Submitted by Anne-Marie McEwen, Executive Director
(June 29, 2022) — The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center in Middletown is proud to present four poets in a showcase featuring Katya Zinn from Boston in the Zinnvisible Ink Traveling Poetry Show on Friday, July 1, 2022 from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Music by Victoria Muñoz. This follows the Middletown Arts Fest, which will showcase the younger generation in “Power is Within the Stories” from 5:00 p.m to 6:30p.m. Art on the walls by Eileen Anderson and Diane Soares of Seaglass Creations and mixed media.
Katya Zinn
Based in Boston with California roots, Katya Zinn is hitting the road to promote her new collection Manic-depressive Pixie Dream Girl, out this June from Game Over Books. With a sharp public radio sensibility and an unmistakable timbre, this traveling poetry show explores topics from womanhood and mental health to animal cruelty and Chuck E. Cheese, overlaying a lexicon of emotional granularity onto universal spaces with a quiet mission to make audiences feel seen and heard. After winning the 2019 North America Words Aloud Contest and opening for poet Buddy Wakefield in Ontario, being featured in the Boston Hassle, releasing her debut collection human verses with Finishing Line Press in 2021, and playing Broadway Meets Bowery in NYC, her aim is to tour a roadshow that interfaces with poetry scenes across the country and builds a diverse, collaborative bill with local performers in each locale.
Recognized as one of the most dedicated followers of the open microphone culture, C.C. Arshagra won a Boston award for participating in the most open mikes in 2000. He is the author of Emotional Geography, Poems, Scared Sacred, Death of an Ego and What Manner of Character. His vast archive of poetry, recordings and lyrics awaits release. He founded Funk Physics, and is a veteran of improvising to jazz with the Jeff Robinson Trio, Ken Field’s Board of Education, and the Albert Rivera Trio. His experimental works include ID Poems, “inkless dialogue” work existing in sound form only. He also has produced many radio and video shows for broadcast. Arshagra walks the walk, speaks soul to soul and is humbled by life as an artist. His canvas of creativity is expansive and his favorite mantra is “Love is not afraid.”
Singer/songwriter, poet, Music Therapist, pursuing various genres in music performance and using these influences to create intuitive, lyrical poetry inspired by the world around her, Victoria Munoz has been published in numerous journals including Caduceus (Yale Journal), Appleseeds (Americana Journal), and her own chapbooks, During Your Reading, Love Chronicles, and Scenes From Nature, Five Poems, (translations of her late father’s poetry), and a collaborative CD of the Not Just Any Tom, Vic and Terri Poetry Ensemble. Her poetry was also featured in the text-book, Stories from the Other Side, Thematic Memoirs (Gateway Community College, New Haven). She has performed her music as well as poetry from Florida to Connecticut, including venues such as the Bowery Poetry Club (New York), The Green Mill (Chicago), The Buttonwood Tree (Middletown), and the York Arts Festival (Pennsylvania)). Other venues include, Wintonbury Library (Bloomfield), Silas Bronson Library (Waterbury) Naugatuck Valley Community College and the Canton Word-Art Shows. She was co-host of Wednesday Night Poetry (Bethel); is founder of the Calling All Poets Series at the Silas Bronson Library (2009-2019) and the Poetry Salon presenting at various galleries including Freight Street Gallery and Mattatuck Museum, the Oxford and Newtown Arts Festivals. {As an added note, some may even know her from her music from the Glebe House, Flanders Nature Center, and/or the New Morning Singer/Songwriter Series (Woodbury).
– Poet Laureate for town of Portland– Personal trainer– Fork truck driver– Community event organizer– Finds inspiration from everything from life, to death, unknown, and beyond– Advocate for peace, unity– Good-looking single dad LOL
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