Midnight Voices Open Mic & Poetry Night featuring Kevin Bowen
The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them
at night and when the clock counts.
- Archibald MacLeish
Calling all poets, slammers, wordsmiths, lyricists, rappers, misfits and anyone who has the gift of gab! Warrior Writers, in conjunction with the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of the Friends Meeting At Cambridge, Veterans For Peace - Boston, Smedley D. Butler Brigade andVeteran-Friends, will host MIDNIGHT VOICES, a monthly collaborative coffeehouse, spoken word, and poetry series.
This month's featured reader is KEVIN BOWEN. Kevin was drafted and served in the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam from 1968-69. He graduated from UMass Boston in 1973 and earned his PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was also a Danforth Fellow. In 1979, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to New College, Oxford. He served as an aide and speechwriter for Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill III before returning to UMass Boston. He was the director of The William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences until 2011. Prior to serving as the director, he was co-director of UMass Boston's Veterans Upward Bound Program.
Since 1987, Kevin has returned to Vietnam many times, initiating cultural, educational, and humanitarian exchanges. He first poetry collection, Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong was published by Curbstone Press in 1994. His poems have appeared in Agni, The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Tri-Quarterly, and Witness. With Bruce Weigl, he is co-editor of Writing Between the Lines: Writings on War and Its Consequences (University of Massachusetts Press, 1997). He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and a Pushcart Prize for his work.
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After the featured reader, there will be 5-minute open mic slots available to anyone. We encourage first timers and seasoned performers to come out. We are actively seeking featured readers for upcoming months. For more information, please contact Eric Wasileski at ericwasileski@gmail.com. Arrive early for a Warrior Writers Workshop with Caleb Nelson at 5:30pm!