Fulkerson to highlight art, music, spoken word with new festival

The mediums of art, music and spoken word will come together with the debut of the “Bard & Busker” festival from noon to 6 p.m. April 27 at Brew Bridge, 800 W. Second St.

The free event will kick off with The A.S. Coomer Band, led by Elizabethtown native and former Owensboro resident A.S. Coomer, before diving into five-minute poetry sets by Denise Pearson, Kevin Ridgeway, Steve Brisendine, Michael E. Duckwall, Jason Baldinger, John Dorsey, Jason Ryberg and Victor Clevenger.

Owensboro’s own “cosmic” country-folk and indie group the Chuck Piddles Band will then play a musical set, followed by another round of poetry by Dean McClain, Bree Zlee Bodnar, Chad M. Horn, Arizona, Tony Brewer, Ian Girdley, Nikki Blankenship, J.I.B., Hiromi Yoshida and Chelsea Rector.

Missy Brownson, Dan Denton, Julianne King, Ella Rennekamp and Elise Pfeiffer, Frog Corpse, Scott Laudati, Tohm Bakelas, Damien Rucci and Jonathan S Baker will make up the final round of five-minute poetry sets before the evening concludes with headliner Ron Whitehead, Ohio County native and the U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate for 2021-22 by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, performing a spoken word set with his band, The Storm Generation Band.

A total of 25 poets from all across the country — ranging from states like California, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio and Staten Island, New York — will be taking part in this inaugural event, according to the event’s organizer and emcee Joseph Fulkerson.

Additionally, there will be hand-picked local vendors that will be set up on-site with their respective wares and products available for purchase.

Fulkerson, an author who runs the independent book publisher Laughing Ronin Press that has been living “in and around Owensboro and Daviess County my entire life” started writing poetry and haiku around 2012 before collecting all of his works in 2018 before eventually having them accepting into different journals and publications.

It was during the latter year Fulkerson said the Daviess County Public Library put out a call for poems and short stories for its literary journal of creative writing — “VERBATIM” — where two of his pieces were accepted.

“Then we had a release (event and) everyone that wanted to (or able to) came to read their poems,” he said. “It kind of inspired me and I kind of got the bug for publishing and performing my poetry.”

From there, Fulkerson became acquainted with the poetry scene with people at the “Poetry Speaks” events at Bokeh Lounge in Evansville before eventually publishing a couple of books and putting on around 10 shows of his own at other local venues like 2nd & Charles, The Crème Coffee House, Pub House and The Spot Coffee and Finery, though he said the events were on a smaller scale compared to the upcoming “Bard & Busker.”

Besides enjoying the event and supporting a local business like Brew Bridge, Fulkerson hopes those in attendance will appreciate the “different voices,” stories and variety of artforms that will be shared.

“... We’re all doing the same thing, but in a different way,” Fulkerson said of the creatives and performers taking part. “... What I want is people to see … the potential in cultivating something that we can all share and be part of.”

For more information, visit facebook.com/bard.and.busker.