your summer solstice annogram

Still glowing

From my book launch this spring!  Thanks to the more than 40 people who came to the Hudson River Museum to hear me read from Face Painting in the Dark (Dos Madres Press, 2014). I have such a beautiful circle of talented artists, musicians, poets, and writers in my life, and more in the wider annogram community. You know who you are!  

Auden, Johnson, and the Psalms

When the Episcopal Church set about updating the Book of Common Prayer, its committee to retranslate the Psalms faced a daunting task: Not only did it have to rework the Psalms, but the committee’s one poet, W. H. Auden, was returning to his native England.  In the current Illuminations, I interview poet and translator J. Chester Johnson on how he came to replace Auden, correspond with him, and help refine the Psalms in light of new scholarship. 

Alan Shulman in 1954

Alan Shulman and New York’s Golden Age of Music

Imagine, as part of the NBC Orchestra, rehearsing to perform for the Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, in 1949.  Leonard Bernstein is unhappy with Kurt Weill's arrangement of the Israeli national anthem.  Cellist Alan Shulman offers to rearrange it and, doing so, earns the legendary conductor's “gratitude and great respect.”  To learn more, read this fascinating article by Alan’s son, Jay Shulman.

Carol Booth admires her and
Michael Holstein's photos

Cuba: Contrasting Visions

Congratulations to Michael Holstein and Carol Booth for photos exhibited this month in Cuba: Contrasting Visions at the Museum Gallery at the Palm Beach (FL) Photographic Centre.  Two years ago, Michael and Carol snapped up colorful photos of Cuba—while practicing their other passion—conversing in Spanish.

Texas, fair pay, and cars

I am thrilled to have work in Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace (Lost Horse Press, 2015); Coming off the line:  The Car in American Culture (Main Street Rag Press, 2015) the 2016 Texas Poetry Calendar (Dos Gatos Press, 2015).  Order now to receive prepublication discounts.

New books

Alexandra Van de Kamp

A Liquid Bird Inside the Night by Alexandra Van de Kamp (Red Glass Books, 2015): “Each night I sleep wrapped in a gown / of crying stars. Whether they cry / to plea or sing is always difficult / and tenuous to decipher….” from “Nightgown.”  Send $12 check (includes shipping) payable to Alexandra van de Kamp, 206 E. Lullwood Avenue, Apt. A, San Antonio, TX 78212. 

Soft Passer by Shane Anderson (Mindmade Books, 2015) pulses with an alluring mosaic-like dissonance. Order for $7 or as part of Mindmade Books’ 2015 series for $25, which includes work by Pedro Xavier Solís Cuadra (trans. Suzanne Jill Levine), Piotr Macierzyński (trans. Aleksandra Malecka & Piotr Marecki), and Ciara Miller.

Summer Solstice Pita

Now is the time to eat light, and this pita is a no-brainer.  Serves two with side such as coleslaw:

One whole pita

Juice of ½ organic lemon

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive (EVO) oil

Handful of organic baby kale

½ cup shredded organic carrots

¼ organic English cucumber, sliced

½ organic avocado, sliced

2-4 slices of smoked salmon (optional)

Halve pita so two pockets form. Toast until crisp in toaster oven.  Combine lemon juice with olive oil.  Stuff each pita-half with vegetables in above order and salmon if desired; drizzle with lemon dressing.  To make chips: Slice whole pita in pie sections, splitting each apart.  Sprinkle with EVO and broil in oven or toaster oven until curled and starting-to-brown. Great for dips and to replace potato chips!

’Round the Net

Congratulations and/or thanks to:

Guy Bennett, poet and publisher, for alert that Mindmade Books is on Facebook

Sarah Bracey White, memoirist, on giving keynote address at Morgan State's Writing Center's First Annual Open House

Lilac and Gold by Hector Bitar

Michael Cefola, guitarist, for this great Gibson interview with Les Paul

Terry Dugan, poet and filmmaker, for this too-true "workshop" critique of Jane Austen

Gary Glauber, for work in Crab Fat Literary Magazine, Pilgrimage, Silver Birch Press, and West Trade Review

Beth Gersh-Nesic, art historian, for introducing me to Hector Bitar’s work, and scholarly review of the Demoiselles Staring Back

Janet Kaplan, poet and publisher, on editing Hofstra’s new literary journal, AMP

Kevin Pilkington, poet, for having his poem appear in the Poetry Society of America's Poem-A-Day

Linda Simone, poet and artist, for this fascinating history on Brooklyn's Free African-American neighborhood

Jay Shulman, music archivist, for remembering jazz saxophonist Ornette Colman and Ronnie Gilbert of the Weavers

Frank Vitale, filmmaker, for Episodes 18-20 of the Metropolis Organism

Wishing you a summer of spontaneity and joy!

Until next time,

Ann

your may annogram

Face Painting Book Launch April 26

What a beautiful day at the Hudson River Museum!  In the museum’s state-of-the art planetarium, I read poems from Face Painting in the Dark (Dos Madres Press, 2014), with spectacular astro images from Doug Baum, the Hubble and others.  Prior to the reading, planetarium manager Marc Taylor lit up the dome with objects mentioned in my work.

Deborah Coulter

Afterwards, at a champagne reception overlooking the river, I celebrated with artist Deborah Coulter; poets Myrna Goodman, Ruth Handel, Natalie Safir, and Maxine Silverman; musicians Michael Cefola and Larry Schwartzman; photographers Michael Booth (his photos here), Margaret Fox, and Randy Briggs; and writers Jeanette Briggs, Barbara Dickinson, Herb Hadad, Elaine Nole, Michelle Rawlick, and Sarah Bracey White, among many other cherished friends.

Evelyn Hadad, Natalie Safir, Ruth Handel

Elaine Nole and Herb Hadad

Stew Leonard’s cake proved my book’s cover design by Gig Wailgum is as delicious as it is attractive! Thanks to dear friend Carol Booth for acting as maître d’, to Michael Booth and Randy Briggs for taking photos, and to museum staff for treating us like Vanderbilts.

The reviews are in…

Kim Novak, subject of my poem,
"Miss Deepfreeze 1953"

Lyle Cataring in Blotterature, Rachel Adams in Lines and Stars, Ann Wehrman in The Pedestal; and, in case you missed first reviews, Mary McCray in Big Bang Poetry, Ron Butlin in The Herald Scotland, and Beth Gersh-Nesic in New York Arts Exchange.

Poems, interview, and translation

“Dance in the City,” appears in the current Ekphrasis, and “Miss Deepfreeze 1953” in Cahoodaloodaling.  Blotterature features an interview in addition to review.  The St. Petersburg Review will publish my translation of section 9 from Le Héros (Flammarion, 2008) by Hélène Sanguinetti.  The entire book translation has now been published!

Michael Cefola

Little Games at Eastchester Inn and Hudson Room

Don’t miss Little Games Saturday, May 9, at the Eastchester Inn at 9 p.m. The band plays early Yardbirds, Animals and Who, as well as Eric Clapton, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, and Gary Moore. Fronted by my husband, guitarist and vocalist Michael Cefola, the band features drummer Tommy Vinton, guitarist and vocalist John Amato, and bassist Larry Schwartzman.  Can’t make it? Catch them at the Hudson Room, May 29, at 10 p.m.

Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck at the Capitol Theater

What fun to see Jeff Beck in nearby Port Chester!  The April 13 show inaugurated his US tour touting his new album, JEFF BECK LIVE+ (Atco). Beck, at ease with his immaculate band, vocalist Jimmy Hall, bassist Rhonda Smith, drummer Jonathan Joseph and guitarist Nicolas Meier, performed “Morning Dew” (Truth, 1968), “Superstition” (Beck, Bogert, Appice, 1973), “Big Block” (Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop, 1989), the Beatles’ “A Day In The Life” and “Hammerhead.”  What made me swoon: Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” and Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

Holding Fast to the Tree of Life

French composer Darius Milhaud

This spirited concert Sunday celebrated Temple Beth Shalom’s 50 years in Hastings.  The temple choir, which includes the talented Carol Booth, sang everything from psalms in Hebrew to tunes from composers such as Gershwin and Bernstein.  I was especially delighted to hear selections from Darius Milhaud, a professor with students such as Dave Brubeck and Burt Bacharach, performed by pianist Cheryl Seltzer, a former student, and violinist Sylvia Volpe, among the many pleasures of the evening.

Beth Gersh-Nesic

Picasso in Vermont

Staring Back: The Creation and Legacy of Picasso's Demoiselles  d'Avignon at the Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, through June 21, features Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in interactive digital and traditional visual art.  Highly recommended by our resident curator, Beth Gersh-Nesic.

Astrophotography in Pound Ridge

Scott Nammacher will be exhibiting his exceptional astrophotographs (printed on an aluminum medium) May 23 - July 5 at the Pound Ridge Library, with opening reception Saturday, May 23, 3 - 5 p.m.  Interested in the night sky?  See convenient, local events offered by the Westchester Amateur Astronomers.

Poetry / Literary Events

May 10 – 4-6 p.m. Words Sunday: Janet Kaplan and Jacqueline Jones LaMon at Calabar Imports, Brooklyn; see Robin Messing and Renato Rosaldo May 24.

C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Marcel Proust

May 19 – 6 p.m.  Eric Banks interviews Jean Findlay on Chasing Lost Time: The Life of C.K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy and Translator (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015) – first English translator of Proust, Martin E. Segal Theater at CUNY.

May 19 – 8 p.m. Gerald Stern and Anne Marie Macari in the Patricia Kuran Arts Center in Fanwood, NJ.

May 20 – 7 p.m.  Friends of Black Mountain poet Edward Dorn celebrate his uncollected poems, Derelict Air (Enitharmon Press, 2015), Martin E. Segal Theater at CUNY.

 Simple Homemade Dinner Rolls

The easiest roll recipe I’ve come across has that yeasty taste of authentic bread my mother would make on special occasions.  Here’s bread-making that can be done within 90 minutes:

1 package quick-acting active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)

1 1/3 cup milk (105 – 115 degrees)

3 – 3 ½ cups flour or whole wheat flour (I like King Arthur)

3 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon melted butter

course salt

Dissolve yeast in warm milk in electric mixer bowl.  Stir in 1 cup flour.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in enough remaining flour, oil, sugar, and salt.  Mix on low electric speed until soft dough forms. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 45 minutes.  Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Prep a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.  Punch down dough and fold over a few times.  Pinch 1-inch balls of dough and quickly roll in palm of hands.  Put 3 balls to 1 muffin cup; brush with butter; sprinkle with salt.  Bake 12 - 15 minutes, until light golden brown.  Immediately remove from pan. Store loosely covered.

̓Round the Net

Thanks and/or congratulations to:

Deborah Coulter skin for your iPhone

Deborah Coulter, artist, for her original art “skins,” available for your digital devices

Gary Glauber, poet, on writing 30 poems in 30 days for PoMoSco

Peggy Harrington, for sharing her essay, “Tucker,” which appeared in The East Hampton Star

Anne James, Zymbol editor, for reaching her Kickstarter goal to fund her journal

Tony LoBianco, actor, for bringing “Little Flower” this month to Italy to entertain our troops

Percy Sledge

Jay Shulman, music archivist, for remembering Percy Sledge, Ben E. King and Maya Plisetskaya

Linda Simone, poet and artist, for an intimate look at Frida Kahlo and Amy Schumer’s take-down of Hollywood sexism

Frank Vitale, filmmaker, for sharing episodes 14 -17 of The Metropolis Organism

I end this newsletter with a tale.  Once upon a time, a second-grade teacher sent home a note to her student’s mother.  The mother unfolded the paper.  It said, “Your daughter speaks in poetry.”  Amazed, she put the paper away and kept it in her heart.  She said nothing but, at every opportunity, supported and cheered her daughter in any artistic or literary achievement.  As time went by, that girl became a woman, and that woman a poet.  How she became a poet felt like a delicious mystery, and yet the most right thing in the world.  I know because I am that poet.  The insightful woman who nurtured my poetic inclination left us last month at the age of 90.  As bereft as I am, I still have my poetry, in many respects, thanks to her.

Until next time,

Ann

your spring annogram

Designed by Angela Virsinger

Face Painting book launch

April is National Poetry Month and Global Astronomy Month.  In celebration of both, I’ll present “Furious Stardust: Poems of the Night Sky,” in the new state-of-the art planetarium at the Hudson River Museum on Sunday, April 26, at 3:30 p.m.  The reading will feature work from my poetry collection, Face Painting in the Dark (Dos Madres Press, 2014), accompanied by spectacular images by astrophotographer Doug Baum, the Hubble telescope and others.  Come help celebrate my first book!

Maxine Silverman

Sunday at the J with Ann, Maxine and George

Poet Maxine Silverman and I will read at the JCC on the Hudson as part of Sunday at the J with George and Friends on March 29 at 1:30 p.m.  Poet and translator Dr. George Kraus hosts this great series which features Hudson Valley poets.  And don’t miss Maxine’s book party this Sunday, March 22, 2 p.m., at Congregation Sons of Israel in Nyack for Palimpsest (Dos Madres Press, 2015), a work I highly recommend.  Hope to see you on one of these events!

Book review in LINES+STARS

Many thanks to editor Rachel Adams for her thoughtful review of Face Painting in the Dark in the newly redesigned LINES+STARS.  The review appears, serendipitously, in the DC-based journal’s “star-crossed” issue.  I’m also thrilled that Wicked Alice has four of my poems online, the San Pedro River Review features one, and Cahaba River Literary Journal and Ekphrasis will publish work this spring and summer.

Matters of the HeArt

An opening reception, Sunday, March 22, from 2-4 p.m. (1 p.m. admission time for people with disabilities) at the Greenburgh Town Hall will herald the 11^th annual multimedia art show by 80 Westchester artists over age 55.  You can support Greenburgh arts by designating “Arts and Culture Committee” on the AmazonSmile portal; Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to charitable organizations selected by customers.

Art by Ed Young in Bird & Diz

Bird & Diz

Outstanding artist and Caldecott Medalist Ed Young dazzles once again in Bird & Diz by Gary Golio (Candlewick Press, 2015).  This young reader’s book, which follows the friendship of Charlie "Bird" Parker and John "Dizzy" Gillespie, can be read page-by-page or unfolded as a 12-foot scroll.  Bird & Diz is a work of art created by two friends that will leave readers hankering for a listen.  Thanks to Beth Gersh-Nesic of the New York Arts Exchange for alerting me to this new work!

Frida Kahlo: Masterpieces (and margaritas) at the NY Botanical Garden

Looks like a combination of margaritas and masterpieces might just push attendance to one million visitors to the New York Botanical Garden this year.  The Botanical Garden will stage an elaborate art-loan and garden exhibition May 16 – November 1 that focuses on the work of Frida Kahlo. Thanks to poet-artist Linda Simone for sharing this Observer article.

Poetry Caravan on the move

For National Poetry Month, the Poetry Caravan will visit local libraries.  The all-volunteer Caravan has been bringing poetry to Westchester for over eleven years.  If you have a poem to share, or enjoy hearing poetry read, join us on Thursday, April 9, at the Armonk Library, 7 p.m.; Monday, April 13, at the Dobbs Ferry Library, 7 p.m.; Wednesday, April 15, at the Greenburgh Library, 7 p.m.; Monday, April 20, at the Scarsdale Library, 7 p.m.; or Saturday, April 25, at the Hastings Library, 3 p.m.

New poetry books

Congratulations to these fine poets on their new books:  John Amen, strange theater (New York Quarterly Books, 2015), Pamela Laskin, Homer the Little Stray Cat (Little Balloon Press, 2015); Maxine Silverman, Palimpsest (Dos Madres Press, 2015), Hélène Sanguinetti on the reissue of Alparegho, pareil à rien (Editions de l’Amandier, 2015), Margo Taft Stever, The Lunatic Ball (Kattywompus Press, 2015), and Toadlily Press for A Good Wall (Toadlily Press, 2015).

John Amen

More poetry readings

March and April

John Amen reading up and down the East Coast

Sunday, March 22, 4:30 p.m. Hudson Valley Writers Center

Richard Parisio, Ed Sanders

Sunday, March 22, 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Why Not Jazz Room

Jazz and Poetry Choir Collective, $10

Monday, March 30, 6:30 p.m. at the English Speaking Union

Rosalie Calabrese, Susana H. CaseMargaret McCarthy- rsvp emohylowski@esuus.org

Margo Stever

Friday, April 17, 7:30 p.m. at the Hudson Valley Writers Center

Open mic for poets, prose writers, musicians, comedians, singers - $3, refreshments

Saturday, April 18, 7 p.m. at the Hudson Valley Writers Center

Peggy Ellsberg, Jennifer Franklin, Margo Taft Stever

Wednesday, April 22, 7:30 p.m. at the Hudson Valley Writers Center

Ellen Bass

Friday, April 24, 7:30 p.m. at the Hudson Valley Writers Center

Sergio Troncoso, Wayne L. Miller, Larry Wentz

Sunday, April 26, 4:30 p.m. at the Hudson Valley Writers Center

Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Terry Dugan, Margo Taft Stever, other HVWC students

Breakfast with Uncle Ike

Uncle Ike would awe us with his legendary popovers whenever we visited him in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  The only problem: the golden popovers went down like potato chips, and I could easily consume more than a few.  Oh, calories be damned and bring on the butter and jam!  Wishing you festive mornings that celebrate spring.

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

2 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray cooking oil spray on muffin tins or ceramic custard cups.  Beat until blended.  Pour into cups ½ to 2/3 full.  Bake 45 – 50 minutes and avoid opening oven door.  Keep any leftovers—really?—in a closed brown paper bag.

ʼRound the Net

Thanks and/or congratulations to:

Duchamp, Untitled, 1945

Michael Cefola, blues-rock guitarist and composer, for this great article on the last bluesmen

Beth Gersh-Nesic, art historian, for calling out the importance of modern artist Suzanne Duchamp

Gary Glauber, poet, for work in Hinged, Inner Echo, The Legendary - Issue 49 - March 2015, and Think Journal Volume 5.1 

Eric Greinke, poet and translator, for his tribute to poet John Elsberg

Ruth Handel, poet, on teaching her ninth Enjoying Poetry class now at Scarsdale Adult School and publishing recent work online

Cindy Hochman, poet, for two poems, a book review, and her own book, Habeas Corpus (Glass Lyre, 2015) reviewed in Clockwise Cat

Amy King, poet, for taking on Kenneth Goldsmith and Vanessa Place

Laura Morelli, art historian, on her two new books on Florence artisans and crafts

Jay Shulman, music archivist, for this way to find out the top song on the day you were born

Jay, also, for recommending this Mary Bauermeister exhibit at Smith College

Linda Simone, poet and dog-lover, for these photos of dogs on the way to the vet

Linda, also, for this essay contest to win an inn in Maine, how some poets make big money, and a tribute to poet Philip Levine

Frank Vitale, filmmaker, for episodes 12 and 13 from The Metropolis Organism.

So much poetry going on this and next month!  And just as important, celebrations of faith.  In this time of seasonal rebirth, I wish you perfected moments of holy contemplation, beauty, and joy.

Until next time,

Ann