Reading: Kimberly Dark

About this event

Annie Bloom's Books welcomes author Kimberly Dark for a reading from her new poetry collection, Motherlode. About Motherlode: When dementia enters a family, every member is deeply affected. While the pain of watching a loved one gradually disappear is often discussed, what happens when the relationship was already complicated? Sometimes, the disease doesn't steal something precious, but dismantles the careful negotiations a mother and daughter have built over decades. The silences, the deflections, the rules about what could and could not be said seem impossible to dissolve—and yet, Motherlode, by Kimberly Dark, shows how love and care are what prevail. This poetry collection—at turns poignant, funny, hopeful, and always accessible—navigates the journey of chaos and care that every family member of a dementia patient has lived. In Dark's particular case, the disease forced an intimacy with her mother that neither would have chosen willingly. They failed each other numerous times, and yet chose an ongoing relationship. This too is love. Dark could have written a sociology book about dementia or loss—she has the training for it. Instead, she chose poetry: a kind of roadmap in disappearing ink. The path through impossible circumstances is not found in analysis alone. It is found in the space where grief and tenderness meet—where caring for another becomes inseparable from caring for yourself. Kimberly Dark is a writer, sociologist and storyteller whose keynotes, workshops and storytelling programs have been enjoyed around the English-speaking world for 30+ years. Her heart-warming, funny, and sometimes startling messages help audiences to become the subject of their own stories and to actively co-create culture for a better world. Author of four books, contributor to dozens of publications and recipient of multiple awards, Kimberly's latest book––and second poetry collection––took some time to write. It draws from her complex relationship with her mother whose dementia and Alzheimer's diagnosis launched them both into an elaborate journey of care and chaos. Kimberly offers a rare perspective at the intersection of poetic language, sociological analysis and the love that endures even when a mother-daughter relationship has been painful.

Who

• Kimberly DarkAuthor
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The book

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  MotherlodeKimberly DarkBuy on Bookshop.org

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Venue

Annie Bloom's Books

7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR

Venue website

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