Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Sarah Gilbert & Cathryn Cofell report good news:
We have found a new poetry reading home in Appleton: Copper Rock Cafe at 210 W. College Avenue www.copperrockcoffee.com, a few blocks west of Harmony Cafe on the opposite side of College Avenue downtown.
Our transition will hopefully be fairly smooth due to the similarities of location and ambiance. Copper Rock has a separate well-lit room, The Gallery, that opens off of the main area. They have a full cafe menu and are open until 10pm, in case you want to come early for dinner or stay later for schmoozing. Parking is either on the street with meters or in a couple of $2 parking garages close by. One drawback is that they have no sound system. We plan to try our first reading January 12 without amplification and see how that is. If needed we will seek out donations to secure a portable microphone and speaker.
Our start time is also going to shift slightly. We invite you to arrive by 6:45 or earlier to get refreshments, sign up for the open mic, and socialize, with the reading beginning promptly at 7. As in the past, each featured reader will have 20-25 minutes, followed by the Open Mic (or Mike, whichever you prefer). Here’s who we have slated for the first half of the year:
Jan 12: Tom Erickson and C. Kubasta
Feb 16: Andrew McSorley, Melissa Hope Range, Charles Austin Segrest
Mar 16: Richard Swanson and Timothy Walsh
Apr 20: Lawrence University Students
May 18: Georgia Ressmeyer and Marilyn Windau
Jun 15: Emilie Lindemann and James A. Gollata
Thank you for your support while we negotiated with and deliberated about the many options for this move. We are still sad that Harmony Cafe will soon close, but look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Copper Rock Cafe. We hope you’ll join us at our new location!