Come As You Art: Steve Brown
Steve Brown: From Paint to Pen, the Evolution of an Art Practice
Kalamazoo poet and artist, Steve Brown, is making his way to the Prairie Ronde Artist Gallery in Vicksburg on Friday, January 16, to perform his new poetry collection: News of Need, and offer stories about his writing practice and decades-long art career.
This event is free to attend, and all are welcome.
Doors open at 6 pm
Reading will begin at 7 pm
Books will be available for sale and signing
About the Artist
Steve Brown was born in Flint, MI, in 1980 and studied art in Detroit and Germany, where his essay collection Glänze, Gespenst! was published in 2015. His writing has appeared in Witness, Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM and elsewhere, and received two Pushcart Prize nominations. He has staged exhibitions internationally, been awarded residencies at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology and elsewhere, and received grants from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, among others. He has worked as a cook, roofer, landscaper, carpenter, substitute teacher, commercial artist, grant writer and art center director. He has been co-founding and leading The Kalamazoo Foundation for Excellence for nearly 10 years.
Brown is an engaging performer and presenter who vividly brings to life his writing that honors influences including Raymond Carver, Jim Harrison, Philip Levine and Carl Sandburg. He uses plain language and vivid imagery to address working life, loving and losing, sobering up and modern American themes, all with some hope of revelation, if not redemption. His writing has the eye of a reporter, the touch of a painter and the heart of a storyteller.