In conjunction with the Downtown Artwalk event, LA Artcore will invite the public to attend "More Voices" - the second free poetry soirée at Union Center gallery on Thursday, July 9, 6:30 p.m.

Richard Modiano (editor of poetry journal Poetix and board member of the Beyond Baroque in Venice) will introduce Los Angeles poets Melissa Ann Lambert, Rafael F. J. Alvarado, George Kalmar and a special guest. The poets will read their works in the gallery featuring the paintings of Beth Ames Swartz.

Melissa Ann Lambert is a poet and mixed-media artist whose works include traditional media (watercolor, pastel, pen and ink, oil, acrylic) digital or new media, and combinations of both. Upcoming plans are to work three-dimensional with glass. She says, "My art, whether abstract, figurative, or combinations of both, explores dimensional vibrations through the use of line, color, symbolism, and form. Geometry, particle physics, holonomic brain theory, mythology, and Jung's theories of  synchronicity and the collective unconscious all inform my work."  That's as true of her poetry as of her visual art. "I strive to reveal the deeper dimensions and innate spirituality that exist in the here and now of every moment."

Poet Rafael F.J. Alvarado was born in Hollywood in 1965, and has been writing poetry since he was ten. His Granduncle Luis Cardoza Y Aragon was a famous Guatemalan poet who knew people like Pablo Neruda and called them friend. Rafael wishes every day to write as well as his granduncle; his Grandmother Laura Cardoza Muller was also a published poet, and a big influence in his writing.   He is currently writing poems about running marathons; he has run the L.A. & San Francisco marathons, and recently completed the Long Beach Marathon. Rafael believes there's a Zen to running; he writes about what's in the mind of the runner during long runs. He is the producer of the World Wide Radio Network Poetry programs and host of the Moe Green Poetry Hour.

Artist George Kalmar was born in Slovakia but has lived in the US since 1965. He has been writing and publishing poetry since his high-school years in Philadelphia. He studied modern American poetry in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Indiana University in Bloomington and has continued his writing in Los Angeles where he currently resides; although he spends most of his time on his work as a sculptor. "I am a nature poet at heart," says Kalmar. "My favorite poet is Theodore Roethke who along with Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams have opened my eyes to the abstractions of poetry, the need to elevate the singular image, style and language to equal importance with the fluency of meaning."