7:00-9:30 pm
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER!
On stage at UNC-Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall 7:00 pm:
Patricia Smith
Recognized as one of the world’s most formidable performers‚ Patricia Smith is four-time national individual champion of the notorious and wildly popular National Poetry Slam. No one else has won the title more than twice. An accomplished and sought-after instructor of poetry‚ performance and creative writing‚ Smith is proud to be a Cave Canem faculty member‚ as well as a former Bruce McEver Chair in Writing at Georgia Tech University. Dazzling is the word that comes to mind:
We’ve lost them all beneath their swaddling clothes.
Cavernous sweats and denims droop with air
and hide our loves inside. They strike the pose‚
craft the swagger‚ these boys everyone knows
are surely doomed. And yet they’re wrapped with care.
We've lost them all beneath those swaddling clothes.
Richard Chess
The great gift of Richard Chess’s poetry is that it reminds us of the earthiness of language—its sounds and shapes‚ the way it bears the marks of history and geography. His work conveys a palpable sense of the landscape of Israel and Palestine and its beauties and horrors‚ both ancient and modern. In Chess’s cosmology‚ language is more than a system of symbols; it’s also sacred‚ supernatural‚ formidable. Chess is a bracing truth to bump up against:
upon Israel
and upon their children and upon all the children
of their children‚ those who disappear
among good people of this earth
and those who thrive
in this place where the Sabbath
table is properly set
and in every place
to them and to you
life.
10:00-12:00 noon
LOUD AND CLEAR: The Art of Speaking and Performing Your Words for Joyful Ears with James Navé and Allegra Huston
The Oral Tradition is the source of all communication. From our first utterance on‚ we’ve been driven to tell our stories out loud. Today this is more true than ever. In this session you’ll learn how the art of the spoken word can teach you how to increase the depth of your work by allowing the power of your voice to lead you to deeper craft‚ clearer vision‚ stronger communication.
12:00 noon-1:30 pm Lunch
1:30-3:30 pm
THE SALON CONVERSATION: Informal Group Discussion facilitated by James Navé and Allegra Huston
In our final Salon Conversation we’ll touch on all the work you’ve done during the week and explore strategies that will keep you excited‚ engaged‚ and on track once you return home. Finally‚ we’ll bounce around some questions about imagination‚ creativity‚ art‚ writing‚ and the crazy business of life in general.
WE’RE OFF TO ASHEVILLE WORDFEST 2008
7:00-9:30 pm
SACRED MOUNTAINS
On stage at UNC-Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall 7:00 pm:
Simon Ortiz
A Native American from New Mexico makes language familiar and accessible. You can grasp it! You can comprehend it! You can understand it!
For over thirty years he’s been a writer‚ teacher‚ and storyteller‚ and he succeeds at what he tries to do:
This America
has been a burden
of steel and mad
death‚
but‚ look now‚
there are flowers
and new grass
and a spring wind
rising
from Sand Creek.
Marijo Moore
Of Cherokee‚ Irish‚ and Dutch ancestry shakes the world with her prose and poetry. Her work stems from her dreams‚ ancestral memories‚ and the many voices of Spirit. Her soul is rich with creativity and when she stands on stage‚ you can hear it sing:
He likes sounds
like trees whispering to each other
like rains gathering to make music
like bells tinkling to remind him how
she likes profound silence
like when the whole world takes a deep breath
and holds it.
Kathryn Stripling Byer
Kathryn Stripling Byer’s five published books of poetry have won numerous awards including the Lamont Poetry Selection for Wildwood Flower‚ The Roanoke-Chowan‚ and Brockman Campbell prizes for Black Shawl. Byer’s new poetry collection‚ entitled Coming to Rest‚ is considered a re-articulation and a culmination of her distinguished career‚ which includes her present position as a North Carolina Poet Laureate. Byer is a 21st century modern who speaks with the wisdom of the ancient hills. Come listen:
“Who are you?” I asked the shade
where her milk bucket rusted to nothing
but rim. I saw‚ half-buried
under the leaf mold‚ a spoon catch the sun.
In her basin
a mirror of water.
10:00-12:00 pm
WE SAID IT; YOU HEARD IT!
Reopening the Green Door at Malaprop's Bookstore 56 Haywood Street downtown Asheville
A Retrospective of the 1990’s Asheville Performance Poetry Scene . . . Featuring: Glenis Redmond‚ James Navé‚ Laura Hope-Gill‚ Allan Wolf who will tell you the real history of the Asheville spoken word movement that thrived in Asheville in the 90’s. Yes there was gossip‚ romance‚ and full body poetry so good it made you weep.
11:00 am-12:00 noon
On stage at Spellbound Books 866 Haywood Road
IMMERSED IN VERSE WITH ALLAN WOLF
A Children's Poetry preformance for the whole family. If you want to see one of the most insightful‚ brilliant‚ and entertaining talents in America‚ then bring your children and be inspired by Allan Wolf‚ poet‚ writer‚ and all around great guy! Allan is author of eight prize winning young adult books.
I visit remarkable‚ marvelous lands
and never leave my chair.
I only have to read a book
to feel as though I’m there.
So hop aboard the Word Express.
It's leaving from the station.
The only ticket needed is
your own imagination.
Whatever are you waiting for?
The adventure starts today.
Just take a book down from the shelf
and . . . you’re on your way.
2:00-3:30 pm
A LOVELY ROMANCE
On stage at The Fine Arts Theater Biltmore Avenue Asheville
Coleman Barks with Eliot Wadopian: Ecstatic Poems and The Soul of Rumi
If you know ecstatic poetry‚ thank Coleman Barks‚ preeminent translator of the 13th-century mystic poet Rumi. This is a rare treat; Coleman Barks is fantastic. And it is April after all‚ the month of love. Here’s a Rumi sample‚ just a drop.
The minute I heard my first love story‚
I started looking for you‚ not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere‚
they're in each other all along.
7:00-9:00 pm
ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL
On stage at UNC-Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall 7:00 pm:
Fatemeh Keshavarz
“Poetry is the magic we perform with language‚” proclaims professor Fatemeh Keshavarz‚ acclaimed Iranian academic‚ writer and literary figure. “It is teaching our minds to enter a world of play in which the parameters are set by our imagination. Where I grew up‚ poets don’t live just in books. They become very influential figures in your life.” She speaks Persian too! Here’s her poem Shiraz:
Held up to gods in the palm of a giant’s hands
A rare handcrafted marble cup brimming with sunshine
Defined at the outer edges with tall Cyprus trees
That line up at dawn reverently
To interpret the horizons in their meticulous green thoughts
My city is that cup of sunshine I can drink to the last drop
And be thirsty for more.
Galway Kinnell‚ Pulitzer Prize Winner
“If you could keep going deeper and deeper‚ you'd finally not be a person . . . you’d be a blade of grass or ultimately perhaps a stone‚” Kinnell has said. It is this search for the essential that marks out Kinnell’s poetic territory: like the bear of one of his most celebrated poems‚ he digs in for the winter. Kinnell is a devout poet‚ honoring the earth and all the creatures‚ including the human ones‚ which share its surface.
Didn’t you like the way the ants help
the peony globes open by eating the glue off?
Weren't you cheered to see the ironworkers
sitting on an I-beam dangling from a cable‚
in a row‚ like starlings‚ eating lunch‚ maybe
baloney on white with fluorescent mustard?
Wasn’t it a revelation to waggle
from the estuary all the way up the river‚
the kill‚ the pirle‚ the run‚ the rent‚ the beck‚
the sike barely trickling‚ to the shock of a spring?
9:30 pm-12:00 midnight
POETIX LOUNGE
On stage at Bobo Gallery 22 Lexington Avenue Asheville
Come to this innovative‚ media-saturated evening and find out the real scoop on the New Asheville Poetry Scene!
1:00 PM
POETRY FLOOD AT THE FLOOD
Host and poet Mark Prudowsky presents Glenis Redmond‚ Sebastian Matthews‚ Laura Hope-Gill‚ at the Flood Gallery Reading‚ a monthly local reading series at the Flood Gallery at 109 Roberts Avenue at the corner of Clingman and Roberts by the river. Lincoln Center Fellow and nationally recognized and adored poet Glenis Redmond shares the mic with We Generous poet Sebastian Matthews, and NCARts Fellow Laura Hope-Gill.
2:00-4:00 pm
THIS HISTORY ISN'T CLOSED!
At The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Lee Ann Brown‚ Cathy Wagner‚ and Devin Johnston&sbquo look back at The Black Mountain College Legacy and forward to what’s next on the steps of the 21st century.
7:00-9:00 pm
WORDFEST 2008 LOCAL
We say local‚ yet every poet listed has a national reputation: David Hopes‚ Lee Ann Brown‚ Thomas Rain Crowe‚ Jeff Davis‚ Gary Copeland Lilley‚ Rose McLarney‚ James Navé‚ Keith Flynn. Join us we close out the first Asheville Wordfest with the poets Asheville calls home.