With autumn in the air, Hot Words will kindle a cozy coffeehouse warmth this Sunday at The Yard. Vineyard poets Justen Ahren, Samantha Barrow, Linda Black, Richard Skidmore, and Jennifer Tseng will join forces with singer/songwriters Jemima James and Dan Waters for an evening of contemplative and provocative performances.
Hot Words is a diverse group of artists with one thing in common: a love of poetry that glows on the page and gleams in performance. Justen Ahren comes to The Yard fresh from readings in Washington State to promote his new book, “The Bells in Her Mouth Are Ringing.” Samantha Barrow tours the country by motorcycle, sharing her work in bars, universities, cafés, and sex shops. Linda Black has performed in Paris, Toronto, New Orleans, and New York. Jennifer Tseng’s book “The Man With My Face” won the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s National Poetry Manuscript Competition and a PEN American Center Beyond Margins Award.
The poetry will be seasoned and punctuated with music. With her warm, truth-telling voice and her 60s-era Gibson Hummingbird guitar, singer-songwriter Jemima James is a cornerstone of the Vineyard folk-music scene. Dan Waters was appointed the first poet laureate of the Town of West Tisbury in 2006, and has recently turned to song as a way of delivering poetry.
Hot Words at The Yard, 6 pm, Sunday, Sept. 19, Chilmark. $15.