The Baseball Reliquary Presents
POETRY BALL
The Los Angeles Bards Return to Pasadena
Sunday, September 21, 2008, 2:00 P.M.
Donald R. Wright Auditorium, Pasadena Central
Library
285 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena, California
Free Admission / Information (626) 791-7647
The Baseball Reliquary will present Poetry
Ball, a celebration of baseball poetry and
prose, on Sunday, September 21, 2008, at the
Donald R. Wright Auditorium of the Pasadena
Central Library, 285 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena,
California. The first stanza will be thrown at
2:00 P.M. and admission is free.
It has been said that poetry and
baseball capture and express the true essence of
the American people. As proof of our twin
national pastimes, the roster of poets who have
gone to bat for baseball is a veritable All-Star
squad of wordsmiths: Walt Whitman, Marianne
Moore, William Carlos Williams, Robert Creeley,
Tom Clark, May Swenson, Donald Hall, Kenneth
Patchen, and Quincy Troupe, among others. In
fact, Robert Frost, perhaps the best known and
most beloved poet of the 20th century, summed up
his passion for the game in a letter, written
early in his literary career, in which he said,
"Nothing flatters me more than to have it
assumed that I could write prose — unless it be
to have it assumed that I once pitched a
baseball with distinction."
Los Angeles poets have had their own
distinguished relationship with baseball.
Several years ago, poet, playwright, and
recording artist Michael C Ford scoured the
sandlots of Southern California to stock the Los
Angeles Bards, a free-swinging team of
heavy-hitting and rubber-armed literary figures.
In 2002, the Bards tossed out metaphors and
plenty more at the Pasadena Central Library,
where their inaugural game was recorded for
posterity in the Baseball Reliquary/Hen House
Studios CD, The
Los Angeles Bards Live in Pasadena.
After six years on the road, the Los
Angeles Bards return to Pasadena to play for the
hometown crowd once again, reading a crackerjack
selection of baseball poetry and prose and
perhaps hitting a few grand slams in the
process. Capably managed by Michael C Ford, the
Bards’ current lineup features a nice mix of
seasoned veterans and fresh-faced rookies,
including: Brendan Constantine, CF; Jerry
Garcia, C; Eloise Klein Healy, 3B; Rick Lupert,
DH; Bill Mohr, LF; Mindy Nettifee, SS; Harry E.
Northup, 1B; Holly Prado, RF; Kevin Patrick
Sullivan, P; and Amber Tamblyn, 2B. In addition,
the program will include a DVD excerpt from the
2002 game featuring a fallen Bard, the late
Philomene Long, reading her poem, "Marcus
Aurelius at a Dodger Game: Kirk Gibson Up to
Bat."
For further information, contact the
Baseball Reliquary by phone at (626) 791-7647 or
by e-mail at
terymar@earthlink.net. Poetry Ball is
co-sponsored by the Pasadena Public Library and
is made possible, in part, by a grant to the
Baseball Reliquary from the Los Angeles County
Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles
County Arts Commission.
Parking
Information
A limited number of free parking
spaces is available at the north end of the
Pasadena Central Library in the library lot, on
Garfield Avenue just north of Walnut Street.
Please note that additional free parking is
available at the adjacent University of Phoenix
underground parking structure, which is located
just north of the library parking lot. To access
the University of Phoenix lot, enter the
driveway off Garfield Avenue near the corner of
Corson Street. |