Facilitated by co-directors & long-standing board members Jim Eve and Mike Jurkovic and hosted by Jim, Mike or Robert Milby, 2010 marks the eleventh successful year of The Calling all Poets Series at the Howland Cultural Center.
On every first Friday of the month, poets from the tri-state and beyond, lured by art and surrounded by books, listen and lend their diverse voices to the rich resonance of the Howland’s history. Under the colorful CAPS banner, The Grand Hall has bore witness to such nationally recognized voices as poet/playwright Irene O’Garden; poet/photographer Eddie Bell; publisher/editors Steven Hirsch, Susan Sindall, & Don Lev as well as Hudson Valley notables Barbara Adams, Will Nixon, Teresa Marta Costa, Carl Welden, Cheryl A. Rice, Janet Hamill, Kate Hymes, Matthew J. Spireng, Bill Seaton, and Roberta Gould. A well attended open mic gives all poets an opportunity to let their voices ring out loud.
CAPS has evolved into a committee of creative individuals dedicated to bringing the spoken word and all its imaginative forms to its ever growing audience. This has included writing workshops, plays, classically themed readings, poet swaps, singer/songwriter coffeehouse performances, and, for the first time this year a poetry marathon on August 8th,, inaugurated a new annual CAPS event.
To raise funds to expand and realize their collective vision , The CAPS Anthology, a compilation of featured poets is available as is the Voices of the Valley, Vols. 1 & 2 CDs, produced by Mike Jurkovic, both an evocative selection of poets recorded live from the Friday night series. All are seven dollars and available at HCC. A CAPS website, set to feature bios, poems, reading schedules and audio samples is in the works. From time to time, CAPS also participates in the Beacon Second Saturday, with performances throughout the afternoon, as all the shops and galleries open their doors until 9:00 pm.
For more information please contact:
Jim Eve
Mike Jurkovic
