Celebrating National Poetry Month and Plays

Upcoming April Readings Live and on Zoom

Thursday, April 7, 7pm ET: Zoom reading and discussion with Huron Literary Society at Western University to encourage young writers on Mental Health and Literature with Q & A. I Presenters Vanessa Brown, Penn Kemp and Yoda Olinyk. Contact: <lschwa22@uwo.ca>. Play-writing as an expression of hope and possibility. Sponsored by Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Sunday, April 10, 2 pm ET: Live! Our theme is the environment and eco-poetry. London Open Mic, Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St N, London, ON N6B 3J5. I am launching P.S. (Gap Riot Press) https://www.gapriotpress.com/archive/penn-kemp-sharon-thesen-ps. I’ll read from my play THE TRIUMPH OF TERESA HARRIS to celebrate this intrepid conservationist. Guest readers include Jennifer Chesnut, London Library’s Environmentalist-in-Residence; Richard-Yves Sitoski, Owen Sound Poet Laureate; Andreas Gripp and Jennifer Wenn.  My reading is sponsored by Playwrights Guild of Canada. Contact: scryingsolo@gmail.com. https://lfpress.com/entertainment/local-arts/london-poet-driving-force-behind-new-anthology-of-poems-about-war-in-ukraine 

Sunday, April 10, 6:30 pm. Live! Pre-concert conversation with Jennifer Chesnut and Penn Kemp on environmentalism and the arts, on poetry and local conservation awareness initiatives.
7:30 pm. Earth Speaks: A musical meditation on our collective responsibility to the planet. Chor Amica, Patrick Murray, guest conductor. Performance of ecopoetry by Jennifer and Penn. Oakridge Presbyterian Church, 970 Oxford St. W. London ON N6H 1V4. $25. Contact: patrick@patrickmurraymusic.net. https://www.choramica.ca/concerts.html

Saturday, April 30, 1-2:30 pm EDT. Zoom.
Eco-Poetry: Using the Arts to Celebrate the Earth.  With special guest Penn Kemp, explore poems on the theme of the Earth and create your own eco-poem. This reading and workshop is open for all levels of experience.  Host: Jennifer Chesnut, Environmentalist-in-Residence. Sponsored by London Public Library and the City of London. https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/have-eco-anxiety-librarys-new-environmentalist-in-residence-can-help. Free. Register with your Library card here: https://www.londonpubliclibrary.ca/page/environmentalist-residence

May (date TBA). Live! The Launch of Poems in Response to Peril: an Anthology (Pendas Productions/Laughing Raven Press). Dedicated to the poets and people of Ukraine from 48 Canadian poets. Readers: Penn Kemp, Richard-Yves Sitoski, and local contributors to the anthology as well as surprise guests. We have 200 pre-orders. Keep ’em coming! Poems in Response to Peril: an Anthology is 125 pages. $25 plus postage: order from r-sitoski@yahoo.ca. https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2022/03/21/poems-in-response-to-peril-an-anthology/