Featured Readers
Wednesday, September 2 ~ Alameda Island Poets on Zoom
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Hosted by: Nanette Deetz and Cathy Dana
Featured readers: Constantina Clark, Judy Hardin Cheung and Torre Holgate-West
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Hosted by: Nanette Deetz and Cathy Dana
Featured readers: Constantina Clark, Judy Hardin Cheung and Torre Holgate-West
Constantina Clark
Constantina Clark is an international award winning poet and the 2017 and 2019 winner of Artists Embassy International Grand Award at San Francisco Annual Dancing Poetry Festival, in addition to receiving multiple global awards from United Poets Laureate International, the William Faulkner Literary Society, and Pirates Alley Faulkner Society, in addition to many others. She holds a PhD in philosophy with her dissertation focusing on the phenomenology of the 20th century Irish poet-philosopher, John O’Donohue. She is a professor and former Dean of Students at Ubiquity University. She is a frequent presenter both nationally and internationally regarding women in the ancient Greco-Roman world. She has an extensive background in education and has served as an English, Communications and Business professor throughout the Midwest, Europe and Asia, including Nepal and Tibet, where she, along with her colleagues, conducted a university pilgrimage with students to Mt. Kailash and the base camp of Mt. Everest. She has been active in humanitarian service in Mongolia and Eastern Europe. She is the creator of a unique mentoring technique, The Mentoring as Mooring System, where mentees are encouraged to embrace life’s challenges, through utilizing the wisdom of select poet philosophers, such as Rainer Maria Rilke, John O’Donohue, and David Whyte, among others, as students explore their individual psyches.
On a personal level, Constantina is also a pioneer in the home education movement, having home educated her nine children. Additionally, she is the owner of Constantina’s Soul, an eclectic clothing design company that specializes in Asian textiles. Constantina is a registered yoga and psychoneuroimmunology instructor and Middle Eastern belly dance instructor. She considers her greatest accomplishment to date is having the privilege of being the birth mother of nine extraordinary human beings. She resides in St. Augustine, Florida on the St. John’s River, where she enjoys river life and ocean waves on the Atlantic.
Constantina Clark is an international award winning poet and the 2017 and 2019 winner of Artists Embassy International Grand Award at San Francisco Annual Dancing Poetry Festival, in addition to receiving multiple global awards from United Poets Laureate International, the William Faulkner Literary Society, and Pirates Alley Faulkner Society, in addition to many others. She holds a PhD in philosophy with her dissertation focusing on the phenomenology of the 20th century Irish poet-philosopher, John O’Donohue. She is a professor and former Dean of Students at Ubiquity University. She is a frequent presenter both nationally and internationally regarding women in the ancient Greco-Roman world. She has an extensive background in education and has served as an English, Communications and Business professor throughout the Midwest, Europe and Asia, including Nepal and Tibet, where she, along with her colleagues, conducted a university pilgrimage with students to Mt. Kailash and the base camp of Mt. Everest. She has been active in humanitarian service in Mongolia and Eastern Europe. She is the creator of a unique mentoring technique, The Mentoring as Mooring System, where mentees are encouraged to embrace life’s challenges, through utilizing the wisdom of select poet philosophers, such as Rainer Maria Rilke, John O’Donohue, and David Whyte, among others, as students explore their individual psyches.
On a personal level, Constantina is also a pioneer in the home education movement, having home educated her nine children. Additionally, she is the owner of Constantina’s Soul, an eclectic clothing design company that specializes in Asian textiles. Constantina is a registered yoga and psychoneuroimmunology instructor and Middle Eastern belly dance instructor. She considers her greatest accomplishment to date is having the privilege of being the birth mother of nine extraordinary human beings. She resides in St. Augustine, Florida on the St. John’s River, where she enjoys river life and ocean waves on the Atlantic.
Judy Hardin Cheung
Judy Hardin Cheung was born and raised in Sonoma County. She is a retired teacher, having taught and been Core (English, Reading, Social Studies) Department Chair in Wayne Aspinall Jr. High in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and teacher for 30 years, including being president of the teachers professional practice group, of Sonoma State Developmental Center, now closed. Judy is also secretary of the Redwood Empire Chinese Association. She was raised in Sebastopol and has lived in Santa Rosa for nearly 50 years.
Judy is currently president of Poets of the Vineyard, vice president of Artists Embassy International, contest chair for the Dancing Poetry Festival, and executive vice president/secretary for United Poets Laureate International. She holds the title of International Poet, Laureate Woman of Letters. Judy is the author of many chapbooks with one, Lotus in the Depth, a study in ekfrasis: the creation of art from a different form of art, available on Amazon. On August 1, 2020, her poetry book, All of Us Are We, became available on Amazon. Judy is also the primary photographer for the current books published on Amazon by Natica Angilly.
Judy Hardin Cheung was born and raised in Sonoma County. She is a retired teacher, having taught and been Core (English, Reading, Social Studies) Department Chair in Wayne Aspinall Jr. High in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and teacher for 30 years, including being president of the teachers professional practice group, of Sonoma State Developmental Center, now closed. Judy is also secretary of the Redwood Empire Chinese Association. She was raised in Sebastopol and has lived in Santa Rosa for nearly 50 years.
Judy is currently president of Poets of the Vineyard, vice president of Artists Embassy International, contest chair for the Dancing Poetry Festival, and executive vice president/secretary for United Poets Laureate International. She holds the title of International Poet, Laureate Woman of Letters. Judy is the author of many chapbooks with one, Lotus in the Depth, a study in ekfrasis: the creation of art from a different form of art, available on Amazon. On August 1, 2020, her poetry book, All of Us Are We, became available on Amazon. Judy is also the primary photographer for the current books published on Amazon by Natica Angilly.
Torre Holgate-West
In the 1990s Torre produced hundreds of what may be called “poems” (better than verse or doggerel). In many readings 2017 to 2019 she succeeded in not repeating any work. Poetic activities in the past two years include being a featured reader in the November 2018 San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival, presenting one poem for each of nine decades she has been writing. In February of 2019 Torre was one of two readers chosen to kick off a new poetry series, replacing monthly “Corners of the Mouth” readings, administered by Kevin Patrick Sullivan and Patti Sullivan.
Because of mobility problems and an interest in “barrier-free architecture,” she decided to write and read only barrier-free poems, which means that listeners or readers were not required to have special knowledge of, for instance, language or mythology. Using a word not currently in use these days, she'll define it before reading. Writing about a mythological being, she'll explain before reading – describing the being and circumstances in the poem. Torre's aim is to have her work fully accessible, but not, one hopes, prosaic.
In the 1990s Torre produced hundreds of what may be called “poems” (better than verse or doggerel). In many readings 2017 to 2019 she succeeded in not repeating any work. Poetic activities in the past two years include being a featured reader in the November 2018 San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival, presenting one poem for each of nine decades she has been writing. In February of 2019 Torre was one of two readers chosen to kick off a new poetry series, replacing monthly “Corners of the Mouth” readings, administered by Kevin Patrick Sullivan and Patti Sullivan.
Because of mobility problems and an interest in “barrier-free architecture,” she decided to write and read only barrier-free poems, which means that listeners or readers were not required to have special knowledge of, for instance, language or mythology. Using a word not currently in use these days, she'll define it before reading. Writing about a mythological being, she'll explain before reading – describing the being and circumstances in the poem. Torre's aim is to have her work fully accessible, but not, one hopes, prosaic.