Soundcheck Sunday: Movement and Poetry

Art News by Diane Urbani de la Paz

When you get right down to it, art feels good. 

That point was proven this weekend at the Soundcheck Festival’s workshops, performances and “experiences,” as the program promised. Sunday’s activities included the “Landing Flying Fish” poetry workshop with Rufina C. Garay, Port Townsend’s poet laureate, and a Free-Flow Dance Funk afternoon with teaching artist Mary Purdy. 

“I believe there’s a poet inside of every single person,” Garay said as she set up her workshop space inside Building 305 at Fort Worden State Park. 

The “Landing Flying Fish” title refers to those poem fragments that fly across your field of view—words you can catch and slip into a piece of writing. And if you get stuck, Garay said, you don’t have to force your way through the poem. You can switch to drawing, painting, collage, even doodling. 

“Don’t judge it,” she added, whatever you do.

Garay filled her poetry room with colored pencils, magazines for collage, miniature paintings, crayons, found objects from the beach and from free piles around town. 

A variety of Port Townsend residents dropped into the workshop as soon as the doors opened at 11 a.m. Sunday. Zinnia Hansen, an experienced writer and recent University of Washington graduate, sat down at a table with Christine Walsh Rogers, a KPTZ DJ originally from New York City. They wrote a bit and chatted about their interests, which range from music to theater to classical philosophy. 

At the next table over, a pair of Boiler Room String Band musicians worked on redaction poems, using pages from the New Yorker magazine. Violinist Xavier Cooper said he opted for this form since redaction has been prominent in the news lately. Bandmate Millie O’Neill, who plays guitar and upright bass, chose the crossword puzzle and found that the clues are, in a way, poetic. 

The scene of the Free-Flow Dance Funk class at nearby Building 310, aka the Madrona MindBody Institute, was quieter at first. Only one participant showed up at 11 a.m., so Purdy waited until the noon hour, when a few more dancers had appeared. 

Then she put on her first song, “Golden” by Jill Scott.

“Livin’ my life like it’s golden, golden / I’m taking my own freedom / Putting it in my song/ Singing loud and strong / Grooving all day long . . . I’ll be high-steppin’ y’all / Letting the joy unfold . . . ” 

Purdy proceeded to teach her people to groove, strut and bounce, and each did so, moving across the floor in their own ways. 

There were basic steps, there was some choreography and there was abundant warming up. Then Purdy changed gears and invited the class into a freestyle space: See how it feels, she said, to write the alphabet with your body. Music was provided, and when everyone had explored their physical ABCs, Purdy invited them to write their names with their arms, hips, legs, spines—whatever feels good. 

By the 1 o’clock hour, the dance studio had filled up with movers, including a mom who danced with her baby in a Snugli. Jon Batiste’s song “Freedom” poured out of the speaker, explaining what was happening here.

“When I move my body just like this / I don't know why / But I feel like freedom

I hear a song that takes me back / And I lеt go / With so much freedom . . . "

“I want people to know that anyone can dance. I want to give people confidence to be in touch with their body and how it can move,” Purdy said after class. She believes each person deserves the freedom to “get out of their head, away from the noise,” and into the funky groove.

Both Garay and Purdy share their art forms with the community outside the Soundcheck Festival. Purdy teaches dance classes twice a week in Port Townsend: Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. at the Port Townsend Athletic Club and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. at the Black Cat Pilates studio. She learned of the Soundcheck Festival at one of the Port Townsend Creative District’s Nexus meetups, which are held monthly at various locations. 

Garay, as poet laureate, will offer community activities throughout her term, which runs through 2027; information about them and about the Nexus gatherings is found at ptcreativedistrict.org.  

Purdy, before returning to teach another Soundcheck session, summed up what she hopes for most of all. 

“I want people to feel joy in expressing themselves,” she said.