Beatnik Cafe is a monthly poetry series, hosted by Hanna Pachman at the tea cafe, Hey Hey (1555 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026). There are 1-2 featured readers followed by an open mic. The event has been going on since 2018. The next event will be featuring the poets, Bill Ratner and Marc Olmsted on October 23rd at 4 pm. You can find bios below. Please come 10 minutes early if you are interested in signing up for the poetry open mic. You could read for up to 3 minutes.
Bill Ratner is a 2022 Best of the Net Poetry Nominee with poems published in Best Small Fictions 2021 (Sonder Press), To Decorate a Casket (Finishing Line Press-chapbook), Fear of Fish (Alien Buddha Press-full collection), Missouri Review Audio, Chiron Review, Baltimore Review, Feminine Collective, and other journals. Bill is a 9-time winner of The Moth StorySLAM, and earns his living as a voice actor. https://billratner.com/author • twitter & instagram @billratner
Marc Olmsted has appeared in City Lights Journal, New Directions in Prose & Poetry, New York Quarterly, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and a variety of small presses. He is the author of six collections of poetry, including What Use Am I a Hungry Ghost?, which has an introduction by Allen Ginsberg. Olmsted's 25 year relationship with Ginsberg is chronicled in his Beatdom Books memoir Don't Hesitate: Knowing Allen Ginsberg 1972-1997 - Letters and Recollections, available on Amazon.