Haiti Benefit - Poetry, Music, Solidarity - 5/15/10

Many thanks to all who helped make the benefit for Haiti a success last night. Loretta Schmitz set the project in motion, and with the help of the Newman Center, Larry Castagnola, Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Sandra Senne, Zoe Kiethley, Manny and Mary, Victoria and Fred, James DenBoer, Richard Hansen, Patrick Grizzell and Brady and Liz - great music! - Dennis Schmitz of course - we raised over $1500 for Partners in Health. All the poets who read were glad to have a chance to read a piece in honor of Quinton Duval, too - he had originally been scheduled to read at the event. Thanks to the SPC board for helping to cover the costs, to all the volunteers, and especially to Loretta for all her good works! If you still want to donate to Partners in Health - and they are doing good work in Haiti - go to www.pih.org

Earth Day 2010 - a busy day of poetry

April 22, 2010 was not only Earth Day, but judging from the events in the area, it was also Poetry Day. CSUS featured at least three poetry events: Way Cool Daddy-O Earth Day Reading, which I was pleased to host (more on this event below); Andrea Gibson - a spoken word poet and activist (http://www.andreagibson.org/), whose reading I attended; and a poetry slam hosted by a campus fraternal organization. FlatmanCrooked was in Davis, and BL Kennedy hosted his last event at Luna's. I am sure that there were more events that day.