Karla Kane Comes To Kendal

Since retiring from teaching in 2020 to spend more time in the land of literature (launching a poetry balloon website for children, editing poems from around the world, publishing an anthology to raise money for the National Literacy Trust and doing a bit of part-time work at Kendal Library), life has been fairly interesting.

While saying my goodbyes to Jim the classroom cheese plant, little did I realise that the future would include organising an evening of music and poetry featuring a Californian pop group and several excellent poets from the north-west in a grade two listed venue.

On Thursday 20th July at 7pm in Kendal’s Carnegie Library, a music and poetry event will take place celebrating the completion of six months of refurbishment in one of the town’s most iconic buildings. The event will feature five local poets and members of west coast indie folk and pop band Karla Kane and the Corner Laughers.

U.S. singer, songwriter and ukulele player Karla Kane and multi-instrumentalist Khoi Huynh are best known as part of the west coast group The Corner Laughers. At Kendal Library, they will offer an acoustic performance of their original songs, joined by Nottingham’s Mark and Helen Luker :

“The Corner Laughers are a California band who come across like a West Coast Belle and Sebastian. Their indie pop is sassy and smart, intelligent and intricate” – The Guardian

“The Corner Laughers craft a brand of pop that’s sophisticated, clever, erudite and memorable” – SF Weekly

Poetry will be provided by Geoff Cox (poet, playwright, fell-runner and filmmaker with the award-winning film A Shepherd’s Hand), Kerry Darbishire (Jardiniѐre – poetry collection with Hedgehog Press, poet-in-residence at Rydal Mount), Barbara Hickson (A Kind of Silence – debut pamphlet with Maytree Press, fell-walker, organic gardener and nature conservationist), Jonathan Humble (editor of the Dirigible Balloon website for children and Chasing Clouds: Adventures in a Poetry Balloon – Yorkshire Times Publishing) and John Alexander Scott (No Other Gods, environmental activist and performance poet at the Edinburgh Free Fringe).

Through editing The Dirigible Balloon poetry website, I came into contact with Karla Kane (a poet in her own right) who had planned a visit to the north-west of England this summer. A self-confessed Anglophile, Karla’s love of libraries and my appreciation of the Corner Laughers’ excellent music resulted in an invitation for Karla and Khoi to play in Kendal’s newly refurbished building in July.

Tickets for the event are £3.50 and can be purchased through Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/corner-laughers-and-poets-at-kendal-library-tickets-639237706187

Or directly from the library. A licensed bar will be available at this event.