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An evening with Florida poet Tana Jean Welch and local favorite Tim Kahl

Dear Friends of Poetry,

The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature an evening with poet Tana Jean Welch at 7 PM on Thursday, September 19th, 2024, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis.

Tana Jean Welch is the author of the poetry collections In Parachutes Descending (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024) and Latest Volcano (Marsh Hawk Press, 2016). Her poetry has appeared in The New York Times, and in journals including The Southern Review, The Gettysburg Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, and The Colorado Review

Her critical book, Advancing Medical Posthumanism Through Twenty-First Century American Poetry (Palgrave, 2024), places contemporary poetics in dialogue with biomedicine in order to create a framework for advancing a posthuman-affirmative ethics within the culture of medical practice. Welch’s scholarship has been published in Literature and Medicine, Academic Medicine, MELUS, The Journal of Ecocriticism, and elsewhere. Born and raised in Fresno, California, she currently lives in Tallahassee where she is Associate Professor of Medical Humanities at the Florida State University College of Medicine.

Opening for Tana Jean Welch is Sacramento poet and musician Tim Kahl. Tim Kahl is the author of six books of poems, most recently Omnishambles (Bald Trickster, 2019), California Sijo (Bald Trickster, 2022) and Drips, Spills, Bursts, Tangles, and Washes (Cold River Press, 2024). He is also an editor of Clade Song [http://www.cladesong.com]. He builds flutes, plays them and plays guitars, ukuleles, charangos and cavaquinhos as well. He currently teaches at California State University, Sacramento, where he sings lieder while walking on campus between classes.

This event will take place on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street in Davis) at 7 PM on Thursday, September 19th, 2024. An open mic will follow the featured performers. Open mic performances will be limited to four 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 6:45 PM, so please arrive early if you would like to perform something during the 8 o’clock hour. Attendees who request to be added to the list after 7 PM will be invited to try again at a subsequent event.

Find the Facebook event for this much anticipated evening of poetry at https://www.facebook.com/events/3660640340933061 

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, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. 

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/

Upcoming Events:

October 3rd: Kacper Bartczak
October 17th: Tim Hunt
November 7: Julia Levine and Murray Silverstein

Please Google any of these poets to discover their many poetic accomplishments. Additional future readers will include Julia Connor, Katie Peterson, Clarence Major, and other favorites.

The Poetry Night Reading Series has been committed to serving the literary and arts community in the city of Davis since 2006. 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. The more than 375 featured poets have included UC Davis faculty Francisco X. Alarcón, John Boe, Zinzi Clemmons, Joshua Clover, Jack Forbes, Sandra Gilbert, Laurie Glover, Brad Henderson, Pamela Houston, Andy Jones, Clarence Major, Sandra McPherson, Maceo Montoya, Katie Peterson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Margaret Ronda, Joe Wenderoth, and Alan Williamson, as well as many regional and traveling poets, including Molly Peacock, Jane Hirshfield, Dana Gioia, and James Ragan.

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