Event Type
A reading by four poets currently living on the Northshore in St. Tammany Parish: Maggie Sorrels, Diane Elayne Dees, poet and dancer Catalina Reyna, and Dennis Formento. All four have been involved in poetry groups in St. Tammany or have performed in 100,000 Poets for Change: Northshore events.
Each poet's reading should be 12 to 15 minutes each in length, with a few minutes afterwards for discussion with the audience. The event preferably daytime. at the Greenway or another outdoor facility if possible. (Two of our poets have night driving limitations.)
Diane Elayne Dees's most recent publication, The Last Time I Saw You, celebrates her friendship with the late, much respected New Orleans art critic, Eric Bookhardt. She is also the author of three Origami Poems Project microchaps, and her poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction have been published in many journals and anthologies. She is a blogger (Women Who Serve, on women's professional tennis.) Her author blog is Diane Elayne Dees: Poet and Writer-at-Large. She lives in Covington.
M.P. (Maggie) Sorrels was born in Vicksburg, MS and spent her formative years in New Orleans. Maggie claims her inherited artistic talent comes from her parents. Her mother was an artist and her father, a musician. Maggie says “I paint pictures with words and make music from rhymes.” She is widowed, mother of 4, grandmother to 7 and great-grandmother to 16. Her two books of poetry, “Legacy” and “It’s About Time,” are self-published. Ms. Sorrels resides in Slidell, in St. Tammany parish.
Catalina Reyna has been dancing since she was 6 years old, in her native Mexico City. She joined Paso de Oro Dance Company of Alicia Mendibles in Los Angeles in 2008. When she moved to Louisiana in 2013, joined the dance group, New Orleans Hispano America and in 2015 she created her own label, Xochiquetzally Cultural Project. She fusions dance and poetry with intention. She aims to convey messages of peace and hope for the human race as a cultural ambassador.
Dennis Formento lives in Slidell, LA. Books include Spirit Vessels (FootHills Publishing, 2018), Cineplex (Paper Press, 2014,) Looking for An Out Place (FootHills, 2010.) Edited Mesechabe: The Journal of Surregionalism, 1990-2001. St. Tammany Parish organizer for 100,000 Poets for Change, world-wide network of poets for peace, sustainability and justice. Published translations from Italian by poets Giuseppe Ungaretti, Giorgio Carbone and Cristina Campo, and contemporary poets Biagio Propato, Cony Ray, and Donatella D’Angelo. He led the free jazz/free verse band, the Frank Zappatistas, and recorded a cd of jazz poetry with guitarist Ed Barrett, Music and Poetry from Looking for an Out Place.
