Bonk! Mixes it Up for the 9th Cross-Pollination

The next event in the Racine Public Library's "BONK!" performance series will take place on Saturday, June 27 at 6 p.m. This month's BONK! will feature a performance from poet Anne Shaw, a screening of the national poetry movement Poetry Everywhere, a reading from author Liam Callanan, and a unique exhibition by culinary artist Joe Manessi.

Created to expose the public to both local and nationally recognized artistic talents, the series showcases poets, writers, musicians, film makers and other talented artists. This completely free program is sponsored by Blueberries restaurant, 418 6th St., and the Racine Public Library. The series is located in downtown Racine and will be performed at 515 6th St, the site of the old Fireside BBQ building. Food and drink are available for purchase at Blueberries directly across the street. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with seating available on a first come/first served basis. Each BONK! event features a short question and answer session with the artists.

Anne Shaw's poetry collection, Undertow, won the 2007 Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Prize from Persea Press. A graduate of Yale University and George Mason University, Shaw has received numerous awards for her poetry including a Gertrude Stein Award (Green Integer Press) and the Literal Latté Food Verse Prize. She has been a finalist for the Colorado Poetry Prize and a semi-finalist for the "Discovery"/The Nation Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including New American Writing, Phoebe, Hayden's Ferry Review, Gulf Coast, and The Journal.

Liam Callanan is the author of The Cloud Atlas (Delacorte, 2004; Dial, 2005) and All Saints (Delacorte, 2007; Dial, 2008). He teaches in the English department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and coordinates their Ph.D. program in creative writing. He has regularly contributed to local and national public radio, and has written for Commonweal, Esquire.com, Slate, the New York Times Book Review, the Times' op-ed page, the Washington Post Magazine, Forbes FYI, Good Housekeeping, Parents and a number of other publications in locations ranging from Canada to Brazil. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of literary journals, including the Writers' Chronicle, Blackbird, Crab Orchard Review, Southern Indiana Review, Caketrain, failbetter and Phoebe. Liam is also the creator and co-executive producer of the Poetry Everywhere animated film series, a segment of which will be screened at this months BONK!

Poetry Everywhere is a series of short poetry films featuring poets reading their own work, animated interpretations of much-loved poems, and celebrities reading personal favorites, produced by WGBH and David Grubin Productions, and student filmmakers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's docUWM media center.

Audiences will also be entertained with an exhibition by local culinary artist Joe Manessi. Manessi's artistic talents will be showcased as he demonstrates his culinary art techniques.

Local artists and performers are encouraged to consider sharing their talent/craft with the community via the BONK! series. For more information on how to participate or to view past performances please visit http://bonkperformanceseries.wordpress.com. You may also contact the Racine Public Library at 262.619.2571, Becky Spika at becky.spika@racinelibrary.info , or Nick Demske at nick.demske@racinelibrary.info.