Michael Carlson, Black Hawk. The Gilpin County Public Library will be hosting a night of poetry readings featuring local poets Stith Bennet, John Haworth, Gurattan Helgeson, Burt Rashbaum and Christine Weeber. Readings will be followed by an open mic, allowing current and aspiring poets a chance to showcase their work.

The event begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, 2019. Refreshments will be provided.

Stith Bennett, when not living off-grid or getting edgy as a political activist, is a recovering physicist, hi-tech entrepreneur, quality guru and college professor. His successful recovery trajectory, involving every one of these afflictions, engages music and intentionally chosen words, that is to say, poetics.

John Haworth is a poet and writer in pursuit of the modern mythos. His work has appeared in Under the Devil’s Thumb, The Boulder Weekly, Braided Way and Spit Poet. John lives in Nederland, where he manages a small used bookstore.

Gurattan Helgeson has called Aspen Meadows home for 23 years. He has written poetry/shorts for various chapbooks and is now writing a historical novel. A medical engineering business is how he makes a living while he practices and teaches kundalini yoga, raises organic veggies, works out, writes and shares awareness with friends.

Burt Rashbaum has published nonfiction (A Century of Love), fiction (Becoming an American, Tears for My Mother, The Ones that I Know), and poetry (Blue Pedals), and he has produced two cd’s of original music (Tools of Creation and Quantum Limp). For the March 23 Gilpin Library event, Burt will read from his just completed collection, Of the Carousel, which versifies his years of observation as an operator at Nederland’s Carousel of Happiness, where, in his own words, “I’ve seen it all.”

Christine Weeber is the author of two poetry chapbooks, In the Understory of Her Being and Sastrugi. Her poetry and prose have appeared in A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park, Under the Devil’s Thumb, Solo: On Her Own Adventure, and other publications. Christine is the copy editor and a developmental editor at SAPIENS, an online magazine that illuminates anthropological research and findings for a general audience.

For further information, visit gilpinlibrary.org or contact Michael Carlson at 303-582-0161.

(Originally published in the March 14, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)