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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2018)
16 // COASTWEEKEND.COM The FisherPoets Gathering thanks its 2018 supporters Clatsop Community College for 21 years of abiding, visionary staff support and for equip- ment, The Daily Astorian for donating, since 2013, the publishing, printing and distribution of our programs, The City of Astoria for its $3,000 grant from the Arts and Cultural Fund to Promote Tourism, Judi and Milt Stewart for their faithful sup- port and $3,000 donation in honor of Judi’s brother Jack Connaway, West Coast fisherman and skipper of the Adios, Oregon Sea Grant for its $2,000 grant towards operational expenses, Readership supporters for their $250 dona- tions for distant FisherPoets (Bornstein’s Sea- foods, Englund Marine, Fishhawk Fisheries, Salmon For All, Table 360), Brett Meyer for his $100 donation, KMUN Coast Community Radio for book- keeping, being our nonprofit home, promo- tion and broadcasting live Friday and Saturday nights, Mimi Rose for donating space again for the 2018 FisherPoets Gearshack, The Oregon Folklife Network for its partner- ship and documentation support, The Astoria Riverwalk Inn for donating rooms to the Gathering, Our evening reading venues the Wet Dog Cafe, the Voodoo Room, the Columbian The- ater, Fort George Brewery + Public House, KALA, the Liberty Theatre and the Labor Temple Cafe and Our special event venues, the Barbey Mari- time Center, the Pier 39 Hanthorn Cannery Museum, Clatsop Community College’s Patriot Hall, the Clatsop County Heritage Museum, Studio 11 and WineKraft for invit- ing us all in, Friends and businesses who donated to our silent auction, Volunteers who grease the Gathering’s gears and, as always, Our FisherPoet friends who come sometimes from very far away, mostly on their own dime, to gather this weekend in Astoria with us. Navigating the 2018 FisherPoets Gathering JOSHUA BESSEX PHOTO The Wet Dog Cafe, alternately raucous and rapt, has been the spiritual home of the FisherPoets Gathering since the beginning in 1998. W e think we counted 46 events a fan can attend at the FisherPoets Gathering this weekend. It’s like confronting a single 60- hour opener in Kodiak. Sort of. Except you won’t miss ’em at the FisherPoets Gath- ering. A great evening awaits fisherpoets and fans at every venue. The Wet Dog Café, alternately 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 shell- fish. Minors are welcome until 10 p.m. The Voodoo Room — intimate, quirky and often crowded — seats fewer than it sometimes holds and offers pizza and drinks to FisherPoet fans 21 and older. 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 com- fort. Minors are welcome. KALA, host of the annual FisherPoets Dance 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 enjoy wine or Fort George’s own brew with their Fisher- Poetry in a performance-fo- cused venue. Minors are welcome, here, too. The magnificent Liberty Theatre seats plenty in Vene- tian splendor. Beer and wine purchased in the lobby are allowed inside. KMUN will broadcast live Friday and Saturday nights. Stick around for friendly late-night poetry competition. Saturday evening the Labor Temple Cafe, a former union hall diner and bar, pitches in. In the back, past the refurbished bar, are seats and bar tables for 80 or so fans over 21. This year a dozen thought-provoking, creative FisherPoets Gathering work- shops are scattered among some of Astoria’s most treasured venues. It’s a pleasant walk, in good weather, east to Pier 39, out the dock to the former Bumble Bee Seafoods plant, now the Hanthorn Cannery Museum. Find workshops in the Northwest corner. If you’ve driven, you can park inside the cannery or, to enjoy the boardwalk, back on 39th Street. The Columbia River Maritime Museum’s Barbey Maritime Center, the restored spacious and airy former train depot, sits at the east end of the Museum’s parking lot. Enjoy lots of sunlight even on a cloudy day in there. The Clatsop County Heri- tage Museum warrants a visit even if it weren’t full of Fish- erPoets Gathering workshops all day Saturday. Astoria’s pleasantly creaky neo-clas- sical former City Hall hosts us on the second floor (there is an elevator) overlooking town and the Columbia clear to Cape Disappointment. Clatsop Community Col- lege, a FisherPoets supporter from the beginning 21 years ago, invites us Friday after- noon to the top of 16th St. where sparkling new Patriot Hall commands a sweeping view of the Lower Columbia. Take a stroll around the ele- vated indoor track before you go downstairs to workshops in room 206. Jamie Boyd invites you to share her Studio 11 space either afternoon for Duncan Berry’s fish-print making workshop. Sign up in advance, though, at the Gearshack. The workshop has a $25 materials fee. WineKraft overlooks the water on Pier 11 but at the foot of 10th Street. It’s hard to imagine a more inviting place to enjoy open mic in the afternoon or a more cozy one to sing ballads together late. Finally, the FisherPoets Gathering Gearshack, our pop-bookstore at 1174 Com- mercial St., and the closest thing we have to a central office, offers you a chance to take a piece of the Gathering home. Pick up your favorite fisherpoets’ chapbooks, CDs and art. Bid on some of the remarkable contributions the community has made to our silent auction. Bids close at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Gear- shack won’t be open Sunday. Our fisherpoets.org web- site had more information for you about workshops. Be- yond that, do what fishermen do. Ask around. Take some chances. Play some hunches. Check the chart. Answer some questions. Watch the weather. Keep your net wet. Catch all you can. Have fun. — Jon Broderick Cannon Beach, OR
