Tonight 7-2: Emily Kendal Frey, Bryan Coffelt, Evelyn Hampton, and Kevin Sampsell at Ampersand

Today’s Featured Book Event:

Emily Kendal Frey, Bryan Coffelt, Evelyn Hampton, and Kevin Sampsell (Ampersand, @7:30pm): Kevin Sampsell plays host to this evening of poetry.  Seattle poet Evelyn Hampton will read from her book of poems We Were Eternal and Gigantic, along with Emily Kendal Frey, whose latest collection, The New Planet, has been described as her best yet, and Bryan Coffelt, author of the new chapbook The Whatever Poems.

Other Book Events Today:

Opening Reception for “To Be Named and Other Works of Poetic License” (Angst Gallery, @5:00pm): To Be Named is a one-of-a-kind, limited edition art book created collaboratively by poets David Madgalene, Toni Partington, and Christopher Luna. The text is a series of poetic travelogues written during Christopher Luna’s yearly visits to California from 2005 to 2009. Each poem was written in collaboration with other people he visited or with whom he traveled. The cover of each book is an album cover that has been altered, painted, and/or collaged upon by all three artists. Christopher, Toni, and David will read with David’s wife, Judy Irwin, accompanying him on keyboards. The covers will be on display at Angst Gallery throughout the month.

Artist Reception: Sarah Horowitz (Em-Space Book Arts Center, @6:00pm): Through her artist-in-residence at Em Space, Sarah Horowitz has focused on distilling the poems, images and aesthetic in her new artist’s book, Archeologies of Loss, into one simple form- the prospectus. Making a prospectus is a process of creating a balanced piece within a small limited format while evoking that of the original work it seeks to describe. Archaeologies of Loss deals with collective memories, their loss and disintegration but also their rediscovery and unearthing through individual histories, in this case, those of Sarah Lantz and her poems accompanied by etchings. It attempts to capture a lightness, a sense of space, as reflected in memories of desert winter landscapes—golden sun-bleached grass, charcoal woody stems, white snow, rust flowers. The book will be completed later this summer.

Walt Curtis Birthday Bash (Dante’s, @8:00pm, $10, 21+): A proclamation released by Portland Mayor Sam Adams states, “civic-minded friends are uniting to stage benefit performances, film screenings, and an auction of fine-art and literature to launch the Curtis Legacy Initiative to reestablish his personal studio and residence, and consolidate his regional and international reputation.”  The birthday bash features: Viva Las Vegas & her band, Body Vox-dancers, Uprising-OBT dancers, Leapin’ Louie Lichtenstein, Brush Prairie-country rock (with Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols), Courtney Taylor Taylor-(of the Dandy Warhols), and DJ Freaky Outy.

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You can find other events on your community Libraries schedule using these links: Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County, and the rest of this weeks Portland book events here.

Image credit Magic Helicopter Press.