T’ai Chi at Senior Center
Joan Roulac, accredited T’ai Chi Chih instructor since 1987, begins a new eight-week series of classes at the Orcas Senior Center on Sept. 8.
Entry level classes are from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and Intermediate classes are from 11 a.m. to noon on Mondays.
The first session on Sept. 8 is a free introductory lesson.
For more information, contact Roulac at Chiworks4me@gmail.com or at 360-376-6336.
Fall Orcas Conservatory classes begin
The fall session of Orcas Conservatory, Orcas Center’s ongoing series of classes and workshops in performing art forms, begins the first week in September.
Orcas Conservatory’s fall offerings for children and adults include dance classes with Anthony Manuel, Susan Babcock and Hannah Alex-Glasser that cover a spectrum of dance forms: modern, hip hop, world dance and African. Also offered will be a screenwriting class with Janet Brownell, in which participants will develop their own scripts over a period from September-January. Deborah Sparks will teach a two-day session on writing and performing original monologues.
For more information about any of these offerings, please visit the Orcas Center website www.orcascenter.org or call Deborah Sparks at 376-2281 ext. 2.
Wacky Wednesday After School Program
The After School Program, sponsored by the Orcas Island Recreation, will begin its tenth year of offering child care in a fun, creative, and safe multi-age setting during early Wednesday release days, weekly 1to 3 p.m., upstairs at the elementary school in room 433.
Children in grades K-6 will have the opportunity to play outside and inside, make new friends, enjoy art, games, sports, and snack. Children may ride the bus at 3:05 p.m. The cost is $7 a week. Registration forms are available at the public school, at www.orcarec.org, or at the Orcas Rec. Program office at the Senior Center. For more information, call 376-5339.
Sing-a-Long Messiah
Mark your calendar for Sunday, Dec. 7 to participate in a Sing-a-Long Messiah. The Island Sinfonia will be playing popular choruses and arias from Handel’s “Messiah” at the Orcas Center beginning at 3 p.m. The performance will be limited to an hour. Everyone is invited to bring their Handel’s Messiah music and sing along. The concert is free and non-singers are welcome. Soloists who would like to sing their favorite arias should contact Jack Lynch at 468-4617.
Writers Festival schedule
Thursday, Sep. 4
1 to 2 p.m.
“Understanding Templates” with Nancy Canyon. This is the first of a two-part session which will look at a few short-shorts and evaluate what the author is doing structurally in each piece. Participants will choose a short-short and mimic the piece, writing their own version, voice and story.
2:15 to 3:15 p.m.
“The Cobbling of Arts and Politics” with Diane Lefer. The description reads, how does the cobbler make a revolutionary shoe?
3:30 to 4:30
“Musical Madeleines” with Ellen Lesser is a session on the art of triggering memory.
7:30 p.m.
Featured authors are Bainbridge Island essayist and fiction writer Jennifer Culkin, Vermont fiction writers Ellen Lesser and Diane Lefer and Fairhaven, Wash. writer Nancy Canyon. Each of the authors will read from their works, including some forthcoming and recently-published texts.
Friday, Sept. 5
1 to 2 p.m.
Attendees have a choice between attending the second part of “Understanding Templates” with presenter Nancy Canyon or “Exploring the Rainforest: Discovering Your Understory” with Jennifer Culkin. The Culkin class will explore through examples, discussion and a class exercise the concept of understory in memoir and the personal essay—and the ways in which it can be used to identify and distill the juice of a story onto the page.
2:15 to 3:15 p.m.
“Brief Forms” with Peggy Schumaker will look at brief forms, including those that cross genre lines, such as prose poems and lyric non-fiction.
3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
“The Art of Intention” with Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green.
7:30 p.m.
Poetry Night! Orcas Island poet Dustin Fox will open the night of poetry that includes Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green. Other featured poets include, Clarkston Wash. Boyd Benson and Olympia, Wash. Casey Fuller. The night concludes with a reading by acclaimed Fairbanks Alaska poet and lyrical non-fiction writer Peggy Shumaker.
Saturday, Sept. 6
1 to 2:15 p.m.
Participants may choose from “Writing in the Wild: Poetry As Practice” with Holly Hughes, “Making Your Own Journal” with Casey Fuller or “What Picture Books Teach Us About Plot with Paul Owen Lewis. Hughes’ class will look at the work of several poets and teach using “freewrite” and other ways of accessing the “wild mind.” Fuller’s session will teach how to make writing journals of various sizes and shapes using mostly recycled materials.
2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Two consecutive classes are offered “Prose Poetry” with Boyd Benson which will explore the characteristics and relation of prose poetry to personal myth making or a panel discussion “Historical Truth? Finding and Telling the Past” with Matthew Goodman and Karen Fisher on the challenges and opportunities of writing narrative history.
7:30 p.m.
Lopez based author Karen Fisher will be reading from her upcoming book. Other featured readers include Lynnwood, Wash. poet and chapbook author Holly Hughes and New York based food and nonfiction writer Matthew Goodman.
This multi-genre evening will include a theatrical reading from Fisher’s award-winning book, “A Sudden Country.”
Festival Passes which include all the afternoon lectures, classes panels and workshops and the evening readings listed above will be available for $65 as long as space is available or until the afternoon of Sept. 6.
Evening Readings will be held at the Moran State Park Environmental Learning Center area. Festival organizers recommend that those interested in attending arrive and park by 7:15 p.m. Tickets for each individual evening’s reading will be $15 at the door and include an intermission beverage and the fireside reception after the program.
