PERFORMANCE ART | THURSDAY & FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8 & 9 | 7 PM | $20 ($15 SENIORS & STUDENTS)
Man-Moth & The Gospel of Possibility
An official event of the Rising High Arts Festival
To launch FUSION’s annual Rising High Arts Festival, Man-Moth & The Gospel of Possibility is coming to FUSION | The Cell on Thursday, October 8, and Friday, October 9, at 7 PM.
“WOW! I'm blown away. Man-Moth goes to Birdland in cape, beret, and shades, he’s assaulted by naphthalene hailstones...This is so well thought out, Man-Moth is a complete being, his poems/adventures draw us in like Siren calls.” — Walter Lenci, San Francisco, Independent Scholar
The show is a staged reading with music from the poetry book, Man-Moth & The Gospel of Possibility by Donald Levering. The poems are read by two readers in a unique style of “Prespeak, Swap Out, Repeat, and Double Down.” The live reading is accompanied by original music and audio and played on multiple instruments by a single musician.
Donald Levering’s 17th book of poetry was inspired by Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “The Man-Moth.” Her poem, in turn, was sparked by a misprint of the word “Man-Moth” for the word “mammoth” in the New York Times. Several of the poems are introduced by quotes from Bishop’s poem. Like her character, Levering’s Man-Moth is an often unwelcome “other” who roams New York City, riding its subways “facing the wrong way” and scaling skyscrapers as he is pursued. He is ostracized by ordinary humans for his differences from them, and also feels a compelling kinship with moths. He witnesses his human mother’s death from Covid. Like Hamlet, in the crucible of his woes he ponders existential questions.
The Man-Moth tale begun by Bishop is combined with a mysterious narrative of mushroom/fungal prowess inspiring a hopeful uprising facilitated by the sailors of the schooner Possibility against tedium, cynicism, and the oppression of the “orange tyrant.”
The production debuted at Santa Fe’s Teatro Paraguas in May of 2026 where its run of three performances was sold out.
Free parking is available in FUSION’s lot and is also free along 1st Street after 6 PM (more parking info + map available here).
TICKETS:
General Admission: $20
Seniors & Students: $15
“This is a book of awe-full wonder that opens things up to multiple layers of meaning and exploration: There's the man piece, the moth piece, how those pieces merge and diverge, and the questions raised about "reality." The Gospel of Possibility underlies and builds on all of this.” — Stephen Bunch, Langston Hughes Award winner, author of Preparing to Leave and Transmissions from Bone House, editor of Tellus.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
ABOUT DONALD LEVERING
Donald Levering was born in Kansas City and grew up there and in New York. He holds an MFA from Bowling Green (Ohio) State University. A former NEA Fellow, he won The Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize and the Quest for Peace Prize for rhetoric. Levering’s poems have appeared in such journals as Beloit Poetry, Hiram Poetry, Hollins Critic, Hunger Mountain, Poet & Critic, Southern Poetry, Terrain.org , and Valparaiso. Man Moth & The Gospel of Possibility is his 17th poetry book. His previous book, Breaking Down Familiar, placed 1st in the New Mexico Press Women's Creative Verse Contest. He lives in Santa Fe, where he curates poetry readings, conducts poetry craft workshops, and volunteers as a US citizenship tutor and with Kitchen Angels.
ABOUT ARGOS MACCALLUM
Raised in Albuquerque, Argos MacCallum has worked as a carpenter, plasterer, ranch manager, orchardist, furniture-maker, scene shop manager, as well as a film and stage actor and stage director. He has published three books of poetry: She Loved Gravity and Would Fall Down Exquisitely Anywhere, Sleeping Woman Mountain, and The Road from Refuge Ridge. He has worked with many theatre companies in Santa Fe, and is a co-founder and Artistic Director of Teatro Paraguas, a bilingual theatre established in 2004 promoting contemporary Latinx theatre, children’s theatre, New Mexico playwrights, and poetry readings.
ABOUT GARY BARTEN
Gary Barten is a visual artist and multi-instrumentalist and composer who performs on a variety of keyboard and string instruments solo, with other musicians, on CDs, and in live venues. He studied music theory and piano with the late May Harrow. He earned a BFA from Tyler School of Art and an MFA in painting from Washington University. He has extensive experience as a scenic artist and designer for professional theaters. He has also taught art and design courses at several colleges. He and his partner, Katherine Meyer, owned and operated the HERE Gallery in Santa Fe from 2022 to 2025, which hosted the Poets@HERE series that featured such superb poets as Tommy Archuleta, Jon Davis, Demetria Martinez, Valerie Martinez, Michelle Otero, Margaret Randall, Miriam Sagan, Santana Shorty, James Thomas Stevens, Leslie Ullman, and Mark Wunderlich.
Quality bar service will be provided by Safe House Distilling Co. and Teller Genuine Vodka in FUSION | The Cell. Click here for some nearby dining options.
The Rising High Arts Festival is possible thanks to the support from:
