LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In June, Poets and Writers, a national organization that supports working writers, renewed their grant to the Lake County Arts Council and Mary McMillan.  

This grant supports the free public writing workshop offered monthly in Lakeport, where writers meet at the Main Street Art Gallery, 325 N. Main St., at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.  

The Lake County Arts Council sponsors the workshop, and former Lake County Poet Laureate Mary McMillan facilitates it.

Residents from all over Lake County come to the Writers Circle to share memoirs, fiction, essays or poems they have written – or just to listen and get inspired.  

More seasoned writers and writers just beginning join together to offer feedback, build their skills and find new ideas.  

Aged 19 to 90, some people come only one or two times, and others show up every month.

Poets and Writers provides this grant through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.

For more information contact Mary McMillan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Wildhurst Vineyards will host its first art show on Saturday, June 16.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the courtyard at Wildhurst Vineyards, 3855 Main St. in Kelseyville.

Entry to the event is free, but they will have wine and food available for purchase.

Participating artists will include Mike Lonero, Judy Cardinale, Patricia Oates, Susan Laymon, Toni Steward and Pat Skoog, Gregg Lindsley, Steve Bellah, Diego and Sherry Harris, Marge Bougas, Sheila O'Hara, Leah Adams, Jeff Tangen and Lynn M. Hughes.

For more information call Wildhurst Vineyards at 800-595-9463.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Art House Gallery will hold its third Friday Gala Art Reception on June 15.

The reception will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Join them for refreshments and a meet and greet with the 32 artists who now are part of the gallery.

The Art House Gallery is located at 15210 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake, telephone 707-994-1716.

Visit the gallery online at http://thearthousegallery.net/ .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Carolyn Hawley, local musician and composer, will play her recent piano recordings of concerts featuring works by Beethoven as well as some modern composers on Saturday, June 16, on “Word Weavers.”

“Word Weavers” is on every Saturday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on KPFZ 88.1 FM and features a different
host with a different topic every week.

Hawley features her own recordings on her show since she is a pianist who specializes in the classics.

KPFZ is also on the web at www.kpfz.org , where most shows are live-streamed.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – A two-week acting camp that will give young people an experience with theater and drama takes place this month in Middletown.

The acting camp is open to students who will be entering first through fifth grades in the fall.

The camp runs 9 a.m. to noon, Mondays through Fridays, June 18-22 and June 25-29.

Healthy snacks will be provided.

The cost is $200 per child.

“Acting builds confidence, self-esteem, and helps discover new talents. That, plus it’s a lot of fun,” said camp director Jessica Sage.

Sage has been teaching acting as well as directing theater for 15 years. She hopes this camp will be a place for young people to be expressive, creative and spontaneous in a noncompetitive environment.

“Young people need a healthy and safe way to express themselves,” Sage said. “Creating characters allows them to do that.”

Campers will have the full experience of putting on a show – everything from learning lines to performing in front of an audience.

They will rehearse a play, “Alice in Woodland,” and perform on the last day of camp.

Alice will be joined by her friends including the Cheshire Cat, March Hare, Mad Hatter and the Queen as she learns a big lesson in the forest.

All campers will have their own parts in this spirited and funny tale.

Campers will perform for invited friends and family on Thursday, June 28, at 6 p.m. and Friday, June 29, at 11 a.m., followed by a cast party.

To enroll and for more information call 415-328-6363 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Though most of us are not formally known as diplomats, many of us learn to be experts at domestic diplomacy, and the sorts of complex negotiations we find ourselves in can require a lot of patience.

Here’s Dan Gerber, who lives in California, showing us some of that patience.

Marriage

When you are angry it’s your gentle self
I love until that’s who you are.
In any case, I can’t love this anger any more
than I can warm my heart with ice.
I go on loving your smile
till it finds its way back to your face.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2011 by Dan Gerber. In 2012, Copper Canyon Press will publish Dan Gerber’s Sailing Through Cassiopeia. Poem reprinted by permission of Dan Gerber. Introduction copyright © 2012 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.