This Sunday, December 19th 2010 from 1 to 3 pm, PoetryElyria is pleased to present featured readings/performances by Steven B. Smith and Courtenay Roberts at Jim's Coffeehouse and Diner, 2 Kerstetter Way in Elyria, Ohio.  The festivities will begin with an open mic where all are welcome and encouraged to share.

I first became enamored of Courtenay Roberts' work through the Pudding House Salon-Cleveland workshop we're both part of in Cleveland Heights.  I still have a hard time believing she's not done a feature anywhere before, and I'm thrilled that she's agreed to do her first here with us in Elyria.

I first became a fan of Steven B. Smith's work through the MySpace versions of his and his wife's blog.  If not for his influence or inspiration, I may never have gone to my first poetry reading, started taking photos at and videoing as many events as I do, and maybe there wouldn't even be a Crisis Chronicles Online Library.  Having him read for PoetryElyria is an honor.

Here are the poets' bios posted on our Facebook event page:

Courtenay Roberts lives in Cleveland Heights, OH where she works as a barista in Phoenix Coffee's Lee Road Café. When she is not supplying the neighborhood’s coffee habit she is most likely reading her latest find from the local used bookshop or laughing at her own very unfunny jokes.

She began writing in college on accident. After figuring out that life as a professional dancer meant very little ice cream, she turned to the only other thing that had been with her since early childhood, books. She has been searching for a practical use for her degree in English ever since.

Before she dies she hopes to dance across the stage at Carnegie Hall, write the ever elusive great American...something, cook one legendary meal for the people she loves most, and to have gotten dirt from all seven continents beneath her fingernails.

Steven B. Smith is a poet, memoirist, photographer, blogger and collage/assemblage artist who makes his home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, OH. He's been writing poetry for nearly five decades. For more than twenty years he published the famed ArtCrimes journal. He created a massive online art/poetry archive at http://agentofchaos.com. And a wide array of his poetry and collages have been published in the critically acclaimed book Zen Over Zero: Selected Poems 1964-2008. Smith and his wife Lady have traveled the world extensively, creating and living art in places like Croatia, Morocco and Mexico, while blogging about the best, worst and most unique bits of their journey at http://walkingthinice.com. They've also collaborated on a book about Smith's life entitled Criminal – a true story of armed robbery, stolen cars, alternative art, mainstream poetry, underground publishing, robbing the cradle, and leaving the country. For more information on Smith, you may read his mutant bio at http://www.agentofchaos.com/bio.php.

Hope to see you there!
Peace and poetry,
John