The Madtown Poetry Open Mic w/ Amy Elizabeth Gaeta

Art in the cafe...

John Isaac Lyons


"Drawings and Paintings by Isaac Lyons"


November 2025



Isaac Lyons grew up in an artistic family in the woods west of Madison Wisconsin. While surrounded by nature in his youth, Lyons was drawn to the urban aesthetic of trains, street art and Hip Hop culture. As a teenager he spent most of his free time painting graffiti in abandoned buildings, under bridges and on trains. He has also completed many murals around Wisconsin and the midwest. Isaac’s recent works on canvas have moved away from the Postmodern Figurative/Symbolic, as he is now embracing a Neo Abstract Expressionist aesthetic. These paintings, exude raw brush work, and reveal his knack for color and...
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Friday, November 4, 2016
8:00 pm

Amy Gaeta is a Boston local who moved to Madison last year to study in the English PhD program at UW. She’s been writing poetry and reading way too much Frank O'Hara since high school. Her creative work overlaps with the themes of her scholarly interests. She deeply considers the potentials of contemporary art, miscommunication, and embodiment. In both poetry, art, and literature she poses and and attempts to answer this question: “Where do our messages go when the sender is unavailable?” In other words, how to treat meaning that occurs without intent and when we least expect it.

For over ten years Ron hosted poetry readings as well as an open mic at Avol's Bookstore in Madison. His poems have appeared both on-line and in print journals. His manuscript, "The Office of Uncomfortable Admissions," received an honorable mention in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest. Ron serves on the board of The Council for Wisconsin Writers, and sells used and out-of-print books on-line under the name Avol's Books LLC. If you have questions about the open mic, call Ron at 608-255-4730, or email him at avols@chorus.net.