Shivastan Press Woodstock Mountain Poetry Festival
“In the Spirit of Allen Ginsberg”
At the Woodstock Mothership – 6 Hillcrest Ave, Woodstock NY
info 845 679 8777

Saturday Oct 11 ~ 7 to 9pm:
Political Poetry of Change with
Janine Pommy Vega :: Andy Clausen
Peter Lamborn Wilson :: Eliot Katz
Vivian Demuth :: Diana Ayton-Shenker

9:30 to 11pm: Alternative Sexuality Poetry with
R. Dionysus Whiteurs
Followed by Open Mic

Sunday Oct 12 ~ 6 to 8pm:
Home Planet News Benefit with
Donald Lev + Special Guests & Open Mic

8 to 10pm: Buddhist Poetry Love-In
& Wildflowers Anthology Release Party with
George Quasha :: Shiv Mirabito
Ziska :: Loren Standlee + Special Guests
Shivastan Press Woodstock Mountain Poetry Festival

Event & Poet Info:
Political Poetry for Change, Sat Oct 11, 8pm: this event emphasizes (as Ginsberg proved) that poetry can change the world by raising awareness of political issues such as inequality, environmental issues, the current elections, etc, etc.

Janine Pommy Vega: Poet who teaches in local schools and in prisons and with migrant farmers in Upstate NY. Author of Tracking The Serpent & The Green Piano.
Andy Clausen: Ginsberg said “I would take my chance on a President Clausen…”
Author of 40th Century Man.

Peter Lamborn Wilson: Poet Provacatuer & an editor at Autonomedia, which publishes the magazine Semiotext(e). He is also a writer, teacher and New York radio personality, as well as a longtime student of the history of politics & religion. Author of Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam.

Eliot Katz: A major inheritor of Ginsberg’s political activism & author of When the Skyline Crumbles: Poems for the Bush Years (Cosmological Knot Press, 2007). He & Andy Clausen were coeditors of Poems for the Nation (Seven Stories Press, 2000), a collection of contemporary political poems compiled by Ginsberg. Katz is also cofounder and former coeditor of Long Shot literary magazine.

Vivian Demuth: Fire lookout poet who hosts an annual Poetry on the Peaks event in the Canadian Rockies. Author of the poetry collection, “Breathing Nose Mountain,” & the environmental novel, “Eyes of the Forest.”

Diana Ayton-Shenker: Poet who is author of numerous articles on human rights, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), sustainable development and culture. Her most recent book, A Global Agenda, analyzes contemporary issues facing the UN. Her book of poems is entitled Tumbalalaika.

Alternative Sexuality Poetry Reading, Sat Oct 11, 9:30pm: The rights & freedoms of those who are not in the mainstream will be discussed, debated & celebrated through the poetry of the sexual revolution exemplified by Ginsberg.

R. Dionysus Whiteurs: A New Paltz legend – “One of the most humorous & rhythmic poets around”
+ Open Mic.

Home Planet News Benefit, Sun Oct 12, 6pm:
For decades this important literary journal/magazine/newspaper/review has published the best poets in the Woodstock & NY area.

Donald Lev: Has published HPN with his late wife, poet Enid Dame (who was an expert in “Midrash” poetry) and continues to publish and read his poems around the Northeast.
+ Open Mic.

Buddhist Poetry Love-In & Wildflowers Anthology Release Party, Sun Oct 12, 8pm: this 9th annual edition of Woodstock’s only poetry magazine has a Buddhist theme featuring poems by some of America’s most accomplished poets such as Diane DiPrima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, H.H. Karmapa and several local poets.

Printed on handmade paper in Nepal by Shivastan Press (Woodstock~Kathmandu) – which has published almost 50 different poetry chapbooks, anthologies & broadsides over the past 10 years.

George Quasha: His 15 books include poetry: Somapoetics, Giving the Lily Back Her Hands, Ainu Dreams [with Chie Hasegawa], Preverbs [forthcoming]; anthologies (America a Prophecy [with Jerome Rothenberg], Open Poetry [with Ronald Gross], An Active Anthology [with Susan Quasha], The Station Hill Blanchot Reader [with Charles Stein]); and writing on art (Gary Hill: Language Willing; with Charles Stein: Tall Ships, HanD HearD/liminal objects, Viewer). Awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry. He has taught at Stony Brook University (SUNY), Bard College, New School University (Graduate Anthropology Department), and Naropa University. With Susan Quasha he is founder/publisher of Barrytown/Station Hill Press.

Shiv Mirabito: Poet, Publisher & Editor of Shivastan Press (Woodstock & Kathmandu) & author of Transcendental Tyger.

Loren Standlee & Ziska: Poets who have hosted great lamas such as H. H. 16TH Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche & Kunsang Dechen Lingpa at their Woodstock home.