Buy Poetry Festival Buttons in Salem!

Just 11 days remain until the Massachusetts Poetry Festival throws opens its doors in Salem!  We are so excited to be hosting the festival in Salem this year, and would love to be the festival's permanent home.

Workshops, readings and performances will be held at the Peabody Essex Museum, House of the Seven Gables, Green Land Cafe, Salem Athenaeum, Omen, and Universalist Church.  There will be poetry Trolleys, poetry Trains (via the MBTA Rockport/Newburyport lines, coming up from Boston), a small press fair, bad poetry, GREAT poetry, music, and more.  More than 60 poetic events are scheduled for Saturday, May 14th. If you dig poetry, this is a festival not to be missed. 

You need a button to get in, and once you have a button you have all-access, with exception of some workshops that require registration. Buttons cost $10, $5 for students and seniors, and are available online and in Salem at:

• Roost on Front Street
• Salemdipity on Pickering Wharf
• Salem Witch Museum
• Signatures on the Essex Street Pedestrian Mall 
• The Trolley Depot on the Essex Street Pedestrian Mall 

If you buy your buttons in Salem, it's cash-only.  Visit MassPoetry.org to use your favorite credit or debit card.  Regardless of where or how your buy your button, make sure to register at MassPoetry.org so you don't miss a workshop, class, or session. 

Spring Brunch & Fashion Show at Signatures

Spring must be on its way, because the Signatures Spring Fashion Show is coming up... this Sunday! 

This is a great way to check out the new spring fashions from French Dressing Jeans, Tribal, Duak, Avalin, and all of the lines Signatures carries. 

And there's brunch, too!! 

Doors open at 11:00 AM, Brunch will be served at 12:00 noon, and the fashion show is at 1:00 PM.  Come see real women model great clothes while enjoying a lovely brunch.

Don't forget to enter the raffle for a free pair of French Dressing Jeans! (These are great jeans. If you don't have them, you'll want them.)

Signatures is on the Essex Street Pedestrian Mall at 181 Essex Street.  Call (978) 825-0015 for reservations or information. 

Shopping in Salem

I can't explain how much shopping has improved since I first visited Salem in 1998. Signatures just opened their new space at 181 Essex Street, on the Pedestrian Mall, and it's a great store for women's fashion! Better yet, it completes a really nice block, with Bernard's Jewelery and Pamplemousse (www.pmousse.com - the image to the right is from Pamplemousse). Those of us at the ribbon cutting today were marveling at how much shopping we can do during our lunch hours and on our walks from office to car. There is lots of shopping to be done!

If you need a scheduled excuse to check out Salem's retail, watch the calendar on www.salem.org. for Girl's Night Out with Mayor Kim Driscoll in early March. Salem Main Streets is working with the Mayor's office to organize a night of shopping and treats geared toward the girls. I'll post the date here, too, when it's confirmed.