Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

(50) stories found containing 'Skagit River Poetry Festival'


Sorted by date  Results 26 - 50 of 50

Page Up

  • Poetry and music sounded Sunday in Pioneer Park

    Anne Basye|Jul 27, 2022

    Could there be a more beautiful spot for poets and poetry than the sylvan glade of Pioneer Park? Georgia Johnson doesn’t think so. “For 37 years I’ve driven across the bridge and past the park thinking, ‘we’ve got to get poetry happening here,’” she told listeners from the bandstand at the free “Make Me Wanna Holler” celebration sponsored by the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. “And now it’s happening!” About 100 people of all ages enjoyed live music, live poetry and lunch in the park on Su...

  • La Conner writers win, place and show in ‘Magic Skagit’ contest

    Anne Basye|Jun 9, 2021

    Most of the poems 4-year-old Lenore Micka-Foos dictates to her dad find homes with her admiring relatives. The first-place poem she wrote for the Great Hunt for Magic Skagit Stories will find a home in print. Lenore’s “The Great Skagit List” was one of 61 entries in the Skagit Historical Museum’s debut writing contest. Youth, teen and adult winners in the poetry and essay categories were announced last Friday during a Facebook Live broadcast from the Museum. “A big part of this contest w...

  • Library celebrates national poetry month

    Jared Fair|Mar 24, 2021

    Every April, organizations across America celebrate National Poetry Month. It is a great opportunity to focus on this genre of literature. One of poetry’s great contributions is that it works to expand everyday words to hold more nuance, emotion and meaning. It helps us to share our deepest feelings and connect with others in our sadness and joy. Poetry contributes to shared understanding and helps us communicate with those around us in ways that can be difficult, especially in a time of social distancing, remote learning and canceled c...

  • Skagit River Poetry Festival postponed

    Anne Basye|Sep 23, 2020

    If you’re looking for poets next weekend, don’t come to Maple Hall. Or the Methodist Church. Or the Seafood and Prime Rib House. Or the Tavern. Or the La Conner Country Inn. Or any of the usual haunts that would ordinarily be teeming with poets and poetry lovers. With the Skagit River Poetry Festival postponed for at least a year, the only place you will find poets is in school. Online, of course. When schools closed unexpectedly last March, the Skagit River Poetry Foundation’s Poets in the S...

  • Rotary Club of La Conner turns 75

    Adam McGarity|Aug 19, 2020

    The Rotary Club was originally founded in Chicago in 1905 by Paul Harris “so professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships.” The club grew quickly, spread over six continents in the first 16 years, and later adopted humanitarian service as part of its mission. The motto of Rotary International is “Service Above Self,” a spirit that guides Rotarians in facing down hard challenges such as the eradication of polio and alleviation of poverty...

  • 10th Biennial Poetry Festival a hit

    Judy Booth|May 23, 2018

    La Conner, flooded with poets and students from eight area school districts, hosted the 10th Biennial Skagit Valley Poetry Festival last weekend. The Poets Table Soiree kicked off the event Thursday night at Maple Hall with appetizers, wine and dinner. Random Acts of Food catered it. Hot Damn Scandal broke into song at the elementary school gym – musical poetry – singing their “outlaw ballads, dirty jazz, circus freak outs, shanty-rags, string band funk, lonesome heart-breakers a...

  • School District names and dedicates 'Bruce Performing Arts Center'

    Ken Stern|May 23, 2018

    Tim Bruce was back on the La Conner School District campus last Wednesday. Some 50 friends, colleagues and past school board members came to cheer and applaud as School Board President Kate Szurek announced, “it is with great appreciation that we chose to name this building the Bruce Performing Arts Center – in honor of you, your work, and all you have left to us.” Bruce had been superintendent of the school district for 26 years, from 1990 to 2015. He supported and led efforts for a great expansion of drama and theatre. Szurek rec...

  • Musings -- on the editor's mind

    Ken Stern|May 23, 2018

    The Skagit River Poetry Festival was nigh, and so the volunteers came, fluttering in, silently, unsung, no trumpets, just a steady trudging from one venue to another. They planted signs of poetry, literally, and an occasional feather left in a room, randomly. It was a different spring migration, this one biennially, with a flock of odd ducks, not in any birder’s book, attracting a different breed of tourists. Poems started popping up, opening like mid-spring flowers, around town last Wednesday, as volunteers started digging into their tasks. T...

  • Irish poet a twofer: Festival reader and teacher

    Anna Ferdinand|May 16, 2018

    Irish poet Tony Curtis has a sort of magic. When he walks into a classroom, he enthralls the most skeptical English students with a world where words, music and humor make the most ardent of non-book lovers forget the bell. “I find students the most fascinating audience,” said Curtis, who will travel to ten schools in his two-week visit, punctuated by the Skagit River Poetry Festival which begins Thursday and will be held in venues throughout La Conner over the weekend. “If they can understand it, there’s hope for the adults.” One of his many...

  • Musings - on the editor's mind

    Ken Stern|May 9, 2018

    The second annual La Conner guitar festival starts Friday. Producers Shirley Makela and husband Brent McElroy over 1,300 guitar and music enthusiasts to fill the Town’s halls for workshops and concerts and restaurant spaces for cabarets. Lodging spaces will be full. They are up from 1,000 last year. Congratulations guitar enthusiasts. Way to go, Shirley and Brent. We are two weeks out from the 10th biennial Skagit River Poetry Festival. Like the guitar festival, it brings enthusiasts from around the country to La Conner. Similarly, it has a h...

  • Making La Conner's future great again

    Ken Stern|May 9, 2018

    Mayor Ramon Hayes is hoping for more festivals in La Conner. This month his dream is fulfilled: we end this week with a second annual guitar festival and the next week with the 10th biennial Skagit River Poetry Festival. Maybe Mayor Hayes wishes for two festivals every off-season month. That is one good, solid view of the future. Tim Bruce’s vision of poetry in the schools and a festival for all of us has been realized. Nothing is more primal to humans than music. Our first songs came from poetry. More art in all of our lives more of the t...

  • Young poets raise their voices

    Addi Garner, Jade Carter and Sherry Chavers|May 9, 2018

    Poets see the world with “new eyes”. They make the ordinary extraordinary by paying attention to the particulars, noting the specifics of a feeling or experience and building images that connect and communicate by expressing our common humanity. Jade Carter and Adrianna Garner are poets, and students, at Anacortes High School. They interviewed one another, reflecting on poetry in their lives. What does poetry mean to you? Addi: Poetry is a way to express what the world is to you right now. It’s a way of distilling all this input that you come...

  • Artists bring color to Poetry Festival

    Molly McNulty|May 2, 2018

    Meet Skagit River Poetry Festival artists Alfred Currie and Anne Schreivogl, who created the Festival poster and cover for this year’s student anthology, respectively. Lifelong artist Alfred Currier spent his formative years in southern Ohio. He received his formal education at Columbus College of Art and Design and the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he earned his degree in fine art. He is an artist member of the prestigious Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art in Chicago. C...

  • Poetry changes lives in La Conner's schools

    Steven Dolmatz|Apr 25, 2018

    Poets have been frequent faces in the LaConner schools during the 2017-2018 school year thanks to the school district’s partnership with the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. Poets are in classrooms during one-week residencies in all three district schools, providing students with professional mentoring and important opportunities for self-expression and exposure to diverse voices. Terri Bakke-Schultz, coordinator for the Skagit River Poetry Foundation, says that she has “seen firsthand how empowering poetry can be for students. What an imp...

  • Poetry month morphs into Poetry Festival

    Ken Stern|Apr 25, 2018

    National Poetry month ends Monday. In La Conner, lucky us: consider it spring training, the warm up for the Skagit River Poetry Festival arriving in three weeks, starting May 17. Full disclosure and transparency: I am on this Poetry Foundation’s board of directors. A poetry festival in La Conner. Actually, the 10th biennial Skagit River Poetry Festival. Starting in 2000, hardworking English teachers (primarily, with many other dedicated volunteers) have insisted upon bringing the nation’s and the region’s best poets to La Conner to read, discu...

  • The Varied Carols of Poetry Month

    Tod Marshall|Apr 25, 2018

    Poetry is a vital part of many communities in our state, and the art draws diverse audiences to the power of words, the power of expression and the power of introspection. I am confident in this claim because I attended or participated in over hundreds of gatherings involving poetry – open mics, magazine launches, school celebrations of spoken word (to name only a few). The Skagit River Poetry Festival is, of course, a glorious example of this enthusiasm for the art in Washington – probably our highest profile gathering of poets fro...

  • Who am I? Poetry and art with a local connection

    Sherry Chavers|Apr 18, 2018

    A child huddles over a paper, pencil in mouth, brow furrowed in concentration. Another child, half a world away, glides his pen rapidly, eager to jot down the thoughts, feelings and images that comprise his life. A youth quietly cries as she records a painful memory held deep inside. Another shouts with joy, excited to let the world know just who he is. This is the Self-Portrait Project, made possible through a collaboration of the Museum of Northwest Art, the Skagit River Poetry Project and...

  • Plan to attend 10th Skagit River Poetry Festival

    Ken Stern|Apr 11, 2018

    It is time to buy your tickets for the 10th Biennial Skagit River Poetry Festival, May 17-20, in La Conner. The celebrated four-day event, with performances, readings, workshops and discussions, features some of the most renowned and diverse names in poetry, including Robert Pinsky, three-time U.S. Poet Laureate, and award-winning poet Ellen Bass. Her most recent book is “Like a Beggar.” The festival opens Thursday with the Poets Table Soiree, a mixer that includes wine, delicious locally sourced hors d’oeuvres and a chance for attendees to me...

  • Poetry reading a harbinger of spring

    Ken Stern|Nov 16, 2017

    Having the WA 129 poetry reading on your schedule is a good idea. It is not every day that a town of 900 and a zip code consisting of all of 4,000 people gets a group of noteworthy poets to visit, much less gather for a reading. Go. We just celebrated Art’s Alive. Come May, we need to go all out for the Skagit River Poetry Festival. No exaggeration: it is a world class event (full disclosure: I am on the board of the Foundation). For Saturday, brace yourselves. Be brave. I make attempts at writing poetry and I find listening to poetry d...

  • Poets echo life across generations

    Judy Booth|May 25, 2016

    Maureen Harlan, who was a counselor at La Conner High School, instituted the first organized student exchange between La Conner and Denmark 30 years ago. We scooted our students to Denmark while a dozen kids from Denmark invaded our somewhat prudish, to them, town of La Conner, bringing with them European values and spunky kidishness to open our horizons. While he was in Denmark, La Conner 10th-grader Abe McDonald’s mother, Joreen, died. Abe returned to La Conner for her funeral and then went r...

  • Seeking redemption through poetry

    Anna Ferdinand|May 18, 2016

    It's 8:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Monroe Correctional Complex, one of Washington state’s largest prisons. Men in khaki pants and white t-shirts at the front of a large visiting space with white walls and a painted mural wait to begin a performance of their own written work. More men wearing khaki and white with green name badges take seats on folding chairs for the first of two showings for the day at the Twin River Unit. A handful of visitors, who have passed through tight security, also take t...

  • Literary event books a sell-out crowd

    Alexander Kramer|Nov 19, 2014

    An author, a poet, an actor, and a director walk into a fundraiser. No, it’s not the setup to a joke, but rather the beginning of a sold-out event by the La Conner Library Foundation. After selling more than 100 tickets for the “Why Books Matter” fundraiser Thursday, November 13, the Foundation collected more than $23,000 through sponsorships, in-kind donations, and $150 tickets. The list of characters mentioned were none other than local author Tom Robbins, the first Poet Laureate of Washi...

  • Poetry festival - Sublime and a little naughty

    May 21, 2014

    Two of literature’s wittiest voices took the stage in La Conner last Thursday for the opening of the Skagit River Poetry Festival. When asked what inspired him to write, author Tom Robbins launched into what he’d have you believe is his personal story. Voice as deadpan as Garrison Keillor on the “Prairie Home Companion,” the author of “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” claimed it all started when he opened the door of a cheap hotel room at midnight to a dwarf, who handed him a box of manuscripts...

  • Poetry festival this weekend

    May 14, 2014

    The Skagit River Poetry Festival kicks off tomorrow, Thursday, with a fundraising dinner followed by a literary show with Tom Robbins and Sherman Alexie. Dinner is at Maple Hall in La Conner from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and will feature local cuisine with poets seated at every table. Tickets are $100. After dinner, from 8 to 10 p.m., author Tom Robbins and poet Sherman Alexie are scheduled to take the stage at the La Conner Elementary School gym for an entertaining evening of wit and wordplay. The evening event is $40. Friday, Saturday and Sunday...

  • Town's first installment of poetry to walk on

    Pat Doran|Apr 23, 2014

    The LaConner Arts Commission is happy to announce the installation of the first poem from the “Poetry in the Street Project.” The short poem “Early Fall” is engraved in bronze letters into a section of sidewalk in front of the La Conner Civic Garden Club butterfly garden on S. Second Street. Helping to dedicate the inscription last week was the executive director of the Skagit River Poetry Foundation, Molly McNulty, and the mayor of La Conner, Ramon Hayes. This is the first of four poems schedul...