Jan McEwan features at the Third Thursday Poetry Open Mic on March 20th!
Third Thursday is a monthly poetry program in partnership with Poetry Center San José and hosted by Mighty Mike McGee!
Willow Glen Public Library, 1157 Minnesota Ave, San José, 95125.
Sign up for the open mic begins at 6:30pm. Featured poet begins shortly after 7pm. Open mic to follow.
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Our guest poet tonight is Jan McEwan!
Jan McEwan (Janet M.) wore all the hats as Running Deer Press, publisher/editor of Writing For Our Lives, a feminist lit/mag, 15 issues in all, in the 1990’s. It was all about the healing value of telling our untold stories, & ushering some of them into print. While enjoying the privilege of reading thousands of manuscripts of women’s writing, she was engaging in the rich & serendipitous life of arts, writing, healing & women’s community that paralleled her long practice in healthcare as a Registered Nurse. For several summers she led writing retreats called Write For the Trees at the Women’s Forest Sanctuary, a non-profit land trust in the Mattole watershed, while she was on its board. Long in the shadows with her own work, she was a founding member of Nibwits, a writers’ support group; was once a featured reader at Poet/Speak in Santa Cruz; listened in awe at open mics in Los Gatos from the time Robert Pesich & Bea Garth hosted them at Café Rouge. There she met a kindred spirit with whom she became “The Beats of Los Gatos,” an art & writing-inspired friendship to this day. These days she’s known at Third Thursday open mics for her long serial poem Mother Vulture. Not long after she retired from paid work in 2019, COVID hit. “Sacred Pause” was the reframe that transformed her leaden solitude into gold. At the balance point of Autumn Equinox 2020, to practice for her dream of entering the annual August Poetry Postcard Fest, she poised her pen over paper & tuned in for a spontaneous poem to write directly onto a postcard, quick & alive, here & now, first draft. Her pen wrote “Mother Vulture.” From that portal Mother Vulture arrived, wild, from somewhere deep & vast, a most unlikely but perfect muse for the cosmology of a life, & no less than a guise of the Great Mother goddess archetype. Her ongoing serial poem unfurls itself.
Jan finally did become a Postcard Poet, two years now.
Born & raised in San Jose, she’s lived in Los Gatos many years.
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Poetry Center San José's mission is to nurture and promote diverse literary expression in our community as a means of exploring, defining, and enriching the human experience. For those under 18 years of age who may be attending, we recommend that a parent/legal guardian be with you during the program.
Please observe San José Public Library’s Safety Guidelines.
To request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act for library-sponsored events, please call 408-808-2355 or email Accessibility@sjlibrary.org at least three business days prior to the event.
Audience survey for Third Thursday: https://bit.ly/4bqQgHa