Dear Friends of Poetry,
The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature Andy Jones with Piri Ackerman-Barger at 7 PM on Thursday, March 2nd, 2023, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis.
Dr. Andy Jones is a poet, writing professor, instructional designer, radio talk show host, public speaker, essayist, and a poet laureate emeritus of Davis, California. He has taught writing, creative writing and literature classes at the University of California, Davis since 1990, and has hosted the fortnightly Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis since 2007. His books of poetry include Split Stock, Where’s Jukie?, and In the Almond Orchard: Coming Home from War. A weekly columnist for The Davis Enterprise, Dr. Andy has talked about writing, social media, poetry, and other topics in a wide variety of media, including The Sacramento Bee, Capital Public Radio, The BBC, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He blogs weekly at http://andyjones.substack.com.
Like Dean Piri Ackerman-Barger, Dr. Andy will read some prose at Poetry Night. He will also be reading some new poems.
Piri Ackerman-Barger is associate dean for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and a clinical professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. As associate dean for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Ackerman-Barger leads the school’s efforts to create a diverse and welcoming setting in which to learn, work and collaborate. She also designs initiatives to make the school’s learning environments, workforce, programs, services and partnerships more diverse and inclusive.
Ackerman-Barger’s academic interests relate to health equity and social justice. She is a national consultant and speaker on strategies on mitigating health disparities and advancing health equity. She is currently writing a book about how nurses can advance health equity by using cultural humility as a framework for practice. It is from this work that she will be reading at Poetry Night.
This event will take place on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street) at 7 PM on Thursday, March 2nd, 2023. An open mic will follow the featured performers. Open mic performances will be limited to five minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. As Robert Southey says, “Be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.” The open mic list typically fills by 6:50 PM, so please arrive early if you would like to perform something during the 8 o’clock hour.
We recommend that you wear a mask to Poetry Night. According to a Yolo County December 6 press release, “This winter is the first in several years where we are seeing significant flu and RSV activity, in addition to COVID-19, so we are now making masking recommendations based on all circulating respiratory viruses, not just on COVID,” said Yolo County Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson. “Wearing a high-quality mask indoors is a great way to protect yourself and others from respiratory viruses like flu, RSV, and COVID-19.” This spring, we will likely return to the roof sculpture garden where we can all breathe freely.
The Poetry Night Reading Series, taking place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, and by John Natsoulas and the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. This event is supported by Katerina Hanks, producer of The Poetry Night Reading Series.
Find out more about the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting https://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, check out his weekly podcast at https://poetrytechnology.buzzsprout.com/ and his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.
Please plan to join us March 16th for former California Poet Laureate, Dana Gioia.
Upcoming Poetry Night Events:
March 16: Former California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia
April 6th: Maya Khosla and Lisa Dominguez Abraham
April 20th: Julia Levine and Susan Cohen
May 4th: Pam Houston with Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
May 18th: Lois Jones with William O’Daly
June 1st: Mary Mackey
June 15th: Richard Robbins and Thomas Mitchell
The Poetry Night Reading Series has been committed to serving the literary and arts community in the city of Davis since 2011. Happening every 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month at the Natsoulas Gallery, each reading contains two featured poets followed by an open mic. Poetry in Davis was voted “Best Open Mic” in The California Aggie’s “Best of Davis″ edition and has been featured in Davis Life Magazine. Readers have included UC Davis faculty Francisco X. Alarcón, John Boe, Zinzi Clemmons, Joshua Clover, Jack Forbes, Sandra Gilbert, Clarence Major, Sandra McPherson, Katie Peterson, Margaret Ronda, Joe Wenderoth, and Alan Williamson, as well as many regional and traveling poets, including Molly Peacock, Jane Hirshfield, and James Ragan.
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Twitter- @poetryindavis
Instagram- @davispoetrynight
Facebook: Poetry in Davis
