“Hallelujah Town… Liberation and Ecstasy.” That’s the full title of the upcoming afternoon of poetry and music at Henry Miller Memorial Library, which brings four California poets – led by Jerome Dunn, aka jerry the priest – to the literary destination in Big Sur. They will read their works, play music and sing.
“We are ecstatic to be able to share some of our writing with whoever’s able to come and witness it,” says Dunn, who has been writing for decades but only now published his first volume of poetry, Brute Entropy. “We stand for radical wonder and we hope to demonstrate that, especially in these difficult times for many people, there’s still good in the world.”
All four poets have new collections out. The U.S. Beat Poet Laureate (2023-24) and California Beat Poet Laureate (2020-2022) Rich Ferguson comes with Somewhere, A Playground. He is also a drummer and singer and is based in Los Angeles. Also from Southern California comes poet, Mike Mollett (who is a visual and performance artist in addition) with his recent volume, Hard to Say In A Way That Might Be Heard. He is described as “a post-modern Renaissance Dadaist.”
Prayers With a Side of Cash is a 2025 debut volume by Canadian-born poet, filmmaker and visual artist Kathleen Florence – the only woman in the poetic quartet, who also happens to play the xylophone.
They are going to rotate to the stage three times, says Dunn, who in addition to reciting poetry will play guitars and a trombone. He points out that guests who arrive during the show will still get to see each poet.
“Ferguson came up with ‘Hallelujah Town,’ and I came up with ‘Liberation and Ecstasy,’ so we’re very collaborative that way,” Dunn adds. “We’re going to mix it up and just generally entertain people. That’s our plan.”
Asked about the place of performative poetry in the mainstream, Dunn says: “We are not necessarily the outsiders because our books are at the Library of Congress too, you know. We are not so much outsiders but alternative artists. We’ve been doing this for decades, and there’s no major recognition in this – and there’s certainly no money. We just love to share what we do.”