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Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass brings his talents to the cause of liberating Berkeley’s Strawberry Creek—the city’s premier living stream—at the Eighth Annual Watershed Poetry Festival, to be held Saturday, Sept. 6 at Civic Center Park at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Center Street. 

This unique event features a Strawberry Creek Walk, readings, dancing, music, acting, exhibits and interactive events for the entire family. 

Admission is free. 

Starting with the creek walk, participants will meet at the corner of Oxford and Center streets at 10 a.m. The public is invited to join in for a short hike up Strawberry Creek, through the UC Campus and back through downtown Berkeley, tracing the route of the creek as it tunnels beneath the heart of the city to the site of the festival. 

Berkeley’s premier watershed, Strawberry Creek flows openly from the hills through the UC campus but disappears in a culvert under most of the city as it makes its way to the Bay. The walk will focus on “daylighting” the creek, restoring the stream to the open air. 

At several points throughout the tour, featured readers will offer their insights, local poets will read from their work, and restoration advocates will discuss efforts to expose parts of the creek. At the Watershed Festival site, the creek—which runs directly beneath Civic Center Park—will be “miked,” enabling listeners to hear the stream making its own music as it meanders westward toward the Bay. 

A collaboration between Hass, Poetry Flash, the Ecology Center/Berkeley Farmers’ Market, EcoCity Builders and Save the Bay, the Watershed Festival focuses on the connection between the American literary imagination and our landscape, natural history and sense of environmental urgency—a tradition embodied in the works of such writers as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Wallace Stegner and in the works of more contemporary scribes. 

Readings will be given by Robert Hass, Sherman Alexie, B.H. Fairchild, Sharon Doubiago, Maya Khosla, and Gray Brechin. Hass will also introduce students from River of Words and California Poets in the Schools, who will present their nature poetry. An open mike reading will take place at 12:20 p.m., and those interested in offering their own works should sign up at the Festival before noon. 

Kathryn Roszak’s Anima Mundi Dance Company will present a dance theater adaptation of Gary Snyder’s “Mountains and Rivers Without End,” combining Christopher Castle’s music and visuals with Roszak’s choreography. Roszak and Terese Hoibye will dance and actor and Oakland native Earll Kingston will perform in the role of poet Gary Snyder. Robert Hass will present student poets from River of Words and California Poets in the Schools, who will read their nature poetry. 

Off the main stage will be the “River Village,” an area set aside for interactive arts, all-ages nature activities, and literary and grassroots environmental organizations. 

Berkeley resident Mark Baldridge, chair of Poetry Flash and Watershed Festival’s volunteer director since its inception in 1996, encourages residents to come and join in the festivities. “It’s a full day of music, poetry, dance and advocacy dedicated to the nature around us and particularly to the daylighting of Strawberry Creek, a natural resource that needs to be set free,” he said. 

For more information, contact Baldridge at 526-9105 or check the Poetry Flash website: www.poetryflash.org.