California performance poet Kirk Lumpkin to read at Public Library in Norwood Aug. 21
NORWOOD ... Thanks to the serendipity of a trip to Colorado, California performance poet Kirk Lumpkin will be the featured guest at the Lone Cone Library Wednesday, Aug. 21, at 6 pm.
“I’ve performed with Kirk out in Sausalito and in the East Bay,”said Talking Gourds director Art Goodtimes. “He’s a deeply committed environmentalist, musician/lyricist and a rousing good poet.”
Since moving to Mendocino County in 2016, Lumpkin has become a California state-certified naturalist, a singer in the community Emandal Chorale, and a boardmember of the Willits Environmental Center.
Before that, he worked at the Ecology Center in Berkeley for over 20 years and was according to the Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review: “...an important part of the Bay Area (and beyond) poetry scene for years, hosting readings in San Francisco and Berkeley, helping to facilitate the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival [with Poetry Flash and with the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Robert Hass] and hosting open mikes at Burning Man...”
He's published two books of poetry: Co-hearing (Zyga Multimedia, 1983) and In Deep (Zyga Multimedia, 2004). He’s been a member of several Bay Area bands, including DETOUR, Shadow Government, Wild Buds and the Word-Music Continuum. His audio CD Moondog Sessions can be found on Amazon, his videos on YouTube.
He has most recently been published in the anthology Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2018) and in Poem In Your Pocket (Berkeley Public Library).
This free series happens on the third Wednesday of each month. The featured guest will give a 20-30 min. presentation, followed by a short question and answer period after the presentation. Then there’s a passing of the gourd, where community members are encouraged to share stories or poems. For those who like prompts, this month’s is “fire and rain.”
A collaboration of the Lone Cone Library and the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds poetry program, Stories & Poems is free and open to all ages, thanks to the generosity of the library, private donors and Talking Gourds’ Fischer & Cantor poetry contests. For more information, text 970-729-0220 or email Goodtimes at <art@tellurideinstitute.org>. To visit the website: <www.tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds
