Dear Friends of Poetry,
On Thursday, July 16, 2026, Poetry Night will feature the poets Chris Olander and Gene Berson. We meet at 7 p.m. inside the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street in Davis, and we hope you can join us!
Our featured poet for July 16 will be Chris Olander.
Olander is a poet, performer, teacher, and bio-educator who has worked with California Poets in the Schools since 1984. He blends performance techniques with spoken word to create what he calls Action Art Poetry: musical image phrasing that dramatizes shared experience, a poetry arising from oral and bardic traditions. As the folk legend U. Utah Phillips once put it, “Chris Olander is the best performance poet I’ve seen!”
Olander is the author of three poetry books: River Light (Poetic Matrix Press, 2017); Twilight Roses (R. L. Crow Publications, 2021); and his newest collection, Who Are We (Cold River Press, 2026). He served as Poet Laureate of Nevada County from 2017 to 2019, was a longtime organizer and featured reader at the Berkeley Watershed Poetry Festival sponsored by Poetry Flash and former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, and directed the Nevada County Poetry Series in Grass Valley for thirteen years. As a poet coach for California Poetry Out Loud, he has mentored students to eleven county championships and one state championship.
Olander holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from California State University, Sacramento. He lives in Nevada City.
Opening the evening on July 16 will be Gene Berson.
Berson grew up in Redwood City and now lives in Grass Valley. He was educated at San Francisco State University and the University of Colorado, and is the author of two books of poetry: raveling travel (Open Book Press) and Work Ethic of a Shopping Cart Shaman (Hip Pocket Press). His recent work appears in Canary, Sisyphus, and Voetica. Berson’s poetry seeks to clarify the connections between personal and social life, to explore the theatricality of nature—the ways creatures mimic one another for survival—and to trace how people struggle to sustain a sense of wonder while trying to make it in the world.
You are invited to visit the Facebook page for this event.
Doors and open-mic signups open at around 6:30 p.m.; the first featured reader begins at 7 p.m.; open mic starts at 8 p.m. Open mic performers will be asked to limit what they share to two items or four minutes, whichever is shorter. The open mic list is typically full by 6:45 p.m. People who show up early to help set up chairs will always earn a spot on the open mic list. We expect open mic favorites Davis poet laureate Mercedes Ibañez, Joe Bacchus, and Allegra Silberstein to perform.
Find out more about the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting https://www.poetryindavis.com. Encourage your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, see some of his recent essays on Substack: https://andyjones.substack.com/. One post lists the almost 400 poets who have ever featured at the Poetry Night Reading Series. His most recent post, titled “Time Filters Our Memories,” comments on the Bicentennial and the film Citizen Kane.
Please plan to join us on every first and third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at the John Natsoulas Gallery for the Poetry Night Reading Series.
We miss the late Bill Gainer, a hero to all California poets. True story.
