Program Description
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To celebrate National Poetry Month and Poem in Your Pocket Day, join us for live poetry readings and discussion with poet Melanie Lavender, artist Ann Burroughs, and poet Don McLagan. All three local Sarasota art professionals recently worked with the local non-profit Art in Common Places, whose goal is to put art in public places so people can enjoy it in their everyday lives. In their collaborative work ‘Survival’, poet Melanie Lavender and artist Ann Burroughs bonded over their common experience of motherhood to create a new work of poetry and art. Melanie Lavender will do a live reading of her poem, “To My Son” written as part of this project, and both Lavender and Burroughs will discuss the collaborative process that brought about the creation of ‘Survival’. Don McLagan is a local Sarasota poet and entrepreneur who recently partnered with Art in Common Places. He will do also do a live reading of his work. Find out more about ‘Survival’ and Art in Common Places here: www.artincommonplaces.com/projects/choir-48clj
Melanie Lavender is a Spoken Word artist and a proud Sarasota native. Educated in the Sarasota County school system and Newtown community, Melanie is a wife, mother, and a Podcast/Radio host of Soul of Tha Matter and co-host on The Power Circle at 107.5 The Vibe. The Chaotic Beauty of life influences Melanie to write and work to change her life and community. By using her soulful melodic voice to capture the attention of the audience. Melanie has recited at Selby Botanical Gardens, Manatee Performing Art Center, nightclubs, art galleries, and more. Writing “Psalms of The Elusive Black Housewife,” Melanie found a way to transform anxiety and depression into poetry and community activism. This mother, wife, and author chose not to give up but to use the skills taught to her by her elders to keep moving and transform that energy into creativity.
Ann Burroughs graduated from University of Colorado with a BFA and has studied at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids Michigan, the Center of Creative Studies in Detroit Michigan, Grand Valley State University in Allendale Michigan and numerous workshops all around the country. Burroughs is a member of the Goldsmiths Society of Florida and the American Goldsmiths. Burroughs has exhibited nationally, internationally and has exhibited a piece at the Ringling Museum. Presently Burroughs is a painter, a metalsmith and a printmaker working in Sarasota Florida and Whitehall Michigan.
Don McLagan is an entrepreneur and poet. He is the author of two books of poetry, “Fragments in a Glass Bowl” (2019), and “Tug at the Knot” (2016). For forty years an innovator of big data services, McLagan is now retired, advises young entrepreneurs and writes poetry. He lives and writes in Sarasota Florida and Chappaquiddick, just off Martha’s Vineyard Massachusetts.
**Art in Common Places**
Cynthia Burnell, Leslie Butterfield and Teresa Carson founded Art in Common Places because they believe art belongs to everyone. The program’s primary mission is to put art in public places—such as Laundromats, public housing, car washes, medical offices—so people can enjoy it in their everyday lives. The secondary mission is to facilitate live “collaborative conversations” between visual artists and poets to produce works of art that combine these talents. Art in Common Places will celebrate the centennial of Sarasota County by creating four broadsides focused on subjects related to the history of Sarasota and by offering presentations based on those broadsides in collaboration with Selby Library.