FINAL THURSDAY READING SERIES

Thursday, November 21 @ 7:30

Featured Reader: Ray A. Young Bear

Cedar Falls' monthly open mic returns to Vibe for another year! Come to hear the readers or to take the stage yourself.  Read your best five minutes or so of poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction.  Singer-songwriters are also welcome.  Open mic signup begins @ 7 p.m. on a first come, first served basis.  Limited slots are available, so readers are encouraged to sign up early.  The open mic begins at 7:30 p.m. and runs up to one hour.  

Then it's onto our featured reader, Ray A. Young Bear, memoirist and author of four volumes of poetry including his most recent collection, The Rock Island Hiking Club (U of Iowa Press).  Ray will also be giving a lecture earlier in the day on the UNI campus.  His talk, "Native American Literature and Traditional Tribal Values," is at 11 a.m. in Schindler 246.  To read some of Ray's works, read below and click to follow links from Ray's website at http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/youngbear/.

Vibe is located at 909 W. 23rd St. in Cedar Falls on the second floor of Bought again Books.  Persons needing access accommodation should call 266-7115 by the day before the event.  For more information, contact Jim O'Loughlin.

Now Available from 

Final Thursday Press

Laugh.  Damnit.

Poetry by Ahkos

Feeling pretentious?  Walk away now.  The poems in this collection target poetic self-importance with humor and a bit of an edge.  Formed in (and in response to) Boston's open mic scene, "Laugh.  Damnit." will make you smile, or else. 

$1.00   16 pgs.

Bad Men

Microfiction by Jim O'Loughlin

Four short short stories that made their debut at the Final Thursday Reading Series.  They weren't originally intended to be part of a collection; it just happened that way.  Find out what happens to the lounge lizard, the ex-con, the slacker student, and the serial monogamist. 

$2.00   18 pgs. 

Ask for them at 

Bought again Books!

Upcoming Readers

Jonathan Stull

Grant Tracey

James P. Roberts

Our Bird Aegis

An immature black eagle walks assuredly
across a prairie meadow. He pauses in mid-step
with one talon over the wet snow to turn
around and see.

Imprinted in the tall grass behind him
are the shadows of his tracks,
claws instead of talons, the kind
that belong to a massive bear.
And he goes by that name:
Ma kwi so ta.

And so this aegis looms against the last
spring blizzard. We discover he's concerned
and the white feathers of his spotted hat
flicker, signalling this.

With outstretched wings he tests the sutures.
Even he is subject to physical wounds and human
tragedy, he tells us.

The eyes of the Bear-King radiate through
the thick, falling snow. He meditates the loss
of my younger brother-and by custom
suppresses his emotions.

© 1996 Ray A. Young Bear

Reprinted from The Best American Poetry 1996, originally published in Callaloo.

Read Ray Young Bear's discussion of "Our Bird Aegis"

More Poetry by Ray Young Bear

A Season of Provocations and Other Ethnic Dreams

The Mask of Four Indistinguishable Thunderstorms

Prose by Ray Young Bear

Afterword to

Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives

Read Work by Some of

Our Past Featured Readers

Scott Cawelti

Kathleen Kelly

Susan Rochette-Crawley

Paul Hedeen

Vince Gotera