Join Women Writers Bloom Poetry Salon + Multi-genre Open Mic with Carla M. CHERRY, Jennifer FRANKLIN, Regina JAMISON & Janice LOWE on Sat Feb 13th, 3-6PM EST on ZOOM!

Sit down with your favorite meal/snack and beverage on Saturday, February 13, 2021 from 3-6pm EST on ZOOM. Salon Curator JP HOWARD & Salon poet, CYNTHIA MANICK, will co-host this Salon. Our community and our writers are resilient and during these challenging times we come together in creative ways to celebrate that we are here, our voices are powerful and also to confirm that poetry shared is poetry that heals. JP Howard will begin by sharing a few writing prompts that you can use later and then we will meet briefly in small zoom break-out rooms to check in with each other. Our talented featured writers will each share their powerful work. We will end with an open mic and will try to accommodate as many writers as we can. You will receive a link to sign up for an open mic slot ONLY after you register on Eventbrite. Each Open Mic writer can ONLY share one poem or other genre piece, no longer that 2 to 3 minutes MAX. Singers are also welcome too! Sign up here to receive invites to future Salons: http://eepurl.com/lNK0b

Donations to support Women Writers Bloom & JP Howard's community work are encouraged via:

PayPal to womenwritersbloom@gmail.com

Direct link to donate via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3kO8pEQ

Venmo to JPHoward_poet

Zelle to jph.poet@gmail.com

BIOS of OUR FEATURED POETS:

CARLA M. CHERRY is a native of the Bronx, NY. A graduate of Spelman College, New York University, and Lehman College, she has been teaching in the New York City public schools since 1996. Her poetry has appeared in various publications, including Anderbo, Eunoia Review, Dissident Voice, Random Sample Review, Firefly Magazine, Picaroon Poetry, Streetlight Press,MemoryHouse, Bop Dead City, Ariel Chart, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Racket, and Raising Mothers. She has published five books of poetry: Gnat Feathers and Butterfly Wings (2008), Thirty Dollars and a Bowl of Soup (2017), Honeysuckle Me (2017), and These Pearls Are Real (2018). Her fifth and latest book, Stardust and Skin (2020), was published by iiPublishing. She is an M.F.A. candidate in Creative Writing at the City College of New York.

JENNIFER FRANKLIN has published two full-length collections, most recently No Small Gift (Four Way Books, 2018). Her third book, If Some God Shakes Your House, will be published by Four Way Books in 2023. Her work has been published in American Poetry Review, Blackbird, Boston Review, Gettysburg Review, Guernica, JAMA, Love’s Executive Order, The Nation, New England Review, Paris Review, Plume, “poem-a-day” on poets.org, and Prairie Schooner. She teaches in Manhattanville's MFA program. For the past seven years, she has taught manuscript revision at the Hudson Valley Writers Center where she serves as Program Director and co-edits Slapering Hol Press. She lives in New York City. Her website is jenniferfranklinpoet.com.

REGINA JAMISON is a writer who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry has appeared in Sinister Wisdom: Black Lesbian Revolution, Mom Egg Review, Five Two One Magazine, Magma Literary Journal, The Americas Poetry Festival of New York Anthology 2016, Promethean Literary Journal, Off the Rocks: An Anthology of GLBT Writing Vols. 14 & 15, and Poetry in Performance Journal Vol. 43. Online, her poetry has appeared in Gnashing Teeth Journal, Indolent Press HIV Here & Now Series, Silver Birch Press – Me as a Child Series, and Promethean eZine. Her poems will also appear in the upcoming issue of Switchgrass Review. She is a Guest Editor for Gnashing Teeth Journal’s upcoming anthology, SHE: Seen. Heard. Engaged. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at City College in New York. Her first novel, Choosing Grace, has been published by Bella Books.

JANICE LOWE, composer-poet-pianist, is the author of LEAVING CLE poems of nomadic dispersal and SWAM. Her poems have appeared in Callaloo and Best American Experimental Writing. She participated in Melted Away’s American Dream installation at Transformer Station and in Cleveland’s INKubator Festival. Lowe’s musical theater compositions include Lil Budda, text by Stephanie L. Jones (O’Neill Musical Theater Conference.) She composed the musicals Sit-In at the Five & Dime, words by Marjorie Duffield and Somewhere in Texas, libretto by Charles E. Drew. She was commissioned to compose musical settings of the Millie-Christine poems from Tyehimba Jess’s OLIO, and has composed for plays including Door of No Return by Nehassaiu DeGannes. Lowe performs and records with her band NAMAROON. A co-founder of the Dark Room Collective, she teaches Multimedia Composition at Rutgers University. Lowe is resident music director of youth theater at Whitebird. A recent fellow in Poetics and Poetic Practice at Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, UPENN, Lowe has received fellowships from the Rauschenberg Foundation, Creative Capital and The Dramatists Guild. http://www.janicelowe.com

ABOUT YOUR CO-HOSTS JP HOWARD & CYNTHIA MANICK:

JP HOWARD is an author, educator, literary activist, curator and community builder. Her debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*) and co-edited Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians--We Are the Revolution! JP was a featured author in Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools program and a Split This Rock Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism finalist. She is featured in the Lesbian Poet Trading Card Series from Headmistress Press. JP has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda, and the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). JP’s poetry is widely anthologized. JP is one of three current general Poetry Editors for Women’s Studies Quarterly (WSQ) and Editor-At-Large of Mom Egg Review VOX online. She curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, a NY based forum offering writers a monthly venue to collaborate. http://www.jp-howard.com

CYNTHIA MANICK is the author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press) and editor of Soul Sister Revue: A Poetry Compilation (Jamii Publishing, 2019). She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among others. Winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry, Manick was awarded Honorable Mention for the 2019 Furious Flower Poetry Prize. She is Founder of the reading series Soul Sister Revue; and her poem "Things I Carry Into the World" was made into a film by Motionpoems, an organization dedicated to video poetry, and has debuted on Tidal for National Poetry Month. A performer at literary festivals, libraries, universities, and most recently the Brooklyn Museum, Manick’s work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books. http://www.cynthiamanick.com/