FLOATING WORDS POETRY PRESENTS “A WHALE LOOKS AT MAN,” A JAZZ POETRY PERFORMANCE

Animal Luminoso will perform “A WHALE LOOKS AT MAN,” a poetry jazz opera, as part of the Floating Words Poetry series at Entropy Gallery, 1220 Parkway Drive, in Santa Fe at 7pm on September 24, 2025. Sponsored by the Taos Jazz Bebop Society and TaosPoetix, the Peter Amahl Trio will accompany Taos poets Anne MacNaughton, Amalio Madueño and Denver poet SETH. The performance reprises Luminous Animal events originating with the Taos Poetry Circus in the 1980s as poetry and jazz collaborations. Doors will open at 6pm for a Potluck with the Poets. Admission is free.
MacNaughton was cofounder of the Society of the Muse of the Southwest (S.O.M.O.S.) and former director of the long-running Taos Poetry Circus. A founding member of the original Luminous Animal poetry and jazz group, she coaches performance around the state. Her poetry has appeared in such journals and anthologies as The Best American Poetry, The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, Santa Fe Literary Review and the Taos Journal of Poetry.
Madueño has published 20 books of poetry and received numerous poetry prizes including the Chicano Poetry Prize, Pequod Prize, Wyoming Review Prize, and the Cascadia Award. He has performed throughout the West from Seattle to El Paso and his work appears in numerous journals and anthologies including the Paris Review, Poetry, Prairie Schooner and the Wyoming Review.
SETH has performed with the poetry ensemble Open Rangers (1989-2000) and critically-acclaimed performance art trio Jafrika (1993-2004). Since 2000 SETH has led the Art Compost & the Word Mechanics ensemble of musicians & poets. SETH wrote the poetry collection A Black Odyssey, and The Perfect Stranger, a novel. You can catch him performing on Facebook and YouTube at SETH & Art Compost.
Amahl, Luminous Animal’s musical director, will bring in Paul Lovato on tenor sax for this performance, with David Moir on bass. Amahl is well known in New Mexico for his involvement with the NM Jazz Festival and the Frank Morgan Taos Jazz Festival, among others. The performance features homages to Herman Mellville and Carlos Drummond de Andrade, among others.
Contact: Floating Words Poetry (floatingwordspoetry AT gmail & www.floatingwordspoetry.com/)