Mendocino Poet Micah Sanger
On Thursday, July 18, at 7:30pm The Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz Reading Series will feature Mendocino poet Micah Sanger. The reading will take place at the Arena Market cafe and will begin with live improv jazz and an open mic with jazz improv; the reading will conclude with more live improv jazz.
Micah Sanger was born on October 28th, 1950. His father was a country preacher and his family lived in a dairy-farm community in Wisconsin. When he was six years old his father joined the United States Army as a chaplain, and the family moved to France. During this time, the family traveled throughout many parts of Europe, visiting museums and cathedrals, thus experiencing some of the world’s finest expressions of religious and secular art. To go from the cow barns of Wisconsin to the gold and marble of the Vatican were mind-opening experiences for a boy.
Since then, Sanger has lived in many parts of the United States. He first attended college at Clemson University, South Carolina, from 1969 to 1971. He took classes in literature and writing, as the focus of his studies made their progression from engineering to architecture and then finally to art studio. Writing and painting came together and were to become his traveling companions.
In the early 1980’s Sanger continued his education at the University of California Santa Barbara, and throughout the rest of the ’80s at Chico State University, Chico, California. Eventually, Sanger returned to the beautiful skies and landscapes of New Mexico. He pulled away from the gallery art scene and went into a contemplative life—
out of this exploration, a rich new way of looking at his world arose. He turned to writing and painting about these discoveries and created an educational art website (www.perception4u.com).
In 2013 Sanger began writing and illustrating a book to express the ideas that he was communicating in his website but from a more emotional point of view. People could learn through the experiences of the protagonist, “Tō•bé.” His illustrated book, “Tō•bé and the River Is” was published in 2016. It is a whimsical fairytale full of living metaphor. The “River Is” is itself a metaphor for the matrix of the unified field that surrounds us.
The book has already won two Global eBook Awards, one for illustrations, The New Apple Book Award, followed by the Ben Franklin Award and the Nautilus Book Award. The last award was especially meaningful because it was in the Memoir Category, which means that they understood it is not just a made-up fairytale, but based on experience. (His website: www.4riveris.com.)
Sanger is now living in Mendocino, California and enjoying the morning and evening walks on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The hours in between are often spent writing or painting, either on location or in his studio. More recently he has been putting together an exhibit of his large body of paintings to be shown in museums and other venues across the country.
Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz is supported by The Third Thursday Poetry Group, many anonymous donors, and Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation.
