Category Archives: Celebrations

Last Sunday Sessions – Spoken Word Poetry with Taryn “LoveReigns” Wharwood

In reverence and celebration of Spoken Word Poetry, Women’s History Month, and uplifting community leaders, JaxbyJax is honored to host
Taryn “LoveReigns” Wharwood! 

Taryn “LoveReigns” Wharwood is a poet, writer, author, emcee,
motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and curator. Taryn is The Program Manager for The Performers Academy of Jacksonville and currently
conducts weekly writing workshops for adults in recovery, at-risk youth in drug rehabilitation centers, youth in foster care and in juvenile
detention centers via Hope at Hand, Inc. In addition, she is the CEO of
IAmLoveReigns Enterprises LLC, providing online business solutions for small to medium sized businesses, artists, and entertainers. She is also
the host of The Random Thoughts of Reign Podcast which she began
during the pandemic as a way to connect the world with creators during quarantine. LoveReigns is the founder of Artis(Tree) Live, The Closet Jax & Co-Founder of The Cypher Open Mic Poetry & Soul, to date, the longest running open mic in Jacksonville history. 
 
Her words, her aura, her spirit all scream love and when you meet her, you truly feel why Love truly does Reign.

During this Last Sunday Session, expect personal expression, vocalizing your authentic self, and celebrating community as we continue the 2023 JaxbyJax programming with the literary art of Spoken Word Poetry

The Last Sunday Sessions are held at Cork Arts District, from 12-3 on the last Sunday of each month. Workshop genres include storytelling, memoir writing, screenwriting, spoken word poetry, lyricism, songwriting, fiction, poetry, and playwriting. The workshop breakdown is: 

12-1: The hosted genre workshop, given by a community leader with expert knowledge in the highlighted genre with learning focused on that genre. 
1-2: A writing circle based on the monthly genre, hosted by Erica Saffer, to engage in the content of the workshop and express creative connections.
2-3: An open mic hour to share in our words, ideas, and creative efforts. Work can be produced in the workshop or pre-composed for sharing. 

Enter the south facing building of the Cork Arts District on the Rosselle Street entrance. Parking in lot beside building or along street. Follow the posters to the entrance and the classroom.
 
Eventbrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/last-sunday-sessions-taryn-lovereigns-wharwood-spoken-word-poetry-tickets-573358228897
 
Livestream Link: https://vimeo.com/event/2866903
 
Facebook Event Link: https://fb.me/e/MpeV2N8x
 
Hoping to see you in-person or online for the JaxbyJax Literary Arts
Last Sunday Sessions in Spoken Word Poetry with Taryn “LoveReigns” Wharwood! This event is FREE to the public and can be accessed via livestream. 
 
The JaxbyJax Literary Arts Last Sunday Sessions are brought to you by a generous grant given in part by Alternate ROOTS, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundations, and the Ford Foundation. 

Back in Central Florida!

The next Beacon Salon Speaker Series, hosted by Beacon College in Leesburg, features Darlyn Finch Kuhn who’ll share that it’s life’s difficult moments that shape our character, become fuel for self-expression, and ultimately inspire artistic expression in others.
Sharing excerpts from her poetry and prose, Kuhn will show the benefits of paying close attention to pain, sharing the universal through the specific, and being vulnerable enough to collaborate with others through ekphrastic art. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And you’ll enjoy a free boxed meal.
Registration REQUIRED: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/dfk/event/853117/?fbclid=IwAR3A7LHl_FH6ER9gX_eYntNZjK5Y5XyCC_tA0qm53Nqf2fwNex1PYQZjo9Q

JaxbyJax Welcomes Erica Saffer

2023 marks a decade of the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival where we’ve come together around our literary community and shared in narrating Jacksonville’s story. Over these ten years, we’ve shared poems in arcades, performed interpretive readings at the Jessie, and shared the words of many. We’ve also built a community, and that community is growing. We are deeply thankful for the unwavering support and contributions of past directors and JaxbyJax pioneers, Tim Gilmore, Brad Kuhn, and Darlyn Finch Kuhn. Their vision has brought JaxbyJax to where it is now, and part of their vision looking forward seeks to grow and evolve our literary community across story genres, continue strong community partnerships, and provide opportunities for diverse thought. Facilitating these upcoming changes, JaxbyJax is happy to announce that they have appointed Erica Saffer as Lead Director for the 2023 JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival. We are excited to see how her vision advances the momentum of the movement that is JaxbyJax!

Three Houses/Three Ways

Happy New Year, Y’all!

Want more romance in 2023? Author Julie Compton wrote: “Reading Three Houses made me want to wake up my husband to have sex.” Just sayin’.

A poet and a writer, suddenly single under similar circumstances, meet at the house where Jack Kerouac toiled in obscurity before On The Road changed his life. Three Houses is a narrative in verse documenting the ecstasies, agonies and everydays of a phoenix rising from the ashes of their troubled pasts. These are words spoken (and sometimes yelled) heart to heart, written for private consumption, but published for friends old and new, for those who believe in love, and for anyone standing at a crossroads wondering: Is this all there is?

Here’s a link to buy the paperback version.

Rather download it to your Kindle?

Care to hear some sample cuts? Check out Making Love: A Practitioner’s Guide, published by EAT Poems.

If you like what you hear, order the entire Three Houses collection, read by the authors, from Audible.

Like a fly on the wall, observe a REAL romance in all its agony and ecstasy-preferably with somebody you’d love to wake up.