February 22, 2018: Poetry Café Bellas Artes

Celebrating Poetry at Bellas Artes

By Maia Williams

Three experienced poets and writers, with a shared history of teaching, will present their poems at the February 22nd Poetry Café Bellas Artes.

Beth Spencer is a recent émigré to Minnesota stalking grandchildren in the Minneapolis area. She was formally a teacher and counselor in the Neenah, WI schools. Beth has published a chapbook, “Mill Door” and her first poetry book, “C- in Conduct.” She has been published in Wisconsin Review, Rag Mag, Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar among others. Her essay on teaching appeared in the Geraldine R Dodge project, A Passion for Teaching. She won first prize in the Dorothy Dalton poetry contest and a recent honorable mention in a contest at The Mill, Appleton, WI as well as placing in two categories of the League of Minnesota Poets 2017 contest.

When she’s not writing Bernadine Lortis reads, gardens, and dabbles in watercolor.

Degrees in Art and Education were occupationally driven. She began submitting her writing in July, 2016; fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and over 20 poem have been published in online journals and print anthologies including Stirring, Bella Online, Silver Birch, Every Writer #39; Resource, Oasis, Poetry Super Highway, and others. Bernadine grew up in S.W. Minnesota on the prairies of the Buffalo Ridge and credits her love of nature and discipline to this background. She lives in St. Paul, MN with her husband. They winter in San Miguel with friendly snowbirds.

Rosemary Cabe is a resident of Montecito, California and a frequent visitor to San Miguel de Allende for over twenty-five years. Before retiring from the University of California Santa Barbara, as Co-Director of the South Coast Writing Project, she was a classroom teacher for thirty years; writing with students, grades kindergarten through high school.

As the mother of five grown children, she is used to talking to herself, and is very happy to be invited to share her poems with interested listeners.

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Founded in January of 2016, Poetry Café Bellas Artes meets monthly, September through April. This all-volunteer community organization features local and visiting poets (established and emerging) sharing original work in a casual setting.
Please arrive a few minutes early. Seating will be first come, first seated.