Exhibitions 2021: CVPA Star Series: Spoken Word

Thursday, February 4th, 6:00 to 8:00 pm

This Thursday, February 4 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, we kick off the CVPA Star Series with Spoken Word, featuring local poets Nick LeBlanc, Sarah Jane Mulvey, Patricia Gomes, Andy Tedesco, and Maia Livramento. The poets will perform in a visually rich setting with mood-specific video that will bring the walls and ceiling of the Star Store's Swain Studio space to life.

Viewable from Purchase and Union Streets, CVPA Star Series offers free outdoor music performances and art experience in Downtown New Bedford. Poetry and spoken word will be the running theme for the first Thursday of each month, followed by a visual arts component during AHA! Nights on the second Thursday each month, live music on third Thursdays, and fourth Thursdays are dedicated to performing arts.

Nick LeBlanc

Nick LeBlanc is a writer, artist, and public-school educator from New Bedford, MA. He is the founder and editor of Domesticated Primate, an independent publishing venture. He is also the President of The Performing Arts Collective’s board. He has just finished his first full-length novel and is in the process of querying and workshopping. You can find him on Instagram @nickdleblanc.

Sarah Jane Mulvey

Sarah Jane Mulvey is a bedroom poet from NBMA. She is overly enthusiastic about her day job in the non-profit arts world, and karaoke. Her poetry is fueled by family, feminism and early 2000’s pop punk. She is a founding member of Anomaly Poetry, and co-host of their monthly Open Mic Night. She also works closely with Domesticated Primate to publish the work of the exceptional and unusual of New Bedford’s creative community. She is currently published in Domesticate Primate’s seasonal anthologies Rituals and Tidings, and is still working up the courage to submit a full collection of poems. Follow along on Instagram @sarahmulvz.

Patricia Gomes

Currently in her second term as Poet Laureate of New Bedford, Massachusetts, Patricia Gomes is the former editor of Adagio Verse Quarterly. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, most recently in Wicked Women, an Anthology of New England Horror Writers, Speculations, Alien Buddha Press, Star*Line, Bay State Echo, and Abyss & Apex. Twice nominated for The Pushcart Prize, Gomes is the author of four chapbooks.

Performing her work extensively throughout the New England area, she also conducts workshops for adults, students, and children. Ms. Gomes is the co-founder of the GNB Writers Block and has been nominated for a 2020 Rhysling Award.

Andrew Tedesco

Andrew Tedesco was born and raised in Brockton, MA and is New Bedford by choice. Drawn to its rich history and as an enriched cultural hub he has cultivated a diverse well-knit community of creatives. With the help of the imaginative Nick LeBlanc and the incredibly talented and whimsical Sarah Mulvey they have founded Anomaly Poetry, a collective that has been going strong bringing live poetry to the community of New Bedford in its pre-Covid days, thanks to the help of Dena Haden and the Co-Creative Center.

Andrew's poetry practice is influenced by his art practice and vice versa. To him, his words are just another vessel upon which he pays the boatman to carry his idea across the river. His poetry is lyrical yet in your face - very much as he is. He is grateful for his colleagues that inspire him often to bring his best self, as steel sharpens steel, and we are forever toiling to raise the tide of all of our ships.

Maia Livramento

Spoken word artist.