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PAUL E NELSON

A few months ago I changed the header of this here website once again and added the phrase “Twenty Year Cascadia Bioregional Cultural Investigation.” I’ve blogged about it a few times here and here and here. Included in this effort is my interview project American Prophets, the MOOC Jared Leising and I have developed on Innovative Cascadia Poetry, my ongoing serial poem re-enacting Cascadia history, the latest chapter of which is Pig War & Other Songs of Cascadia and, perhaps most visibly, the Cascadia Poetry Festival.

This year the festival merges with the Tacoma Poetry Festival, which has had two iterations, the latest of which featured Brian Turner. I am grateful to Dale King, who has a vision for the town in which he works, that vision being the creation of a poetry festival that makes Tacoma a destination. I think we’ve gone a long way to combine our particular talents to create a festival that has been described by friends and associates as “a blockbuster.”  (CPF5 Press Release.)

Join us at CPF5 for a tribute to Tacoma native Richard Brautigan.

Among the participating poets are CAConrad, Patricia Smith, Sharon Thesen, Tod Marshall, Bruce Weigl, Lorna Dee Cervantes and Michael McClure, who is scheduled to read 5 days before his 85th birthday. There will be a tribute to Tacoma native Richard Brautigan and his daughter Ianthe Brautigan-Swensen will read, conduct a workshop and participate on a panel that will discuss the literary legacy of her Dad. There will be a panel on War Poetry/Veterans hosted by UW-Tacoma’s Abby Murray. Please look at the press release and consider being a part of this work, which will continue in 2018 in Tacoma, as we’re already making plans for CPF6. Gold Passes are only $25, will enable the first 30 purchasers to one free workshop (of the 5 that are being offered) and go on sale July 12. As the press release says:

A $25.00 Gold Pass provides access to all festival events EXCEPT for workshops, which must be booked separately. (Although there are discounts on some workshops, and some are even free if you buy your gold pass early.) Workshops will ONLY be open to Gold Pass holders. Tickets can be purchased beginning July 12, 2017 via Brown Paper Tickets: https://cpf5.bpt.me

If you want to help honor Richard Brautigan in his home town, Tacoma, by helping us fund and install a plaque on a home in which he lived, please contact me at Splabman (@) gmail (dot) com. Jayne DeHaan was instrumental last year in getting our Levertov plaque installed in Seward Park and we need someone to lead the cause in Tacoma. Thanks for your interest in this work.