Join the park for a Stories and Poems event celebrating national parks, starring Christopher Johnson and Mark Binder, two of Rhode Island’s best-known wordsmiths. Between story and poetry, truth and lies, Two Guys Project explores the boundaries of friendship with a breath of fresh air.

Mark Binder has been called “a master at spinning old tales and everyday events… into storytelling gold.” As a performing storyteller, he travels the world, sharing tales that bridge boundaries for all generations. He’s written and recorded more than two dozen books, audiobooks and plays, and has been nominated for an Audie Audiobook award for best original work. He writes and tells original and traditional folktales, stories from Izzy Abrahamson’s Village Life, and what he calls “autobiographical lies.”

Mark Binder is the founding director of The American Story Theater. A graduate of Columbia University, where he studied storytelling with Spalding Grey and the Trinity Rep Theater Conservatory for playwriting, acting and directing. His plays have been produced at AS220, The Bell Street Chapel, The Church House Inn, The Middle East, The Quaigh Theater and the Wilbury Group Theater. He is the author of Izzy Abrahamson’s Village Life series of books, and was the finalist for the National Jewish Book Award for Family Literature. His epic poem, LOKI RAGNAROK was nominated for the Audie Award for Best Original Work.

https://markbinderbooks.com

Christopher Johnson is the recipient of the 2018 Rhode Island State Council of the Arts Fellowship for Playwriting. He is also a finalist for the 2018 for the McColl Johnson Fellowship, freelance writer, poet and an award-winning spoken word artist..

Timely, relevant, honest, unapologetic, personal, and political, Christopher Johnson’s spoken word commands in a way that is uncomfortable and arresting. Educated in performance art through experience and mentorship, it has been said that his pieces touch the heart with feathers and barbed wire alike, speaking uncomfortable truths, invoking the best and worst of human emotions. Christopher’s presence demands attention in a way that leaves people captivated and eager to hear more. Using words like a dancer uses movement or a painter uses color, his delivery is nuanced. There is an expressive intention in every gesture without it appearing choreographed. Able to evoke deep-seated dormant emotions through writings and performance, Johnson’s emotional expression through his art transcends race, gender, and other divisions. His impassioned words reach into the collective soul of all of us, touching and expressing our own pain, fear, and love, as well as his own.

#PoetryMonth

#NPS