october 2018 reflections & thanks after the fourth annual memorial open mic for frank kelso wolfe.

x-posted from the facebook page for frank kelso wolfe from october 2018, as an update after the fourth annual memoral open mic for our favorite poet-artist-comedian-greatfriend.

thank you to everyone who was a part of the fourth annual memorial open mic for frank wolfe, including emily neblock for hosting. since i couldn't be there, i'd love to hear your favorite parts, any special moments or words that stood out to you, etc. what did you enjoy most about it? — poetry with jennifer hetrick. 

& we donated my favorite-ever painting by frank to steel city coffeehouse, as some of you know; it was hard to give up the canvas, but i knew its vacuum and poultry persuasion needed to be in frank's favorite coffee shop instead of my home; emily called me to clear it with me that night. i am so glad it was voted as the one to offer as a permanent wall piece. 

thursday, october 4, 2018: the fourth annual memorial open mic for frank kelso wolfe at steel city coffeehouse in phoenixville.

(an email-turned-blog-post)

here is news about the upcoming fourth annual memorial open mic for frank kelso wolfe.

the event will be thursday, october 4, 2018 at steel city coffeehouse in phoenixville. sign-ups start at 6.30 pm, and the event starts at 7 pm. 

please share the facebook event link, too > www.facebook.com/events/1165126183625606

musician and lyricist emily neblock kindly agreed to host in case jrh is not available due to surgery recovery. jrh will be doing promotional work for this from home.

remember that this event is during a regularly scheduled open mic but that we've thankfully received permission to not charge open mic fees; as we've done in the past, we just ask that those who donate do so as a means to help steel city coffeehouse's owners cover the fees of the sound technician's time for making the night possible onstage. this way, anyone who can't afford to offer much money can still attend. many of us know what it's like to scrape by, and we don't want anyone to be discouraged from showing up to be a part of the event.

those who knew frank as well as those who didn't are invited to attend and participate or be in the audience. or both! we welcome stories and reflections about frank in what you appreciate about him and what you still learn from him, reading of poems and essays, telling of jokes and comedy, performing of songs, talks about his art and any art which is meaningful to you, etc. this can by by frank, you, or anyone else. feel free to bring art of his to display, too.

and we also hope to donate a copy of a painting by frank to hang up at steel city coffeehouse on this night, as per a conversation jrh had with the owners last year since they'd like to feature one of his pieces permanently. jrh is having trouble giving up some of what she does have and feels like others are good in their own right but maybe not the most fitting pieces to offer for what ought to represent frank's art there; we would like to have the best choice feel like the right fit, vibe, and set of colors. so if anyone has any paintings to potentially offer, please let us know in case it helps us to have more options to consider.

we'll also write and burn "the pain words" of our own recent struggles to put into a small fire at the end. last year, one fellow sang "bridge over troubled water" by simon & garfunkel at the end of the night on the sidewalk. it was one of the single-most beautiful moments to us. frank mentioned this song as being very meaningful to him in the weeks before he passed away. so it always reminds me of him and so much more, within.

please RSVP if you can attend so we can plan ahead adequately aside from the unfamiliar open mic participants; feel free to share this post onward to anyone who may want to attend the open mic.

reach out via the facebook event for this or email poetrywithjenniferhetrick at yahoo dot com.

a butterfly solar light for frank wolfe's grave at fernwood cemetery.

back in 2014, i bought a solar butterfly light to put in the ground at frank's grave at fernwood cemetery in royersford. i had it in the trunk of my car all of the time and kept meaning to get to the cemetery, yet being too busy to live across many jobs and the rest of life meant my goal didn't happen as planned. 

but a few months ago, i finally took the light out of my car and set it up to test it out, hoping to get to the cemetery soon afterward. i found out right away, in the dark of autumn and winter, that the light is so comforting and lifts my energy upward on hard days. it automatically knocks my stress down a good bit when i see it. and i realize this is because it reminds me of frank and that life shouldn't be as hard as it often feels, it's beautiful, it's inspiring, and it reminds me of my mom, too, who died when i was 20 and absolutely loved butterflies.

a few months before we lost frank in the physically typical sense, he told me he wanted to paint a picture of my mom. he knew i missed her very much and that she was the only parent i ever had. i gave him a copy of the photograph of her below as a little girl, which means the world to me, and i find it so beautiful. soon afterward, frank translated it into a painted form, which you can see below the photograph.

frank also said that he felt curiously connected to my mom as he painted her, in some unique, different kind of way, and he never met her because she died before i met him. i also never heard him comment anything like this with other portraits and people. 

it is said that butterflies carry messages to the other side. i've always felt that frank and my mom are more connected now in a way they couldn't be as much in our more dense realm. and the tie-in of butterflies here helps my heart. i hope the butterfly solar light eye-scene does the same for you as you read these words. i do plan to finally take it to the cemetery, but i'm also considering buying another one and keeping the original in my yard because of  the comforting, good feelings it stirs when i glimpse it at night, especially in the cold of winter, when it's surprisingly still full of energy to be lit even as we hardly have much sun across these weeks.

videos from the third annual memorial open mic for frank wolfe—october 5, 2017.

here are some video clips from the the third annual memorial open mic for frank wolfe at steel city coffee house in phoenixville back in october 2017. thank you to everyone who attended, contributed, appreciated it from the audience, and helped to make the event something frank would love and be so grateful for across all of its minutes on a thursday night.

and here is a video of the pain words and the fire we do each year at the end of the night.