6/1 All Good Things
Heya everyone!
Some of the most exciting things that have popped up recently have been on-the-spot poetry gigs. I’m meeting interesting people, like the guy who has 40 koi in his pond and the 90 year old woman who avoids Seder by saying she’s already been invited elsewhere when really she simply isn’t interested. On-the-spot poetry is sometimes typewriter poetry, sometimes handwritten on postcards, sometimes erasure using markers and crayons, and always super fun. Additionally, I’ve gotten to already sub a bunch of yoga classes, from open flow to sculpting, which is yoga with weights. Y’all, This. Is. How. I. Summer! (Did I mention the semester finally ended?
HAPPENING ALMOST RIGHT NOW SO SIGN UP FAST
Sukha Backyard Book Club is June 7!
Cedarmere Writing Retreat is June 13!
THINGS HAPPENED
In addition to on-the-spot poetry and all the yoga subbing, I took a hike in Blydenburg and saw a turtle! and a deer! and several ticks! One of those exclamation points is not like the others. Book club was a crossover event, which was fun, but also unfortunately fell on the night a sinkhole opened up on 495, so we missed folks who couldn’t get there. ICYMI, the highlights are here. The library pass for the Guggenheim was available, so I snagged that and saved $30 to see art in a spiral, and I quickly learned that spiralized buildings make me dizzy. After several years of missing it, I got back to the Gold Coast Book Festival and sat in on the Poets Corner and met the good folks at Pink Trees Press. It was a moment of we don’t know each other but we follow each other on something. The world is an interesting place.
WELLNESS CORNER
You know how those catalogs of community classes arrives in the mail and you thumb through and start to read aloud course names and descriptions and then suddenly you’re enrolled in a class that you don’t really know anything about? Yes, well, that’s how I’m now taking Pound classes at Lido Beach. Think cardio but with drumsticks. Think drumsticks but neon green and weighted. Yup, I’ll let you know how all that turns out.
Go hike in Blydenburg. Right now, where the human-made lake used to be, is a glorious field of natural flora. Soon enough, the town is moving in to destroy nature and put the lake back. Nature is good for the soul, so if you’re local, get in a hike now to get your soul-full.
If you attended my last book launch, you know what’s in that backpack and why it’s so large.
As aforementioned, Sukha Backyard Book Club is upon us! You can come even if you don’t read the book or don’t finish the book. We’re going to meditate and chat.
Availability for Reiki, meditation, yoga, and wellness endeavors is open for the summer! Info here.
KUDOS!
Linda Opyr’s poem “On the Way to the Met” appears in the Sunday New York Times Metropolitan Diary column!
Akua Lezli Hope’s poetry collection, TELEPATH, has been published by Gnashing Teeth Publishing!
Gina Sipley won the SUNY Chancellor's Medal for Research and Creative Activities!
Chen Du’s translation (with Xishen Chen) of Rock Arrangement (a full-length poetry collection by Yan An) is available now!
The Bookmark Design Challenge Winners are here!
BOOKSHELF
Have you visited Bookshop.org yet?
Currently, I’m reading the 2026 issue of Spiral, the nature poem anthology, and the 70s/80s band book. I’m also skimming through the book as a refresher for Sukha Backyard Book Club, Biography of Silence. Additionally, I’m on the verge of starting June’s book club book Fried Green Tomatoes and another poetry collection chosen randomly from the to-read pile.
Poetry
My poem “Lady-like” appears in Illumen. Spring 2026. and my poem “A Milkweed Garden for Monarchs” appears in Gabby & Min.
Space Struckby Paige Lewis -- Wow wow wow
“Smugglers of Small Things” by David Anson Lee
“Prognosis of Sound” by Sloan Asakura
“Fox Song” by Caki Wilkinson
“The Atom No. 18” by Sarah Mangold
“A Monastery for Alice Coltrane” by Charleen McClure
“Archaeopteryx” by Kestutis Navakas, Trans. Rimas Uzgiris
“Saludos to the Moon” by Jose Hernandez Diaz
“Speech Acts for Dying World” by Peter Gizzi
“Sonic Fireflies” by Quincy Troupe
“Charles Baudelaire and I Meet in the Oval Garden” by John Yau
“Antimatter” by Russell Edson
“Dream State (As Strained Pineapple” by Analicia Sotelo
“Landscape with footprints in ash” by Selma Asotic
“Dauerwunder, a brief record of facts” by Carolina Ebeid
Fiction
Shutter by Ramona Emerson (book club!)
Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino
Internet
Don Zirilli takes Duchamp for a spin.
Brendan McEntee has thoughts about WCW.
Marlena Chertok’s book celebrates a bookversary!
Beagles make good Customs agents.
A glorious fashion show moment
Batteries and planes
TSA but not in an airport
Adam Rowe and SciFiArt
And of course check out these:
Typewriter photographs! Erasure poems! Post card sentiments! Signed copies of How We Make Amends!
LISTEN
Sunday Funday Book Club’s soundtrack for Shutter
My poem “The Gnomes on Oak Throw a Bachelor Bash” aired on Destinies: The Voice Of Science Fiction radio show as part of their 43rd anniversary. (Poem at 11:09).
My poem “Hitching A Ride” aired on Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction radio show. (Poem at 8:39)
WATCH
More than a few years ago at a hockey game in Canada, the microphone went out while the singer was belting out the “Star Spangled Banner.” The Canadian crowd finished the song perfectly, and the person I was with agreed that if the roles were reversed, that probably wouldn’t happen. I’m happy I was wrong.
Arsenal fans and chanting = hope for humanity
Jeremy Scott’s commencement speech for all of us
The Weight of Memory on PBS (with thanks to Linda Opyr for the suggestion)
OPPORTUNITIES
Chesapeake Film Festival, Deadline June 1
Wyrd Folk Folklore Short Story Challenge, June 30 (win a guest spot on the pod)
Oceanside Gazebo is accepting applications to read this summer.
The Mastheads Day Residencies
SUGGESTED THINGS
Ink & Intuition from A Mindful Writer
Vegas K. Jarrow on Substack
Pet Insurance if you have a pet
Canada’s National Parks are free this summer!
The new Beatles Museum if you’re in London
Poet Kari Gunter-Seymour
Poet Hannah V. Warren
Prost in Garden City NY, and if you’re not in the vicinity, then go find yourself some German food
MISCELLANY
Fact: A hot flash is like jumping into a volcano and swimming in the lava only the volcano is on the inside and it hates you.
All good things,
Christina
**Of course, you can forward this email to those you think may have interest. If you post information publicly, please link back to me. Appreciate it.
THINGS ARE HAPPENING
My calendar is here.
Updated book club info is here.
Saturday, June 6, 2026 at 2:00 PM-3:15 PM
Parent and Me Acro Yoga with Eugene Feis at Sukha Studio
Saturday, June 6, 2026 at 4 PM to Midnight
Moonlight Market at Long Island Sports Hub, Syosset
Sunday, June 7, 2026 at 12:30 PM-2:00 PM
Sukha Backyard Book Club with Christina M Rau at Sukha Studio, Reading Biography of Silence by Pablo D’Ors, Book chat, Meditation, and Reiki
Saturday, June 13, 2026 at 10 AM – 4 PM
Cedarmere Poetry Writing Retreat with Stefanie Maura and Christina M. Rau at Cedarmere, Roslyn Harbor, NY
Registration is here.
$85 includes lunch and donation
Thursday, June 18, 2026 at 7-9 PM
Poets House presents New Works with Kaur Alia Ahmed, Gwen Aube, Cat Fitzpatrick, Chariot Wish online and in person
June 19-21, 2026
Deep Water Literary Fest in Narrowsburg, NY
Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 10-noon
Sunday Funday Book Club reading Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 12-3 PM
The Body Keeps The Story: Yoga and Memoir Workshop with Kelly Massaro Info and registration is here.
Sunday, July 26, 2026 at 10-noon
Sunday Funday Book Club reading Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik
Sunday, July 26, 2026 at 2-3:30 PM
The Gypsy Felons at the Center Moriches Free Public Library
On The Regular (Always check with venues. If no contact info is listed below, google it. If your series has changed, let me know for next time. If you want to add your series, drop me a line).
One Sunday a month: Mid-Island Y JCC Poetry Series 2-4 PM
First Sundays: Poetic License, online, 4 PM
One Sunday a month: Speculative Sundays with Akua Lezli Hope, online, 7 PM EST
Later-in-the-month Sundays: Book Club at Great South Bay Brewing, Bay Shore, NY from 10-noon
Third Sundays: Sunday Reading Series at The Hungry Brain, 6:30 PMLast Sundays: Po’Jazz with Golda Solomon at Blue Door Arts Center, Yonkers, NY, 2-4 PM, Free
Every Monday: Restless Open Mic, Marché Le Woof 31-03 Vernon Boulevard Astoria. Signups at 6:30 PM
Every Monday: Phoenix Reading Series, Shades of Green 125 e 15th NY NY, 6:30 PM, $5 plus food purchase
Every Monday: The Underground Open Mic at Bar Freda (Queens/Brooklyn Border), 7:30 PM
Every Monday: Easy Paradise Open Mic at KGB Red Room, 8 PM, sign up in advance, 21+, 2 drink min
First Tuesdays: First Tuesdays Series, Espresso 77 Cafe, Jackson Heights, 6:40 Sign up, 7 PM open begins, feature follows, $5 purchase
First Tuesdays: Poetry At Book and Mortar 157 N Country Rd Mount Sinai, NY 11766 7 PM (open mic sign up 6:30), jeweliasdad@aol.com for info
First Tuesdays: Calling All Writers Spoken Word Open Mic, Urban Coffee, 101 Broadway, Greenlawn, NY, 7-8 PM, 5 minute limit, kindness required
Every Wednesday: Wednesday Night Poetry, Kollective Coffee and Tea, Hot Springs, AZ, 6:30-9 PM
First Wednesdays: The Platform, Madison Community Arts Center 10 Kings Rd Madison NH, 8 PM
Second Wednesdays: Poetry: It's a Shore Thing!, Long Beach Library (NY), 6 PM
Second Wednesdays/Thursdays: The Muse at Neirs Tavern, Queens, 7 PM
Fourth Wednesdays: Risk of Discovery at QED Astoria, 7:30-9 PM
First Thursdays: BVAC at Jack Jacks, Babylon, 7 PM
First Thursdays: Poetry Circle Open Mic, Living Room Café, Ardmore, PA, 6:30 PM
First Thursdays: Lowell Writers Open Mic, lalabooks, Market St, Lowell, MA, 6:30-8PM
Third Thursdays: Poetry Pairs Series, Literature Repository Reading, Bohemia, 7 PM
Third Thursdays: NeuroNautic Institute Presents open mic with features, Otto’s Shrunken Head, NYC, 7-9 PM
Third Thursdays: At Brookline Booksmith, MA, 7 PM
Third Thursdays: SAFTA Reading Series, Pretentious Beer Co, Old City Knoxville, TN
Every Friday: Fridays: Seed Café Open Mic, 250 Main Street, Pawtucket, RI, 6:30 PM
First Fridays: Revolutionary Poetry Nights, Grounds Books and Coffee, Tuscon, AZ
First Fridays: Maryland Writers’ Association, 7 PM EST, onlineSecond Fridays: Open Mic at Deja Brew Café, 102nd&Jamaica Ave Queens, 7:30-9 PM, hosted by Michael Alpiner
Third Fridays: Hudson Valley Writers Center in person and online, 7 PM
Last Fridays: Northport Arts Coalition Poetry Reading, Northport and online, 7:30 PM EST
Last Fridays: Friday Night Fire, Teatro Yerbabruja Second Avenue Fire House, Bay Shore, NY, 7 PM
Last Fridays: Redmond Association of Spoken Word, Centro Cultural Mexicano Redmond, WA, 7-9 PM
Every Saturday: Astoria Music Collective Saturday Songwriters at The Local Bar, 3 PM,
Every Saturday: Cultivating Voices Live, online, 3 PM EST
Biweekly Saturdays: Lip Balm, online, 5 PM EST
First Saturdays: PPA East Meadow Library, 1-3 PM, hosted by J R Turek and Margarette Wahl
Third Saturdays: PPA Levittown Town Hall, 1-3 PM, hosted by J R Turek
Various Saturdays: It’s Poetry Baby!, Oceanside Library, NY, 2 PM
Last Saturdays: Poetry Street On The Road at Riverhead Library and online, Riverhead NY, 2 – 4 PM
Various monthly: Ludy Café and Hudson Valley Poetry, Irvington, NY
Congrats! You've made it to the end! As always, this newsletter is gratis. If you wish to at any time, you can feel free to buy me a tea (or a coffee).