California Writers Circle: The First Lojinks Festival!

Our Friends of Joaquin Miller Park annual meeting and "In the Hights" Literary Arts Festival last October was an epic revival of great traditions. There's a video coming, but until then, taste these delicious highlights.

We shared a pot of crowdsourced “bandit stew” (everyone brought an ingredient) prepared by chef John Farais of Indigenous Edibles.

The audience--which included all of the readers--was treated to a cascade of historic literature read by local lights! The first reading was by a Rachel Royce, president of the Metropolitan Horseman's Association. From atop her horse, Harry Potter, she read a rollicking excerpt of the poem "Joaquin Murietta" -- the poem that shaped Joaquin Miller's destiny. Miller's horse, by the way, was named  Chief.

The purpose of the program was to entertain and educate the public about the first and second wave of  California Writers who lived at or visited The Hights, Joaquin Miller's art colony that later became Joaquin Miller Park. These artists put the West on the Literary Map and shaped the world. Their stories are as interesting as their writing was powerful. Words by our contemporary writers also rocked the rocky hill.

One historic writer was Gertrude Mott, who was the president of the California Writers Club in the 1930s. As wife of Mayor Mott, she used her political influence to bring the WPA to Oakland, to fulfill Joaquin Miller's dream of a temple to the arts. The top fountain in the Woodminster Cascade is named for her. Emma Ethrington, the new Miss Art Deco emerita, read poems by the writers of the era who were later honored in the Writers Memorial Grove, from Mott's book, Californiacs, which educated newcomers to the state about all of our Spanish and Native Indian names. 

And Richelle Lieberman, voice of the Pardee Historic Home, told stories about meeting Juanita Miller, Joaquin's daughter, who worked with Mott.

It was a wonderful debut of the California Writers Library, my new collection funded by the Berkeley Branch of the California Writers Club -- sometimes you can see it on www.millerlight.org. Thank you to Friends of Joaquin Miller Park for sponsoring this remarkable day!