For Immediate Release
Contact:
City Art Director Joel Long: joeltlong@yahoo.com
Zach Haber and Andy Farnsworth to read for Wild
Words: a special City Art summer event
Antelope Island State Park
Wednesday June 26th, 7:00—8:00 P.M. with a pre-reading event talk on the Great
Salt Lake at 5:30
Zack Haber and Andy
Farnsworth will read from their works on Monday, June 26th at 7:00 p.m. at the
White Rock Campground on Antelope Island as part of Wild Words: a City Art special
summer event. This event is free and open to the public. Please bring fold out chairs and plenty of
beverages and snacks. Following the
reading, stick around for the sunset. Note:
there is an entrance fee for Antelope Island to help support this
beautiful, unique state park.
Great Salt Lake Talk: Prior to the reading, join us at 5:30
PM for a discussion of the ecology of the area as well as the environmental and
literary history of the Great Salt Lake with Jaimi Butler from the Great Salt
Lake Institute and Michael McLane from Utah Humanities. Butler
and McLane have been leading daytrips to Antelope Island over the
last year in order to help visitors and residents better understand the
complexities of the region and to integrate both science and the humanities in
an understanding of place.
Zack
Haber is an organizer of poetics. Some of his work can be
found in Datableed Zine, Armed Cell, The Capalino Review, 580 Split, Eleven
Eleven, Sierra Nevada Review and other places. His little book, if you want to
be one of them playing in the streets…, was published in 2014 by Quiet
Lightning and Tiny Splendor. He’s hosted poetry readings and performances
through The Other Fabulous Reading Series and other projects in the Bay Area
since 2012. He works at Martin Luther King Elementary School in West Oakland.
He’s currently writing a book called Horrible Places.
Andy
Farnsworth is a comic, writer, and the host of what's your yarn
worth? with Andy Farnsworth, a documentary podcast about the lives of
interesting people in and around New York City. Please follow him on twitter.
He has performed all over the US, England, and has been nominated for a
Pushcart Prize for his story “Five Minutes of Material.” As a comic, he once
opened for Doug Stanhope and Andy’s girlfriend at the time sat in the front row
with two of her friends and heckled him. She was on drugs which was probably
what led to the heckling, but still it remains a formative event from which he
still hasn’t totally recovered. Perhaps—a word not usually acceptable in the
vernacular of standup—it is appropriate that his standup has been described as
"a fun meltdown." What’s weird is that they still didn’t break up for
another couple months, him and the heckler girlfriend. She wasn’t a bad person.
We all struggle with our demons. Andy included. But, one of his demons happens
to be not knowing when to part with other people’s demons. (This may or may not
be important, but he is a PhD candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at
the University of Utah, but has been on a leave of absence for a very long
time. Left to introducer’s discretion whether or not this part is read.) In
conclusion: he finds that bios are tricky in that they can either be an out
loud ego-stroking resume-type-thing that people either yawn and/or roll their
eyes through. Or when they attempt to be funny or cryptic they end up falling
flat and then Andy Farnsworth blames the person who read his bio for its
failure. Like the whole time he’s reading or performing he blames the person
introducing him and can’t really focus on his material. In double conclusion:
As the person reading this bio, I [insert name here (please read phrase “insert
name here” then say your name—also read phrase “‘insert name here then say your
name’”] apologize for any and all deficiencies, and ad libbing I may have attempted
in introducing Andy. Also a reminder that his podcast, what's your yarn worth?
with Andy Farnsworth, a documentary podcast about the lives of interesting
people in and around New York City, is available on iTunes, Stitcher, and on
the web at WhatsYourYarnWorth Dot Com.
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. Wild
Words is also supported by the Utah Humanities Council.
Joel Long