The Carbon County Cultural Project, 268 W. Broadway, Jim Thorpe, will present a free poetry reading by Michael Newton at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, from his new book, entitled Carbon County.

Newton will be reading among the paintings created by artist Anthony Freda entitled "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing," where Freda pays a powerful homage to the local coal mining history and lore of the Mauch Chunk area, combining powerful historic narratives, iconic images and fascinating juxtapositions of the elite and the exploited.Born in Wilkes-Barre, and raised in Lehighton, Newton is very familiar with Northeastern Pennsylvania.He uses that familiarity as the source material for a collection of poems exploring themes of place, childhood, relationships, history and imagination.People are all influenced and formed by where they live. They are also able to become more than the sum of those influences. In Carbon County, Newton creates a portrait of humanity that reflects the factors acting on the human. Newton believes that in doing so, the world is revealed to be something both imposed on us by outside forces and generated according to the nature of our own wishes.Carbon County is Newton's first book.For more information, contact the gallery at (570) 325-8284.