Tune into KZYX&Z’s Be More Now program for part two of our trip down poetry lane, featuring Silent Motif, Conference of the Poets, a compilation poetry CD put together by poet Kirk Lumplin with Berkeley Musicians Robert Keller and Paul Mills. Poets you will hear include myself, Kirk Lumpkin, Chris Olander, Sara Mithra, Steve Arnston and David Shaddock. I will also feature a few wonderful original compositions written and performed by my dear friend Nymphya — from her album Dream Dance.Enjoy. **************************This show originally aired at 7pm Thursday March 2, 2023 on KZYX&Z 90.7FM Philo, 88.1FM Fort Bragg, and 91.5FM Willits, as well as streams on the web www.kzyx.org.

Tune into KZYX&Z’s Be More Now program when host Blake More interviews Mendocino County muralist Lauren Sinnott.A blend of painting, process and artistic discovery, they’ll be discussing Lauren’s bright life and colorful contributions to the county’s urban landscape, including her block long county history mural in Ukiah and her most recent “From Finland to Fort Bragg” mural project in Fort Bragg.A resident of the southern Mendocino coast since 1998, Lauren Sinnott is a working artist in an old-world manner: She paints pictures that are full of pattern and decoration, but also tell stories, often with portraits. She says she makes things that regular people need, like business signs, logos, and even a high school mascot on the basketball court floor. She learned to sew from her mom and grandma, which is always useful, not just to make her own clothes and create the Velvet Vulva line of purses, but also to hem pants and take prom dresses in.She grew up in Wisconsin’s dairyland, in a creative, beatnik home. Her mom was an artist and illustrator and she copied her from before she was 2. An exchange year abroad in Belgium shaped her – there really is good coffee in the world! And houses that are 400 years old. At Rice University in Houston she got the training necessary to shape talent, in painting, but also art history. Her masters degree focused on the Renaissance and exposed her to art that was full of meaning, held symbols, had inscriptions, and told stories that people with a shared culture understood. That’s what she aims for now, using her sons and the people around her to populate the painted stage.Her newest history mural, From Finland to Fort Bragg, illustrates the rich heritage of the many Finnish immigrants to this coastal northern California town.For illustrated pictures of Lauren’s “Finland to Fort Bragg” mural, visit: https://historymural.com/finn/**************************This show originally airs at 7pm Thursday February 2, 2023 on KZYX&Z 90.7FM Philo, 88.1FM Fort Bragg, and 91.5FM Willits, as well as streams on the web www.kzyx.org.

Be More Now offers yet another trip down poetry lane, this time featuring Silent Motif, Conference of the Poets, a compilation poetry CD put together by poet Kirk Lumplin with Berkeley Musicians Robert Keller and Paul Mills.Poets you will hear include myself, Kirk Lumpkin, Chris Olander, Sara Mithra, Steve Arnston and David Shaddock. I will also feature a few wonderful original compositions written and performed by my dear friend Nymphya — from her album Dream Dance.It is the end of the holiday season and the jump start into a brand new year. So tonight, I figured I would go easy on myself, and you too, perhaps. This show is an invitation to tune your brain to what these poets and musicians have to say to each other. And to you! Enjoy. **************************This show originally aired at 7pm Thursday January 5, 2023 on KZYX&Z 90.7FM Philo, 88.1FM Fort Bragg, and 91.5FM Willits, as well as streams on the web www.kzyx.org.

Mark Sanford Gross considers himself “1/3 NY, 1/3 Washington, DC and 1/3 San Francisco.” and for the past 8 years Mark, along with his husband Billy and their two Hungarian shepards, has called Anchor Bay home.He moved to Washington DC to work in radio where he sold advertising for ABC radio’s first FM Rock station, WRQX. During that time he earned his MBA in Management from Marymount University. He moved on to two other radio stations learning radio formats and audience behavior. The Washington Post took Mark out of radio and into the world of newspaper in the nation’s capitol. It was during that time mark was accepted into part-time creative writing at John Hopkins University where he earned his MA over three years of full time work and full time writing fit into part time structure.After 12 years at the Post’s “DC mothership” he was asked to start an experimental remote home office in San Francisco to be the brand ambassador representing The Washington Post and Washington DC. “It was the first time of blending opposite ways of thinking. Silicon Valley was becoming the center of innovation and Washington, DC was the center of policy and regulation. Often one didn’t understand the language of the other”.Over the next fifteen years Mark developed his relationship skills learning how to bring together groups and teams of individuals with all their differences.In 2013, Mark was awarded the Washington Post prestigious Eugene Meyer Award named after Katharine Grahams father for his career contributions and principles. He retired in 2015 when they moved to Anchor Bay.Since coming to the coast he’s been a reporter for the ICO. Volunteer for KGUA. A board member of Gualala Arts Center and the Point Arena Lighthouse. He contributed to the Lighthouse Peddler and volunteered for programs at Action Network. He started a running club. In 2022, he hosted discussion groups on James Joyce, Ulysses.Everything he’s done so far has been a part of learning how to build community across differences. “When I left the Post I returned my laptop and computer. Soon after, I realized my skillset and all I learned about people was mine to own.”He continued his writing development attending significant writing workshops including Cheryl Strayed’s Writers Camp at Esolen, Dorothy Allison’s workshop at Writing x Writers, Alexander Chee at Corporal Writing. Paul Lisciky at Provincetown Writers Offerings, Napa Valley Writers Conference, Summer workshop in Chamonix, France with Pam Houston and Cheryl Strayed.In 2015 he met best-selling author Lydia Yuknavitch. It was a turning point for his writing as he became a regular in her workshops followed by one year exclusive mentorship with her. In 2015, Mark was accepted to Skidmore’s New York Summer’s Writing Institute working under Garth Greenwell and a list of incredible writers.A little bit from him. A little bit from her. A little bit from them. A little bit from everyone including his fellow writers helped Mark put together his own format and program to help writers on every level to get the stories out of them, heard by others. When he partnered with Peggy Berryhill his role in the community grew. Peggy was unconditional in teaching and trusting Mark to help him grow into an integral part of KGUA while strengthening his own skills.During his three cross-country drives in the past two years Mark decided to start “Let’s Go Bookstoring.” A series of interviews with independent local bookstores he discovered while driving.“It gave me a chance to talk with unsung heroes passionate about reading and books who struggled through the pandemic to keep reading alive with people locked-down. It was a fascinating learning experience about the power giving of small used bookstores. Southland Books in Maryville, Tennessee, The Source in Davenport, Iowa, Hooray for Books in Alexandria, Virginia. Just a few.He turned these interviews into KGUA special segments.A discussion with Kristina Jetter, Executive Director of the Sea Ranch Lodge lead to an on-going monthly Storytelling Writing workshop. It was this when branded his workshops as Write-Up-The-Coast.Mark leads with passion, energy and enthusiasm. All of which he gets by watching others grow and take chances. He started running in 2018 and since then has done half marathons in NY, SF, Humboldt and Washington DC. He took up Canicross (running with dogs) and together he and his dogs have done countless 10Ks. **************************This show originally aired at 7pm Thursday December 1, 2022 on KZYX&Z 90.7FM Philo, 88.1FM Fort Bragg, and 91.5FM Willits, as well as streamed on the web www.kzyx.org.

Born in Santa Monica, John Allen Cann eagerly acknowledges his first grand enthusiasm began with the arrival of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. Along with playing shortstop came a fascination with the stats & brief bios on the back of baseball cards; he considers this the inception of all following passions of study—at times he just wants to turn the world over & see what’s on the other side. The radio by his blue bed entranced him with songs, their lyrics knocked about his head as the figure of the poet gathered a strange, numinous nobility.Sports in high school was joined by an involvement with the theater; soon he arrived at Cornell University during its years of student unrest, & where he received his B.A. in Theater Arts. His time in the east proved California the best place for him. As wordsmithing overtook acting, he earned an M.A. in Creative Writing at San Francisco State, landing in Santa Barbara afterwards, where Mudborn Press published his first book, Lemurian Rhapsodies. Here he hosted a poetry show, The Unseen Rose, at KCSB, began Aetheric Press, as well as working with kids & poetry, his livelihood for the next three decades. His Dinosaurism – An Illuminated Manifesto, & Lunch – An Omnimodal Experience, were both performed before his departure to Sacramento in Orwell’s fateful year, 1984.In the state’s capitol, he married artist-teacher, Robyn Cota, a true blessing, followed by another, the birth of their son, Dylan. Family camping on the north coast evolved into the good fortune of securing a parcel in Anchor Bay in 2002; building ensued at a modest pace. John Allen began teaching English at Cosumnes River College; surprisingly, he became an assistant scoutmaster while his son earned his Eagle. A central figure in the Sacramento Library’s 2013 award-winning Poe Project, John Allen ordered, introduced & added commentary to The Slender Poe, an anthology of the great American writer’s work. A volume of his own poetry, The Moon Over Madrid, followed from i street press. On-campus classes were suspended at CRC in March of 2020—you know why—& he finished his last semester on-line living full-time in Enchanted Meadows.His study & writing of poetry has been steady for decades, & always he endeavors to be equal to the adage of Wallace Stevens, “Poetry is the scholar’s art.” His phantom mentors include Heraclitus, Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats, Rilke, & Jeffers. Like many who hold dear the mystery of poetry, he already knows there’s not enough time left to read deeply all the great poems that the world treasures. But he will keep at that joyful task as he composes his own work at the edge of history. **************************This show originally aired at 7pm Thursday October 1, 2022 on KZYX&Z 90.7FM Philo, 88.1FM Fort Bragg, and 91.5FM Willits, as well as streamed on the web www.kzyx.org.

Be More Now features the bi-coastal NYC/SF Jazz performance poet and longtime Town Crier Raymond Nat Turner discussing the placement of poetry in community, finding one’s voice and fearless expression with host Blake More. “The Town Crier,” Raymond Nat Turner, is a NYC poet privileged to have read at the Harriet Tubman Centennial Symposium. He is Artistic Director of the stalwart JazzPoetry Ensemble UpSurge!NYC and has appeared at numerous festivals and venues including the Monterey Jazz Festival and Panafest in Ghana West Africa. He currently is Poet-in-Residence at Black Agenda Report and former Co-Chair of the New York Chapter of the National Writers Union (NWU). Turner has opened for such people as James Baldwin, People’s Advocate Cynthia, sportswriter Dave Zirin and CA Congresswoman Barbara Lee following her lone vote against attacking Afghanistan. ********************Originally aired 7-7:30pm, Thursday, on KZYX&Z FM, Mendocino Public Broadcasting. Also streams live at https://kzyx.org

Dana is fourth-generation Californian, who has lived on the southern Mendocino Coast for nearly three years. She currently serves as the 2021-2022 Poet-in-Residence at the Gualala Arts Center.The daughter of a painter and a builder, Lomax began writing poetry as a child and remembers melting crayons in her bedroom and drawing poems around the swirls of color as a way of dealing with her parents’ divorce. Early on, she knew that language had the ability to help people understand experience, help us sort, uncover, and/or complicate how we see the world. In high school, she borrowed a copy of e.e. cumming’s selected poems at the local library, and the possibilities on the page shifted tremendously for her. Lomax began to see poetry as a deep conversation with form, with the reader, with ways of directing experience and connecting with others in intimate ways.A lecturer at San Francisco State University for over two decades, Lomax has taught writing in schools, prisons, libraries, hospitals, pubs, and farmers’ markets. She served as the Director of Small Press Traffic, the Human Rights and Equity Chair for her teacher’s union, and as a traveling poet-teacher with the Performing Arts Workshop, the William James Association, and California Poets in the Schools. To date, Lomax has published three large scale editorial projects and three books of poetry as well as numerous other chapbooks, broadsides, and discreet poems. Her most recent anthology includes work from every US state, district, territory, and commonwealth and is entitled THE BEAUTIFUL: Poets Reimagine a Nation, published by Gualala Arts Center. Lomax also edited Kindergarde: Poems, Plays, Stories, and Songs for Children which received a Creative Work Fund Grant as well as the Lion and Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Literature from John Hopkins University Press. High points in Lomax’s career include when her book, Disclosure, was chosen by the Guerilla Girls as one of their favorite poetry books of the year, and the broadside printing of her poem “Lullaby” by Arion Press in San Francisco. Her current project, -unnamed-relation-, considers the links and jumps between ideas, people, and ourselves in the world. Poems from this manuscript have been published in the American Poetry Review, The Elderly, and The Pi Review, among others. She is also working on completing a graphic novel with a former middle school student, Peyton Alexander, making poem-films, writing a musical with her identical twin sister, and completing a short documentary about inequity in California’s education system. Find out more about Lomax’s work at danateenlomax.com **************************This show originally aired at 7pm Thursday July2, 2022 on KZYX&Z 90.7FM Philo, 88.1FM Fort Bragg, and 91.5FM Willits. www.kzyx.org.

Host Blake More celebrates the successful end of the 2021-22 school year with a show featuring the literary voices of K-8 students at Manchester Elementary School in Manchester, CA. The last school year has not been without its ups and downs, so 5th grader Max and his fellow students suggested the idea of ending the school year on an especially high note with this very special fundraiser.This year Manchester Elementary School participated in Student Led Projects (SLED,) as part of Prosolve's Nationwide education program. SLED is a national network of student chapters focused on identifying civic issues in their community and implementing sustainable solutions for improvement. With support from national Trail Guides and their classroom SLED Advisor, students in grades 3rd through 8th formed leadership teams and designed projects for school improvement. The Sled team projects included replacing a playground structure that had broken, creating a school leadership and spirit team, rehabilitating our woodland that has been devastated by tree die off, and recruiting volunteers to lead enrichment workshops. The teams have held fundraisers throughout the year to finance the play-structure and woodland project. Many thanks to the community for amazing support at the student’s tamale sale, bake sale and lap-a-thon!Currently the students have been preparing for a "Read-a-thon Fundraiser." The Manchester school students wrote poems and were recorded reading them. Proceeds from the fundraiser will fund Student Led Projects (SLED.) To donate to the fundraiser drop off or mail your contribution. Manchester Elementary School, 19550 Highway 1. Manchester, CA. 95459, or mail to P.O. Box 98 Manchester, CA. 95459. For tax deductible receipt include Name and address. **************************This show originally aired at 7pm Thursday June 2, 2022 on KZYX&Z 90.7FM Philo, 88.1FM Fort Bragg, and 91.5FM Willits, as well as streams on the web www.kzyx.org.

Host Blake More celebrates National Poetry month with some poems from wide and far – featuring mostly youth voices reciting classic poems from the NEA’s National Youth Poetry Out Loud program and from the Canadian program “Poetry In Voice”. Plus whatever else inspires me as we go along. Hopefully you will enjoy a bit of this, some more of that, a little music punctuated with inspiration, contemplation and joy along the way.

Tune into KZYX&Z’s Be More Now program at 7pm on Thursday, March 3 when host Blake More will interview Mendocino County’s very own Jazz scholar and producer Fred Adler. They will be discussing his lifelong love of Jazz and specifically the peace and presence of John Coltrane with a special tribute to his musical legacy. A resident of the Gualala coast since 1995, Fred Adler has been a friend and mentor for me since we first met in the late 90s. For the past 18 years, he has coordinated the Redwood Whale and Jazz Festival on the South Coast of Mendocino. He also hosted “Sunday Evening Jazz” once a month for 25 years on kzyx and now he hosts the Music of Page and Screen from 1-3 on the first sat of the month here on KZYX. He also hosted a popular jazz show called Wednesday Night Jazz, plus Sunday Musical Journey and a weekly Coastal Interviews show for over 20 yaers on KTDE FM Gualala. Needless to say, Fred knows a lot about Jazz. I hope you enjoy and learn from this conversation as much as I did.