Fisher Poets Gathering February 23, 2007

A Tenth-Year Tribute to Fisher Poets Gathering (FPG) at Astoria's Liberty Theater opens this year's event on Friday, Feb. 23. This "Opener with Mug-up" runs from 4 to 6 p.m. Doors open to the lobby at 3:30 p.m. to begin the "mug up" of afternoon coffee, with wine and hors d'oeuvres available. The stage event begins at 4 with tributes to FPG. Several fisher poets who have appeared at the gathering over all or most of its ten years have been invited to read and play music in short sets. These include local favorites, event founder Jon Broderick of Cannon Beach, Smitty Smith of Long Beach WA, Geno Leech of Chinook WA, Dave Densmore and Hobe Kytr of Astoria. This is a button-entry event, planned to bring readers together early, and to offer the local audience a chance to sample the overall live event.

More audience space is available this year. "We're making 1,000 buttons, 200 more than usual," said Florence Sage of Astoria, a 10-year FPG producer. "We think it's worth coming out for the live ambiance, and we know everyone couldn't or wouldn't crowd in, in the past, so, thanks to The Liberty and Columbian Theaters, we're adding seats."

Evening reading venues for 2007 are The Wet Dog Cafe, foot of 11th St., in its tenth year as an FPG venue, the VooDoo Lounge in its eighth year, and a new addition, the Columbian Theater stage, both in the same building at 11th and Marine Dr.

Event buttons are available Friday and Saturday from 3:30 p.m. through both evenings at the Columbian Theater box office, 11th and Marine Drive; during the Saturday morning workshops at Baked Alaska, foot of 12th Street; Friday and Saturday afternoons during the events at the Liberty Theater, 14th and Commercial.

Buttons are $10 for the weekend, or $5 for one day. Any level of button gets audience into the Sunday morning "Readers' Farewell Mike," planned again for The River Theater. Last reading at Cannon Beach Arts Association gallery Sunday afternoon is free. Enamel patron pins bearing the FPG logo are a new way to donate to FPG this year.

Saturday morning's ten workshops begin at 9:30 a.m. at Baked Alaska restaurant and the Columbian Theater, and end by 2 p.m. with a salmon-filleting demonstration. Workshop choices are expected to include sessions on the making of documentaries, various aspects of writing, fishing industry issues, and a visit to "Dangerous Dave" Densmore's fishing boat, The Coldstream, moored at Astoria's east end.

The Liberty Theater also hosts the Saturday afternoon events this year, from 3 p.m.: the very popular story circle of "never-written adventures" from the memories of "old hands," followed by the poetry open mike, which allows audience members five minutes to read their writing on related topics. Both events have outgrown their previous venues. "People have been standing in the halls, straining to hear. I haven't been able to get in for two years," Sage said.

For the evening program, about 40 readers and singer/songwriters from commercial fishing and related industries or fishing families, and several music groups are again expected from Alaska, B.C., Washington, Oregon, California, Florida and Maryland. New faces anticipated in 2007 include Ken Kingma, said to be "Bristol Bay's finest poet." Other new readers and storytellers are invited from places like Juneau AK, Nanaimo BC, Seattle WA, and Chesapeake Bay, MD.

A live auction runs onsite between sets through the evenings, featuring certificates for special area lodgings.

FPG events close by noon in Astoria with the Readers' Farewell Mike, and a Sunday afternoon reading by several poets at Cannon Beach Arts Association gallery completes the gathering.

Detailed program and updates are posted on the website during February as they become available: www.clatsopcc.edu/fisherpoets. Information about the Astoria area and lodging is provided by the Astoria-Warrenton Chamber of Commerce: 503-325-6311, www.oldoregon.com.
" Fisher Poetry" comes from experiences living and working in the industry, and ranges from fast-moving rhyming couplets and crafted free verse to include songs, short stories, personal memoirs and essays.
All donations from buttons, CDs, books, gear, other memorabilia and grants support on-site audio costs and small travel stipends for readers and musicians.

Some local ventures have plans underway for related events: a Saturday morning breakfast at Coffee Girl at Pier 39 with tour of the cannery exhibit; a Saturday evening poetry event at Astoria Visual Arts Center; a late Sunday afternoon "Last Early Mess" ticketed dinner for 30 at The Banker's Suite, hosted by Fulio's Peter Roscoe, with a celebrity guest chef and two places at the table for the gathering's 2007 onsite poem contest winner. Clatsop Community College's annual Rain magazine is including a section of fisher poetry as a 10th-year tribute in its spring 2007 edition.

The Fisher Poets Gathering has been an annual event in the last full weekend of February since 1998. The gathering has been given substantial support every year by Clatsop Community College, with contributions of services, goods and panel members from several local organizations and businesses as noted in the annual program. But otherwise it is a community venture put together by a small committee of volunteers. The 2007 committee consists of: Jon Broderick of Cannon Beach, David Campiche of Seaview WA, Nancy Cook of Astoria, Lorrie Haight of Long Beach WA, Hobe Kytr and Florence Sage of Astoria, and Jay Speakman of Gearhart. All venues are donated. Major grantors have included Cannon Beach Arts Association and the Patricia Freeland Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation.
This popular event has grown in audience and fame over the years. It has been designated a Library of Congress Local Legacies project, and been the subject of many local, regional and national news articles and productions, including NBC's Today Show and the Smithsonian magazine. It is the subject of a documentary filmed over several years of the gathering by New York documentary filmmaker Jen Winston, called "Fisher Poets," which has shown by invitation at several film festivals. "Fisher Poets" will be shown during the event.

KMUN-FM has broadcast the Friday and Saturday evening program from the Wet Dog Cafe all ten years of the gathering. For last year and this, that includes "streaming live" over the web around the world. Sage commented, "We're happy that KMUN makes FPG available "word for word" to our many local listeners, and now to all fishing and like-minded people with the equipment to pick it up."

For information on area attractions and lodging: Astoria-Warrenton Chamber of Commerce: 503-325-6311 or www.oldoregon.com

Official Website: http://www.clatsopcc.edu/fisherpoets/