Nonprofit Colerain Center to Host Poetry and Song Garden Concert

Colerain Forges Mansion and its 10-acre grounds in Spruce Creek are home to the growing local nonprofit Colerain Center for Education, Preservation and the Arts. Photo provided

The Colerain Center for Education, Preservation and the Arts, a growing nonprofit near Spruce Creek, will bring together poetry and song on Sept. 11 for a unique outdoor concert.

“Words and Music,” to be held at the Colerain Forges Mansion off state Route 45 in Huntingdon County, will pair four acclaimed Penn State poets with four renowned local singer-songwriters in a series of garden performances from 3 to 7 p.m.

At each location, poets and musicians will perform separately before everyone gathers for a joint finale from the mansion’s front porch

“We’re excited to host a unique cultural event that will showcase eight talented artists in a beautiful and historical setting,” said Penn State-Altoona professor Jerry Zolten, a Colerain Center board member who initiated the concert.

The line up consists of poets Todd Davis, Erin Murphy, Lee Peterson and Patricia Jabbeh Wesley and musicians Eric Ian Farmer, Natty Lou Race, Jon Rounds and Andy Tolins. Recently, Wesley received the prestigious 2023 Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize for her book “Praise Song for My Children.”

Tickets are available for a suggested donation of $10 each through the Colerain Center’s site, www.coleraincenter.org. Attendees are encouraged to bring camping chairs or other lightweight types of seats.

Colerain Forges Mansion, a former ironmaster’s home about 25 minutes from State College, was once the hub of a prosperous 19th-century iron making village along the banks of Spruce Creek and Warriors Mark Run. Such communities centered around furnaces and forges existed throughout the Spruce Creek Valley and helped launch America’s industrialization.

Today, the 233-year-old mansion and its 10-acre estate of gardens and woods are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and serve as the Colerain Center’s home. The center was formed in 2019 as a nonprofit to preserve the historical and environmental resources of the mansion and grounds for educational purposes and to support the arts through events and an artist-in-residence program.

More information about the nonprofit can be found at www.coleraincenter.org.