It was an honor to read poetry at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard last night with Jamey Hecht. Jackson Wheeler has been running the Arcade Poetry Series for over twenty years, and Andrew Carnegie’s neoclassical bequest has played home to the series for the past decade. It is a charming venue, and Jackson is a gracious host.
Jamey read from his new collection, Limousine Midnight Blue, with the boldness and intensity of a talented stage actor, bringing to life his treatise on the Kennedy assassination and its harrowing repercussions. He also read from his translations of Sophocles, including passages from “Oedipus Rex” that brought this old classics warhorse vividly into the present, stamping and snorting.
Another treat was the opportunity to finally meet Glenna Luschei. Also, Fiona and Cameron from Lettre Sauvage showed up with their beautiful letterpress works. Their book-arts chapbooks, broadsides, and other printed paper craft can only be fully appreciated in person. Kudos to them for re-imagining the place of the printed book in the digital age.
And thanks most especially to Jackson, for his effusive generosity of spirit, which makes this series a local treasure.