Robert Peake

The 2007 Ojai Poetry Festival has come and gone. Whew! We started deep planning back in 2006 - and the day-and-a-half of readings and discussions, as well as all the between-the-lines schmoozing and feasting - absolutely flew by. It was great to have Sandra Alcosser in town. She teaches at Pacific, and I was really impressed, during the January residency, with her generosity and keen interest in each student’s development. She gave up her lunch hours to meet with us individually and discuss the larger project of our work as a whole. A truly delightful woman, and a force to be reckoned with in the intersection between environmentalism and art.

She gave a dynamite reading alongside Sherman Alexie on Friday night. Alexie is a natural entertainer and wry comedian. He interspersed observational humor into poems of deep pathos about growing up on the reservation. He rarely missed an opportunity to quip about the insular attitudes of white liberals or to denounce himself as a “bad indian” for his modern urban lifestyle. He is no doubt a complex person grappling with many issues both personal and universal, articulating through the funny and poignant, glib and sincere.

María Meléndez read from what can only be called the most experimental body of work in the group - involving song, audience participation, word fragments and pictograms (such as a hand with upraised middle finger) printed in the middle of her poems. Alongside Alcosser and Gary Snyder, she spoke about the intersection of art and science during the Saturday morning panel. This is a topic squarely in Alcosser’s domain as well, who is fresh from a project of choosing nature poems to display in Central Park - a project which is reputed to have raised environmental awareness by 48% among the park’s four million visitors per year.

A host of outstanding regional poets read on Saturday afternoon - equally eclectic and engaging. The festival closed on Sunday night with Gary Snyder reading at length from Danger on Peaks and discussing the environmental implications of poetry and Buddhist philosophy - including how hope and compassion can reign even in the face of death. Both evenings all four poets were joined by a chorus of spring peepers, crickets and birds. Sunday night we were also treated to Venus in almost perfect conjunction with a crescent moon - like a great question mark blazing in the night sky.

I am grateful for having played my small part in bringing this festival to Ojai for another season and, frankly, glad to know it is all done - and done well. Thanks to all four poets for gracing us with their presences, to the regional poets and all the tireless organizers and volunteers - especially Tami Haggard and Jim Lenfestey - for bringing another magical season of poetry to Ojai’s Libbey Bowl.

In preparation for what promises to be an outstanding festival this coming May, The Ojai Poetry Festival just launched a newly redesigned website where you can learn more about the event that brings poets such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Galway Kinnell, Robert Bly, Jane Hirshfield, and Gary Snyder to Ojai every other year for readings and discussions. The festival is made possible through generous sponsors and loyal, fun-loving volunteers. If you are in the Ojai area and are at all interested in helping out, come check out the next volunteer’s meeting on January 8th at 7PM in the Ojai Library.

Also, if you or your company are looking to make some tax-deductible donations before the end of the year, why not support the literary arts? Contact the Ojai Poetry Festival for details on the benefits of sponsoring this organization, which brings poetry into Ojai Valley schools, sponsors spoken word events for local poets, and awards the Stan Brown Teen Poetry Prize to encourage local teens to see themselves as writers in the larger literary world. Sign up for the newsletter to stay current with news leading up to the festival and to be notified when tickets go on sale.

‘Factory’ Floored

Ojai poet Peake discovers monthly readings at Bell Arts Factory in Ventura

When Robert Peake moved to Ojai from Los Angeles nearly two years ago, he thought he was leaving behind a thriving community of poetry readings. Then he discovered a monthly reading series at the Bell Arts Factory in Ventura. “Apparently the series started in June. I went to the July reading and was blown away,” Peake says, “The commitment to poetry in that room was easily on par with other series where I have been featured, such as the World Stage in Los Angeles and Beyond Baroque in Venice.”

Peake studied poetry at U.C. Berkeley before moving to Los Angeles. There, he won an award for poetry sponsored in part by the NEA and was published in several journals and anthologies. He is also a former student of LA-based poet Suzanne Lummis, who was one of four poets featured at the Ojai Poetry Festival last year.

Peake will be the featured reader at the Bell Arts Factory series on November 25th at 7:30 PM. “I’m thrilled and delighted,” he says, “there is definitely something special going on here.”

Friday Lubina, who hosts the reading series, agrees. “I’m most pleased with the incredibly welcoming atmosphere generated by the attendees at the Bell Arts Series. These people are here to support one another and it just plain feels good.” Lubina was approached to host the new reading series by Phil Taggart, co-editor of the poetry magazine Askew, who promised to help her get it off the ground.

Formerly the Bell Mattress Factory, the Bell Arts Factory is a multipurpose community arts center in what used to be the factory showroom. The nonprofit organization behind the venue seeks to enhance young lives through the arts, and to help lead greater cultural revitalization of Ventura County.

The Bell Arts Factory is located at 432 N. Ventura Ave. in Ventura. The poetry reading series happens on the last Saturday of every month at 7:30 PM. Bring one poem to read during the open mic portion of the evening.

From: “‘Factory Floored.” Ojai Valley News 27 October 2006: A9.

Related Links:

• Ojai Valley News
  
• Bell Arts Factory