ACTIVITIES

 

In January 2022, David was nominated by the Eureka City Council as California Poet Laureate. 
 

David served as the first Poet Laureate for the City of Eureka from 2019-2021.
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• David was interviewed by NextAvenue.org and featured as one of four poets for National Poetry Month.  The piece includes an interview, a poem, and reading suggestions.
   

• David gave a reading of a good deal of his pandemic poetry.  This collection, tentatively titled Bord for En was given on Tuesday, April 6th.  Here in the link to watch the recording.  

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• David is currently working with Eureka NAACP to create a Josiah Lawson Festival for Spring 2021.  Details will be announced as planning takes shape.  

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• David is planning a live online reading with Public Access Channel 8 for April 2021.  This reading will showcase poetry that David has written during his tenure as Eureka Poet Laureate, as well as a chance to describe some of his activities during that time.  

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• In September, David hosted Humboldt Mash-ups: Where Poetry and Art Collide, which was the largest hybrid show Libby Maynard, Executive Director of the Ink People can remember.  The show consisted of 20 poets matched up with 20 artists.  The show ran from September 4-30, 2020 at the Ink People Center for the Arts in Eureka, 525 7th Street.  

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• Co-edited with Anne Fricke Behind the Mask: 40 Quarantine Poems from Humboldt County, a local poetry chapbook including poems from Lasara Firefox Allen, Robert Allen, Greg Bee, Michael Bickford, Stephanie Bigham, Laurie Birdsong, Susan Bloch-Welliver, Sarah Brooks, Wendy Butler, Daryl Ngee Chinn, Larry Crist, Dylan Collins, Therese Fitzmaurice, James Floss, Mariana Franco, Anne Fricke, Susanna Gallisdorfer, Margot Genger, Susanna Gibson, Karen Harris, Kristy Hellum, David Holper, Ian Jewett, Deborah Kearns, Zev Levinson, Jason Marak, Jerry Martien, Pat McCutcheon, Katherine Nunes-Siciliani, Vincent Peloso, Will Schmit, Joe Shermis, Jacqueline Suskin, Neil Tarpey, Dawn Tisdell, Eureka Youth Poet Laureate Izzy Unsigner, Ryan Van Lenning, Adrienne Veronese, Jake Williams, and Amantha Wood.

 

• Created a local Facebook site called Poetry on the Edge.

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• Created a Hybrid Poetry Art Contest, which was judged by David and Eureka Youth Poet Laureates Izzy Unsinger.  The show will open in September at the Ink People gallery.

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• Helped to develop a website for local poets with books for the Ink People (one of three of his proposed projects for the Poet Laureate position).   There will be a reading for these poets at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka on Friday April 10th at 7 pm.  
   

• Gave a talk on poetry and craft at the local Mensa Group in January 2020.
   

• Read his poem "Newer Miracles" at the Humboldt County Office of Education Equity Summit in January 2020.
   

• Served as MC for the Against the Wind Youth Night in Fall 2019.
   

• September Serenade: David read with Anne Fricke, Therese Fitzmaurice, and Vanessa Vrtiak at the Humboldt County Library in Fall 2019.
   

• Read at Humboldt State University in Fall 2019.