Workshops, Readings, Gatherings
The Cabin hosts writing instruction, classes, drop-in writing workshops, author readings, and other activities and events. Most are held at our historic log home on Capitol Boulevard.
The story of music, stories from home
A program of music and the spoken word with writer Gary Holthaus and musician Lauren Pelon will be presented on March 11, 7:00 PM at The Cabin. Pelon plays a variety of instruments ranging from lute, guitar, and free reeds to recorders, gemshorn, and electronic instruments while Holthaus reads from his own works and those of others. Both the music and the readings offer unique perceptions of the natural world, and celebrate our sense of place, community, and home.
Lauren Pelon has performed throughout the U.S. and in China, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Australia, and New Zealand. She is noted for her versatile use of such a diverse array of instruments, but Pelon has also won recognition for her lovely soprano voice, and for her compelling compositions and arrangements of music from many countries and cultures. Lauren has performed with symphony orchestras, The Philadelphia String Quartet, on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” and at the Russian Institute for the History of the Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was the recipient of the 2001 “Artist of the Year” award from the Southeast Minnesota Arts Council, and 2010 Artist Initiative Award from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Holthaus has published four books of poems, three chapbooks, and three collections of essays, all of them rooted in the earth. His most recent book is titled, Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach Us about Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality, published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2008. His most recent book of poems is called Circling Back. He was a 1990 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship for Poetry. He has also been a commercial fisherman in Alaska, a Methodist preacher and big-game guide in Montana, a wheat packer for Quaker Oats in Iowa, and “worked too long moving steel beams around for Iowa Steel and Iron Works” in Cedar Rapids.
Paul Shaffer, Executive & Artistic Director of The Cabin, said, “Lauren and Gary combine such unique talents that this program will remind us of the importance of stories in creating community and celebrating home. “The Story of Music, Stories from Home” is sure to be thought-provoking, illuminating, and entertaining.” The program is funded in part by Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities and sponsored by The Cabin.
Suggested donation $5.
New teachers for Drop-In Writing Workshop
Malia Collins and Adrian Kien will be sharing the teaching roles for the Drop-In Writing workshop. They look forward to working with participants who have enjoyed Norman Weinstein's writing leadership in the Drop-In classes over the years. Both are experienced professional writers and teachers who currently work with students in The Cabin's award-winning Writers in the Schools program and have taught in the idaho writing camps. All are welcome to attend this informal community workshop for writers at all levels. Bring pen and paper and a willingness to explore. The workshops are held the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at 6:30 PM at The Cabin. Free.
