AN EVENING OF POETRY
Fundraiser will benefit the Cancer Resource Centers
Everyone is invited to attend an evening of poetry on Friday, Feb. 17, 6:30 p.m., at the Grace Hudson Museum, 431 S. Main St., Ukiah. Featured will be highly renowned Mendocino County poets: Devreaux Baker, Linda Noel and Theresa Whitehill.
All three of these poets have published widely and have individually won much recognition and acclaim. This special poetry evening is being presented to benefit the Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County.
The Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County provide assistance free of charge to anyone with cancer in Mendocino County. The Centers serve women and men of any age with any type of cancer at any stage. It is because of the generosity of the broader community, that they can continue to serve.
A couple of years ago, Linda Noel, a Ukiah Poet Laureate Emerita, was thinking of a way to give back to the Cancer Resource Center that had been incredibly responsive to her family members, when they were facing the challenges of cancer. Noel felt that people sometimes turn to poetry during harrowing times, and she thought poetry could be a means to obtain financial support for the Centers. She contacted three friends: Theresa Whitehill, Ukiah; Devreaux Baker from the Mendocino Coast; and Mary Norbert Korte from her home in the woods near Willits.
Through their poetry these four poets began planning a benefit for the Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County. Noel says, “I was particularly grateful to the Grace Hudson Museum for offering to host the event which is a special setting for its cultural meaning.”
As the pandemic was slowing down and the Poetry benefit was taking shape, poet Korte was no longer a participant. At the age of 88, Mary Norbert Korte died at her home on Nov. 14, 2022 after leaving her life as a nun in the 1960s to pursue her dual passions for beat poetry and the preservation of California's redwood forest.
Linda Noel says, “Mary's spirit will be with us, and in her honor during the program, each of us will be reading one of her poems.” Hot off the press, Korte's new book, “Jumping Into
the American River: New and Selected Poems,” published by Argus Books/tks Poems Press, will be available for purchase.
A member of the Koyungkowi (Konkoy) Tribe, Linda Noel's work is primarily in narrative form and rooted in her people, life experience and lessons learned. She has said, “The beauty of words in poetry, the double meanings, the mystery was some of what attracted me. Does the poet mean this? Or, she could mean that, too?” Noel's work is included in many anthologies, and her most recent piece, “Lessons in Fire,” is featured in “When the Light of the World Was Subdued: Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry.”
Another California-born poet and a letterpress artist, Theresa Whitehill, has lived in Mendocino County since 1984. Along with having been Poet Laureate of Ukiah, she is a co-founder of the Watershed Poetry Mendocino Festival, and she has three published books of poetry. Her poetry and broadsides are in national fine press collections including the Getty Center for the Arts and the John Hay Library at UC Berkeley.
Her latest publication is “Heavy Lifting,” a limited edition artists' book from Moving Parts Press.
Whitehill has personal reasons that drew her to engage in this fundraiser. She shares, “The Cancer Resource Center helped and supported me, when I was a caregiver. They also made a huge impact on me in how they helped my sister, Mary, and another close friend, too.”
The 2022 Fischer National Poetry Prize winner, Devreaux Baker, says, “I am happy to read my poetry to benefit the Centers' invaluable services.” Her recent poetry prizes include: the 2019 and 2014 International Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and the PEN Poetry Prize for her book, “Red Willow People.” In addition to her five books of poetry and work in numerous national and international publications, Baker has taught poetry in schools through the California Arts Council and has directed the Mendocino Coast Poets Reading Series funded by the James Irvine Foundation.
The suggested donation for this Poetry benefit for the Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County is $10 to a nickel at the door with raffle tickets to purchase. Raffle prizes include: Wine from Mia Bea Winery, Redwood Valley and from Hanna Winery, Sonoma County; a poetry book and beadwork by San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita, Kim Shuck, Tsalogi/euro-american poet, weaver, and artist; an artpiece by Frank Tuttle, contemporary Native American artist from the Yuki people; and a Letterpress Poetry Broadside designed and printed by Theresa Whitehill with artwork by Felicia Rice.
Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Linda Noel: 707.972.4629 or Theresa Whitehill: 707.391.7677.