OPUS VII “Of Words and Music” Series helps keep author’s works local
Story by Rebecca Leisher
Photos as noted
Walking into the bright and clean OPUS VII gallery in downtown Eugene, I suddenly feel as if I’ve been transplanted to a different city altogether. To me, Eugene evokes images of college students and hippies, but here people are dressed in slacks and dress shirts while milling around colorful works of art. They dangle wine glasses between their fingers and nibble from small plates of cheese, crackers, and green olives. Soon the patrons settle into chairs arranged to face several local authors who form a half-circle around a microphone.
Cai Emmons, local author and the visionary for this event series, strides up to the microphone in a simple but elegant black skirt and blouse. She welcomes us to the kick-off event for the gallery’s First Thursday “Of Words and Music” series, which combines literature with music. Emmons was requested by OPUS VII owner Kaz Oveissi to create a literary event, but she wanted to break away from traditional readings.
“Interweaving music with words creates an event with greater variety and texture, as the words and music resonate with and against one another,” she says. “Blending the two illuminates new meanings and it is a pleasing aural experience.”
This first event, Emmons explains, will be a reading of several papers by legendary author Ken Kesey. Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey attend the University of Oregon and lived in Eugene. His papers are currently held in the UO Knight Library’s Special Collections section. The series is a benefit to help keep the Kesey works at Knight Library, rather than being bought up by another wealthier institution outside of Kesey’s home state.
Emmons turns the stage over to Special Collections Curator James Fox, a balding and energetic man, also neatly dressed, with clumps of frizzy gray hair sprouting out of his head just above ear level. “Am I the only person here wearing tie-dye?” he jokes, pulling up his black sweater vest to reveal a multi-colored dress tie. “I mean c’mon, we’re in Eugene!” The crowd laughs and I feel myself relax slightly, overcome by a surprising sense of community in a town I’ve never embraced as a significant part of my identity. I look around at my chuckling counterparts and indeed notice quite a few people who are distinctly “Eugene” – some wear green hoodies with the gold OREGON emblazoned across the chest; others clearly declined to run a comb through their matted, faded-neon locks or wear moccasins and leggings.
Local saxophonist Charlie Gurke closes his lips on the mouthpiece of his golden instrument, and the room resonates with his evocative improvisation. The local author – Emmons, Cecelia Hagen, Miriam Gershow, Paul Calandrino, Lauren Kessler and Max Raynard – take turns in front of the microphone performing dramatic readings from the Ken Kesey Collection. They read excerpts from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion, along with letters, manuscripts, “scribbles,” and other works, all punctuated with saxophone riffs.
Kesey’s words reach and pull at my emotions, and the readings inspire me to laugh at times or nod my head pensively as I contemplate the contradictions of American society and institutions that still hold true today. Eugene playwright Paul Calandrino reads Kesey’s reaction to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Calandrino shouts Kesey’s honest words, expressing the anguish of the famous author, and I feel a lump form in my throat.
After the event, I find myself feeling refreshed from a break in the routine of college life. And then that same unexpected sense of community and a pleasing realization that the town where I live has a network of artists I’d never previously recognized. The event was free and took only an hour out of the hustle and bustle of school, and I leave feeling rejuvenated and inspired after becoming exposed to a few new local artists. I go on to look some of them up online and discover homegrown books and plays I’d never known existed.
The OPUS VII “Of Words and Music” series takes place every first Thursday of the month, from 5:30pm to 7:00pm and will feature a different theme with each installment. This Thursday, February 3 features a theme inspired by Valentine’s Day.
“[The show] is supposed to be a general celebration of love, with love songs by female vocalists and love poems featuring the ups and downs of love,” Emmons says . “I hope the audience for this Thursday’s event will simply relish the sounds of poetry and song.”
