Welcome to the Poetry and Prose Reading Series to support Island Shakes!
Please join us upstairs in the Front Room Gallery at the Bayview Cash Store from 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18 as we welcome poets David Ossman, Victory Lee Schouten, Joni Takanikos and Janice O’Mahony reading on the theme of “Love and Romance.”
David Ossman has been publishing poetry since the 1950s; his most recent collection is “The Old Man’s Poems” from Bellingham’s Egress Press. He has two mystery novels, “The Ronald Reagan Murder Case” and “The Flying Saucer Murder Case” and many collections of The Firesign Theatre’s comedy from Bear Manor Press. “The Sullen Art,” from the U. of Toledo Press is a unique collection of Ossman’s conversations with Beat-era poets. He’s also adapted many authors to audio productions, from Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” to Agatha Christie’s “The BBC Murders.”
Victory Lee Schouten grew up in Central Washington's Yakima Valley and has made her home on Whidbey Island for more than 30 years. Both places strongly inform her writing as do her insights and compassion towards our shared human experience. Schouten has long been engaged with community and poetry and served as president of the Washington Poets Association (WPA) in 2006 and 2007. She was a co-founder of Burning Word Poetry Festival and in 2008 received the Faith Beamer Cooke Award for her service to the poetry community.
Joni Takanikos has lived, worked and played in the marvelous community of Whidbey Island for more than 30 years. She feels fortunate to live in a realm that offers so much inspiration to poets, musicians, visual artists and dancers. The bard would fit right in, and thankfully his words resound right here on our magical island. Joni counts herself fortunate indeed to be an alum of Hedgebrook, a place where women are given space, time and radical hospitality so they can dream a better world through the craft of language. Poetry is her dancing partner for all time.
Janice O'Mahony was born in Texas and moved twenty times with her Air Force family before college. She arrived on Whidbey Island in 2001 with her husband Mike. Her mother's family were Oklahoma farmers; her father is a first-generation Irish-Catholic from Brooklyn. This unlikely union came about in the jumble of WWII, with Janice born into the post-war baby boom of 1947. With a Masters of Social Work, she devoted her professional life in Seattle to social justice and advocacy. Still active in those endeavors in retirement, she now has time to write what she wants. O’Mahony’s poems are featured in “Out of the Blue” a collection of four voices by Windborne Press.
Poetry in the Afternoon is a pay-what-you-will donation event to support Island Shakespeare Festival. ISF, (www.islandshakespearefest.org), is also a pay-what-you-will season of classical theater happening July 21-Sept. 10, 2024.
Seating is limited. Reserve a Pay-What-You-Will- Seat: https://www.ticketsource.us/island-shakespeare-festival/t-earyapd or just donate at the door.
Look for these future Sunday readings: Celebrate Poetry: April 21; Fathers: June 16; The Cusp: Sept. 22.
The Bard’s Boutique in the Bayview Cash Store is located at 5603 Bayview Road in Langley.
