Cascadia

The Cascadia Poetry Festival advisory Board met on Sunday, March 31st, on a gloriously sunny Easter Sunday. Several folks could not make the meeting because of that, but 15 attended and the groups was diverse and engaged. Amalio Madueño and I essentially ran the meeting, so my notes are from memory and the occasional email sent about the board by some members. The SPLAB Board members in attendance included me, Joe Chiveney, Nadine Maestas and Mary Baylor, the newest SPLAB Board Member. A draft work plan and draft festival schedule were both distributed and discussed. As for individual members and their contributions, here are some of them:

Phoebe Bosché of the Raven Chronicles committed to reaching out to Native American poets in S.E. Alaska and Montana.

Jared Leising of Cascadia Community College and 826 Seattle would look into the effort to get college credit for Festival attendees who participate in the daily morning academic component being planned: roundtables and panels on Cascadia ecology, poetry and culture.

Star Murray is interested in fundraising, budgeting and logistics.

Nadine Maestas is interested in hosting the panel on

Poetics at the fest.

Christine Clarke sent this about one of the work items:

10. Prepare List of Cascadia Poets, Sponsors (City, etal), Venues, Vendors – contacts, inquiries, letters, calls, meetings, etc.

I do have some connections in the Biology realm, that could be useful for the panels or possibly the academic sections. I’d also be happy to make various inquires of the above. I’m pretty organized and was once a volunteer coordinator, a chairperson for a Social Justice Committee, and pulled off an Earth Walk to benefit Snoqualmie Falls. I’m currently a Lab Manager, and can delegate tasks (and tell people what to do – haha!). I can also help as the Event gets closer with logistics of making sure everything is where/when it is supposed to be.

Others attending included Thomas Walton of Pageboy Magazine. Elizabeth Cooperman of Poetry Northwest. Carol Blackbird Edson, who attended Cascadia I. Scot Brannon, who is interested in doing a Poetilla, a floating poetry reading on Lake Union during the fest, as well as hosting the proposed Beer Slam, which would have 8 poets and 8 beers in competition. Lyn Coffin also attended. Seattle University is the main venue for the festival, scheduled for May 2-4, 2014. Ping me if you’d like to get involved in making the fest happen.

Paul Nelson

Cascadia Draft Grid 4.7.13