A three-year planning process for Fort Worden State Park is coming to a close this summer. We urge you to review the planning documents posted on the Washington State Parks website at the end of this month.
Please be part of this important conversation about this place we all love. Comments concerning the planning documents should be directed to Kate Burke at kate.burke@parks.wa.gov by June 13th.
Celebrating and honoring the power and joy of Mothers, Madrona MindBody Institute invites all moms to a FREE class on Sunday May 11th - Mother's Day. Classes offered: Yoga @ 8:30 a.m. and SoulFull Sunday Dance @ 10:00 a.m. Show up early to register - if you are new to MMI. For more information, please give us a call at (360) 344-4475
THE BODYVERSITY: Body, Community & The Great Turning
May 2nd, 3rd & 4th
Building sustainable community, beginning with the body ... with Nala Walla (Bcollective), Jenny Pell (Wilder Institute), and Michael Suzerris (YogaLife).
Yoga, permaculture, dance and theater all weekend long!
$125 ($75 peninsula residents) see www.madronamindbody.com for more info or call 360.344.4475 for questions.
Join us at Fort Worden for our annual Mothers’ Day Brunch and Open House. There will be activities and events for the whole family, starting as early as 8:30AM through till 4PM Sunday May 11th.
While the Fort celebrates 106 years, this will be Bon Appétit first Mothers’ Day Brunch at Fort Worden. Bon Appétit, which specializes in fresh locally grown produce and artisan products, started its new service at Fort Worden last December. They’ve quickly won over foodies and are honored to have exceptional culinary talent, such as Executive Chef Jay Payne, and Souse Chef Hope Borsato, join their expanding team.
The lavish Mother’s Day Brunch will be offering advance reservations between 10AM and 2PM, (Sorry - The Brunch has Sold Out. However, read-on and enjoy the Open House, and call 360.344.4440 to reserve your FUTURE brunch table!) Price is $18.95 per person, with children 4-8 $9.50. Featured edibles will include: Made to Order Omelets & Waffles, Hand Carved Beef, Black Forest Ham Eggs Benedicts, Apple Sausage Links, Roasted Organic Potatoes, and Local Lake Lummi Salmon, Nash’s Produce, Mount Townsend Creamery Cheeses, Pane d’Amore breads and Pastries by Anca.
Between bites, and available to be enjoyed by all park visitors, a fort full of information and opportunities will be featured.
In the Commons lobby visitors will find volunteer information and opportunities from many of the fort’s campus partners.
A special gift basket full of unique products from Peninsula College, Copper Canyon Press, Centrum, Fort Worden’s Guard House Gift Shop, Madrona MindBody, and others will also be available. No purchase is necessary; Mom’s aren’t required to be in attendance to claim the basket.
Outside of the Commons many of the forts enterprising partners will be open with plenty of special reasons for folks to visit. Among the offerings, visitors will enjoy:
• Madrona MindBody (Gym – building 300) will be open from 8:00 to 2:00 and will offer free classes for Mom’s during our Sunday 8:30 a.m. Yoga Class and for our 10:00 a.m. SoulFull Sunday Class.
• Port Townsend School of Woodworking (Old Power Plant – building 315) will be teaching a course on Homeshop Cabinet Making during the Open House and we welcome visitors to stop in and watch our students build cabinets for the School's bench room. The School will also be offering a drop-in kids session for kids where they can have fun assembling small wood projects.
• Friends of Fort Worden Guardhouse (Jail – building 300) will be open and offer a 10% discount off their selection of great new merchandise.
• Carefully refurbished guest rental Houses 10, 353 and the Castle will be open to the public. Featuring lighting by Port Townsend’s Vintage Hardwardware, and well appointed craftsmanship by dedicated Fort Worden maintenance staff.
• Newly renovated JFK meeting and event facility will be open with a gallery of art works by Centrum’s artists in Artists in Residence program.
• Traditionally popular museum’s and interpretative sites such as Commanding Offers Quarters (building 1), Marine Science Center, Natural History Center (at beach), and Coastal Artillery Museum (building 201) will all be open 12-4, and free admission gifted to one mom per party.
• The Point Wilson lighthouse will offer free tours by the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Fort Worden is Washington's state park conference center for recreation, arts, culture, history and the environment. It is a confluence of creative learning, recreation, and retreat opportunities for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
If you've been to Fort Worden lately you might have noticed some increased activity near the gym and the old power plant. Two new partners have been hard at work setting up shop, providing a rich mix of new activities to visitors at the Fort.
MMI is located in the old 'gym' building at the Fort, and offers movement classes including Nia, Gentle Nia, New to Nia, Pilates, Tribal Fusion Belly Dancing, Yoga, Soul Motion-inspired dance called SoulFull Sundays and Moving Meditation. Visit their website to learn more and to get your whole body and mind into shape.
The Port Townsend School of Woodworking
The Port Townsend School of Woodworking is housed in the old power house at the Fort, and offers courses on cabinet making, furniture making, historic preservation and traditional woodcrafts. Their main website is their formal course catalog and information site. Their companion blog site The Wood Stooges offers commentary on woodworking as well as updates on the event calendar.
Fort Worden State Park is widely regarded as the 'crown jewel' of the Washington state park system. Along with the rich slate of cultural activities that take place here, it is simply a place of stunning beauty and intriguing history. Over one million visitors come to the Fort each year...
...and they take photos.
We've just created a "badge" on the right hand side of the page that collects all photos on the popular photo sharing site Flickr that have been labeled (or 'tagged') "Fort Worden." By clicking on that badge, you can see what everyone else sees when they come to this special place.
Enjoy...and post your own photos!
Multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, known internationally for his work with Jackson Browne, and for 
leading his own band El Rayo-X, will perform a solo concert at the Wheeler Theatre in Port Townsend at 7:30 on Friday evening, Feb. 8. This concert, presented by UpWest Arts and Centrum, marks Lindley's first appearance on the Olympic Peninsula in four years.
Lindley, who has long championed the concept of world music, performs in a style that brings new meaning to the word "eclectic." The David Lindley electro-acoustic performance effortlessly combines American folk, blues, and bluegrass traditions with elements from African, Arabic, Asian, Celtic, Malagasy, and Turkish musical sources. Lindley incorporates an incredible array of stringed instruments including the Kona and the Weissborn Hawaiian lap steel guitar, the Turkish saz and chumbus, as well as the Middle Eastern oud and the Irish bouzouki. The eye-poppingly clad "Mr. Dave"'s uncanny vocal mimicry and humor make his on-stage banter a highlight of every show.
David Lindley grew up in Southern California, first taking up the banjo as a teenager, and subsequently winning the annual Topanga Canyon Banjo and Fiddle Contest five times as he explored the American folk music tradition. Between 1967 and 1971 Lindley founded and led what must now be seen as the first world music rock band, The Kaleidoscope. In 1971, Mr.
Dave joined forces with Jackson Browne, serving as Jackson's most significant musical co-conspirator until 1981. In 1979, Lindley began working with old friend Ry Cooder on Bop Till You Drop and on the Long Riders soundtrack. Their musical collaboration lasts to this day, and has spawned many recording projects and several world tours as an acoustic duo.
In 1981, Lindley created his own remarkable band, El Rayo-X, which integrated American roots music and world beat with a heavy reggae influence. El Rayo-X toured the world for the next eight years. And throughout his long and distinguished career, Lindley has been one of Hollywood's most in demand session musicians, lending his skills to the recorded works of Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Crosby and Nash, Warren Zevon, and many others.
Lindley will perform one show only at 7:30 pm. Tickets are on sale at the Centrum ticket office (385-3102 x114), at the P.T. Food Co-op, at Quimper Sound Music in P.T., and online at centrum.org.
As part of a contribution to Centrum, visual artists Gordon Redmond and Laura Popenoe will sell several pieces of their work on Saturday, November 24, at Fort Worden State Park’s Building 204.
Items will be available for viewing and silent bidding between 2 and 4 pm. The back entrance of Building 204 has a ramp and an elevator, making the venue accessible to persons of all abilities.
[Leo Kottke in performance]
American guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke performed to a sold-out McCurdy Pavilion audience last Friday, October 5, at 7:30 pm at Fort Worden's McCurdy Pavilion.
Yes
Velcro, doubt, Ruth Roman, soybeans, crabgrass, Haynes manuals, Crayola silver, morphine, thermocline, blimps, laissez-faire, mahogany, wicker, Java trench, radar, fifties Gibsons, small blocks, teachers, Brompton's mixture, Velveeta, windmills, thumbs, verbs, punctuation, metaphor, divergence, synchronicity, coincidence, rain, PFAW, cumuli, titanium, the Empire State Building, Alvin, largo, chemosynthesis, beans, crop rotation, echoes, fish, deuce coupes, the Panama Canal, paint, moonshine, cotton, limnology, jiu-jitsu, craps, open windows, silence, glass eyes, Grant's tomb, GPS, frontal lobes, filtrums, opisthenars, palms, sleep, coelcanths, the Raid of the Terribore, corn.
No
Leaf blowers, de-regulation, sushi, spitting, snowmobiles, firecrackers, "community," black ice, brussels sprouts, public address systems, segregated use zoning, the Drudge report, CNN, sealed buildings, sperm banks, tags, room deodorant, Uzis, PCP, PCBs, high school, Monsanto, charter schools, lead, pulp, kumquats, binder, filler, Glade, teaching assistants, stun guns, Christmas records, mosquitoes, super delegates, billboards, talk radio, dog grooming, HMOs, boot scootin', diesel combustion, processed crossovers, cheeseburgers, cattle, sitcoms, hog lagoons, greeting cards, Mr. McPheeley, content labeling, soft money, personal contributions, corporate contributions, billboard lobby, speaking in tongues, Three Stooges, crack, hair blowers, 16-bits, entrepreneurs, super tankers, the NFL, Fox, diet plans, infomercials, advertorials, neologisms, adverbs, like, Valium, crank, spittoons, flower gardens, black holes, blue moons, Nostrodamus, belts, aspartame, Good Morning America, Demerol, styrofoam, Xanax, lapel ribbons, Hamburger Helper, possums, Trent Lott.
Friday, October 5, at 7:30 pm, American guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke gives a special performance at Fort Worden's McCurdy Pavilion. Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 as well as online at our secure site.
[Leo Kottke onstage playing "Rings"]
Leo Kottke, who has been referred to as "quite possibly the greatest guitarist on earth," will give a special performance at McCurdy Pavilion on October 5, at 7:30 pm. Listen to Kottke's classic hard-driving tune "Vaseline Machine Gun" here.
"Once you fall prey to Kottke's rollicking groove, it's hard to deny its allure, year after year," writes critic Josef Woodward. "He doesn't sweat the small stuff. It's all about an energy force, captured in well-honed musical terms."
Kottke's unique sytle of music draws on blues, jazz, and folk music influences. Growing up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Kottke played trombone and violin before moving to the guitar. A mishap with a firecracker permanently damaged his hearing in one ear, a condition that would be exacerbated during firing practice during his service in the Navy.
After receiving his discharge, Kottke attended St. Cloud State University in central Minnesota where he was known for skipping class and instead going to the auditorium and playing his guitar for hours on end!
He calls his guitar playing "fussin'" with the guitar. And sometimes during performances, his mind floats off the stage, he says. "It just plain leaves," he says. "Gone until the night's over. There's no room for me. Sometimes when I come back I don't have a clue where I've been, I mean, while I was playing. Where I go when I'm gone is another story. I'm not there, either."
Kottke has collaborated on his records with his mentor John Fahey, as well as with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Margo Timmins, and Rickie Lee Jones. He is also a frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion. For Tickets to the October 5 show, call Centrum toll-free at 800.733.3608 or 360.385.3102, x117 or visit our secure online Acteva site.
Centum invites you to come to Fort Worden each Friday at noon for our free concert series "Free Fridays at the Fort." From June 29 through August 10 on the lawn at the Fort Worden Commons, audiences sample music from Centrum's summer festivals, as well as outstanding local and regional musicians.
Free Fridays at the Fort
12n-1pm
Fort Worden Commons
June 29: Voiceworks/Port Townsend Slide and Steel Festival
July 6: The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes
July 13: Rhythm Planet
July 20: Navy Band Northwest: Five Star Brass
July 27: Jazz Port Townsend
August 3: Port Townsend Country Blues Festival
August 10: Dwyer Family Band
American Sign Language (ASL) supporters and practitioners of all skill levels are invited to gather at the Hot Java coffee shop for an inaugural chat, Wednesday June 1st, 5:30-6:30PM.
Hot Java is the coffee shop café located at the south entrance of Fort Worden’s Commons dining and event facility. Bob Saring, GM of Guest Services Food concession at the Fort will be the ASL event host. For more information contact Bob at 360.344.4440 or e-mail: wordengm@guestservices.com.
Centrum and Guest Services are just two of the Fort Worden partners continually committed to enhancing visitors accessibility offerings and resources. Learn more about this endeavor on our Information Center site.
Centrum is seeking a Development Director to develop, nurture, and manage over 1,500 individual and institutional relationships to inspire $1,200,000 million in annual charitable giving. If you're interested in joining a dynamic and passionate team, read more at The Centrum Information Center blog.
