The 15th annual Spring Writes Literary Festival features over 120 (!) local and regional writers and performers. 30 group readings, panels, performances and workshops, both zoom and live in downtown Ithaca, take place from May 3 to the 14th. 8 additional workshops are scheduled through September. Events are free and open to the public!

Schedule:

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

5:40pm - 6:40pm: ZOOM: Workshop: From Memory to Memoir

In this 60 minute workshops, Regi Carpenter will help writers take a memory and turn it into a well written, vivid and authentic story. Attention is paid to story structure, voice, and character development using both writing and storytelling skills. Learn about Regi at RegiCarpenter.com

ZOOM REGISTRATION for Memory to Memoir Workshop HERE

6:45pm - 7:55pm: ZOOM: The Femmiliar Art of Profit Making Passions

This discussion will highlight how women of diverse backgrounds nurture their unique passions to attract opportunities that can create profits. What if you could make money doing what you love to do most? And How does one find their passion and turn it into a profit? In this discussion we will also explore the different processes and praxis that are commonly incorporated when turning a simple passion to a successful profit. This discussion will touch topics such as pros/ cons of small business ownership, entrepreneurship, stages of personal development, obstacles that arise within turning a passion into a profit, inequalities in the business industry currently. This all women discussion panel will bring together three entrepreneurs, including the host of similar yet very diverse industries who will dive into conversation.  Poetic Black Gurl, Chioma Ugwu and Kyara Perkins.

ZOOM REGISTRATION for The Femmiliar Art Workshop HERE

Thursday, May 4, 2023

6:00pm - 7:15pm: Workshop: "My Own Self, My Quarry": Writing the Queer Body

with Aishvarya Arora. Taking its title from “Shave” by Gabrielle Calvocoressi, in this generative workshop we will create a space to ask—how do we honor, celebrate, examine, transform, and care for our bodies? We will do close readings of work by queer writers like John Keene, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Cameron Awkward Rich, and Maggie Nelson. Our discussion will culminate in a series of guided writing prompts that will encourage participants to write their own poems that use the body as a portal to excavate our questions about memory, desire, and gender.

Location: CAP ArtSpace - 110 N. Tioga St (on Ithaca Commons)

6:30pm - 7:30pm: Online: Group Reading: Poetry and Prose Open Mic

The Tompkins County Public Library presents a Spring Writes Open Mic! Local poets and prose writers will have the opportunity to showcase their work during a free virtual open mic event. The event is open to writers of all ages and experience levels. This event is also open to community members who want to be part of our audience. Registration, handled by the library, is required for both readers and audience. Once registered you will recieve instructions from the library. Should there be time at the end, they will open the floor to audience members who would like to read.

REGISTRATION LINK HERE will be live through May 3 at 6:30pm

8:00pm to Late: Two of Cups: Experiments and Collaborations in Poetry, Movement, Music, & Film

Two of Cups is both an experiment in collaboration, presented by nicole v. basta and an attempt to expand what you imagine when you think of the literary arts. In a world where categorization is the norm, we reject the separation and constraints this puts on how we explore our crafts and creativity. Expect poets, musicians, film makers, movement artists, performers of all stripes, sharing the stage. We invite you to blur the lines with us in an 8 act showcase— the likes of which Ithaca has yet to see— and then, with full cups, dance until the day turns over. Featuring Winniebell Xinyu Zong, La Llorona, Amrita Chakraborty, Katharyn Howd Machan, BOGMOM, Mackenzie Berry, Shekinah Williams, Esther Heller, Spencer Hadley, Ami Tamakloe, and DJ Obvious Objects.

Location: Deep Dive Bar and Event Space - 415 Old Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca, NY 14850

Friday, May 5, 2023

5:00pm - 8:00pm: Gallery Night: Yen Ospina, “Fluida Vida"

This exhibit will feature Yen Opsina's new work using mixed media paint and a more abstract style than found in her previous work. The theme of Fluida Vida centers on generational trauma in latin culture and how first-generation children break that trauma. YenOspina.com (No registration needed)

Location: CAP ArtSpace - 110 N. Tioga St (on Ithaca Commons)

6:30pm - 7:30pm: ZOOM: Group Reading: Poet Laureate's Favorites

Current and former Poet Laureates will share poems their readers and listeners have said are favorites.  Laureates will also read personal favorites from their published work.  Current Poet Laureate Janie E. Bibbie and former Poet Laureates Jack Hopper, Jay Leeming, Katharyn Howd Machan, Gail Holst-Warhaft, Michelle Courtney Berry and Melissa Tuckey will be participating in this event. (Image: Janie E. Bibbie)

ZOOM REGISTRATION for Poet Laureate's Reading HERE

Saturday, May 6, 2023

11:00am - 12:00pm: Performance: Senior Theatre Troupe of Lifelong: Jobs

For 23 years, the Senior Theatre Troupe of Lifelong has been performing stories from our lives as choral theater. Each writer tells his/her story with the troupe acting as chorus and providing dramatic emphasis. Stories may be humorous, sad, inspirational or ridiculous. The theme for this group of stories is Jobs. Performers are: Jean Senegas, Deirdre Silverman, Paula Twomey, Mary Ann Sumner, Patricia Frazier, Mark Silverman and Emily Rhoads Johnson.

Location: Buffalo Street Books DeWitt Mall, 215 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

1:45pm - 2:45pm: Panel: Writing About Grief

Everyone experiences grief, yet, when we do, many of us are taken by surprise at the intensity of our feelings. We turn to books, music, and friends, seeking navigable paths through our sorrow. Writers, though, do what makes sense to them - they write. Writing about grief can be tricky because it is a universal experience. No one wants to write the book that someone starts to read but then puts down because they can't relate to the writer's experience. So the first thing writers grapple with is how to write about something universal. They search for new ways to describe grief and suffering. They carefully interrogate their feelings then reach for creative, non-cliched ways to express their truths. Join moderator Rachel Dickinson and panelists nonfiction writers Nancy Dafoe and Alison Fromme, and poet Eric Machan Howd for an hour-long discussion on their experiences with writing about grief.

Location: CSMA, Martha Hamblin Hall, 3rd floor Community School of Music & Arts - 330 E. MLK Jr./State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

2:00pm - 3:30pm: Workshops for Teens: Dragons, Unicorns, and the Monsters in Your Heart: Fantasy Writing

With inspiring guided prompts, Dr. Katharyn Howd Machan, longtime professor of fantasy and fairy-tale writing courses at Ithaca College, will lead participants to create new fiction and/or continue a story or novel they have begun.  Emphasis will be on taking risks with imagination to explore outer and inner worlds. To register for the Tompkins County Library workshop, email Dr. Machan at [email protected]. Drop-ins are also welcome.

Location: Tompkins County Public Library - Thaler Howell Room, 101 E. Green Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

3:00pm - 4:15pm: Group Reading and Panel: Journey of the Translator as a Writer

We are a group of translators who work to foster intercultural and transnational exchange of ideas. We work with literary and creative non-fiction texts and through translation engage in a process of transcreation so that texts are enjoyed in multiple languages and cultural contexts. Our readings include English translations of the following works: Yangzhou Bian: "When Spring Comes Into Fall” --a creative rewriting of a Chinese song / Jionghao Liu: Kitakata Kenz?'s 'Suikoden,' -- a cross-cultural adaptation of a Chinese vernacular fiction, 'Water Margin' / Wayles Browne: “Three Sirens”, a poem by Bosnian poet Adin Ljuca / Dan Rosenberg: poems by Slovenian poet and art critic Miklavž Komelj / Marella Feltrin-Morris: a poem “Tiziano among the Flags” by Francesco Targhetta / Erin Riddle: an excerpt from the novel 'Streets of Buenos Aires' by Silvina Bullrich. In addition, we will provide some commentary about our journeys as translators during the re-writing process, including our approaches to translation, the way our approaches inform our process of re-writing and transcreation, and the decisions we face along the way.

Location: CSMA, Martha Hamblin Hall, 3rd floor Community School of Music & Arts - 330 E. MLK Jr./State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

7:00pm - 10:00pm: Event: Seven Minutes in Heaven: Spin the Bottle for the Arts

Spin-the-Bottle of the Arts continues! Seven writers, seven musicians, seven readers, brought into collaboration by the hand of fate.

Location: Sacred Root Kava Bar - 103 S Geneva St, Ithaca, NY 14850 (has stairs)

Sunday, May 7, 2023

11:00am - 5:00pm: Ithaca Book and Zine Fair

This collaborative event at Buffalo Street Books will feature local and regional zine-makers, book artists, and small press publishers to celebrate the freedom of expression and publishing outside the mainstream. Participants will show and sell their books, zines, and other wares inside the store and into Dewitt Mall. The festival will be free and open for the public to attend with a few free hands-on activities as well.

Location: Buffalo Street Books DeWitt Mall, 215 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

11:00am - 2:30pm: Found Poetry Generative Workshop at the Ithaca Book and Zine Fair

Sit down with Brooke Lange and join this found poetry workshop at the Zine Fest, where participants will enjoy a few meditative moments creating something new from existing materials like newspapers, magazines, and books. A perfect introduction to poetry, or practice for experienced writers to contemplate what defines a poem. All participants will learn to discover poetry and art in the everyday things around them. Methods discussed will include subtractive, collaging, and word play. We will celebrate the freedom of the poetic form and take home beautiful art. There are no required materials, reservations, or prior knowledge. Just bring an open mind and be ready to create something new. Supplies and assistance will be provided.

Location: Buffalo Street Books DeWitt Mall, 215 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

2:30pm - 5:00pm: QWERTY made-for-you poems

Visit Carolyn Clark at the Zine Festival. She will have her 1926 family antique Smith-Corona typewriter and will compose typewriter poems for people on the spot- aka "QWERTY made-for-you poems".  A SKYRITER (1947 typewriter) will be available for children and others to try a hands-on experience.

Location: Buffalo Street Books DeWitt Mall, 215 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

12:30pm - 1:30pm: Storytelling: From the River of Stories

Storytelling is a river with many tributaries, and four Ithaca storytellers will perform works from different parts of that river, including creative nonfiction and work from world storytelling traditions. Storytellers Anneliese Truame, Steve Paling, Lee-Ellen Marvin, and Julia Ellis will each bring their own perspective to their telling. Some of the stories will contain a bit of magic, others will be told from real life. And all will show deep empathy for the characters. Join us on the river of stories. For audience members 14 and older.

Location: CAP ArtSpace - 110 N. Tioga St (on Ithaca Commons)

2:00pm - 3:30pm: Workshop: Making Myths: Creating Our Own Myths

Peter Rabbit, Pandora, Jason and the Golden Fleece, Medusa - Myths have long been a part of the fabric of human civilization. Myths teach us in story form something about the human condition and experience. Have you ever felt like there isn't a story to match your experience? Or that a myth you know could use some updating? Learn about the Hero's Journey, Joseph Campbell's Four Functions of Myth, and workshop a short story about a new myth or updating an existing myth with Astrologer, writer, and myth-enthusiast West Fox.

Location: CSMA, Martha Hamblin Hall, 3rd floor Community School of Music & Arts - 330 E. MLK Jr./State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

3:45pm - 4:45pm: Group Reading: The Persistence of the Flower in Contemporary Poetry

This is a group theme-based reading. Jerry Mirskin, Cory Brown, Mary Gilliland, Roger Hecht, David Weiss and Daniel Rosenberg will read from their original poetry.

Location: CSMA, Martha Hamblin Hall, 3rd floor Community School of Music & Arts - 330 E. MLK Jr./State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

5:00pm - 6:00pm: Group Reading: Join Seven Local Writers

Aiden Nelson, (memoir about grief, the body, healing, and community), Sorayya Khan (multicultural memoir about loss and belonging), Kris Haines-Sharp (excerpt from her draft memoir, "Three Points of Contact"), dan smalls (fiction piece based on the music industry in the 90’s), Christa Núñez (a poem about nature and womanhood), Raul Palma (excerpt from short story on Latinx family and inheritance), Aishvarya Arora (poetry about friendship, desire, gender, and grief.)

Location: CSMA, Martha Hamblin Hall, 3rd floor Community School of Music & Arts - 330 E. MLK Jr./State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

6:15pm - 7:15pm: Ithaca College Writing Senior Project

Four Ithaca College seniors will read their creative writing senior projects.  Mathew Gardener (short essay about commercialism, Collin Ryer (excerpt from coming of age novel), Julia Dath (excerpt from science fiction story focusing on feminism), and Nora Marcus-Hect (memoir essays about Jewish stereotypes in America).

Location: CAP ArtSpace - 110 N. Tioga St (on Ithaca Commons)

Thursday, May 11, 2023

5:30pm - 7:30pm: Workshop: World Collage Day Party

This event will be led by local poet and visual artist Clare Jones. Participants ages 16+ are invited to this drop in program at the Tompkins County Public Library - no registration is required.We'll join artists, art centers, museums, galleries, schools, and communities across the world to celebrate World Collage Day, which invites people to come together around collage in their own communities and to connect to the world digitally using the hashtag #WorldCollageDay and learn more about collage’s role in the books we love, from Eric Carle's “The Very Hungry Caterpillar“ to the Penguin Classics.  In this two-hour session participants will be invited to create an individual collage or contribute to a shared group collage. Note that while our event is on Thursday the 11th, the formal World Collage Day is Saturday the 13th.  https://www.tcpl.org/event/world-collage-day-party

Location: Tompkins Count Public Library Makerspace, 101 E. Green Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

5:45pm - 6:45pm: ZOOM: Group Reading: Let the Land Speak: Hodin?hs??:nih/Haudenosaunee Voices

A poetry reading with five writers from Hodin?hs??:nih (Haudenosaunee) Nations: Kenzie Allen, Oneida; Monty Campbell,  Gayogohó:n?? (Cayuga); Leah Shenandoah, Onyo’ta:aká: (Oneida); Kahsenniyo Kick, Mohawk; and James Thomas Stevens, Akwesasne Mohawk. Stewards, for over 10,000 years, of lands from the Hudson Valley to Niagara and from Lake Ontario to northern Pennsylvania, Hodin?hs??:nih people were violently and fraudulently displaced and dispersed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Despite two hundred years of genocidal suppression of their culture, they proved resilient. These writers are conflicted, messy, modern, mixed – very much of the present but also deeply connected to their cultures and lands. They will present a range of voices including a special treat, a-capella singing by Leah Shenandoah, daughter of the late Grammy-awarded Joanne Shenandoah. The live Zoom readings will be supplemented with video of readings by the participants recorded earlier at a beautiful rural setting in Danby, NY, ancestral Gayogohó:n?? land. Help to celebrate Hodin?hs??:nih people - vibrant, living, and totally contemporary - on the lands that have nurtured them since the last Ice Age.

ZOOM REGISTRATION for Haudenosaunee Voices Reading HERE

7:00pm - 8:15pm: Zoom: Group Reading: Join Seven Local Writers

Rachel Dickinson (memoir about loss, grief, and running away from home),  Kyara Perkins (excerpt from a memoir about childhood experiences molding our adulthood), Carolyn Clark (poems blending nature, mythology, friendship & family, pets included), Jon Raimon (poems related to teens, fatherhood, coming of age, and gender), India Sada (poems about black spirits memory-leaking, sounding and superimposing), Cai Quirk (short story story about gender, spirituality, and community healing), David Guaspari (excerpt from "The MIddle-aged Man and the Sea," a comedy of travels to and from Alaska)

ZOOM REGISTRATION for this Group Reading HERE

Friday, May 12, 2023

6:30pm - 7:45pm: Group Reading: A Poetry and Prose Reading featuring Local Saltonstall Residency Alumni

Join us for a group reading featuring an all-local lineup of Ithaca writers who have been awarded fellowships at the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, an artist residency in Ellis Hollow dedicated to supporting New York State artists and writers. Writers include former Brooklyn Poet Laureate and current Director of Creative Writing at Binghamton University, Tina Chang ’06; poet, writer, editor, and writing coach, Sarah Jefferis ’14 & ’19; poet, Fulbright Scholar, and Associate Editor at Cornell University Press, Clare Jones ’22; and novelist and Assistant Professor at Cornell University, and Emily Fridlund ’23.  Visit Saltonstall.org

Location: CAP ArtSpace - 110 N. Tioga St (on Ithaca Commons)

Saturday, May 13, 2023

11:00am - 12:15pm: Workshop: Writing Through Trauma & Other Collective Chaotic Events

As a survivor of numerous traumas, Michelle Courtney Berry, actor, speaker, trainer, Reiki Master, coach, writer, poet, and the best-selling author of "Keeping Calm in Chaos: how to work well, live well, and love abundantly, no matter what," is 100% "all-in" for your writing success, no matter what. Michelle, who completed "Keeping Calm" during a massive crisis, will share tips and tricks on moving past the blank page, limiting beliefs, and naysayers, particularly if you're plagued with deadlines, doubt, discrimination, and/or drama. Learn how she completed her book despite a million things pulling at her attention. Move from concept to execution through gentle conscious breathwork and tender self-care for your mind, body, and spirit. Let Michelle help you shift from despair and doubt into getting those words on page or the stage. Post-event book signing.

Location: CAP ArtSpace - 110 N. Tioga St (on Ithaca Commons)

1:30pm - 2:30pm: Panel: A Weaving: Music and Grief in Ancient Greek Myth

This event will feature three local poets and writers (Gail Holst-Warhaft, Carolyn Clark, and Bethany Dixon) whose work explores the language and relationships of music and grief in Ancient Greek myth. We look forward to sharing and creating a space to talk about music, grief, memory, making sense of the world through language, and how all these things keep us connected to our humanity.

Location: CSMA, Martha Hamblin Hall, 3rd floor Community School of Music & Arts - 330 E. MLK Jr./State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

2:45pm - 3:45pm: Performative Reading: Without Shame, Stigma, or Fear: Older Women Read

features  performative stories about love, loss, and mothers, written and performed by Yvonne Fisher, Leigh Keeley and Sue Perlgut, and a play/reading about abortion by Sue Perlgut and performed by Sue, Yvonne and Leigh.

Location: CSMA, Martha Hamblin Hall, 3rd floor Community School of Music & Arts - 330 E. MLK Jr./State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

4:00pm - 5:15pm: Poetry Workshop: Mapping, Memory, Mad + ness

with India Sada. This poetry workshop is about tapping into a few ways we can sound, move, and make mad (as in wild) our poems. To practice writing and re-writing poetry beyond our prediction and control— we will center being "Directed by Desire" (June Jordan) instead of directing desire. We will begin with breathing our poems: tending to how our breath work- works and gives and needs across the page. We’ll then map and move our poems, as a way of voice, character, and world building. From there, we’ll interact with our poems in relationship to memory. Lastly, we’ll read and/or listen to published poems— using them as doorways to free write into our own “+ -ness.”  This poetry workshop is ideal for people to come ready to revise a piece of writing they’ve already written and want to spend time with. “A piece” of writing can mean a poem, or just a line or two, a journal entry, a letter, or whatever feels right.

Location: CSMA, Martha Hamblin Hall, 3rd floor Community School of Music & Arts - 330 E. MLK Jr./State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

5:15pm - 6:45pm: Reading/Discussion: On the Outskirts of Genre

Two debut novelists—Richard Mirabella, author of BROTHER & SISTER ENTER THE FOREST, and Jennifer Savran Kelly, author of ENDPAPERS—will read from their books and discuss the role of genre in their queer literary novels, what it's like to write and publish a first novel while living upstate on the outskirts of the NYC literary scene, and more. A Q&A and book signing will follow.

Location: The Downstairs, bar - 121 MLK Jr. / State St, Ithaca, NY 14850 (There are stairs)

6:30pm - 7:30pm: Event: Jazz Poetry

Come to this event of spoken word and art set to live or recorded jazz music. Performance pieces will center on equity and anti-racism. Leslyn McBean-Clairborne, Rahmel Mack aka Ave Mack, Jay Stooks, and J.R. Clairborne.

Location: Seven Of Jazz Lounge - 106 S. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Sunday, May 14, 2023

2:30pm - 3:30pm: Panel: Show and Tell: The Craft of Revising

Writers Sorayya Khan, Leslie Daniels and Amy Reading will offer a glimpse into their revision process on this show and tell craft panel. Each panelist will present on her most current project: a biography, a novel, and an essay collection. The Q and A will leave lots of time and space for questions and discussion, resulting in an inclusive conversation that invites other writers into the event.

Location: Buffalo Street Books DeWitt Mall, 215 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

3:45pm - 4:45pm: Group Reading: Join Six Local Writers

Mona Eikel-Pohen (post-pandemic poetry in English translation from the German “Sogar das Schweigen hat diakritische Zeichen oder Vom Lesen wird man nicht satt”), Brooke Lange (poetry about personal queer and neurodivergent experiences), Keyturah Moore (poems about suffering from depression and seeking peace through it all), Peaches Gillette (poetry), Gregg Weatherby (poetry from his recent book about local environment, climate change, what we have lost), mark zuss (poems listening to words inside the world).

Location: Buffalo Street Books DeWitt Mall, 215 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

6:00pm - 7:00pm: ZOOM: Panel: Stages of Life Intergenerational Plays

Join the participants in Story House Ithaca’s first intergenerational playwriting class as they talk about the process of getting to know one another through theater. Inspired by the New York Theatre Workshop’s “Mind the Gap” program, “Stages of Life” brought together teens and elders in a series of weekly encounters in which they learned about each other’s lives and created short plays based on what struck them. The experience culminated in a public reading by professional actors at the Kitchen Theatre Company. We’ll show video excerpts of the performance and hear from participants and workshop leaders Sara Stamatiades and Carley Robinson. Lesley Greene will moderate. StoryHouseIthaca.org

ZOOM REGISTRATION for Stages of Intergenerational Plays  Workshop HERE

Date: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 - Sunday, May 14, 2023

Location: Various Venues in Ithaca, NY

Click here For Registration

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