Join us for a Celebratory Poetry Reading at Mt. Tabor Park
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 25, 2024
Meech Boakye, Communications Lead, RACC, mboakye@racc.org
Kristin Calhoun, Director of Public Art, RACC, kcalhoun@racc.org
Portland, OR — Join the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) on July 31st at 7 pm to celebrate the recently installed public artwork, Reconfigurations. The evening will take place beside the artwork located on the newly completed multi-modal trail South Tabor Access Trail, at SE 64th Avenue and Division Street to SE Sherman Street.
A collaboration between artists, writers, stones, and trees
Three configurations of stones, poetry and trees are set out along this path.
As the trees grow, the reconfiguring will continue…
Walk slowly. The person you are today will be different than the person you are tomorrow.
Reconfigurations began in 2016 when artist Adam Kuby was selected from the RACC Design Team Roster to join the design team of OPSIS Architecture and Lando Landscape Architecture for the Parks Replacement Bond project at Mt. Tabor Yard and the new access trail. The project took many twists and turns, eventually landing on the idea of three pairs of stones engraved with written text each with a tree in the middle which will eventually move (reconfigure) the placement of the stones over time.
Public Art Director Kristin Calhoun introduced Kuby to Dao Strom of de-canon as a potential collaborator for the written aspect of the work. Alongside Strom, a cohort of six poets was curated including Samiya Bashir, Trevino Brings Plenty, Sam Roxas-Chua, Anis Mojgani, Stephanie Adams-Santos.
Each poet was given the prompt to respond to the word reconfigurations in a poem of 30-40 words. Once they had each written their poems, they mutually decided to blend what they had done individually into a new poem that was then laid out & engraved on the six split stone faces set in three locations along the path.
On July 31st, the poets will read their poem aloud, walking the path alongside artist Adam Kuby and the audience. We hope to see you there! For more information, and recorded readings of the poems, please visit our website.
About the Regional Arts & Culture Council:
The Regional Arts & Culture Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides impactful and transformative funding for artists and nonprofit organizations in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties; manages an acclaimed public art program; leads an advocacy and arts education program; and offers a wide range of technical and professional development workshops. RACC advocates for equity, inclusion, and access, working to build a community in which everyone can participate in culture, creativity, and the arts. We remain steadfast in our mission to enrich every neighborhood we serve.