To complement this exhibition there will be three evening readings by poets published by Roncadora.

 Wednesday 9 February    Hugh McMillan / Graham Fulton

Wednesday  16 February            Andrew Forster / Jean Atkin

Wednesday 2 March        Rab Wilson / John Burns.

 These FREE events have been organised in partnership with dgArts. Readings will take place at 7pm in the Gracefield Café Gallery and in most cases will also mark the launch of a new pamphlet by the poets.

George Wallace, Rab Wilson and musical friends take us on a lively poetic journey inspired by the work of two great poets: Robert Burns and Walt Whitman.

There will be a community minibus from Dumfries for this event – call Carolyn Yates on 01387 253383 if you want more information.

George Wallace is the Walt Whitman Birthplace 2011 Writer in Residence.  An award winning poet and journalist, George  has performed his work across America and in Europe. He is the author of nineteen chapbooks of poetry and teaches literature at Pace University in Manhattan. He is editor of Poetrybay, an online poetry magazine archived and distributed worldwide by Stanford University. Other editorial work includes Poetryvlog, Long Island Quarterly, and Walt’s Corner in the Long Islander newspaper A former Peace Corps Volunteer, USAF Medical Officer and community organizer, he is a regular performer at Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, Howlfest, the Woody Guthrie Festival and Bradfest. In the Metropolitan New York area he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Algonquin Club, Tribes Gallery, Sidewalk Café and at C-Note, and hosts poetry events at Cornelia St Cafe and Bowery Poetry Club. An avid Whitman enthusiast, he is a major interpreter of European Surrealism, New York School and Beat writing.

 Rab Wilson, the Robert Burns Writing Fellow in Reading Scots for Dumfries and Galloway, is a poet wha screives maistly in Scots an writes a wheen things in Standaurt Englis as weel.  His wark appears regularly in the likes o Lallans magazine, Holyrood Magazine, the Herald newspaper and Chapman magazine. He writes whit it is like tae leeve in Scotland in the 21st Century. His wark contains poleetical satire, humorous warks, elegies, sonnets, meditations oan global events, anti-war poetry, an the hale range o whit haes inspired Scots makars fir a thoosan year syne or mair.  ‘Omar Khayyam in Scots’, and  an ‘Art Buik’ version o the Roman poet Horace’s ‘First Book o Satires’, a jynt project wi the Dumfries artist Hugh Bryden, are his acclaimed owersettins o classic screeds. His collection, ‘Accent O The Mind’ wis publisht bi Luath Press o Embra in 2006. Scotland On Sunday said o this buik ‘This book contains poetry to rival the best published in Scotland, or written by a Scot, in the past 30 years.’ He wis winner of ‘The McCash Poetry Prize’ in 2008, Scotland’s leadin poetry competition fir poetry written in Scots, rin jyntly bi Glasgow University and the Herald newspaper. In 2009 he published a saicent collection, ‘Life Sentence’, and an anthology o poetry bi contemporary Dumfries and Galloway poets, entitled ‘Chuckies fir the Cairn’.  His film documentary anent the history an future o coal mining in South West Scotland, in conjunction wi the West of Scotland University, was shown at the Wigtown book festival in 2010.

Professor Alan Riach, current Chair o Scottish Leeterature at Glasgow University, hus described Rab as ‘one of the best poets now working in Scotland’.

Robin Cairns is that rare beast, a stand-up poet. Bringing an irreverent Glasgow humour to the usually solemn business of poetry he has blazed the spoken word at comedy clubs and ceilidhs, at rock festivals and reading-rooms.  And yes, he will be doing his celebrated poem about being on the receiving end of corporal punishment in school, the one about the fierce and fearful teacher by the name of “Old Lochgelly”.

Rab Wilson, poet and Robert Burns Writing Fellow, recently launched his Horace’s First Buik o Satires to great acclaim at the Wigtown Book festival. Horace’s Satires, among the towering literary achievements of Ancient Rome, get a vibrant and bawdy new lease of life from Rab’s ‘owersettin’. Rab also sits on the parliamentary working group on Scots Language, advising on ways of strengthening and preserving Scots language in the 21^st century.

This commission is part of a successful bid made by Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Chamber of Commerce to the Scottish Government for a wider capital regeneration project for Dumfries. 

Heroes aims to celebrate Dumfries and Galloway’s rich history and cultural heritage through a series of art installations in the middle of town.  The artist is working to create a pride in the town’s past, creating opportunities for him to work with the community to explore and imagine Dumfries’ sense of itself, generating citizenship and community pride.

John Kennedy is creating meaningful and visually exciting artworks, both temporary and permanent, which will display his high quality craftsmanship and imaginative approach to celebrating cultural heritage and placemaking.  Award-winning Scots poet Rab Wilson is contributing text which John will incorporate into his design.