6A | JUNE 17, 2021 |
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Arts & Culture
Arts
A poetic evening in The Grove
By Damien Sherwood
dsherwood
@cgsentinel.com
Lovers of literary and
musical art gathered at the
Cottage Events Venue on
Tuesday (June 15) to ab-
sorb the performances of
this month’s Poetry Night.
Around a dozen par-
ticipants made the bold
step of bearing their souls,
showcasing their talents
and sharing appreciated
works to an intimate audi-
ence.
The night was an eclectic
mix of performances. Po-
ets read their own works
or the writings of others.
Musicians and singers per-
formed both original and
popular songs. The mood
was at times one of levity
and others a somber ded-
ication to lost loved ones.
“It can range from mu-
sic to just spoken word,”
said Shannon Pool, who
read from her own poetic
works on Tuesday night.
“There can be all kinds of
different forms of poetry
– some that rhyme, some
that are free verse.”
The monthly event is a
loose collection of creative
people who have forged a
space in Cottage Grove to
highlight local talents and
bond through mainly lit-
erary art. From amateur to
experienced artist, every-
one is welcome to partici-
pate.
The event doesn’t re-
quire that participants fol-
low a theme, either, said
Kim Still, who owns the
Cottage Events Venue, but
nights sometimes find syn-
chronicity anyway.
“If you string it all to-
gether, sometimes there is
just a powerful theme that
runs through everybody’s
stuff in a night,” she said.
“And that is really, really
cool. … It’s just giving peo-
ple an opportunity to share
their art, really.”
For some, Tuesday night
was a tentative dipping of
toes into new waters. For
others, a familiar harmony
with the spotlight. For all,
the audience was warm,
welcoming and eager to
support – a characteristic
many said is the draw and
allows for experimenta-
tion.
“I’m never let down on
Poetry Night,” said Mi-
chael Brennan, who em-
cees and organizes many of
the events. “Every month
there’s something that just
blows me away.”
Brennan came to Cot-
tage Grove from Berkley,
Calif. where he recalls po-
etry events being so pop-
ular that lines of people
would be waiting to pay
to get in. He was eager to
see poetry excite Cottage
Grove as well and, 11 years
ago, began attending the
local Poetry Night which
at that time had already
been well established.
The monthly event was
started around 15 years
ago by Kalapuya Books
owner Hal Harzell, whose
business also served as the
first venue.
With a growth in popu-
larity, it moved to the Axe
and Fiddle for a time be-
fore settling in the Cottage
Events Venue in October
2019.
When Still was given
the option to adopt the
event, she accepted enthu-
siastically. Since then, the
gatherings have continued
even through the pandem-
ic in the form of virtual
meetings. Last month was
the first return to in-per-
son events.
Participants and audi-
ence members share affin-
ity for Poetry Night for a
variety of reasons.
As a relatively new poet,
Pool said she tried slam
poetry at Tsunami Books
in Eugene, but she found
the competitive nature of it
all a bit intimidating.
“What I liked about this
is that it’s smaller,” she said
of the Cottage Grove event.
“It seems more accessible.”
In point of fact, Pool’s
reading on Tuesday night
had a warm audience re-
ception.
“It’s very supportive,”
she said. “That I think is
the most important thing.”
For her part, Still also
enjoys the acceptance of a
variety of degrees of talent.
“We’re all at different
stages and we all have dif-
ferent personalities,” she
said. “Some are really com-
fortable up front, some are
not … So we’re mentored
by each other.”
Linney Frank, who also
performed on Tuesday,
hopes events like Poetry
Night can serve as a step-
ping stone for shy cre-
atives.
“I’ve always been a clos-
et poet,” she said. “And
I think there are a lot of
closet poets out there.”
Frank emphasized the
importance of poetry in
our society “and that we
don’t lose that art form. In
a world and a culture that
is increasingly abbreviated
and detached … I think
that people have always
needed poetry and need it
now more than ever.”
Having a safe place to be
vulnerable is a character-
istic many are drawn to as
well. Frank sees it as way
of sharing and exchanging
trust in community.
“When we get up and
make fools of ourselves or
risk that, then we let other
people know that it’s okay
to be that vulnerable – to
express that part of our-
selves,” she said.
Pool, too, appreciates
that vulnerability is so inti-
mately tied to trust in their
relatively small group.
“I love that there’s vul-
nerability to it,” she said.
“And I think it helps us ce-
ment our own voices.”
Long-time participants
recall that in the past, per-
formances have stretched
the definition of “poetry”
with interpretive dance,
short plays or even stand-
up. Despite the breadth of
artistic expressions, Frank
still views poetry as the-
matic to the experience
month to month.
“Everything has the
heart of poetry in it and
we learn from each person
who gets up,” she said.
Local poet Charles Mat-
toon was in attendance for
Tuesday’s gathering and
finds Poetry Night deeply
rewarding for the partici-
pants and community.
“A huge part of the po-
etry night for me, it’s just
the kind of community
and it’s that sense of shar-
ing, mutual support and
people being vulnerable
and creative,” he said. “You
don’t know what’s going to
DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Gloria Campuzano read a few literary selections to
the audience on Tuesday, including a Spanish tongue
twister and one of her own creation in English.
happen.”
Mattoon regularly sets
up at the Farmers Market
as the “Poetry Peddler,”
writing poems on de-
mand. As an experienced
poet, he also appreciates
the monthly gatherings
for adding an auditory el-
ement to poetry.
“Writing poetry and
reading poetry is a differ-
ent experience,” he noted,
“but the roots of poetry,
historically, are old oral
traditions and that’s some-
thing that we’re helping
bring out here.”
Part of that experience
is the relationship between
audience and performer,
Mattoon said, a relation-
ship which demands a cer-
tain connectedness.
“And you’ve got to real-
ly listen and pay attention
because it only comes by
once,” he said. “The luxu-
ry of the page is you can
just keep reading over and
over.”
For Mattoon, the gather-
ings also serve to increase
the accessibility of poetry
to the average person by
countering the notion that
poetry is academic, lofty or
highly intellectual.
“You feel like you can
experiment and try things
here,” he said. “It’s not like
a classic idea of the stuffy
reading.”
This accessibility puts
into orbit what Brennan
described as a constella-
tion of talent around the
gatherings.
“It’s the pulse of our
community,” he said. “I re-
ally feel it here.”
Poetry Night is every
third Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
at the Cottage Events Ven-
ue on Row River Road.
Call 541-942-6888 for
more information.
For more information
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