Date: August 23, 2023
Contact: Yountville Arts Commission
Staff Liaison
Samantha Holland, Parks and Recreation Director
(707) 948-2627 sholland@yville.com
Upcoming opportunities abound to express yourself and perhaps even awaken your inner Shakespeare, Mark Twain or Toni Morrison through Yountville Arts Literary Programs.
Take a turn at the mic or come as a spectator to Yountville Out Loud on Thursday, Sept. 14 from 5:30 - 7 p.m. in the Yountville Community Center Plaza. Participants are encouraged to use the open mic to read a poem, a passage from a novel, or sing a song they’ve written or one they admire. Light bites and beverages will be provided.
Ignite your thespian talents through Improv Gatherings and Play Readings. Yountville Arts is encouraging local acting, creativity, playwriting and play readings through workshops that will be offered in the Spring of 2024. In the meantime, get inspired by attending plays written by Napa Valley writers.
Three short one-act plays will be presented at a Play Reading Thursday, Sept. 28, from 5:30 - 7 p.m. in the Heritage Room at the Yountville Community Hall. The plays, running between 10 and 26 minutes each, were written by Marianne Lyon, Geoffrey Leigh, Dominic Triglia and Richard Televera.
“Richard has been writing, acting and directing plays much of his adult life. He will make this an interesting and entertaining evening,” said Yountville Arts Commissioner and author Geoffrey Leigh.
The plays will involve the four writers and other volunteer actors as they conduct a ‘scripted reading’ (where the actors read from the script and move around). This will be a free event for the public.
Present poetry, prose, or a song at Handwritten Out Loud. This event, co-sponsored by Handwritten Wines and Yountville Arts, returns by popular demand. Last spring, a group of 21 selected writers and composers presented their work to an appreciative audience of 40 attendees there.
Writers and composers will present their work to an audience at the Handwritten Wine tasting room, 6494 Washington St, on Sunday, Oct. 22 from 5:30 – 7 p.m. Wine, coffee and snacks will be available. A $15 entry fee will include a taste of wine and a professionally published Chapbook containing all the entries. Visit www.handwrittenwines.com to secure your ticket.
Incorporate poetry and prose into the Yountville Art Walk Audio Tour. Wordsmiths are invited to submit high quality short poems expressing their thoughts about individual sculptures or prose describing their experience of the sculpture. Writers are challenged to hone their poetry or prose to a 60-word maximum. Students are encouraged to practice their writing skills by developing and submitting your work about a particular sculpture. Submissions can occur at anytime to Geoffrey.leigh.ARTS@Yville.com. Use the Art Walk map available at https://www.youraudiotour.com/tours/yountville-art-walk/ to help find a favorite sculpture without a literary component.
Arts Commissioner Leigh noted that telling a story in a few words is not only possible but is a good discipline for writers, citing the famous six-word story “Baby Shoes,” reputed to have been written by Ernest Hemingway, as an example.
The written pieces that are selected will be accessible using the QR code on the Yountville Arts website.
Write for the Bookmark Story Contest, a collaboration between Yountville Arts Commission, the Yountville Library and Friends of the Yountville Library. Napa County writers are invited to submit one or two stories comprised of 60 words or less per story so they will fit on bookmarks. The five best stories will be published on bookmarks distributed by the Napa County Libraries with book checkouts.
Submissions for the Bookmark Story Contest will be accepted from September 25th through November 6th on the Yountville Arts website, www.yountvillearts.com, with a $5 entry fee for each story to cover printing expenses. Or, instead of the fee, stories can be accepted for the contest free of charge by submitting based on your Napa County library card.
Each submission will go through a blind review to identify the top five winning stories for the bookmarks. In addition, a $100 prize will be awarded to each of the finalists.
To support the development of the Bookmark Stories, two workshops are being offered. One will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 19th from 10 - 11:30 a.m. in the Yountville Community Hall Art Room and another is scheduled for Oct. 4 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at the Napa Library Community Room.
“This will give Napa County writers a chance to explore and practice micro-fiction,” said Leigh. “Micro-fiction requires writers to be incredibly concise, using as few words as possible to convey a complete story or idea.”
Join authors Marianne Lyon and Geoffrey Leigh in a Writing Celebration through a class titled “Prosetry – A Writing Journey,” offered through the Yountville Arts Commission and Town of Yountville Parks and Recreation.
The authors will guide poets and writers into a new genre called Prosetry using their book “Prosetry Journey: Exploring Expressions of the Heart.” Participants will be given prompts to inspire a new way of writing. They will then create a Chapbook or two of their writings to take home and cherish. In addition, there will be an evening of sharing the writing with family and friends in early December.
“Prosetry – A Writing Journey,” as a part of the writing celebration is a free class that is limited to 12 people. It meets bi-weekly on Tuesdays at the Yountville Community Center beginning Sept. 12 from 1 – 2:30 p.m. and runs through November. You can sign up for this class online through the Town of Yountville Parks and Recreation Department, yvilleparksandrec.com, or by stopping by the Community Center front desk located at 6516 Washington Street.
For additional information on all the literary arts - Yountvillearts.com
Participant at Handwritten Out Loud
Geoffrey Leigh and Participant at Yountville Out Loud 2022
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