Word of Mouth Cincinnati (WoMC), a literary event consisting of both an Open Mic and a Feature Performance, runs the last Tuesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. upstairs at MOTR Pub.
Word of Mouth Cincinnati, which began in January 2014, is co-hosted by fellow writers Jim Palmarini and Mark Flanigan. It was founded in memory of the late Aralee Strange who, after many years living, writing and producing work in the Cincinnati area, moved to Athens, Georgia where she co-founded Athens Word of Mouth.
WoMC is an intentional arc of both past and future utterance, inspired by our most revered voice, with a nod to her Athens, GA compatriots. Word of Mouth asks poets to Show Up, Mouth Off and Pay Attention.
Our feature on February 28, 2017 is Marna Street (Cincinnati, OH).
Marna Street started writing prose pieces and journals in grade school, and as a student at Rocky Ridge Music Center, she wrote for its weekly newspaper. She has been a Progoff journal participant since 1975, the year Jungian analyst Ira Progoff first started the Intensive Journal program. In 1991, she started in Women Writing for (a) Change with Mary Pearce Brosmer, and continued to be part of that community until 2011, writing under the pen name Eve Lavaneh.
In real life, she is the former Principal Violist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1980-2007) and continues to this day to play in the viola section there. A graduate of The Juilliard School and a former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony, she considers herself more of a poet with a bow than with a pen.
She met Mark Flanagan at the Cincinnati Public Library in February 2016, where she was presenting a program in honor of the late Dr. Maya Angelou, with whom she had taken a workshop in 1987. Mark invited her to Mouth Off and she is excited to be part of the Word of Mouth Cincinnati community, and honored to be a feature there.
