Come enjoy an evening of music, ofrendas, friendship, and food as members of the community gather to read poems in honor and remembrance of special people in our lives. Hosts for the evening are Geri di Giorno, Armando Garcia-Dávila, Jabez Churchill, Beatriz Lagos, and Terry Ehret. This event is part of the two-week celebration of El Dia de Los Muertos. This event is co-sponsored by the Petaluma Arts Council, The Sitting Room, and Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant from the James Irvine Foundation.

About the Hosts:

BEATRIZ LAGOS was born in Argentina and has lived in Petaluma since 1976. She is a Professor of Spanish Literature and Argentine Literature and History, graduated in Buenos Aires. She is also a graduate of Sonoma State University and UC Berkeley and holds diplomas from Cambridge University. She is now retired after teaching and lecturing in Santa Rosa JC, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma State University. Six collections of her poetry have been published in Spain and Mexico, along with her novels and memoir. Her two collections in English, The Great Petaluma Mill and Love and Wine Poems, are sold out. Her most recent novel La Novia Rusa was published by AACHE, which will also release this year Beatriz´s Selected Poems in English and her Poemas Selectos en español.

GERI DIGIORNO, Sonoma county's current Poet Laureate, is a visual artist and the founder and director of the Petaluma Poetry Walk, an annual literary event celebrating its 12th anniversary this year. She has published two chapbooks, I'm Tap Dancing and Roseta Mary, and a full-length collection, White Lipstick. She has taught poetry and collage classes at Paterson NJ at Passaic County Community College, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, and COTS, a homeless shelter in Petaluma.  

JABEZ CHURCHILL was born in California and educated in Argentina and the U.S. He has worked as a mariner and charter skipper, a teacher of Spanish at Santa Rosa Junior College and a creative writing teacher with the California Poets in the Schools. He.s been writing poetry since 1975 and has published four books: Songs of Seasons, Controlled Burn, and most recently Sleeping With Ghosts/Durmiendo con Fantasmas and The Veil by Kulupi Press. In August 2007, The Artist's Embassy International recognized Jabez Churchill's excellent work in contributing to understanding and good will between different cultures and peoples, and awarded him the Dr. Kenneth Kuanling Fan Multicultural Award.

ARMANDO GARCIA-DÀVILA refers to himself as a "blue collar poet." From 2002-2004, he served as the poet laureate of Healdsburg and continues to give readings at cafés, bookstores, libraries, and radio stations along with presentations at elementary, middle, and high schools. In addition to organizing and leading "poetry slams," Garcia-Dàvila gives seminars at colleges and universities, and has volunteered with inmates of San Quentin State Penitentiary in a program designed to assist them in their rehabilitation. Armando is currently at work on short stories and reminiscences of his Catholic grammar school days with twin brother Fernando.

TERRY EHRET is a poet, teacher, and founder of the innovative publishing collective, Sixteen Rivers Press. Literary awards for her previous collections, Lost Body and Translations from the Human Language, include the National Poetry Series, the Commonwealth Club of California Book Award, and the Nimrod-Hardman Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize. From 2004-2006, she served as Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She has taught writing at San Francisco State and Sonoma State Universities, California College of the Arts, Santa Rosa Junior College, and with the California Poets in the Schools Program. She currently leads private creative writing workshops in Sonoma County where she lives with her family. A new book, Lucky Break, will be released in 2008.

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