Mar 21 2024
Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz

Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz

Presented by The Third Thursday Poetry Group at Think Visual

Featuring Willits Poet Mike A’Dair

7pm, March 21, 2024

THINK VISUAL
240 Main Street
Downtown Point Arena, CA
or via Zoom (we got it to work last month)

Bring something to sit on, something to eat and/or drink, your words, music and ears!!

WILLITS POET MIKE A’DAIR TO FEATURE AT THIRD THURSDAY POETRY IN MARCH 2024
On Thursday, March 21, at 7pm The Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz Reading Series will feature Willits poet Mike A’Dair. The reading will take place at Think Visual, at 240 Main Street (next door to Roots Herbal Apothecary) in downtown Point Arena. The reading will begin with live improv jazz, followed by a featured reading with the musicians accompanying A’Dair, then an open mic with jazz improv, and finally the reading will conclude with more live improv jazz. Poets, storytellers and musicians welcome.

Mike A’Dair was born in Oakland, California in 1951. He grew up a music-loving Rebel without a Cause in the sleepy and somewhat surreal housing tract of Washington Manor, located next to the Nimitz Freeway, now known as Highway 880, in San Leandro.

He decided to become a poet in November 1969, while walking home from a party. Between 1969 and 1971, he attended college at what is now called California State University of the East Bay, dropping out in October 1971. After dropping out, he visited Hearst, California, which is a wide spot in the road 14 miles east of Willits, right next to the Eel River. While living in Hearst, he seemed to touch nature and truth for the first time.

From 1971 to 1981, he lived in both Berkeley and Hearst, gradually shifting to a more rural identity. He went back to the land from 1981 to 1983, living with an Earth Mother and adobe sculptress in Hearst.  When that relationship succumbed to natural causes, he moved into Willits. He has lived in Willits since 1984.

He became involved in the Willits Community Theatre in 1984 and since that time has been one of the main creative engines of that plucky organization. He has acted in a dozen plays, has directed eight plays, including Waiting for Godot, Top Girls, Dracula, In the Next Room (also known as The Vibrator Play), Rapture, Blister, Burn and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged and, between 1997 and 2023, has produced 75 plays for the Willits Community Theatre.  He retired as production manager in 2023. In 2021, he wrote a play, entitled Hymn to Her, which was produced at the Willits Community Theatre in the summer of 2023.

In his work life, he was a newspaper reporter for The Willits News from 1996 to 2011, and for Willits Weekly from 2013 to 2020. He mostly covered the county Board of Supervisors.

As a poet, A’Dair has assumed various voices and styles.  He has written in Shakespearean, Wordsworthian, and Ginsbergian voices.  He has vituperated US militarism and materialism. He has been a love poet, complaining mightily of his loneliness. Most recently he has realized that there is no accepted poetic style in English these days.  While this makes it easy to write, it also makes it difficult to write, since it is almost always guaranteed that no one will hear him.

Third Thursday Poetry is supported by The Third Thursday Poetry Group, many anonymous donors, and Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation.

Admission Info

Email blake@snakelyone.com for the Zoom link.

Dates & Times

2024/03/21 - 2024/03/21

Location Info

Think Visual

240 Main Street, Point Arena, CA 95468