Category: Cafe McKune

Café McKune was a musical feast last night, with a performance by Beach Middle School Fiddle Club as well as solo and ensemble performances by members of the group.

Here is a taste of the performances.

See you at 7pm!

Sad that Cafe McKune is over for the next few months? Come see Paul Hardwick, and get inspired for next Fall!

Dr. Paul (Oz) Hardwick of Leeds Trinity University College will read his work and particiate in a Q&A session in the audience after. Hardwick has published two well-received poetry collections, The Kind Ghosts (bluechrome, 2004) and Carrying Fire (bluechrome, 2006)and a ‘best of’, The Lost Songs, was published in 2009. His work has appeared in countless books and journals, and he has read his work in the UK, Europe and US, as well as on radio and television as well as at the Glastonbury Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The reading takes place Tuesday, May 25th at 6:30pm in the McKune Room. Register now!

We have an amazing line-up of performances, and you can be a part of it! Sign up now at the reference desk, or via Facebook!

Awesome people who have already signed up:

Ryan Sanders

Tyler Frisbie

Devyn Bauer

Zoe Miller

The Gwapes (See their Facebook page for videos.

Here’s a short video of Tyler singing Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.

It's a full house! We moved a lot of furniture to make the room feel more comfortable

Our first musician of the night, performing for her family, teachers from Chelsea High School, as well as complete strangers. Very brave, and talented.

Local teens read stories and poems of their own creation, and there was one person who read a true story from the perspective of a fish!

Tyler and Max stole the show with their duets. Tyler sang several songs, as well.

We have a nice line-up of acts, but there’s room for more! Do you want to read a poem? Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins explains how:

1. Read the poem slowly. Reading a poem slowly is the best way to ensure that the poem will be read clearly and understood by its listeners.

2. Read in a normal, relaxed tone of voice. It is not necessary to give any of these poems a dramatic reading as if from a stage. The poems selected are mostly written in a natural, colloquial style and should be read that way. Let the words of the poem do the work. Just speak clearly and slowly.

3. Obviously, poems come in lines, but pausing at the end of every line will create a choppy effect and interrupt the flow of the poem’s sense. Readers should pause only where there is punctuation, just as you would when reading prose, only more slowly.

4. Use a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words and hard-to-pronounce words. To read with conviction, a reader needs to know at least the dictionary sense of every word.

Example of a good poem to read (feel free to use it!)

THE PLATYPUS

by: Oliver Herford (1863-1935)

• Y child, the Duck-billed Platypus

  A sad example sets for us:

  From him we learn how Indecision

  Of character provokes Derision.

  This vacillating Thing, you see,

  Could not decide which he would be,

  Fish, Flesh or Fowl, and chose all three.

  The scientists were sorely vexed

  To classify him; so perplexed

  Their brains, that they, with Rage at bay,

  Called him a horrid name one day,–

  A name that baffles, frights and shocks us,

  Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus.

Wednesday January 20 & February 17, 7-8:30pm | McKune | Registration for performance slots.

Cafe McKune is a new monthly event at the Chelsea District Library– Sign up now to play an instrument, read poetry or a story, tell a story or poem, or talk about art work you’re making.  Participants will recieve a $5 card good for overdue fines on all media.

Anyone can come listen, and Zou Zou’s Cafe is providing drinks and food for the event!

Teens and Tweens interested in signing up can call 475-8732 and ask for the Youth Desk.