Charlottesville Reading Series announces authors, musicians for May event

The Charlottesville Reading Series will host a poetry reading and musical performance on Friday, May 17, from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM at New Dominion Bookshop.

The event will feature an in-person reading by Jason Gray and original music by Bahlmann Abbot. The event is free to attend, and complimentary refreshments will be available at intermission.

Jason Gray is the author of Radiation King, winner of the Idaho Prize for Poetry, and Photographing Eden, winner of the 2008 Hollis Summers Prize. He has also published two chapbooks, How to Paint the Savior Dead and Adam & Eve Go to the Zoo. His poems and reviews have appeared in Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Image, Literary Imagination, Poetry Ireland Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. By day, he works as an editor for the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. For more details, visit jason-gray.net.

A native of southern West Virginia, Bahlmann Abbot has been a practicing architect and musician in the Charlottesville area since the late 70’s. He has produced two CDs, Falling in Place and Chasing Storms. Some of his songs reflect this love for storytelling, while others paint an impressionistic view of the struggles and rewards of love and loss. His songs are influenced by his various experiences as a carpenter, river guide, husband, and father. Several of the songs he will perform at the event will address the challenges currently faced by the people of the Appalachian region. “Going, Going, Gone” paints a picture of people coping with mountain top removal mining while “Drink of Water” looks at the personal side of coping in the stalled economy of the mountain region.

About the Charlottesville Reading Series

Founded by Julia Kudravetz and Amie Whittemore in 2014, the Charlottesville Reading Series presents in-person readings of poetry, prose, and song in a monthly event for community members in Charlottesville. We recruit emerging and established writers form diverse backgrounds, both locally and nationally. For more information about the series, please visit readingseries.org.