KALA welcomes the FisherPoets Round Up, Saturday, September 7th at 7:30pm. Tickets are $15 available online at kalaatoria.com. Doors open at 7:00pm. Enjoy an evening of fisherpoetry with four of Astoria’s favorite local fisherpoets: Geno Leech, Rob Seitz, Jay Speakman and Jon Broderick. KALA is located at 1017 Marine Dr. in Astoria. 503-338-4878.
Long experience working in canneries or on seiners, gillnetters, trollers, trawlers, crabbers, long-liners, tugs, tenders, lobster boats, salvage ships or dredges provides each of these fisherpoets the fodder and grist for distinctive poems – and sometimes songs – describing both the pleasure and the tedium of working in the commercial fishing industry whose singular characters, peculiar challenges, close encounters have kindled here some honest, refreshing poetry.
Beyond Astoria, Leech, Seitz, Speakman and Broderick have, between them, performed at scores of festivals and events from Kodiak, AK to Rockland ME, including the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada; the People’s Poetry Gathering in New York City; the Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford, Massachusetts; the Seattle Folklife Festival and the Alaska World Arts Festival in Homer, Alaska.