Tuesday, June 19, at the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting, six arts organizations and artists were award recipients in the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission’s District Awards Program – a program in which Sacramento City Council members and Sacramento County supervisors honor and recognize artists’ and organizations’ contributions to the arts. SMAC Executive Director Rhyena Halpern introduced the six award recipients, including the Sacramento Opera Company and poet JoAnn Anglin, both who had also been recognized by the Sacramento City Council on May 29. Highlights of the ceremony included a brief dance performance by Vince Horiuchi and a poetry reading by JoAnn Anglin,

Poets and musicians gathered Friday night at the Guild Theatre to raise funds for C.O.R.E., Chicano Organizing and Research in Education, and their Que Llueva Café scholarship fund. C.O.R.E. is a non-partisan, research, and advocacy organization with the purpose of improving the education environment of all Chicano/Latino students. C.O.R.E.’s membership, including its board members, come from various backgrounds and fields and support the organization’s many efforts, which include a variety of scholarships, such as the Que Llueva Café. The Que Llueva Café scholarship was founded in response to “what is an unfair immigration system that continues to deprive aspiring new scholars from cont

More than 85 people attended a poetry benefit at the Guild Theater on April 21, 2012 to raise funds for the “Que Llueva Café” scholarship which aims to support the dreams, hopes, and aspirations of college bound undocumented students so they can earn their college degree and allow their hard work and sacrifice to persevere. Thirty scholars were chosen holistically by a panel of community volunteers through CORE, Chicano Organizing and Research in Education earlier this month. Every year, the group aims to raise $15,000 to help undocumented scholars working towards higher education.  Recipients live everywhere in the United States, not just in California. “When we first put this scholarsh

April 1 kicked off National Poetry Month, an event “inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 . . . when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.” Although National Poetry Month is held every April, and Sacramento and its neighbors are celebrating in various ways, Sacramento is certainly no stranger to poetry and the banding together of poets. About poetry, bookseller Richard Hansen, aka The Book Collector (24th a

Wednesday evening was filled with poetry, music and activism when Rafael Jesús González (poet, professor, artist and bilingual studies innovator) read to a full house at La Raza Galería Posada. He was accompanied by flautist and Rooted in Community co-director Gerardo O. Marín and artist and activist Colin Miller. The event was hosted by Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol / Writers of the New Sun and opened with local writer JoAnn Anglin. She spoke of the group’s founding in 1993, its monthly writing group, monthly readings and of the group’s anthology, “Voices of the New Sun: Songs and Stories / Voces del Nuevo Sol: Cantos y Cuentos.”  González was introduced by Dr. Fausto Avendaño, a retire

The Crocker Art Museum now hosts Thursdays ‘til 9. The event will feature four art experiences, Film Frame, Art Mix, Playlist and Open Art.     Open Art is the theme every fourth Thursday of the month and was the theme this past Thursday. Thursdays ‘til 9 featured “Licensing in the Digital Age,” held in the Cemo room with seventy plus attendees. Robert G. Pimm, Esq., Chief Learning Officer and Director of Legal Services at California Lawyers for the Arts led the workshop. Pimm spoke on industry standards, intellectual property rights and how these rights are bought, sold and optioned. Intellectual property copyrights are not just one right but five. They include the right to reproduce