For Immediate Release
Contact:
City Art Director Joel Long: joeltlong(a)yahoo.com
Jean Howard and Jesse
Parent will perform from their writings
Salt Lake Public Library Main Branch
210 East 400 South
Salt Lake City UT 84111
Wednesday September 26th 7:00—9:00 P.M.
Poets
Jesse Parent and Jean Howard will perform
from their works for the City Art Reading Series on September 26th at 7:00 P.M.
at the Salt Lake City Library’s Main Branch.
After living in Chicago for 22 years, performance poet,
Jean Howard, returned to her hometown, Salt Lake City, Utah in 1999. Her poetry
has appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Burning World, Spoon River Review, Chicago Tribune, Spoken Work
Revolution, and over one hundred other literary publications.
A participant in the original development of the
internationally acclaimed "Poetry Slam”, she was awarded two grants for
the publication of her book, Dancing In
Your Mother's Skin (Tia Chucha Press), a collaborative work with
photographer, Alice Hargrave.
Howard has performed her poetry at hundreds of venues
nationwide, with such diversity as Chicago’s Big Goddess Powwow, the
Guggenheim’s “Art of the
Motorcycle Exhibit” at the Field Museum, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art,
The Harold Washington Cultural Center, the Salt Lake Arts Festival, Utah
Humanities Book Festival, as well as churches, coffee shops, mortuaries, art
galleries, pet shops, festivals, biker bars and of course the infamous Green
Mill where the “Slam” began.
Currently,
Jean serves on the Board of Brolly Arts and the Advisory Board of Utah Arts
Alliance. She organized the annual National Poetry Video Festival in Chicago
for eight years, with her own award-winning video poems airing on PBS, cable
TV, and festivals around the nation.
Jesse Parent is a poet, an improviser, a former mixed martial arts fighter, a
computer nerd, a husband, a father, and, above all, a human being. According to
the results of the 2010 and 2011 Individual World Poetry Slams, he is also the
2nd ranked slam poet in the world.
Jesse entered the world of performance poetry in December 2006 after touring
for a few years with the poetry/music/improv show he created called The Hook.
He has been on the Salt City Slam poetry teams from 2007-2012 (which included
an 8th place finish at the 2011 National Poetry Slam), was the coach of the
2007, 2008 and 2010 Salt City Slam teams, was the Salt Lake City grand champion
in 2008, 2010, and 2011, and is the current slammaster of Salt City Slam. He is
honored to serve on the executive council for Poetry Slam, Inc., the national
body behind the National Poetry Slam, Individual World Poetry Slam, and Women
of the World Poetry Slam.
In his professional life, Jesse is a software engineering manager at a company
that provides products and services that help the deaf and hearing to
communicate. In his other art life, Jesse performs with Laughing Stock Improv
at the Off Broadway Theatre on Main St. in Salt Lake City . In his personal
life, he has a very tolerant wife and three adorable kids.
The event is free and open to the
public. City Art is sponsored by
the Utah Arts Council, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, Zoo, Arts, and Parks,
X-mission, and audience donations. The featured reading will be followed by an open reading.
Schedule
September
12
We will not hold a
reading: Amy Gerstler and Shira
Dentz will read at Westminster College for the Anne Newman-Sutton Weeks
Series.
19
Christopher Leibo
Harmony Button
26
Jesse Parent
Jean Howard
October
3
Michael Gills
10
Miles Fuller
Linda Aldrich
17
Jacqueline Osherow
Peter Covino
24
Cathy Wagner
Paisley Rekdal
November
7
Shaun Griffin
Lance Larsen, Utah’s Poet
Laureate
21
Michael Hansen
Tim Erickson
December
5
Sian Griffiths
Melanie Rae Thon
12
19
Holiday Open
January
9
Hector Ahumada
The event is free and open to the
public. City Art is sponsored by
the Utah Arts Council, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, Zoo, Arts, and Parks,
X-Mission, and audience donations. The featured reading will be followed by an open reading.
Joel Long
