Word Series! This program is hosted by the "Eastern Connecticut Center for History, Art, and Performance" (EC-CHAP) and Steve Veilleux. Doors 6:00pm / Presentation 6:30pm. Free Admission - Donations Accepted

Soft drinks and snacks available. We are pleased to offer our exclusive "BYOB&F" model - Bring Your Own Beverage & Food TM (Wine & Beer Only - I.D. Required).

For more information, please call 518-791-9474.