Shann Palmer
(performance name for Sharon Palmer Radabaugh)

Musician, teacher, performer, poet, organist/choirmaster, writer, and mother; Shann Palmer has been living in the Lakeside area of Henrico County since 1983, and in Richmond, Virginia since 1971. She is married to David Radabaugh and has two children Paul, 19- an honor student at VCU pursuing a Philosophy/English major; and Alia, 14- a student in the Vocal Music Theater program at the Henrico Center for the Arts.

Ms. Palmer was born in Houston, Texas and attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, receiving a degree in Vocal Music and Piano with education credentials. She taught elementary music for the Richmond Public Schools, later teaching in Hanover County. She has worked with all grade levels, from infant to the retired community. At present, she is a part-time assistant to P.A.V.E. (Program for Vocational Education) at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. She serves as organist choirmaster for Grace Episcopal Church in Goochland.

In April 1996, she was the first (and only) participant in the open mike at Border's Books and Music celebrating the first National Poetry Month. Since then she has performed or featured in venues as diverse as the Austin International Poetry Festival (1999 and 2000), the DC Slam, the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, and on the NPR show Theme and Variations. As a correspondent for Poetry at About.com she has worked for Bob Holman to provide a calendar for events in Virginia/DC/Maryland.

She has numerous publications in print and on the web of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction articles. In addition, she has self-published six chapbooks and a CD of her poetry. In 2002, she published the "Shockoe Poets Anthology" under her imprint FlashPaperProductions. As faculty advisor, she supervised students at Trinity Episcopal School with their literary magazine and newsletters.

In Richmond, she has performed her poetry as a solo endeavor and as a team with other poets, and reads at special events with the Shockoe Poets. Her bands, the Brautigans and more recently Villanelle, have performed jazz and poetry at Mulligans, Borders, Barnes and Noble, the Valentine Museum, and the now-closed Moondance. She has participated in the Womenspeak events at ARTSPACE and the two Shockoe Poets readings. She was recently invited to Charlottesville where she did a presentation for the Sullen Arts Society. She teaches a poetry class at Borders on alternate Tuesdays and hosts poetry events throughout the area.

Recently reelected as Vice-President, Central for the Poetry Society of Virginia, she has served two years as contest chair for the annual student contest. Three of her poems are featured in the The Poetry Society of Virginia, 80th Anniversary Anthology of Poems by Member Poets to be released at the Virginia poetry Festival in Williamsburg in May 2003.

More information is available at her website groups.msn.com/FlashPaperPoetry

Email Shann: shannp@sprynet.com