Join us for two nights of special events at the Springdale Community Center with the “Community Conversations” series, presented by the Zion Forever Project and the Zion Canyon Mesa (see attached poster)

Creative Tensions: Wild Words & Wild Places: Friday, February 10th at 7:00 p.m.

Blood River: Music & Musings with Craig Childs & Greg Istock: Saturday, February 11th at 7:00 p.m.

On the first night, Friday, February 10th at 7:00 p.m., join us for Creative Tensions: Wild Words & Wild Places, an interactive community conversation with Kase Johnstun, Laura Tohe, and Kirsten Johanna Allen. Using a format known as “creative tensions,” host Kase Johnstun will lead participants Laura Tohe and Kirsten Johanna Allen, as well as the audience, through this unique approach to group dialogue. Creative Tensions encourages openness and inspires empathy as we explore topics that explore what it means to be human.

Kase Johnstun is a novelist and essayist who lives and writes in Ogden, Utah. His novels “Let the Wild Grasses Grow” (October 2021) and “Cast Away” (coming in 2024) are published by Torrey House Press. He teaches at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation, the Graduate School in Creative Writing for Southern New Hampshire University, Barton Community College, and Weber State University.

Laura Tohe is the Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and an award-winning poet. Her books include “No Parole Today,” “Making Friends with Water,” “Sister Nations,” “Tséyi/Deep in the Rock” and “Code Talker Stories.”

Kirsten Johanna Allen is the Publisher and Co-Executive Director of Torrey House Press. Since co-founding THP in 2010, Kirsten has published more than 70 fiction and nonfiction titles and
continues to oversee acquisitions, editing, production, and marketing.

On the second night, Saturday, February 11th at 7:00 p.m., join us for Blood River: Music & Musings with Craig Childs & Greg Istock. Noted naturalist author Craig Childs and musician Greg Istock will offer an evening of reading, music, improvisation and conversation at the Canyon Community Center.

Acclaimed and award-winning author Craig Childs has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books, including “Tracing Time,” “Stone Desert,” “Virga & Bone,” and more.

Greg Istock will provide musical collaboration and performance that speaks to their shared love of the desert. With a spirit of generosity, humility, and love of the arid, intricate landscapes of the desert Southwest. Their focus tonight Childs and Istock invite us to look and listen deeply.

Both evening events will be held at the Canyon Community Center, 126 Lion Blvd., Springdale. Start times are 7:00 p.m. on both nights, and both events are free. This event is presented as part of a Canyon Community Conversations series; Torrey House Press joins us in producing these events.