your october annogram

This fall brings a harvest of acceptances.  Thanks to Codhill Press editors Larry Carr and Jan Schmidt for selecting “Andromeda at Midlife” for their anthology of women poets from the Hudson Valley.  My gratitude also goes to Joel Allegretti of Poets Wear Prada, which will publish “Velocity” in a collection of poems on TV.  “Velocity” reflects on a recently discovered film of the Kennedy motorcade.  In response, Allegretti writes:

The poem deals with a threshold moment. Viewers at home a few seconds later saw something that would permanently change the optimistic United States. Their TV set suddenly became something they never imagined it would be.

More thanks to First Literary Review-East Editor Cindy Hochman for taking "Forensics" which will appear in November, "The Grief Counselors" in January, and "Bumblebee" In March.   Alhambra Publishing will also print "Saffron" in its 2013 Poetry Calendar, and the Young Readers’ version will feature "Aurora" and "Amphibious.”  Whew!

Toulouse Lautrec and Fin-de-Siècle Paris

Thanks to Larissa Bailiff, art historian and MoMA lecturer, for giving this lunchtime talk. Toulouse Lautrec, despite his brief lifespan (1864-1901), produced more than 300 drawings and paintings.  He was good friends with Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) when the latter was in Paris for two years.  I’d never seen his pastel portrait of Van Gogh. His posters of Montmartre dance hall stars, such as Jane Avril (1868-1943) and Louise Weber (1866-1929)—aka “La Goulue,” took design cues from shadow theatre presentations popular at the time.  Who knew?  Fascinating!

Red Glass Books One-Year Celebration

Join poet Janet Kaplan to celebrate the first year of her dynamic new press, Red Glass Books, on October 24, 6-8 p.m. at the Cornelia Street Café.  Red Glass poets Patricia Spears Jones, Margaret Diehl, Edwin Torres, Brian Clements, and EJ Antonio will read.  I loved Edwin Torres’s One Night: Poems for the Sleepy and can’t wait to read more titles such as [The ship] by Jean Valentine.  Congratulations to Janet and all the fine Red Glass poets!  Drink up, indeed!

 “Neutral Hero” at the Kitchen

Obie award-winning playwright Richard Maxwell presents “Neutral Hero,” a musical about a young man searching for his father in the American landscape. I’m thrilled that one of the 12 actors is my multitalented coworker Philip Moore.  You can see this critically acclaimed play, just back from world tour, at The Kitchen October 18-November 3. Performances Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets here.

Tony Lo Bianco in “The Little Flower”

Tony Lo Bianco reprises his one-man show, "The Little Flower," October 23 - November 2 at the Dicapo Theater on East 76th Street between Third and Lex.  The performance explores the life of the colorful if bombastic Fiorello H. La Guardia, Former Mayor of New York City.  Lo Bianco says, “Fiorello will give you insight, laughter and understanding of what a public servant should be doing for you.” Go to SmartTix now for tickets: October 24 and November 2 are already sold out.

Racoco at EstroGenius 2012

Field Dance Fund awardee Rachel Cohen and RacocoRx present "I Would"--A Story of Self, Determination, and Self-Determination told through dance and woodworking with music by Lynn Wright.  Cohen joins Laurie Berg and Bessie McDonough-Thayer for EstroGenius 2012 presented by Women in Motion at TBG, 312 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor, on November 14 at 8 p.m. and November 17 at 6 p.m.  Click here to purchase tickets.

 ‘Round the Net

Thanks to the following people for great updates and/or links:

·   Poet/essayist Cindy Beer-Fouhy for her Life Stories Writing Workshop at Westchester Community College, September 24 – October 29^, Mondays 1:30 – 3 p.m.; call 914 606 6793 or e-mail mainstream@sunywcc.edu

·   Lakota Kids founder Maggie Dunne (above) for the Lakota Kids Fall Drive, a fantastic and much needed charity.

·   Romance novelist Diane Gaston for a sneak peek at her next book, Born to Scandal.

·   Novelist Petra Lewis, for her RocketHub campaign to support her book manuscript, The Sons and Daughters of Ham.

·   LinkedIn colleague Ethan McCarty for why free times frees creativity.

·   Cousin Katherine McCollom for her grand-daughter Leslie McColom’s vimeo on her book, Preschool Gems (Perigee Trade, 2012)
 

·   Poet/Novelist Kevin Pilkington for this interview about his writing on Inside Scoop Live.

·   Cellist Jay Shulman for his Artspire campaign to reissue a CD of a historic 1947 Stuyvesant String Quartet performance.

·   Poet Linda Simone for this recently discovered new photo of Emily Dickinson (seated left) and tribute to Dominic Hibberd, biographer of WWI poet Wilfred Owen.

And thanks to the New York Times:

·   Farewell to poet and translator Louis Simpson, whom I met more than 10 years ago at the West Chester University Poetry Conference.

·   Step aside, Harold Bloom!  The Times says Stephen Burt is the Harvard critic launching poets these days; and Steve Roggenbuck is the online face of poetry.

·   Imagine the head of your nation calling to apologize if your literary work meant job loss—read “Please hold for Mr. Putin”

·   In its Poetry Pairings blog, the Times and Poetry Foundation join forces to pair a news item with a poem each week.

Single File – For Brenda

If you have read annograms over the years, you’ve heard of Brenda Connor-Bey, first poet laureate of Greenburgh (NY), and inspiration for and beloved teacher of writing workshops there. We lost Brenda in August, although she was writing and attending conferences right to the end.  Elegant and beautiful, Brenda emanated a natural aureate light--an American royal if ever I met one. 

I was privileged to help her edit her long poem, “In the Mists of Remembering,” a raw and mesmerizing incantation to her African-American ancestors, which could use a publisher—e-mail me if you can offer one.  A commemoration will take place at the Westchester Arts Council on Saturday, October 13, at 2 p.m.  Her dear friend Mervyn Taylor, the Caribbean-American poet, summed up our loss in this perfect poem read at her family’s memorial service.

 

Single File            for Brenda

Last night the stars came out

as never before, in clusters,
one in particular flaunting
its brilliance, its size. And we

interpreted this as a sign, as
powerless people tend to do, of 
heaven’s willingness to let us
have a few more minutes, to say

what we have to say, to locate

an address that we once knew
by heart.  And this is how we
come to her door, single file,

no one anxious to go in front

of the other, as in all her beauty
she slips out a window, shinnies
down the drainpipe, gone. Who,

for all our calling, won’t come back,

will have us look up, on nights
like this, gazing at stars, believing
we know which one she is.

                      - Mervyn Taylor, 8/19/12

Until next time,
Ann

 

 

 

 

Your Olympic annogram

I admit only watching the opening ceremonies—except for a moment of fascination with synchronized divers.  I thought I heard Jacques Rogge in his opening remarks talk about athletes committing to the impossible.  It struck me that’s what writers do.  When something calls that I feel l have no blueprint or ability to achieve, then it must be done.  As a friend loves to quote, “You make the path by walking.”  No sprints, leaps or shot puts, but opening a notebook and applying a pen—like first moments on the high dive.


Shakespeare's Garden
Central Park
Photo by Linda Simone

St. Agnes redux


I am happy to report that the title poem of my chapbook, “St. Agnes, Pink-Slipped,” was accepted in The Lives We Seek: Contemporary Poems Inspired by the Saints. This anthology, edited by Mary Ann Miller, will also include work by Dana Gioia, Edward Hirsch and James Tate. St. Agnes finds herself in good company! 

Cancer Project update

As mentioned last month, my poem “Landfall” won an Honorable Mention in this year’s Cancer Poetry Project contest.  Editor Karin Miller tells me another of my poems, “Breast Imaging,” will also be in the Volume 2 of the Cancer Poetry Project as well as “The Breast and the Brightest” by poetry pal Cindy Hochman.  Yay Cindy!

Vermont Institute of Contemporary Arts (VTICA)



Linda and Sarah inspired
by the 60s music inside the gallery

When I entered VTICA, I asked the director if she could “turn up Morrison,” as a Doors song was playing softly.  Rarely do you hear the Doors at a gallery, but this opening exhibit by Jack Dowd featured his paintings of rock stars who died at 27:  Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix, Cobain, and Winehouse and Jean Michel Basquiat, Robert Johnson, Alan Wilson, Brian Jones, and Ronald “Pig Pen” McKernan.  Abby Raeder, who gladly pumped up the volume, then warmly welcomed my friends--award-winning writers Terry Dugan, Linda Simone (left), Sarah Bracey White (right)—and me.  See the exhibit before its August 19 close.


That Dorothy Parker

 If you are near New York City in late August, That Dorothy Parker, a one-person drama, will be performed as part of the annual celebration, Parkerfest. The performance is scheduled for August 23 at the Arclight Theatre. (courtesy Poets & Writers).

‘Round the Net

Congratulations to:
·   Diane Gaston on the publication of her 17^th Harlequin romance, A Not So Respectable Gentleman?

Diane Gaston thrilled
to publish her 17th book!

·   Red Glass publisher Janet Kaplan on the publication of Kate Greenstreet’s our weakness no stranger
·   Lucas Klein on his new translation blog, Notes on the Mosquito
·   Linda Simone on the publication of two poems in Cyclamens and Swords
·   Frank Vitale on the praise received on his ground-breaking CD-ROM, The Metropolis Organism

Thanks to Poets House:

·   Mark Doty on Walt Whitman and Bill Murray reading Wallace Stevens

·   A New York Times review of Poets House exhibit on founders Elizabeth Kray and Stanley Kunitz
·   Poets House featured on Channel 13

From Poets & Writers Daily News
 ·   The late Gore Vidal originated “No good deed goes unpunished;” read his other quotes here



James Agee

·   Poet Leigh Stein explains how to read in public
·   Humanities magazine looks at the life and work of James Agee
·   New Yorker recently published a never-published story by F. Scott Fitzgerald
·   Novelist Colson Whitehead shares eleven rules of writing: "Rule Number Eight: Is secret."
·   Check out Open Culture's extremely rare video footage of Rudyard Kipling on truth in writing
·   The New York Public Library publishes a scan of a Walt Whitman manuscript on Tumblr
 And my own discovery: Why we introverts may have more going for us than Freud would have us believe

Ode to a dog 2

After lunch of beef and broccoli

With profound sadness we had to say farewell to our 15-year-old pit bull-lab mix last month.  His name, Buddy, could have easily been Mahatma or great soul.  When we first met at Elmsford Animal Shelter (Pets Alive Westchester), he was the shelter manager.  You would enter the lobby and see a human behind a desk, another, and then Buddy sitting up in his own chair with a serious “May I help you?” look. 

As we volunteered, we watched him console roughed-up elders and discipline unruly puppies. An ascending white dove on his black chest indicated his priesthood: Dogs would lie down half a block away whenever they saw him. Only a year ago he pulled Michael in an opposite direction on their walk, hearing cries from a woman locked outside an upper porch. Thanks to Buddy, Michael alerted someone inside to unlock the door.  We will always miss his wise and brooding presence.  If you’d like to honor him or his amazing breed, please make a contribution to Pets Alive Westchester or Bad Rap.

Until next time,
Ann