Photos from December 2013 Savin Bar + Kitchen Reading

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Write on the DOT's December 'Winter Warmer' Reading at Savin Bar + Kitchen! It was an evening of great art, performance, music and conversation. Thanks again to our readers Obehi Janice, Lewis Feuer, Jennifer Murphy and Marquita Niles; musician Colin O'Day; and the wonderful staff at Savin Bar + Kitchen!

Featured Readers December 11th, 2013

Join us on Wednesday December 11th at SAVIN BAR + KITCHEN for a Write on the DOT reading featuring original poetry & prose by Lewis Feuer, Jennifer Murphy and Marquita Niles. 

Lewis Feuer

1) How long have you been writing in the DOT?

 16 months. 

2) What are your favorite ways to stay warm during a long New England winter? 

 Polypropylene thermal underwear: 2 sets, mittens: 1 pair, fleece scarf, beanie: 

1(black) 

3) Words to live by. Is there a quote or phrase that captures your philosophy as 

an artist or one you've just never forgotten? 

 “When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.” 

 -- Sol Lewitt

4) What was the most recent thing that inspired you to write? (could be a 

conversation, an object, a dream - tell us a little about it, was it sad, humorous, 

just plain strange?) 

 It may have been when the crotch of a recent pair of jeans finally blew out. 

5) Best or worst gift you've ever received for Christmas/Hanukkah.  

 Iʼve surfed since I was a little kid off Block Island, RI.  And over that time Iʼve 

developed a loose list of best practices to manage the normal fears inspired by 

the fact that each time I paddle out Iʼm merely a small speck floating on the 

surface of a vast constantly moving open body of water, filled with many other 

living an hungry things.  That list includes wisdoms such as: try not to surf alone, 

wear sunscreen, and always assume that what just brushed your foot was 

seaweed.   

One Christmas as a joke (I think it was a joke) my mother gave me this book 

titled Surfingʼs Greatest Misadventures.  I still canʼt quite fathom why she thought 

this book might interest me, and Iʼve yet to read a single page of it.  Maybe it was 

a jab at my low level anxiety, but most likely it was bought in a Christmas Eve 

panic at our local CVS by a very tired but very loving mother at a loss for what to 

get her son, who at the time was most likely in the throes of puberty and was—as 

the mother may have thought in that moment—impossible.  

Jennifer Murphy

1) How long have you been living/going to school in Dorchester?

I've been living here since July of this year. 

2) What are your favorite ways to stay warm during a long New England winter?

I currently don't have any way of keeping warm because no matter what I do I am still always cold. As an Arizona native, I am dreading the long winter. Suggestions on how to keep warm are very welcome. All I've managed to do yet is keep somewhat thawed. 

3) Words to live by. Is there a quote or phrase that captures your philosophy as an artist or one you've just never forgotten?

I usually keep two things in mind when writing, first is a quote by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "Think long thoughts in short sentences." I keep this in mind because I don't think prose should be over thought. It is most beautiful when it is honest and too the point. Also some advice on writing from Ron Carlson, "Stay in the room." This helps me stay focused on the emotional state of the world I've created. 

4) What was the most recent thing that inspired you to write? (could be a conversation, an object, a dream - tell us a little about it, was it sad, humorous, just plain strange?)

The last thing that inspired me to write is the same thing that usually draws me to the keyboard, a voice. The voice of a character tapping on the back of my eyes to tell their story.  

5) Best or worst gift you've ever received for Christmas/Hanukkah. 

 Best gift I ever received for X-mas was a pair of roller blades when I was about ten. I kept them on for two years straight.

Marquita Niles

1) How long have you been writing in the DOT?

I've lived in Dorchester off and on all of my life.

2) What are your favorite ways to stay warm during a long New England winter?

One, wear tons of clothes and socks, a hefty scarf and eskimo hat and a nice pair of expensive and maybe furry boots. While I'm out and about, I LOVE To drink hot tea with milk n honey everywhere I go....keeps your insides warm right? Singing does the magic for me in the cold. Oh, and while I'm waiting for the train, cross my legs like I swear to keep warm. There's nothing like your own body heat :)

3) Words to live by. Is there a quote or phrase that captures your philosophy as an artist or one you've just never forgotten?

This captures me and has always been my favorite: 

"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny."

4) What was the most recent thing that inspired you to write? (could be a conversation, an object, a dream - tell us a little about it, was it sad, humorous, just plain strange?)

Well the last poem I did was called "A Night's Haiku" which includes a portrait. I'm very random and last minute with ideas and sometimes snapping pictures. It was night time. I was inspired. I just arrived to Ashmont station and heading home. As I'm walking to the trolley, ahead I noticed the brick wall of the station that stood out because of the lights that hung over it, giving it a nice contrast in the night. Then what made me fall in love more was the shopping cart off to the left where an old and large square piece of wooden board next to it was propped up against this brick wall. I said to myself, I have to get a picture of this...but with me in the picture. So I asked this woman who had gorgeous grey and curly hair if she could take a picture. I might have passed someone else but she seemed warm and fitting for the task. I just told her what I wanted. She snapped a few. I felt the portrait deserved a Haiku. That's what it got.

5) Best or worst gift you've ever received for Christmas/Hanukkah. 

The best gift for Christmas? My play kitchen and shopping cart with all the fake food. The best ever!! Probably why I loved that shopping cart.

Open Mic POEMS

If you were unable to attend our open mic night or just want to relive the fantastic energy, here is a sampling of two poems that were performed on our theme "Caught in the Web: Tales from the 'Net"

Enjoy!

MANY MONEY 

By Audrey Mardavich

i want many money

i want 57 million one-dollar money

i want to pile money on top of other money

i want to get married to money

he doesn’t

i want to get tested for diabetes

i want to burn all the belly fat

i want to burn all the money

i want to burn my car

cars are expensive

i want to quit

i want to

i want to value my coins

i have so many clothes

i want to burn my clothes

i want to wear my clothes made of ash

i want those who value ash to be reborn

i want to go to sleep

i want to go to sleep with many money

i want to put my money to bed

good     night

Chant for “Caught in the Web”

By Lori Zimmermann

Thrice the hourglass icon turned.

Thrice and once I’ve hit reload.

A 404 is never good.

   

Recall the first days of the ’net

For who among us could forget

The modem’s frothing, screeching noise,

The “You’ve Got Mail!” robotic voice,

The World Wide Web’s entrancing powers

Tying up phone lines for hours.

Double, double, dot-com bubble,

Y2K meant awful trouble.

Round about the web we go

Rumor and chaos we sow

Cyber-bullies, virtual hugs,

Viruses and system bugs!

If you would that malware slay,

Think twice before you click OK.

Stay out of flame wars: be polite,

Lest your trolling’s brought to light.

Tumblr, Tumblr, staggering stumbler,

Endless scroller, deadline fumbler.

Facebook is a hostile place—

Moreso even than MySpace.

If bychance you’ve been unfriended,

Think but this and all is mended:

That you can to Tumblr go

Though it loadeth always slow

On account of moving pictures

And long social justice lectures.

Type, meanwhile, in Twitter’s box,

What it is that rocks your socks:

Illegally downloading media?

Misinforming wikipedia?

Now before the night is through

I’ll hear what else you webheads do.

Twitter, Twitter, vile and bitter:

keyboard clack and minutes fritter.

By the clicking of my thumbs,

Some bold reader this way comes!

Photos from Open Mic Night at The Banshee OCT 2013

Photos from Open Mic Night at The Banshee 

October 25th, 2013

They Came, They Read, They Took Pictures With a Pumpkin.

The Pumpkin was obviously the most photogenic of the bunch.

(Photos Courtesy of Aaron Devine and Jenn Phann of Mass Media)

OPEN MIC: "Caught in the Web"

 

 

 

"Caught In the Web: Tales From the 'Net"

October 25th 7-9 PM

The Banshee Pub

934 Dorchester Ave

Bring Your Spam Sonnets! Chat-Room Persona Poems! Facebook Folktales!




Need Inspiration? See Writing Prompts Below:

 

 

I can search a thought and

see the number of people who

have had the same thought before me.

 

 

Not looking to leaders, but curators

who can efficiently signal where to

find the good stuff.

 

 

Information is the

truth value of a proposition.

 

The collective externalized mind.

 

Giving you information faster than you can retrieve it from memory.

 

 

We have become Hunter Gatherers

of Images & Info.

 

The internet delocalizes your community.

You participate from wherever you are.

 

 

Our sense of orientation, space + place

have changed – our sense of the details necessary to make decisions has changed.

 

 

 

A life that generates its

own electronic shadow.

 

 

We are instruments of our

own surveillance.

 

 

The internet takes advantage

of our appetites.

Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from our September 13th Reading

Write on the DOT @ Pearl Street Studios 

SEPTEMBER 13th, 2013

Thank you to everyone who came out for our first event of the fall! We had 30+ in attendance, a variety of readers, insta_poet shazaam, and general good vibes all around :)

Candelaria Silva-Collins read two short stories...

The first had a delightful 'O'Henry'-like twist at the end!

Josh Jones' poems took the audience from Texas and Virginia to Ashmont Station right in our backyard.

A recent transplant to Dorchester, Josh has quickly found his muse in the Hub. 

BPL assistant headmaster Rayna Briceno brings the audience into a dark netherworld - is there any way out?

Caleb Nelson digs a few poems out of his past, including the essential Ex-Poem...

He rounds out the evening with brand new work -  a memorable tale of Mr. Metzger's Math class. 

Please join us on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25th, 2013 from 7-9PM

 for a themed open mic at THE BANSHEE: 

"Caught in the Web: Tales from the 'Net"

INSTA_POET Challenge 2013

 

INSTA_POET Challenge: Mari & Elysia had 10 minutes to compose an original poem, drawing inspiration from the answers written to random questions given to audience members. Here are the results, two poems unique to one Friday the 13th in September of Two-Thousand and Thirteen:

Anything you wish,

the moon says.

Anything you wish.

Elope to Halifax,

a zucchini-bacon

cake, a raindog for a ring bearer.

 

Anything you wish,

the moon says, multiplies,

in each store,

by two, anything-

elope to Halifax,

dance on the sunroof,

your groom a seashell, your bride a tambourine-

a zucchini bacon cake

and a raindog for a ring bearer.

 

This is the high time

for stepping out into the fog door,

for a beaker of superstition

a softball of rain.

 

Hey!

Come play, sound,

all you shimmers, all you pet ghosts,

come play!

 

- Mariya Deykute

 

 

 

 

teach me how to dougie
teach teach me how
to dougie
I grew up in
Halifax so all the bitches
love me

my favorite word is bacon
but I eat a lot of
pickles if I can
teach you how to
dougie then maybe
we can elope

my first pet's name
was lady & I'm full
of superstition so if
you aren't a girl like
her all you've got is
wishin'

if you haven't noticed
my hidden gift is dance
so pick up what I'm
putting down or you
ain't got a chance

and you say
       teach me
       how to dougie
       teach me
       teach me
       how to dougie

- Elysia Smith


(click on the picture above and you can learn how to dougie!)

Featured Readers September 13th, 2013

Candelaria Silva-Collins

How long have you lived in Dorchester? 

              

I’ve lived in Dorchester on Wrentham St. for 10 1/2 years .  Previously, I lived in Dorchester for 8 years on Wellesley Park.   

What is something you think most people don't know about Dorchester? 

I would say that people don’t understand how large and varied it is – from the housing stock, to the people, to the restaurants and other amenities.  It is steeped in history – some of it painful  - but it is a vibrant place and I’m happy to live here.

What was the last thing you read that you couldn't wait to recommend to others?

It would have to be 3 books – The Book Thief (Markus Zuzak), Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun (both by Chimamanda Adichie)

What was the title of an early work of yours (think childhood) and what was it about?

The muse didn’t strike me until high school – so there were lots of love poems and political poems including Picnic State of Mind –an environmental poem – “there’s no time for that picnic state of mind.”

I was a righteous sister!

Do you have any superstitions surrounding your writing practice? (i.e. always listening to the same music, never talking to anyone about it until its done etc...)

Nope.  None at all.  I have superstitions around getting published but not around writing.

 Josh Jones

How long have you lived in Dorchester?  

Since July 2013.

What is something you think most people don't know about Dorchester? 

There's a great hiking trail (Blue hills reserve) just a couple of minutes south of us. 

What was the last thing you read that you couldn't wait to recommend to others?  

The Habit of Being, Flannery O'connor's collected letters. 

What was the title of an early work of yours (think childhood) and what was it about?

I wrote a poem in really terrible quatrains when I was in fifth grade about the kindergarteners at my school playing tag as though they were wild animals on the Sahara. It ended with one of them being eaten I think...

Do you have any superstitions surrounding your writing practice? (i.e. always listening to the same music, never talking to anyone about it until its done etc…)

I almost never write things on paper because I am afraid I won't be able to read my own handwriting. Though recently I have undertaken the process of transferring about a hundred pages of poetry from my computer to a notebook by hand so I can get more familiar with them and edit them that way. 

Rayna Briceno

Rayna Briceno is a writer and an educator. Her family migrated to Boston from Trinidad. She works at a High School in the Boston Public School district as an Assistant Headmaster. She has been writing since middle school and has recently begun a blog called Who’s Got Morale. The central focus of Who's Got Morale is to shed light on the experiences that young men and women of color encounter at home, in school, and in their own neighborhoods. Who's Got Morale also incorporates short stories and poems that give insight to the lives of the adults who are raising young men and women of color.

1) How long have you lived in Dorchester?

I was Born and raise in Dorchester and lived most of my life in the Upham's Corner area.

3) What was the last thing you read that you couldn't wait to recommend to others?

 I last read Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. The short stories are filled with interesting characters, history, and life stories that allow readers to read about he deep secrets and culture of Dominicans and people of Dominican descent. 

4) What was the title of an early work of yours (think childhood) and what was it about?

The Crush Part 1, The Crush Part 2, The Crush Part 3. I was about 12 and I was deeply in love. I had the biggest crush on the craziest guy I ever met. He was silly and danced in the street so I wrote 3 different poems about how much of a mushy crush I had on the crazy guy. Now that crazy guy is my husband and I would never let him read those poems.


5) Do you have any superstitions surrounding your writing practice? (i.e. always listening to the same music, never talking to anyone about it until its done etc...)

I write early in the morning or late at night. I play Erykah Badu or Mary J. Blige on the computer to get in the write head space and then I begin doing research of communities in Boston and reflecting on the incidents that are present in the news or incidents that occurred in the schools or communities during the week and then I begin writing. 

Caleb Nelson

 

1) I've lived in Dorchester for 23 years---grew up here, spent a few years away after graduating from high school. Now I'm an MA student at UMass Boston, living with my parents again near Codman Square.

2) Not enough people know about Real Taco on Dot Ave. or Only One Jamaican Restaurant on Norfolk Street (both take out, both delicious). Also, more people should listen to Akrobatic and Ed O.G. both Boston rappers. Akrobatic's from Dorchester.

3) I've been reading mostly comics lately. King City's a fun one. As far as novels go, I'm reading American Pastoral by Philip Roth right now, which is written from the perspective of an old guy protagonist obsessed with an athlete from his high school he calls the Swede whose daughter blew up a post office. But The last novel I read through that I recommend to the novel loving public is The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

4) Here's a poem I wrote when I was 14:

Mr. Beetle

Mr. Beetle is on a Journey
He doesn’t know quite why
He only knows where he goes
With a grand hope he doesn’t die

His fellow bugs would warn him
In fulsome words yet not deceit
Due to crows and children’s toes
It’s dangerous to cross concrete

He stepped out on the pavement
He’s tired of the place he’s been
This he knows with quaint repose
For what’s life without life within

I watch him as he wonders
Searching for the happy end
He arose above life’s throws
To a place he doesn’t blend

Mr. Beetle is now dying
I made vain the dreams he set
His struggle grows, as my blows
Make him dead without regret

This valiant little beetle
His stain and carcass at my feet
Full of woes’ the path he chose And now it is complete

5) I like walking on the Neponset River bike path, and writing my thoughts in a notebook.

Join us this Friday to hear original poetry & prose from these exciting talents!

Friday, September 13th, 2013
Time: 7:30-9PM
Location: Savin Hill Yoga Coop
                11 Pearl St. Dorchester, MA 02125