Live Performance
INTRO
Persephone’s abduction by Hades into the Underworld—and Demeter’s subsequent rage, scourging the earth in search of her daughter—is one of the defining myths of Western culture. Was Persephone truly abducted? Or did she go willingly?
Three local poets—Chi Stewart, Laura Lee Bennett, and Elizabeth Carroll Hayden—have written Persona poems that give this myth a real-world setting and turn the story on its head. With each poet taking on the persona of one of the three main characters—Demeter, Persephone, and Hades—the retelling takes the shape of a thoroughly modern dysfunctional family saga. Join the authors for a reading of their new chapbook—a voice play of sorts—I Am Not Cursed.
Meet your Performers
Chi Stewart is an artist and writer. Her writing career began in an abandoned chicken house on a nearby farm in South Jersey where—at age 10, she hid from the rest of the world to write stories. Earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing, Stewart worked for 14 years in healthcare settings in Chicago, Oregon, Washington state and Saudi Arabia. With the birth of her third child, she became an at-home mom for the following two decades. She then attended Gage Atelier in Seattle for 2 years and continues to share her art in Seattle and East-Side venues. She lives the belief that knowledge can lead to compassion, and that no act of creativity is ever wasted.
Elizabeth Carroll Hayden is a writer and lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest. A former teacher of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students in Bellevue and Seattle school districts, she is the mother of two very creative adult children. Hayden is published in the anthologies Here, There, Everywhere, and 10x10, as well as the online journal, Belletrist, and has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. When not writing, she can be found ballroom and swing dancing.
Laura Lee Bennett is a writer and community organizer, holding a Master of Fine Arts in Short Fiction from the Creative Writing program at University of Oregon, Eugene. She is a past president of Redmond Association of Spokenword (RASP) and serves on the boards of Venues for Artists in the Local Area (VALA Eastside) and the Redmond Historical Society. Her chapbook, Snake Medicine: First Step, was published by nine muses books in 2017.
BOOK REVIEW
I Am Not Cursed is a 21st century meditation on an ancient Greek tale. These are poems infused with an owl-clothed woman who knows gardening, a lovesick mechanic who rules the Dead, and a maiden who dons gold lamé. Reading this book gives you multifaceted, new perspectives on a story you thought you already knew. As she comes of age in the fields of Eleusis, Persephone "aches for a real God," and writes "brooding fantasies, codified with marginalia." A man called Daryl rolls in on his Ducati. Persephone hops on, riding to the Underworld and accepting the proffered fruit. And Hades (for that is his true name) wants only her. Hades says aloud, perhaps to himself, "Do Gods pray?" Meanwhile, famine threatens the world above ground. Missing her daughter, Demeter continues to rage, "I spit on this tortured earth!" Of her brothers? "Goats with the brains of fish." While Demeter curses the winter, Hades says, "Winter Months are the Warmest." Persephone, for her part, ”misses the dense motes” of the Underworld, but she also "craves the sun."
--Pamela Denchfield
Publishing Information
I Am Not Cursed Poetry Chapbook
Copyright © 2023 by the Mt. Olympus Story Company: Chi Stewart, Laura Lee Bennett, and Elizabeth Carroll Hayden
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the copyright owners, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 979-8-218-09294-8
USD $12.00
Cover Art, Design, and Typography by Allison White Ohlinger
Printed by DiggyPOD, Inc. in the United States of America.
First printing, February 2023.
For questions or performance info, contact: mt.olympus.story.company@gmail.com