PoetrIE hosted its third annual reading to support The House of Ruth, which provides life-saving domestic violence services to residents of Eastern Los Angeles and Western San Bernardino Counties.  Local poets, and the listeners who come to hear them read, donate gifts for the holiday store set up by The House of Ruth for the women and children they serve to have the opportunity to “shop” for free gifts.  They set up a room for mother’s to select gifts for their children and another for children to select gifts for their mothers.

I was privileged to join eleven other poets and one fiction writer in reading last night:

Ruben Rodriquez (fiction writer), Michael Thomas Cooper, André Katkov, Danielle Donaldson, Micah Chatterton, Larry Eby, J R Bermuda, Isabel Quintero Flores, Shondra Rogers, Shali Nicholas, Reanna Marchman, and Nikia Chaney.

Wendy Hunt and Charles Lenida provided music.

Isabel Quintero Flores hosted the reading. Her first novel, Gabi: A Girl in Pieces, has been widely well-received.

Danielle Donaldson kindly took photos and videos of the other readers.

i read three recent poems:  So I’ve Been Told, Wearing His Watch, and Standing Ground.

I hope you will consider supporting The House of Ruth’s Holiday Store as well.