Listen! will spotlight Saint Paul Almanac poets Marie Chanté, Arleta Little, Ardie Ann Medina, David Mendez, Michael Kiesow Moore, Loren Niemi, Gabriela Spears-Rico, Mary Turck, Clarence White, and Nerys Zimmerman. Walker|West music instructor and band leader Kevin Washington will lead an ensemble of Walker|West faculty, including Jack Breen, Kavyesh Kaviraj, Ted Olsen, and Solomon Parham, to build a musical soundscape in concert with the poets. The event will be at at the Ordway Concert Hall on Saturday, September 7, 2024, 7:30 pm.
Performer bios:
Thomas R. Smith is a poet, essayist, teacher, and editor living in River Falls, Wisconsin. He’s the author of numerous books, most recently Medicine Year (poetry) and Poetry on the Side of Nature: Writing the Nature Poem as an Act of Survival (prose). He teaches poetry at the Loft Literary Center and posts poems and essays at www.thomasrsmithpoet.com. He is also a passionate songster and performs occasionally with the folk trio Catbird.
Ardie Medina with the Asiginaak Women’s Handdrum Group: Ardie Medina is an Anishinaabe poet and playwright from Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin. She became involved in the Twin Cities writing community soon after moving to the area in 1993. Her poems have been published in various anthologies—Loonfeather Press, Yellow Medicine Review, The Saint Paul Almanac, and two self-published anthologies, Gatherings and In the Company of Others, with fellow poets from the Loft Literary Center’s former Foreword Apprenticeship program. Two of her plays are included in Alexander Street Press’s American Indian Drama Collection. Ardie resides in Northeast Minneapolis with her husband Mike and their two Affenpinchers Chito and Sundae.
Michael Kiesow Moore is the author of the poetry collections What to Pray For and The Song Castle (Nodin Press). His work has appeared in many journals such as International Times, Poetry City, and Water~Stone Review, anthologies like Queer Voices, Among the Leaves: Queer Male Poets on the Midwestern Experience, and The Writer’s Almanac. Michael is the founder of the Birchbark Books Reading Series. When he is not drinking too much coffee, he can be found in Saint Paul dancing with The Braggarts Morris dancers.
Lars Ortiz (cello) began his career as an English teacher in Denver Public Schools. He later became principal cellist of the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis as well as a founding member of Lux String Quartet, where he worked with both Minnesota Public Radio and Schubert Club to promote music education. Although he has performed in both concert halls and coffee shops, he is most happy in his studio teaching budding cellists of all ages.
Diane Jarvenpa is the author of six books of poetry, her most recent Shy Lands published by Blue Light Press. She is a teaching artist with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project MN and the East Side Arts Council. As a singer-songwriter she performs under the name Diane Jarvi.
Join us for the first annual “Night of Light in Darkness” reading as part of Root Words Poetry and Music Series. Joining me will be Ardie Medina, Joshua Davies, and Diane Jarvenpa.
Join me at the Rain Taxi Book Festival where I will sign my books at the Nodin Press table.
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Join us for an afternoon of poetry and music with Thomas R. Smith, Ardie Medina and the Asiginaak Singers, and Michael Kiesow Moore with cellist Lars Krogstad Ortiz.Suggested donation $10, but no one turned away
Reading will be Reading will be LeRoy N. Sorenson, Rosemary Davis, Carla Hagen, and Kate Lynn Hibbard.
Birchbark Books is located at 2115 West 21st Street, Minneapolis, MN 55405. (612) 374-4023