At Rail Walk: Poets Janice Fuller and Rachel Lee

Janice Fuller

Rachel Lee

Jazzy Art and Poetry Night is presented monthly by the Rowan Arts Council, located at 413 N. Lee St. in the Rail Walk Studios and Gallery building. The free event is from 5–7 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month.

This evening's poets will be Dr. Janice Fuller and Rachel Lee. Music is provided by jazz guitarist Jimmy Alston and his wife, Lesley.

Fuller is writer-in-residence and professor of English at Catawba College, and has published three poetry books—"Archeology Is a Destructive Science" (Scots Plaid Press, 1998); "Sex Education" (Iris Press, 2004); and "Seance" (Iris Press, 2007). She is winner of the 2008 Oscar Arnold Young Award for North Carolina poetry book of the year.

Her plays have been produced at Catawba's Florence Busby Corriher Theater, BareBones Theater's New Play Festival, and the Minneapolis Fringe Festival. Her libretto for German composer Knut Mueller's Destructive Science premiered at France's 2003 Rendez-Vous Musique Nouvelle. Fuller's play Machine Play was workshopped at the Polli Talu Centre in Estonia and was produced at Catawba's Hedrick Theatre in October 2006.

Educated at Duke University (B.A.) and UNC-Greensboro (M.A., Ph.D.), she has read her poetry and taught workshops throughout the United States and Europe.

Examples of her writings may be found at http://faculty.catawba.edu/janicefuller/.

Lee describes herself as a fine art artist, a poet and a seeker of spiritual wisdom. She leads a quiet life on a 100-acre farm with her partner and a host of farm and pet animals.

"This land is my inspiration and my refuge that gently rocks me to sleep each night and greets me sweetly each morning," Lee says.

"My painting medium is oil and I paint as much as possible from life in my studio, on the farm and in Ireland. I spend many, many hours out in nature, walking, riding horses, painting, writing.

"The poems flow as a direct result of Imbas (Irish for "divine inspiration") and my living close to the land. I am very content where I am."

Lee participates frequently with Plein Air Carolina, and will be facilitating Monday afternoon a life drawing classes at Looking Glass Artist Collective, where she is a member.

Some of her art can be seen at www.HallowkeepArts.blogspot.com.