The Broad Stage Presents Red Hen Press: THE FOOL IN THE WORLD

The Broad Stage continues their collaboration with Red Hen Press for Red Hen Press: The Fool in the World on Sunday, February 10 in The Edye at The Broad Stage. Composer Sophia Serghi and writer Nancy Schoenberger combine to present a multi-art performance piece comprising original music, poetry and artwork, inspired by the imagery of the 22 cards of the Tarot's Major Arcana. This piece is presented in conversation with the narrative poetry of Judy Grahn and Brynn Saito.

The Broad Stage and Red Hen Press have a history of bringing music, poetry and performance together in The Edye. Last season, Red Hen Press events featured GRAMMY Award winners Hila Plitmann and Eric Whitacre, as well as California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, Brendan Constantine, and t'ai freedom ford. The Edye at The Broad Stage also hosted the Los Angeles premiere of Samuel Beckett's Imagination Dead Imagine, set to music composed by Michael Roth.

Kate Gale, Managing Editor of Red Hen Press said, "The Broad Stage is a fantastic place to premiere and explore new work from Red Hen Press writers and other poets from Los Angeles and beyond. With The Broad Stage's diverse programming, we feel at home in presenting these performances that transcend genres. I'm especially thrilled about February's event, which explores the intersection of poetry, music and art through the voices of four incredible and inspiring women."

Tickets are available now at www.thebroadstage.org or by calling 310.434.3200.

About The Writers
Nancy Schoenberger, Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at William & Mary, is the author of three books of award-winning poetry (most recently, Long Like a River, winner of the NYU Press Poetry Prize); a biography of the Anglo-Irish writer Caroline Blackwood (Dangerous Muse, The Life of Lady Caroline Blackwood, Nan A. Talese Press/Doubleday, 2001); and the co-author of several works of biography and popular culture, including the recent Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century(HarperCollins, 2010), which was a New York Times and LA Times bestseller.

Judy Grahn a poet, writer, and social theorist. She currently serves as Research Faculty for the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. She is former director of Women's Spirituality MA and Creative Inquiry MFA programs at New College of California. Her books include love belongs to those who do the feeling (Red Hen Press, 2008), Blood, Bread, and Roses (Beacon Press, 1994), Edward the Dyke and Other Poems (The Women's Press Collective, 1971), and Hanging On Our Own Bones (forthcoming from Red Hen Press, 2017). http://judygrahn.org/

Brynn Saito is the author of two books of poetry, Power Made Us Swoon (2016) and The Palace of Contemplating Departure (2013), winner of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award from Red Hen Press and finalist for the Northern California Book Award. She also co-authored, with Traci Brimhall, Bright Power, Dark Peace, a chapbook of poetry from Diode Editions. Brynn was born and raised in Fresno, California to a Korean American mother and a Japanese American father. Currently, Brynn lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is the Director of the Center for Writing and Scholarship at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), and an adjunct faculty member in the MFA program at the University of San Francisco and the BA program at CIIS.

About the Performers
Sophia Serghi is a composer and pianist with recent performances of solo collections of her works Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in DC, Merkin Hall in NYC, the Hellenic Center and Cadogan Hall in London, the Athens Concert Hall in Greece, the Concertgebow in Amsterdam to name a few. Dr. Sophia Serghi is a Professor of Music at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, USA. She is the Founder and Director of MAX: Multi-Arts Crossings LLC in Cyprus. Prof. Serghi held a position as Visiting Professor at Amsterdam University College in the Netherlands and Cambridge University, UK. She wrote original music inspired by the Theories of Physicist and Prof. Stephen Hawking based on personal time spent with him. In 2015 Sophia founded Aplaud Music Group inc., a Music Tech startup that matches highly skilled and vetted musicians with people wishing to hire them, either to create recordings or to perform live!

About Red Hen Press
Red Hen Press, one of the few literary presses in the Los Angeles area, was founded in 1994 by Kate Gale and Mark E. Cull with the intention of keeping creative literature alive. Our focus as a literary press is to publish poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. Red Hen Press is committed to publishing work of literary excellence, supporting diversity, and promoting literacy in our local schools. We seek a community of readers and writers who are actively engaged in the essential human practice known as literature.

Red Hen Press offers several literary awards each year, including the Benjamin Saltman Award. The winner of the Benjamin Saltman Award receives a cash prize in addition to publication of the winning poetry collection. Past judges include: Claudia Rankine, Robin Becker, Wanda Coleman, B.H. Fairchild, Nick Flynn, Eloise Klein Healy, David St. John, Dorianne Laux, Thomas Lux, Philip Levine, Alicia Ostriker, James Ragan, Peggy Shumaker, and Quincy Troupe. Other awards offered include the Red Hen Press Short Story Award and the Ruskin Art Club Poetry Award, both for publication in the Los Angeles Review.

Red Hen Press is also committed to promoting literacy in the community. Beyond developing an appreciation of literature, we believe it is essential to our society to promote a readership that remains open and critically engaged in reading a variety of well-written, thought-provoking work. Our Writing in the Schools program brings writers into schools to run writing workshops and to read and discuss their work-promoting both literacy and creative expression among young people. We organize readings in schools, universities, libraries, and literary organizations. We donate books to a variety of organizations, including schools and facilities that educate at-risk youth