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Welcome to the 2017
FisherPoets Gathering
As humans we’re wired
for stories. There’s something
within us that loves a tale with
heroes and bad guys, with
humor and heartbreak, with
grand adventures and scary
dark places. Stories are the old-
est and still the most common
art form on earth.
A good story will quiet
the background noise in your
mind, dim the blinking lights
of the present moment, and
take you to another place and
time. If the story is well told,
indeed, you may find yourself
laughing or crying or having
the daylights scared out of you,
or even suddenly feeling that
same fog of joy and vulner-
ability you had the first time
you fell in love.
These days, most of us get
our stories from movies or
books or songs on our iPhones.
On the last weekend in Febru-
The stories come live and unfiltered,
straight from the hearts of men and
women who have gone down to the sea
in ships and come back to tell the tale.
ary, the stories come live and
unfiltered, straight from the
hearts of men and women who
have gone down to the sea in
ships and come back to tell
the tale.
Some of the performers
may have spent a single
season, or even just one day,
trying to catch fish for money.
Some have spent decades star-
ing into the weather beyond
the sight of land. But green-
horn or ancient mariner, all
their tales come from the sea,
and the sea remains the wildest
and most mysterious place on
earth. Some of the stories at
the Gathering will break your
heart or haunt you on the drive
Don’t forget your entry button!
Where:
The FisherPoets Gathering Gearshack, 1184
Commercial St.
Buttons are also available in advance at:
• Old Town Framing, 1287 Commercial St.
• The Fox and the Fawn, 1008 Commercial St.,
• KMUN’s Tillicum House, 1445 Exchange St.,
• The Wet Dog Café, 144 11th St.,
• Astoria-Warrenton Chamber of Commerce,
111 Marine Drive,
• And during the Gathering at all venues.
When:
FPG Gearshack is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fri-
day, Feb. 24 and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb.
25. Closed Sunday.
Why:
Event button guarantees entry all weekend at
all venues.
Price:
$15 per button
Students under age 18 get in free.
home. But not all. It takes
a lot of humor and horsing
around to get through a long
salmon season or a winter in
the Bering Sea, and you’ll hear
that side of the fishing life, too.
Some of the stories will stretch
the bounds of credibility, ever
so slightly. But all of them are
true in the truest sense because
they come from the deepest
human experience, and all of
them are worth hearing.
When the last poet or
reader or musician walks off
the stage, you will be glad you
came. If it’s your first Gather-
ing, you will wish it wasn’t.
The Gathering is not
strictly about the performances
though, and it’s not a private
party for mariners only. In
some ways it’s like the old
fur trapper rendezvous on the
Missouri River: a once-a-year
chance for fishermen from
both coasts and Alaska to see
old friends and make new ones
in a community that is usually
scattered and separated by
large distances.
But it’s also about welcom-
ing non-mariners into a warm
wheelhouse and sharing the
experience of being alive and
being a fisherman with them.
The weekend includes
workshops on knot tying,
poetry, and song writing. There
are film showings, tours, a
dance, and, on Saturday night,
an open, on-site poetry contest
where everyone gets to write a
poem and read it on stage.
So come on down. Be think-
ing about that poem you might
write. We’ll see you there.
Toby Sullivan
Kodiak, AK
PHOTO BY
JOSHUA BESSEX
John Elliott
of Saltspring,
British Colum-
bia, will read at
9 p.m. Friday
at the Voodoo
Room and
during the
7 p.m. hour Sat-
urday at KALA.