Explore the bottomland habitat of Yellowwood Farm that is home to critters big and small, protected forever by a Sycamore conservation easement. Wear shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting wet. Meeting time and carpool location TBA. Yellowwood Farm is a private preserve on the border of Monroe and Brown counties.

RSVPs required: https://sycamorelandtrust.org/hike-rsvp

Events are free for Sycamore Land Trust members; suggested donation for non-members is $5 per person or $10 per family.

Featuring Tim Heerdink (poetry), Brian Boucher (poetry), Juliana Ramos Crespo (fiction), and music by Jason Fickel + VLF Trio

plus and open mic
$5 suggested donation

TIM HEERDINK is the author of Red Flag and Other Poems (Bird Brain Publishing, 2018) and president of the Midwest Writers Guild. His short story, The Tithing of Man, won first place in the guild’s annual anthology contest. He also has several of his poems published in Poetry Quarterly, the Fish Hook, the Midwest Writers Guild’s Shared Words, Distinct Voices and The Eye of the Storyteller, and All Poetry’s On Earth as it is in Poetry. He graduated from University of Southern Indiana with a Bachelor of Arts in English and currently resides in Newburgh, Indiana with his wife, Amber, daughter, Audrey, and their two cats. His debut novel, Last Lights of a Dying Sun, and his full-length poetry collection, The Human Remains, will also be available soon.

JULIANA CRESPO’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in North American Review, Literary Orphans, Flash Fiction Magazine, Mothers Always Write, Mud City Journal, Ruminate, Fiction Southeast, and OTV. She is an English teacher at a high school in Bloomington, Indiana, where she also lives with her family.

BRIAN BOUCHER Brian Boucher graduated from Indiana University in 2016 . . . and is still in Bloomington. He is in debt and wading in the shallows. With a passion for creative communication, Brian dabbles in mainly stream of consciousness prose and poetry, with grandiose visions of someday producing and directing a few films. For the time being, Brian’s main focus is in the study of various “energy arts” such as Yoga, Taiji and Qigong, the historical elements that inform these practices, as well as, the practical application of such practices in a modern context. Brian hopes to combine his creative communication skills with his knowledge of “energy arts” in order to further bridge gaps of understanding between people and the truth of our inescapable connectedness. Brian has completed a Novella entitled “Wahoo” recounting his true-life experience commercial fishing for Halibut on the Bering Sea, and excerpts from the work can be found in last month and this month’s addition of the Ryder Magazine. He has also completed a book of poems entitled “Arrogant Enlightenment and A Cry for Purpose,” which has been released exclusively through the social media platform Instagram.

JASON FICKEL’s amusing and vexing monologues have found a groovy new backdrop: The VLF Trio. The trio mixes up funk, soul, blues, and reggae into a dynamite instrumental stew. Bloomington’s John Valdez has drummed in our town’s best jazz, funk, and soul bands — plus he’s a regular performer in Cardinal Stage musical extravaganzas. Funk-master Park Law studied bass with Victor Wooten and has toured extensively in rock and soul bands. Guitarist Fickel performs with Jason & Ginger, the WFHB Firehouse Rounders, and has provided live guitar accompaniment for silent films (Dreyer, Morrison, Hoyt) at the IU Cinema. As the VLF Trio they bring it all together for a dynamic array of originals plus tunes by the Georges (Gershwin, Boy, Michael), Morganfield, Meters, Marley, and more!