VERO BEACH – Sean Sexton, Silvia Curbelo and Michael Hettich will read several poems from their latest works, at a fundraising event, In a Southerly Light: Poetry and Barbecue, from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, April 3 at the home of the late poet Laura (Riding) Jackson, located on the campus of the Environmental Learning Center. The Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation is hosting this poetry reading and barbecue, honoring the month of April as National Poetry Month. The event will benefit the preservation efforts at the homestead.
Come enjoy bluegrass by the Hot Sauce Boys, an awesome barbecue dinner, three 21st century poets and your literary friends, all on the banks of the Indian River Lagoon.
Reserved tickets are $25 per person.
Local rancher, artist, author and now poet, Sean Sexton has a new book of poetry out, entitled Blood Writing. In Sexton’s latest work, you will be transported through the portal of a fourth generation rancher whose telescopic imagination, spiritual wisdom, and uniquely personal perspective places you so close to his work you can feel the profound treasures and heat of each Florida day.
Drum Hadley says, “Sean Sexton’s book is a symphony of all the barnyard creatures. Poignant recognitions weave a fabric of tales that are tender, agonizing, sad, sometimes wry and funny.”
Poet Silvia Curbelo was born in Cuba and immigrated to the United States as a child with her parents. In her first book of poetry, the Secret History of Water, Curbelo reminds us of those simpler days of cruising in cars, listening to radios and feeling the sense of freedom that’s only known by adolescence and young adults prior to responsibility or obligation.
Carolyn Forche’ writes of the collection, “Silvia Curbelo’s poetry conjures ghosts-not only of family and former selves, but of acts and gestures whose “secret history” surrounds an archipelago of human lives. Her cadences are marked by the urgency of smuggled testimony. In Curbelo’s intimate telling, even water in a drinking glass is, a river begging to be named. This is a compelling first collection of necessary poems.”
Poet Michael Hettich speaks with delicately refined blown-glass emotions for his loved ones, a touch of endearing remorse for the changes that come with aging, and a heavy ration of casual human frailties that trick the mind in which we sometimes live.
Michael’s book, Like Happiness will make you want to read and re-read the sights, the sounds and the smells of early youth.
To reserve a ticket, visit www.lauraridingjackson.com or call 772-569-6718.