19 Jul Talking Gourds: Durango Poet Laureate Featured at Stories & Poems, 7/21!
Durango Poet Laureate Esther Belin is the featured presenter at the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds’ Stories & Poems series at the Wilkinson Public Library on Tuesday, July 21, 5:15 pm.
The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program hosts the free Bardic Trails virtual zoom series on the first Tuesday of each month. The Wilkinson Public Library continues as a collaboration partner, with town support from Commission for Community Assistance, Arts & Special Events.
Participants are encouraged to visit https://www.tellurideinstitute.org/western-slope-calendar to get the zoom link each month, if they aren’t already on our mailing list. Or email Art Goodtimes directly.
For more information, visit the Telluride Institute Talking Gourds website, tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds
Go here for more about Talking Gourds dating back to 2009.
“Esther just directed the successful Four Corners Poetry Festival at the Durango Public Library,” explained Talking Gourds Director Art Goodtimes. “We are delighted she’s willing to make the drive up into the mountains to share her Indigenous poetry with us.”
Esther Belin (Diné) is among the myriad of indigenous peoples on the planet to survive in urbanized areas. She is a graduate from the following institutions: UC Berkeley, IAIA, Antioch University. She considers the following locations her homeland: LA, Durango, Diné bike’yah. Her writing and art grows from and is an offering to the collective humanity, bila’ ashdla’ii.
Esther is the author of two poetry books and coeditor of “The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature.” Belin’s visual art combines a variety of disciplines and works to reframe the mythical primitivism often associated with Indigenous cultures. She is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and lives on the Colorado side of the Four Corners. Belin is a member of Saad Bee Hózh: Diné Writers’ Collective and teaches in the Native American and Indigenous studies department at Fort Lewis College and in the low-residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
For those that like prompts, this month’s will be “Water” although stories or poems on any subject are welcome.
In August Stories & Poems Telluride’s live poetry reading happens on the 18th at 5:15 pm in the Wilkinson Public Library magazine room with Santa Fe poet Scott Nicolay teamed up with Wrights Mesa’s Art Goodtimes.
The West End Stories & Poems series continues at the Naturita Community Library on the second Thursday of each month at 6 pm. Writers and reciters are also invited to share stories and poems of their own – or of their favorite poets/authors – with facilitators Leslie Ament and Goodtimes. The July session focus on UFO stories with special guest Jami Allred of Naturita. This will be a safe place to share experiences of unidentified objects seen in our skies that may seem unbelievable to some.
The Bardic Trails virtual zoom series continues on the first Tuesday of each month at 7 pm MST with town support from the Telluride Institute, the Wilkinson Public Library and the Commission for Community Assistance, Arts & Special Events. On August 4th the featured poet performer online will be Indigenous poet Kirbie Bennett of Durango.
To get on the zoom link, participants who are not on our Bardic Trails mailing list, need to visit https://www.tellurideinstitute.org/western-slope-calendar. To get on the list just email and ask art@tellurideinstitute.org
The national Fischer and state Cantor poetry prize contests started up again April 1 for 2026. Go to our website to see photos, bios and poems of our winners and finalists. Deadline for submissions is Aug. 31, 2026. In addition to being eligible for over $4000 in prize awards, participants are a primary means of support for all the projects of the Talking Gourds poetry program. So we deeply thank you for your participation.
Thanks also to the Cantor Family, the Guttman Family Foundation, CCAASE, several local and regional donors and our Fischer and Cantor contest participants for financially supporting our program and all our projects.
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