Support Our Brother Poet Joe Gouveia

Friends,

Splitista Joe Gouveia is fighting the return of cancer and his many friends and supporters on Cape Cod are organizing a benefit to help him through this difficult time. Please consider giving! Joe's phenomenal panel on the rant was a highlight at the 2008 festival. Checks should be made out to the Cultural Center of Cape Cod with "Joe Gouveia" in the memo line. Or you can call in a Credit Card charge. Contact info for the center is below.

Thank you for your generosity!

Anything Goes Coffee House Music, Poetry, Food, and Friends: A Benefit for Cape Poet Joe/Jose Gouveia

On Sunday, October 16, at 7:30 pm, the Cultural Center of Cape Cod will host the Anything Goes Coffee House to raise funds for Joe “JoeGo” Gouveia, who was recently diagnosed with his second bout of cancer only two months after his first cancer went into remission.

A first-generation Portuguese-American who has been published in six countries on four continents, Joe is inextricably woven into the Cape ’s extensive network of poets and literary events, working tirelessly to celebrate the art. Funds raised at the event will help Joe pay his bills while he undergoes chemotherapy.

The event will feature music by the Beach Plums (a terrific local band that happens to include two great poets, Greg Hischak and Kathleen Healy), readings by Cape and mainland poets, food and drink, and a silent auction/raffle. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased at the Cultural Center , 307 Old Main St ., South Yarmouth or by calling 508-394-7100. They may also be purchased at the door. Though refreshments will be provided, attendees are encouraged to bring their own beverages in order to keep costs low and proceeds for Joe high.

“We invite artists and merchants across the Cape to donate items for the silent auction and refreshments for the Coffee House,” says Associate Director Lauren Wolk. “We also urge poets to get in touch if they would like to read during the open mic portions of the event. Short poems, please, so we can fit in lots of readers and accommodate those coming from off-Cape to read in Joe’s honor.”

As a student at Cape Cod Community College , Joe was instrumental in organizing its poetry club in 1995. After graduating from CCCC and UMass Dartmouth, where he was awarded the 1995 Literary Association Prize for Poetry, Gouveia founded the Cape Cod Poets Theater and, in 1997, launched the National Hyannis Poetry Slam Team with other local poets after winning the Sarasota Poetry Theatre prize for oral poetry.

Joe currently writes the Meter Man column about poetry for the Barnstable Patriot, hosts The Poets’ Corner for WOMR, and co-hosts the monthly Poets’ Corner open mic reading at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod. Joe is also a member of the Highway Poets Motorcycle Club, founder of the Biker Poets & Writers Association, and editor of and contributor to the biker poetry anthology Rubber Side Down (Archer Books, 2008). Poet Martín Espada has said of Joe’s work, “Joe Gouveia’s poetry rolls and roars like a Harley into our collective imagination.”

The Cultural Center invites all of Joe’s friends, family, colleagues, and fellow/sister poets to gather on the 16th to support him as he has supported the Cape ’s cultural community. The Center is located at 307 Old Main St. in South Yarmouth .

Those interested in donating items or refreshments for the event should please contact Lauren Wolk at 508-394-7100 or lwolkculturalccc@verizon.net. All donations are tax deductible to the extent that the law allows.

Cultural Center of Cape Cod

307 Old Main St., South Yarmouth, MA 02664

508-394-7100 508-394-7133 (fax)

www.cultural-center.org

Photo: Joe Gouveia at Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2008. Photo by Jill Brazel.