RASP: Redmond Association of Spokenword
RASP was founded in 1997 to promote literary arts and activities in Redmond, Washington, and the surrounding area. We meet on the last Friday of each month, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at VALA Eastside in Redmond Town Center—7525 166th Ave NE, Suite D140 (directions). Open mic signup begins at 6:30 PM. RASP also holds a monthly writing critique group at the Redmond Regional Library on the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30 PM to 8:45 PM. All events are free. Please join us!.
Celebrating RASP's 20th Anniversary
Special opportunity — RTC Chalk Fest! (August 19-10)
Are you available to be a VALAnteer — a VALA volunteer helper — at the Redmond Town Center Chalk Fest!
Chalk Fest takes place Aug 19-20 at RTC. It will feature world renowned chalk artists (from the promo items we've have seen, will have truly AMAZING art created)! We're excited that VALA was invited to be a part of this fantastic event!
The Chalk Fest organizers have asked for at least 20 volunteers (10 on Saturday and 10 on Sunday). There are two positions that need filling:
- The Artist Shadow will make sure that each artist has everything he or she needs and to watch the art when the artist needs a break..
- The VALA info booth will be a great place to spread the word about VALA to a whole new audience. RASP and VALA are partners bringing visual and literary art to the Redmond community.
If you have any friends that may want to help out as well, please send their names to Marlene Katz. This will be the VALA version of &qbring a friend to work day." This is also a great opportunity for high school students to get some service hours..
We will also be keeping the Art Center open as a hospitality suite for the artists when they need to take a break and get out of the sun for a while.
August 19-20 is almost here so we need to hear from everyone PRONTO when they are available to take a shift.
~ Marlene
VALA Art Center Manager
Coming This Month
Ken Osborne, poet—Friday, Aug 25, 2017
Signup starts at 6:30 PM; reading/open mic starts at 7:00 PM
Ken Osborne is an Englishman. He played in a band as a boy doing many concerts, including a tour of Czechoslovakia. A disruptive child, he walked out of school on his 16th birthday and went to sea. After a trip to New Zealand he drifted from job to job, lived on a monastic island for a while and eventually becoming a senior executive in a large retail company. He also ran the Cambridge Poetry Group for many years. He writes and plays music and produces the occasional oil painting. Many of his poems appear in his book Within Without (2013). Recordings of his poems are available at kenspoetry.com.
MC—Michael Heavener
How to find RASP and VALA in Redmond Town Center
RASP events are held at VALA Eastside at Redmond Town Center, at 7525 166th Ave NE, Suite D140 (directions). That's on the east side of the building across the street from Macy's (in the old Bergman Luggage location; see RTC directory) between T-Mobile and Subway. "The space has nice wood floors, restrooms, [and] running water," said Dawn Laurant, VALA's executive director.
VALA stands for Venues for Artists in the Local Area. It is an artist-friendly place (and we all agree that poetry and writing are major arts) and offers more flexability that our previous location.
We thank the leaders, staff and volunteers at VALA for their generous support of RASP and for the use of their artist-centric location.
Be sure to read the article in the Redmond Reporter about RASP and VALA——"RASP to blend its written, spoken art with the visual arts."
Mark your calendars for these dates, Too!
John Shaw—Friday, Friday, Sept 29, 2017
Signup starts at 6:30 PM; reading/open mic starts at 7:00 PM
John Shaw has been singing Woody Guthrie and Irving Berlin songs, as well as his own and many others, for more than thirty years, sometimes professionally. He has written and performed songs and music for several plays, weddings, political demonstrations, dance concerts, campfires, and rock shows. His book, This Land That I Love, examines America’s best-known national anthems, official and unofficial, through the twin prisms of Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” and Berlin’s “God Bless America,” the former of which was originally drafted as a rebuttal to the latter. John lives in Seattle with his family.
MC—Emily Dietrich
Matt Briggs, fiction—Friday, Oct 27, 2017
Signup starts at 6:30 PM; reading/open mic starts at 7:00 PM
Matt Briggs is the author of eight works of fiction including >The Remains of River Names> and Virility Rituals of North American Teenage Boys. His first novel, Shoot the Buffalo, was a finalist for the 2006 Washington State Book Award and won the 2006 American Book Award. The Italian edition of The Remains of River Names was released last year by ad est dell’ equator (Napoli), and a new collection of prose is forthcoming from Dr. Cicero Books. His stories have appeared in The Chicago Review, Word Riot, Bull, Opium Magazine, Zyzyyva, and elsewhere. He’s online at http://www.suburgian.com.
MC—TBA
Paul Barach, memoir, comedian—Friday, Nov. 17, 2017
Moved ahead one week due to Thanksgiving holiday
Signup starts at 6:30 PM; reading/open mic starts at 7:00 PM
Holiday Party Celebration—Friday, Dec. 8, 2017
TBA—Friday, Dec. 29, 2017
Poetry and Prose Circle
Discuss and improve your poetry & prose! Bring 10 to 15 copies of your poem or story to our Poetry & Prose Circle. We'll gather to share our writing, then offer ideas for improvement. Take away a new perspective on your creative work.
Day: Second Tuesday of each month
Time: 6:30-8:45 PM
Admission: Free, no registration required
Place: Redmond Regional Library
Bring: Something written that you're willing to share and get feedback on. Bring paper copies for others to provide comments back to you.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
October 2017— Prepare yourself for a month of good information
Workshop 1—October 3rd—with Martha Silano
The Electric Eclectic: Precision-Tone Your Poetry Muscles in Just 2 Hours! Get your dream body of work and increase your poetry writing fitness through a circuit-training series of diverse exercises guaranteed to quick-start your poetry-writing attitude. Feel the transformation as you release your creative flow with an eclectic array of pedagogical approaches. These crowd-pleasing prompts will pump up your poetic biceps! Come ready to observe, describe, experiment, riff, and share your newest creations in a safe and encouraging atmosphere.
Martha Silano is the author of What the Truth Tastes Like (Two Sylvias Press, 2015), Reckless Lovely (Saturnalia Books, 2014) The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception (Saturnalia Books, 2011), Blue Positive (Steel Toe Books, 2006), and, with Kelli Russell Agodon, The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice (Two Sylvias Press, 2013). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, New England Review, and Best American Poetry 2009, among others. Martha has received fellowships and funding from the Yaddo Foundation, the Millay Colony of the Arts, the University of Arizona Poetry Center, 4Culture, and Artist Trust, among others. She edits the Seattle-based journal, Crab Creek Review, and teaches at Bellevue College.
Workshop 2—October 10th—with David D. Horowitz
"Improve Your Rhyming, or How to Avoid the 'Moon/June, True/Blue' Syndrome" is a poetry-writing workshop focused on improving rhyming skill. Exercises and discussion will focus on strategies to develop innovative, meaning-laden rhymes. We will also discuss rhyme schemes, meter and its relationship to rhyme, and the power of pattern in poetry. I will offer a free handout for those who want to further explore formal poetry. Please join us, and learn techniques for writing resonant rhyming verse.
David D. Horowitz founded and manages Rose Alley Press, which publishes books featuring Northwest formal poetry and an annually updated booklet about writing and publishing. His latest poetry collections are Stars Beyond the Battlesmoke (2008), Sky Above the Temple (2012), and Cathedral and Highrise (2015). David's poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including The New Formalist, The Lyric, Candelabrum, The Smoking Poet, and Here, There, and Everywhere. His essays regularly appear in the online journal Exterminating Angel. David frequently organizes and hosts readings in the Seattle area, and he maintains a website: www.rosealleypress.com.
Workshop 3—October 17th—with Laura LeHew
Want to kick your submissions up a notch? Not sure how to track and record the details? Want to know more about electronic journals, online submissions and ways to look like a professional writer? This workshop is for those unfamiliar with electronic submissions & tracking, as well as those who have some knowledge but want to know more. Please bring your questions.
Covering topics such as:
- making sure your poem ready to be published
- how to find the correct journal for your work
- guidelines
- deadlines
- simultaneous submissions
- multiple submissions
- previously published
- formatting hard copy/paper and electronic submissions
- cover letters
- bio
- tracking
- rejection/acceptance
- payment
- rights
- what’s next
- what editors hate
- additional resources
Laura LeHew's collections include Becoming (Another New Calligraphy, February 2016), Willingly Would I Burn, (MoonPath Press), It's Always Night, It Always Rains (Winterhawk Press), and Beauty (Tiger's Eye Press). Lana Hechtman Ayers says "As dark as the reality of Becoming is, the journey is redeemed by unflinching examination, moments of unwavering generosity, and the faithful testimony of survival." In her other life Laura owns a computer forensics and network security consulting company. Laura received her MFA from the California College of Arts. She edits her small press Uttered Chaos www.utteredchaos.org. Her website is lauralehew.com. Laura always thought she'd be an astronaut.
Workshop 4—October 24th—with Gary Schwarts
Presenting your Writing: Using Improv and Acting Skills to Improve your Readings
Have you ever heard someone read something they wrote and thought, That would be a great poem/story, but their presentation of it was awful. Gary will show you how to better read your written work, using techniques from improvisation and acting. Tap into the portion of you that can express emotions and learn how to make your reading fun.
Gary Schwarts has had a long and successful career as an actor, improviser and improvisation teacher (see www.improv-odyssey.com). He is one of the few people still around who studied directly for many years with Viola Spolin, revered as the creator of modern-day improvisation and the founder of Chicago’s famed Second City. Viola developed a series of games and exercises for actors and improvisers that are now used in a wide variety of settings, not just in the theatre.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Look for our frequent messages and writing prompts on Facebook. Follow us, share us, enjoy us. Tweet about us, too, and retweet our tweets.
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/ RedmondAssociationOfSpokenword/
- Twitter: @RedmondRASP
- Contact us: contact@raspread.com
What's an Open Mic?
RASP's Open Mic gives you the opportunity to share your work with a receptive audience.
Each month, we open up the microphone to everyone to share their poetry and prose with a receptive audience. You can also participate by relaxing and listening to the words of others.
If you have written something you would like to read, show up early and sign up for a time slot. Time slots are scheduled before and after the featured reader. Details and guidelines are at our Open Mic page.
