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For Immediate Release, March 31, 2008

Contact: Joanne Oellers, joellers@biologicadiversity.org, (928) 772-8204  

Katie Lee Event to Be Held in Prescott for the Verde River April 12

PRESCOTT, Ariz. Legendary singer, songwriter, river runner, and activist Katie Lee will kick off the Center for Biological Diversity’s “April River Days” on Saturday, April 12, at 7:00 p.m. at the Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Church. Lee’s presentation will feature Prescott’s debut showing of her film Love Song to Glen Canyon. Lee was one of the first women to raft the Colorado River and spent many years exploring the wonders of Glen Canyon before the rising waters of Lake Powell obliterated what some have called the world’s most beautiful place.

The Center for Biological Diversity has organized 10 full days of events to call attention to threats to the Verde River from pumping the Big Chino aquifer. Scientists have determined that the aquifer supplies up to 86 percent of the Verde’s baseflow; pumping could dry up the upper 24 miles of the river and jeopardize the health of riparian habitat upon which numerous native plants and animals depend.

Says event organizer Edie Dillon, “This most eloquent activist will inspire anyone who loves beauty to make sure we do not also lose the Verde.”

With a lot of wit, wisdom, and irreverence to share in defense of the earth’s last wild places, Ms. Lee’s recordings include, “Folk Songs and Poems of the Colorado River,” “Love’s Little Sisters” and “His Knibbs and the Badger” with Ed Stabler.

Her latest project, Love Song to Glen Canyon, is a half-hour journey of nostalgia as viewers run the emotional rapids of 140 largely unpublished photos taken during the 10 magical years Katie enjoyed running the Glen before her idyllic and beloved landscape was drowned. The visual feast is set to Katie's narrative and music.

“Some people appreciate things, others love them. I always go with the lovers. Katie Lee has lived life at a shout and yet made it all into a song,” says Charles Bowden, author of Down by the River and Blood Orchid. Writer Mary Sojourner describes her this way : “Katie is a ferocious woman. She is a writer with an I.V. straight to her heart from the past. She serves her love and her muse as a warrior must.”

Prescott’s first Annual “April River Days: A Week of Celebration and Action for the Verde” from April 11 to 20 encompasses community Earth Day at Granite Creek Park and the two weekends on either side of it. A spectrum of fun to serious events is planned to celebrate the Verde in as many different ways as possible, from the aesthetics to the activist and from the scientific to the spiritual. Events include field trips, informational talks, dance and musical performances, policy review, water conservation activities, an art show, children’s activities, an endurance run, low cost river trips, and more.

Tickets for the Katie Lee performance can be purchased for $5 before the event at Magpie Natural Foods, 500 W. Gurley Street in Prescott, or by calling Edie Dillon at (928) 227-9155, or for $7 at the door the day of the event. The Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Church is located at 882 Sunset in Prescott (two blocks behind True Value). All proceeds benefit the Center for Biological Diversity’s Save the Verde campaign.


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