2005 Readings

November 5, 2005 — Kevin Mooneyham and his Multimedia Project (poetry)

Kevin Mooneyham is a cofounder of the Eugene Poetry Slam. He is a member of the experiment, a collective of like-minded artists operating in Eugene and Portland, Oregon, whose aim is to produce multimedia shows and publications that combine as many artistic forms as possible. In 2002 he served as poetry director for Inside/Out, a two-day multiarts festival held at the McDonald Theater in Eugene. Kevin performed at both the 2001 and 2002 Inside/Out festivals. He also performed at the 2002 Seattle Poetry Festival. His poetry has been published in many print and online journals including Fireweed: Poetry of Western Oregon, Wings Online, The Write Gallery, (This), Vox Populii, and Free Zone Quarterly. He was a featured performer at the Northwest Spoken Word Lab’s 2004 Super Bowl of Poetry. Once a month Kevin journeys to the Seattle area to perform poetry, formerly at Red Sky Poetry Theater, but now at the much more interesting and welcoming RASP. Kevin lives southwest of Eugene, Oregon, on 5.2 acres of wetland with his wife and four dogs. He earns a living as a custodial supervisor for the City of Eugene.

December 3, 2005 — The Three Graces: Wini, Beth, and Mary (poets)

Basic information regarding “the three graces”: What we call “collaborative poetry” started unintentionally with Mary writing a line on a melamine board and Wini adding another line. We wrote three poems in this way. One afternoon, when Beth was at the house, she joined in the fun. Wini was working in the garden, and when it was her turn, the melamine board appeared in front of her. We write without discussing what we are trying to do or where we are “going.” As a result, some of the pieces we have written “arrive” better than others. Some are created by the process of occasional email mutterings; other times we may be taking turns scribbling on a napkin in a restaurant with a slow kitchen.

Elizabeth Atwood discovered words as an infant when her mother read the Oxford Book of Poetry aloud. That love affair has continued ever since, which is a VERY long time, O Best Beloved! Her literary inspirations include Dylan Thomas, Homer, Tolkien, Connie Willis, and the Brontes. Her poetry has appeared singly and in chapbook form. Among Elizabeth’s other written works are newsletters, essays, articles, song lyrics, and a Mount Everest of unpublished novel manuscripts, not to mention the ever-popular aircraft maintenance manuals. For now, she thinks that is quite enough.

Winifred Jaeger came to her interest in poetry in her mature years, most of her creative outlet having been in music. She attended a number of Centrum writers’ conferences and learned poetry from William Stafford, Stephen Dunn, Marvin Bell, and Jane Hirshfield, and others. At the Victoria (B.C.) School of Writing, she was influenced by Susan Musgrave. More recently, Wini has become involved in writing haiku and senryu (which now tend to have fewer than 17 syllables), and she is a member of the Haiku Society of America.

At 14, Mary K. Whittington saw her first published poem, “Dead Tree,” in the Girl Scouts magazine, American Girl. At Hollywood High School, she discovered marine biology, working weekends and summers in a USC lab, recording data and washing mud. Unfortunately, her right brain and science did not mix. Writing did. But it wasn’t until 1985, when she attended Jane Yolen’s children’s book workshop at the Centrum writers’ conference, that Mary found she was on the right track. Today she is an author of children’s picture books and scary stories. She also teaches writing and music to children and adults.

The Redmond Association of Spokenword began in 1997, but our record of past readings does not extend earlier than November of 2005. Please let us know if you can provide missing information or help us improve our existing listings.