Poetry/Art/Writing

Poetry

Sundays
Poetry Jam
at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA
with Jeff Robinson Trio

Wednesdays
Poetry Slam
Cantab Lounge
Mass Ave Central Square

3rd Wednesday
NEW VOICES OPEN MIC
Supportive literary open mic for women and their allies, held the third Friday of every month. All genres welcome. 5 and 10 minute slots available. Sign up at 7:15, and start at 7:30. $5 at the door. Center for New Words 7 Temple Street Cambridge, MA 02139 617-876-5310

2nd Thursday
Gender Crash
Spontaneous Celebrations
45 Danforth St, Jamaica Plain

Saturdays- Bi-Monthly
Laying the Foundation

New series entitled "Laying the Foundation".  An all ages bi-monthly poetry open mic.
Our first featured artist are local Hip Hop sensation "Foundation" who are also the namesake of the series.  The featured artist and open mic will be accompanied by local poetry jammers The Jeff Robinson Trio.   For more information about these artist and venue, visit the links below.

3-5pm $5 Club Passim 47 Palmer Street Harvard Square Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Reservations:  617.492.7679 http://ClubPassim.org

Biography of The Jeff Robinson TrioA Boston Based ensemble, the Jeff Robinson Trio have been performing at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA every Sunday for nearly a decade. They accompany poets,  spoken word artist, performance artist, rappers and singers and have made an impact on the national spoken word/poetry movement.  They have performed or shared the stage with Dead Prez, Saul Williams, Amiri Baraka, Patricia Smith, Askia Toure, Mr. Lif, Ralph Nader, The Last Poets and many others.
http://www.foundationhiphop.net
http://PoetryJam.com http://ClubPassim.org

Writer Info

Tools of the Trade Writing Workshops
Your bookshelves are full of "How To Write" books, your file cabinet is full
of rough drafts and half- finished manuscripts, and you don't know what to
do next.  You envy full-time degree candidates their immersion in the craft
of writing but there's no way you have the time or the money or the desire
to take all those classes on iambic pentameter haiku....

Email or call for more info or to sign up
ttoniamato@aol.com
617.877.3853

As an author you are both a creative agent and a business entrepreneur. 
Your writing is your product.  We invite you to spend a year with us
sharpening your craft skills and honing your business talents.  Tools of the
Trade workshops are designed to address your needs as an author as well as
provide you with the essential business skills to market your writing and
yourself.

We offer one- and two-day overview courses in craft skills and the business
of writing designed to equip you with the essentials of both topics.  We
also offer half-day single topic intensive workshops that allow you to focus
on problem areas or explore a specific topic.  Our program allows you to
attend one workshop seminar or a combination of seminars custom-designed to
fit your needs.

Our monthly Saturday format -- with its low class sizes, affordable price
structure, Cambridge location (a ten-minute walk from the Red Line, with
free street parking), and two experienced instructors -- allows for
individual attention.  Our approach to the material is comprehensive,
honest, and tested.  Workshops can be attended individually or as part of an
extended 12-month program.  Writers of all experience levels are welcome. 
Come spend the year with us improving your craft skills and your business
savvy.

Writing: The Construction Site
Craft Skills
This all-day workshop introduces or reviews the basic skills of writing good
fiction. Lectures, in-class exercises, and open discussions will be used to
explore types of genre fiction, character development, plot structure,
revision and editing, creating symbolism, constructing vivid scenes, writing
sex scenes, and working dialogue.
$110/March 11th/9:00am to 4:30pm/includes lunch/8 min – 10 max

Building the House: Plot & Structure
Plot (what happened) and structure (how it is organized) are fundamental
writing issues that often make or break a story.  Explore different
structural and plot devices and concepts used in an assortment of genre
fiction to organize and transform your story.
$60/August 19th/9:00am to 12:00pm/10 min – 12 max

Who Lives In Your House: Creating Strong Characters
Characters are one of the basic building blocks of fiction.  They are the
" who" of your story.  This workshop focuses on developing solid,
three-dimensional characters to populate your stories.  Includes: character
construction sheets, the character-driven fiction method of writing, and
finer points about creating fully-developed characters.
$60/April 8th/9:00am to 12:00pm/10 min – 12 max

Laying the Foundation: POV and Psychic Distance
Psychic Distance is the amount of emotional space between the reader and the
character.  Writers use psychic distance to manipulate the intensity of
reader's involvement in whatever event is occurring within a scene.  Who
tells the story and how it is told are critical issues. The tone and feel of
the story, and even its meaning, can change radically depending on who is
telling the story (POV).  Learn the benefits and limitations of first
person, third person objective, and third person omniscient points of view
as well as how to use psychic distance to your advantage.
$60/May 6th/9:00am to 12:00pm/10 min – 12 max

Sticks & Stones: Creating Effective Dialogue
Scenes are the best way to show and not tell in your prose and scenes depend
on dialogue to allow your characters to come to life on the page.  Writers
of all levels wince, labor over, and whine about writing effective, concise
dialogue that remains true to character, advances the plot, and is
interesting to read.  This workshop will address several dialogue issues
with exercises and lectures.
$60/July 15th/9:00am to 12:00pm/10 min – 12 max

Tactile & Tangible: Using Description
Description is the tool writers use to build worlds and characters.  Strong
description allows your prose to come alive for the reader.  Learn the value
of the five senses, which details to include or leave out, and how to
construct and strengthen your descriptive passages to get the most out of
every word.
$60/November 18th/9:00am to 12:00pm/10 min – 12 max

If I Had a Hammer: Developing Your Personal Symbolism & Metaphor
What are your own unique ways of looking at the world and translating that
perception?  Symbolism and Metaphor are both cultural and personal.  Every
writer has a rich personal language system and a particular way of using
that language to enable the reader to move with the characters from the
concrete to the symbolic.  This class is designed to help you get past the
given cliché and into your own linguistic home.
$60/November 18th/1:30pm to 4:30pm/10 min – 12 max

Landscaping: Language of Literature
Learn a common language to critique manuscripts and literature.  Learn the
vocabulary and concepts to express opinions and get feedback about your
writing.  This is a prerequisite for the Manuscript Review workshop.
$60/June 24th/9:00am to 12:00pm/10 min – 12 max

The DIY Writer: Self-Editing & Revision
When you come to the place where you know your writing isn't quite working
but you can't pinpoint why, it's time to sharpen your existing editorial
tools and add a few more to the set.  This all-day class will help you to
identify and address issues of craft through the development of a working
language of revision.  The class will also address emotional blocks to
revision and practical concerns such as scheduling for one's self and for
literary deadlines.
$110/April 29th/9:00am to 4:30pm/includes lunch/8 min – 10 max

Manuscript Review
You’ll receive written and verbal critique of fifty pages of your manuscript
by two instructors and up to seven other workshop participants.  Writing
exercises and mini-lectures based on actual problems within the manuscripts
submitted will be scattered between critiques.  Must take Language of
Literature before signing up for this workshop..  Must attend both Sept. and
Nov. classes.
$165/September 30th & November 4th/includes lunch/8 max

Alumni Dinner & Performance
Join us for dinner, conversation about writing, and a “fireside” reading of
alumni works. Guests of alumni welcome.  Space is limited; please register
early.
$35 per person/December 9th/5:30pm to 10:00pm
 
***
Administrative:  Nuts & Bolts
Business of Writing
An all-day workshop on managing your writing career and harnessing the
administrative and promotional tools needed to advance yourself as an
author. This intensive workshop will address non-craft issues of writing
including: how to get started selling your work; publishing options; the
processes of publishing short stories, essays, articles, and book-length
manuscripts; how to select potential publishers/publications; tracking
submissions; writing query letters; basic contract issues; self-promotion;
book tours; networking with other writers and publishers; writing
conferences; and resources in the Boston writers' community.
$110/February 11th/9:00am to 4:30pm/includes lunch/8 min – 10 max

Brick by Brick: Managing Big Projects
Staying focused when working on large projects such as a novel, memoir, or
chap book is no small feat.  This workshop addresses common pitfalls and
obstacles to finishing large projects and offers time- and
manuscript-management techniques, including outlines, tracking manuscript
details, and setting and keeping internal deadlines.
$60/May 6th/1:30pm to 4:30pm/10 min – 12 max

Show Me the Money: Contests & Awards
There is a ton of free money associated with awards and fellowships out
there to help authors be able to write and live. This workshop gives you the
tools to make the most of the contest and award arenas. Learn how to prepare
your materials, find proper contests for your work, use tricks to manage
your submissions, and track your contest and award deadlines and materials.
$110/September 23rd/9:00am to 4:30pm/includes lunch/8 min – 10 max

Power Tools: Shameless Self-Promotion
Basic and advanced self-promotion skills including how to market yourself,
your work, and your words, and how to get press and create a network.
$60/July 15th/1:30pm to 4:30pm/10 min – 12 max

Nailing It: Reading Your Work       
Three-hour hands-on workshop designed
to make you feel confident reading your words aloud.  Includes: basic tips
for reading in front of an audience, text preparation, projecting your
voice, and reading etiquette.  Participants will be reading aloud from their
own work.
$60/April 8th/1:30pm to 4:30pm/10 min – 12 max

For Sale by Owner: How to Submit a Short Story or Essay
Once you have completed your short story or essay, an entirely new set of
hurdles awaits you.  This workshop will demystify the process of submitting
short work to anthologies, Web sites and magazines, and help you organize
your submission process. Topics include: how to read a call for submissions,
tracking submissions, systems for reducing administrative work, submission
etiquette, and more.
$60/June 24th/1:30pm to 4:30pm/10 min – 12 max

So, I’ve Completed My Manuscript -- Now What?: How to Sell Your Novel-Length
Manuscript
This workshop details how to write a query letter, select a sample chapter,
track submissions, sell your manuscript to a publisher, etc.  Issues of
self-publishing and selecting the correct publisher will be addressed.
$60/August 19th/1:30pm to 4:30pm/10 min – 12 max

5-Year Plan
Start the year off right with a five-year writing plan in hand. Exercises
are designed to help you determine your long term writing goals and set up
realistic achievable mini goals as part of a cohesive five-year plan to
achieve your personal writing goals.
$60/December 9th/12:00pm to 3:00pm/10 min – 12 max

Amie M. Evans has published over 40 short stories and essays and facilitated
nearly as many workshop seminars.  She is on the Board of Directors of the
Saints and Sinners GLBT Literary Festival and is currently the author of two
online writing advice columns.  She graduated Magna Cum Laude with her BA
from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently working on her MLA at Harvard.

Toni Amato has been a teacher, editor and writing coach for over a decade, offering workshops in creative writing, publication, and performance, as well as facilitated peer critique groups.   Additionally, Amato has worked with social service organizations and community schools to bring writing to marginalized communities.  Amato’s fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including GenderQueer, Food and Other Enemies, and Strange Angels.   He has performed extensively in Boston and New York City, as well as at Temple, Goddard and Brandeis Universities.   He is a recipient of the 2000 LEF Fellowship, and the Diana Korzenik Fellowship, 2001 to the Boston Writer’s Room, and editior of the Lambda Award Finalist anthology, Pinned Down By Pronouns

Write Here Write Now
Writing groups, classes, and edting services- Cambridge, MA

The Studio: a room for you. We offer you The Studio – a private, airy writing room in Porter Square, Cambridge.

You schedule your Studio time and we provide a computer with high-speed Internet, a file cabinet to store disks and documents,
cable television, a refrigerator, a microwave, snacks, and beverages.
On-site professional writing services are also available. A calm place for you to get away when your home is too hectic for you to concentrate on that novel, poem, thesis, study project or column you are working on.

To book your time at The Studio: your.studio@gmail.com or 617.877.7977.
Studio-By-The-Hour: $10hr. All-Nighter, Long-Term & Weekend Packages Available.

ART

Radical Movie Night
every Wednesday, 7pm
At Lucy Parsons Center 549 Columbus Avenue Boston's South End

Gallery of Club Passim Gallery in Cambridge

The Zeitgeist Gallery, also in Cambridge.