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This is my blog on the arts scene of Carrboro, Chapel Hill and surrounding Triangle communities. I'll focus on visual arts and the 2ndFriday Artwalk and other visual art events but that doesn't mean I won't chat about music, literary events, film or anything else in the local creative world. Please email with ideas, links, comments or brickbats. [I have comment moderation on so if you don't see your comment right away that means that I haven't had a chance to approve it yet. Sorry, but the spammers.....]

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Poets reading at Carrboro Day, May 1st Town Hall

The following announcement from the Town of Carrboro Poet Laureate, Jay Bryan:

 CARRBORO DAY TO FEATURE DISTINGUISHED LOCAL POETS

Continuing a tradition that began in 1995, the Carrboro Day celebration on Sunday, May 1st, will feature several distinguished local poets.
The poetry readings will begin at 2:30 p.m.  in the Town Hall Board Room and last until about 4:00.



It is hoped that this year's poetry reading will include some of Carrboro's youngest notable poets, winners of the Carrboro Youth Poetry Contest. During the poetry session, the young poets will be invited to read. The winning poems will be published in an upcoming edition of The Carrboro Citizen and the West Ends Poets Newsletter.
Other poets reading include the following:

Grey Brown is the author of Staying In, winner of the Harper Prints Poetry Chapbook award, and Whey They Tell Me from Finishing Line Press, poems narrating her experience parenting a child on the autism spectrum.   Her first full length collection of poetry, What It Takes, has been published with Turning Point Press in 2010.   She is the recipient of a 2009 Emerging Artist Grant from the Durham Arts Council.   Grey is the founder and former director of the Literary Arts Program of the Health Arts Network at Duke and currently serves  as a Family Support Network provider on the intensive care nursery at Duke Medical Center.  She lives in Carrboro with her two daughters and two dogs.

Jay Bryan, Carrboro’s current poet laureate, is a lawyer who works with families and children.  He lives with his wife on a farm where they enjoy their five children,  six grandchildren,  two dogs,  one cats, four horses and a cockatiel.   He has published a variety of poems and a book,  “Haiku for Carroll”.

Leah Dunham received her MFA from the University of California, Irvine and attended UNC-Chapel Hill, where she was a recipient of the Blanche Armfield Prize for Poetry. Her work appears in storySouthCimarron ReviewBlackbird, and The Greensboro Review, and is featured in a collaborative art exhibition appearing in Los Angeles and New York in 2011. 

Jean Earnhardt, a haiku writer, has sponsored a Haiku Weekend the last Saturday in April at her beloved farm for 32 years. She is a longtime resident of Orange County and traces her lineage from Thomas Lloyd, a prominent man in county politics before the Revolutionary War. He was the largest landowner in
Orange County and lived at The Meadows, a few miles north of Carrboro.

Ricky Garni is a graphic designer and father of two, and he lives in Carrboro, NC. His work has been published most recently in EVERYGREEN REVIEW, EVERYDAY GENIUS, ZOUCH, THE LEVELER and DINOSAUR BEES, and he has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize on four occasions. Find his books at: www.tinyurl.com/rickygarni, his blogs at: www.tortillaexmachina.com, and him at: the Saxapahaw General Store, where the grilled sandwiches are light and airy.

Maura High has lived in Carrboro for 20 years, and many of her poems take local scenes and occurrences as their starting point. Her work has been published in various print and online media, and, as a member of the Black Socks Poets, she has contributed to chapbooks and readings in the area. As a volunteer, she also helps coordinate and train Nature Conservancy crews working on controlled burns in North Carolina.

Tyler Johnson is a writer, musician and engineer living in Carrboro, North Carolina. He was raised near Scotchtown in Virginia, in a log cabin built by his father. His work explores a future bristling with technology, but he has been unable to escape the earthy humours of the rural Southern Piedmont. When not designing electronic communication systems, Tyler can be caught stealing away to a local barn dance to play Irish jigs and reels on the tenor banjo.

Susan Spalt’s poem, Carrboro Rocks,   has been made into a song by Billy Sugarfix (with Catherine Devine's help and to be seen at http://billysugarfix.com/)
which will be the song of Carrboro Day.  Retired several years ago from a career with the local school system, Susan’s poetic claim to fame was writing the school district’s lice policy in rhymed couplets.  She has been married to Allen Spalt for many years and has two grown children and one perpetually adolescent Irish Setter.  She is a member of the North Carolina Poetry Society and won honorable mention for the 2008 Joanne Catherine Scott Award for Poems in Traditional Forms. 

William Stott has resided in Carrboro for over eighteen years. He serves on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Institute for the Environment. His scholarship has focused on American nature writing and “ecocriticism”; a grant from NC Sea Grant initiated ongoing ethnographic research in NC commercial fishing communities.  He has published several poems, in Petroglyph, Wild Mountain Times, and, most notably, the Weaver Street Market Newsletter. His first volume of poetry, “Loomings,” will be published in the spring by Horse & Buggy Press in Durham.  He teaches courses in Nature Writing and various topics in Literature and Environment, including representation of wetlands landscapes, the literature of place, and the representation of commercial fishing in folklore, literature, and contemporary science. He has received three teaching awards at Chapel Hill, including the Tanner Award. Dr. Stott’s hobbies include bird watching, amateur botanizing, camping, and taking long walks on barrier islands and ancient mountains.

For more information:

Jay Bryan,   Poetry Reading organizer

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