Charles Munsey II Book Release Tonight at Lazy Daze!

Charles Munsey II is the long-time Master of Ceremonies of Bards and Balladeers at local independent coffeehouse—Lazy Daze—in historic Irvington, Indiana and a regular contributor to The InkSlinger’s Theatre at Bookmama’s. His absolute dedication to his work has blossomed into 2,000 plus poems in his stead. Paired with his absurd and in-your-face performance style on the open stage, Charles is THE poet you don’t want to miss…not that you could. 

Tonight is poetry night at Lazy Daze Coffeehouse and copies of Mr. Munsey’s new chapbook, American Dumpster, will be available for sale.  Come celebrate this momentous occasion with us from 6:30-9 PM.  The price of the book is $10 (American!) but the value of Munsey’s timeless poetry is immeasurable.  American Dumpster is also available directly from the good people here at CPP.  Just shoot us an email and we can get the process started for you.

celestialpanther@gmail.com

Watch The Film: The Inkslinger’s Road

The Inkslinger’s Road (link to the film on Google Video)

Thank you to everyone who came last night to the Underground 9 Studio at Bookmama’s for our May edition of The Inkslinger’s Theatre.  Fantastic turnout and lots of wonderful, supportive feedback.  Special thanks to Autumn Lioness, Jeremy Williamson, Erin Livingston, Charles Munsey II, Seneca Kyle, Wichita Bindlestiff, Kyle Oak, Mike the Mechanic, Matt Panther and the Midnight Mama.  A very special, heartfelt thank you to Sean Hancock for running sound, lights and our video projector.

The Inkslinger’s Road – THIS FRIDAY!

VACANCY

Travel.  Roam. Wander. Walk-about.  Saunter.
Run.  Drive.  Sail.  Ride.  Cruise.  Tramp.  Hoof it.  Catch out. Hitch.  Hop.  Fly.  Traverse. Explore.  Float.  Drift. Amble.  Jaunt.  Straggle. Traipse.  Trek.  Stray.  Hike.  Follow one’s nose.  Gallivant.  Deviate.  Diverge.  Meander.  Stroll.  Ramble.  Migrate.  Jell down the drom.  Maunder.

Go.  Move.  Vagabond.  Voyage.
Set out.

Take to the road.

The Inkslinger’s Road 
@ Bookmama’s

Another stellar spoken word event brought to you by the good people of Celestial Panther

May 4^th (First Friday) at 10PM
(FREE EVENT WITH FREE COFFEE AND PRIZES)

Encyclopedia Show Excitement

Looking for something to do this weekend in Irvington, polis of poets?  Then you definitely do not want to miss this Saturday’s Encyclopedia Show at the Irving Theater.  Vice Presidents is the topic for this volume of the Encyclopedia Show and it promises to astound and amaze.  Celestial Panther Publishing has joined forces with the Encyclopedians to offer our take on the enticing topic.

Doors open at 7:30, show starts at 8 PM.  This Saturday (April 28th) at the Irving (5505 E. Washington Street).

Only 5 bucks!

(Above individual not actually a Vice President)

The Inkslinger’s Road

To all of you fantastic folks out there who made it to Inkslinger’s Theatre 1 (our live theatrical performance) and IST 2 (our version of the traditional open-mic), we here at Celestial Panther Publishing would like to sing a chorused thank you.  You have made this endeavor complete with your attendance, participation and feedback.  Also, a continued thank you (in three part harmony) to the wonderful women of Bookmama’s for allowing weird dodgy-looking people like us in the building in the first place.

Celestial Panther Publishing is gearing up for next month’s show and we would love for you all to grace us with your collective presence again on May 4th in the Underground 9 Studio at Bookmama’s.  As summer approaches, traveling season is upon us once again.  Perhaps you, like us, are plotting some deviant road trip somewhere or maybe you just bought plane tickets to Madagascar (which, we just found out, smells mysteriously like vanilla ice cream).  Have your feet began to itch for the friction of the open road?  Is there a gypsy somewhere in the depths of your soul?  A hobo, a rubber tramp, a lovelorn vagabond?  If your answer is an emphatic yes, yes, yes, then our May show is specially tailored to you, Wanderer.

The first half of the show, as is usually the plan, is a creative writing special feature (that is to say, it’s planned out and you can just sit back and enjoy).  Following the intermission, we invite you, loyal friends and lovers of the written word, to take the stage and share your writing in a traditional open-mic session.  Not that you will be limited in any way, shape or form in regard to content or anything but, going with the theme of the first half of the show, we strongly prefer travel writing.  You won’t be brutally punished or flogged or imprisoned if you read a poem about your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend or anything like that but travel pieces will be awarded riches beyond your wildest dreams.  And it all starts with free coffee.  That’s usually how we get things accomplished…free coffee.

Looking forward to seeing you all there, and hopefully some fresh new faces, with our backs against the bricks, in the Underground 9 Studio.  The date is May 4th, 10 PM to Midnight.

April 6th – InkSlinger’s Theatre!

If you made it to our first performance of the InkSlinger’s Theatre in March then you already know what a great success it was.  Over 50 people came to the show and most stayed until well past midnight for possibly the best open-mic session in a long time here in Irvington, Indiana.  The literary caliber of our featured performers along with some of the amazing stuff we heard from our open-mic participants has inspired many more to check out this month’s show.  However, some changes have been made and should be duly noted.

First and foremost, the April 6th show, due to some major life events transpiring in and around the Celestial Panther Publishing offices, will not include a featured performers act.  Instead, we will be hosting the best open-mic session in town on that night.  Don’t miss out, this is gonna be a mind-altering, head-spinning good time.

Also, our time slot has changed a bit.  Instead of going all the way until midnight (which we would still love to do but, alas, you know how things go sometimes), the InkSlinger’s Theatre will be from 9 to 11 PM.  JJ Stenzoski and the Delta Duo may still have the stage when we arrive at 9 but don’t worry.  Just mill around the bookstore for a bit and we’ll get started shortly thereafter.

As always, coffee will be provided free of charge by the Night Owl Cafe.

***

If you would like to participate in our April Open-Mic, or perhaps have a piece you’d like to perform next month as a featured performer, please contact us straight away.  Email celestialpanther@gmail.com.

Tiocfaidh Ar La (Our Day Will Come)

In the aftermath of his family’s brutal murders, Irish-American Traveller Seamus MacDaibhaid exacts his vengeance against Lucky O’Neal, the gangster responsible for their deaths.

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, this film explores the struggle experienced by Irish immigrants arriving in the United States over the past 200 years.  Rich in both religious and nationalistic symbolism, Tiocfaidh Ar La (pronounced Chuck-key Ahr Lah) tells the story of a young Irish Traveller (that’s right, with two l’s) whose time in America falls far from the dream of streets paved in gold.  Beaten and bloody, Seamus (played by Jake Davis in his film debut) grieves over the untimely loss of his family before turning to the sweet quest for revenge.  He finds the gangster, Lucky O’Neal (Matt Davis), hiding out in a tavern and makes him pay dearly for the murders.

The film pits Irishman against Irishman amidst the stark landscape of Indianapolis’ Eastside neighborhoods, historically a stronghold for Irish-American culture.  It raises questions about settled life among travellers as well as questions about the Irish identity in the United States.  In a particular scene, O’Neal is beaten senseless as he claws his way across a trash-strewn field, only to be dispatched in a ditch beside the railroad tracks.  The scene serves as a reminder, not only of the struggle for Irish freedom over the past 900 years, but also of the welcome received in the “land of the free”.  Historically speaking, the numbers of Irish immigrants who died while building the railroads and digging the canals in the United States are staggering.

We hope you enjoy this artistic film about the struggle of a man with a hard life that, fatalistically, does not seem to improve after the final scene.

CPP and Bookmama’s Proudly Present: The Inkslinger’s Theatre

After many months of anticipation, Celestial Panther Publishing (in a storied partnership with local Irvington bookseller Bookmama’s) is proud to present The Inkslinger’s Theatre on March 2nd, 2012 at 10 PM in the Underground 9 Studio (Bookmama’s basement).

A NEW SCENE IN SPOKEN WORD!

So, just what is The Inkslinger’s Theatre? The theatre idea was brought up in a heated brainstorm one evening soon after learning that Bookmama’s recently lost their poetry night Master of Ceremonies. There, in the vacancy left by the Mad Hatter’s Poet Society, the mad minds of Celestial Panther Publishing formulated a new way, a new method, to grow the poetry scene in our quaint little hamlet. We conceptualized a meshwork of poetry and prose, some nonfiction creatively written, a rant or two and a love story and the Idea (henceforth capitalized) began to bear sacred thought fruits. The writing will be performed! The words will come to life! Doctor, dim the lights for our next performance.

We are still hammering out some final, final details but this is a show you will not want to miss. Since we have been asked to supply the world with more defined terms as to just what we intend to do, let us dispel some rumors:

It is not a slam poetry event.  Slam poets are welcome, of course, to participate in the open-mike immediately following the performance.

Although this is a performance, it is not “performance poetry” so to speak.  At least not in the fashion of Diane DiPrima and the Poet’s Theatre in New York City.

This is not necessarily a play or theatre production.  That is to say, there is no script.  There will be a guy working the stage lighting, a few props, maybe even a spray-painted pastoral backdrop…but this isn’t a play.

The Inkslinger’s Theatre IS a collected series of connected monologues.

And, yes, there will be coffee.  The wonderful women of The Night Owl Cafe will provide coffee drinks free-of-charge!

There you have it, folks, email us if you have any questions.  We hope to see you all there on March 2nd, 2012 at 10 PM at Bookmama’s!

January 18th, 2012 – Internet Standoff Day With US Government

In Solidarity with the 7,000+ other websites who have either blacked out or posted anti-PIPA/SOPA material, CPP wishes to inform you, our readers, that this legislation seeks to destroy exactly what makes the internet so great.

Call your senators.  Call your representatives.  Tell them you don’t want PIPA/SOPA.

Besides…everyone loves pirates anyway.

[NONFICTION] Letters to Stupid

 By Leigh Zatzke

A tear whispers down her cheek as she remembers all of the pain, cruelty and hardship in a time when the clock did not want to stand still.  Hate ruled the streets; anger lurked around every corner waiting for the chance to show its face to the world.  Though it seems the world should have seen enough of it by then.

The shards draped around their bodies and shameless masks of raging white covered their true selves.  For the sake of identity, it is said, but maybe for the sake of shame:  somewhere deep down inside they knew it was wrong.  At least that is what she told herself.  One glimpse of hope through the fire, a chance of reckoning heeded.

“This was a time when people like me were meant to be stupid.  That is the way they liked it, no trouble making that way – easier to manipulate and rule over, I guess,” she stated with a sharp glare in her eye.  “But, I was going to be one of those people, I wasn’t going to let those men treat me the way I saw my father treated.  Nope, no way I was going to let that happen.  So I learned how to read and write,” and she did it well.

It was almost as if Grace itself flowed through the woman’s words.  Such power and devotion strung into every expression put on the page.  This woman had a gift and she used it wisely.

With every coming election, to all the pompous officials, she gave a letter.  One simple letter.

Dear Sir or Madam,
    Hate knows no boundaries, it can travel anywhere.  Love also knows no limits. 
    Which will you choose?

Year after year, it seemed that people chose the wrong answer.  Struggling to have faith in a world that was hopeless, she kept on.  Letters upon letters she wrote, trying to rectify the dire situations she found everyone in.  With no idea the depth her words could reach, she wrote on.  Enduring months with no success, but that did not stop her.  She could see a life without anger and violence and rage, and it drove her to continue.  

She was convinced that, without even the glimmer of hope at tunnel’s end, her words would triumph and clear the gloom that bound her and her people.