New Bedford, MA, September 8, 2008— The 2008 Working Waterfront Festival will feature fisherman and poet Dave Densmore of Kodiak, Alaska.  The free festival takes place in New Bedford, America’s largest commercial fishing port, on Saturday and Sunday, September 27th & 28th.



With the theme Connecting Communities, Preserving Ports, it is fitting that the New Bedford festival will feature a fisherpoet from Kodiak, Alaska.  Dave Densmore has been a life long fisherman earning a full share on a Kodiak seiner by the time he was twelve and purchasing his first boat soon after.  He skippered his first Bering Sea King crabber at 23, the youngest Bering Sea king crab skipper, at that time. In the 1970s he began writing poetry about his life as a fisherman which he will share at this year’s festival.  Dave grew up in Alaska, in several Aleutian villages, with Kodiak being his home town. He has trolled the west coast for salmon and Albacore, otter trawled for bottom fish, and fished Alaska for Black Cod and Halibut, King Crab, Tanner and Dungeness Crab. He currently fishes salmon out of Kodiak and is gearing up for crab.

Dave started writing poetry in the late 70's “long before I heard anyone else write anything about commercial fishing.” He’s been published in numerous trade papers, magazines and newspapers and has a byline in a quarterly, the Columbia River Gillnetter.  He was featured in the documentary Fisherpoets and on Good Morning America. A regular at the Astoria Fisherpoet's Gathering, Dave has also performed in Elko Nevada at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and at events from fish fries to a sculpture dedication for the world renowned artist Mia Lin.

At the Working Waterfront Festival, Dave will be joined by Rhode Island-based fisherman and songwriter Jon Campbell and Janice Marshall, a Smith Island crab picker who performs original musical parodies for a song/poem swap called Something Fishy.

The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England's commercial fishing industry, features live maritime and ethnic music, fishermen's contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, author readings, cooking demonstrations, kid's activities and more.  It all takes place in New Bedford, MA, America's #1 fishing port, on the fourth full weekend of September.  Navigate to us at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.

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