Wordlights, Portland, OR (2026)

07/12/2023

After much deliberation I’ve decided to cancel the rest of the Wordlights shows scheduled this year. It has been a good run and I want to extend a thank you to all those who participated. The show is simply too expensive to continue producing both in money and effort required.

—Igor Bjorn Brezhnev
Producer and host of Wordlights Poetry Showcase

03/22/2023

The Spring Wordlights Poetry Showcase is coming right up! Join us on April 4th at 6PM for another poetry filled evening at . Hear poetry by Julia Gaskill, Brian Stephen Ellis & Ken Yoshikawa, as well as the winner of our last show’s best performed poem broadside prize Tashon Phoenix, and 8 poets in our Curated Mic. This time we are also grateful to have .band playing in the theater during the concession stand happy hour between 6 and 7pm. The showcase will start promptly at 7pm.

Check out the page for the quarterly showcase at lightshippress.com/wordlights for more details and to submit your poem to the Curated Mic in our Summer & Fall showcases. Reserve your pay-what-you-can seat at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35827/production/1146975?performanceId=11207076

See you at the show!

02/22/2023

We had the privilege to feature Red O'Hare in our Winter Poetry Showcase at CoHo Theater. Here's a video of one of her poems from her new book Seaglass Strange.

Red O’Hare is a West Coast based Jewish American Poet. She was born during the Reagan administration to the child of Jewish immigrant Carnies and that of stalwart Presbyterian missionaries. She believes in boots and ghosts. Her dog is named after a Doctor Who character, but you have to guess which one. Red has been writing and performing poetry since she was 15 years old in California’s San Fernando Valley. She’s competed in poetry slams but has never won, has been featured at Wordlights, The Last Stand at Wildwood Saloon, The Nest, Portland Poetry Slam, Ghost Town Poetry, and The Crow’s Nest to name a few. She has also performed at Studio Morey, Fused Creative’s show Leave Me On Read, Telltale PDX’s show This Is What We Need, The Brewery Artist’s Lofts, The Anna Broome Room, and KBOO Radio’s Talking Earth poetry series, hosted by Dan Raphael. Red’s spoken word album is available at redohare.bandcamp.com.

Red's new poetry book Seaglass Strange is available through Lightship Press (www.lightshippress.com) or on Red's website (www.redohare.com)

Connect with Red on her website: www.redohare.com or follow her on Instagram at or on Facebook at Miz Red O'Hare.

01/07/2023

To help fund this year’s programming we encourage patrons to purchase Season Tickets for all four events in 2023. This will help cover expenses of publishing broadsides and an anthology, cover theater costs, and help pay our Featured Readers for their performances. Season Ticket Holders will receive reserved front row seats, copies of broadsides and the anthology, and additional raffle entries as a thank you for your support.

lightshippress.com/store/p/wordlights-season-ticket-2023

01/06/2023

Join us on January 24th to enjoy the poetry of our three featured poets, Christopher Luna, Sam Rose Preminger & Red O’Hare and celebrate three books released at the end of 2022. This showcase is hosted by a long time Wordlights poetry series host and co-founder of Lightship Press Igor Bjorn Brezhnev.

Igor Bjorn Brezhnev is a poet, multidisciplinary artist, publisher and book designer, among his other sins. Igor is an author of two full-length poetry collections and numerous chapbooks. He is a co-founder of Lightship Press, a small press in Portland, Oregon dedicated to publishing poetry. He also hosts Wordlights Poetry Showcase and Plotting Poetry Podcast and on occasion performs poetry with The New Name Band. Find more information about Igor at www.igorbrezhnev.com. You can support his poetry and community work on his Patreon at patreon.com/igorbrezhnev.

Portrait art by

Get your tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35827/production/1146975?performanceId=11207075

01/06/2023

Join us on January 24th to enjoy the poetry of our three featured poets and celebrate three books released at the end of 2022. Our final feature poet is Red O’Hare.

Red O’Hare is a West Coast based Jewish American Poet. She was born during the Reagan administration to the child of Jewish immigrant Carnies and that of stalwart Presbyterian missionaries. She believes in boots and ghosts. Her dog is named after a Doctor Who character, but you have to guess which one. Red has been writing and performing poetry since she was 15 years old in California’s San Fernando Valley. She’s competed in poetry slams but has never won, has been featured at Wordlights, The Last Stand at Wildwood Saloon, The Nest, Portland Poetry Slam, Ghost Town Poetry, and The Crow’s Nest to name a few. She has also performed at Studio Morey, Fused Creative’s show Leave Me On Read, Telltale PDX’s show This Is What We Need, The Brewery Artist’s Lofts, The Anna Broome Room, and KBOO Radio’s Talking Earth poetry series, hosted by Dan Raphael. Red’s spoken word album is available at redohare.bandcamp.com.

Connect with Red on her website: www.redohare.com or follow her on Instagram at or on Facebook at facebook.com/mizredohare.

Portrait art by

Get your tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35827/production/1146975?performanceId=11207075

01/05/2023

Join us on January 24th to enjoy the poetry of our three featured poets and celebrate three books released at the end of 2022. Our second feature poet is Sam Rose Preminger.

Sam Rose Preminger is a trans-nonbinary, Jewish writer and publisher. Having completed an MFA at Pacific University, they now serve as the Editor-in-Chief of NAILED Magazine, co-founder of Lightship Press, and regularly work one-on-one with poets as an editor and advisor. Their debut collection, Cosmological Horizons, was released from Kelsay Books in Summer 2022 and a second collection, Our Streets, will be released Fall 2022. They live in Portland, OR, where they’ve acquired too many house plants.

Connect with Sam on their website: www.sampreminger.com.

Portrait art by

Get your tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35827/production/1146975?performanceId=11207075

01/04/2023

Join us on January 24th to enjoy the poetry of our three featured poets and celebrate three books released at the end of 2022. Our first feature poet is Christopher J. Luna.

Christopher Luna is a poet, editor, teacher, writing coach, and artist who served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Clark County, WA from 2013-2017. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. He is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Morgan Paige co-host the LGBTQ+ friendly, all ages and uncensored Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA, founded by Christopher in 2004. Christopher Luna’s books include Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autonomous (The Poetry Box, 2021 with Angelo Luna), Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018), Brutal Glints of Moonlight, and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978 (Big Bridge).

Connect with Christopher on his website: www.christopherlunapoetry.com or follow him on Instagram at or on Facebook at facebook.com/christopherlunapoet.

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Get your tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35827/production/1146975?performanceId=11207075

01/02/2023

Curated Mic
An evolution of our open mic, the Curated Mic is here to offer a professional stage where emerging and established poets can share their new work. Each quarter, eight poets will be invited up to this mic and get to perform alongside our Featured Readers.

We encourage poets to submit a single poem which they want to perform and publish. Accepted poems will be scheduled for performance as well as to be published in our end-of-year printed anthology. All accepted submissions are automatically considered for our Broadside Prizes. Please visit our Submissions page for additional details.

Broadside Prizes

Best Written Poem

Before each show, our panel of established poets will select The Best Written Poem from the Curated Mic submissions. This poem will be published by Lightship Press as an illustrated broadside and 50 copies of this print will be awarded to the winning poet on the day of their performance.

Best Performed Poem

During each show, our features and the audience will have a chance to select the Best Performed Poem. The winner will be announced at the next show and the winning poem will be published as an illustrated broadside with 50 copies awarded to the poet, made available at our next show.

01/02/2023

So excited to share this event with all of you! This is an evolution of our Wordlights show that took about a year to plan and put together. We are very thankful to be able to co-produce this event with and look forward to seeing new and old faces both as spectators and Curated Mic readers. Check out the page for the quarterly showcase at lightshippress.com/wordlights for more details about all the exciting new parts of the show and to submit your poem to the Curated Mic. Links to tickets and more info in the bio!

11/14/2022

Wordlights Poetry Popup Show is coming to Honey Latte Cafe on Saturday, December 3rd! Come and enjoy a feature by Amber Flame () and bring your poem to our open mic. 
~ About Our Feature ~

Amber Flame is a writer, composer and performer, whose work has garnered artistic merit residencies with Hedgebrook, The Watering Hole, Vermont Studio Center, and Yefe Nof. Flame served as the 2017-2019 poetry Writer-in-Residence at Hugo House in Seattle, and is a q***r Black dandy mama who falls hard for a jumpsuit and some fresh kicks. Find more information about Amber at theamberflame.com

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