 |
An Evening of Poetry and Blues
On Tuesday evening, September 30, 2008, the Gardiner Public Library will host an evening of poetry and blues. Three poets will join to read from their work, and the band OMYWERD will entertain with contemporary blues and folk rock tunes.
OMYWERD will open the event beginning at 5:30. They are a seven member, multi-talented group of musicians who normally lend their talents to Grace Community Chapel as a worship team. However, for this particular evening, they will slide into blues, and contemporary and folk rock featuring songs by Huey Lewis, Lyle Lovett and Eva Cassidy, to name a few.
The band members are Brian Perkins (vocals, harmonica, drums); Lorene Larrabee (vocals and percussion); Brenda Grant (vocals); Dan Dodge (drums, bass); Dan Crocker (vocals); Kent Nelson, (bass guitar); and Patrick Shepard (lead guitar). These performers are some of the best musicians and vocalists in Maine. The band will perform off and on throughout the evening of poetry.
The poets reading are Steve Cowperthwaite, Carol-Lynn Rossel and Claire Hersom.
Steve Cowperthwaite’s poetry lends itself beautifully to the Maine landscape, pace and voice, with many of his poems drawing the listener into a time of life gone past. His work is full of humor, imagery, and resounding evidence of rascally human nature. Steve is a native Mainer living a “somewhat Thoreauvian life” by a beautiful lake in the woods, and though Steve feels he is relatively new to Maine’s poetry scene, the elegance of his work belies that sentiment. He loves history, creating ‘interesting’ small buildings, fiddling with old boats, story telling and grandfathering.
Carol Lynn Rossel began writing poetry later in life, while studying for two degrees in jazz and contemporary music at the University of Maine in Augusta. There she specialized in spoken word recording in the audio engineering department, recording poetry as well as song and performance. She strives to create music and rhythm, humor and often, story, in her poetry. And sometimes she writes musical compositions (not just songs) incorporating her lyrics. Her poetry publications include Tea & Symphony published in 2006.
In 1985, Carol-Lynn published a children’s book, My Friend Bear, and is currently working on the design for her new children’s book, New York Lullaby based on the lyrics of one of her songs. She is an accomplished artist who does cover design and layout for books, brochures and other publications. Carol-Lynn grew up in Tottenville, Staten Island and now lives in Winthrop, Maine.
Claire Hersom is a native Mainer who began writing poetry as a child, gave it up for 25 years; then joined a poetry group led by Ted and Ruth Bookey of Readfield that inspired her to pick up the pen once more. Claire has three books of poetry published, the most recent Drowning: A Poetic Memoir, published by Moon Pie Press of Westbrook, Maine. Drowning is a book about the working class poor that chronicles her family’s struggle to get out of poverty. Books will be available for sale at the reading, and also at www.moonpiepress.com . Claire’s essays and poetry appear regularly in Wolf Moon Journal, and her poetry in various other journals. She recently reviewed Aracelis Girmay’s book entitled “Teeth” for California’s Rattle Magazine. Girmay is a nationally known poet who was profiled in 2007 on Bill Moyers Journal.
Please come and join us. The event begins at 5:30 and ends at 7:30. This should be a fun, entertaining evening, so mark it on your calendar. Light refreshments will be available and the event is free.
Please contact the library at 582-3312 FMI.
| |
