Last year, after taking a few years off, the Telluride Writers Guild brought its Talking Gourds writers gathering back to Telluride, where it originally started in 1989. In its 16 years of existence, Western Slope writers of all kinds have gathered for the annual retreat where they participate in workshops and read allowed from work in a Talking Gourd circles.

Again in Telluride, this year the Guild celebrates its Talking Gourds Spoken Word Festival during April to coincide with National Poetry Month and Earth Day.

Last year's event "was ridiculously successful for us," said Guild Director Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. "At the end we had to scramble to put together more workshops because everything filled up." This year promises to be just as full and fulfilling. "We hope to offer regional writers and listeners a broad sampling of spoken word magic. The point of the weekend is to get people who might not normally come out for a poetry event to come."

Trommer called the event "poetry at its most fun" with "words having a great time with each other up on stage, just playing around" and assured that "anyone with scars from high school poetry" can have them "erased with laughter."

The event begins next Friday, April 22 with Gaia Night: Speaking for the Earth. Various performers from around the region will present short performances on stage at the Sheridan Opera House, and since Friday is also Earth Day, all performances will somehow be related to the earth.

Performers at Gaia Night include local eco-rapper Charris Ford; writer, editor and educator Jane McGarry from Paonia, who will be performing "a kind of multi-media piece;" and Chris Ransick of Englewood, winner of the 2003 Colorado Book Award for poetry for his book Never Summer. His second book, A Return to Emptiness, is a collection of short stories published this year by Ghost Road Press.

Each artist will perform a 10 minute piece, as will EAR, the local word group combining the talents of Ellen Marie Metrick, Art Goodtimes and Trommer.

"The first half of the night will feature these short performances. After that we'll open it up," said Trommer. "We're calling it a Mountain Free-for-All. Anyone can get up on stage and sing, read, tell a story, anything earth related." Tickets are $10 and available in advance by calling the Ah Haa School, or at the door. The evening starts at 7:30 p.m. and is co-sponsored by Sheep Mountain Alliance.

On Saturday, workshops, or "interactives" as they're being called – "they're not all actually workshops," said Trommer – will be held at the Opera House, Ah Haa School and Miramonte Building.

"The gist here is that poetry is more than something on a page. It's something on stage," she said of incorporating performance and movement into the weekend. Poetry is "something all around us. Something active to participate in."

Poet Scott Nicolay will host one interactive where he "will try to put participants through Hell (and hopefully bring them back out) in order to gain a new sense of direction in their verse." Mike Adams will host Between Heaven and Earth: The Practice of Tai Chi. Adams's books include Broken Hand and Hardscrabble: The Wet Mountain Poems, both published by Longhand Press. He has been practicing Tai Chi for 25 years and is a graduate advisor in the Master of Arts program at Prescott College in Prescott, Ariz. Another Tai Chi program will be led by Tara Miller in which participants will work with the Tai Chi form, dance and then "wild write."

Sarah Pletts will host a performance workshop studying the use of word, movement and emotion together. Pletts has presented her dance theater works in Europe and North and Central America for 25 years and has collaborated or performed with artists such as Jane Comfort, Peter Gabriel, Allen Ginsberg, and Hunter S. Thompson.

Local poet Art Goodtimes will lead a Talking Gourds Circle and discuss the tradition of the event as well as deep ecology among other topics. "An open gourd circle is where people come and share," explained Trommer. Goodtimes is the former poetry editor for Earth First! Journal and has served as poet-in-residence for the annual Telluride Mushroom Festival for the past 25 years. Participants will perform pieces from favorite authors or singers as well as their own work.

More traditional writing workshops will also be held, with poets Stewart S. Warren and Jack Mueller. Warren is a performance poet who has said his love of the spoken word and a lifetime of spiritual exploration "has not resulted in answers, but rather in trust and courage moment by moment."

The Albuquerque National Slam Team will host a performance workshop titled "So You Wanna Be a Slam Poet?"

"It basically means they will show how to have more presence on stage," said Trommer. The team is comprised of Don McIver, host/producer of the weekly Spoken Word Hour on KUNM-Albuquerque; Esther Griego; Danny Solis, called the Poet Laureate of Albuquerque and two-time Burque Poetry Slam Champion; and Hakim Bellamy.

McIver has written poetry for twenty years and reads all over the country as a member of the poetry performance group, the Headless Buddhas. He is also the production director for the 2005 National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque this August.

Solis is active on the national Poetry Slam circuit, performing on a record eight National Slam Poetry teams and winner of two National titles.

Bellamy, a graduate student in Journalism at the University of New Mexico, has taken the New Mexico Slam scene by storm, winning his first slam ever in January and going on to win the College Unions slam.

Interactives cost $15 each or $50 for a weekend pass.

Saturday night plays host to another performance at the Opera House with a poetry jam. The opening act is Yoolgai, Diné performance poets from the Navajo Nation. "They will give us a taste of what's happening on the rez and the Native American point of view," said Trommer. Yoolgai is comprised of Scott Nicolay, zoEy Benally and Tish Ramirez. Following Yoolgai's performance, the Albuquerque National Slam Team All Stars take the stage.

"This is not classroom poetry. It's live in your face, out of the street poetry," Trommer said. "The idea behind slam is to make poetry completely accessible, make it fun, make it touch you, reach out to you." Slam poetry was born out of competition, and while there will not be a competition on Saturday, the poets will perform in the same style with the same energy. Tickets for Saturday night are $10.

The weekend closes with an organic potluck picnic brunch and open reading circle at 10 a.m., Sunday, April 24. Directions to the location will be available during the weekend events.

"I'm always overwhelmed at the generosity in this town when it comes to arts and arts events," said Trommer. "Not every small town can have a poetry festival." Talking Gourds is made possible through support from the Telluride Commission on Arts and Special Events, the Ah Haa School for the Arts and ResortQuest.