Beach Bards Bonfire turns 30
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
Who knew?! No one imagined that an idea hatched on bar stools at Art’s Tavern (the source of many brilliant ideas) by Bob Sutherland and me over 30 years ago would live so long. We already knew that both of us loved storytelling and loved the Stone Circle poetry gatherings 10 miles north of Elk Rapids, with tellers Max Ellison, Terry Wooten, Taelen Thomas, Louan Lechler, Anne-Marie Oomen, and Ray Nargis. And we agreed that it was just too far to drive on a Saturday night, when you live where the summer sun and sweet breezes off Sleeping Bear Bay demand that we stay right here.
“Let’s start our own fire,” Bobby said.
“There’s a fire ring at Leelanau School down by the beach,” I replied.
Thereyago! The die was cast. And then how fortuitous that both Anne-Marie and Ray were about to spend most of their time in Leelanau County, and were excited to help birth another by heart (the only rule) circle of poetry!
I remember like it was yesterday that first fire on the solstice in 1989, when Bob led the children’s hour with his interactive “Blackbirds” bit, his tall tales, Little Orphan Annie, and Bob’s original, brilliant basketball epic Coach Arthur and the Knights of the Round Ball. “THAT WAS A FOUL, REF!!!” And I recited freshly memorized pieces like The Zax and The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. Anne-Marie shared The Single Grain of Rice teaching tale. Then after the sunset break the adult hour commenced with Les Dalgliesh on guitar, Ray’s Francis Bushman poem, and Anne-Marie’s When I am Old, all of these to become Beach Bards staples over the years, poems that got those gathered around the fire to lean in and listen like kids at the library. I heard Bob’s material so many times that I knew it by heart as well, and stole much of it (Thanks Bob!) for the collaboration with Patrick Niemisto in our Luunappi show of kid’s poems, stories, and songs that we’ve performed hundreds of times all over the state, mostly at the Leelanau Outdoor Center and on top of Prospect Hill at The Homestead (where sadly we’ve been replaced by karaoke.)
When Ray moved to Minnesota and Bob got busy with his Cherry Republic empire, new bards stepped in. Campfire veteran and children’s entertainer Fuzz Foster anchors the Children’s Hour now. Bronwyn Jones shares delightful Mary Oliver poems, and Joe VanderMeulen brings both humor and pathos with his Tony Hoaglund pieces and a sweet poem about the birth of a lamb. These pieces are still the daily bread of Beach Bards Bonfire as they are shared almost weekly and seem to be appreciated by returning listeners despite the repetition. Jim Ribby, a Stone Circle regular who is also a Civil War re-enactor and reciter of Robert Service and Walt Whitman, joins in several times every summer. Most of the local musicians have joined in, Niemisto and Skellenger, Bryan Poirier and John Kumjian, Laura Hood many times, Les Dalgliesh when he can, Pat Harrison, Tim Burke, and many young singer-songwriters over the years just passing through or only here for the summer.
Part of the magic for all of us regulars is the variety and talent of folks who are here for only a week each summer. Raconteur Robin Knott from Kalamazoo is a frequent participant with both stories and songs. Michael Deren, with his squeezebox and history songs, is a welcome returner. The Good family from Grand Rapids often joins us, with Tom‘s delightful renditions of Ian Frazier and Barbara Hamby, plus two of the Good youngsters juggling or delivering a hilarious rendition of Who’s On First? (Tom Good leads a storytelling fire along the river in Grand Rapids a couple of times each summer that is modeled on the Beach Bards Bonfire.) Several folks show up annually to play guitar and sing, and one does a great song about sharing around the fire dedicated to the Beach Bards.
There have also been astonishing performances by those who only showed up at the bonfire once or twice but dazzled us with their talent. Terry Wooten and Taelen Thomas came once, and in a way those Stone Circle poets blessed our fire that owes so much to theirs. We once had a drunken barbershop quartet (is that a redundancy?), and once a speech by TV and movie star Lane Smith, a graduate of the Leelanau School. Three PhD students from Stanford showed up a couple of years ago and together recited the entire Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Old Town Playhouse actor Michael Nunn delivered an amazing monologue as an old cowboy. Jeff Kagan and Paige Doughty appeared randomly one night and performed their brilliant and original science teaching songs as they do professionally in the Colorado schools for the rest of the year. We have heard wonderful versions of songs from Frozen and rap renditions of “Alexander Hamilton” by extremely talented young people during Children’s Hour. And just last week a woman from somewhere else with actor’s chops shared the delightfully bawdy X. J. Kennedy poem In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day. Each fire is the same, but different. You never know what you’re going to hear, from the classic Casey at the Bat, to the harvested poems of local writers like Michael Delp (“North”), from The Finn Who Would Not Take a Sauna to Oh What a Luxury by Garrison Keillor. The wind howls or whispers, the waves crash or just lick the shore, the clouds tumble or the stars twinkle.
That’s the beauty of an open forum. It’s no tech, no screens, no pages, just by-heart poems, stories and songs, shared by people circled around fires and gazing into each other’s faces for thousands of years, the original oral tradition, the magic of fire light and measured voices, the susurrus of the breeze and the punctuation of the waves.
The 30th summer of the Beach Bards Bonfire continues on Friday nights this summer through August 3 on the beach at the Leelanau School starting with Children’s Hour at 8 p.m. It still costs only one dollar per being.