Friday, November 25, 2016

Just Announced! RetroLove at World Cafe Live (Watch a Preview)


If you missed RetroLove in June, want to see it again (and bring your friends), or have always wanted to visit Philly, here is your chance.  Tickets are now on sale for  Sunday, February 12th at 5:00 pm (doors open for food and drink at 4:00) at World Cafe Live, the coolest of the cool Philly clubs.  Watch this trailer and see just a taste of the show.


Still to come, RetroLove: The Album and if you are in the mood to snuggle up with some warm words, you can still buy RetroLove: The Book.

Meanwhile, I am heading to Ragdale, an artist retreat in Chicago to see what poetry is lurking post-RetroLove.  I will report back.





Sunday, July 10, 2016

WANT TO RETROLOVE? GET THE BOOK!

Wow!  Two sold-out houses and standing ovations for RetroLove: The Show here in Philadelphia thanks to Philadelphia Jazz Project and my stellar collaborators Monnette Sudler and Joilet Harris.

I have to say that I was more than a tad nervous to make the leap from page to stage but it was so gratifying to feel the audience join us on this RetroLove journey.  Stay tuned for an upcoming video and record (!) thanks to PhillyCAM and Turtle Studios.

In the meantime, if you loved the show or missed the show, you can make your own RetroLove happen by getting the book.   (There is a bonus poem or two that were not in the show.)  RetroLove is about being in that retro moment but also looking back, with kindness, for our younger selves.

If you RetroLove it, you can buy the book here.  Thanks to Greenleaf Poetry Press and Deidra Greenleaf Allen, publisher and designer extraordinaire.

In My Life


I wake up early.
  I used to love to sleep all day,
  now I love the highlighting behind the trees
  and the quiet when even the dog is asleep.
I miss midnight.

I make my tea steeped from loose leaves
  with the last tiny bit of honey
  in the jar from the farmer’s market --
  even when it’s hard, it is still sweet.
I miss dark coffee at midnight.

I listen to the morning news as I
  brush my teeth and sometimes in the mirror
  I look like a different person,
  but not half bad when I smile.

I don’t miss the ‘feed me, get dressed,
  don't forget...I missed the bus.’
I don’t rush out the door like I used to.
  I have more time -- and less.

I wake up early
  so I can curl myself around you
  say wake up, it’s a new day, baby,
  a gift.


(c) Beth Feldman Brandt 2016

Sunday, April 17, 2016

RetroLove goes live!

RetroLove is rockin'!

RetroLove: The Book is on the way to the printer and dates are set for RetroLove: The Show.

Monnette Sudler, Philly's first lady of jazz, is the composer and Music Director.  Actor/singer Joilet Harris is ready to take you to all kinds of retro moments.  Add a hot jazz band and we are on our way.

You can pre-order the book and buy tickets to the show on June 29th and 30th at the newly renovated Drake Theatre in Philadelphia.  Plus read a cool interview about the show at Philadelphia Jazz Project.

Check it out on my new website.  Oh yeah.

Monday, January 25, 2016

My Poems in Haiku-Year-In Review 2015

I am so honored to be chosen again for inclusion in the Haiku-Year-in-Review by Broadsided Press. Print it.  Post it in your favorite coffee shop, over the microwave at the office, on a bus shelter.  My haiku, heartbreaking and heartfelt, focus on the Charleston Shooting and the Syrian refugee crisis.

Read the poems here, as well as brief a tribute to my aunt, Pat Komarow whose full, but too short, life inspires my daily haiku practice

Friday, January 15, 2016

RetroLove in Apiary Magazine Online


RetroLove is featured in this month's Apiary magazine online -- "Writers with Soul"!  A shout-out to fellow poet, Monique Gordon.  You will love her words.

SAVE THE DATE:  RetroLove: The Show in conjunction with Philadelphia Jazz Projects is booked for June 29 and 30, 2016 at the brand new Drake Theatre in Center City Philadelphia.  The incomparable Monnette Sudler as Music Director.  Stay tuned as we get closer but save the date!

Watch and listen! Wind Rose!





Thanks to Andrew Litts, the Temple University New Music Ensemble, and soprano Peggy Pei-Ju Yu for their stellar performance of three movements of the "Wind Rose" song cycle. The performance includes "Among Mountains"; "Why Not" (3:50); and "Aqua Alta (6:07).

The full song cycle, inspired by the Italian names of the "wind rose" compass, traces a woman's journey.  Whether it is real or imagined is left to the listener to decide.

Take a listen!