Cheap Wine & Poetry

“Cheap Wine and Poetry” kicks off 2012 with its usual combination of poetry, wine and hi-jinx. The featured readers tonight are poets Greg Bem, Amber Flame, Peter Pereira and Martha Silano, and wine, as always, is a dollar. Hosted by Charla Grenz, the reading is FREE, and books from the authors are for sale.

Help feed the hungry this month by bringing in food items to support the Rainier Valley Food Bank. The first 30 people to donate food items will receive a free glass of cheap wine!

Suggested food donations:

Canned chicken, tuna and salmon; hearty meat soups and stews; canned vegetables and fruits; dry and canned beans (kidney, pinto, green, yellow, refried or black beans); peanut butter; pasta and rice; pancake and baking mixes; oatmeal; granola and energy bars; dried fruits (raisins, dried cranberries, apricots, apples, etc).

About the Poets

Greg Bem writes a whole lot of poetry about nothing in particular and yet everything also. That might be his greatest strength and yet that might be his greatest weakness. He grew up in Maine. He's lived in Rhode Island and Philadelphia. Now he lives in Columbia City, Seattle. He co-runs the Breadline performance series on Capitol Hill and has been known to help out SPLAB from time to time. Visit him at gregbem.com/wordpress. Twitter: @gregbem

Amber Flame is an award-winning performer, composer, activist and educator who works extensively with youth and adults dealing with issues of racial and sexual identity. She performs and records as composer, vocalist and guitarist for her band, Last of the Redhot Mamas, and produces multimedia shows through a flame production. She can be seen on a variety of stages throughout Seattle, as well as working behind the scenes as a host for the Seattle Slam and board director for Bent Arts. She teaches music and poetry to students of all ages through Arts Corps and local schools and community centers.

Peter Pereira is a family physician in Seattle and was a founding editor of Floating Bridge Press. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner and New England Review, and have been anthologized in 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Everyday, and the 2007 Best American Poetry. They have also been featured online at Verse Daily and Poetry Daily, as well as on National Public Radio’s The Writer’s Almanac. His books include “The Lost Twin” (Grey Spider, 2000), “Saying the World” (Copper Canyon, 2003) and most recently, “What’s Written on the Body” (Copper Canyon 2007), which was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.

Martha Silano is the author of three books of poetry—"What the Truth Tastes Like" (Nightshade Press, 1999), "Blue Positive" (Steel Toe Books, 2006) and "The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception" (Saturnalia Books, 2011), chosen by Campbell McGrath as the winner of the 2010 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Poetry Daily, AGNI, American Poetry Review and The Best American Poetry 2009, among others. A 2010 and 2011 Seattle 4Culture fellowship recipient, Martha teaches at Bellevue College.