Lightship Press Poetry Showcase
Lightship Press Poetry Showcase
Organized by Igor Brezhnev
August 16, 2022 from 7 – 9 PM
Come one, come all – join us for a night of music and poetry at CoHo Productions!
Our poet friends at Lightship Press are gathering together to showcase their poetry and raise money for Lightship Press Kickstarter campaign to publish more books of poetry. Come on down to CoHo for one night only to hear poems from Sam Rose Preminger, Morgan Paige, Ken Yoshikawa, Red O’Hare, Christopher Luna & Igor Brezhnev. Featuring music by Ari Asteri & Nick Skaredoff.
Support living artists ’cause the dead ones don’t need it – book your tickets to the Lightship Press poetry show!
As regular participants in the Portland poetry scene, friends & founders Igor Brezhnev and Sam Preminger recognized far too many talented poets unable to produce books or earn any reasonable income as artists. While grateful to share our city with many wonderful publishers, it seemed that none were designed with supporting working authors in mind—and so the idea for Lightship Press was born: a press dedicated to publishing, promoting, and advocating for living artists.
Igor took the initial steps, founding Lightship Press in 2019 with Sam as a contributing editor. In the first year, the press successfully published six poetry collections, in addition to hosting countless community events to support these contributors. All the books produced were sold directly by the poets, ensuring these artists retained the greatest possible share of the profits, and plans began to expand the press’s reach in the years ahead. But then the pandemic happened. In the interests of safety and self-care, Lightship went into a state of deep hibernation for two years.
Now in 2022, Igor and Sam have returned with renewed vigor and are re-launching Lightship with only greater hope and ambitions. Together, they’ve decided to resume book production, to imagine a new model of publishing designed to favor authors, and to aspire towards creating a critical community resource for working writers.
Lightship Press is now on a mission – to publish four new books of poetry by four emerging poets – and they need your help to make this dream come true!
Proceeds from the Lightship Press Poetry Showcase will go directly towards supporting the Lightship Press current Kickstarter campaign. This campaign’s initial target is enough to fund one full year of publishing, supporting the time, resources, and energy needed to make four new books of poetry from up-and-coming poets a reality. All money raised from this campaign will be used to print and promote books, and to pay collaborators fairly: the editors, designers, illustrators, artists, and authors who have helped make Lightship seaworthy. With your help, four new authors’ dreams will be realized on the page and the world will be a little bit richer in poetry. This fundraising figure covers the production of the four books and their audio recordings, the rewards for the backers of the project, basic operating costs of Lightship Press, and minimum compensation for the team for their efforts.
About the Poets
Sam Rose Preminger is a trans-nonbinary, Jewish writer and publisher. They hold an MFA from Pacific University and serve as the Editor-in-Chief of NAILED Magazine. You can find their poetry in North Dakota Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Narrative, Split Lip, and Yes Poetry, among other publications. Their chapbook — ‘Cosmological Horizons’ — is forthcoming from Kelsay Books (Summer 2022). They live in Portland, OR, where they’ve acquired too many house plants. Connect online at www.sampreminger.com.
Morgan Paige is a creator, morbid optimist, business owner, and cannabis lover residing in Vancouver, WA. Her poetic cadence is not her own. Rather, an expression of the ever-unfolding spiral of nature manifesting itself through her selection of shared symbols and sounds we call language. Her poetry takes you on a playful, chanting ride, inviting you to join her in exploring femininity, psychedelia, love, addiction, philosophy and the life/death/life cycle. Connect online at www.morganpaigepoetry.com or on Instagram at @morganpaigepoetry.
Ken Yoshikawa is a half-Japanese third culture American poet-actor from Portland, Oregon. He has been active in the Portland spoken word community since 2014. In his theatre career, he’s appeared at Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, NW Children’s Theatre, Oregon Adventure Theatre, and Portland Playhouse. In 2019 he released his first spoken word album Quiver (Lightship Press) and performed his autobiographical poetic solo play The Art of Fly Swatting at the Pan Asian Repertory off-broadway in NYC. His poems have appeared in Nailed Magazine, Letters from the Void, Hapa Mag, and Discover Nikkei. His first full-length poetry book Monster Colored Glasses is out now on Lightship Press. Connect online at www.yoshikawaken.com.
Red O’Hare is a human. She was born in Northern California, grew up in Southern California, and currently lives in the Pacific Northwest where she works in a pub. She invited Pauly Shore to her Bat Mitzvah, but he didn’t come. Red is also a fierce advocate for her community, a regular presence at performance events, and a true friend to artists throughout her home city. Connect online at redohare.bandcamp.com.
Christopher Luna is a collage artist, poet, editor, writing coach, and teacher. Luna served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Clark County, WA from 2013-2017. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Morgan Paige co-host the LGBTQ+ friendly, all ages, and uncensored Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA, founded by Christopher in 2004. He is the editor of The Work, a monthly poetry newsletter created to inform poets about events in Portland, OR, and Vancouver, WA. It’s hard to imagine a Pacific Northwest Poetry community without Christopher — his passion and selflessness has encouraged and advanced the work of countless other writers. Connect online at www.christopherlunapoetry.com.
Igor Brezhnev has over two decades of experience as a poet and book designer. Igor is a regular fixture at poetry readings, open mics, and book releases, often stepping forward to organize and host these events himself. Creativity and art are a medicine to him. His most recent body of published work is titled nights since: a series of 363 poems documenting the emotional landscape of being without a home. Igor’s other work includes two full-length poetry books (dearest void(2016) and america is dry cookie and other love stories (2018)) and a number of spoken-word albums. Connect online @igorbrezhnevofficial, www.igorbrezhnev.com, and patreon.com/igorbrezhnev.
CoHo needs your support
CoHo is a nonprofit theater that heavily relies on the generosity of our community to continue. If you support our mission, please give what you can!