Talking Gourds: “Stories & Poems,” Poet Kirk Lumpkin Featured at Lone Cone Library, 8/21!

14 Aug Talking Gourds: “Stories & Poems,” Poet Kirk Lumpkin Featured at Lone Cone Library, 8/21!

The Lone Cone Library has teamed up with the Talking Gourds Poetry Project to host a “Stories & Poems” performance series  the third Wednesday of each month. The upcoming program features California poet Kirk Lumpkin on August 21, 6p.m.

For more information, text 970-729-0220 or email Goodtimes at art@tellurideinstitute.org or visit the Talking Gourds website: www.tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds

Go here for more on Talking Gourds.

Thanks to the serendipity of a trip to Colorado, California performance poet Kirk Lumpkin will be the featured guest at the Lone Cone Library on Wednesday, August 21, 6 pm.

“I’ve performed with Kirk out in Sausalito and in the East Bay,” said Talking Gourds director Art Goodtimes. “He’s a deeply committed environmentalist, musician/lyricist and a rousing good poet.”

Since moving to Mendocino County in 2016, Lumpkin has become a California state-certified naturalist, a singer in the community Emandal Chorale, and a boardmember of the Willits Environmental Center.

Before that and for over 20 years, Lumpkin worked at the Ecology Center in Berkeley and was, according to the Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review: “…an important part of the Bay Area (and beyond) poetry scene for years, hosting readings in San Francisco and Berkeley, helping to facilitate the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival [with Poetry Flash and with the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Robert Hass] and hosting open mikes at Burning Man…”

Lumpkin has published two books of poetry: “Co-hearing” (Zyga Multimedia, 1983) and “In Deep” (Zyga Multimedia, 2004). He’s been a member of several Bay Area bands, including DETOUR, Shadow Government, Wild Buds and the Word-Music Continuum. His audio CD, “Moondog Sessions,” can be found on Amazon; his videos on YouTube. Most recently Lumpkin was published in the anthology “Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California” (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2018) and in “Poem In Your Pocket” (Berkeley Public Library).

This free series happens the third Wednesday of each month. The featured guest will give a 20-30 minute presentation, followed by a short question and answer period. Then there’s a passing of the gourd, during which time community members are encouraged to share stories or poems. For those who like prompts, this month’s is “fire and rain.”