By Doug Holder

A poet who has touched the lives of many in Somerville and the entire Greater Boston community will be honored on Sept. 15 at 5 p.m. at the International Community Church in Allston. Poet Jack Powers will celebrate his 70th birthday with a potluck dinner and a reading.

Powers is the founder of Boston’s legendary Stone Soup Poets. Founded in 1971 at the Charles Meeting House on Beacon Hill in Boston, he has lead this venue of readings, activism and publishing for well over 30 years. He was also influential in establishing the Beacon Hill Free School in the 1970s, which encouraged people to teach and participate in educational courses for no charge.

Stone Soup Poets is almost as well known for its publishing history. Powers has published more than 80 titles, including Powers’ personal favorite “Jack of Hearts” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Powers has also published such poets under the Stone Soup imprint as the award-winning Franny Lindsay and the late Black Mountain School poet John Wieners.

Powers has jumpstarted the careers of many well-known poets, including the small press doyenne Lyn Lifshin. Folks like Beat bad boy Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg and Robert Bly have passed through Stone Soup’s poetic portal. Many a poet, including yours truly, read for the first time at a Stone Soup gathering.

Stone Soup Poets has been housed for the last several years at the Out of the Blue Art Gallery in Cambridge. It meets every Monday at 8 p.m. and carries on the proud tradition with the help of poet Chad Parenteau. There is currently a Stone Soup archive at UMass-Boston, that includes tapes and written material.

The well-known Boston street artist and activist Sidewalk Sam, as well as Rev. Lorraine Cleaves Anderson, of the International Community Church, and Margaret Nairn, president of Collaborative Artworks Inc, are organizing the celebration.

The reading and potluck dinner will have music provided by Boston-area poet and singer-songwriter Jennifer Matthews, as well as Powers’ sons.

All friends and acquaintances and anyone who has been touched by Jack in his long literary outreach are invited to come. Bring a poem, a dish for the potluck and a friend!