NAMIOshkosh/Lakefly Spoken Word Night

03/19/2026

Cool! The new guy with another book signing.
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Caramel Crisp Bookstore is excited to welcome author, artist and poet Brandon Thomas on Saturday, March 21st (11 am to 2 pm).

Brandon will do readings at 11:30 and again at 1:30 pm, but you can stop in any time during his visit to talk to him and purchase a signed copy of his book!

03/05/2026

03/05/2026

. NAMIOshkosh/Lakefly Spoken Word Night
Open to the public. First Tuesday of the month

03/05/2026

James was missed. So was his enthusiasm for poetry.
Tom read a short story about a relationship being save through a near tragedy and ice shoves.
G. Anthony read powerful poems (as always). Like a good poem, his first one took a simple interaction with a neighbor and used it to explore our humanity, using a powerful metaphor of scratches on an arm as frustration and how healing can take place. The scars that remain are a sign of identifying a person’s growth (at least that is what this reporter got out of it).
Laura- Her poems always begin and end with the heart of the matter. This reporter also greatly appreciated her metaphor of being friends with someone with a mental illness. it is like going to visit them in their home. Its a fun house of distorted perception, but they cannot see it.
Mary- Her poems, as always, delighted and entertained. Somehow this reporter believes “a bat in the toilet” might be based on a true story. Later she told a story from her book about taking a winding and steep road with her and her husbands cab-over semi. As a fan of BJ and The Bear, this reporter always enjoys stories about semis.
Gary- Shared a poem about his childhood and wanting a BB-gun. In the old days, every boy wanted one. This writer tried to use the analogy of how his words are always the exact right caliber to hit the bullseye of his poem’s subjects. A bad analogy, but accurate in that his poetry uses powerful words and images to get share his view of the world.
DG- Clearing- His poem “The Arsonists” was fire. (Sorry, I had to do it.) DG will be on a busy tour this weekend. Check him out on Facebook (and James Hamilton’s. Here I will save him making a comment 😊- Subscribe for exclusive content.
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Brandon Thomas -New attendee- read from his book of poetry. Hopefully he will be back as people enjoyed his poems. He recently had a book signing at The Book Store and will be at their Block of Books in May!
Sami- Everyone was so thrilled they took the chance to get up and share a few of poems. This reporter wanted to tell her that it is so valuable 1) to herself to put her emotions and troubles into a poem, and 2) to others. Somewhere there is someone with a hole in their heart the size of your words. I believe this. However, as rest of the attendees were, ahem, slightly older than her, we have already the holes in our hearts filled. Perhaps Sami will return and help to fill the hole in this reporter’s head..
Thanks everyone for attending and sharing. Thank you to NAMI Oshkosh for providing such a warm space

03/04/2026

Awesome combo!!!

02/04/2026

Spoken Word February



Gary went political and was dead on with describing “The Dems caved in.” And “they are the new TACO,” He always uses metaphor adeptly, tonight talking about framing things right and creating a new foundation.



Felicia was up next. She announced she is opening a book store in Oshkosh called Author Apothecary & Bookstore. She will be the book seller for the Lakefly Writers Conference. She had a a great poem about melting ICE and a poem about her cat Luna. Poems about pets always connect. It was also good to see Vinnie in attendance.

Emily read for the first time after several years of not doing an event. If you were there, you were touched by her poem. Her words touched us- afraid to lose more… death came anyway…. Children are your heart walking outside your body.



Tim read his entry for the Appleton Sidewalk poetry. His poetry will be a perfect fit.

D.G. read his poem Maggie’s Pond. An epic poem about ice skating. Honestly this reporter missed the analogy of an accident on I.C.E. as he was engrossed in the story, but had a aha moment afterwards on how well the analogy fit.



Laura- Her poetry speaks for those people that need a voice.

Mary- Read some poems about her husband. Great poems and the first one described hospitals very succinctly. Her definition of a doctor- They might see you today.”



Austin read a poem/prayer for Alex Perrti. He showed how poetry is our history. w all need to watch the news, protest, participate in our government, but as poets, we need to record. Austin honored Alex by recording and grieving.



G. Anthony talked about the release of The State of Healing and read a poem he wrote for his interview with James Hamilton on Vers’d. This great show can be heard on WBOM on Saturdays and Tuesdays, and then on James Hamilton’s YouTube channel. When heckled for not having a bookmark promoting homemadeauthor.com (like Felicia’s), he quickly retorted, “I’ll just write it on Felicia’s.

Tom read his poem that described how too many of us believed that the promised America made was only in a frequency white people could hear.

It was simply a great night of great poetry, laughter, and discussions. Thank you Dakota, Ruth and Dixie for coming and listening! Thanks to Austin for coming from the other side of the lake, and Emily for reading after being in the audience. As I said, (and I meant this as a compliment), you fit right in. Come next time, and I will do a better job of adjusting the mic stand!

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02/04/2026

What a wonderful fun night! What a great group of poets!