California State Parks hosted a Poetry In Parks event at the day-use area at the Tahoe State Recreation Area/Truckee River Outlet near Fanny Bridge and the Gatekeeper Museum in Tahoe City on Thursday, June 6th. The event was free and open to the public. The show opened with local musician Robbie Gade and the beautiful singing of Christine Marie Bernasek. Scott Green, the Poetry In Parks program manager from California State Parks, joined Robbie on harmonica and the two of them got the crowd dancing with a bluesy cover of JJ. Cale’s, “They Call Me the Breeze.”
Tahoe Artist, Sara Smith, displayed several of her amazing paintings around the event and painted another piece-in-progress of a Blue Bison on reclaimed Lake Tahoe pier wood during the readings. Talented local poets including Aimee Lowenstern, John Merryfield, Roxy Hankinson, Kat Terry and Alice Osborn provided spoken-word performances to enrapt listeners. Alice Osborn, who also works for the Sierra State Parks Foundation, sang and played several historically inspired songs on her acoustic guitar.
Councilman, Lydell Wyatt from the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California welcomed all who attended in the Washoe language and acknowledged the sacredness of the site and the outlet of Tahoe, known as daubaOdu ‘E’ in Washoe which translates to, “flowing away over the edge”, as still an important place in their traditional homelands for the Washoe people.
The evening reading was anchored by the incredible Reno Poet Laureate, Jesse James Ziegler, who used the theme of the event, “A sense of place” to create several new pieces of poetry that he delivered to the audience. He began with an epigraph, “May your search through nature lead to yourself” and read his newly written poem for the event, “This is one of those places for me.” The evening alpenglow, quaking aspen, and sounds of the flowing Truckee River provided a spectacular backdrop for the event.
