Asheville Wordfest 2010

Sponsors





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ASHEVILLE WORDFEST MAY 7 - MAY 9, 2010

SPONSORED BY THE MOUNTAIN AREA INFORMATION NETWORK



BIOGRAPHIES OF KEY PROJECT PERSONNEL

MAIN Executive Director Wally Bowen is founder and executive director of the Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN), a nonprofit Internet Service Provider and community network based in Asheville, N.C. A journalist and media activist, Bowen also founded Citizens for Media Literacy in 1991 to promote new ways for citizens to gain access to the media. MAIN is one outcome of this work. Most recently, MAIN launched a new low-power FM radio station, WPVM 103.5 FM, the Progressive Voice of the Mountains. In addition to broadcasting in the Asheville, N.C. area, WPVM is also webcast over the Internet via the MAIN homepage. Bowen was also instrumental in establishing public access TV in the Asheville area. MAIN will soon begin webcasting video from Asheville's new public access TV operation.All of MAIN's alternative media activities are funded primarily by revenue from the community network's nonprofit Internet and webhosting services.

Asheville Wordfest Executive Director Laura Hope-Gill holds an MFA in Poetry from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. Her poems, essays, and memoir appear in more than thirty journals, including Xavier Review, Cairn, REAL, North Carolina Literary Review, Cincinatti Review, Hampden-Sydney Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, The Rambler and War, Literature and the Arts. Named a 2008 Fellow of the North Carolina Arts Council for her writings on degenerative hearing loss. Laura was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss in 2001 and is working on a memoir of progressive deafness, as a good thing. Her collection of poems inspired by photographs of the Southern Appalachians, The Soul Tree, is forthcoming from Grateful Steps Press. She has moved to Asheville, North Carolina four times in her life, once as a child and three times as an adult. An early figure in the Asheville performance poetry scene, Laura founded A Café of Our Own, Asheville’s longest running poetry reading, at Malaprops Bookstore/Cafe in 1992 after spending a year apprenticing to the Collec tive Effort Press poets in Melbourne, Australia. Her work with the Collective Effort strongly influenced how she views poetry, as a tool of information and change as well as perso nal expression. Further work within the Warren Wilson MFA Program taught her the value of craft and technique not merely as instruments for writing poetry but for spiritual growth as well as these facilitate a unity between right and left hemispheres of the brain. Poetry is sacred to her, as is her work in using poetry to draw forth community from a world seemingly hell-bent on separateness. The grand-daughter and daughter of prison camp survivors, she views poetry as a means of healing both past and present. Many times, she has found herself in a position to connect worlds as well as aspects within herself--the performance poetry scene with the formalist, the mystical and the mundane, the debutante and the activist. Asheville Wordfest allows her to continue this work by bringing together poets from a diverse geometry of backgrounds and aesthetic and cultural contexts--just to see what happens. In her professional life, she has devoted much of her time to teaching in a variety of environments—adult learning labs on the Olympic Peninsula, prisons, jails, juvenile halls, universities and a private boarding school for boys. She now directs Asheville Wordfest with the great assistance and support of many other Asheville poets and offers guidance in creative writing, alchemy and marketing through her website, thehealingseed.com.

Asheville Wordfest Co-Founder Glenis Redmond is poet, educator, performer , and counselor rolled into one passionate soul. She presents her poetry in performances that cause the printed word to spring from the page and dance, sing, weep, and laugh. Glenis tells stories with poetry - from her life, her family, her African-American heritage, and her sensitive observations of the world around her - inspiring audiences of all ages. In her workshops and performances, she encourages participants to know themselves and their origin, thereby finding their own inspiration and their own stories. Glenis began writing poetry at the age of 12. She worked for seven years as a family counselor. While enrolled in a Doctoral program in psychology, she rediscovered her love for poetry. Pregnancy with twins and a serious illness helped her find the strength to follow her heart and dedicate her life to poetry.Glenis has won numerous awards including The Carrie McCray Literary Award in Poetry, a study fellowship from Vermont Writing Center, study scholarships to the Atlantic Center for the Arts and a week of study with Natalie Goldberg. Glenis is the 1997 and the 1998 Southeast Regional Individual Poetry Slam Champion. She placed in the Top 10 in 1996 and 1997 for the National Individual Slam Championship. Glenis has recently released her second CD ,"Monumental". Like her new performance "Monumental: Soaring On the Wings of Love", Glenis performs original poetry written in tribute to those who lift us up: mothers and grandmothers, sisters and brothers, and those in the world who dare to write, to speak, to dance, to sing for us all. Glenis' full-length book of poetry Backbone is published by Underground Epics. She has released a video of performance poetry, "Mama's Magic", and an audio tape of poetry entitled "Coming Forth". Her most recent collection is Under the Sun from Main Street Rags. Glenis performs throughout the United States, England, and Italy. She shares her poetry in performances, residencies and workshops with audiences as varied as schools, juvenile detention centers, universities, coffeehouses, performing arts centers, and educational television. She is currently enrolled in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.www.glenisredmond.com

 


Donate and Sponsor a Poet

Sponsor individual Poets with a quick $25 contribution by visiting http://brwm.org/ashevillewordfest/

Make a contribution towards Festival Expenses (supplies, publicity, space rental, website, etc.)
in lump sum format using the PayPal secure server by clicking below:

PayPal Donate


If you prefer to mail your tax-deductible donation,
please make your check payable to Asheville Wordfest/ MAIN and send to:

Asheville Wordfest
c/o Laura Hope-Gill
101 Christ School Road
Arden, NC 28704


This project is made possible in part by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.