Belfast bard Gearóid Mac Lochlainn is back in Kansas City, Mo., this weekend to perform at the Irish Fest. Known for his bilingual work with poetry and music, his most recent book and CD is called Criss-Cross Mo Chara.
In 2008, after then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, honored him for his contribution to Irish arts, he talked with New Letters on the Air host, Angela Elam, about his first book and CD called Stream of Tongues.
"I went to pubs, streets. What I was really trying to do was set some of the poems in urban, natural environments," Mac Lochlainn says. "But also to show that Irish is all around you, it's just a matter of you acknowledging that and tapping into that."
Gearóid Mac Lochlainn reads from his work, accompanied by the vocal Belfast trio, Mana, on Sunday at 3 pm, at the Kansas City Irish Fest, August 29 - 31, at Crown Center, 2450 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City, Mo.
New Letters on the Air, public radio's longest-running literary program, is a half-hour program that is produced by New Letters magazine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
