The Cultural Center’s Winter/Spring 2016 Performing Arts Series kicks off on Thursday, February 18th, 2016 with a unique program featuring music and poetry from two talented Minnesota artists, Athena Kildegaard and Patty Kakac. There will be both a 7pm performance and a 5pm workshop offered at the Cultural Center.

At 5:00 p.m., join us for a workshop, “Finding Inspiration for Poems from Unexpected Sources,” in the main floor gallery. In this workshop, attendees will write poems that draw their inspiration from a great variety of print sources. Expect to leave with at least two new poems. Bring paper, pen or pencil and any of the following: old family letters, your high school yearbook, a cookbook that your mother used, a do-it-yourself manual that’s at least twenty years old, a naturalist’s guide to anything, a diary you kept years ago, a travel guide to a place you’ve been or a place you want to visit, or something else you’ve thought of while reading this list. Workshop will be facilitated by poet, author, and professor Athena Kildegaard.

The evening performance, “Women on the Prairie in Song and Poetry” will begin at 7:00 p.m. Singer/songwriter Patty Kakac and poet Athena Kildegaard will explore and celebrate the lives of women on the prairie through song and verse. Join these two talented women for a program of creative work inspired by history and story.

PattyKakac-heart-of-a-woman

Patty Kakac

Athena Kildegaard small

Athena Kildegaard

Patty Kakac has been singing and writing professionally since 1978. Her instruments include, guitar, autoharp, harmonica, and piano. She has performed throughout the upper Midwest both as a solo performer as well with other musicians and she has produced and recorded 5 albums that have been played around the world. Her music has been used for numerous plays and videos as well as a PBS documentary.

Athena Kildegaard is the author of four books of poetry: Rare Momentum, Bodies of Light (a Minnesota Book Award finalist), Cloves & Honey (a Midwest Book award finalist), and Ventriloquy (forthcoming March 2016). Her poems and other work has been published in journals around the country and Canada. She teaches at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

For more information call the Cultural Center at (218) 385-3339 or visit the Center’s website at www.kulcher.org.

legacy_sm lrac

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Lake Region Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.