Award-winning poet and artist Shotsie Gorman, a recent transplant to Sonoma, will bring a new approach to poetry to the community center starting on Wednesday. Gorman’s “poetry salon” will be a bi-weekly meeting of the hearts, minds and souls for local poets.
“The concept is simple – get all levels of poets together, whether they’re published, aspiring or in the closet, and let them introduce themselves and experiment,” said Gorman. “Poets tend to be introverted, so the salon is an opportunity for them to bring their original works to be critiqued by like-minded individuals.”
From performance and spoken word to classical poetry, the salon welcomes all styles and will give each member an opportunity to meet, discuss, edit, critique and experiment with their own poetry.
As an artist, Gorman’s varied art forms, furniture, hand-tufted carpets, sculpture, pottery and paintings are exhibited in galleries throughout the world. He is a former martial arts instructor and a professional tattoo artist. He lectures at universities and art institutes around the U.S. and Europe on tattoo-related issues. His most recent poetry workshop, “Mining for God,” was held at The Well Red Coyote bookstore in Sedona, Arizona.
“Here in Sonoma, the community center has opened its doors to the poetry salon as one way to fulfill a need in the city’s creative community,” said Gorman. “Those who love poetry will be able to share intellectual stimulation and contact with other poets and writers.”
Participants are asked to bring writing materials – but no laptops or cell phones – and multiple copies of personal poetry for group critique and reading.
The meeting is from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in Room 211 of the Community Center, 276 E. Napa St. For more information or to sign-up please call 707.938.4626, ext. 1. To discuss the salon goals with Shotsie, call 707.299.0882 or e-mail Shotsie1@aol.com.
