Since our first open mic twenty years ago, Calling All Poets’ only goal has been community outreach and providing that community an open and democratic stage. To that end, CAPS has been hugely successful.
But other wonderful things have happened along the way, fulfilling CAPS larger vision. Its perseverance and duration have made it the longest running poetry series and the most diverse and dynamic in the Hudson Valley. CAPS has become what its founder, Beacon poet Jim Eve, and fellow poet Mike Jurkovic envisioned: a poetry hub, an expansive network connecting poets from New York, Long Island, Woodstock, Albany, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Early in 2015, with the addition of technologically adept poets Glenn Werner and Beacon's first Poet Laureate, Larry Sansone, CAPS urban and rural outreach includes the global community, streaming our events live and streaming in poets for live readings from all over NYS, as well as Arizona, Colorado, California, Slovenia, and North Carolina.
Relying on talent and tenacity CAPS has recently become 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. With funding possibilities now available, CAPS will continue, as it has successfully done in the past, to nurture the artistic and literary aspirations of its supporters. Many who started at CAPS open mic (and whom we still count as fervent supporters and members) include acclaimed playwright/poet/children's author/Pushcart Award winner Irene O'Garden; world renowned tattoo artist/poet Shotsie Gorman; author/poet/photographer Eddie Bell; poet/translator Bill Seaton, and performance poet Janet Hamill. Member poets Ken Holland, Matthew J. Spireng, Mike Jurkovic, and Glenn Werner are former Pushcart Award nominees. Suffolk County's first poet laureate and internationally recognized poet, George Wallace, is a frequent guest. National Slam finalist Elizabeth K. Gordon continues to bring her talents to CAPS. Several regional publishers, including Donald Lev, Dayl and Alison Kofler-Wise, Jane Ormand, and Susan Sindall are regulars. Mt. St. Mary professor and widely published poet Dr. James Cotter returns often. SUNY Nerw Paltz professor Laurence Carr and Chair of Creative Writing, Pauline Uchmanowicz regularly share their work. Award winning poets Raphael Kosek and Rebecca Schumejda call CAPS home. Besides numerous books bearing their names, CAPS supporters Will Nixon, Mike Jurkovic, Kate Hymes, Roberta Gould, Cheryl A. Rice, Dr. Lucia Cherciu, Dan Wilcox, Linda Lerner, and others have individually been published two hundred times and more at the national level. And, as CAPS prepares its second anthology, Beacon poet and publisher Roger Aplon has been highlighting our featured poets in his nationally distributed magazine, Waymark - Voices of the Valley since 2015.
2016 was been a watershed year for CAPS. Our recent certification as 501(c)(3) non-profit (EIN#46-4971399) will enable us to expand our program. Partnering with Roost Studios (www.roostcoop.org) provides us a greater community presence. Our second CAPS Anthology 2015 is hot off the presses. Our CAPS website, www.callingallpoets.net.is a veritable trove of poetic information, from open mic tips to poetic terminology; members work and bios; an active Hudson Valley Poetry calendar and even RideShare software. Live streaming of our events and the streaming of poets from afar, has taken Calling All Poets well beyond the Hudson Valley.
This is what CAPS does and will continue to do. This is the quality of people and talent CAPS attracts to our new home, Roost Studios, 69 Main Street, New Paltz, NY. Our live streaming from Facebook; a redesignerd YouTube page, only serve to showcase the artistic diversity and integrity that sustains Calling All Poets. Word of mouth from our participants and audience has and will continue to bring people to CAPS, making any donations to Calling All Poets beneficial not only to our organization and community but to the continuation and democratization of free speech.
Personal Statements
“Calling All Poets has successfully created a diverse community of poets and writers who support one another. Whenever I’m there, I feel as if I am part of something bigger, a movement in the arts. In addition, they have embraced technology, streaming readers outside the area live and broadcasting the events online. Calling all Poets is the best series in the Hudson Valley! - Rebecca Schumejda, poet, Cadillac Men, Waiting at the Dead End Diner
“CAPS is about poetry of course. But it's also about community, how it's actually created a community of diverse personalities and backgrounds that come together each month to speak in the one language we all know: The spoken word. Every month there's a mark on the calendar that we all look forward to.” – Ken Holland, poet, Pushcart nominee
“Poetry in the Hudson Valley is as important to American culture in the 21st century as the Hudson River School of Painting was in the 19th century and Calling All Poets is at the forefront.” – Dr. Barbara Adams, poet, author, Professor Emerita, Pace University1981-2001
"The Hudson Valley is one of the most vibrant and exciting poetry regions in the country and Calling All Poets at in Beacon is a centerpiece for the power of words. I feel fortunate to be part of this creative current and to be able to share the art of language with the hundreds of writers I’ve met and whose works I’ve been able to read and hear over the years.”
- Laurence Carr, author, Pancake Hollow Primer; editor Riverine, co-editor of WaterWrites & A Slant of Light (Codhill Press), Professor of English & Theatre, SUNY New Paltz
“Some communities have talented poets, but no event organizers. Some have organizers, but not much talent. In the Valley we’re blessed with both. The dedicated people who create our poetry scene are themselves wonderful writers. Thanks to their unflagging efforts, readings, cds, chapbooks, marathons and anthologies have sprung up on both sides of the river for almost twenty years. My own journey from open-mike poet to Off-Broadway playwright was due in large part to the ongoing opportunities and warmth provided by my fellow poets. I’ll always be grateful.” - Irene O’Garden,Pushcart award wining poet, author, playwright, Women On Fire
"Thanks to both the many hardworking poetry hosts and the scores of poets who come out to share their work it sometimes seems one could attend a reading every day. And the truly wonderful thing is that the region is home to a number of extremely gifted poets who can leave an audience wishing their reading would never end."
- Matthew J. Spireng, poet, and three time Pushcart nominee
“The Hudson Valley boasts a plethora of fascinating poets whose active participation in readings and local events makes them a reliable source of wisdom and inspiration.”- Dr. Lucia Cherci, poet, Lepădarea de Limbă (The Abandonment of Language)
“Though my poetry base is Long Island and Manhattan, over the past decade or so I've been fortunate to share work with HV poets regularly. The venues are great, the range of voices impressive, and the sense of community is something that I appreciate personally and professionally” - George Wallace, poet, First Poet Laureate, Suffolk County
"I can't imagine living anywhere else in the world. Where else could I find the variety, the devotion, the matter-of-fact respect for poetry not just as an art but a fact of life? From the poetry gangs of Albany to the lost souls of Orange County, I believe the Hudson Valley provides a unique climate for poets of all inclinations to share their work in a supportive environment, a gift not always available to other creators."
- Cheryl A. Rice, poet, My Minnesota Boyhood, Moses Parts The Tulips
“The Hudson Valley gives voice to writers and poets who have something of value to say and a comfortable environment for accomplishing this important endeavor. From the caves of Rosendale to the richness of the Howland Center, the Hudson Valley has nurtured me and advanced my career.” – Eddie Bell, author, poet, Capt’s Dreaming Chair, Festival of Tears
"The varied crowd Calling All Poets attracts makes for lively nights. It's rare that we have a dull evening. The fact that the hosts are welcoming and gracious for the presence of a supportive crowd speaks volumes. You don't have nearly the sense of camaraderie anywhere else."
– Christopher Wheeling, poet, CAPS photographer
“I believe that if CAPS continues on the path it is now blazing it will become an important milestone in the growth of American Poetry.”– Glenn Werner, poet, Premeditated Contrition and other poems, CAPS Tech Czar
"Poets have grown up at CAPS." - Jim Eve, poet, founder, co-host Calling All Poets