Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival

Description

Readings by renowned poets, writers, and activists with jazz music, K-12 student poets, environmental updates and We are Nature Open Mic all onstage in front of the beautiful Watershed banners created by the late Bolinas artist Arthur Okamura.

River Village exhibit area and a Creek Poem installation will transform the park. The Berkeley Farmers' Market will be in full swing as the main stage presentations begin. Paintings/Shade structures by Los Angeles artist Claire Baker. Wheelchair accessible.

Readings by:

* Robert Hass, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning poet
* Al Young, California Poet Laureate Emeritus
* Brenda Hillman, Practical Water, poems, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winner
* Julia Whitty, environmental and short story writer, documentary filmmaker, O. Henry Award-winner, Kiriyama Prize and PEN USA Award-winner, environmental correspondent for Mother Jones writing on the BP spill
* John Felsteiner, poet, translator, and editor, Can Poetry Save the Earth? A Field Guide to Nature Poems
* Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-And a Vision for Change, host of the Internet film sensation "The Story of Stuff"
* Barry Finnerty's Jazz Roots Trio
* Student Poets K-12 from California Poets in the Schools, River of Words International Poetry & Art Contest, and Poetry Inside Out
Full line-up of poets and performers can be viewed at http://poetryflash.org/WS10.html

The annual Strawberry Creek Walk begins at 10 a.m., October 2, on the UC Berkeley campus at Oxford and Center Streets. All are invited to join poets and environmentalists, led by eco-performance poet Chris Olander and Ecocity's Kirstin Miller, for a walk along Strawberry Creek from the UC Campus through downtown Berkeley, tracing the route of the creek as it tunnels beneath the city to the site of the festival. Along the way, there will be readings and updates on "daylighting" and restoring the Creek.

Strawberry Creek Walk Presenters:
Dale Pendell, ethnobotanist and poet, with poet Laura Pendell, Nakia Dillard, poet and youth food justice activist for Farm Fresh Choice Barbara Jane Reyes, Diwata, poems, Tim Pine, Environmental, Health & Safety Specialist, UC Berkeley

Watershed Festival activities include: Thursday, September 30, 7:30, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Julia Whitty, and Camille Dungy will participate in a Watershed panel to discuss poetry, writing, and the realities of energizing the environmental movement with art, at Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley.

More Info

Link

http://poetryflash.org/WS10.html

Call

510-526-9105

Email

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