“Poetry of Our Times”

The Left Bank Shop & Gallery, located in the charming historical bank building at 158 Main Street, McGregor, Iowa, is the setting for a special affair entitled “Poetry of Our Times.” This event will celebrate poetry throughout the month of May with Friday evening poetry readings by extraordinary guest poets from Iowa and Wisconsin. A reception will follow with fine wines and cheese and live music for a program everyone is sure to enjoy. The poets will also have book signings and selections of artwork that reflect their poetry. The three events will be themed around “The Natural World,” with programs held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. each Friday on May 6, May 13, and May 20, 2022. 
May 6 features the poetry of Olivia Schnur and Brady Bove.  Olivia is a licensed northeast Iowa based mental health counselor, a yoga teacher and writer. Her poetry has been featured in numerous publications and anthologies including Train River 2021 Spring Anthology and the 2020 Luther College Anthology titled De-isolation: voices from a small town in the early days of Covid. Olivia will open the event with several pieces of poetry reflecting the natural world and growing up on a farm in the Midwest. Her presentation will have ties to mindfulness, mental health and the way nature shapes and heals us all.  Brady Bove is a hiker and a traveler often observing how people are touched by nature. She will be reading selected poems from her book, A Day of Humanity, which highlights the influence of nature and what it means to be human through the lens of nature.
 
May 13 highlights the poetry of Khadijah Lacina. Uprooted from her adopted home in Yemen by the Arab Spring, Khadijah returned to America and found a homestead in the Kickapoo Valley where she grew up. She is a writer, teacher and healer focusing on living and teaching earth care. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals as well as several anthologies. She has published several books of poetry, and will be reading selected poems from Under the Sky, Nightrunning and Go Wolf Hunter, focusing on the many layers of place and how we travel within it. She is planning to bring along her ancient manual typewriter to write spontaneous poems - a delightful addition to her program.
 
May 20 spotlights the poetry of Brian Gibbs and Carol Labuzzetta. Brian describes himself as a wanderlust addict, enamored with capturing the beauty of wild places ever since discovering the Yellow River State Forest as a kid. He is a photographer and writer, along with a career as park ranger in Glacier National Park, and a naturalist for Clayton County and currently Fayette County. Through his photography and writing, he shares the endless beauty the earth has to offer. He will be presenting a reading from his self-published book of poetry entitled Striations and will include several of his photographs. Carol Labuzzetta is a formally trained environmental educator with 18 years of community teaching with presentations on forests, prairies, monarchs, citizen science and more. She has a daily reflective blog at “The Apples in My Orchard” on WordPress. She led a writer’s circle for six years for third grade students interested in creative writing which sparked her interest in poetry. Carol has titled her presentation: “Few Words - Readings from a book of poetry inspired by nature.”
 
The program will also include artwork by Kate Brennan Hall featuring a delightful screen-print entitled “To Listen.”