Sherry Chandler » Readings
A reminder that I will be reading this Friday, Derby Eve & Oaks Day, at the Kentucky Coffeetree Café on Broadway in Frankfort, just adjacent to Poor Richard’s Bookstore.
Music will be provided, as always on Derby Friday, by the Jane Harrod and the Peach Pie Band.
And I know there will be another reader. I’ll let you know as soon as I do.
There’s a $10 cover charge, the proceeds of which are divided among the presenting artists.
Poor Richard’s owner, Richard Taylor, was the finalist for the Kentucky Literary Award in fiction for 2007 for his historical novel Sue Mundy (University Press of Kentucky, 2006).
This post was written by sherry
I’ll be reading at the Derby Eve First Friday event at the Kentucky Coffeetree Café in Frankfort. That’s May 4.
If you haven’t set your full calendar of Derby festivities, I hope you’ll drop by. I fear I read as dramatically as the Poetry Out Loud winners we heard yesterday at the Kentucky Writers Day celebration in Frankfort. And I do promise, cross my heart, not to sing any of my lyrics.
I’ll leave the singing to the Peach Pie Jazz band.
I don’t know yet who my companion reader will be. More details later.
This post was written by sherry
Keep a space clear on your calendar for Kentucky Writer’s Day, which this year is also inauguration day for our new Kentucky Poet Laureate, Jane Gentry. The ceremony is set for 10:00 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, April 24, at the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort.
The event will include readings by past Poets Laureate Richard Taylor, James Baker Hall, Joe Survant and Sena Jeter Naslund.
Recipients of the Kentucky Arts Council’s 2007 Al Smith Individual Artists Fellowship in Literary Arts will be recognized.
And you’ll have a chance to hear Kentucky’s Poetry Out Loud winners, Trimble County High School student Dean Muir and Ohio County High School student Erica Martin. Poetry Out Loud is a National Recitation Contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
The ceremony, followed by a reception on the mezzanine level of the Capitol, is free and open to the public
Much is going on this week and next here in Kentucky in celebration of National Poetry Month. I suggest you keep an eye on The Kentucky Literary Newsletter for a full list of events.
This post was written by sherry
WoodSongs: Celebration of Appalachian Music & Poetry
April 9th 2007
Featuring:
1] PUBLIC OUTCRY is a group of Kentucky musicians featured on the new CD “Songs for the Mountaintop” The group comprises of Jason Howard, Kate Larken, Anne Shelby, George Ella Lyon, Jessie Lynne Kultner, and Silas House. www.www.kftc.org
2] SILAS HOUSE is an award winning author who was born in Whitney County, KY and grew up in a working-class family. House has been published is such places as Newsday, The Oxford American, and is a contributing editor for No Depression. www.silashouse.com
3] THE REEL WORLD STRING BAND is celebrating their 30th year of performing. The band is influenced by traditional and old-time music with a touch of country, swing, blues, and jazz. www.reelworldstringband.com
4] FRANK X. WALKER is a native of Danville, KY and a founding member of the Affriachian Poets. He is the editor of Eclipsing a Nappy New Millennium and the author of three award winning poetry collections. Also, he was the first Kentucky writer to be featured on NPR’s “This I Believe” www.frankxwalker.com
For more information, tickets ($10), station lists, podcasts, and more, visit the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour homepage.
This post was written by sherry
Louise Glück is a small woman. Short and thin. Somehow I had not expected that.
She wore a black long-sleeved top that covered her right shoulder but bared the left shoulder and arm to the top of the bicep. Her collarbone is long and fine. She wore black trousers with a slight bell that covered all but the toe of her tight-fitted black boots. When, occasionally during the reading, she would stretch her left leg out behind her and rest her foot on the toe, the line looked like a snippet of a James Thurber drawing.
She read in an aggressively quiet voice. It forced you to listen hard — even though she was wearing one of those clip-on microphones. She read long poems in her quiet voice. It was almost as though she were challenging the listener. Or spurning (though she was not haughty). The room stayed very quiet.
Questioned about this, she answered, “I do not read loudly.”
“Reading is a terrible brutal constriction of the work,” she said, and she is not comfortable reading. The high flush on her cheeks attested to her truth. “The page can do so much more than can the voice.” Reading a poem aloud adds an element of time, “a chronology,” but on the page a poem is more like a web. “No reader can do for the poem what the page can do.” And again, “I fear accomplishing with my person what the words on the page can do.”
And yet, in her reading, I noticed interconnections between the poems, all from Averno, that I had not noticed when I read them in the book.
Questioned about the darkness of one of her lines, a line that speaks of hope that defies perception, she quipped “And I’m still alive.”
[Added: I suppose I should mention that I saw Louise Glück at the University of Louisville as part of their Axton Reading Series. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to mention this event on the blog. I've been very solipsistic lately.]
This post was written by sherry
The Fifth Annual Harriette Arnow Conference on Appalachian Literature and Culture will be held on April 13-14 in Somerset, Kentucky. Theme for this year is Weeping for the Cumberlands: Environmentalism in Text and Context. Erik Reece will be the keynote speaker. For more information contact Lynn.Crabtree@kctcs.edu.
Evening with Poets, a reading to celebrate the publication of Kudzu, will be held on April 19 in the Stephens Library at Hazard Community and Technical College. Featured poet is Amelia Blossom Pegram.
HCTC’s Spring Writers Conference will be held on April 20. Featured presenters are Amerlia Blossom Pegram, Gurney Norman, Erik Reece, and Edmund August. This conference is free. For more information about either the Kudzu reading or the conference, contact Scott.Lucero@kctcs.edu
This post was written by sherry
FRANKFORT, KY — Dean Muir came out on top after competing against 15 other students from across the Commonwealth at the Kentucky State Finals Poetry Out Loud poetry recitation contest sponsored by the Kentucky Arts Council at Kentucky State University on March 13, 2007. The Kentucky Poetry Out Loud initiative is part of the national competition presented by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation.
Muir’s innovative recitations of “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “Preludes” by T. S. Elliot won him an all expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national finals on April 30th and May 1st in the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University, a $200 cash prize, a trip for his chaperone and $500 to his school library, Trimble County High School, for the purchase of poetry. The national winner will receive $20,000 of the $50,000 in scholarship funds being awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts at the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest.
Erica Martin from Ohio County High School was the state runner-up with her moving recitations of “Revenge” by Leticia Elizabeth Landon and “Broken Promises” by David Kirby. She won a cash prize of $100 and Ohio County High School received $200 for the purchase of poetry for their library.
Muir and Martin have also been invited back to Frankfort to recite their poems and be honored at the Kentucky Writers’ Day Celebration presented by the Kentucky Arts Council on April 24, 2007 in the Capitol Rotunda. Also, Kentucky’s newly appointed Poet Laureate for 2007-2008 will be officially inducted during the celebration.
Judges for the Kentucky State Finals of the National Poetry Out Loud Recitation Contest were Kentucky Poet Laureate Emeritus Richard Taylor; Crystal Wilkinson, writer and Affrilachian Poet and Sarah Gorham, poet and publisher.
This post was written by sherry
Mosaic poet Pam Sexton, in collaboration with Mike Goodlett, is a featured artist in The Shape of Words, the current exhibit at Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery at 300 North Broadway in Lexington.
Installation artists, book artists, poets and painters join for this Morlan Gallery celebration of the written word as art. This exhibition opens Wednesday, March 7 and runs through Friday, April 20, 2007. Lexington Gallery Hop Friday, April 20, 2007, 5-8 p.m.
Celebrate National Poetry Month on Monday, April 9, 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Morlan Gallery with The Shape of Words Poetry Reading with Mitchell Douglas, Nikky Finney, Asha French, Jude McPherson, Frank X Walker, and Hao Wang.
This post was written by sherry
For Immediate Release from the KAC:
FRANKFORT, KY — The Kentucky Arts Council will be hosting the state finals for the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest. On March 13 at 10:00 a.m. EST, 15 high school students from 15 high schools will compete at the Hill Student Center on the campus of Kentucky State University, Frankfort. The winner of this competition will advance to the National Finals in Washington, DC on April 30 and May 1, 2006, where $50,000 in scholarships and school prizes will be awarded.
The competition presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Art and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition.
The winning student from each of the 15 schools in Kentucky that will compete are: Robbie McMath, Beechwood High School; Joe Gunning, Bethlehem High School; Robin M. Owens, Carroll County High School; Jake Holder, Collegiate High School; Brent Morrison, Glasgow High School; Megan Gandy, Hart County High School; Hannah Jacobs, Harvest Christian Academy; Tasia York, Monticello Independent School; Sarah Whisman, Montgomery County High School; Erica Martin, Ohio County High School; Danielle DiMuro, Simon Kenton High School; Traci Stewart, Powell County High School; Dean Muir, Trimble County High School; Emmanuel Nfor, Western Hills High School and Lauren Oberg, Westport TAPP.
Kentucky Poet Laureate Emeritus Richard Taylor, poet Crystal Wilkinson and poet Sarah Gorham will serve as judges. Special guest John H. Hewett Director of Development for the National Endowment for the Arts will also attend the Kentucky Finals and award the state’s finalists.
“Poetry Out Loud has been a wonderful opportunity to engage Kentucky high school students with great poetry and the literary arts,” said Kentucky Arts Council Executive Director Lori Meadows. “The Arts Council is pleased to be a part of this national program.”
For more information, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.
This post was written by sherry
Am I aging myself by using that term? Oh well, I’m old(ish).
I am often told that I read well, and I like to believe that, but I do not read easily. Stagefright has a physical manifestation: sometimes nausea, sometimes shortness-of-breath, pretty much always irritability. (I owe a lot to my long-suffering family.) I am not unique in this, of course. It happens to every performer.
Why am I telling you this? Because reading at the Rud last night was the easiest reading I’ve ever given. There is something so relaxed and welcoming about that room that, the moment I walked in, I felt that I was just one among friends having fun.
And to some extent this was true. Louisville is Green River Writers country, and they were there for JimT and me. I am very, very grateful for that. I love reading to the GRW. They’re my nurturing family.
But much credit is due to Erin Keane and the atmosphere she creates.
I should also throw modesty to the wind and mention the quality of the talent she brings in for the InKY series. To read with excellent writers/readers/singers helps you read your best. Jim Tomlinson is, of course, just the best. Brigid Kaelin is a treat — go hear her if you get the chance. And Eric Mattingly, in his first featured reading, showed himself to be a rising young poet. Look for good things from Eric.
Sherry Chandler, Jim Tomlinson, and Gin Petty at the Rud. Photo by Morgan S. Williams.
Oh yes, I should also mention that service was good and so, my son reports, was the food. (I don’t eat much when I’m reading.) Reasonable prices, too.
This is the only time I’ve been to an InKY reading but I feel sure it’s always like this. And I hope to get back again. Next month, for National Poetry Month, the bill includes Maurice Manning. There’s a link in my sidebar. Keep a watch and go join the fun.
If I seem to be still a little starry-eyed this morning, well, I had a big time, to quote Silas House.
Addendum: Jim announced last night that University of Iowa Press is issuing a second printing of Things Kept, Things Left Behind. Congratulations, Jim!
This post was written by sherry
