Poetorium @ Starlite

Please join us for a special 3-generation triple feature edition of our monthly open mic and featured poetry reading series The Poetorium at Starlite hosted by Paul Szlosek and Ron Whittle. It will be a full evening of poetry, spoken word, and music starting with a brief interview on stage with our three featured performers James R. Scrimgeour (Author of Voices of Dogtown, and The Route), J.D. Scrimgeour (Author of Festival, and Banana Bread), & Aidan Scrimgeour (Composer & Musical Director of Only Human) followed by a presentation of poetry and music as well as a 10-minute tribute to a dead poet by our 3 features, a short intermission, and then an open mic (with 5-minute slots for each reader). Admission is free, but a hat will be passed for donations to pay our features and compensate Starlite for the use of their space. For more information, please contact us at poetorium@mail.com or visit our WEBSITE.

James R. Scrimgeour received his BA from Clark University, his MA and PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is Professor Emeritus at Western Connecticut State University. He has served as Editor of Connecticut Review, published ten books of poetry, been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes, and given over 250 public readings of his work, including one at an International Conference on Poetry and History, Stirling, Scotland. He has, in addition, participated in NEH Seminars on Modern Poetry at NYU and Princeton and has recently served on panels at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. A recent book, Voices of Dogtown: Poems Arising Out of a Ghost Town Landscape (Loom Press, 2019), was listed as a “must read” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and his most recent book The Route (Derby Wharf Light Box, 2021) is a reprint of a poem he wrote 30 years ago. He currently lives with his wife, Christine Xanthakos Scrimgeour, in West Hartford CT.

J.D. Scrimgeour won the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s (AWP) Award for Nonfiction for his second book of nonfiction, Themes for English B: A Professor’s Education In & Out of Class. He is also the author of five poetry collections, the most recent being a book of bilingual poetry, Banana Bread (Nixes Mate Press). He often collaborates with artists in different mediums, havin gwritten the book for the musical, Only Human, pairing with musician Philip Swanson on a CD of poetry and music, Ogunquit & Other Works, and composing word and movement pieces with choreographer Caitlin Corbett. He is Chair of English at Salem State University.

Aidan Scrimgeour is a musician, composer and educator from Salem, MA based in Brooklyn, NY. After spending a couple years in the Contemporary Improvisation Program at New England Conservatory studying piano performance with Ran Blake and Hankus Netsky, he graduated with a B.A. in Performance & Representation from Tufts University. Aidan is the accordionist and songwriter for Pumpkin Bread, a Boston-based new acoustic band, which has been featured on “A Celtic Sojourn” on WGBH and Brian O’Donavan’s backroom series. He was the composer and musical director for the original musical Only Human, which premiered at Ames Hall in Salem. He currently is working on several musical projects in which he hopes to celebrate the beauty of and explore the space in between various forms of traditional music including Jazz, Celtic, Country, and Afro-Cuban.