The Telluride Writers Guild and the Ah Haa School of the Arts present
TALKING GOURDS
a Western Slope festival of poetry since 1989
April 24–27, 2008
at the historic Sheridan Opera House in Telluride, Colorado
Catch headliners singer/songwriter/poet Vanessa Boyd of New York City and the celebrated performance poet and teacher Judyth Hill of New Mexico at this year’s annual Talking Gourds poetry festival in Telluride April 24-27, 2008.
The festival coincides with National Poetry Month and follows Earth Day, and regional wordslingers of multiple genres will share their work on stage, over mochas on Telluride’s box canyon sidewalks, in interactive workshops, lectures and jam sessions. Among those featured will be the Word Horde student poets of Western State College in Gunnison. Thursday noon the festival begins with a memorial hike to the Bear Creek falls in the Town Park campground for Dolores LaChapelle, whose ecological writings inspired Talking Gourds. Many regional poets from Colorado and New Mexico will be featured throughout the weekend, and Talking Gourds will be making awards for the eleventh Mark Fischer Poetry Prize, the second Tellus Award for the best poetry film of the year and its first annual Pandora Award for the best Colorado publisher of the year. Friday and Saturday are full of workshops, performances an open readings. The festival ends Sunday morning with a brunch and closing Gourds Circle in Placerville.
For more information about the Talking Gourd Festival, check the websites—The Ah Haa School of the Arts and Talking Gourds—or contact co-director Art Goodtimes at gourds@paleohippie.com or 970.327.4767. For lodging or scholarship information, contact co-director Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, 970-728-0399 or wordwoman@mesa.net. Weekend passes and individual event tickets can be purchased at the door and in advance through the Ah Haa School for the Arts, 970-728-3886. Full festival price for the four day event is $120. Individual tickets for individual events will be available at the door (until sold out). Some scholarships are available.
Talking Gourds Festival is produced by the Telluride Writers Guild and made possible through the generosity of the Telluride Commission for Community Assistance, Arts & Special Events; the Ah Haa School for the Arts; and ResortQuest of Telluride. For more info on Guild programs, call Director Amy Cannon at 970.728.6467