Kelly Hepper, Adrienne S. Wallner

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Dustin Mac

Kelly Hepper

Cargo Coffee has remained a steadying presence in the local music scene through the pandemic, first with weekly virtual concerts and eventually with a gradual return to in-person shows. Jan. 8 mixes music and poetry, provided by singer-guitarist Kelly Hepper (of The Soul Doctors) and northern Wisconsin writer and photographer Adrienne S. Wallner (author of the 2021 collection To the 4 a.m. Light).

media release: Witness the creative connection of two Wisconsin women, Poet Adrienne S. Wallner and Musician Kelly Hepper as they share their collaborations and individual work.

Wallner will read from her debut poetry collection To the 4 a.m. Light, and Hepper will sing and play a collection of her original music, including songs inspired by Adrienne’s poetry.  Event will also include spoken work performances and pieces created by both women together.  Come celebrate the inspiring energy of collaborative creativity!

Hepper has been part of the Madison music scene since 2012, performing solo and with her band, Soul Doctors.  Wallner’sbook was published in March 2021 by Finishing Line Press. Wallner & Hepper have been friends for over 15 years and have only recently realized the cosmic potential for artistic creation when they combine forces.  

Adrienne’s Links

https://inkinthebranches.com

IG @inkinthebranches

FB @inkinthebranches

Kelly’s Links 

https://soundcloud.com/kellyhepper

https://www.souldoctorsband.com

IG @highpriestessofharmony

FB @SoulDoctors

https://www.facebook.com/events/597811421485787/

more on the book and Adrienne S. Wallner:

Adrienne S. Wallner’s poetry and has appeared in the Aurorean, Straight Forward Poetry, Uncommon Core: Contemporary Poems for Learning and Living, Minerva Rising, Stoneboat Literary Journal, New Verse News, and elsewhere. A 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee, Adrienne has taught and presented in variety of traditional and nontraditional settings. She has worked as youth advocate, adjunct professor, wilderness instructor, editor, National Park Ranger, marketing specialist, and grant writer. She lives and writes in Hazlehurst, Wisconsin.

Adrienne’s debut poetry collection, To the 4 a.m. Light, was released in March 2021 by Finishing Line Press.

To the 4 a.m. Light is a collection of poetry that revels in the gifts of language and sound. Beautifully descriptive, these poems honor the simple splendor of the present moment. Adrienne S. Wallner’s poetry conveys the celebrations and challenges of daily life; joy and grief, pleasure and pain, light and dark, connection and solitude.

Poems also explore themes of the self, independence, reclaiming empowerment, and connecting to nature. While some poems, are wildly imaginative, even surreal, others are rooted in reality and reveal the poet’s fears and reflections on potential blind spots. Other poems bare intimate moments with the self and ruminate on struggles with doubt, technology, and metaphorical darkness.

Poems exhibit a bold sensuality, a female force unafraid to explore and celebrate desire. A few ekphrastic explorations demonstrate inspiration gleaned from art and music, while others celebrate National Parks and love of and in the out-of-doors.

Many of the poems in this collection reveal a deep connection to the natural world and a reverence for the lessons it can teach. There is spirituality between the poet and place, between the voice and the landscape it inhabits. The poet invites the reader to be witness of this intimate relationship, revealing a fierce devotion to the energy of the Earth and the solace of wilderness.

To the 4 a.m. Light presents visions from a Midwestern woman's life. The poet’s voice speaks with a strength of conviction and commitment to each moment observed and insight discovered within these pages. There is a notion of seeking - not just for the sake of understanding, but to fully appreciate the unique moments of beauty and curiosity that exist around us every day. Enter the wilderness that is Wallner’s mind and emerge on a path of daring imagination, passionate honesty, devotion to the natural world.

"Adrienne S. Wallner is a poetry force-field. Her poems are moving in the truest sense—physicality embodied in language that consistently speaks to the joys and griefs of being on earth. She is a Whitman poet in the sense that she is writing the one-life poem that radiates from her self in unpredictable directions, a poem that is grandly and sensitively inclusive. I don’t invoke Walt’s yawping name lightly. Adrienne S. Wallner is a genuine daughter, full of the real, intemperate, declarative, evocative, demonstrative stuff. This book is a pleasure from start to finish.”- Baron Wormser, Former Poet Laureate of Maine and Author of Songs from a Voice, The Road Washes out in Spring- A Poet’s Memoir of Living off the Grid, A Surge of Language.

“"I love the intuitive way the poems in Adrienne S. Wallner’s To the 4 a.m. Light move down each page, weaving in sharply observed moments from daily domestic life and the natural world. The poems in this wise book from a necessary new voice unfold jazz-like, as 'sporadic solos/suddenly sprung/out of low melodies,' which assemble to make the kind of joyful noise we all desperately need right now in these challenging times." - James Crews, Editor of How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and Author of Bluebird, Telling My Father, The Book of What Says Praise for To the 4 a.m. Light

“To the 4 a.m. Light is a collection of poems driven by both grace and daring. Wallner is a careful and subversive observer of daily life, particularly the daily lives of women. There are wild swerves of imagination here, but also the clarity of thought that proves again and again how badly we need language that is both honest and fearless. I read poetry to be shown what is often hidden or simply missed. This book is a lantern.”- Tim Seibles, Former Poet Laureate of Virginia and Author of One Turn Around the Sun, Fast Animal, Buffalo Head Solos, Hurdy Gurdy