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WATERSHED Saturday,
September 26,
2009
•
Noon
to
4pm
•
Free For Immediate Release:
September 4, 2009 14th Annual WATERSHED
ENVIRONMENTAL POETRY FESTIVAL National Book Award-winning
poet Robert Hass will
celebrate and present musicians,
artists, and environmentalists at
the 14th Annual WATERSHED
Environmental Poetry Festival at
Martin Luther King Jr. Civic
Center Park, downtown Berkeley,
one block west of Berkeley BART,
Saturday, September 26, noon to 4
p.m., next to the Berkeley
Farmers' Market. At this free day of poetry,
music, performance, and exhibits,
Robert Hass will read
“State
of the
Planet”
and other works from his Pulitzer
Prize-winning book, Time and
Materials: Poems 1997-2005,
and present engaging K-12 student
poets from River of Words,
California Poets in the Schools,
and Poetry Inside Out. Acclaimed
author and California farmer
David Mas Masumoto,
Wisdom of the Last Farmer:
Harvesting Legacies from the
Land; New Mexico poets
Arthur Sze, The Ginkgo
Light, and Carol
Moldaw, The Widening;
poet and novelist Kim
Addonizio, Lucifer at the
Starlight, poems, and
Ordinary Genius: A Guide for
the Poet Within; Joseph
Stroud, Of This World: New
& Selected Poems; poet
and novelist Marilyn Chin,
Rhapsody in Plain Yellow,
poems, and Revenge of the
Mooncake Vixen, novel; and
poet/eco-educator Chris
Olander, Mallard, will
all be presented onstage by
legendary Bay Area poet/emcee
Richard Silberg, an editor
of Poetry Flash. Patricia Bulitt, dancer
and performance artist, will
perform “The
Cloud
Maiden,”
a site specific and interactive
performance with music,
storytelling, and movement. We
Are Nature Open Mic (sign up
at the Festival info booth by
noon) will take place in the
first hour of the Festival.
Environmental Updates from
Kirstin Miller of Ecocity
Builders and Kirk Lumpkin
of The Ecology Center will be
woven into the program. The annual Strawberry Creek
Walk begins the celebration
at 10:00 a.m. just inside
the University of California,
Berkeley campus at Oxford and
Center Streets. Led by
poet-teacher Chis Olander, the
public is invited to join
Watershed's featured readers and
environmentalists for a walk
along Strawberry Creek from the
UC Campus through downtown
Berkeley, tracing the route of
the creek as it tunnels in a
culvert beneath the heart of the
city to the Festival site. The
walk focuses on the project of
"daylighting" the creek.
Throughout the tour, poets will
read from their work and
community activists will discuss
their efforts to restore the
creek. Each year, Watershed Festival
explores the connection between
the literary imagination, our
landscape, natural history, and
sense of environmental urgency.
Many varied styles of poets,
writers, and performers have,
each in their own way, from their
own experiences, addressed
environmental issues and nature
during Watershed's history. In
addition to Watershed's main
stage readings, performances,
Strawberry Creek Walk, the
Festival encourages involvement
in local literary arts and
environmental projects via River
Village, the Festival's exhibit
area for interactive arts,
all-ages nature activities,
literary and grassroots
organizations. In addition, on Friday before
the Festival, Watershed poets
will visit Berkeley High School
to read and discuss poetry and
the environment with students in
their classrooms. The Watershed Environmental
Festival is a collaboration of
Robert Hass, Poetry Flash, The
Ecology Center/Berkeley Farmers'
Market, and Ecocity Builders. The
Watershed Festival emerged from
Robert Hass's national Watershed
initiative during his tenure as
U.S. Poet Laureate, 1995-97,
which explored connections
between the environment and the
American literary
imagination. In case
of rain, the festival will be
moved indoors to the Berkeley
City College Auditorium and
Atrium, 2050 Center Street in
downtown Berkeley. For further details (including
selected biographies and photo
downloads):
www.poetryflash.org FOR CALENDAR
EDITORS WHAT: 14th Annual
WATERSHED ENVIRONMENTAL
POETRY FESTIVAL WHEN: SATURDAY,
SEPTEMBER 26, Noon to
4:00 PM WHERE: Martin Luther
King, Jr. CIVIC CENTER
PARK, Berkeley PLUS: • STRAWBERRY
CREEK WALK, 10:00
AM, Oxford & Center
Streets, UC Berkeley
campus WHO: ROBERT HASS,
Time and Materials:
Poems 1997-2005,
author of sixteen books
including poetry,
essays, translations,
and anthologies, U.S.
Poet Laureate Emeritus,
Pulitzer Prize 2008,
National Book Award
2007, two-time National
Book Critics Circle
Award, MacArthur Fellow,
University of
California, Berkeley
Professo |
