Tag: Clark County Arts Commission

SoulFood Poetry Night Featuring Christopher Luna & Toni Lumbrazo Luna at SoulFood Coffee House in Redmond, WA June 20, 2019

May 26, 2019

SoulFood Poetry Night
Featuring Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

Thursday, June 20, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
SoulFood Coffee House
15748 Redmond Way
Redmond, WA 98052

20 June 2019 (1)

Series Description from host Michael Dylan Welch: On the third Thursday of every month, SoulFood Coffee House in Redmond, Washington, is home to SoulFood Poetry Night, an evening of engaged and engaging poetry. Our performance stage features professional sound and lighting systems in an inviting gallery and café setting in SoulFood Coffee House. Performances are streamed live to the Internet.

SoulFood Poetry Night is curated by Michael Dylan Welch, and has been running monthly since July of 2006 (we held our 100th reading in October of 2014). For more than a decade, we asked one featured reader to select someone else to read with him or her. This process echoed the sense of community and connection that is central to SoulFood Coffee House. This serendipity brought in new voices, and helped to create harmony or contrast in our reading series. Starting in 2016, though, we switched to primarily featuring groups or organizations. Featured readers start shortly after 7:00 p.m. Our featured readers are mostly from the greater Seattle area, but we welcome poets from farther afield as well.

After we have a break to enjoy the bookstore, its art gallery, and especially its café, we have an open-mic reading where we invite you to share your poetry. Just sign up when you arrive and be prepared to read for about three or four minutes each (depending on the number of readers). And the occasional song is welcome, too.

Printed Matter Vancouver Congratulates the Winners of the Poetry Moves Contest (Phase Three, January-June 2017)

October 14, 2016

Printed Matter Vancouver Publishers Christopher Luna and Toni Partington are proud to announce the winners of the third phase of Poetry Moves, sponsored by Printed Matter Vancouver, Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna, Arts of Clark County, and C-Tran.  The following poems will appear on C-Tran buses from January-June 2017:

“Joy” by Cherish DesRochers-Vafeados

“A Long Ago Memory of Calmer Times” by Bruce Hall

“Subsequent Layers of Existence” by Bill Lucking

“Why We Don’t Belong Here (excerpt)” by Livia Montana

“Hope, embossed” by Gwendolyn Morgan

“Eulogies Are for the Living” by Angeline Nguyen

“Just Breathe” by Bridget Nutting

“Calling” by Jennifer Pratt-Walter

“Camilla” by Alex Vigue

“how to love (excerpt)” by Desiree Wright

Unfortunately, Bridget Nutting passed away before we could inform her that her poem had been chosen. We dedicate phase three of Poetry Moves to her memory, and share our deepest condolences with her family. Please visit her family’s GoFundMe page to donate to a special fund to help her husband Dave cover the cost of the funeral, medical bills, and lost wages during her long illness: https://www.gofundme.com/2t8ccc3c.

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Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna and Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall will also have one poem each on the buses. Luna’s poem is entitled “pavement pastoral” and Marshall’s poem is entitled from “With Apologies to Andre Breton.” Christopher is the first poet laureate for Clark County; the Clark County Arts Commission recently extended his term for the third time. He will remain in the position through the end of 2019.

Poetry Moves judges Partington and Luna would like to thank everyone who submitted to the contest. We are also very grateful to Karen Madsen of Arts of Clark County, Graphic Designer Cameron Suttles, and C-Tran for their hard work and support.

There will be a reading to celebrate the winners at the Vancouver Community Library on Sunday, January 15, 2017. Previous channel cards from the first two phases of the programs will be available for sale at the event. All proceeds from these sales will go toward funding the Poetry Moves program.

We are very proud of our fellow poets.

Clark County Arts Commission Presents a Benefit for Clark County Poet Laureate Poet Laureate Christopher Luna on Friday, December 4

November 22, 2015

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Poet Laureate Benefit
Sponsored by Clark County Arts Commission

Concurrent with the December 4th First Friday Art Walk, the Sixth Floor Gallery, in the Public Service Center at 1300 Franklin Street, will host a special event. Mark your calendar to meet Christopher Luna, Clark County, WA’s inaugural poet laureate, who recently accepted an invitation from the Clark County Arts Commission to extend his term through the end of 2016.

Proceeds from gallery sales and art objects crafted by local artists will go to support literary arts programs across the county. Entertainment will be provided by public school arts students, courtesy of the arts commission’s Spotlight on Young Performing Artists program.

Sale of art and various other items: 3:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Reception, with musical entertainment, light refreshments, and gallery talks on poet laureate-initiated projects: 5:30 – 7:30.

Christopher Luna will give a short poetry reading at 6:20pm.

For more info, visit:
http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com/

Clark County Poet Laureate

Christopher Luna named Clark County’s first Poet Laureate

February 17, 2013

I am pleased to announce that the Clark County Arts Commission has named me Clark County’s first Poet Laureate. I am very grateful to the commission for this honor, and look forward to this opportunity to share my passion for poetry with even more members of our community. I have a lot of ideas about how to do this, which I will share at the public meeting mentioned in the press release below, as well as a public address which I have been asked to give at the Vancouver Community Library on Tuesday, March 12 at 7pm. I encourage everyone who values poetry and its ability to transform our lives to join us in celebrating this great step forward for the county. I am very grateful for Vancouver’s poetry community, and for the love and support of three amazing women: Toni Partington, Mel Sanders, and Leah Jackson. Without their belief in me, and their own work for the arts community, none of this would have been possible.

Christopher Luna

Clark County Arts Commission news release logo

February 15, 2013

Contact: Elizabeth Madrigal, Clark County Arts Commission, (360) 281-1615,

emadrigal@clarkcountyartscommission.org, Elizabeth.madrigal@gmail.com

Patricia LaCroix, Clark County Arts Commission, (360) 606-7104,

placroix@clarkcountyartscommission.org

Vancouver resident selected first Clark County Poet Laureate

Vancouver, WA – Christopher Luna, a Vancouver poet, visual artist and editor, has been named Clark County’s first Poet Laureate by the Clark County Arts Commission.

As Poet Laureate, Luna may act as a cultural ambassador, composing poems for special events and occasions. His main duty is to promote poetry and literature, nurturing public knowledge and appreciation of the power of words. His work will reflect diverse experiences in Clark County and the Vancouver-Portland metropolitan area.

The public can meet Luna when he is officially installed as Poet Laureate during the commission’s 6:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Feb. 26, in the sixth-floor hearing room of the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St.

Luna earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Poetics at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, Boulder, Colo. He serves as a writing consultant and poetry event coordinator for WSU Vancouver’s Writing Center, where he teaches a weekly workshop.

His work has appeared in New York Journal of Books, Poetry Project Newsletter, The Columbian, The Oregonian and Willamette Week. He co-edited Ghost Town Poetry, a collection of poems from a popular open microphone poetry reading series he established in 2004. Luna frequently is a featured reader at bookstores, night clubs, libraries and coffee shops.

For information about the Poet Laureate position, contact Pat LaCroix, chair of the arts commission, at (360) 606-7104. For more information on the arts commission visit www.clarkcountyartscommission.org.