Pendle Hill has moved our “Beloved Community” Poetry Coffeehouses online! We have offered interfaith poetry coffeehouses for over three years at our Wallingford, Pennsylvania retreat center. These coffeehouses have typically utilized a supportive and nurturing Open Mic format for emerging and established writers, with decadent refreshments. During this COVID-19 pandemic, we are shifting location and format while holding on to the supportive, nurturing, and sustaining energy intended for our gatherings. Listen to a different Featured Poet perform each month. Then, write in response to the Feature’s themes/words and share with other attendees of the program. This 1-hour poetry experience extends our community to a wider world and offers all writers a safe net for linguistic exploration and spiritual discovery.

Upcoming Poetry Coffeehouse dates:

Leader(s)

Raena Shirali is the author of GILT (YesYes Books, 2017), which won the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. Winner of a Pushcart Prize & a former Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University, Raena is also the recipient of prizes and honors from VIDA, Gulf Coast, Boston Review, & Cosmonauts Avenue. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A Day, The Nation, and elsewhere. She recently co-organized We (Too) Are Philly – a summer poetry festival highlighting voices of color – and serves as Poetry Editor for Muzzle Magazine. Learn more at www.raenashirali.com.

Links to Purchase GILT:
https://www.yesyesbooks.com/product-page/gilt
https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781936919413/gilt.aspx
https://raena-shirali.squarespace.com/contact (Order a PDF version of the book from the poet directly for $5 or by showing her proof of your donation to a Mutual Aid Fund or other COVID-19 related donation. You can also order a signed copy from the poet for $20.)

Jesse White is the Arts and Spirituality Coordinator at Pendle Hill. She holds a B.A. in Integrative Studies: Creative and Spiritual Process joined with a B.A. in Psychology from Guilford College. Jesse works as an arts educator and art therapist and directs Pigeon Arts, a cathartic art-making organization in Philadelphia. She is clerk of Frankford Monthly Meeting (PA).

Travel directions to Pendle Hill. Click to view the flyer.