Nevada County Arts presents the Sierra Poetry Festival on April 28

NEVADA COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL presents the 2018 Sierra Poetry Festival all day on April 28 at Sierra College in Grass Valley. Activities include a keynote address by national Los Angeles Poet Laureate Robin Coste Lewis, author of Voyage of the Sable Venus, winner of National Book Award for Poetry.

Three other California poet laureates, and an array of local, national and international poets and performers join Coste Lewis. Among the day’s line-up are Kim Shuck, Indigo Moor, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Judy Halebsky, V.S. Chochezi and Staajabu as Straight Out Scribes, Neeli Cherkovski, Bill Gainer, Molly Fisk, Charles and Gail Entrekin, Sands Hall, Mel Pryor, Kirsten Casey and more.

“Our inaugural Sierra Poetry Festival was a watershed moment for poetry in Northern California,” says NCArts Executive Director Eliza Tudor. “This year will be all the more meaningful now that Grass Valley, Nevada City and Truckee are recognized by the state under the California Cultural Districts program.”

The main stage Sierra Poetry Festival features Poetry Place, a literary vendor fair with books, information, literary items and interactive multimedia activities. For tickets or more information, visit NevadaCountyArts.org.

A SAMPLING OF UPCOMING ARTS & CULTURE EVENTS IN NEVADA COUNTY:

JAN. 26, RACHMANINOFF’S THIRD CONCERTO
MusicInTheMountains.org

FEB 5, AN EVENING WITH BRUCE COCKBURN
TheCenterfortheArts.org

MARCH 7, SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS
MinersFoundry.org

MARCH 31, KATDELIC & ULTIMATE FANTASTIC
TheCenterfortheArts.org

APRIL 15, WINDSYNC
InConcertSierra.org

NEVADA COUNTY DANCE COLLECTIVE
The Nevada County Dance Collective presents “The Rise of the Psyche: Dances of the Myth” at The Center for the Arts on May 19. “We are dancers and movement artists inspired to use our talents for community building,” according to the group. “Our show presents the myth of Psyche and Eros, eliciting more conversations about the rise in feminine consciousness, in ourselves and in our society.” Find them on Facebook.

TWENTY-ONE YEARS
Acclaimed Grass Valley guitarist Louis Valentine Johnson has a new album “Twenty One Years” (2017) that is dedicated to his late son Alex. It includes “The Peace Concerto” and “Tres Pensamientos Latinos.” The Peace Concerto embraces memories “as Alex grew from a baby, to a little boy, to a young man who then had his own son,” Johnson writes. LouisValentineJohnson.com

LOCAL WINS GOLDEN GLOBE
Adrian Molina, a Pixar animator who graduated from Bear River High School in Grass Valley, won a Golden Globe Award in Hollywood this winter for best animated film “Coco.” Molina co-directed the award-winning film.

THE ONYX THEATRE
The Nevada City theater plans to show In the Fade, winner of the Golden Globe for Best Picture, on February 23. The former Magic Theatre is reopening after a makeover.

(Photo: Robin Coste Lewis by Poetry Foundation)