Sonoma celebration stars California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia

Dana Gioia of Santa Rosa, the California Poet Laureate and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, will be star attraction at “Poetry Matters,” a celebration of poetry mixed with live music and other performances Saturday, July 16, in Sonoma.

The event is named after Gioia’s 1991 essay, “Can Poetry Matter?” which touched off a national conversation about the role of poetry in public life, as well as in education.

Gioia was nominated as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts by President George W. Bush and served from 2003 to 2009. He was named California Poet Laureate in 2015 by Gov. Jerry Brown. Gioia’s newest book is “99 Poems New and Selected.”

The Sonoma event also will feature local poets, including Katherine Hastings, Judy Altura, Mary Studer Shea, Dorothy Hunt and the current Sonoma County Poet Laureate, Iris Jamahl Dunkle.

Other performers include singer-musicians Elisabeth Eliassen and Antoinette Kuhry, accompanist Will Johnson and teenage singer-guitarist Aron Marcus-Willers. Actors Nelli Cravens and Elizabeth Rawls McRae will perform, as well three students of Kate Kennedy, who founded Avalon Players: Alexandrea Coe, Alana Jacqueline and Kaylia Roark-Hernandez.

The show, sponsored by the City of Sonoma’s Cultural and Fine Arts Commission, starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Sonoma Valley Woman’s Club, 574 First St. E., Sonoma. Admission is free. Information: 996-3357; email akuhry@vom.com.

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.