Vision-Revision Writing Workshops with Meg Jeske and Sara Blackthorne

Three One-Day Workshops: RSVP for 1 or all 3

Tues Aug 30 9:30am – 12:30pm

Ground Your Writing in the Physical World

In this workshop, you will learn to create an image vocabulary. Through a series of prompts and exercises, we’ll practice drawing on that image vocabulary to write descriptive prose without flowery language. Writers of all genres are welcome and will benefit from this class.Taught by Sara Blackthorne.

Wed Aug 31 9:30am – 12:30pm

Anything but Empty

Writers find inspiration anywhere. In this class, we’ll use song lyrics from singer-songwriters as prompts for writing. Fiction and nonfiction writers welcome. We will write, share, and walk away with several bits of fresh writing. The title of this workshop comes from the Sara Bareilles song, “Brave.” Open to all writers. Taught by Meg Weber

Thurs Sept 1 9:30am – 12:30pm

Re-Visioning Your Words

So you’ve got some writing, (maybe from the workshop on Tuesday or Wednesday?!) and you want to take it to the next level. Together we’ll explore tools for re-visioning your writing, and experiment with ways to enliven and communicate exactly what you intend. Taught by Meg Weber

Meg Weber writes to connect with herself and to understand the world around her. She believes in the power of words and in the synergy created by writing in community. Meg holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology and is a therapist in private practice. She is currently at work on two book-length memoir projects.

A writer, editor, creative coach, and intuitive ritualist, Sara Blackthorne brings her love of mystery and the journey to her writing and art. She can often be found wandering along the beach, in the forest, or a city street. Learn more at sarablackthorne.com. Together Meg and Sara operate Paper Lion Press. Pounce over to PaperLionPress.com

Cost $75 for all three days or $30 each day.

Please bring a notebook or journal and writing implements. Please bring a snack if needed. Hot tea and coffee provided. Workshop for students ages 15+. All skill levels welcome. Max # of students:12.

Please RSVP by Aug 26     souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com   or   360 – 642 – 2542

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SUMMER ART CAMP For Adults (and kids) Program*

Fiber Arts Camp with Brooke Shepherd and Deirdre Spahr

Three One-Day Workshops: RSVP for 1 or all 3

Tues Sept 6 10am – 1pm   Workshop with Brooke Shepherd

Introduction to Tapestry Weaving

Come try tapestry weaving! This basic technique of weaving cloth starts with very simple

beginnings. In this class you will learn the basics of choosing yarns, warping the loom and

weaving basic shapes. The sample piece you create may be kept as a future reference, used as

a small mat or sewn into a pouch or pocket. Small looms and basic materials will be provided.

Materials Fee $45 includes small loom, yarn, and tapestry needle.

Please RSVP 2 weeks before class begins

Students may bring yarn and their own loom and save on materials fee

Max 12 Students Skill level – Total beginner through Intermediate

All ages – children 5 and up

Wed Sept 7 10am – 1pm Workshop with Brooke Shepherd

Dye Workshop: Indigo or Shibori

Learn about different dyes and how they relate to the weather and temperature. The appropriate technique will be determined by the instructor (and the weather) and then all will have hands-on instruction.

Thurs Sept 8 10am – 1pm Workshop with Dierdre Spahr

Felted “Paintings” with Naturally Dyed Wool

Natural dyes presentation and workshop – Wool painting design planning through drawing or painting, Begin felted pictures through laying down base layers using multi-needle felting tool, Finalizing felt paintings through using single needles to add fine detail

Materials: $55 each for natural dye materials, wool roving, wool backing, foam felting pads,             felting needle tools and felting needles – participants would take home a felting needle tool, felting foam and a handfelted “painting”

Brooke Shepherd

Growing up on the West Coast with the Pacific Ocean in my backyard has most definitely shaped my creative processes: salt air, the rhythm of waves crashing, the cycle of the tides and the moon…these are the memories that I invoke which inform most of my work. Seawater Studio is my textile arts studio based in Portland, Oregon. I create a seasonal collection of garments and accessories as well as collaborate with other artists in order to produce one-of-a-kind handwoven yardage for the fashion, interior design, and costuming industries. I aim to use only sustainable and organic yarns, dyes, and fabrics in my work and am especially inspired by the mission of the  Fibershed movement.

Deirdre Spahr, Deirdre’s love for the outdoors began as a child in Pennsylvania where, from a young age, she and her little sister had free range of the farm fields, woods and creeks surrounding their home. Her parents are both active environmentalists and outdoor enthusiasts who have long supported her interests in sustainable development. Before becoming a Waldorf school teacher and moving to Portland, Deirdre worked with non-profit groups in New York to develop educational programming for children and adults, on environmental and humanitarian issues. It is Deirdre’s hope to reawaken conscious connection with nature and community through fun . . . and a fair amount of goading people into putting away their cell phones to engage directly with mud, bugs, skipping stones, stinging nettle, the pouring rain, climbing trees and more, as much as possible.

Cost $75 for all three days or $30 each day paid to the Sou’wester. This workshop is open to the public.

Please bring additional material fees noted in class description paid directly to the instructor. All skill levels welcome, no art experience needed. Please bring a sack lunch and/or snack. Hot tea and coffee provided.­

Please RSVP     souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com   or   360 – 642 – 2542

Creative Writing Retreat   with Nick Jaina 

Nick’s first Summer Art Camp workshops went so well that we are adding another workshop. This time in Artist-In-Residence style in which the entire lodge is set aside for students in this workshop and all students may book a room in the lodge for $50 a night.

Mon Sept 12 ^th – Thurs Sept 15^th 10am – 1pm   or   2pm – 5pm

This set of workshops focuses on all the good things that writing can do for your mental and emotional state, how it can bring you closer to people, and how it can help you understand the world. Rather than just trying to make something marketable, we will work on discovering the interesting, funny, and wonderful ideas that are sitting inside of us.

Students sign up for the workshop and then pick the time slot they prefer.

Sign up for 1 day or all 4. Pick one time slot for each day.

We are offering Writer Retreat prices for any suite in the lodge: $150 for the week or $50 a night (potentially shared accommodations). Students do not have to stay at the Sou’wester to take any of these classes.

Nick Jaina is a musician and author from Portland, Oregon. His book Get It While You Can is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award in Creative Non-Fiction. He has taught writing workshops for ten years at Pendleton Rock Camp.

Cost $100 for all four days or $30 each day.

Please bring a laptop or pen and paper. Please bring a sack lunch and/or snack. Hot tea and coffee provided. Workshop for students ages 15+. All skill levels welcome. Max # of students:10 (5 in each session, morning or afternoon.)

Please RSVP souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com   or   360 – 642 – 2542.

Call the Sou’wester to book your stay – all lodge rooms have been set aside for this retreat.

We are located at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644

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(Live Stream) Jeffrey Martin at The Sou’wester

Jeffrey Martin:
As a babe Jeffrey Martin sought out solitude as often as he could find it. He’s always been that way, and he has never understood the whole phenomenon of smiling in pictures, although he is a very happy guy. One night in middle school he stayed up under the covers with a flashlight and a DiscMan, listening to Reba McEntire’s ‘That’s the Night that the Lights Went Out in Georgia’ on repeat until the DiscMan ran out of batteries. That night he became a songwriter, although he didn’t actually write a song until years later. After high school he spent a few years distracting himself from having to gather up the courage to do what he knew he had to do.

Eventually he found his way to a writing degree, and then a teaching degree. He wrote most days like his life depended on it, all sorts of things, not just songs, but songs too. He fell in love with teaching high school English, which was fantastic because he never thought he’d actually come to truly love it. His students were fierce and unstoppable forces of noise and curiosity, and for all that they took from him in sleep and sense, they gave him a hundred times back in sparks and humility.

All the while he was also playing truckloads of music. There was one weekend where he flew to LA while grading essays on the plane, played two shows, and then flew back home, still grading essays, and woke up to teach at 5 am on Monday morning. It was around this time he started wondering if such a life was sustainable.

Alas, music, the tour life, was a constant raccoon scratching at the back door. Jeffrey spent nights on end sitting up in bed, and then sitting on the front porch, staring off into the dark, wondering if he could bear to leave teaching to go on tour full time. Eventually his brain caught up with what his guts had known for months. With tears in his eyes he announced to his students that he wouldn’t be back the following year, and that he didn’t feel right hollering at them to chase their dreams at all cost if he wasn’t going to do the same.

Jeffrey Martin tours full time now. He is always making music, and he is always coming through your town. He misses teaching like you might miss a good old friend who you know you’ll meet again.

Jeffrey has put out bunches of music since 2009, but he’s most proud of the more recent stuff. He’s fortunate to be a part of the great and loving family that is Fluff and Gravy Records in Portland, OR. “One Go Around,” which released in October 2017, is his 3rd full length album. At his luckiest, he’s shared shows with the likes of Sean Hayes, Gregory Alan Isakov, Courtney Marie Andrews, Jeffrey Foucault, Joe Pug, Peter Mulvey, Amanda Shires, Sean Rowe, Tracy Grammer, David Wilcox, and others.

He currently lives in Portland, OR but feels lately that it has become a secret that someone figured out how to monetize. And since he has no money of any kind, everything beautiful about the city is marred by the quiet ticking of a countdown toward the day that he’ll have to find somewhere to live that doesn’t require a steady bleeding fortune.

** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *

Mike Coykendall: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts

(Live Stream) Mike Coykendall at The Sou’wester

Veteran songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Coykendall has been amazingly prolific over the last three decades or so. Currently most well known for his duties as a sideman, producer, and recordist via his work with M Ward, Blitzen Trapper, She & Him, Annalisa Tornfelt, & Tin Hat Trio, to name a few, Coykendall has been making his own unique outsider records since the mid ’80s.

Coykendall (pronounced “Kirk-in-doll) was raised near the dead center of the contiguous 48 states of America in rural Norwich, Kansas. In early high school he began playing drums and guitar and went on to perform in mid-western regional cover bands during the early 80’s. In the mid 80’s he started writing and recording his own songs on cassette 4-track and soon formed Wichita, Kansas based prarie-psych popsters Klyde Konnor. Klyde was a prolific and daring band that self-released approximately nine cassette albums between ’86 and ’91.

In ’91, he moved to San Francisco where he and wife Jill formed The Old Joe Clarks. The Old Joes worked hard and made three nuanced, highly acclaimed Americana-esque records. 1996’s Town of Ten, 1999’s Metal Shed Blues, & 2003’s November.

In ’99 after relocating to Portland, Oregon, Coykendall was able to expand his home studio and begin working other artists. One of those artists was M Ward. Their first collaboration was Ward’s 2003 masterpiece Transfiguration of Vincent. Soon after, Coykendall became a member of Ward’s touring band (also with She & Him).

In 2012 Coykendall released his third solo record titled Chasing Away the Dots via Portland’s Fluff & Gravy Records. Dots is a widely varied, moody yet playful record with a lived-in feel and is the perfect vehicle for Coykendall’s unfurnished vocals.  This tidy little diamond in the rough also contained guest appearances by some of Coykendall’s musical friends including M Ward, Zooey Deschanel, Eric Earley, & Ben Gibbard.

Translating Dots to a live setting was an undertaking, as the record itself was filled with guest performances and layers of studio psychedelia. Coykendall met that challenge by essentially turning the record inside-out and stripping it down to it’s basic elements. He took to rocking these songs out with an oversized Kay electric guitar while stomping a tin can kick drum and swishing away on a huge set of high-hat cymbals. He began calling it the “rig”, and it stuck. These spontaneous performances are often a thick mix of Coykendall’s own compositions and reinterpretations of other writer’s famous or not-so-famous gems. Not working from a set list and seemingly testing each situation to see what boundaries can be pushed.

In late 2015 Coykendall released Half Past, Present Pending, partnering again with Fluff & Gravy Records. On this record, Coykendall takes the listener closer to the live “rig” performances by mixing excellent new compositions (check out “Hard Landing”) with compositions from his back catalogue (check out “East of Cheney” or “Spacebaker Blues”) in with fresh interpretations of other writers songs (he covers Roger Miller, Syd Barrett, etc) to great effect. 

He continues to write, perform, produce, engineer, and wander SE Portland.

** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *