Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

Since closing the doors of Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café, I have given much thought to the Listen & Be Heard website. The site has been serving several functions, including serving the arts community by publishing announcements, reviews and opportunities, and promoting the events we produced at the café. We also publish poetry on [...]

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It’s over but it’s not over.
It’s ending but it’s beginning.
Nothing ever changes
and nothing stays the same.
Truth is in the moment
and encompasses everything
that is transforming
as we participate in it.
With ups and downs of
being who we are
working with what we have
moving toward what
we will become
small changes may go
unnoticed by all but a few
until the vision is complete [...]

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Last week when our new issue went live on March 26, 2008, some very strange things happened which brought the entire site down for a little while, and left it only semi-functional for a few days. Now, although we are fully functioning again, with a few little bugs, we are missing our entire last issue [...]

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We are at a crossroads here in Vallejo. While our city council deliberates whether to declare bankruptcy, or not, I can tell you one thing for certain, the state of the arts remains in the hands of the people who create.
Whether we are in an official bankrupt state or not, the arts are never first [...]

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There was a woman who dared to speak truth in the face of death. The truth as she knew it. For she knew that she did not, could not know Truth entirely.
In fact she knew that even two seemingly contradictory stories could both be true to the tellers of each side, and both could even [...]

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The day after Super Tuesday plenty of people are talking but no one actually knows anything definitive about much of anything, and to be honest I wasn’t clear, going into Super Tuesday about the hard facts behind the issues I was supposed to be voting on. That sentence was really long, almost as long as [...]

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Used to be the poet
was the clown
got struck down
when the king’s laugh
turned to a frown
on truth masked in
rhythm, rhyme
and hints of the sublime.
Now everyone wants
a piece of the action
automated reaction
in post hallucinogenic
times the rhymes
come via Madison Avenue
reworked to push your panic button
encourage your inner glutton.
Your future is what you write
to defend with your life the [...]

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I’m not sure why the current writers strike doesn’t make it closer to front page news as it drags on. With the Academy Awards coming up, the average American may pay closer attention. Not-for-profits planning fundraisers around the event have already taken note, because if the celebrities don’t show up in Hollywood, party goers [...]

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Lisa Pastor in February of 2004 attending Listen & Be Heard Open Mic at Rafael’s
Listen & Be Heard has been a presence in Vallejo for more than five years now. First just as an open mic that took place weekly at the now defunct Rafael’s, then in our own spot at Listen & Be Heard [...]

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If you pay attention to these things you will have noticed that Listen & Be Heard Weekly is now into Volume 5. That’s five years of publishing weekly arts news. We started out as a weekly e-mail newsletter, that five years ago became a print weekly. The print weekly became a print and web weekly [...]

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Everything is fast these days. You want to call a friend, chances are you can reach your friend with a text message or phone call right away. You’re hungry? Pop something in the microwave, it’ll be ready in a minute or two. Want to know more about someone you just saw on TV? Do a [...]

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Two hours before the new issue of Listen & Be Heard Weekly is scheduled to be posted, (powered by Wordpress open source software) I sit before my computer, having all else ready to go (being the copy editor/editor/programmer/co-publisher/publicist,) the remaining task for this week is to write this Letter from the Editor.
Really I’m none of [...]

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The first time Gabi Wilson appeared at Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café was when she sat in with Alvon. After mesmerizing the audience with her rendition of Donny Hathaway’s “A Song for You” (both piano and vocals) she introduced herself to me by handing me her own business card which reads: Gabriella “Gabi” Wilson, [...]

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I remember when I was a kid, my mother spent major time getting around to the department stores to shop for Christmas. She usually came home exhausted, but still planning the next trip to get the things she couldn’t find. Today she does a lot of her shopping on the internet. I can’t say [...]

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Unfortunately less than 10% of Vallejo’s population voted in the recent local elections. Now I know that Listen & Be Heard readers take their freedom seriously and most of you voted. Right? I’m glad I did, because this mayor’s race will most likely be decided by less than 100 votes.
But if you didn’t vote, don’t [...]

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