Poe After Dark features Five Local Performers – Friday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m.
River Forest Public Library
735 Lathrop Ave.
River Forest
Come get scared in the safety of the River Forest Public Library on Friday evening, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m. “Poe After Dark” will feature five local writers and performers interpreting some of the best of Edgar Allan Poe. The lights will be down and the fireplace aglow. Appropriate Poe-inspired treats will be served. This Big Read event is free, but reservations are encouraged. Please call (708) 366-5205, Ext. 316, to register.
The performers include:
Paulette Cary, a lifelong Oak Park resident, is a founding member of the Free Readers Ensemble, currently embarking on their 17th season of free performances at the Oak Park Public Library. Paulette has more than 30 years of stage performance. She currently provides professional on camera and voiceover talent represented by Stavins Talent Agency.
Singer-songwriter and actor Rick Pickren is a member of the Illinois Arts Council ArtsTour and an emeritus member of the Illinois Humanities Road Scholars program. A descendant of Buffalo Bill Cody, he has performed his program “Illinois: Gateway to the American West” throughout the State. Rick’s knowledge of western history, lore and song is displayed in his critically acclaimed albums: Songs From The Lonesome Prairie, The Call: More Songs From The Lonesome Prairie, and Rails, Rogues & Wrecks. The Call was one of five finalists nominated by The Academy of Western Artists as Best Western Song of 2009. Rick is also in the process of arranging and recording all of the U.S. State Songs. Vol. 2 has just been released. Rick has shared the stage with George Strait, Merle Haggard, Alabama, The Judds, Dolly Parton, B.J. Thomas and cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell. He has been featured in the films, Major League, While You Were Sleeping, Soul Survivors and U.S. Marshals. He has guest starred on The Untouchables, ER, Early Edition, Missing Persons and Turks. For more info: www.BigStrikeMusic.com
Charlie Rossiter, NEA Fellowship recipient and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, hosts the audio website poetrypoetry.com. Charlie is the author of four books of poetry and nine chapbooks. His latest book is All Over America: Road Poems (2009), and his music group, Whiskey Bucket Blues Review, has just released a live album. For more information, see www.poetrypoetry.com.
Rolfe Sanberg, Jr., R.N., has worked as a surgical tech and registered nurses in surgery in 1979. Rolfe, a River Forest resident, is the author of his first book, The Surgery Insomniacs and is an experienced film, TV and Shakespearean theatre actor. He is an accomplished athlete who has competed and finished five Vineman triathlons (swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles). Rolfe Sanberg was also the star of the aerobic video, “Wild Workout I” which was produced in 1990.
Michele Weldon, an award-winning author and journalist for 30 years, is an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She is the author of three books. Her most recent, Everyman News: The Changing American Front Page, won the 2009 National Federation of Press Women award for nonfiction books. She recently completed a fourth book about raising her three sons and her recovery from cancer. Her first book, I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman, (Hazelden, 1999) has had more than a dozen printings and was translated into seven languages. Weldon’s second book, Writing to Save Your Life (Hazelden, 2001), has been translated into four languages and is the basis of her Writing to Save Your Life Workshops. She has written for newspapers, websites, magazines and radio such as the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago magazine, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Dallas Times Herald, New York Times, Woman’s Day, Parenting, Dial, Seventeen, Writer’s Digest and West Suburban Living. For more information, see www.micheleweldon.com
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