January 30, 2019 - February 2, 2019  

The 35th Annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is "six days of poetry, music, dancing, workshops, exhibits, conversations, food and fellowship, rooted in tradition but focused on today's rural West."

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Sean's Schedule of Events:

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Thursday - 1/31

                   2:45pm - 3:30pm - Seasoned by Seasons            Location:  Turquoise Room

Friday  - 2/1   

                   9:30am - 10:15am -  How far is lonesome           Location: Silver Room 

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                  11:30am - 12:15pm -  John Dofflemyer                Location: Ruby Mountain, Ballroom #1

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                   1:45pm - 2:45pm -  Lessons from the Land          Location: Turquoise Room

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Saturday - 2/2

                  11:15am - 12:00pm - Cycles of Life                      Location: Ruby Mountain Ballroom #1

                    2:15pm - 3:00pm - A Cowboy's Place in Nature   Location: Turquoise room

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Thursday Feb 14 - 6-7PM at the Vero Beach Book Center, please come for a debut and reading from Sean's newest volume of poetry : May Darkness Restore.

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Vero Beach Book Center

      2145 Indian River Blvd

       Vero Beach, FL 32960

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Friday, March 22 - Sunday, March 24, 2019

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Press 53 Presents the High Road Festival of Poetry and Short Fiction.

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Location: 

Embassy Suites

460 N Cherry Street

Winston-Salem, NC 27101

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Through April 14, 2019, this exhibition will be on display at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park, Florida. 

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Lay of the Land: The Art of Florida's Cattle Culture is the result of much planning and curating by Rachel Frisby, Curator of the Albin Polasek Museum, Bob Stone, artist, musician, folklife historian and archivist and myself.  Together, we traveled directly to the sites of creativity, or locations of remaining collections, of each artist to choose, photograph, and document the works.  We wish all visitors to this wonderful show could have experienced first hand the workshops, studios, households, and most importantly, lives underlying these works in the exhibition.

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Our search extended from Live Oak to the Brighton Reservation, Polk County to Kenansville, on a traipse through Florida's heartland that included visits to 18 artists, many miles and places of great diversity truly comprising the "Lay of the Land."

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In after-hour discussions at both ends of a day's travel, or riding together in the car, a common thread arose in our realizations of the unusual and unique qualities of each life devoted to intense creativity and how every artist solved the challenges of making a living in this world and keeping their art alive within this constraint.  The "problem" affected every aspect of each artist's life, from making a place to work, to balancing a household, child-rearing, and in almost every case, the care and raising of livestock-- against the vagaries of the muse: inspiration, artistic vision, and the life-long process of learning the materials, and craft of one's art.  Variations on that theme include disciplines of: sewing, spur and saddle-making, whip braiding, leather work, painting, beading, ceramics, drawing, photography, sculpting and casting. Each artist reached levels of proficiency only achieved by a lifetime's work and all this comes forth in one of the loveliest museum-settings, and presentations any of us could have imagined. 

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On exhibit is evidence of extraordinary activity brought out much of the same conditions in which we all spend our days. Yet "a road less traveled" seems to run through each life on display in terms of energy, time, and acquisition of skill required to grow the special sensibilities by which Art is conducted and thrives.  It is our good fortune the Florida Cattlemen's Foundation and Polasek Museum partnered together to put on this show. Gratitude is due board members of both institutions for their vision and generosity.   Lenders to the exhibition include both fully engaged artists and craftsmen, making their living from their creativity, and descendants and patrons of such people who've carefully preserved and perpetuated the Art and legacy of those now passed from this world.  The show reveals to us the richness of human life attached to Florida's Cattle Industry, making an exciting connection to the working and natural landscape unlike any other selected group exhibition one could imagine.  I hope you are as grateful as I am to see and celebrate these things. 

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It should be noted that there are two documentary artists specially included in the exhibition; Bob Stone or Gainesville, whose photographs and articles have appeared in numerous articles of the Florida Cattlemen's magazine, and Mitchell Kolbe, painter and sculptor originally from Tarpon Springs, contributing a historically accurate cowhunter and his dog bronze on loan from the collection of Ty and Jean Tyson of Micanopy. 

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Friday April 12, 2019  6:00 - 9:00 PM

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Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens

 633 Osceola Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789
Phone: 407-647-6294

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Join us for a special reception to close the Lay of the Land exhibition with entertainment by acclaimed poets from the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. Doors open at 6 p.m. with poetry

readings at 7 p.m.

Free to attend but RSVP is required to info@polasek.org by April 8.

$5 onsite parking, cash bar.

Yellow Jacket Press, Florida's premier, independent poetry chapbook press, and Hillsboro County Public Library host a reading by 12 poets from across Florida on Saturday March 10th at 4pm at the Old Tampa Free Public Library, Tampa's oldest library building. The reading is an official offsite event in conjunction with the Associated Writing Programs conference which will be happening in Tampa.The lively "sampler" reading will include Poet Laureate of Florida, Peter Meineke; Poet Laureate of Saint Petersburg, Helen Wallace; Poet Laureate of Hillsborough County, James Tokley and Poet Laureate of Indian River County, Sean Sexton. They will be joined by Florida poets Cole Bellamy, Gregory Byrd, Slivia Curbelo, Lenny Della Rocca, Michael Hettich, Jeff Karon, Gianna Russo and Brendan Walsh.  The library's photographic collection by the famed Burgert Brothers will be on display. Book sales, signings and a reception by Friends of the Library will follow. 

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102 E 7th Ave, Tampa, FL 33602

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For more information: 

YJP Contact: Yellowjacketpress@gmail.com

Artists Sean Sexton and Jordan Hyde, along with various other clay artists invite you to visit Flametree Gallery in Downtown Vero Beach to see this most recent collection of their works. On display from January 5 - 31, 2018. Visit the website for more information. https://vimeo.com/249195973

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The 25th annual fundraiser for The Samaritan Center of Indian River County begins in November. In this photo, Sean and Glenda Taylor (artist at Tigerlily Art Studios and Gallery in Vero Beach, Florida) are working together to build the form of the tureen Sean is making to be sold for the annual event. 

CROSS CREEK RISING

The Consciousness of Land and Water

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A juried invitational featuring works by 70 Florida artists at The Thomas Center Galleries.

An exhibition celebrating 75 years since the publication of Cross Creek and Cross Creek Cookery by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

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Two pieces (ceramic and painting) by the artist have been selected for this exhibition. 

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Opening Reception: September 29th, 2017  7-10pm

The Florida Literary Arts Coalition Other Words Conference takes place October 12—25, 2017 on the Campus of the University of Tampa. This year's Conference focuses upon Literature and Food. Sean Sexton will participate in a panel entitled "Apples and Stars: A Geography of Fruit" with poets, Michael Hettich, Spencer Wise and Lisa Zimmerman. Keep posted for further information about scheduling and locations of events for the conference

The Community Church features its 2017 Poetry and Organ Concerts each year on three Thursdays during Advent. This year includes:

Dec.  7— Lawrence Hetrick, Atlanta, Ga

Dec 14—Silvia Curbelo, Tampa, FL

Dec 21—Sean Sexton, Vero Beach

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The programs begin at 11:00 AM each Thursday and run approximately 45 minutes, featuring Poetry Readings and Organ responses by Andrew Galuska, Music Director and Organist, based on improvisational interpretations of poetry and Hymn fantasies drawn upon the themes of Advent. Community Church is located at 1901 23rd St, Vero Beach, FL 32960

Sean Sexton will present his poetry at the 34th annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada January 29 - February 3, 2018. 

February 15—March 22, 2018  The Community Church Organ and Poetry Lenten Series will feature the following poets and dates:

February  15—Lynne Knight, Tallahassee, FL

February  22—Michael Hettich, Miami, FL 

March        1—Lisa Rosear Bradford,  Buenos Aires, Argentina

March        8— Alfred Corn, Hopkinton, RI

March       15—Sean Sexton, Vero Beach, FL

March       22— Sidney Wade, Gainesville, FL

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The programs begin at 11:00 AM each Thursday of the week, and run approx. 45 mins. featuring poetry readings  followed with improvisational interpretations and hymn fantasies based on the themes of Lent on the organ by Andrew Galuska, Music Director and organist. Community Church is located at 1901 23rd St, Vero Beach, FL  32960

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 The 8th Annual Laura Riding Jackson Foundation Poetry and Barbecue will take place April 15, 2018. "Beyond Water and Walls" is the title of the event, featuring ethnic voices, including Naomi Shihab Nye, San Antonio, Tx, Peggy Ann Tartt, NYC, NY, and Analicia Sotelo, Houston, Texas. The program begins at 3PM with young and adult readers from the previous day's poetry writing workshops and the 4:00 hour the featured poets take the stage. A Southern Style Barbecue Dinner will be served after the readings. The Vero Beach Book Center will be present to sell and Authors available to sign their books after the readings. 

Saturday, April 14 Workshop Schedules

10—12 AM Alice Friman, Adult Writer's Poetry Writing Workshop  Indian River Shores Community Center, Vero Beach, FL

1-4 PM      Naomi Shihab Nye, Teen Writer's Poetry Workshop   Environmental Learning Center, Wabasso, FL