Heavy Lifting Listening Tour—with Soup!
A special event as part of the exhibit, Felicia Rice: Changes, at the Mendocino Art Center

Exhibit Dates: Saturday, February 14 through Sunday March 8, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 14, 2026, as part of Mendocino’s Second Saturday Art Walk
Heavy Lifting Event: Saturday, February 21, 2026, 6:30 to 8 pm, with soup being served!

Book Artist Felicia Rice and poet Theresa Whitehill will host an evening featuring their collaborative project, Heavy Lifting, in an updated Heavy Lifting Listening Tour event. This will take place at the Mendocino Art Center as part of the Felicia’s exhibit, Changes, which will be up for the month of February.

They are planning an updated program focused on their creative work and their community’s experiences since the publication of Heavy Lifting, during a time when the urgency of their original inspiration to document personal and collective crises has continued to intensify. A round-robin discussion will be part of the experience along with an overview of the artists’ book, a reading of one of the project poems, and a showing of the short film, On Heavy Lifting.

The Mendocino Art Center will be providing soup and beverages to the audience. We encourage folks to arrive early to view all the exhibits currently on show at the Art Center, as we will start the program promptly at 6:45.

Heavy Lifting is a limited edition artists’ book designed & handprinted by Felicia with poetry by Theresa. Their Heavy Lifting Listening Tour took place over the course of 18 months from early 2023 to late 2024, and included over a dozen locations from Mendocino County (including 3 venues on the north coast), Berkeley, Chico, Santa Cruz, and as far north as Seattle.

Film trailer: Click below for the trailer for the film On Heavy Lifting, featuring Mendocino Coast dancer, Kara Starkweather.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUHKChLt3ig&t=37s

Arts Council of Mendocino County
https://artsmendocino.org/event/heavy-lifting-listening-tour-with-soup/

Mendocino Art Center
https://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/exhibitions/february-14-march-8-2026-opening-2nd-saturday-feb-14-5-7-pm

Moving Parts Press
https://movingpartspress.com/publications/heavy-lifting/

Theresa Whitehill Poetry
https://theresawhitehill.com/books-broadsides/heavy-lifting/