New poetry series hosted Thursday

Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture will host a new poetry series called “Poetry Square,” on Thursday.

YSAC’S poet in residence Diane Funston, who has been a mainstay of the

local spoken word scene since moving to Marysville with her husband five years ago, according to a news release, invited some of her poet friends to join her for the Facebook Live event scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Poets to be featured include Angela James, Daniel Moore and Jennifer O’neill Pickering.

Funston is a New York state transplant who started writing poetry in middle school and has since been published in various journals and anthologies, according to the news release. She is currently organizing a collection of her poems for publication.

She is also a mosaic artist and has some of her work available for sale at various Marysville venues, it was stated in the release.

James is a poet and storyteller steeped in the oral traditions of her Caribbean family, according to the release.

“Her eclectic mix of poetry, stories, music, and motion appeal to a wide range of audiences,” it was stated in the release. “She elevates poetry into performance art by weaving it with stories, music and motion.”

James is a certified multi-disciplinary teaching artist whose work has been published in literary magazines and collections. She has also been a judge for the California Poetry Out Loud competition.

Moore is a retired high school English and special education teacher who has been writing off and on since the age of 15. He has published a book entitled “Writ: Forty Poems,” and attends weekly Tehachapi Mountain Poetry Group

meetings.

O’neill Pickering, a literary and visual artist, has been published in several journals and her work is also featured on the website, Restore and Restory: A People’s History of the Cache Creek Nature Preserve.

O’neill Pickering is also the editor of “Sable and Quill: The visual arts and the writing of writers who are also artists” and her new book is entitled, “Fruit Box Castles: Poems from a Peach Rancher’s Daughter.”

“Poetry Square,” can be viewed live at on the Yuba Sutter Arts & Cultures Facebook page. For more information, email email@ yubasutterart.org or visit www.yubasutterarts.org.