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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2017)
16 // COASTWEEKEND.COM The FisherPoets Gathering thanks its 2017 supporters Clatsop Community College for 20 years of abiding, visionary staff support and for equipment, KMUN Coast Community Radio for book- keeping, for being our non-profi t home, for promotion, and for broadcasting live Friday and Saturday nights, The Daily Astorian for donating, since 2013, the publishing, printing and distribution of our programs, The City of Astoria for its $3000 grant from the Arts and Cultural Fund to Promote Tourism Warrenton High School students for their $1000 CommuniCare grant through the Har- old and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, Readership supporters for their $250 grants including Oregon Sea Grant, Jamie Jones and Katie Wood, Coff ee Girl, Salmon For All, Englund Marine, and Fishhawk Fisheries, The Astoria-Warrenton Chamber of Com- merce for national and regional press releases, The Oregon Folklife Network for its part- nership and documentation support, Mimi Rose for donating space for the 2017 FisherPoets Gearshack, The Astoria Riverwalk Inn and the Can- nery Pier Hotel for donating rooms to the FPG, Columbia Coff ee Roaster for providing hot joe at the Gearshack and Farewell Mic, Our venues the Wet Dog Café, the Voodoo Room, the Columbian Theater, Fort George Brewery and Public House, the Astoria Event Center, KALA, the Liberty Theater, Pier 39, the Columbia River Maritime Muse- um and WineKraft for inviting us all in, Friends and businesses who donated to our silent auction, Volunteers who grease the FPG gears and, as always, Our fi sherpoet friends who come, some- times from very far away and always mostly on their own dime, to gather this weekend in Astoria with us. PATRICK DIXON/PDIXONPHOTOGRAPHY.COM The crowd at the Astoria Event Center is eager for more fi sherpoetry at the FisherPoets Gathering. Navigating the 2017 FisherPoets Gathering T This weekend every fi sher- poetry fan will face the same pickle that every skipper faces during the season when a radio partner announces that fi shing’s pretty good somewhere he or she isn’t. But every fi sherpoetry fan can relax. There are no wrong choices at the FisherPoets Gathering. Whether you hunker down like a setnetter or race around like a nervous herring seine skipper, you’ll fi nd reason to enjoy any of the FisherPoets Gathering evening venues. There’s a great evening waiting for fans and poets at each of them. The Wet Dog Café, alter- nately raucous and rapt, has been the spiritual home of the FisherPoets Gathering since the beginning in 1998. The Wet Dog seats 250 fans and offers its own beers and local, wild seafood and shellfi sh. Minors are welcome until 10 p.m. The Voodoo Room – inti- mate, quirky and often crowded – seats fewer than it sometimes holds and offers pizza and drinks to fi sherpoet fans over 21. Everyone loves to read at the Voodoo. The Columbian Theater, cozy yet spacious, the site of so many quintessentially Astorian events, offers beer, wine and simple eats and seats 250 in nostalgic comfort. Minors are welcome. The Astoria Event Center, from which KMUN broadcasts live both nights, boasts the most seats, raised theater seating in the back and a big stage. Minors are welcome always. KALA, host of the annual FisherPoets Dance, this year on Friday night, seats about 70 in an intimate but lively setting and offers a full bar for fans this weekend. Minors are allowed. At Fort George Brewery’s Lovell Showroom fans can en- joy wine or Fort George’s own brew with their fi sherpoetry in a performance-focused venue. Minors are welcome, here, too. If you haven’t gotten your button elsewhere, pick it up at he FisherPoets Gathering Gearshack, 1184 Commercial St. Show your support for the FisherPoets Gathering and buy an enameled highliner pin or celebrate our 20th annual in a Ray Troll T-shirt. Wear these with pride. We get underway sooner than you think. You might start with a self-guided visit to the Hanthorn Cannery Museum at Pier 39. Mug yourself up at 10 a.m. at Coffee Girl ,and enjoy the river as it rolls beneath you. Back at the Gearshack, have a bid at something quirky or tasty or useful among this year’s Silent Auction items. Browse fi sherpoets’ books and CDs. Before you take a seat for Friday evening’s fi sherpoet- ry drop in at the Columbian Theater where, at 2:15 p.m., a couple of short fi sherpoet fi lms take you fi shing. If you miss Friday’s show you can try again Saturday afternoon. From here on, you’ll have to make some choices. At the Columbian Theater you could inform yourself about the proposed Pebble Mine and the threat it poses to Bristol Bay’s watersheds. Or you could see how open mic is going at WineKraft. Have a read your- self. You’ll miss a chance to visit with artist George Wilson at Imogen’s welcome reception, but that’s how fi shing is. You can’t catch them all. Between venues, stop at 11th Street and Marine Drive for a while to enjoy Corey Arnold’s arresting projections on the wall. You might fi nd yourself lingering there longer than you’d planned. Evening readings begin most places at 5 p.m. You can chase your favorite fi sherpoets all over town if you want to or sit tight and hear some pleasant surprises. Every venue is a good one every hour. When evening readings have wrapped up, head over to KALA for the annual dance party. If you stay late, though, you might have trouble getting up in time for Saturday morn- ing’s openers. The Gearshack is opening at 10 a.m. Saturday, a little earlier than before. But you can come back later because you’ve got three workshops to choose from at 10 a.m. and three more at 11:30 a.m. At the Barbey Mari- time Center or at Pier 39 inform yourself further on the health of our Columbia and Snake rivers and of the ocean itself. Decide how to respond intelligently. Or simply learn how to tie a couple of really useful knots. Or tackle your own stories at the creative writing workshop, or write a song or sing all sorts of them at the song writing and singing workshops. Mid-afternoon, visit the Event Center to enjoy a pleas- ant earful at the annual Story Circle where it doesn’t take much coaxing to draw a good tale from veteran fi shermen and women. Then at the Columbian The- ater join a festive rally to pro- tect the Columbia, or, at KALA, celebrate Nancy Cook’s exhibit with her, or, at WineKraft, gather your courage, bring a few friends and read something of your own. And if, after the Saturday night readings, you’re ready to have a go at a bigger stage, bring it to the umpteenth annual on-site poetry contest. Don’t be shy. It’s a gathering, not a slam. Or enjoy Ray Troll and the Ratfi sh Wranglers in eccentric multi-media concert at the Columbian. Or head over to WineKraft and join the singers gathering there. Or maybe the Voodoo will let us linger for an open mic there. Stickin’ and stayin’? We’ll see you Sunday morning at the Event Center. There’ll be coffee. Arrive a little early and practice three-part harmony with us before a short, friendly gospel sing, followed by a lot of short, friendly fi sherpoems as we say so long until next year. You won’t catch it all, but you’ll have a great weekend with us at the FisherPoets Gath- ering. Thanks for coming. – Jon Broderick Cannon Beach, OR
