PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts will present a special literary event in its Next Stage Speaks series on Friday, March 4, at 7 p.m., with Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons, hosted by Vermont Poet Laureate Chard deNiord. There is a suggested donation at the door of $10.
The evening will feature an interview, reading, and performance with Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons. This multifaceted event will begin as an interview with this couple who, when not tending to their two children, are busy composing, recording, and performing as the innovative folk duo Red Heart the Ticker and, as in MacArthur's case, also writing fiction.
During the second half of this event, MacArthur will read from her recent novel, which is scheduled to be published next year by Ecco Press, and perform a few songs as well with her husband Gibbons.
MacArthur is a writer and musician from Marlboro. She is the editor of Contemporary Vermont Fiction (Green Writers Press, 2014), and her collection of short stories, Half Wild, will be published by Ecco/HarperCollins in August 2016. She is a recipient of a 2016 Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gibbons is a composer, musician, and teacher. He has scored numerous feature films, documentaries, radio and television pieces, and media sites, including the “Frontline” episode “Terror in Little Saigon” (PBS), “The Forest for the Trees” (Sundance Channel, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival), The Barkley Marathons (Best Documentary Audience Award, Austin Film Festival), and the six-part multi-filmmaker documentary Freedom and Unity: The Vermont Movie.
He built his own workspace, Red Heart Studios, in Marlboro, where he has recorded with Beth Orton, and developed or engineered music and audio for such organizations as The Criterion Collection, NPR, and the International Labour Organization.
In addition, he has taught songwriting and music media workshops at numerous institutions, including Dartmouth College, Bennington College, and the University of Tennessee. He regularly teaches songwriting and music production classes as an adjunct faculty member at The Putney School.