LAKEPORT, Calif. – The eighth and current Lake County poet laureate, Casey Carney, will be the featured reader at the last event of the Lake County Poet Laureate Reading Series, which takes place this Friday, April 10, at 6 p.m. at the House of Living Rhythm community center in Lakeport.

Hosted by local mindfulness teacher JoAnn Saccato, the event, which Carney is calling “An Invitation to Future Collaboration,” will feature guest poets Sam Flot, Aimé Graves and Sandra Stillwell, and guest musicians Kay Ashley, Clare Hedin, Jim Leonardis, and Jason K. Norris.

Presented by Andrea Williams and Casey Carney, the series, which began last September, has celebrated the lineage of poetry in Lake County by presenting a monthly reading of each of Lake County’s eight poets laureate. Each reading also showcased a guest poet and a guest musician.

“Poet laureate” is an official title given to a person who has achieved a level of quality in their work.

The general responsibility of a poet laureate is to promote poetry in a given jurisdiction. These appointments occur from local to national levels.

In Lake County, the tradition began in 1998, when the Board of Supervisors chose Jim Lyle as Lake County’s first poet laureate.

Lyle’s confirmation was to be a lifelong position, but he had the foresight to change the term to two years.

This effectively created a lineage of poets laureate, who have been active in the writing, teaching, and publishing of poetry and prose in Lake County.

“The first time I heard our Lake County poets laureate read was one year ago, when I was applying for the position,” said Carney. “I was so inspired by the depth and excellence of their poetry. I was both thrilled and intimidated to be invited to take on the role. Through this series, I have had the opportunity to celebrate these poets, and to deepen my connection to the art form.”

The first seven readings took place at Andrea Williams' coffee house, Common Grounds, in the Kelseyville Riviera. They were consistently attended by a capacity crowd of poetry enthusiasts.

Every month of the series, Carney wrote an in-depth feature article on each of the poets laureate, which ran in the local press.

Carney’s reading will take place at the House of Living Rhythm to accommodate a larger event, which includes her reading, the guest performers, and a community forum and mixer.

The forum will promote connection within the literary community and between writers and visual/performing artists.

“We’ve gathered a devoted group of poets and poetry lovers,”said Carney. “The first-year mark of my two-year term is the perfect time to invite the community to collaborate in creating more opportunities for poetry in Lake County.”

A poet, dancer, choreographer, and photographer, Carney considers herself a lifelong artist, whose devotion to a creative life reflects a commitment to healing, expression and connection.

“For as long as I can remember, I have experienced creativity as a force that I could trust as authentic, and therefore, essential,” said Carney.

Carney’s formal training in the arts consists of the study of dance and choreography undertaken in her late 20s. Since she started dance at what was considered a late age, her lack of technique both challenged and informed her development as a choreographer.

“Although I struggled with technique, my own movement vocabulary was quite accessible to me,” she said. “It was imperative for me first to express my own voice in movement, and then to expand it through technique.”

Carney became known as a highly inventive choreographer and compelling performer. She received her master’s degree in dance from California State University, Long Beach.

She went on to create and bring to production more than 20 dances and was selected to represent the university at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, where she studied choreography with Bessie Schonberg.

Carney followed a similar path with poetry. She has written poetry and prose since she was an adolescent, undaunted by a lack of formal study.

“The fact that a formal study of art is not always accessible or encouraged does not preclude a person from participating in any art form,” Carney said. “One’s voice can be expanded through technique, but the value of one’s voice should not be measured by one’s technique.”

As a former special education teacher, Carney utilized art, storytelling and movement, as well as traditional modes of instruction, to help her students meet their educational goals.

However, she left the field after realizing that the educational system so emphasized the product over the process of learning, that it was often an impediment to creating a healthy learning environment. 

Carney is currently able to channel her desire to support local youth as a mentor and workshop teacher. 

She has volunteered with a group of youth mentors in Clearlake, and, along with poet laureate emeritus Elaine Watt, she is currently teaching a spoken word poetry workshop for teen girls in Lower Lake.

“I enjoy inspiring others to take part in creativity,” said Carney. “Often, people tell me that they used to dance, or that they used to write, and they seem wistful, as if they know they have put an important part of themselves to the side. Because I believe creativity has intrinsic value and is not extraneous to life, I encourage them to make time for their creative yearnings. Our lives become richer and fuller when we do.”

She added, “There is a great momentum in the Lake County arts community that is the result of the effort of dedicated artists, past and present. I enjoy fostering poetry as an essential part of our community.”

Elaine Watt was the seventh in the series of poets laureate to serve Lake County, Calif.