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1st Tuesday- August 5th: Speaking Jazz w/ Taylor Mesple

Speaking Jazz presents Gil Helmich, Mark Tipton & Jazz Taylor Mesple at the North Star Cafe in Portland on August 5th at 7 PM. Suggested donation $2. Open mic at 7 PM with Gil, Mark & Taylor at 8:30 PM. Poets who wish to read verse with improvised jazz accompaniment are encouraged to bring a printed copy of their work.

Mark Tipton began playing trumpet at age nine. He attended the Interlochen Arts Camp and Academy. At Oberlin Conservator, Mark performed classical, jazz, klezmer, folk, rock, bluegrass, mariachi, and world music He earned his Master's in Music from Mannes College of Music (NYC) in 2005, Mark studied at the Henry Mancini Institute at UCLA , where he performed with such artists as Bobby McFerrin, Quincy Jones, Dave Liebman, and Doc Severinsen. He now divides his time between Portland, Maine, and NYC; active as trumpeter, composer, vocalist, and lyricist/poet.

Taylor Mesple has performed on over 150 CD's via a career of 20 years as a sideman, producer, engineer and recording artist. This career started when Taylor was 13 years old playing the national jazz festival circuit with his father's band Wind Machine. Now Taylor owns and operates The Maple Room in Lewiston, Maine, as well as an upscale recording studio next door, a record label and has his own artist career which has landed him collaborations with many of the world's elite session musicians.

Gil Helmick graduated with Honors and Distinction from the California State University in Sonoma, California in 1976. He avoided graduate school and traveled throughout the United States, Canada , portions of South America and Central America plus various countries in Europe and Asia. His experiences ranged from Park Avenue hotels to Brazilian truck stops, the intimacies of the high jungles to drinking wine with derelicts on the cold winter sidewalks of the Tenderloin in San Francisco. "My beds have been made over marble floored villas and 6 weeks of homeless transient mats."

2nd Tuesday – August 12th: The Second Tuesday Slam & The Highway Poets

The Second Tuesday slam featuring the Highway Poets at the North Star Cafe in Portland on August 12th at 7 PM. Suggested donation $2. Open mic at 7 PM with Poetry Slam starting at 8:30 PM. Features include J Barrett Wolf & Michael Brown. Poets who wish to compete should come with three original pieces.

The Second Tuesday Slam is Portland Maine’s longest running and premier slam venue. Poets are invited to compete for a chance to win a Twinkie, $10, a one year subscription to the Café Review and a $25 gift certificate to Yes Books and a chance to go to the 2008 National Poetry Slam Championship. Audience members are encouraged to cheer, jeer and judge.

3rd Tuesday – August 19th : Open Mic

Poetry Open Mic Night at the North Star Cafe in Portland on Feb. 19th at 7 PM. Join hosts Port Veritas at Portland Maine’s premier poetry open mic series. Suggested donation $2. Signups begin at 7 PM with open reading starting at 7:30 PM.

The evening is open to all poets, musicians, storytellers and comedians who wish to take the stage. The evening consists of two rounds of open mics.

4th Tuesday – August 26th: Featuring Ryk McIntyre

Port Veritas features Boston Slam Poet Ryk McIntyre at the North Star Cafe in Portland on August 26th at 7 PM. Suggested donation $2. Open mic at 7 PM with Ryk McIntyre at 8:30

Ryk McIntyre has been a presence on the Boston Poetry scene since the late 1980's. He is a Co-host at The Cantab Poetry Reading in Cambridge, MA and GotPoetry Live! in Providence, RI. He has toured nationally and in Canada, opening for acts as varied as Leon Redbone Andrei Codrescu and Jim Carroll, and read at venues such as Boston's ICA, New York's New School and Lollapalooza. He was featured at the very first "Legends Of Slam" Showcase at NPS2006. He won the 2004 Cambridge Poetry Award For Humor (Male). He has been published in Short-Fuse-An Anthology Of New Fusion Poets, 100 Poets Against The New World Order, Nth Magazine and The Worcester Review. He is also a regular columnist and contributor for gotpoetry.com.