Graphic Poetry Workshop set
The North Olympic Library System (NOLS) invites adults and teens to the Graphic Poetry Workshop with Nhatt Nichols and Clallam County Poet Laureate Jaiden Dokken set for 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14, at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
Participants will start from a prompt and then distill their writing to the “bare bones” of observation before breaking it into panels and adding drawings to create visual poems. The class will cover the visual elements of panel layout, inking techniques, and creating a color palette to support written poems.
The free class is open to people of all experience levels in writing and drawing, and beginners are encouraged to attend. Supplies are provided and an enthusiastic approach is all that’s needed.
“You do not need to be a good artist, but you will need to be artistically brave,” said Nichols, a multidisciplinary artist and writer who uses drawing, poetry, and comics to break down political and environmental issues.
Learn more at nols.org/graphicpoetry. Or, visit nols.org, call 360-417-8500 or email to discover@nols.org.
Local poets plan salmon-inspired reading
The salmon are returning to their streams on the Olympic Peninsula this month, and local poets are welcoming them home with a reading from “I Sing the Salmon Home” from 4:30-6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14, at Finnriver Farm & Cidery in Chimacum.
Join poets Kate Reavey from Sequim, Tess Gallagher, Alice Derry, Cathy Lear and Thena Westfall from Port Angeles, Joanne Clarkson, Alex Eisenberg and Anne Murphy from Port Townsend, and Kelli Russell Agodon, Michele Bombardier, and Ronda Broatch from the surrounding area, each of whom contributed poems to “I Sing the Salmon Home,” edited by former Washington State Poet Laureate and Lummi tribal member Rena Priest.
For this unique collection, Priest gathered poems from more than 150 Washington state poets, ranging from first-graders to tribal elders, all inspired by the Northwest’s iconic salmon. A diverse chorus of voices, they join together to praise salmon’s heroic journey, beauty, and courage and witness the threats salmon face from pollution, dams and warming oceans, event organizers say.
Donations are welcome to keep bringing poetry to Finnriver Farm.
Monday Musicale meeting set
The Monday Musicale group meet at noon on Sept. 18 at a new location: Joshua’s Restaurant & Lounge, 113 Del Guzzi Drive, Port Angeles. Lunch is $20. Reservations are required. For more information or to make a reservation, call Maralyn Hillhouse at 360-928-3015.
Following lunch, Shirley Mercer and Kim Hammond will offer their musical talents. The duo has more than two years playing together as Nightbird — a little rock, a touch of bluesy jazz and some “golden oldies,” with a bit of folk thrown in. Hammond plays on lead guitar and vocals, and Mercer is on lead vocals, guitar and hand percussion.
Woodturners set meeting
The Strait Turners woodturning club meet at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at the Gardiner Community Center, 980 Old Gardiner Road.
This month’s presenter is club member John Elliott, who will be demonstrating the making of Christmas ornaments.
For more information, contact Jackie Le Doux at JackieLeDoux2022@outlook.com or 360-457-5172 (8 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) or 360-452-5673 (12:30-5 p.m.).
PAFAC sets exhibit opening
The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center (PAFAC), 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., hosts an opening reception for “Home — The Essence of Place” from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15. The newest exhibition focuses on connections to the Olympic Peninsula and will be on display from the opening reception on through Oct. 29.
“Home —The Essence of Place” is a collaborative exhibition between the PAFAC and Olympic Peninsula Art Association (OPAA) rooted in the region’s landscapes and inhabitants. Artwork was selected by jurors Renne Emiko Brock, Marina Shipova and Ross Brown representing OPAA and Susan Hamilton, Monic Gutierrez-Quarto and Garrett Grove representing the PAFAC.
The exhibit features paintings, prints, sculptures and photographs from twenty-nine artists. The artists on display include Anne Milligan, Catherine Mix, Cathy Stanfield, Eva Kozun, Hattie Kauffman, Kathie Cook and Lauren Churchill of Sequim, and Yukio Iraha of Carlsborg. Port Angeles artists featured are Andrea Woods, Anne Pfeiffer, Chris Kleinfelter, Cody Wise Hagen, Clea Rome, Ernst-Ulrich Schafer, Eva McGinnis, Roger McGinnis, Ines Epperson, Jack Galloway, Jodi Riverstone, Karen Lavender Peterson, Rosie Sharpe, Thompson Holmes and Tracy Beals, as well as Port Townsend’s Kerry Tremain, Madeline Nelson, Mary O’Shaughnessy, Scott Pascoe and Shelley Jaye, and Laveta Bowen of Hoquiam.
OPAA is a nonprofit arts organization of visual artists and supporters that promotes and encourages the understanding and appreciation of art for the benefit of the members and the community. Visit opaagroup.org. For more about PAFAC, visit pafac.org.
Book discussions continue
The North Olympic Library System (NOLS) hosts four Book Discussion Group meetings each month. The Second Saturday group meets in person in Sequim and the Wednesday Evening group will meet in person in Port Angeles; other groups will meet on Zoom. Registration is not required. Learn more and access Zoom links at nols.org/book-groups, or call or visit the library for assistance. Reach the Sequim Library at 360-683-1161.
Attendees are welcome to join each month or just drop in. Paperback copies of the titles will be available for pick up any time after the current month’s discussions. Copies in other formats such as large print, book on CD, and eBook may also be available to request through the NOLS catalog (see nols.org).
The remaining September 2023 Book Discussion schedule includes: Novel Conversations Book Discussion Group — “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang, 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, on Zoom, with paperback copies available at Sequim Library; and, Wednesday Evening Book Discussion Group — “The Line Becomes a River” by Francisco Cantú, 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, in Carver Room at Port Angeles Library; paperback copies available at the Port Angeles Library
This program is supported by a donation made in memory of Sally Albiso, the Friends of Sequim Library and the Port Angeles Friends of the Library.
For more information about this and other programs at your library, visit nols.org, call 360-417-8500 or email to discover@nols.org.
Local artists donate to fundraiser
Sequim textile artist Kathie Cook is among the dozen-plus members of Peninsula College’s “Clay Club” donating 43 hand-thrown bowls to the Sept. 16 “Empty Bowls” fundraiser for the Port Angeles Food Bank.
Cook, who participates in PC’s ceramics classes and in faculty member Steve Blez’s after-class Clay Club open to ceramics students, studio monitors and other interested campus members, volunteered to coordinate the project after she learned of food bank fundraisers when her textile group, Peninsula Fiber Artists, created the “What’s for Lunch” exhibit at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.
Prompted by a garment donation to Peninsula Fiber Artists from the estate of child nutrition advocate Gene White, “What’s for Lunch” included a food drive for the food bank.
For tickets for “Empty Bowls,” visit secure.givelively.org/event/port-angeles-food-bank/empty-bowls-2023.
For more about Peninsula Fiber Artists, see sda-np.com. Its recent “What’s for Lunch” is described at sda-np.com/whatsforlunch.
‘Abundance’ exhibit featured in PT
Take a stroll through Port Townsend’s Uptown neighborhood and at the corner of Lawrence and Tyler pause to see “Abundance,” the latest 24/7 walk-by exhibit by Olympic and Kitsap Peninsula artists.
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Between now and Oct. 29, see more than a dozen examples of textile art in the Peninsula Fiber Artists’ Fiber Habit window at 675 Tyler St. Several of the pieces are available for sale.
Exhibiting artists include Sequim’s Kathie Cook, Port Townsend’s Caryl Fallert-Gentry and Cynthia LeRouge, Port Ludlow’s Pamela Raine and Terri Wolf, Poulsbo’s Daera Dobbs and Bainbridge Island’s Donna Lee Dowdney.
Storytime returns to all NOLS branches
Storytime returns to all branches of the North Olympic Library System (NOLS) after Labor Day. The free 30-minute program is offered weekly in Sequim, Port Angeles and Forks, and monthly in Clallam Bay.
Children and their adults can enjoy stories, music, rhymes, and plenty of movement and fun. Storytime activities – including talking, reading, playing and singing – have an important role in early childhood development, organizers say.
Outdoor Storytime is held, rain or shine, at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesdays through Oct. 31 at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave.
For more information about Storytime, visit nols.org/storytime or email to youth@nols.org.
Art by Nhatt Nichols/ “This Party of the Soft Things (Mosquito 1),” pencil on paper, by Nhatt Nichols, who co-hosts a graphic poetry workshop with Jaiden Dokken on Thursday, Sept. 14, in Port Angeles.
Art by Nhatt Nichols/ “Cold Coffee Poem,” watercolor and pen on paper, by Nhatt Nichols, who co-hosts a graphic poetry workshop with Jaiden Dokken on Thursday, Sept. 14, in Port Angeles.
