A River of Words and Music DVD

New DVD release now on sale at Point Reyes Books, or order here using PayPal! This one- hour and thirty-eight minute live performance DVD is $20 (including shipping and tax). 50% of the profits from sale of the DVD go to River of Words, an organization to encourage children throughout the world to create words and visual art reflecting the exploration of nature.

"A River of Words and Music -- a world series of poets with composer Joyce Kouffman"

If you were present at Toby's on October 5, 2007, you will certainly want this new DVD of the event. If you were not, and if you enjoy the poetry of Jane Hirshfield, Linda Pastan, and Robert Hass with music interludes by Point Reyes composer/multi-instrumentalist Joyce Kouffman, you will also want to own this limited issue, historic DVD of a live concert at Toby's Feed Barn. The interplay of music and poetry in the concert was described by the poets themselves as:

  • "Joyce Kouffman's work with words and music is startlingly intimate and alive." ~ former United States poet laureate Robert Hass

  • "I was surprised and gratified at how well ...the...music mirrored both the mood of my poems and their rhythms." ~ Linda Pastan

  • "Joyce Kouffman brings her unique talents as composer into conversation with poetry in a way that expands both music and words, creating a third dimension in which each part of the whole exists both in its own fullness and changed." ~ Jane Hirshfield

Pre-release viewers of the DVD have relived the wash of emotions engendered by the evening's theatrical presentation with words, music, beautiful lighting, and the sculptures of Nancy Beck on stage.

You will also hear this world series of poets reading the work of River of Words' child poets, their own work, and responding to Kouffman's understated musical interpretations of the poems, including the 10 minute musical echo of Linda Pastan's "It is Raining on the House of Anne Frank," dedicated to all chidren in hiding today in war torn areas of the world, viewed during an intentional blackout during the concert and on the DVD.