Author Craig Childs will give a multi-media presentation on March 28 at the Sunflower Theatre titled, “Desert Ghosts — How we handle the ancient things, how we live with ghosts”.
“Childs was an obvious pick to set the tone for the kind of performance the Sunflower Theatre will highlight,” said Jeff Pope, Executive Director of the Sunflower Theatre and KSJD Community Radio.
Childs writes eloquently about “place and time, the heart, the landscapes of the Colorado Plateau — mountains and deserts — archaeology, animals and people, these are things that folks here think about every day because so many of us prioritize being outside.”
Childs’ books include: The Secret Knowledge of Water, Finders Keepers, House of Rain, Animal Diaries and most recently, Apocalyptic Planet.
The New York Times says “Childs’s feats of asceticism are nothing if not awe inspiring: he’s a modern-day desert father.”
He has won several key awards including the 2013 Orion Book Award, the 2011 Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award, 2008 Rowell Art of Adventure Award, and twice he has won the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, first in 2007 and then 2013.
The event Saturday is a benefit for the Sunflower Theatre in partnership with Friends of Cedar Mesa, a non-profit organization based in Southeast Utah. “We work to create local, regional and national support for greater protection of Cedar Mesa through education, advocating for national designations, supporting smart local policy-making, and organizing research and volunteer service activities”, says Josh Ewing, Executive Director of Friends of Cedar Mesa. “Craig’s ramblings and writing about the desert and Southeast Utah — including Cedar Mesa — capture why it’s so important that we stay connected to this important landscape and its resources.”
The multi-media presentation is set inside the broader themes of Place: Colorado Plateau; People over time: pre-history, artifacts, adventures; and Change: what we notice about being on and in the Colorado Plateau landscape with environmental change happening around us.
Doors and cash bar open at 6:15. Show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets available at SunflowerTheatre.org. The Sunflower Theatre is located at Main and Market Street in Cortez, Colorado, next to KSJD Community Radio.
The Sunflower Theatre presents performing arts, cinematic, and educational programming to enrich the cultural experience of a diverse rural audience in the Four Corners Region.