Performer kicks off library's summer
Chris Swenson
Reading kickoff
HUMAN JAZZ MAN Chris Swenson will give two free performances for all ages Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave., and at 1 p.m. at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
The Sequim show will be outdoors, while the Port Angeles performance will be inside and require tickets. The tickets -- free of charge -- will be available at the library at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
For information about the Sequim show, phone 360-683-1161.
For Port Angeles, phone 360-417-8500.
For details visit www.nols.org.
Peninsula Daily News
HUMAN JAZZ MAN Chris Swenson will give two free performances for all ages Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave., and at 1 p.m. at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
The Sequim show will be outdoors, while the Port Angeles performance will be inside and require tickets. The tickets -- free of charge -- will be available at the library at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
For information about the Sequim show, phone 360-683-1161.
For Port Angeles, phone 360-417-8500.
For details visit www.nols.org.
Peninsula Daily News
By Diane Urbani de la Paz
Peninsula Daily News
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The Human Jazz man, also known as Chris Swenson, is out to prove via his body and voice your local library is one wild place.
The singer-actor-drummer-dancer will swoop in Wednesday to kick off the summer reading program for Clallam County youngsters, with free hourlong performances at 10:30 a.m. at the Sequim Library and at 1 p.m. at the Port Angeles Library.
Surprise yes
"I was shocked when he said yes," library children's services manager Colleen Cunningham said of the Seattle entertainer.
Swenson, who's in demand at arts festivals, science teachers' conventions and other events across the Pacific Northwest, has been called a lot of things, from "a wildly gifted performer" in the New York Daily News to "a one-man animal kingdom" in the Seattle Times.
Swenson, for his part, calls himself hard to categorize.
He puts on one-man skits, plays his body like a musical instrument, dances to his own singing and acts like various jungle creatures.
He makes spectators part of the show, teaching as he goes with calls and responses and invitations to imitate.
And he improvises, asking audience members to toss him a word, then bringing youngsters up on stage to frolic with him.
When pressed, Swenson offered that he's "a cross between Bobby McFerrin and Jim Carrey."
His music and humor are for everybody, he emphasized, including parents and even "cool teenagers."
"I'm bringing the wilderness to the stage, and teens like the edginess of that and just the weirdness," he said, though they may wonder as they watch, "What is this guy doing?"
'Acting like music'
"I'm just acting like music," Swenson answers.
The entertainer is also into the idea of summer reading, naturally.
He promised to "make up stories and talk about the things I like to read," which include science fiction, nonfiction about music's effect on the brain and poetry.
"I climb into the text," he said, "and act like what I'm reading."
He's also eager to demonstrate his body-percussion repertoire and a cappella singing techniques -- which anyone can learn.
"I want to reintroduce people to the instruments they walk around with every day," he said, referring to the body and the voice. "No batteries are needed" for these original instruments.
Swenson's Human Jazz performances start the summer series of events at the North Olympic Library System's branches across Clallam County.
The Sequim Library will welcome a troupe of performing pigs and a kite-making class, among other programs, while the Port Angeles, Forks and Clallam Bay branches will welcome "Mike the Mime from Minnesota," a reptile expert, a children's comedian known as "The Noise Guy," a magician and a Port Angeles puppeteer.
All the library events are free, and all young people, from preschoolers to teenagers, are welcome, Cunningham said.
The Friends of the Library groups in Sequim, Forks, Port Angeles and Clallam Bay, along with donations from community members, fund the summer reading program and the prizes awarded to participants.
For information about the free activities for youth and adults at the four Clallam County public libraries, visit www.nols.org.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
Last modified: June 22. 2009 10:52PM