Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "joann anglin"

Snapshot of 2012 SMAC DAP awards

2012-06-23T07:01:05Z

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, who read her poem “Webs.”

Recipients are listed below:

Chair of the Board Award, Chair Don Nottoli: JoAnn Anglin
District 1, Supervisor Phil Serna: Sacramento Opera Company
District 2, Supervisor Jimmie R.Yee: Ohana Dance Group
District 3, Supervisor Susan Peters: Vince Horiuchi
District 4, Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan: Three Stages Performing Arts Center
District 5, Supervisor Don Nottoli: River City Theatre Company

Poetic Voices: Flor y Canto

2012-04-25T07:37:25Z

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 continuing their education in the only country they have ever known, the U.S.,” according to the C.O.R.E. website. The scholarship provides financial assistance to undocumented students so that they may continue on their academic path.

The $10 cover charge donation provided the several dozen attendees with an evening filled with poetry and music from some of the area’s finest poets and musicians. Raffle tickets offered opportunities to win gift cards, several bottles of wine, and an electronic book reader. A silent auction was held for a piece of original art by poet and C.O.R.E. member Nancy Aidé González, who also organized this annual fundraising event.

“I believe in the scholarship, which supports the hopes and aspirations of college-bound undocumented students,” she said. “Many of the students applying for the scholarship have had difficult lives. Despite setbacks, they have achieved academically and want to attend universities. They want to improve their lives. They are the dreamers the DREAM Act seeks to help.”

C.O.R.E. executive director Miguel Cordova said scholarship applications have arrived from Georgia, South Carolina and Arizona, from graduating high school students who “believe they can make it in college.”

The event featured local poets Francisco X. Alarcón, Julia Connor, JoAnn Anglin, Graciela Ramirez, Paco Marquez, Sean Penna, Rosalba Gabriela Ruvalcaba, Betty Sánchez, an open mic, and musicians Patrick Grizzell, Cynthia Llano Faulkner and Joaquin Clemente Faulker. Several poets are also members of Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol, a Sacramento-based writing group.

The mix of poetry read in Spanish by Ramirez and Sánchez was complemented by the poetry read in English by Anglin and Aidé González. Several poets, including Alarcón and Marquez, read their pieces in both Spanish and English.

The audience was moved by poems like Penna’s “Las Muertas de Juárez,” about the deaths of women in Juarez (“A vile lachryphagous moth/ Drinking tears of sorrow/ Pain/ And misery/ From those he has taken/ And those he is yet to take”).

Aidé González read her poem “La Llorona,” based on the Mexican legend of the Weeping Woman.

“It is said La Llorona’s spirit is blessed with natural beauty and long, flowing black hair,” she said. “Wearing a white gown, she roams the rivers and creeks, wailing into the night and searching for children to drag, screaming to a watery grave. Though the tales vary, the one common thread is that she is the spirit is of a doomed mother who drowned her children and now spends eternity searching for them in rivers and lakes. I wrote ‘La Llorona’ because it is an important legend in my culture.”

Local poet and musician Grizzell performed two sets, including a bluesy song, and at times incorporating the harmonica along with the guitar. He can often be found throughout Sacramento performing music or reading poetry, and his books may be purchased at The Book Collector.

Early Mexican and Californio musical pieces were performed by C. Faulkner on mandolin and J. Faulkner on guitar. C. Faulkner related that people often ask why the songs are performed in Spanish. “Because at this time [California] was Alta California.”

The duo performed a set that included “El Capotin.” C. Faulkner credits Charles Fletcher Lummis with preserving these songs, which he recorded on Edison wax cylinders in 1903 and 1904.

Sacramento poet laureate emeritus Julia Connor began her reading with “The Place of Dark Blue Flowers,” a poem about Sacramento.

Her second poem, “Hidden Religions,” is a “poem about the making of poetry couched in the lore of ancient Ireland.” The poem refers to how sacred stones in Ireland in the 3rd century B.C. had to be chipped so that they would fit exactly when used to create stone monuments. Connor compares that construction to the poet sculpting words to fit a poem.

Connor also read a series of poems entitled “Postcards from Todo Santos” after having spent a week in that part of Baja California. The first section was about dogs because she said that the town was “full of dogs.” Connor finished her reading with “Epitaph.”

One of the highlights of the event was Alarcón’s invocation to the four cardinal directions. Beginning with North and ending with West, he invited the audience to stand and join him in calling the earth’s four directions. At each location, the ancient Nahuatl word, “tahui,” is called out twice.

“In the Nahuatl tradition,” Alarcón writes, “North is the Land of the Dead,” where the ancestors originated from, and they are called upon “to grant us their wisdom.” East is where the sun rises and “is the direction of our birth, of our childhood and youth, of passion, and is ruled by the protectors of love, of the arts and poetry, and of what is really most precious in life,” he continues. South is the “fertile land of Mesoamerica where my family ancestors came from. It is dedicated to honor all women.” West is where the sun sets, and “in the Nahuatl tradition, it also represents the end of our life journey.”

Alarcón has performed this ritual, which is an ancient oral tradition, hundreds of times at poetry readings, weddings, funerals, and performed the invocation once in the Senate Chamber of the California State Capitol.

In addition to his invocation and his poems, including one in the form of a letter to Hernando Cortez and another in response to Columbus, he is the creator of the “Poets Responding to SB 1070” Facebook page. He began the page in response to the controversial Arizona bill that many claim encourages racial profiling. He also spoke of the nine students known as the Capital Nine who protested the passage of SB 1070, calling them “the hope of our nation.”

“We are all humans,” he said. “Each poem is an act of faith, a call for action.”

Poetic voices educate immigrant choices

2012-04-24T06:42:41Z

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 scholarship together five years ago, there was a lot of hate,” Miguel Cordova, a state worker at Department of Education admits. He said some of the board members endured threats for moving the controversial scholarship forward.

“I think there is a great deal of fear. We have since come a long way towards bridging the gap for equality in education.”

He wishes that he could provide help to all 1,400 scholars who apply yearly. Their stories are enduring, but the group just does not have all the funds required to help them all. The applications go through at least five reviews until a decision is made.

The benefit is one of the many that the group organizes for the year which raised $13,000 so far. They are well on their way for their goal with one more fundraiser planned late in 2012.

Francisco Alarcon, Julia Connor, JoAnn Anglin, Nancy Aide Gonzalez were some of the educators who recited prose. Other poets include Betty Sanchez, Sean Penna, Rosalba Gabriela Ruvalcaba, and Paco Marquez. Musicians, Patrick Grizzell, Cynthia Llano Faulkner and Joaquin Clemente also gained spectators attention.

The evening is proof that poets come from all walks of life. From social workers, to lawyers, musicians, to visual artists, they paint the picture representing the meaning of the American dream.

"Poetry makes business sense,” said John Martinez. “In poetry the use of similes communicates the ideas that we are trying to set forth. I use similes daily when I'm closing," said John Martinez, an attorney who rededicated himself to writing rhyme at age fifty.

After four children and half a dozen grandchildren, he decided to pick up the passion he left behind at twenty. “It's never too late,” he adds. His wife Rosa America said that he used to write poems when they first met as a young couple starting out in life. When you follow ambition, work and family responsibilities have a way of taking over your life.

Here is Martinez in one of his rare public appearances.

And just like many influential older brothers, he was able to convince his younger sibling Ramiro Martinez, a visual artist to also share his take on literacy in the open mic later in the night.

Ramiro’s poem can be viewed here.

National Poetry Month in Sacramento

2012-04-11T07:07:40Z

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 and J), says, “I like to find ways to make poetry part of my life every month, but I am always excited when April rolls around and various folks and organizations find special ways to celebrate National Poetry Month.”

The Book Collector boasts a large poetry section which showcases talented local poets. On the shelves might be found works by Ann Menebroker, Carol Louise Moon, Danyen Powell, or anthologies and journals like Brevities, WTF?! and Primal Urge, publications by Rattlesnake, Swan Scythe and little m presses. On certain days, poetry is presented live. In April, poetry comes in one of its many manifestations when Hansen hosts Anna Joy Springer, Tisa Bryant and Doug Rice on April 21 to celebrate the release of Rice’s book, Memoirs of a Fabulist, published by local Copilot press.

About Sacramento and poetry, Hansen says, “There's an exciting poetry culture in Sacramento with numerous poets, several small poetry presses and many venues, including our bookstore, where you can experience poetry live.”

Live poetry thrives in Sacramento as can be seen by the offering below.

Sacramento City College is featuring an exhibit of poems located on the second floor of the library to celebrate National Poetry Month. According to Judith Howe, the curator of the exhibit, which includes illustrated poems, free verse and various forms, the library has hosted this exhibit for several years. Poems may be dropped off at the library desk on the second floor or emailed to howej@scc.losrios.edu to be included.

Additionally, an interactive display, "Wordplay," teaches people about poetry forms and provides ideas for creating poems. A display of books and other media showcases poets from around the world including Sacramento poets featured in a DVD titled, “I Began to Speak.” The library's impressive collection of poetry includes works by Neruda, Rilke, Rumi, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and names less familiar that might be found in the many anthologies.

The Guild Theatre will host the "Poetic Voices Flor Y Canto C.O.R.E. Fundraiser" on April 20 and will feature many of the area's finest poets including JoAnn Anglin, Francisco X. Alarcon, Nancy Aidé González and Betty Sánchez. More information is available by contacting Miguel Cordova at mcordova@ca-core.org.

Monday, April 2 was the first of five Monday readings at the Sacramento Poetry Center (SPC) and featured “volunteers and students who participated in the New Folsom Project, a year-long exchange between poets on ‘the outside’ and ‘the inside.’”

About SPC, Tim Kahl says, “We endeavor to promote talent from across the country as well as local talent.”

Perhaps the biggest event at this organization that hosts poetry, creative nonfiction and fiction events is its annual Spring Writers Conference to be held on April 14. The event is open to members and non-members for fees ranging from $20 to $30. Included will be workshops on writing and publishing, and readings by presenters. This year, a special reception for Julia Connor, Sacramento poet laureate emeritus, will take place in the center’s art gallery where her art is featured.

Other events include a special fundraising event on April 30 featuring Davis poet laureate Allegra Silberstein, Josh Fer nandez and others, hosted by Lytton Bell. All funds raised will benefit the Sacramento Food Bank. Frank Dixon Graham hosts the fifth Mondays, featuring different organizations, such as his successful annual autism awareness readings.

The Sacramento Public Library is also on board with National Poetry Month, and a sprinkling of events to be found include a “Tag-Team” reading (April 4) at the South Natomas library, hosted by Lana Adlawan, the library's branch supervisor. Featured poets read from their work and from the work of poets who inspired them. Also at South Natomas (April 21) is an “Altered Book Poetry” program for teens. North Natomas library will host “Haiku Collage” on April 26, and Central library featured “Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives - From Homer to Hip Hop” (April 4).

Other locations and events in and out of Sacramento include Emmanuel Sigauke, editor of Munyori Journal, at Luna’s Café (April 5) and Sacramento poet laureate Bob Stanley on April 12. Luna’s is home to the long-running “Poetry Unplugged” series begun by Joe Montoya and offers readings by five different hosts every Thursday. In addition to featuring readings by local poets and musicians, the largest open mic in Sacramento welcomes poets at various stages of their writing.

The Rattlesnake Press publication, WTF?!, featuring art, music and poetry from near and far, is released four times each year at Luna’s (third Thursday with host and editor Frank Andrick). The submission date for the next issue is April 15. Little m press, a Sacramento press, releases chapbooks by area poets (second Thursday with host and publisher Geoff Neil). Other hosts include Mario Ellis-Hill, Sho'nuff & Jenilynn, and Robert Grossklaus, publisher of local Polymer Grover press. If you’ve never been to Luna’s, it’s always exciting.

Also exciting are the many readings like the “Poetry With Legs” series at Sacramento’s Shine Café on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. This series is underwritten by Primal Urge Magazine. Hosted by Bill Gainer, this series welcomes poets working in all forms, from traditional to experimental. Like Luna’s, Shine offers food and drink, seating, and a host of local and not-always local poets like Brigit Truex and Phillip Larrea (April 11) and Rachel Leibrock (co-editor of WTF?! and columnist for Sacramento News & Review and Sage Alejandra (April 25).

About the series, Bill Gainer writes that “the audience is encouraged to be part of the show.”

Shows featuring poetry may be found at Queen Sheba, where the Mahogany Urban Poetry Series is hosted by NSAA on Wednesday evenings. This month David Scott will be featured. Also to be noted are events sponsored by Terry Moore including “Big Daddy Night for all Fathers and Father Figures” (April 5) and the monthly event, “The Show.” Mondo Bizarro also hosts Midtown Out Loud, which runs an open mic every first and third Wednesday of the month.

Other Sacramento area readings include the Crossroads series, which will feature Lisa Abraham-Dominguez and Susan Kelly-DeWitt on April 21 at the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento. This series features distinctive voices and is “dedicated to enriching the interplay between literary and visual artists,” according to the website. It is also the only daytime reading series in Sacramento.

Daytime readings, however, may be found in Davis when Rebecca Moos hosts her long-running “Poetry in the Garden” series each spring. The next reading will feature Sacramento poet laureate Bob Stanley and Davis host Andy Jones (April 26).

Also in Davis are evening readings at the Natsoulas Gallery on the first and third Thursday where Andy Jones hosts “The Poetry Night Reading Series” and at the Unitarian Universalist Church on the third Friday of the month where Davis poet laureate Allegra Silberstein hosts her series, “The Other Voice,” which will feature Laura Sandage and Kirk Ridgeway on April 20.

Woodland has joined Sacramento and Davis with a monthly reading series at the Woodland Public Library where host Jessica Kristie presents a featured poet and an open mic on the last Wednesday of each month in the “Inspiring Words” series.

The listings above are but a sampling of what’s available in and around the Sacramento area. For more information, ask other poets, look for flyers in your local cafes, coffee shops and libraries, visit the venues, seek out other poets and check out two of the most comprehensive online event calendars for Sacramento and beyond.

SPAM – Sacramento Poetry Art and Music offers event listings in a traditional calendar format where the viewer can be overwhelmed by the number of events on any given day. Additionally, this site links to area writing groups and workshops.

Medusa’s Kitchen offers event listings, workshop listings, poetry, art, submission opportunities and covers all of Northern California. See poets in action, their artwork and photos, read their words and find out what’s going on in Sacramento, Davis, Woodland, Lincoln, Reno, Stockton, Modesto and points beyond.

Rafael Jesús González - activism and poetry amid costumes at La Raza Galería Posada

2011-09-30T06:24:10Z

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 retired Sacramento State foreign language professor, who explained that the evening’s reading would be bilingual. Poems, stories and introductions would be read in Spanish, and English versions, not translations, would follow.

The two men met many years ago, and Avendaño said González’s poetry resembled Federico Garcia Lorca’s, and that “the images struck (him) because it is hard to equal Garcia Lorca.” The idea González put forth that “poetry is just a game with words, images and metaphors” also reminded Avendaño of Garcia Lorca.

González read in front of a backdrop of swirling color, thanks to the current exhibit, “Ballet Folklorico-Lace and Ribbons: The Making of Cultural Affirmation-Costumes from the Instituto Mazatlan Bellas Artes.” He opened by burning a small leaf, a custom he performs before each reading, one that comes from his ancestors.

“We burn a little bit of fragrant smoke to invoke the gods so that what we say does not offend them or the audience,” he said, and suggested that politicians try this custom.

Judging from the full house that remained through nearly three hours, in a room that was often too warm, the sage-burning worked.

He began with a poem honoring Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the Jewish New Year. As with most poems, González provided some background. His third poem was one of his first published poems, and he says the topic is “as pertinent today as it was then.” The poem’s last line is “How much, Mister.”

To which he responded, “Too much. Far, far too much. Many of us were asked to give up our culture and our language to assimilate. We lost our names and took on English names to protect us from prejudices.”

Being an activist and a poet, many of the evening’s poems were politically charged. He read several poems about heroes like César Chávez, whose “voice will bear fruit and there will be rejoicing in the furrows, in the ditches.” He reminded the audience that “the battles of the fieldworker are not done,” and he urged people to remember the blood of those who died “when you say grace above your meal.”

Several nerves were touched when he read “To My Student,” with its memorable line of “You who can read, do not take it for granted.” Following the poem, he said that 1968 California “had the best education system in the country,” but that Proposition 13 (1977/78) “undermined the whole infrastructure of the state of California, and (he) quickly saw the literacy rate plummet.”

At the time, he was teaching at Laney Community College in Oakland, where the oldest student was 79 and the youngest was 18, and where “real education was taking place.” Today, he says that it is “to our shame that the wealthiest state cannot afford to teach its children” and called No Child Left Behind the most anti-education act.

Poems about the Golden Gate Bridge, houses, and jade hearts preceded more hero poems. One was about Victor Jara, one of the imprisoned intellectuals in post-Allende Chile. “The Hands” relates the near-myth story of Jara’s hands being severed by guards, and the refrain of “each drop, a note against silence” served as a reminder for each of us not to remain silent.

Perhaps the most touching of González’s poems was “Blankets,” written for “my mother (who) still covers me with rainbows.” This piece, as with a few others, was accompanied by Marín, who played two different native Mexican flutes.

The music served to make González’s voice stronger, and it seemed to work better with the Spanish readings. But Marín, who always watched his maestro, never overpowered the words.

Following a poem written as part of his dissertation about the influence of the gypsy idiom on Garcia Lorca’s work, he spoke about living and writing.

“Everything we do is a game,” he said. “Living is a celestial game that is sometimes peaceful, sometimes difficult. Sometimes words are very volatile. To name a thing can take away its power, (and that) gives us power over nature.” He called naming a “sacred act.”

About writing, González said, “Everybody can write.” He urged the audience to “write for fun. Write for the music of the words. Write to overcome your pain. Write to celebrate your joys.”

He closed with “If We Do Not Speak,” influenced by his invitation to the 20th World Congress of Poets in 2005. While driving home from Santa Fe, N.M., he considered what he wanted to tell his fellow colleagues who spoke in many languages. The opening line is “If we do not speak to praise the Earth / It is best we keep silent.”

He closed with a reminder that “we have never been expelled from paradise. We live in paradise,” and that we “need to care for and love the earth more.”

'Til Thursday

2011-09-28T05:58:10Z

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, adapt, distribute, perform and display.

Another term discussed was works in the public domain. Pimm mentioned that copyrights expire 70 years after the death of the creator. After that time, the material becomes part of the public domain unless the copyright is extended. Pimm also stated that if a government or university employee creates a work, the government or university owns that work.

When asked about the event, JoAnn Anglin, local poet and writer, said “for those of us who are deeply involved in the arts, but very naïve about business and legal aspects, this was an excellent overview.”

Anglin also stated that she “felt like [Pimm] brought us up to speed on the topics of electronic media and instant distribution via YouTube and other Internet sharing.”

The next Thursdays ‘til 9 program is October 6, 2011 and will feature “Best of Shorts” from the past seven years of the Sacramento International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The event will run from 7 to 9 p.m.