Past Programs | Directions to Casa Libre

Edge 77: a Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers
w/Mary H. Ber, Bob Byars, & Ela Harrison

Curator: Melissa Buckheit Melissa Buckheit's Bio

A note from the curator: I have often wanted to listen to authors who are in the same place in their career as myself--emerging, published in journals, with a chapbook and/or a first full-length book, still growing but full of passion, new ideas, and an edge. But there is often infrequent opportunity for this; in fact, I have often felt disappointed in the lack, that such an open community might often be circumscribed in its literary programming.  Additionally, featuring emerging writers engages other young as well as established writers, to support, frequent and attend Casa Libre and other writing events. This cycle creates the foundation for a writing community which self-generates, remains true, open, and allows many voices the opportunity for visibility and being heard. I want Tucson to be an artistic community which includes and features many voices and peoples. Literature is the province of communication, but also reflectivity, the reflection and representation of all our narratives and of new narratives and ideas, voices which are challenging and also challenge us.

Wednesday, June 17
7:30 p.m.
Suggested Donation: $5

Come to Edge: A Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers. Edge is a series of local and national writers and cross-genre artists, emphasizing diversity of narrative, identity and literary source. Its purpose is to create community, visibility and voice for emerging and younger writers. Broadsheets of the authors' work will accompany each reading. Books and journals will be available for purchase and signing by the authors. Refreshments will be available after the reading.

Reader

Mary H. Ber is the author of the chapbook, The ElderBook, published by Finishing Line Press in March 2015. She previously self-published a chapbook, The Shape of Grief, and has been writing poetry since she learned to write at age seven. As a classroom teacher of literature and writing for over fifty years, she has also served students engaged in the writing process. Co-Founder of the award-winning Moon Journal Press and its editor for thirteen years, she has dedicated her life to helping people bring themselves to voice. She now teaches writing and healing workshops in Tucson, AZ. 

Bob Byars has been in the visual and performing arts for almost 60 years.  He began classical voice training at age 11, and his high school summers were spent at Interlochen National Music Camp and in professional summer stock musicals in the Midwest and on the East Coast, working with such choreographers as Helen Tamiris, Wakefield Poole, and Gerry Leavitt.  While in high school, he coproduced two seasons of classic plays broadcast by Pacifica Radio and appeared in theatre productions at Wayne State University and the Vanguard Theatre in Detroit. He continued performing after moving to Manhattan at 17, and later worked in textile design, graphic design and publishing, also authoring a book in transpersonal psychology, a book in self-help and ghost-writing a mass-market astrology book. Along the way, he was a muralist and studied printmaking at Pratt Institute, as well as playwriting with Harvey Perr, dance with Kae Takei and Eiko & Koma, and acting with Arthur Storch and Maria Piscator. He produced and directed and choreographed off-off-Broadway, and studied feature film production at The New School, also working in the early days of independent video production.  He assisted production designer Richard MacDonald on an Academy Award-winning feature film and later studied under production designer Harry Lange. Bob is currently writing and producing a feature film, “The Marquise Project."; his art talk and reading for Edge, “Suspension of Disbelief:  Me and the Marquise,” will discuss the genesis of the project, as well as its' historical and personal evolutions. 

Ela Harrison is a speller, crafting and harmonizing the interface of her two lifelong obsessions—words and herbs. She holds advanced degrees in Classical Languages and Literature, and in Linguistics, from Oxford, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. She has also worked as a farmer, beekeeper, and chef, and holds a permaculture design certificate. In her current work as a writer, editor, and translator, she especially enjoys developmental editing, working with clients to bring their manuscripts into full blossom. Currently in an herbal apprenticeship program, she has been an apprentice to herbs for as long as she can remember, starting over with whatever’s at her feet in each of the many places she has lived. Her MFA is from the Rainier Writing Workshop, Tacoma, WA. Her poems, essays, and book reviews are forthcoming or have appeared in the New England Review, The Georgia Review, Cirque Journal, and F Magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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