Poetry in the Gallery returns after its summer break!

Join us as an audience member and/or open mic performer (entry is free for all performers).

Featuring this month will be Todd Griese and Anita McLaughlin, both poets and visual artists. In addition to their readings, both writers will be displaying some of their artwork.

Poetry in the Gallery is free to attend for all members of Studio Channel Islands, all students and all performers.

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Todd Griese is an American poet and the publisher at Gandy Dancer Press, a small press dedicated to and specializing in mixed-media arts and collaborative expression with artists and musicians. Formerly owner of the Ojai Bookstore, he has been writing and publishing poetry for over forty years. His books include Spiritual Lines (2009) and North Fork (2018), which was written in response to the Thomas Fire that consumed Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in late 2017 into early 2018. SO WE PRACTICE was published in 2023. Todd has also published over 40 art broadsides.

Anita McLaughlin works at Blanchard Community library where she facilitates an open mic on the second Saturday of the month at 12 noon. She lives in Santa Paula on the edge of the Santa Clara River and writes about the particular wildlife in Heritage Valley within the shadow of South Mountain. Her poems have been published in Salt, SMC Emeritus Chronicles, Askew, Canyon Chronicle, the VCWC anthology, Nuance, and Out of the Ground, Poems Inspired by Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.