Eleventh Hour Productions, in association with Richard Hugo House, will present the 2007 Seattle Poetry Festival on April 20-22. The irreverentand playful three-day event - the seventh go-round for this festival -will bring together upwards of 100 poets, musicians, dancers, theater performers and visual artists in daytime and nighttime performances. The festival has been made possible by a grant from Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and a grant under the Civic Partners program by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.
This year's installment boasts an innovation: Poetry Mashup, an open-ing-night party to take place at Pravda Studios, 1406 10th Ave., Suite 200.The all-ages event will feature Abyssinian Creole, a hip-hop collaboration between two Seattle emcees Kingz (FKA Khalil Khrisis) and Gabriel Teodros. Poetry Mashup combines traditional "page poets" with "stage poets," musicians, visual artists, acrobalancers and balloon burlesque (whichEleventh Hour describes as "something you just have to see to under-stand"). Even the catering is a poetry installation. Cocktails will be avail-able to patrons 21 years of age and older.
The festival's daytime events - sited at Richard Hugo House, 163411th Ave., from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day - have been programmed by Jennifer Borges Foster, poet and editor of Filter, a handbound literary journal. In addition to panels and workshops, there will be performances ranging from traditional readings to sets curated by literary journals (from theground up, Cranky and more) and other community programming part-ners such as On the Boards, Jack Straw Writers, Bent: A Writing Instituteand New York's Cave Canem foundation for African American poets.
Headliners include: Heather McHugh, Christine Hume, Mary Jo Bang, Richard Siken, Shannon Borg, Vis-à-Vis Society, Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer, Seattle poet-populist Jourdan Keith, The Suicide Kings,Richard Kenney, G.C. Waldrep, Kelly Fryer-Edwards and Kevin Craft, as well as Cave Canem writers Gloria Burgess, Lauri Conner, Camille Dungy and Adrian Matejka. See a complete list at www.poetryfestival.org.
Each day of the festival is ticketed separately, as are nighttime events.A festival day pass costs $10 for students and seniors, $12 general advance, $15 at the door. Additional tickets are needed for workshops, the mash-up and the Seattle Poetry Slam. Call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.brownpapertickets.com
[[In-content Ad]]
