MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center’s Restore project features a written/spoken word performance workshop with Lake County Poet Laureate Emerita Casey Carney this Saturday, Nov. 10, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Adults and children age 12 and up are invited to write in the company of others in a safe, supportive environment.

Workshop participants will be creating from writing prompts, refining pieces in progress, and exploring the elements and artistic choices of spoken word performance including projection, intonation, rhythm, timing and body language.

As part of the workshop, local poet Lorna Sue Sides will perform her poem, “Dance to Happenstance.”

New writers are especially encouraged to attend, and anyone who wants to hone their performance skills in order to more fully express the intent of their creative writing.

Participants will have the opportunity to work with partners, and are encouraged to bring a short piece which they may choose to present at the informal reading, concluding the workshop.

A writer, performance artist and photographer, Carney served as the Lake County Poet Laureate from 2014 to 2016. In this role, Carney curated, co-produced and hosted more than 15 readings featuring local poets and highlighting the lineage and of poetry in Lake County.

During her 2014 Poet Laureate Reading Series, Carney featured each of the seven Lake County poets laureate that preceded her.

At the 2016 transition event of Carney’s term, over 200 community members gathered at the Soper-Reese Theatre in Lakeport to celebrate the vibrancy of poetry in Lake County.

Originally from Southern California, Carney holds a Master of Arts in dance education and has choreographed, performed in, and produced numerous dance concerts.

Carney recently initiated the forming of a local team which collaborated in bringing American dance pioneer Anna Halprin’s Planetary Dance to Lake County on Earth Day, 2018 with the theme ‘Acknowledge and Heal.’ She is currently collaborating with Tension and Trauma Release Exercises, or TRE, practitioner Jessica Windrem to develop a workshop utilizing TRE and expressive arts to support people in their healing journeys.

Restore writing workshop participants will have opportunity to contribute to MAC’s second chapbook of writings and images, and to participate in quarterly readings or exhibition. The first chapbook, “Resilience – a community reframes disaster through art,” is available for purchase at MAC or on the MAC Web site.

The Restore project provides Lake County residents with low-cost art classes and the opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials techniques. Classes take place most Saturdays through May 2019.

Fall and winter classes include clay, woodworking, metalworking, felting, concrete, dry point, block printing, writing, and more. Late winter and spring classes will focus on personal and collaborative projects, studio time, mentoring and guidance to create personal and group work.

Please register in advance for this and all Restore classes at www.middletownartcenter.org/Restore, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 707-809-8118. Space is limited and reservations are required.

Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29.