Farm-to-Fork Tales coming to Mount Vernon July 8
The Mount Vernon Area Arts Council will present five farmers telling stories about Iowa weather at 6:00 p.m. Thursday, July 8. The event, Farm-to-Fork Tales, will be on the lawn in front of the First Street Community Center in Mount Vernon.
Farm-to-Fork Tales is produced in cooperation with Mary Swander, former Iowa Poet Laureate and professor emerita at Iowa State University. Swander has worked with five local people to develop their stories about weather in the Iowa countryside.
In addition to the stories, there will live music from the Mississippi Band, a trio that includes two members of the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. The music will begin right after the end of the regular Thursday Farmers Market.
Storyteller bios:
Suzan Erem is a co-founder and executive director of the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa and lives in Cedar County with her husband Paul Durrenberger, two dogs, 7 hens and 2 roosters.
Laura Krouse grows vegetables for Abbe Hills Farm CSA. She’s farmed more than 30 years and is finally starting to figure it out. The best thing about her farm is that it allows her to spend time with kids and young people. In her spare time, she is a Linn Soil and Water Conservation District commissioner.
Allan Mallie is a local row crop and livestock farmer who describes himself as a running maniac, self-proclaimed music composer, father of three (two daughters and a son), and twelve-year member of the Lisbon School Board. He sums up his philosophy this way: “If you’re standing still, you’re not moving forward.”
David Miller is a hairless ape, larger than most of his species, but otherwise unremarkable, zoologically speaking. Yet he struggles with the ontological import of symbols as language--i.e., conveying truth through writing such as in a self-description or "brief biography." Also, he has dope magical powers and can turn wine into water just by drinking it.
Kevin Woods, 66, full-time town job, part time in ag, the best possible arrangement. Living on the same farm the Woods’ family has been attempting to squeeze some resemblance of profit from for nearly 100 years. Husband of Mary Woods; cat whisperer, prairie princess, and all-around good partner.
Producer Bio:
Mary Swander is the Artistic Director of Swander Woman Productions, a theatre troupe that performs dramas about food, farming, and the wider rural environment. She is also the Executive Director of AgArts, a nonprofit designed to imagine and promote healthy food systems through the arts. Her latest book is The Maverick M.D.: Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez and His Fight for a New Treatment for Cancer (New Spring Press).
Currently, Swander is performing her dramas from coast-to-coast in venues that include farmers’ barns to New York University, The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, The Mayo Clinic, and the Idaho Wine Commission. Her touring productions are: The Girls on the Roof, an adaptation of her poetry book with the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre; Vang, a play about recent immigrant farmers; Map of my Kingdom, a play about farmland transition; and Farm-to-Fork Tales, a storytelling performance..
