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