UPCOMING EVENTS

PAST EVENTS

Friday, April 26th @ 7:00 pm
Hemingway Birthplace Museum, 339 N. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois 60302

Speaking for Earth: A Poetry Reading
How can we express our concern, grief, and awe for this fragile planet that we call our home? Poetry can train us to listen deeply to the voices of the earth. Oak Park poet Hila Ratzabi will read from her award-winning debut book of poetry,There Are Still Woods, which is described as “a radiant appraisal of life at the precipice of climate crisis and a haunting elegy for all we stand to lose.” Following the reading, we will hear from Pamela Tate, a member of OPCAN (Oak Park Climate Action Network), on local efforts to combat the climate crisis and how we can all get involved. There will be time for a Q&A with the audience, and books will be available for sale and signing by the author.

Saturday, April 13th @ 11:30am–12:30pm EST
Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival, University of New Hampshire
Festival schedule
In person only

From Inspiration to Publication: Small Press Poets
Sara June Arnold, Hila Ratzabi, Diana Whitney, Diane Lowell Wilder

Three poets whose first or second books were published in the past two years by the same small press will come together for a conversation about their writing process, path to publication, and conception of what poetry can do. Each author will speak to the unique and universal ways that poetry has helped them process grief and loss, engage more deeply with life’s junctures and joys, and connect with others across time and place. This open-ended discussion will include advice for poets who might be revising a manuscript and thinking about submitting to small presses, insights about the publishing process and experience, stories behind particular poems, and other topics, guided by audience questions, with the founder and editor of June Road Press on hand to offer a publisher’s perspective.

Sunday, February 4th @ 3:00 pm 
Reading with Nadia Colburn
The Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637

Sunday, February 18th @ 6:30 pm
Sunday Reading Series, hosted by Simone Muench
Reading with Michael Zapata & Dan Fliegel
Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Monday, December 19th, 2023 @ 8:00 pm EST
June Road Press Winter Solstice Poetry Celebration
On Zoom // Watch the recording

Featuring Mariella Saavedra Carquin, Diana Whitney, Hannah Lee Jones, Hila Ratzabi, Diane Lowell Wilder

Thursday, September 28, 2023 @ 8:30 pm EST
June Road Press Fall Launch Event: A Virtual Poetry Reading & Celebration
On Zoom // Watch the recording

Tuesday, May 9 @ 5pm CT
Speaking for Earth: Poetry Reading & Discussion on Climate Crisis
Oak Park Public Library, Main Library Veterans Room, 834 Lake St. Oak Park, IL 60301
In person only

Sunday, May 7th @ 12:30–4:30pm ET 
Writing Poems for the Earth: An Ecopoetry Workshop
Hudson Valley Writers Center
Zoom only

Sunday, April 30th @ 6:00pm
WordShedNYC, hosted by Leah Elimeliah
With Alicia Ostriker & Joy Ladin
P&T Knitwear Bookstore, 180 Orchard Street, NYC

Wednesday, April 26th @ 7:00pm
Moonstone Arts, 4th Wednesday Reading
Fergie’s Pub 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia
With Maya Pindyck
In person and on Zoom

Tuesday, April 18th @ 6:30pm CT
Writing Wildlife: A NAWP Panel
On Zoom
Featuring Hila Ratzabi, Josette Akresh-Gonzales, and Jared Beloff.

Saturday, March 11th, 2023 @ 12:10–1:25pm PT
Getting to Aha! Creative Practice Beyond the Writing Classroom
With Amy Lemmon, Felicia Rose Chavez, Ashley Hajimirsadeghi, Hila Ratzabi
Scheduled Room: Room 332, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 3

Thursday, March 9th, 2023 @ 7:30pm PT
AWP Offsite Event
Voices of the Anthropocene: An Ecopoetry Reading
With Sean Hill, Claire Wahmanholm, Brittney Corrigan, Angela Voras-Hills
Folio, 93 Pike Street, #307, on the third floor of the Economy Building in Pike Place Market

Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 @ 6–10pm PT
AWP Offsite Event
Wednesday Night Poetry, hosted by Kai Coggin
Cafe Racer, 1510 11th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

Friday, February 3rd, 2023 @ 7:00pm

Tu B’Shvat Seder and Poetry Reading
Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation (JRC)

Sunday, September 4, 2022 @ 7pm EST / 6pm CST
Mercy Street Reading Series, Chicago 
Hosted by Ruben Quesada

Thursday, September 8, 2022 @ 7pm EST / 6pm CST
Voices of the Divine Feminine, with Joy Ladin
Hosted by Rabbi Deborah Waxman
Ritualwell, Reconstructing Judaism

Sunday, September 10, 2022
Book Launch Party!
Hosted by Sara Arnold, June Road Press
Berwyn, PA

Tuesday, September 13, 2022 @ 12:30pm EST
Lunchtime reading and Q&A
Reconstructing Judaism, Wyncote, PA 

Wednesday, September 14, 2022 @ 7pm EST
Existential Reckonings, with Shelly Oria and Rosebud Ben-Oni
Hosted by Sarah Chandler
Marlene Meyerson JCC, Manhattan, NY

Thursday, September 15, 2022 @ 8pm EST
Reading and discussion
Israel Center of Conservative Judaism
Queens, NY

Sunday, September 18, 2022 @ 1pm EST
Hosted by Julie Zuckerman
Literary Modi’in, Israel

Sunday, September 18, 2022 @ 6pm EST
Bloom Reading Series, with Dennis Nurkse and Chris Hansen-Nelson
Hudson View Gardens, NY

Wednesday, September 21, 2022 @ 6pm EST
Blue Hour Reading Series, with Faylita Hicks
Hosted by Marty McConnell
Chicago Poetry Center, Haymarket House, Chicago

Thursdays, October 13 – November 17, 2022 @ 12–1:30 pm EST 
Songs of the Grass: A Jewish Ecopoetry Workshop (six-week series)
Ritualwell Immersion, six weeks

November 4–5, 2022
“Give and Take: The Entanglements of Caregiving, Writing, and Environment” (roundtable)
With Angela Voras-Hills, Danielle Harms, Kate Partridge, Lisa Fay Coutley, Freesia McKee
CD Wright Women Writers Conference, University of Central Arkansas

November 6, 2022 @ 2:50 pm EST
“Not For Myself Alone: Creating and Sustaining Jewish Literary Communities” (panel discussion)
With Richard Chess and David Ebenbach
Jewish Book Council

November 21, 2022 @ 7 pm EST
Monday Night Poetry 
Hosted by Jason Schneiderman
KGB Bar, NY

Thursday, June 22nd, 2016, 7–8:30pm
David Ebenbach, Alison Hicks, Hila Ratzabi
Big Blue Marble Bookstore

Sunday, September 11th, 2016, 5:00pm
Jubliant Thicket Reading Series
Head House Books

Saturday, May 7th, 2016, 7:00pm
Dave Worrell, Susan Windle, Hila Ratzabi, Nicole Rollender, and Hanoch Guy
Big Blue Marble Bookstore

Saturday, May 21st, 2016, 2:00pm
Nicolle Rollender, Sarah Blake, Shevaun Brannigan, Hila Ratzabi
Penn Book Center

Sunday, May 1st, 2016
Embodied Ritual, Embodied Writing
Elana Bell, Hila Ratzabi, Maya Pindyck
Philadelphia Ethical Society
This event is sponsored by Ritualwell.org.

Split This Rock Poetry Festival
Thursday, April 14th, 2016

Eco-Feminist Poetry, Intersectionality, & the End of the Earth
Jess X. Chen,Safia Elhillo, Clara Chagxin Fang, Cecilia Llompart, Hila Ratzabi

Solastalgia (n.): the pain experienced when the place that one lives is under immediate assault. Today, rapid ocean acidification and rising CO2 levels drive the Earth and its eight million species closer to collapse. As the colonial world expands, borders are being violently redrawn, further pushing what’s left of the wild out of their homes. As climate change endangers our material, physical, and spiritual wellbeing, our response must be both intersectional and radical. As eco-feminist poets and environmental activists of diverse backgrounds, we respond to this crisis with fierce and visceral poems. The poets will each read and perform new work and then participate in a Q&A with the audience. A multimedia visual art presentation featuring interactive examples of eco-feminist art, music, and activism will accompany the reading. Through poetry and discussions of eco-feminist activism, we will explore the ways women, immigrants, indigenous peoples, and the Earth are entwined not only in the violence and silencing they face, but in their struggles and resilience.

Monday, April 11th, 2016, 7:30pm
Painted Bride Quarterly reading series
Black Sheep Pub

Saturday, May 2, 2015
Urban Nature Ecopoetry Workshop
Massachusetts Poetry Festival

Sunday, April 19, 2015
Four Poets: Facets of their Jewish Journey
(with Hal Sirowitz, B.E. Kahn, and Cathleen Cohen)
Big Blue Marble Books

Friday, April 17, 2015
Earthly Rituals: Women in Celebration of and Dialogue with the Earth (with Therese Halscheid, Amy Small-McKinney, Alison Hicks, and Catherine Bancroft)
Big Blue Marble Books

Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Words off the Page: An Evening with Jewish American Poets
National Museum of American Jewish History
Philadelphia, PA

Join us for a special evening with prominent poets featured in The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry. The event includes readings from Elizabeth J. Coleman, Lynn Levin, Hila Ratzabi, Hal Sirowitz, and Jason Schneiderman, and a discussion moderated by Anthology co-editor, Deborah Ager. Dessert reception with book sale and signing to follow.

Saturday, November 29, 2014
Feats of Poetic Strength: An All-Women Poetry Reading
Hila Ratzabi, Shevaun Brannigan, Chloe Martinez, dawn lonsinger, Kimberly Ann Southwick
Philadelphia Sculpture Gym

October 17, 2014
Couplet Reading Series 3rd Anniversary, with John Deming, Helen Vitoria, Jason Koo, John Reed, and Rachel McKibbens, The Delancey

August 10, 2014
Jubliant Thicket, Head House Books

July 26, 2014
Eco-Poetry: Writing for the Love of this Blue Planet, with Elliott batTzedek, Lori Wilson, Sam Hall, Lisa Wujnovich, Anne-Adele Wight, and MaryAnn Miller, Big Blue Marble Books

July 19, 2014
Penn Book Center (with Jacob Russell and Dianna Dragonetti)

June 14, 2014
Reading with El Aleph Magazine, Berl’s Poetry Shop

May 29, 2014
Big Blue Marble Books (with Michelle Castleberry)

April 23, 2014
Free Library, Independence Branch

March 29, 2014
From Transgressive to Divine Feminine: Female Poets as Rebels and Miscreants (with Wendy Babiak, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Seema Reza, Metta Sáma, Arisa White), Split This Rock Poetry Festival, Washington, DC 

January 2, 2014
Celebrating the publication of the Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, Poets House

December 7, 2013
APIARY 7 Launch Party, Underground Arts

December 5, 2013: Hosting Storyscape Issue #11 Launch Party with Box of Jars and Marc Jaffee, Two Moon Art House & Cafe

June 9, 2013
Group reading at Salon Des Amis Gallery, Malvern, PA

June 5, 2013
Contributors Rosebud Ben-Oni, R. Erica Doyle, Anne Hays, and Hila Ratzabi join forces for a reading and signing celebrating HER KIND, a literary community powered by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts at WORD Brooklyn

May 31, 2013
Shabbat Tikkun: A Conversation about the Climate Crisis & What We Can Do, reading and discussion with Environmental Action organizer Jesse Bacon, Kol Tzedek, Calvary Center

May 11, 2013
2nd Saturday Poets (with Marie-Elizabeth Mali), Wilmington, DE

March 16, 2013
Finishing Line Press reading featuring Chloe Yelena Miller, David Ebenbach, Alison Hicks, and Hila Ratzabi, Big Blue Marble Bookstore

April 21, 2012: Not Your Bubbe’s Poetry, a reading with new Jewish women poets (Rachel Simon, Janlori Goldman, Sarah Heller, Reesa Grushka, Hannah Baker-Siroty), Massachusetts Poetry Festival

April 13, 2012
Celebrating the Publication of Storyscape Issue #8, ABC No Rio

January 21, 2012
Box of Jars launch reading, 68 Jay St. Bar

April 30, 2011
LUMINA launch reading, Slonim House, Sarah Lawrence College

April 27, 2011
Perfect Sense Reading Series with Eve Grubin, Deborah Landau, Nate Pritts, & Sampson Starkweather, Cornelia Street Cafe

November 10, 2010
Sarah Lawrence Alumnae Reading, Poets House

June 14, 2010
Franklin Park Reading Series, Brooklyn, NY

June 7, 2010
Made with Love Organic Bakery & Cafe, Jersey City, NJ (with Chloe Yelena Miller)

March 23, 2010
New Jewish Voices (with Maya Pindyck, Amy Gottlieb, Elana Bell, Sarah Heller, and Rachel Simon), Unnameable Books, Brooklyn, NY

January 25, 2010
Cornelia Street Cafe

September 30, 2009
Sarah Lawrence College

January 21, 2009
Mixer Reading Series, Cake Shop, New York, NY

October 22, 2008
Fundraiser for Intentional Theater, Lolita Bar, New York, NY

June 14, 2008
Vision Festival, New York, NY

September 13, 2007
Bowery Poetry Club, New York, NY

April 27, 2007
Sarah Lawrence Poetry Festival, Bronxville, NY