Allison Proffitt, Chris Hennessy, Isabelle Sato

On the 3/26/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Allison Proffitt joins the show to discuss the duality of her scientific and artistic practices. She details the upcoming event "ASSEMBLAGE: A Concert of Music Featuring Rare and Intriguing Instruments" which will feature seven newly commissioned works, highlighting the guzheng, shakuhachi, duduk, glass harp, kamancheh, and taiko drum. Proffitt then shares lyrics to “Mantra” by Santiago Veros. Chris Hennessy is the next guest of the program, and he shares exciting news about his upcoming memoir Touched by Hannah. He shares a sample from the manuscript before the last guest of the programs, Isabelle Sato joins. Sato speaks on her love and appreciation for the natural world, and how that influences her poetics. Sato describes the writing class she has been taking, which author Grant Faulkner teaches before sharing a poem   “Bright Midnight.”

Allison Proffitt is a classical soprano who performs with the professional-level women's vocal ensemble Vox Musica. She has been performing in choirs for over twenty years. Allison holds a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from UC Davis, where she sang in the Early Music Ensemble. Allison works at UC Davis Health conducting clinical research studies. She is a regular performer at Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis.

Award-winning filmmaker, author, and speaker. Board Member, California Writers Club, Sacramento. Chris Hennessy dominated the San Francisco Bay Area's independent filmmaking scene from 1990 to 2018, marketing, selling, and producing over 1,500 professional projects for clients, including Google, eBay, the SF 49ers, Deloitte, Office Max, and The American Cancer Society. His digital content has garnered more than 8 million views across various platforms. After retiring from professional filmmaking in 2018, Hennessy launched his television series Yolo YoYo's which won Sacramento's Best New TV Cable Series (2019). The show attracted 125,000 Facebook views (TV stats unavailable), aired four segments on CBS's GoodDay Sacramento, and generated multiple newspaper articles written by Hennessy. The series' season two premiere, "Miracles on College Street"—produced to promote his forthcoming memoir, Touched by Hannah—won the prestigious 'Film Heals' award (most inspirational) at the 2022 Manhattan Film Festival and was runner-up for 'Best Narrative Episode West Coast' at the 2022 ACM Western Region WAVE Cable TV Awards.

Isabelle Sato graduated UC Santa Barbara in 2020 with a B.S. in Physics. While in college she hosted 2 Startup Weekends. And after graduating, she worked as a Jr. Scientist at TAE Technologies in the field of fusion energy for 3 years doing computational plasma reconstructions. She left in Nov of 2023 and since then she has been exploring new topics and ways of being through reading, traveling, volunteering. She has recently picked up hobbies like poetry, music production, and designing clothes.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM in the John Natsoulas Gallery. The event is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.