Reading a play can sometimes amount to a starched, odd experience. As a reader you are inhaling the bones of imagined action, the skeleton of the movement and dynamic words of the actors on stage. Sitting alone in a chair digesting directional prompts and character expressions is an entirely different interaction with the story and mood of an on-stage performance. Humor and body language bring renewed subtly into the dialogue; we realize the vision as a viewer. Much the same can be true for the work of the poet. Hearing the words vocalized on stage brings those emotions and ideas the resonance they demand on paper. Poetry is meant to be shared. Writers, Rachel Richardson and David Roderick, will take the stage tonight and impart their talents in true form.
The eighth installment hosted by Sarabande Books, tonight’s reading will mark the second-to-last performance in this year’s series. Presented in the curious surroundings of Louisville’s 21c Museum Hotel, the Sarabande Reading Series is a free event of words and writers that occurs at 7:30pm on the last Monday of every month. Rachel Richardson and David Roderick will share their poetry tonight alongside the musical stylings of locally-born folk singer, Joan Shelly.
Holding an MFA in Poetry from the University of Michigan, Rachel Richardson uses her roots in folklore and myth to paint a sultry and raw-footed picture of the Deep South in her debut poetry collection, Copperhead. Wrought with influences of dusty roads and heavy air, and interwoven with a sensuous pulse of song, Copperhead depicts the lurking mystique of a conflicted Old South continually haunted by its past. Published this year by Carnegie Mellon Press, Copperhead is available for $15.95 from the Carnegie Mellon Press website.
Richardson will divide the limelight with accomplished poet and Professor, David Roderick. Currently teaching poetry and creative writing at the University of North Carolina, Roderick is the author of numerous works of poetry featured in various publications, as well as Blue Colonial, a poetry collection exploring the history and emotional gravitas of his hometown of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Set in the early, uncertain days of 17th century New England, Blue Colonial unlocks the solitude and individual voices of the early settlers using dramatic narrative and a passionate and precise tone. Blue Colonial was published jointly by The American Poetry Review and Copper Canyon Press in 2006; it can be purchased at Carmichael’s Bookstore for $13.00 paperback or $23.00 hardcover.
Words on a page beg to materialize in our voices. Visit 21c tonight, hear the words and listen to the flow light up the stage.
21c Museum Hotel is located at the corner of 7th and Main (the red penguins give it away)
For more information about Sarabande’s 21c Reading Series visit www.sarabandebooks.org
Photo: Courtesy of Sarabande Books Website www.sarabandebooks.org
