April is an excellent time to welcome the season of rebirth with choice words after huddling in the long gray months of winter. Luckily, local poet Judith Adams will lend us her words to awaken the soul in an Easter weekend poetry reading.

Join poetry lovers upstairs in the Front Room Gallery at the Bayview Cash Store at 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8 for “Poetry in the Afternoon with Judith Adams,” accompanied by musicians Peggy Taylor on harp and Leif Utne on flute.

Adams is one of the many artists represented in Island Shakespeare Festival Bard’s Boutique, which is downstairs in the Cash Store and where attendees can browse her books and other local artists’ wares after the reading. All proceeds support Island Shakespeare Fest.

Adams is an English-born poet who has lived on Whidbey Island since 1976. She has published five books of poetry and two children’s books. Her poems have been published in magazines and anthologies and her poetry has even been choreographed for performance.

Adams has read poetry to patients at the Cancer Care Alliance, and audiences at the Frye Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum, Spokane Museum of Art, Third Place Books in Seattle, state correctional institutions, libraries, state hospitals, theaters, retreat centers and schools. She conducts poetry workshops for youth and adults and, most recently, is leading a Poetic Apothecary at Healing Circles in Langley.

Adams was selected for the Washington State Speakers Bureau in 2017/18 and in 2019/20. Her poetry books include, “I Wanna Die Nice and Easy” (2010), “Love Letters Only: (2014), “Opening the Doors” (2017), “A Place Inside” (2021) and “Poems for the Village” (2021).

“Poetry in the Afternoon with Judith Adams” is a pay-what-you-will donation event to support the Island Shakespeare Festival. ISF, is also a pay-what-you-will season of classical theater happening July 21-Sept. 10. For more information, check out www.islandshakespearefest.org.

The Bard’s Boutique in the Bayview Cash Store is located at 5603 Bayview Road in Langley.