Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing you and all a most wonderful New Year's Eve goodbye to 2009 and a hopeful January 1st. Most of all, I hope my family is well and safe in 2010 and that those who have suffered most because of the economic downturn will find relief in the new year.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Lines & Circles Book Now Out

The book about the Lines & Circles families project is now out, and available from Amazon and Sunstone Press. Congratulations to the wonderful families who I've been privileged to work with for almost two years. Now, everyone can learn about them.

Here are links to the Amazon and Sunstone sites:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lines-Circles-Celebration-Santa-Families/dp/0865347468/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I4OAIY0CAEFND&colid=2YW82XKF05CT4

Sunstone Press:http://www.sunstonepress.com/cgi-bin/bookview.cgi?_recordnum=597

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

As Kingfishers Catch Fire--Please Join Us!

AS KINGFISHERS CATCH FIRE: A Celebration of Poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins
A Theaterwork Production

Saturday, December 19, 7:30pm
Sunday, December 20, 2:00pm
James A. Little Theater, Santa FE

Tickets: $15.00 general / $10.00 Students

An extraordinary evening of poetry, music and dance created in response to the powerful poems of the English poet whose embrace of the beauty of the world has left a legacy both rich and stirring.

Four dance pieces created in response to poems by Hopkins Audrey Derell, Choreographer Dancers: Julia Purvis, Sachi Royer, Annabel Purvis, Kelsey Currier, Gemma Johnson, Annisah Gianardi, Marisa Graham, Kaitlyn Horpedahl, Rhiannon Johnson, Sonja Dangler, Taylor van Camp, Malia Byrne, Alejandra Nauer, Amanda Schulhoffer, Annie Kohn

Readings of Hopkins followed by new poems, written for the occasion by New Mexico Poets: Valerie Martinez, Jenice Gharib, Donald Levering, Lindsay Ahl, David Markwardt and Joan Logghe

Vocal settings of Hopkins poems, by Benjamin Britten, Ned Rorem, Samuel Barber, Constance Cooper and others performed by an a capella Octet under the direction of Catherine Donavon. Singers: Robert Thorpe, Monica Lee, Leslie Harrington, Barbara Grassia, Julie Trujillo, Michael Alexander, Mark Onstad and Catherine Donavon

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Lines & Circles Press Release

The Lines & Circles Families Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, December 8, 2009

Beyond the Tri-Cultural Myth: Eleven Local Families Celebrate Contemporary Santa Fe

A new exhibition of art and poetry puts to rest the myth of “tri-Cultural Santa Fe.” The city’s Poet Laureate, Valerie Martínez, and eleven Santa Fe families present mixed-media works of art and poetry that celebrate the breadth of community life in the capital city. The exhibition, entitled Lines and Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families, runs January 15 through March 2010 at the Arts Commission Community Gallery in downtown Santa Fe.

For over a year and a half, Valerie Martínez, Santa Fe Poet Laureate, worked closely with three and more generations of eleven Santa Fe families who created unique family works of art and poetry. The goal of the Lines and Circles project was to nurture and celebrate the Santa Fe community, deepen bonds within and between families, and generate a body of art and poetry that commemorates city life. The family works and poems reflect the family name, family history, or simply the intergenerational collaboration that happened during the project. Participating community members include the Akers Hunt Covelli, Brown, Carmona, Goler Baca, Gottlieb Shapiro Bachman, Ingram, Martínez Ridgley, Ortiz Dinkel Hasted Wilkes, Quintana Gallegos, Salazar and Strongheart families. Over 60 family members, ages 5-90, participated in the project.

The Lines and Circles project was sponsored by the City of Santa Fe Poet Laureate Program and supported by the Lannan Foundation, the Santa Fe Literary Education Endowment at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, the First National Bank of Santa Fe, Littleglobe, Inc., Sunstone Press, and the 400th Commemoration of Santa Fe. A book about the project, published by Sunstone Press, will accompany the exhibition.

Valerie Martínez, the city’s poet laureate and artistic director, says of the project: “While many tout the landscape of Santa Fe as the city’s richest asset, the truth is that the people of Santa Fe, those that are here to stay, are its gold. The Lines and Circles families expand our notion of who we are and why we call this place home. These family works of art and poetry give us a lens through which we learn much more about contemporary Santa Fe—beyond the tri-cultural myth.”

The public is invited to the opening reception of the exhibition, on January 15,
2010.

The exhibition includes short films, music, audio oral histories, mixed-media pieces, installations, a four-generation quilt, a children’s book, and more. The following day the families will discuss their art and poetry followed by a feast of traditional family recipes. The city’s ArtWorks program will also sponsor related events and activities with public school students and their families.

Martínez adds: “In addition to creating special works of art and poetry that will stay with them for generations, the participants have come together, even more meaningfully, as families. They have also met, worked with, and become friends with families they didn’t know, across the “invisible lines” that tend to divide us, as city residents. The project has worked to deepen our sense of connection and fellowship in this constantly changing city.”

Lines and Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families
January-March 2010
Santa Fe Arts Commission Community Gallery
Community Convention Center, Downtown Santa Fe

Opening Reception: January 15, 2010
5:30 – 7 p.m.
Free and Open to the Public

Presentation by the Families and Family Recipes Feast
Saturday, January 16, 2010
2-5 p.m.
Free and Open to the Public

For more information, contact:
Valerie Martínez, Santa Fe Poet Laureate
City of Santa Fe
505-603-0866
valmatz@comcast.net
www.valeriemartinez.net
www.sfpoetlaureate.blogspot.com

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A Santa Fe Winter Poem

FOLLOW ME

Who hasn’t driven north, up and over La Bajada Hill in dark December, to see the lights of Santa Fe unfurled--colcha, snowflake, electric mosaic? Hasn’t wandered the evening streets just to trace the silhouettes of walkways, houses and hotels, counting farolitos? Hasn’t driven past the Christmas tree lot on Rodeo Road just to get a whiff of fir, pine and spruce through the dashboard heating ducts? Hasn’t heard the downtown sound of cathedral bells muffled in snow wafting in wafers onto wrought iron and woolen elbows? Has not looked up from St. Michael’s Drive to the Sangres to search for the snow-covered horse’s head? And who hasn’t found a kitchen off San Ildefonso Road just to get out of the cold, down a half-dozen biscochitos, or knead the dough for sufganyot? Hasn’t sipped a free cup of homemade cocoa on Christmas Eve, a gift from residents who live along Canyon Road? Has not walked the ice-milked sidewalks of Water Street and found themselves flat on their back then pulled up by some stranger saying, “Whoa, you went down like a ton of adobe bricks!” And who hasn’t left town for the heart-bending dances at Santo Domingo then driven back to mark the little pines on the I-25 median, tinseled by some group of anonymous daredevils? Has not seen a kiva fireplace adorned with advent calendar, Menorah, bear fetish and ceramic Santa Claus? Hasn’t feasted on turkey with piñon and green chile stuffing, red chile mashed potatoes, tortillas on the side? And who hasn’t followed their grandmother lugging a wooden crèche from house to house during las posadas, the holy family looking for a place to stay, setting it down on someone’s porch then driving away? And the dry colds so cold you want to drench them, and the stars so close you want to lick them? He who hasn’t; she who has not, they who never have but are looking for a place to stay on some bone-cold Santa Fe night—-follow me; this is the place; this way is the way.

Valerie Martinez, copyright 2009
This poem will appear in And They Called It Horizon: Santa Fe Poems (Sunstone Press, 2010)