The Loose Lips Poetry series will present its quarterly poetry reading, featuring mother/daughter duo Gloria Vando and Anika Paris, on Saturday, January 18, 2-4 p.m.
Loose Lips readings have received fourteen matching grants from Poets & Writers, a high honor for the series, which is dedicated to bringing a diverse array of the best contemporary poets to Topanga. The series provides audiences and authors with a poetic forum and community, delivering literary events which are edgy, spiritual, inspiring, and at times irreverent.
Refreshments will be provided by Friends of the Topanga Library, and the reading always includes an open mic (one poem, please, no epics).
Gloria Vando’s books and poems have won numerous awards, including the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Faye Di Castagnola Award and the Latino Literary Hall of Fame’s Poetry Book Award for Shadows & Supposes; Thorpe Menn Book Award for Promesas; the River Styx International Poetry Award, two Billee Murray Denny Prizes, and others. She was awarded the first Artist Fellowship in Poetry from the Kansas Arts Commission and she is a contributing editor to the North American Review, co-founder of The Writers Place, a literary center in Kansas City, and serves on the boards of the Venice Arts Council and Beyond Baroque in Venice, California.
Anika Paris is a platinum songwriter and recording artist, HOLA award- winner for Outstanding Music in a Musical, and nominated for the International Latin Poetry Award for Woven Voices with Scapegoat Press. Her poems have appeared in KC Star, Helicon Nine Editions, Gival Press, Half Shell Press, and Vagabond Press. A classically trained pianist and author of two music education books with Hal Leonard, she is an adjunct professor teaching songwriting, lyric writing, and performance at Musicians Institute, UCLA, and composes for Warner Bros Television, MultiStages, and the League of Professional Theatre Women.
The Topanga Public Library is located at 122 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, CA 90290. (310) 455-3480. For ADA accommodations, call Monday–Thursday, (562) 940-8462 (voice); or (562) 940-8477 (TTY); @Topangalibrary.