Lit blog: poetry

Poetry's past due. Merely announcing an event or activity does not count as blogging the subject. I had asked Dale for a report/review on PWP and the Poetry Writing Workshop, but she was "out the door" on her way somewhere, and I have not heard back since. In particular, was there local participation in addition to Merris Atman reading poems by her iCreate program youth?

I enjoyed doing the RPG post about Random Poetry Generators, so I'll step in, somewhat less irreverently - more informative. There are a lot of poetry and poetry writing resources on the internet - too many to share all of them this time. The web has opened up poetry publishing - never a remunerative activity - by making it even more affordable than the traditional broadside, chapbook, bootleg xerox at work, or even earlier stapled & smeared mimeograph. There are classics sites, online journals & online versions of prestigous print journals, high cannon anthology companion websites, poets' forums, how to write pages, poetry in translation, rhyming dictionaries, and so much more.

Surfing for former featured PWP reader (although hardly his main claim to distinction) Gary "Mex" Glazner as an example of NM poetry blogs to share with you, I came across Literary Kicks, billed as "where literature lives online" and an Interview With Gary Mex Glazner. Gary's poetry blog is howtopoet.

Dale has a page but no blog. Pages other than pwp ones for other PWPers: Bob Reeves; Todd Moore (Lummox Press); John Macker (Lunarosity); Mary McGinnis (VSA); Leslie Bentley; Debbi Brody. Late as I never got to completing links and bios for PWP page. How that flies depends on whether you are into "better late than never" or the Jesuit "better never than late."

The Harwood Anthology of NM Poets, published this spring, features poetry by PWPers Dale Harris, (I think) Greg Candela, and others. Other New Mexico poetry blogs:

New Mexico poets & poetry online:

• Santa Fe Broadside
• Lunarosity
• NM Poets (on PWP site - "Broadside" has been misspelled for something like 3-4 years without anyone - not even poets - noticing, surely a telling comment on an enduring indifference to poetry)

Other NM poetry (art/lit/misc) blogs of interest (pretty thin selection - Dale should blog her TGIT poems):

• Chili Pepper High
• Santa Fe Arts & Culture (youth) Poetry blog
• Poet's Corner, Steppin' Out's blog that isn't (a blog, that is - maybe SO ed just doesn't get what a blog is)

A few Poetry Blogs - some are more like journals - rambling musings of poets, others have more announcements (contests, publishing deadlines, calls for poems), essays, poems, etc.

• Literary Kicks (mentioned earlier)
• dumbfoundry
• Wordplay
  
• Spam Poetry
• Poetry Blogs (links from poetry.about.com)
  

Poetry Forums - these are more about publishing poems online, sharing with other aspiring poets, and getting feedback, much of which, unfortunately, falls into the puff / stroke category. Forums are a comfort zone for the neophyte. Welcome and needed but bear in mind that too much comfort can become a buffer zone against reality and stifle growth. Many have a (usually banal) "read the classics" section.

• The Poetry Free-for-all
• All Poetry Community
  
• Poetry Poetices
  

hoo hoo and now to crack out the good stuff...if anyone made it this far. I'll leave musings on what is poetry, slam vs academic, that pesky cannon, usw. for another time.

• The Drunken Boat
  
• UbuWeb - dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.
  
• The Academy of American Poets
  
• BBC's Poetry Outloud
• Lyrik - Poetry International - internet platform on which poems are available to listen to and read, both in their original languages and various translations.
• British Electronic Poetry Centre
• Poetry Magic
  

This weekend in Mountainair

I won't be here - in 'burque being dressed by Bridezilla for next month's wedding. If you attend either or both of the following, please send me reviews to blog.

Saturday, 10 am - 3 pm: Saturday Art at the Shaffer

Sunday, October 1, 3 pm: Concert: Music in the Manzanos

Pianists Wray Simmons, Kathleen Ryan, Keith Snell (from Santa Fe); flutist Patty Mahoney performing all manner of music, including Haydn, Lecuona, Schumann, Liszt, & Ryan at Wray's. Call for directions: 384-0038

Kids' art

The youngest generation of local artists is accomplishing quite a bit. I get concerned that it's a bit too academic at times, but they're responding well and learning tons. Anne R. and I have been tossing around the idea of getting the children's art out into the community more often. However, the caveats are thus:
1. It involves time & humanpower to tote & hang the stuff.
2. Kids often want to keep their work, or teachers want it to "decorate" *cringe* the hall.
3. The materials are frequently of a lesser quality (i.e. construction paper) and fade or otherwise deteriorate in a short amount of time.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails

Surely you have all noticed what a significant role fiber arts play in local arts and recent arts events or facsimiles thereof. Fiber artists dominated the Arts Tour. A quilt (exhibited before and during Sunflower) was the central & very successful fundraising activity for Sunflower Folk Art Day. Fiber art unifies folk, functional, and decorative artists - a common & hopefully binding interest weaving together art folk and those who do not think of themselves as artists (central to basic definition of folk art).

Although not exclusively a fiber arts gallery, Cibola Arts Cooperative hosts a number fiber artists - Meg Chobanian, Ann Adams, and Terri Willett, among others. Pamela Armas' Treasures of the Gypsy is a widely acclaimed (fiber & fiber art accessory) garden of dollmakers' and other artists' delights - exotic fabrics, trims and embellishments from all over the world. Local fiber artists not associated with Cibola include (but not limited to) Judy Mowris (wall hangings, dolls), Geree McDermott (floor cloths, hangings, functional art), and Billie Clarke-Ferrer (handmade quilts).

The following, salted with occasional but obvious personal commentary, is mostly from New Mexico Arts and, given local saturation of fiber art, should be of more than passing interest.

New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails: 2007 Tour Map Site - Guidelines

"Fiber art" is work made of fibrous material (plant or animal), and derived using fiber techniques (e.g. knitting, braiding, felting, weaving, etc.) This includes basketry, beadwork, collage, crochet, embroidery, felting, handmade books, knitting, lacework, mixed media, needlework, paper, quilting, rug braiding, rug hooking, fiber sculpture, sewing, spinning, surface design, textile design and weaving.

Sigh, we missed the deadline (high noon, September 1, 2006) but this is definitely a must to put on our collective calendar for next year. Let's get local fiber art and fiber artists on the map - LITERALLY.

New Mexico Arts, our State arts agency, partnered with fiber artisans (almost) statewide to create a guide with maps featuring rural fiber arts destinations across the state. The guide is supposed to increase awareness of and bring the market to New Mexico’s rich and exciting variety of fiber artists, growers, processors, learning centers, suppliers, galleries, cooperatives and nonprofit organizations.

The goal: to inform potential visitors about fiber art across the entire state; to increase traffic to and business for rural fiber artists create; to nurture and display hand crafted work; to increase income opportunities for all New Mexicans who work with fiber; to improve economic activity for artists’ communities.

The state arts agency actively sought out rural artists and craftspeople working in fiber to include on the 2007 map. The agency also looked for producers and suppliers of fiber animals, plants and products (fleeces, roving, yarn, finished items, fabrics and dyed fibers) as well as dye plants. In addition, the guide included those who make tools used by fiber artists (looms, spinning wheels, shuttles, etc.) and places demonstrating and teaching fiber arts traditions and techniques . Galleries and cooperatives with a focus on fiber were also welcomed. So with all this active seeking, warping and woofing, how did Mountainair miss the shuttle? Let's make a point of getting in the 2008 Fiber Trails Guide (hoping there still is one while we are at it).

The guide will delineate a number of rural fiber arts loop trails to direct visitors to studios, farms, mills, schools, galleries and shops along each route. It will be distributed at state visitors’ centers and chambers of commerce in all regions of the state; through New Mexico Arts, the New Mexico Department of Tourism and the New Mexico Economic Development Department; on websites; at participating businesses; and by regional volunteers. Out of state marketing will depend upon the available budget.

Fiber Trails website.

Eligibility & Definitions

Saturday Art at the Shaffer!

NEW!!!

Saturday Art at the Shaffer!
Every Saturday from September 30 until Christmas!

Original art at fabulous prices by local artists
Judy Mowris and Geree McDermott.

If you don't see us out front on the boardwalk,
look for us in the conference room.

Shaffer Hotel
Highway 55 and Main in Mountainair
September 30 - December 23
10 AM until 3 PM

Tell your friends and family and everyone you know. Come by to see what we have and find something you love.
Give them the gift they really want this year: ART!

Hope to see you there!

vca 'n us

Note header change - local art & scenery & season appropriate to boot. Imp of the perverse tendencies tempted me other directions. Spurning Oscar's classical advice, however, I went for seasonal/local.

Lunched today with the Executive Director of Valencia Community Arts. No, this is not the Belen Art League or other previously mentioned Belen/LL/Valencia art group. VCA (for brevity) is recently founded and more concerned with promoting arts and Valencia County (and surrounding areas) as an art destination.

Notions under VCA consideration:

1. coordinating event schedule with other area communities and arts groups. The operative idea: daytrippers reluctant to come to, say, Belen for a gallery tour/other artsy something or other or to Mountainair for arts tour or sunflower or other display of pretty things for sale would be more likely to make the trip as a double header.
2. (related to #1) developing and promoting a "cultural corridor" / loop
3. developing series self-guided tours with annotated maps and handouts - we could do that too & if we hustle theirs, they'd hustle ours
   

Definitely something for chamber, mmac, and individual local art-&/or-tourist-dollar-seeking spots such as Shaffer & Cibola to think about and follow up on...

Call for local art for blog header

The present header image is still sunflowery. Time for changes. I'd like to see work from different local artists as well as photographs of local scenes/scenery.

I have some on file but not enough to be truly representative. Do you have work (your own or someone else's) or a photo you'd like to see on the header? Send it to me. Ditto blog contributions if you'd rather not register with blogger.com - or remain anonymous to readers.

hic jacet Sunflower, III - Shaffer redux

Probably the final sunflower blog. Having made money for MMAC, sunflower looks to be spared another year although usual sunflower grice will surely pop up at any mention of Sunflower Whatever. No sunflowers, lacks focus, etc. Was there more focus this year? I don't think so. My first impression was fewer folk on the street, but the community center reported better traffic and sales than for the arts tour - as well as a good time to be had by all (including by previous sunflower bashers...).

There were only about 8 (sorry, no report - going on 2nd hand info here) retableros at the elementary school, which tends to be off the traffic pattern anyway. This was also where the Information Desk was. Without a report - no data on visitor traffic or sales, although 8 tables @ $25 a pop would tally up to $200 in MMAC coffer. Celeste Simon's studio open house no doubt helped move visitors from central area to MES. The visiting retableros themselves said they would have preferred being at the Community Center this year and want to be there next year.

The Van of Enchantment in front of the Community Center helps draw visitors there. Having even more going on in the open space in front would draw even more. I'm with Sister Morpheme in going for more fun stuff (sunflower maze, dunking tank, games, rides) and varied eats. Perhaps the Town Square will be in place by next year and some of the ideas brought up earlier tried out.

Tours of Rancho Bonito (very popular but unfortunately preventing Dorothy Cole from taking oral histories at the Van of Enchantment) and a handout on local folkart (Shaffer, Rancho Bonito, Gordon McMath's Critters) added interest and boosted "folk art" factor.

The Shaffer Hotel was the other major and heavily visited venue. We may just have to resign ourselves to local events not having a single center - neither Dr Saul/Broadway nor Shaffer but both - and plan accordingly. This year, in addition to the hotel itself (including gift shop, restuarant, and refurbishments) and the Poets & Writers Picnic, Sunflower at the Shaffer included Spanish Market style vendor display in front of the hotel and art and artists at the Pavilion behind the Gazebo. Karen assures us of a warm welcome (no vendor fees) and room for more art and artists in the Garden.

A minor grouse (singular of grice): PWP announcements that Artists' Trading Cards gifted in appreciation to feature readers were "courtesy of MMAC." Definitely NOT. In fact, none of the ATC artists/ATC appreciation gift donors are MMAC members - AND were conspicuously absent from "official" Sunflower flyers.

Mad Women of Santa Fe, Dale at the mic, sitters & pickers

Megan Lempke with students (Nanci Lambert's granddaughters)
Fresh sunflowers by Geree

Photos courtesy Robin desJardins

PS Send your grouse - or grice - and suggestions for next year

Upcoming

Mountainair does not become a total dead zone come summer's end. True, there are fewer sightings of mythical beasts (neither unicorns nor chimera but daytrippers). Still, September and October do offer their own special somethings for lokal kultur vultures.

September 17, 3:00pm: de Profundis concert (neither the admittedly better known Oscar Wilde essay nor the Divine Office psalm -129, but the Albuquerque a cappella men's choir) at Quarai ruins (virtual tour). Both essay & psalm emphasize suffering: choir and September concert do not. This year's theme is “Mountain Music.” Come early and bring your own chairs. Rain location is the Mountainair Elementary School gymnasium. For more information call 847-2892.

Consider writing NPS & appropriate congressional sorts in support of continued funding. NPS is yet another natural / heritage / cultural resource on the budget chopping block. Surely as worthy of funding as murals, arts councils, etc.



October 1, afternoon: Music in/for the Manzanos, October 1, afternoon, featuring Kathleen Ryan (Clute) and others. If Kathleen sends me information, I'll post it; otherwise, call her yourself or look for flyers about town.

Pit Fire Workshops (very complete and detailed description of workshops) by Moksha (Rob Drexel) at Timothy Wylie's - late September/ early October for those interested in creating wonderful ceramics. Flyers should be available at Cibola and Shaffer. Please get registrations in by September 20th please....

Creativity Retreat [not sure about name?] at Shaffer Hotel, weekend of October 13th (I think), featuring aroma & massage therapy, creative exercises & general pampering - check with Karen at the Shaffer for more information.

Do you know of other fall activities or events? Please let me know so I can post them here. For news and announcements about events around the state, subscribe to the NM Culture Net newsletter &/or listserv.

hic jacet Sunflower, II - Community Center

Have you noticed the sunflowers all about town? Post Sunflower Day, natch. Do you think they are mocking us and our delusions/pretensions about summoning them for specific events. They keep their own timetable, based more on rains than wishing & druthers. The more than the usual rains this year started late, so the sunflowers germinated late.

Sunflower Day venues & Broadway storefronts made up by supplying their own sunflowers.

Ruth Ballen at the Sunflower Cook-off table & Roberto Morales onstage

Sunflower hats

hat & sunflower guitar

sunflower revelers taking their ease on Dr Saul's front steps

Photos courtesy Kristine Thompson