POETRY: Raina León Friday Nov. 25th 2016
READING & WORKSHOP
We were delighted and honoured to be presenting the African/Hispanic/American poet, Raina León at Working Artist Studios to present both a poetry workshop and a reading at WAS. Raina read from her three published books of poetry and her latest chapbook.
The reading was powerful, lyrical, angry and very moving. Song and poetry intermingled to produce a scintillating and emotional performance visiting themes of love and hate, race and resource. A wonderful night.
Thank you to all who came and to those who contributed to the usual open-mic session of poetry and music afterwards, including Margaret O’Driscoll, Kenny Dread, John O’Riordan, Tim Abbott, Michael Ray, Paul Ó Colmáin and Alex and Simon Lockwood.
The Myth Within: In this well-attended workshop, Raina and the participants drew from the myths that are rooted within our bones, those stories that sing out through the ages, and re-imagine them through writing. In this workshop words were used to bring the ethereal to life. Thank you to those who attended this most valuable workshop. We are looking forward to Raina’s return to Skibbereen sometime in 2017.