GOINGS ON : SANTA BARBARA : Well-Versed Poet : Jackson Wheeler is among a group of Venturans who will read their works at a Santa Barbara festival.

Ventura resident Jackson Wheeler isn’t sure whether he was born with a love of poetry already running through his veins, or was infused with it drop by drop, line by line.

In high school, he considered reading and reciting poetry more of a burden than anything else.

“I grew up in the southern Appalachians, and schools there were still doing what they called ‘memory work,’ so we spent much of our time memorizing and reciting poetry,” said the 39-year-old Wheeler, one of several Ventura poets who will read from their works at the Santa Barbara Poetry Festival, which begins Saturday and runs through May 17.

“At the time, it was a burden. But then when I went to college, I fell in with a literary crowd. I quickly realized that I could recall quite a bit of what I had learned, and it was somewhat of a phenomenon.”

Besides impressing his peers, Wheeler captured the attention of some of his teachers, including Carolyn Kizer, first director of the National Endowment for the Arts. At the time, Kizer was a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina.

“She took me under her wing and introduced me to many remarkable people,” Wheeler said. “It was such a wonderful time in my life and I have no doubt that all that excitement sparked my interest in becoming a poet.”

Wheeler’s love of language and meter was also inspired by growing up in a rural environment where oral traditions were still strong. “It seems that a lot of things in my life fell together in such a way that I learned to love poetry.”

The poetry festival will include more than 15 events. Wheeler and the rest of the Ventura group will give a free reading of their works on May 8 at 7 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Forum. Other highlights include: “A Tribute to Pablo Neruda,” featuring Chilean poet Hernan Castellano from San Luis Obispo on Tuesday at the Santa Barbara Roasting Company.

Novelist and poet Kate Braverman will give a free reading from her work at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the UC Santa Barbara University Center pavilion. Nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize in poetry, Braverman also won an O. Henry award last year for her short story, “Tall Tales From the Mekong Delta.”

For schedules and details about the poetry festival, call 682-2957.

The fourth poet laureate of the United States, Mark Strand, will read from his work at 8 p.m. Monday at UC Santa Barbara’s Broida Hall, Room 1610. The event is free. Call 893-3535 for more information.

Poetry, music, dance and art will highlight the Cinco de Mayo Festival on Saturday and Sunday at the Santa Barbara County Bowl. The Saturday concert begins at 4 p.m. The headliners will be Little Joe y la Familia, a Tex-Mex group that won the 1992 Grammy for best Mexican-American music. There will be about three other performances, including Hermeto Pascoal, who plays Brazilian jazz, and Pelin, who performs Latin percussion. Tickets range from $12.50 to $20.50. Call 583-5700.

Sunday will be a free day at the bowl from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Along with food, beverage and souvenir booths, the main entertainment will include performances from groups around the state doing Mexican, American Indian, Aztec, Brazilian and Peruvian dances. Thirty-five high school students from Durango, Mexico, are traveling up especially for the event and their show starts at 6:15 p.m. Call 965-8581.

The Santa Barbara Jewish Festival, with plenty of ethnic food, music, dancing, fine art and children’s activities, will take place Sunday in Oak Park, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For information call 968-1280.

Violinist Chee-Yun will perform works by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Saint-Saens, Wieniawsky, Szymanowski and Kreisler on Friday at 8 p.m. at UC Santa Barbara’s Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall. Tickets are $14, $11. Call 893-3535.

At 21, South Korea-born Chee-Yun trained at Juilliard and won the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She had caught international attention when she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions at 18.

Also at UC Santa Barbara, Capitol Steps, a group of political aides who started joking around at an office party 10 years ago and went on to form their own singing group, will perform at Campbell Hall on Sunday at 7 p.m. Group members put original lyrics to well-known tunes to create songs such as “Talk Like Dan,” “Kuwait and See,” “No Nudes Is Good Nudes.” Tickets are $16-$20. Call 893-3535.

As part of Jazz Festival IV, The Rippingtons, featuring Russ Freeman, plus Supersax and the L.A. Voices will perform Friday, 7:30 p.m., at the Santa Barbara County Bowl. Tickets are $20 and $25. Call 966-7566. On Saturday night, Wayne Henderson and the New Crusade plus Monday Madness, will play 7:30 p.m. at Santa Barbara City College’s Garvin Theater. Tickets are $20. Call 965-5935, or call Ticketmaster, 583-8700, for either show.

An evening of acoustic jazz by alto saxophonist Frank Morgan and pianist Billy Childs will take place Saturday, 8 p.m., at the Center Stage Theater. Tickets are $18.50. Call 963-0408.

Performance artist John Fleck will present his one-man show, “A Snowball’s Chance in Hell,” at the Center Stage Theater tonight at 8 p.m. Fleck was propelled into national prominence last year along with Karen Finley, Holly Hughes and Tim Miller when all four artists were denied funding by the National Endowment for the Arts on political grounds. Admission is $10. For information, call 963-0408.