On Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 5 p.m. the Verses in the Village poetry readings resumes at Tlaquepaque in Patio las Campanas with a show featuring powerful local poet Michelle Barry, Phoenix area poet Shawnte Orion, and snatches of song from Village of Oak Creek musicians the Village Troubadours.
People are looking forward to gathering in the Patio Las Campanas courtyard surrounded by architecture, vines, fountains and art to listen to poetry, music and ideas. Audience members have discovered Verses in the Village is a nice play meet and greet, renew acquaintances and make new friends all while listening to skilled poets display their craft.
Michelle Barry
Barry is a poet, nonfiction author, essayist, playwright and songwriter. She lives in Clarkdale with her husband and two dogs. She hails from Portland, Maine, and began her love affair with poetry in the second grade. Barry first performed at the National Poetry Slam in 2008 with a slam poetry team.
She was a competitive slam poet across the East Coast for 15 years. Today, she is the co-creator and co-host of two Cottonwood poetry events:
- Pendemonium, a monthly curated poetry reading at the Queen B Vinyl Café.
- The Lost Verse, a poetry open mic at The Eureka Room.
Her book of micropoems, “Wheels on the Pavement,” is available through Rinky Dink Press.
Shawnte Orion
Orion attended Paradise Valley Community College for one day, but he is the author of Gravity & Spectacle (a collaboration with photographer Jia Oak Baker from Tolsun Books) and The Existentialist Cookbook, published by NYQ Books. He is an editor for Rinky Dink Press and his work has appeared in Threepenny Review, Barrelhouse, Sugar House Review, New York Quarterly and on the flipside of a split 7-inch vinyl record with San Francisco band Sweat Lodge.
Village Troubadours
Jashan Blackwell and Chantal Harte are the Village Troubadours. The band name is “Village” because they live in the Village of Oak Creek and “Troubadours” because they love to sing, and Harte is French.
Blackwell grew up in the 1960s, fell in love with the music of the times, was the first kid on his block to have a Beatles haircut and has been writing songs and playing guitar since the mid-1970s.
Harte is a Mediterranean-born world traveler. Now that she’s retired from her massage practice, she is fully embracing playing the piano, several flutes, the ukulele and harmonica. Harte and Blackwell first met in a Sufi dance circle in Northern California.
“I heard her voice before I even saw her,” Blackwell said.
The intimate Verses in the Village poetry shows are always hosted by Sedona Poet Laureate Gary Every. Sound is provided by former Dore Records artist Gary Scott who may grab his guitar and gift a song if he is in the mood. Join for the next Verses in the Village poetry show on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 5 p.m. for what should be a beautiful evening of verse, music, and friendship.
