Santa Fe Poet Laureate

Readings & Events Over the Past Two Years

2010-03-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends!

As I end my tenure as Santa Fe Poet Laureate, I want to thank all the individuals and organizations and supporters who have made my two years as poet laureate so wonderful. Below is a listing of all the events, readings, workshops, and panels I've been part of as a representative of the life and vibrancy of Santa Fe's commitment to poetry. Thank you. Valerie

Publications

1. And They Called It Horizon: Santa Fe Poems by Valerie Martínez. Sunstone Press, Summer 2010.
2. “This is How It Began” (long poem about Santa Fe). Special, hand-press edition, Press at the Palace of the Governors, March 2010.
3. Each and Her (book-length poem) by Valerie Martínez. University of Arizona Press, Fall 2010.
4. Lines and Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families. Edited by Valerie Martínez. Sunstone Press, January 2010.

Readings, Appearances, Workshops, Events

4/27/10 Judge: National Poetry Out Loud (POL) Finals. Washington, DC.

4/16/10 Reading: Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque

4/11/10 Panel Presentations: Associated Writing Programs (AWP) Annual Conference. Women Writing the West and Write the Relationship: Poetic Friendships, Denver.

3/27/10 Poet/Performer: Form & Function: a spoken word/collaborative performance in response to the Form & Function exhibit at 516 Arts, Albuquerque, with poets Jasmine Cuffee, Lauren Camp, and Jamie Figueroa. 516 Arts, ABQ, 8 p.m.

3/25/10 Moderator: 9 for 5: Presenting Nine Albuquerque Poets. A reading by nine poets in Valerie’s Advanced Poetry Workshop conducted in the fall of 2009. Part of Women & Creativity Month 2010.

3/8/10 Reading: Mayoral and City Councilors Swearing-In. Lensic Performing Arts Center, 6 p.m.

3/6/10 Poet/Performer: Salve: Women on War and Warriorship, a spoken-word and music piece based on interviews with women war veterans, part of Women & Creativity Month, 2010. A Littleglobe collaboration with Littleglobe, Bing, and the NHCC. Journal Theater, National Hispanic Cultural Center, 7 p.m.

1/12/10 Writing Workshop: Annie Leibovitz and the Intimate Image. Art and Leadership Program for Women. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. 7-9 p.m.

12/18/09 Reading: A Tribute to Gerard Manley Hopkins. AS KINGFISHERS CATCH FIRE, with actors, dancers, poets, and other performers. Produce by Theaterwork. James A. Little Theater, 7 p.m.

11/21/09 Reading: Santa Fe Watershed Association Gala Event. Del Charro Grill/Inn of the Governors, Santa Fe. 6:30 p.m.

11/6/09 Burque Poetico, Cervantes Institute, Roundtable discussion of Latino Poetry in the Contemporary World, with Columbian poet Amando Romero, 7 p.m.

11/5/09 Panel Presentation: Creative Voices. National Hispanic Leadership Institute Conference, University of New Mexico, 2-4 p.m.

11/4/09 SAGE Magazine/Albuquerque Journal Luncheon. Recipient of one of the “Twenty Women Who Have Made a Difference” awards for Valerie’s creative and community service.

10/30/09 Reading: Dia de los Muertos Community Celebration, National Hispanic Cultural Center, 5:30 p.m.

10/29/09 Mayor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts, Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 6:30 p.m. One of Valerie’s poems appeared in the program.

10/22/09 Santa Fe High School, Julie Hasted’s English Class and the SFHS Poetry Club.Reading, Writing, and Spoken Word activities with students.

10/16-17/09 The Santa Fe Book Arts Group (BAG): Celebration of the Book. Southside Library. Exhibition of Art Books (made by members of BAG), bookmaking and poetry activities with members of BAG and Poet Laureate Valerie Martínez.

9/26/09 Reading: the 2009 National Book Festival, NEA Pavilion, Washington, DC.
Other NEA writers/readers included Kay Ryan, U.S. Poet Laureate; Jane Hirshfield, Ed Hirsch, Ana Menendez, Ayar Zafisi, and Tim O’Brien.

9/6/09 Reading of an excerpt from “And They Called It Horizon” (a long poem about Santa Fe). 400th Anniversary/Commemoration Opening Ceremony. Ft. Marcy Field, Santa Fe.

Sept-Dec/09 Instructor: Advanced Poetry Workshop: A five week workshop for advanced poets. Albuquerque, Fall 2009.

8/6-7/09 Member of the 2009 NEA Panel awarding grants to Literary Presses and Publishers. Washington, DC.

7/23/09 Writing and Art Workshop (with visual artist Gary Myers). “The Letter: The Visual Poetics of Written Correspondence” in conjunction with the Santa Fe Opera world premiere of Paul Moravec’s “The Letter” and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum exhibition Georgia O’Keeffe: Beyond Our Shores.” 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Education Annex.

7/13-16/09 Faculty member, Taos Summer Writers Conference. Taught a week-long master poetry workshop.

6/28/09 Writing Workshop for Art Teachers, “From There to Here” in conjunction with the exhibition: Georgia O’Keeffe Beyond Our Shores. Georgia O’Keeffe Education Programs. 9-11 a.m.

6/9-11/2009 Writing Workshop (3 days of creative exercises and writing). VOCES Youth Program, winner of an Arts Alliance Bravos Award, NHCC.

4/18/09 Arts Alliance Bravos Award Dinner in support of the VOCES Youth Program of the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC), serving New Mexico high school students, 6 p.m.,Albuquerque.

4/16/09 Reading. Poetry Jam, 2009, in support of New Mexico CultureNet’s Poets in the Schools (PITS) program. 7 p.m., Lensic Performing Arts Center.

4/4/09 Judge. National High School Poetry Slam Qualifying Competition, Santa Fe Indian School. 7 p.m.

3/27/09 Ekphrastic Performance (with poets Maureen Seaton and Jasmine
Cuffee) in response to a Sheri Crider installation. SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, 7 p.m. Women & Creativity Month, 2009.

3/22/09 Meeting of the Lines and Circles Poet Laureate Educational/Outreach Project Families. 2 p.m. O’Shaughnessy Performing Space, College of Santa Fe.

3/15/09 Spoken Word and Musical Performance. SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship—based on interviews with women war veterans, in celebration of Women & Creativity Month, 2009. A Littleglobe production with Molly Sturges, Linne Lalire, Alex Neville, Chris Jonas, Poppy Wilder, and J.A. Deane. New Mexico Veterans War Memorial, Albuquerque, 2 p.m.

3/14/09 Spoken Word and Musical Performance. SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship—based on interviews with women war veterans, in celebration of Women & Creativity Month, 2009. A Littleglobe production with Molly Sturges, Linne Lalire, Alex Neville, Chris Jonas, Poppy Wilder, and J.A. Deane.O’Shaughnessy Performance Space, College of Santa Fe.

3/12/09 Reading: One Poem Festival, Palabra Pura. Jazz Showcase, Chicago, 6 p.m.

3/3/09 Reading. Dear Eve, Lilith, and Emily…with writers Dana Levin and Robin Romm in celebration of Women & Creativity Month. 12:30 p.m., College of Santa Fe.

2/14/09 Reading & Panel Presentation: “Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections.” Associated Writing Programs (AW) Annual Conference, Chicago.

2/14/09 Panel Moderator: “Sibling Rivalries: Spoken & Written Word Poetry and the Literary Tug-of-War,” Associated Writing Programs (AWP) Annual Conference, Chicago: with Jon Davis, Danny Solis, Jill Battson, and Michelle Holland.

2/8/09 Judge. Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest—New Mexico State Competition Finals, 2009, 1 p.m., St. Francis Auditorium.

11/18/08 Writing Workshop: “The Art of Self-Image” (accompanying the exhibition of “Georgia O’Keeffe and the Camera: The Art of Identity”), Arts & Leadership Program, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 7-9 p.m.

11/16/08 Second Meeting of the Lines and Circles Families Poet Laureate Project.

11/10/08 Reading/Discussion with ArtWorks kids, grades 6-8, 10-11:30 a.m., Santa Fe.

11/8/08 Presentation. Letras Latinas Salon, hosted by Francisco Aragon (Director of the Institute for Latino/a Studies at Notre Dame), 4 p.m. Santa Fe.

11/8/08 Reading and Presentation: Poetry and Science. Santa Fe Institute “The Road Less Traveled” Gala Event, 7 p.m., Eldorado Hotel, Santa Fe

11/3/08 Talk and Slide Show Presentation: “Georgia O’Keeffe and the Art of Identity.” Breakfast with O’Keeffe, 8:30 a.m., Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

10/30/08 Reading: Mayor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts, Community Convention Center, 6:30 p.m.

10/17/08 Reading and Discussion, Bear Canyon Retirement Community Center, as part of the Santa Fe Opera’s participation in the national Big Read Event.

10/2/08 First Meeting of the Lines and Circle Families

9/27/08 New Mexico Women Authors’ Book Festival, Reading and Book-Signing, Museum Hill, Santa Fe, 2 p.m.

9/29/08 Reading followed by a writing workshop: International Conference on Creative Tourism, Santa Fe.

9/25/08 Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA), Phitya Series Reading, 7:30 p.m.
9/14/08 Reading & Panel Presentation, “Integrating Poetry Into Life,” STIR: A Festival of Words. Harwood Arts Center, Albuquerque.

9/13/08 Reading, Grand Opening of the new Santa Fe Railyard Complex, Santa Fe, 1 p.m.

9/2/08 Reading/Celebration for the Poet Laureate and the 20th Anniversary of the College of Santa Fe Creative Writing Program.

8/30/08 Women’s Focus Radio Program, KUNM (89.9 FM) Radio. Noon.

8/30/08 Reading: Fundraising Dinner/Reading for the Poet Laureate Program, hosted by Sallie Bingham, Santa Fe.

7/9/08 “Metamorphosis: Bookmaking and Poetry,” A Workshop for Teens, Southside Library, Santa Fe.

6/21/08 Interview: UNOBSTRUCTED, OnWord, Talk Radio, with Alaina Alexander. 3:30 p.m.

6/16/08 Reading and Music: Poetry & Jazz, Counter Culture Café, 7:30 p.m. (with theSouthwest Jazz Orchestra).

5/14/08 Reading: Student Mentorship Celebration for Monte del Sol Charter School, College of Santa Fe

5/6/08 Reading and Group Writing Exercise, Monte del Sol Charter School (English Classes).

4/5/08 Poem-Palooza 2008 (a celebration of poetry in all its forms) Greer Garson Theater, 7 p.m.

4/2/08 Panel Moderator: “Sibling Rivalries: Spoken and Written Word Poetry and the Literary Tug of War,” College of Santa Fe.

3/10/08 Reading, Santa Fe City Counselors and Judges Swearing-In Ceremony, Lensic Theater. Inauguration of Santa Fe’s second poet laureate.

My Farewell Reading

2010-03-07T20:33:00.000-08:00

Dedicated to all Santa Feans! Please join me for a farewell reading as poet laureate, dedicated to everyone who loves Santa Fe. See below for the official press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2010

On March 17, 2010 during the lunch hour, Santa Fe Poet Laureate Valerie Martínez will read poems about Santa Fe--a reading dedicated to city residents. The reading will take place in the Santa Fe Arts Commission Gallery at the Community Convention Center. Downtown residents, City of Santa Fe employees, downtown merchants and staff, and all others are invited to an hour of poetry about the capital city.

This event, Martínez’s last as Poet Laureate, also celebrates the release of the her book, This is How it Began, printed and bound in a limited, letterpress edition by the Press at the Palace of the Governors. Copies of the book will be available for viewing and purchase at the reading.

Over the past two years, Martínez has appeared at over 45 public events—giving readings, workshops, short courses; writing with children, youth, families and elders; performing with musicians, dancers, actors, poets and others. In the introduction to This is How it Began, Valerie states: “This book is my gift to the many residents who have educated me, enlightened me, and deepened my love for Santa Fe.”

Martínez’s community outreach project--Lines & Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families--involved working with three and four generations of eleven Santa Fe families whose mixed-media works of art and poems appear at the Arts Commission Gallery through Friday, March 19, 2010. Those attending the reading will have a chance to tour the exhibition. And a collection of Martínez’s Santa Fe poems will be published by Sunstone Press later this year.

From And They Called It Horizon by Valerie Martínez:

Today we say Santa Fe, our Santa Fé
in the sierra madre, in the cradle between
the Pecos Mountains, Cerro Piñon,
Tano Point, Caja del Rio, Tetilla Peak.

But there was a time, long ago,
before names, dream before dream.
Aho niishnee, principio, the beginning.

It was a seed, imagine it, smaller
than the eye’s dark pupil, smaller
than the tiniest yellow idea of seed,
and tinier. Inside, the dream
of something blue and unbelievably wide,
something rising to blue, algún encuentro
magnífico de marrón y azul.

And the seed there, buried.

Perhaps it was the eye behind the eye
of some great Being, or the eye
of a fantastic explosion, or the spot
on the tail-flick of a lizard
with red and black ridges on his back.

The seed nestled inside what became an orb,
an orb hurtling through indigo space,
then a spinning, whirling mass of blue
become this planet we call Mother Earth.

And it hung there, at the center,
weaving a garment of brightness.”

Valerie Martinez ©2009

SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship

2010-02-23T17:05:00.000-08:00

Littleglobe and the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) present Salve: Women on War and Warriorship on Saturday, March 6, 8 pm at the Albuquerque Journal Theater at the NHCC. Part of Women & Creativity Month 2010, SALVE is dedicated to New Mexico veterans and their families, veterans organizations and hospitals, and the many veterans outreach services that support returning war vets.

Salve is a spoken word and musical performance that explores the insights, perspectives, and reflections of women who are returned war veterans. The performance allows us to bear witness to the lives and sacrifices of warriors and their families, the realities of returning to life after military service, and the costs of war on everyone.

The spoken and sung text of the performance comes directly from interviews with women war vets and from poems/responses by Santa Fe Poet Laureate Valerie Martínez. Salve integrates composed and improvisational musical structures, poetry, personal stories, and songs composed by BING (led by Molly Sturges and Chris Jonas). BING draws from a wide palette of sounds including 1970s Ethiopian pop, Indonesian hybrids, American funk, Klezmer, Balkan jazz, indie-rock, 1960s American experimental, and jazz.

Excerpts from Salve: “I’m always checking my doors, locking my doors, worried about little things. When I’m getting ready to fall asleep, if I hear a sound outside, I’m up all night, waiting. There are so many things every day. Overpasses scare me--I want to swerve to the other lane.” “Little mistakes can get someone killed. That was instilled in us—life or death. I had a drill instructor who used to say, ‘Every mistake you make, well it’s not you who has to write the letter; it’s not you who gets the letter.’”

Women & Creativity Month is organized and presented by the National Hispanic Cultural Center in partnership with more than 40 organizations, artists, writers, and independently owned businesses with events in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe. March 2010 is filled with over 50 exhibitions, performances, workshops, readings, and discussions focused on women and creativity. For a full list of events, visit the NHCC/Women & Creativity site at www.nhccnm.org.

Tickets are $12 general admission, $10 seniors and students, and available at Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com and in person at the NHCC box office: 505-724-4771.

For more information, contact Chris Jonas, 505-670-4364, chris@littleglobe.org

Thank You, Santa Fe

2010-01-17T14:38:00.001-08:00

Thank you to the hundreds of Santa Feans and visitors who came to the Lines and Circles Opening Reception on Friday night and the presentations and feast on Saturday afternoon. It was a wonderful reunion of the Santa Fe community.

The photo at left is me with Eileen Torpey and Jason Jaacks, creators of the wonderful documentary film about the project, now showing with the exhibition.

The Line and Circles exhibit of poems and mixed-media works of art by eleven Santa Fe families will continue through March 19, 2010. Please visit the gallery at the corner of Marcy and Sheridan Streets in downtown Santa Fe.

If you would like to order a copy of the Lines and Circles book, please feel free to contact Sunstone Press at 1-800-243-5644, or go to Amazon online, or contact me at valmatz@comcast.net.

Your Invitation to January 15 & January 16, Lines & Circles

2010-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Please Join Us…

from Poet Laureate Valerie Martínez
and the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission

Lines & Circles: Mixed Media Works and Original Poems
by Eleven Santa Fe Families

Opening Reception
Friday, January 15, 2010
5:30-7:00 p.m.

SF Arts Commission Community Gallery
Convention Center, Santa Fe

The Families: Akers Covelli Hunt, Brown, Carmona, Goler Baca, Gottlieb Shapiro Bachman, Ingram, Martinez Ridgley, Ortiz Dinkel,
Quintana Gallegos, Salazar, and Strongheart

Saturday, January 16, 2-5 p.m.
Presentations by the Families
and Family Recipes Potluck

Exhibit Dates: January 16-March 19, 2010

Happy New Year!

2009-12-30T05:37:00.001-08:00

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.

Lines & Circles Book Now Out

2009-12-17T08:06:00.000-08:00

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

As Kingfishers Catch Fire--Please Join Us!

2009-12-15T07:26:00.000-08:00

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

Lines & Circles Press Release

2009-12-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

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

A Santa Fe Winter Poem

2009-12-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

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)

From Chicago to New Mexico

2009-11-29T10:32:00.000-08:00

Paul and I just spent a beautiful week in Chicago and the Chicago suburbs with his family. I love to visit there--the Christkindl German Market on Daley Plaza (drinking mulled wine, eating brats and fresh strudel) followed by the lighting of the Christmas tree with hundreds of Chicagoans. The lights along Michigan Avenue. A sumptuous Thankgiving dinner served up by Theresa and Mike Resnick. Breakfast at Max and Benny's.

Paul came to New Mexico over 24 years ago, as a freshman at UNM, and never left. And he'll never leave. He has lived in New Mexico as many years as I have, regardless of the fact that I was born and raised (to age 18) in Santa Fe. Paul is like so many others; New Mexico is home to them and they feel as fiercely devoted to this place, landscape, and people as those who have been here for generations.

This year, I am thankful for everyone who has made Santa Fe and New Mexico their home and who works hard to improve life for its families, for its elderly, and for those who protect the land and water, here, at every step.

I am also thankful for Paul, my family, my friends, and for all the amazing people who I've been able to work with in my tenure as Poet Laureate, including the Lines and Circles families. I am very lucky and very fortunate.

A Poem

2009-11-10T22:04:00.000-08:00

HISTORY, APOLOGY

Long ago, in a class with N. Scott Momaday,
after reading his Way to Rainy Mountain,

considering a blurb on the back cover that read:
“This book nags at the White man’s conscience,”

a twenty-something woman declared,
that she would not and could not feel guilty

for terrible things her ancestors had done
that she had nothing to do with, and hated.

Michelle, a seventh generation New Mexican,
fingers tacos in a booth at Tomasita’s¸ says

"It’s hard to live this way, Hispanic, Latina,
whatever you want to call me, when I do love

our traditions, when mother’s side claims pure
Spanish blood, and knowing Oñate

and the others tore through this land hell-bent
on conversion, ownership, blood on their hands.

Was there no one like me, then, against these ways?"
And Luis, on the La Luz Trail, showing me

hoary cress, wild candytuft, Alpine clover, saying
"Which part of me is Navajo grandmother,

Chicano father, White mother? Feet to femurs,
pelvis to pecs, shoulder blades to the top of my head?

Sometimes, I don’t know where each begins and end;
they rage at each other in my veins. Someday,

I am going to write a letter to each man in me,
in me, Indian, Mexican, White, who never forgets."

Shé éí Valerie yinishyé—I know there is no way
to sever the blood ties that tether me to my ancestors,
to history. They are the same umbilical that roots me
in the land. I grieve for what my Spanish ancestors
wrought as a result of ignorance, greed, want,
and the dictates of far-off governments.
And if they also brought forms of beauty
(here, on the streets of this capital city)
I remember that there are no adequate reparations.
No. I apologize. I realize my obligation to honor
the survivors and their ways as if, one snowy afternoon,
I come upon their cave dwelling, camp, village, pueblo,
a half-woman asking for food, hearth, finished limbs,
and a heart made complete by association.

VM, forthcoming in And They
Called It Horizon, Sunstone
Press, 2010

SAGE Magazine 20 Women Making a Difference Luncheon

2009-11-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

Please join me and nineteen other winners of the SAGE Magazine "Twenty Women Making a Difference" Award for a luncheon this Wednesday, November 4th at 11:30 a.m. at the Sandia Resort in Albuquerque. I am honored to be part of this group of women--their accomplishments are simply wonderful.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2009-10-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Today is my mother's birthday and I want to honor her for being an incredible inspiration and a wonderful and loving Mom. Happy birthday Exilda Marie Trujillo Martinez! Without her model of hard work, creativity, public and community service, and compassion, I wouldn't be who I am. Love you, Mom!

Recent and Upcoming Readings and Events

2009-10-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

November 5, 2009
Authors' Panel: "Creative Voices" at the National Hispanic Leadership Institute, 2-4 p.m. Valerie, Teresa Bevin, Alisa Valdez Rodriquez, Juana Bordas and Dr. Emma Sepulveda, UNM. For more infomration, contact Rosalee Montoya-Read (505) 897-8785
November 4, 2004
Valerie was recently awarded a SAGE Magazine/Albuquerque Journal Award for "Twenty Women Making A Difference." Luncheon to celebrate all twenty award winners, 1:30-1:30, Sandia Resort
October 30, 2009
Reading: Dia de los Muertos Commemoration, National Hispanic Cultural Center Plaza Mayor
October 29, 2009
Mayor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts, 6:30-9:30 p.m. Santa Fe Convention Center
October 22, 2009
Santa Fe High School, Julie Hasted’s English Class and the SFHS Poetry Club. Reading, Writing, and Spoken Word Activities with students.
October 16 & 17, 2009
The Santa Fe Book Arts Group (BAG): Celebration of the Book. Southside Library. Exhibition of Art Books (made by members of BAG), bookmaking and poetry activities with members of BAG and Poet Laureate Valerie
Martínez.
September 26, 2009
Reading: The 2009 National Book Festival, NEA Pavilion, Washington, DC. Other NEA writers/readers included Kay Ryan, U.S. Poet Laureate; Jane Hirshfield, Ed Hirsch, Ana Menendez, Ayar Zafisi, and Tim O’Brien.

Celebration of the Book, Thursday through Saturday, This Week

2009-10-12T12:36:00.001-07:00

Hello All--Please join us this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Southside Library (6599 Jaguar Drive) for three days of "Celebration of the Book." School groups will arrive at the library from 10-3 on Thursday and Friday and families and children are invited to the library on Saturday from 10-4 for reading, book-making activities, pop-up card-making, poetry, spoken word, and more. I will lead poetry writing and reciting activities all day on Friday and on Saturday for families and their children. All are invited and there is no charge to participate. Come and celebrate books with us! Valerie

The Lines & Circles Families Project

2009-09-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

Many of you have asked for more information about the Lines & Circles Families project and the January exhibition, so here it is!

THE LINES AND CIRCLES FAMILY PROJECT: A CELEBRATION OF SANTA FE, 2008-2010
Project/Artistic Director: Valerie Martínez, Poet Laureate
A project of the City of Santa Fe Poet Laureate Program/Santa Fe Arts Commission

Opening Reception: Friday, January 15, 2010, 5:30 p.m., free and open to the public. Presentation by Families and Food, Saturday, January 16, free and open to the public.

This project has brought together three generations of eleven Santa Fe families, each to envision and then create a unique family work of art. The works reflect the family name, family history, or simply the intergenerational collaboration that happens during the project. Each work will be accompanied by an original poem authored by each family, by the Poet Laureate with the family, or by the Poet Laureate on the family’s behalf. The finished pieces will constitute an exhibit entitled Lines & Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families to be presented to the city on Friday, January 15, 2010. Over the course of the project, families have also generated family histories, migration maps, lists of family traditions, heirlooms, recipes, old and contemporary photos, and other information that will be featured in a book about the project to be published by Sunstone Press, also in January 2010.

The goal of the Lines and Circles project is to nurture and celebrate the Santa Fe community, encourage positive relationships within and between families, nurture meaningful community dialogue, and generate a body of art and poetry that commemorates city life.

The Lines and Circles families include the Akers Hunt Covelli Family, the Carmona Family, the Goler Baca Family, the Ingram Family, the Jones Brown Family, the Martínez Ridgley Family, the Quintana Gallegos Family, the Ortiz Dinkel Hasted Family, the Salazar Family, the Shapiro Bachman Family, and the Strongheart Family.

About the project, by Poet Laureate Valerie Martínez:

"The families in the Lines and Circles Project are a testament not only to the history of Santa Fe but the promise of days to come. The future, of course, rests upon the beautiful, complex, rich and contentious past of this place, the capital city of New Mexico. All places worth living in, I believe, are complicated. So are their people. 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. They know its past and present and they cut, carve, and burnish its future. Their family lines extend into the past (of this place and others) and the circles they trace, day to day in this city, fashion the shimmering design that is the lifeblood of our community... The project has affected all involved. The families will tell you that in addition to creating and preserving an important family work that will stay with them for generations, they have come together, even more meaningfully, as families. We/they also have met, worked with, and become friends with families they didn’t know, across the “invisible lines” that sometimes tend to separate us, as city residents. Together, we have also journeyed into the past, revisiting our own stories, learning the stories of others, telling the collective story of Santa Fe.”

Lines and Circles is supported by the City of Santa Fe, the Lannan Foundation, the Santa Fe Literary Education Endowment at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, the First National Bank of Santa Fe, and Littleglobe, Inc.

Del Sol Quartet, 7:30 Thursday, September 16, Lensic

2009-09-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

Nothing to do tomorrow night? The Lensic Performing Arts Center and Littleglobe, in association with SITE Santa Fe and the Center for Contemporary Arts, present the return of the Del Sol String Quartet, one of the most adventurous and accomplished musical ensembles in the country, in concert on Thursday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m. at The Lensic.

In addition to performing key compositions from their central repertoire, the San Francisco-based quartet will showcase works by composer and collaborator Chris Jonas, recipient of this year's United States Artists Fellowship. Chris and I are colleagues at Littleglobe, Inc.

Video and live music from Chris's work in progress, GARDEN, will also be shown as a highlight of the evening. A collaboration between the Del Sol String Quartet and Chris Jonas, GARDEN is a music-driven intermedia performance/installation that uses live music and projected video in performance to explore metaphoric and psychological realms of night.

Tickets are $12-$30 / students ½ price with ID

This will be a wonderful show if you can make it.

VIVA Event, Lines & Circles Families

2009-09-04T06:36:00.000-07:00

Join the city of Santa Fe, this weekend (September 5-6), for the opening of the 400 year commemoration of city history. A huge event at Fort Marcy Field, there will be a food pavilion (with chef's demonstrating and serving indigenous and traditional foods of Santa Fe), a kid's pavilion (with all sorts of activities for children), a cultural traditions pavilion, commemorating the history and traditions of the city, concerts and performances, and more.

Eight of eleven Lines and Circles families (see description of the project below) will be there to talk about the generations of their family in Santa Fe and demonstrate their family work of art in progress. Participants are the Akers Hunt Covelli, Carmona, Goler Baca, Martinez Ridgley, Ortiz Dinkel Hasted, Quintana Gallegos, Salazar and Shapiro Bachman families.

The ceremony opening the 400 year commemoration is Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

I'll be there; look for me near the Lines and Circles booths. Hope to see you there, too.

Mark Your Calendars--January 15, 2010

2009-08-30T15:13:00.001-07:00

The opening reception for the Lines and Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families project will be Friday, January 15, 2010 at the Santa Fe Arts Commission Community Gallery at the Convention Center in downtown Santa Fe. Mark your calendars for this exhibition--eleven works of art created by three generations of Santa Fe Families. The exhibition is the culmination of a year and a half of artistic collaboration. A book/catalogue will appear with the opening of the show. The exhibition (Friday) and day of presentations and traditional family foods (Saturday) are free and open to the public.

Reading at the National Book Festival, September 26, 2009

2009-08-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

I am lucky enough to be reading at the National Book Festival on the Washington DC mall on September 26, 2009 in the wonderful company of U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, Jane Hirshfield, Tim O'Brien, Azar Nafisi, Ralph Eubanks, and others who will read as part of the NEA Poetry and Prose Pavilion. If you happen to be in DC on that weekend, please join us. For more information, go to http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

A new Santa Fe poem, for you. This one was written to accompany a mixed-media work, created by three generations of the Martinez Salazar Ridgley family (my own), consisting of mailboxes which hold letters from living family members to our ancestors who've passed. This and 10 other works will premiere at the Lines & Circles Family exhibition on January 15, 2010 at the Community Gallery at the Santa Fe Convention Center.

Letters to Wherever You Are

We write: Dear Diego, Dear Kate,
Dear Matiana, Dear Orrin,

as if paper and ink travel the air
between now and then, here
and wherever you are.

What we did not say, couldn’t,
wished we’d said, now have to—

I want you to know, remember,
it’s clear now, everything you said

flutters across the page.

We imagine a place, a moment,
when these appear in your hands
like strange birds, delicate,
weathered from the trip.

They open their small mouths.

Devotion lasts, and it is sung
in the voices of those of us
who are left behind,
making peace with the incomplete,
inarticulate, half-said.
The past is past and still
we write, fold, send, believe

they arrive in the place
between now and the day
their zig-zag flight mimics
the one we’ll take
when we too disappear.

Once, a nestling fell
from the rafters of the porch
and lay like a missive
on our front step. Its feathers
spread to reveal the thinnest
layer of bird-skin, pulsing
with tiny veins. Too small

to fly, we put it back in the nest,
up high, with five siblings
who knocked it out again.

Once, it opened its mouth as if
to feed, and what came out
was half breath, half sound,
from some world that wished
to take it back and did, later
that day, when its shivering

stilled. We felt culpable.
We had touched it, sullied
the world it fell out of.

These letters feel safe, reach
out to you who we’ve loved
from this tenuous distance—

draw the flight line between us—

honor the fact that we are still
here with our earthly language

written, folded, sent to you
in ink, on paper, on the wind,

wing-like, into the nest of your palms.

Valerie Martinez, copyright 2009

Ignatius Mabasa, Zimbabwean Poet, in Santa Fe on July 30th

2009-07-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

Please join us for a reading by Zimbabwean poet, Ignatius Mabasa, on July 30th at 6 p.m. at the Shelby Street Gallery, downtown Santa Fe. I'll be introducing Ignatius and you will spend a lovely hour hearing his poetry. There should also be a lively discussion afterward; I have many questions for Ignatius myself, about poetry in southern Africa, about life in Zimbabwe, etc.

The gallery will be open at 5 p.m. if you'd like to arrive early and have some refreshments, grab a good seat. Hope to see you there.

Shelby Street Gallery
222 Shelby St.
Santa Fe, NM
505-982-8889

Hiatus

2009-07-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the hiatus, here. I spent a week in Taos teaching at the Taos Summer Writers Conference (7/12-7/18) and the past week has been a flurry of activity in anticipation of the Wednesday 7/29 vote by the city of Santa Fe councilors on whether the city will acquire the land where the College of Santa Fe now resides. More on that below.

First, I want to say that it was my extreme pleasure to work with three wonderful poets in Taos--Raquel Flowers Rivera, Tina Carlson, and Dorothy Brooks--who brought their poetry manuscripts and worked very hard, all week, getting them ready to submit for publication. I am hoping to see all three mss. in print soon.

And, I do want to stand in favor of the city deal to acquire the land where the College of Santa Fe now stands. The deal will NOT COST RESIDENTS OF SANTA FE ANYTHING, no increase in taxes, no money out of residents' pockets. The deal with Laureate, Inc. (which will take over the administration of College of Santa Fe, thereby saving the college) means that Laureate will pay for the college's outstanding bond debt through its lease of the land from the city of SF. And, best of all, the city acquires the land and can lease it out (to Laureate and others) to generate revenue. It's a win-win deal for the city.

This said, I also spent many hours with Laureate last week, assuring myself (so I can assure you) that they are committed to the Santa Fe community, connecting the "new" College of Santa Fe with local residents, and providing access to education for local and regional post-secondary students. The college will still be pricey (no more than it was before, about 24K a year), still on par with high-quality liberal arts colleges, but scholarships will be available and Laureate is looking at offering in-state students a special fee for tuition. No, it won't be as inexpensive as our state institutions, but the new CSF will be a premiere, international institution for the arts and won't be like any NM state college/university.

I want Santa Feans to know that I asked Laureate many straightforward and hard questions in order to be assured that it's the right thing for the College of Santa Fe, its students, staff, alumnae, and for the community. I believe it is. Please urge your city councilors to vote FOR this deal.

One More Poem

2009-06-29T15:44:00.001-07:00

CLOUDS

How we know them without seeing:

I am looking down, fingers tight at the weed root,
pulling. The sting of the June sun migrates,
shoulder to shoulder and then, as if laying down
their white palms, a chill starts, each bead of sweat
refrigerates, and I tilt nearly to earth. And I dream

of that summer, of blonde best friend Elizabeth
from Massachusetts who stood at the window
of our little Santa Fe rental spouting ohs, crooning
their multitudinous shapes: battleship, behemoth,
woman giving birth, chess pieces marching across
the western sky. Or the shadow that crawls across

the book I read for hours then sleep to, then wake
in fear, knowing a spider is crawling over my hand
but no, just the shadow of a cloud I don’t have to
turn to, relieved. Or I am standing in the kitchen

and evening descends in the middle of the day
like a whale-bird, an unexpected lunar eclipse
till it moves on and the sun cocks its head
toward the world again. And I don’t have to see,

and it is enough to watch them in the mind--fat,
white, mansion-like, cut-out against the wide
New Mexico blue, tumbling over the Sangres

in the summer afternoons, in droves, like they have
for millions of years and will, sometimes with rain,
sometimes swift, sometimes just floating pure
pleasure into the sightless hearts of children.

Valerie Martinez
copyright 2009

Another Santa Fe Poem

2009-05-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

EASTER PILGRIMS
for Andrea Martínez
1959-2008

The old one, buttoned up, wind hard at his back.
The old one, pushed forward on his staff.

I wake up

from some fog, bent sun,
hypnotic drone of the car engine

to the Easter pilgrims, everywhere, on the shoulder.
Still a week out, on foot, a hundred miles
from the Santuario de Chimayo.

Because you are gone, my sister, the pilgrimage—

this one, each spring,
the Haj, even the pagan
cure-for-cancer pledge run

unlocks it.

What is my church, Old Man with a staff?
How do you know yours? Believe?

Because I cannot, six months after your death,
feel you near me, I want to join the severest ones,
on their bloody knees.

Theirs is a certainty, yes, and I have gone the other way.

The rain starts, here, on the interstate.
The man, now far behind, is pelted with raindrops,

triangular,
arrow-like,
honed by wind.

He walks on.

I do not know where you are, for sure, though I am given
certain definite options, by those who do:

heaven
reincarnation
absolutely nothing.

I have chosen, instead, the hush and no
of unknowingness
and the images I give it—

black hole, mountain fog,
windstorm, river mud.

Things we can’t see through.

Your way, Old Man, sings of some old
certainty, deep in the belly.
I remember it, recognize it again
from our childhood days, Sweet Sister.

It is sharp, sacrificial, the vertiginous certitude
of these teenagers, old couples, men
with their spare boots slung over their backs.

They are dizzying, yes. Their beauty,
this clarity--it slays me.

Valerie Martinez
copyright 2009

National Latino/a Writers Conference

2009-05-24T07:42:00.001-07:00

Hello All--

The days and weeks fly by. Thursday through Saturday of last week I was lucky enough to be on the faculty of the National Latino Writers Conference in Albuquerque. I led workshops on "The Art of Identity: Writing the Self" and "Writing the Unpredictable Poem" as well as worked with several writers in individual conferences. This is a small, intimate conference which allowed for much individual time with participants, one of the weekend's best features. They limit participants to 50, keeping the conference small and intensive. Thanks to everyone at the NHCC--organizers and staff--for a really good three days.

Coming up, the Taos Summer Writers Conference in July. This is another smaller, intimate conference. It is wonderfully friendly, rigorous while being very friendly, with a terrific "bookstore." If you've got time to travel in July, check it out online.

Hoping to Publish Your Manuscript of Poetry?

2009-04-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

If you have a manuscript of poetry you are hoping to publish, please join me for a poetry master class at the Taos Summer Writers Conference in July. For more information, go to: http://www.unm.edu/~taosconf/

Here's a description of the week-long workshop:

Poetry – Valerie Martínez . This weeklong master class is an intensive workshop for advanced poets with a book-length manuscript. During the week, we’ll undertake the exciting and challenging process of readying the manuscript for possible publication. To do this, the class (limited to six poets) will focus on holistic issues: the overall concerns of the collections, the general quality of the work, the arrangement and progression of poems, beginnings and endings, etc. As a group, we’ll also address the strongest and weakest poems in the collection, providing guidance for major and minor changes. And, if necessary, we’ll undertake creative exercises that allow each poet to see her/his manuscript with a fresh perspective. The class will include workshop sessions and individual conferences. Manuscripts must be no more than 60 pages, single-spaced. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring five additional poems that can serve as additions or replacements. Hard copies of manuscripts must be mailed to Valerie and other participants ahead of time, postmarked on or before June 12, 2009.

Recent Readings, Events, and Appearances

2009-04-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping a fairly busy schedule, so far, this late winter/early spring, especially in support of high school poets and poetry programs, in celebration of Women & Creativity Month, and promoting further dialogue about important movements in contemporary American poetry.

4/18/09 : Arts Alliance Bravos Award Dinner in support of the NHCC’s Voces Youth Program, serving New Mexico high school students, 6 p.m., Albuquerque.
4/16/09: Poetry Jam 2009, celebrating New Mexico CultureNet's Poets in the Schools (PITS) program
4/4/09: Spoken Word National High School Qualifying Competition (Judge). Santa Fe Indian School. 7 p.m.
3/27/09: Ekphrastic Performance (with Maureen Seaton, Valerie Martinez, and Jasmine Cuffee) in response to sheri crider’s installation: Capitalism: Fueled by Envy and Greed. SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, 7 p.m. Women & Creativity Month, 2009.
3/22/09: Meeting of the Lines and Circles Project Families. 2 p.m. O’Shaughnessy Performing Space, College of Santa Fe
3/15/09: SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship—Spoken Word & Music performance based on interviews with women war veterans, in celebration of Women and Creativity Month, 2009. Littleglobe. New Mexico Veterans War Memorial, Albuquerque, 2 p.m.
3/14/09: SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship—Spoken Word & Music performance based on interviews with women war veterans, in celebration of Women & Creativity Month, 2009. Littleglobe. O’Shaughnessy Performance Space, College of Santa Fe.
3/3/09: Dear Eve, Lilith, and Emily… Reading with Dana Levin, Valerie Martínez and Robin Romm in celebration of Women & Creativity Month. 12:30 p.m., College of Santa Fe.
2/14/09: Panel--Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, Chicago: “Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections”'
2/14/09: Panel Moderator: Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, Chicago: “Sibling Rivalries: Spoken & Written Word Poetry and the Literary Tug-of-War,” with Jon Davis, Danny Solis, Jill Battson, and Michelle Holland
2/8/09: Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest—New Mexico State High School Competition Finals, 2009 (judge), 1 p.m., St. Francis Auditorium

Please Join Us for Poetry Jam 2009

2009-04-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

This Thursday, please join us a for celebration of youth poetry and New Mexico poetry sponsored by New Mexico CultureNet, which promotes poetry in the schools (PITS), one of the rare non-profit sponsored school poetry programs in New Mexico. Many young poets and New Mexico poets, music, and entertainment. It's great fun and a way to show support for poetry programs in our public schools.

Event: New Mexico CultureNet presents Poetry Jam ’09: "a celebration of poetry and culture"
What: Readings and Performances
Host: New Mexico Culturenet
Day/Time: Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Lensic Performing Arts Center - Santa Fe
$5 for Teachers and Students, $10 for other adults

Quartocentenario Celebration of Santa Fe

2009-04-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

The end of March 2009 marks the beginning of a two-year commemoration of 400 years of the city of Santa Fe, originally established by the Spanish as the "villa" of Santa Fe. Of course, as we now know, with the discovery of indigenous artifacts beneath the old Sweeney Center and in the renovation of the Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe was home to indigenous peoples before it was declared a villa by the Spanish. So, commemorations and anniversaries are complicated. How do we now celebrate "400 years"? As 400 years of Spanish and then U.S. occupancy/residency/occupation IN ADDITION to occupancy by native peoples? With my own Hispanic and native ancestry, I discover, in this discussion, the inadequacy of language to keep from overvaluing or undervaluing one or the other of "Santa Fe's" peoples. Tomorrow morning, I'll meetwith Stephen Lentz from the New Mexico Office of Archaelogical Studies to learn the latest about those indigenous artifacts, "under" the contemporary city of Santa Fe and will report back here. For now, I want to acknowledge our 400th celebration (the city has invited President Obama to quartocentenario event in September) while engaging us in a dialogue about the complicated history of our beautiful city. Nothing good is ever simple; Santa Fe and its history is rich and messy. Most things worth something are.

You Are Invited

2009-03-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

Friends and Visitors—

If you’re free this week, Wednesday or Friday evening, you are invited to the following special events.

1. The College of Santa Fe in partnership with the National Hispanic Cultural Center (Women & Creativity 2009) and Recursos de Santa Fe present Valerie Martínez, Santa Fe Poet Laureate, reading her new book-length poem, Each and Her, on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 7 p.m. at the Southwest Literary Center/Recursos on 826 Camino de Monte Rey, Santa Fe. The reading is free and open to the public.

Each and Her is a book-length, collage poem that addresses (among other things) the murders of over four hundred women in Juarez, Mexico since 1993. At the same time, the poem engages with works of contemporary Mexican poets, photographers, and painters; American theologians; Latin American and Chicano writers; Martinez’s memories of traveling to Juarez as a young girl, as well as facts about the maquiladora industry and the cultivation of roses. It is a wide-ranging poem which has, as its central impulse, a reckoning with femicide in its relation to memory, geography, economics, literature, and religion. Sections of the manuscript recently appeared in the American Poetry Review, Mandorla, and Breach Press and will appear in the anthology JUNTA: Contemporary Writing of the Latino/a Avant-Garde (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010). University of Arizona Press will publish Each and Her in 2010.

Martínez is the author of three books of poetry, one book of translations (of Uruguay’s Delmira Agustini), and Reinventing the Enemy’s Language, the most comprehensive anthology of contemporary native women’s writing to date. She is on the faculty of the Dept. of Creative Writing & Literature at the College of Santa Fe and Santa Fe Poet Laureate for 2008-2010.

Contact Recursos/SW Literary Center at: 505-982-9301. To get there, turn south on Camino de Monte Sol which is off St. Francis Drive between St. Michael's and Alta Vista.

2. SCA Contemporary Art, in partnership with the National Hispanic Cultural Center (Women & Creativity Month, 2009), will present an Ekphrastic performance entitled “Capitalism: Fueled by Envy and Greed” on Friday, March 27, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. at SCA Contemporary Art, 524 Haines NW, in Albuquerque. The performance, by poets and spoken word artists Valerie Martínez, Maureen Seaton, and Jasmine Cuffee, is a response to sheri crider’s installation, of the same name, which includes a scale replica of a section of a 1946 Albuquerque home constructed with materials (destined for landfills) culled from local construction sites. The performance is free and open to the public.

Ekphrasis is the dramatic representation of a visual work of art and describes a long tradition of poets responding to art and architecture. The word comes from the Greek ek and phrasis, 'out' and 'speak' respectively--to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name. Crider’s “Capitalism: Fueled by Envy and Greed” examines issues of affluence, land usage, waste, and consumption in relation to our notions of “house” and “home.” Large Gouache paintings depict dramatic alterations of the landscape as a result of residential construction. “Footprint 1946,” the largest piece in the exhibition, is a section of a house frame constructed with materials and household items (some commercial, some very personal) that crider has salvaged from Albuquerque construction sites and sign shops over the last two years.

Valerie Martínez is the current Santa Fe Poet Laureate, on the faculty of College of Santa Fe, and Co-Artistic Director of Littleglobe, Inc., an artist-run non-profit that collaborates with communities on art and community dialogue projects. Maureen Seaton is the author of thirteen books, both solo and collaborative, including Sex Talks to Girls (a memoir) and Cave of the Yellow Volkwagen (poetry). Jasmine Cuffee is co- founder of the “Duke City Youth Poetry Collective,” a member of the award-winning 2004 Albuquerque poetry slam team and 2007-2008 Individual City Slam Champion.

SCA is dedicated to facilitating space for experimental, innovative and contemporary art, presenting exhibitions by emerging and established, local, national and international artists working with large scale sculpture, painting, print, drawing, photography, installation, sound and video art.

For more information, contact SCA Contemporary Art at (505) 228-3749

The College of Santa Fe, and More

2009-03-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hello, and sorry for the hiatus. So much to report about and comment on--it's been a very tumultuous month. Of course, in the forefront of my mind is the impending closing of the College of Santa Fe, where I have been a full time faculty member since 2003. As you may know, the college has declared a financial emergency and faculty and staff received letters telling us that the college will close on May 15th. In addition, staff members have been reduced to 3/4 time at 3/4 salary. Faculty members' salaries have been cut anywhere from 12% to 70%, perhaps more. In the meantime, Representative Luciano Varela has introduced House Bill 577 in the New Mexico Legislature which would approve state acquisition of the college. Though the bill has made it through the House and is winding its way through Senate Committees, there is no guarantee, in this economic climate, that the Senate will approve it.

These are hard times on campus, with student, faculty, and staff morale low. Each student must plan a new future, and graduating seniors have one enormous cloud hanging over their commencement. Even so, the CSF community (including some amazing groups of students) have organized very, very effectively to lobby for the bill at the legislature. We receive email and text message alerts; the college provides van service to the Roundhouse from campus; hundreds of email messages, letters and phone calls have been send to legislators.

Below is one of the versions of the letter I have sent to legislators, with which I'll end this entry. If you'd like to support the CSF effort, please contact your New Mexico legislators to urge them to save CSF for all the reasons I explain below. Thank you.

March 5, 2009

Dear Members of the Senate Education Committee:

I write to urge you to argue passionately for state acquisition of the College of Santa Fe. My parents are alumnae (1956 and 1972) of the college and I am Associate Prof. of English & Creative Writing at CSF. In addition, I am currently the Poet Laureate of the city of Santa Fe and CSF has enthusiastically supported my work as the city’s poet.

This is my sixth year on the faculty of the College of Santa Fe. My department, the Creative Writing and Literature Program, is consistently ranked as one of the top three undergraduate writing programs in the U.S. Often, we are ranked first because of our rigorous paradigm and the successful performance of our graduating majors in the working and writing worlds. Our department is also distinctive because of our faculty—five award-winning, nationally recognized writers who are actively publishing. This is rare for an undergraduate creative writing program.

My father and mother, both graduates of CSF, devoted a total of 55 years as teachers in the Santa Fe Public Schools. They were accomplished teachers and coaches for SFPS and are currently engaged in a wide range of community service programs. In their footsteps, I have also undertaken a career in teaching and also (as Poet Laureate and Artistic Director of the non-profit Littleglobe, Inc.) have dedicated myself to art and public service.

The seeds for our careers and lives were either sparked, supported and/or nurtured by the College of Santa Fe, its staff, administration and faculty. And there are hundreds of us (as you know) who have been thus influenced by the college.

I know the acquisition may seem like a matter of money in a dire economic climate. But it is much more. The state has a unique opportunity to acquire a college campus in the middle of the city of Santa Fe—no small matter if only considering the real estate. Much more importantly, the state has the opportunity to create and promote a state educational institution with distinct possibilities for being a nationally ranked arts and liberal arts school. When the economic crisis passes, this will have seemed like an incredibly visionary and wise decision.

Sincerely,

Valerie Martínez
Associate Prof. of English & Creative Writing, CSF
Santa Fe Poet Laureate

Lines & Circles Project

2009-02-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

To your left, see a photo of the Quintana/Gallegos family working on their family piece for the Lines and Circles project. The exhibition of family "works," created by three generations of 13 Santa Fe families, will premiere in Santa Fe in early 2010. The Quintana/Gallegos family is finishing a quilt begun by their (now passed) mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.

AWP Conference in Chicago

2009-02-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

Hello All--

Just returned from the AWP (Associated Writing Programs) Conference in Chicago where I moderated the Sibling Rivalries Panel (see description in last blog). The room was packed, with a standing room only crowd. My fellow panelists: Danny Solis, Jill Battson, and Jasmine Cuffee, were terrific and we were able to begin a very crucial dialogue about the situation of contemporary American poetry and the tensions between the academic/literary and spoken word/slam communities. Panelists and audience members talked about issues of inclusiveness, exclusiveness, rigor, audience, race, and socio-economics , pushing the discussion past the usual platititudes. Clearly, the popularity of the session and the brimming discussion (we had to cut people off at the end, having run out of time) signals the necessity of engaging in this important dialogue further. Many audience members asked us to return, next year, to continue the discussion. Thanks to Danny, Jill, and Jasmine for a great session.

Also, the animated version of my poem, "Bowl," premiered at the conference, with the other animated poems in the second series of Poetry Everwhere (PBS/UWM/Poetry Foundation). Check it out on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEBLfZrPydI

Literary, Spoken Word, Slam and Public Poetry

2009-01-26T17:24:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot, these days, about literary, spoken word, slam and public poetry. Next month, in Chicago, I'm chairing a panel at the Associated Writing Programs (AWP) conference. Its title is "Sibling Rivalries: Written and Spoken Word Poetry and the Literary Tug-of-War." I share the panel with Danny Solis, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Jill Battson, Shelle Sanchez, and Jasmine Cuffee. As writers and teachers, we represent a broad range of poetry and poetics and will talk about whether the seemingly deep divides between American poetry "camps" are real, imagined, necessary, divisive, etc. This issue is important to me because, as a teacher (and as Poet Laureate), I work with adults, college students, high school students, middle schools students, and younger writers. I have known dozens of high school students drawn to poetry because of spoken word/slam groups and projects. I have met quieter "non-performing" high school poets who feel alienated by the "popularity" of slam poetry. I have met literary poets who embrace the best of the spoken word/slam movement. I have talked to literary poets who have nothing but disdain for spoken word/slam poetry.

This presents a dilemma as I feel responsible to every writer I encounter/teach; I want to bring each to a deeper love for poetry any way I can. This means that I must embrace the range of American poetries as much as possible. I have a simple policy, then--to remind myself that no kind of poetry is exclusively good or bad. There is some pretty bad haiku out there. Ditto for slam poetry. Ditto for "literary" and experimental poetry. On the other hand, I've read, heard, or experienced wonderful, meaningful poetry of every kind, And I believe that good writers can come from any one of these "movements" or camps.

It's true--there are standards for different kinds of poetry that belong to that "style." I accept the fact that slam poetry must be "a performance." And, it should be good. This doesn't apply, really, to a literary reading (though good readers are appreciated). But I do hold both kinds of poetry to the same, higher standard (here's where my bias shows)--both kinds of poems must be exciting on the level of language and both kinds of poems must be layered and thematically complex. That's all.

Stay tuned for thoughts on public poetry and occasional poetry (like inauguration poems)--an issue I'm navigating right now as Santa Fe Poet Laureate.

Poem

2009-01-13T21:06:00.000-08:00

AUREOLE

The child removes the brass plate,
the harness around her ears.
The play is done. Her part,
scribbles on index cards, scattered
on the wooden, back stage floor.
Round makeup mirrors
with their white bulbs,
halo after halo, blowing out.

Circlet of gold, thousand-petaled
lotus at the head, light rounding
the dark curls of the sage
who rolls her lips and tongue
into the trees.

Despite the sheet, the plastic amulet,
she did feel something surge up
playing Aura of Rome—
through femur, belly and skull.
Will she know? Whether legend,
earth aspiring, tug of sun—
these magnets of heaven.

Valerie Martinez, from World to World, University of Arizona Press, 2004.

One More Santa Fe Poem for 2008

2008-12-30T07:49:00.000-08:00

Wishing all of you the most wonderful of holidays as we near the end of 2008. Here's a poem that celebrates what is distinctly and characteristically beautiful about Santa Fe in this season.

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? And who hasn’t walked 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 pine, fir, and spruce through the dashboard heating ducts? Hasn’t heard the downtown sound of cathedral bells swallowed up in snow wafting like wafers onto roofs and wrought iron and woolen elbows? Hasn’t looked up from St. Michael’s Drive to the Sangres to search for the snow-covered horse’s head, test of visitor and native? Hasn’t found a kitchen off San Ildefonso Road, complete with grandmother, to down a half-dozen biscochitos and sip a cup of chocolate? Hasn’t kneaded the dough for pastelitos, sufganyot, or caramelized sugar for a batch of Indian bread pudding? And who hasn’t received a free cup of homemade cocoa or hot cider on Christmas Eve from the residents on or around Canyon Road? Hasn’t walked the ice-milked sidewalks of Water Street and found themselves flat on their back with some stranger helping them up, saying “Whoa--you went down like a ton of adobe bricks!” Who hasn’t left town for the heart-bending drums and dances at Santo Domingo then driven back to mark the little pines on the I-25 median decorated by some anonymous group of daredevils who brave this vehicular death-trap to tinsel-line trees? Has not seen the living room and 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 and mother during las posadas, lugging a wooden crèche from house to house, the holy family looking for a place to stay, setting it down on the porch then driving away? And the dry colds so cold you want to drench them, and the stars so up close you want to lick them, and the carolers with runny noses at your door singing so off-key in two languages you want to hug-smother 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 © 2008

Georgia O'Keeffe Writings by Women

2008-12-19T16:13:00.001-08:00

As promised, below are some of the wonderful writings of women who participated in the November 18th workshop at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. The workshop, entitled "The Art of Self-Image" asked writers to choose a photographic portrait of O'Keeffe (in the current exhibition) and create an imagined dialogue between the photographer and the painter. Then, writers wrote a letter to O'Keeffe about themselves. Featured here, a poem from photographer Todd Webb's imagined perspective, by Deborah Casillas; dialogues by Barbara Rockman, Robyn Hunt and Lyric Kali, and an excerpt from her letter to O'Keeffe by Anna Katherine. Here are some of the Santa Fe women writers who might be your friends and neighbors. Thanks to all. VM

Deborah Casillas

Photograph of O’Keeffe
Todd Webb: Twilight Canyon

It’s the light I want to capture, a white shaft that splits
the canyon wall, following the curve, the sinuous swoop
and hang of stone.

She steps deliberately, another shadow, the way
she disappears into the landscape of her own paintings,
present but unseen, part of the muted cliffs,
the creased hills, the stark branches of a blackened tree.

She knows I’m here, always watching; both of us sealed
into the silence. I photograph silvered water and cliff face,
the rocks’ texture, shallow pools threaded through sand.
Integration is what I care about, skin of body,
skin of stone and stream, intermingled.

Will she be disappointed that I’ve captured her like this?
Unidentifiable, turned away. Not the iconic,
recognized woman, her sharp eyes watching you.

A portrait with a hidden subject. Landscape dominates,
a play of rain-streaked stone and still water. Does she see
her own face as she stares down, finding in the imprecise
reflection of the stream what she won’t find in my print—
the lined features of her face?

Or will she be pleased instead, knowing my camera
at her back captures the essence of what draws us
to this canyon—the quality of solitude, the towering
weather-pitted walls, the shifting patterns of the land.

* * *
Barbara Rockman
From photo of O’Keefe’s hands draped around the skull of a horse, 1931

Letter from Alfred Stieglitz to Georgia O’Keefe

Your hands were made for teeth
for bite and grit to fill cavities
to caress the chasm where the tongue might live
soft-tipped and calloused
head lamps in caverns
probing dark pools
your arced wrists
are easy with blanched bone
numbering rungs of vertebrae
look how you forgive the flayed flesh
love what was stolen by heat yours
are the arms of heat
ravenous fists released to death
yours are the hands of my lust
my absent caress

Letter from Georgia O’Keefe to Alfred Stieglitz

Be calm, Alfred. No,
I am a plain woman. I rinse dishes,
pull weeds and unleash the dogs on dirt trails.
I sleep in a narrow bed. I rise early.
These are hands that sometimes hold brushes and mix paint,
apply color and decipher the sky. With these hands
I scratch my head at the improbable.
I twist them under my breasts in sleep.
Fisted against my stomach they fly
from my body in dream. Hands
at the tips of wings, Alfred.

How you splayed my fingers,
insisted I caress the absent forelock,
empty sockets, each stone molar, each
shadowy cuspid, imagining a long rough tongue.
Alfred, I want nothing of death.
These (I admit, elegant) hands
cup seeds, cut back Echinacea,
snip herbs for the sauce. They tug knotted shirts
from a basket, shake them into light,
clamp them to the line with bleached pins.
What can a man know of women’s hands?

Green hills, habitat of red-stained
barns, blackberry bramble,
cornfield and lake. I left
gilt eagles spread patriotic
over black frames, black-
shuttered white clapboard,
the brass knockers.
I slammed a door.

This is a ruined, ragged land.
Skies so big they creep into bed with you at night.
With pen rather than paint I escaped
tidiness, entered fracture, remains,
aspen, mesa and arroyo.

I have a cynical, faithless bent and yet
I seek the girl hidden
in fern beds, lichen-licked,
moss logs so damp black they dissolved
beneath her, as you moisten a raw crevice.

Might we be sisters
in fingering the juncture
of suction and flourish?
of absence and arousal?

* * *

Anna Katherine:

"What is left after years of scouring,
that is our truth, hard and simple."

* * *
Robyn Hunt

The Rock from Eliot Porter
(a conversation between John Loengard and Georgia O’Keeffe, photographer and model)

Georgia, can you feel how the oval cuts a hole in your hand? How the pulse
of the black against your white skin is where the eye goes? You in your drape
of night even in daylight. You are headless here and nowhere but in the still
breath of your outstretched hand, one hand. The other is hidden in your coal
cloak, a soldier’s disguise. I find light just below your heart where one silver
‘x’ of ribbing adorns your narrow wrist exposed.

Are you clutching or holding? Motioning someone to come and witness this
oval stone, this perfect flint? You say a friend gave you this medal? And he
was also a photographer who bent to lift the gift, knowing you would hold it
long and softly ‘til it became a part of you, cleft of your left hand. Bride
in the night diving into the smooth nest. Arresting. You are.

Silly man, it is not a rock but a treasure that Eliot brought. He picked it
from the moving river of the white place like a small fish with no tail.
He knew it spoke, knew it was the shape of pelvic hollows that I know.
You say stretch my left hand open and place this stone squarely there?
Where shall I put my other hand and how long will I have to stand still?

Only a rock, black iris. I am wearing my fanciest frock but it is going to get hot
in here. Do you think it will take very long? Buttoned up. I am. Not much light
in here. But the stone fits so nicely above the long web of fingers, mine. Shine.
Look at the shine. The opposite of dark. I press this rock to my forehead against
headache. Medicine quiet, this Porter rock, no longer wet from the river
but tight in his case until it arrived. “For my steady Pa,” he said to me,
“for your windowsill menagerie.”

No hole in my hand. No, never. Taut. Present. And what shall we have
for lunch when we’re done?

* * *
Lyric Kali:

Ansel Adam's view:
Superimposed over a blue-lit sky
I know the exact color and hue
Her smile is gentle yet shrewd
Her affection apparent by slant of eye
A burst of giggle-laughs threaten
She holds herself close to warmth
Black hat duo--knows (a secret)

Georgia's view:
You caught us having one of our moments
My sass makes Orville shy
I delight in knowing how to bring out his quiet joy
The threads that connect us, you almost caught
in color, on black and white
It must have been the light
Or your wandering eye

Thank You, First National Bank

2008-11-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

On Thursday evening, November 20, I spent some time with patrons and employees of the First National Bank of Santa Fe, one of the generous sponsors of the Poet Laureate program. It was my first time, ever, to read poetry in front of one of those enormous circular doors leading to the vault. I felt rich when everyone joined me to sing "The Christmas Song"to finish the reading. Early, yes; it's not even Thanksgiving. But now I take a short hiatus from public events as I turn to holidays and family for the remaining weeks of 2008. I'd like to thank Steve Stork and the staff of First National who welcomed me warmly. Their support makes my tenure as Poet Laureate possible, and it is a great gift to be able to serve this community.

I wish all Santa Feans and their families a beautiful Thanksgiving. And I remind myself that gratitude, now matter how small or large, is a balm. I wish it for all of us.

Stay tuned for more poems, here, during the holidays. And, let it snow; let it snow, snow, snow.

O'Keeffe Museum Writing Workshop

2008-11-20T12:32:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday, November 18th, I was lucky enough to work with 28 women in a writing workshop entitled "Snapshots: The Art of Identity and Writing the Self." The workshop was sponsored by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum as part of the Art & Leadership Program.

I asked the writers/participants to undertake a circuitous journey to creating a written self-portrait. We began with a list of 32 self-inventory prompts including: "For what cause or which person would you give up your life?" "I have never told anybody that___." "My last interesting dream was ____." "I have never told anybody that___." "My favorite creature is ____." Then, we read several self-portrait poems (Plath, Johnson, etc.).

Next, we wandered the current exhibition ("Georgia O'Keeffe and the Art of Identity")choosing one of many photographs of O'Keeffe and then wrote an imagined dialogue between the photographer and subject. Finally, writers addressed a letter to O'Keeffe in which they told her about themselves.

The result was a range of beautiful, fascinating, eloquent, forceful short pieces by the women-writers who took part, recited in one of the galleries of the museum in the presence of O'Keeffe paintings and photographs of her home and studio. I think O'Keeffe would have approved.

At the end of the workshop I asked the writers to type up their dialogues and self-portraits and send them to me so that I could share a few with you, here. I can't wait to receive them. Look for excerpts in future posts.

Thank you Cynthia, Betsy, Linda, Marilyn, Nance, Joan, Lyric, Mary, Kathleen, Judy, Anna, Jeanne, Barbara, Jane, Jackie, Lori, Robin, Debby, Edi, Lynn, Tash, Elaina, Victoria, Joyce, Diane, Devin, Christine, and Carrie. And thank you Jackie M. and the O'Keeffe staff.

Lines & Circles Project Update

2008-11-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, November 16th, I met with families participating in the "Lines and Circles" project--the educational and community outreach project than spans my tenure as poet laureate. The project brings together three generations of Santa Families to create family "works," culminating in a exhibition in 2010. Each family work will be accompanied by a poem written by the family, by me, or by the family and me, together.

During the meeting, family members continued to brainstorm ideas for their pieces, sketching preliminary designs and generating lists of materials and assistance needs. They are also completing a family history questionnaire and generating ancestral maps.

It is a joy to watch family members of different generations share ideas, collaborate, negotiate. And it is a pleasure to see the families get to know each other.

I will keep you posted, as the months pass, and offer more details about specific family works. For now, a brief preview: a travel chest commemorating three generations of women in one family; accordion book with family stories; dinner table (in the family for many generations) with place settings for surviving family members and ancestors; a three-generation handmade quilt; a hanging "tapestry" of hand-made books of different sizes, one for each family member (including ancestors); a video installation with hand and handwriting imagery; a family history told by images of family-built houses. Exciting, yes?

It is a privilege to work with these wonderful Santa Feans.

There is still room for 1 or 2 additional families to participate in the project. If you are interested and have three generations of your family living in Santa Fe, please contact me at vmartinez@csf.edu. You do not need to be artists, nor have any particular expertise.

Recent Events

2008-11-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, November 8th, I attended readings by poet Gabe Gomez (The Outer Bands) and prose writer Michelle Otero (Malinche's Daughter) organized by Francisco Aragon (Director of the Institute for Latino Studies--Notre Dame) and in support of Letras Latinas and Momotombo Press. I highly recommend these emerging writers--Gomez's poetry is an example of what's new and exciting in contemporary Latino poetry and Otero's lyric prose lies in a long and important tradition of writing that takes on socio-political and feminist issues. And check out the Institute for Latino Studies, also doing wonderful work.

Later that evening, I did a short reading at the 25th anniversary gala of the Santa Fe Institute. SFI is a research and education center that promotes multidisciplinary collaborations in the physical, biological, computational, and social sciences with an emphasis on complex systems. I read "science" poetry by Edgar Allen Poe, e.e. cummings, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, A.R. Ammons, Maria Melendez, Joy Harjo, and others. SFI chose the theme of the "road less traveled" for the gala, so I finished the reading with Frost's poem (with the same phrase). I made the point that good poetry is (like SFI) multidisciplinary and complex, emphasizing the coming together of what may seem like "unrelated" ideas and disciplines. I sometimes joke with my students that they need not take any classes but poetry--with poetry they study philosophy, pop culture, psychology, nature, love, death, politics, etc., all at once.

This morning at the Southside Library, I met with 200 grade school students, grades 4-6, with ArtWorks. Artworks (a wonderful Santa Fe-based program) brings community resources together to integrate arts education in elementary classrooms. Poet-Teachers Joan Logghe and Tim McLaughlin had spent the last few weeks working with the young students, sharing some of my poetry and guiding them to write their own. I read and discussed my poems, answered student questions, and got the kids to recite parts of my poems with me. They were terrific, and so is ArtWorks.

These three events remind me of why I love Santa Fe--so much going on, all the time.

Excerpt from Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech, Nov. 4, '08

2008-11-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

"So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers -– in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House –- a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity.

Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -– I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world –- our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those who would tear this world down –- we will defeat you.

To those who seek peace and security -– we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright –- tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America -– that America can change. Our union can be perfected. "

Voting, Polling Places, and Community

2008-11-03T16:14:00.000-08:00

Hello All--If you haven't, already, please take the time to vote tomorrow. Standing in long lines can be tedious, even unbearable, but it's also a chance to talk to neighbors and strangers. Long lines to the polls give us a snapshot of our fellow Santa Feans, our community, our city (no matter the party differences). I am often struck by the value of striking up a conversation with someone I don't know and may never see again. Notice what you end up talking about. Notice where your lives intersect. There's a chance for something remarkable (I mean it) there.

Recent and Upcoming Events (or, What A Poet Laureate Does)

2008-11-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, 11/18/08
Writing Workshop: The Art of Self-Image (accompanying the exhibition of Georgia O’Keeffe and the Camera; The Art of Identity), Arts & Leadership Program, Georgia O’Keeffe
Museum, 7-9 p.m.

11/16/08
Second Meeting of the Lines and Circles Families (Poet Laureate Community Outreach Project)

11/10/08
Reading/Discussion with ARTworks kids, grades 4-6, 10-11:30 a.m., Southside Library

11/8/08
Letras Latinas Salon, hosted by Francisco Aragon (Director of the Institute for Latino/a Studies, Notre Dame), Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI), 4 p.m.

11/8/08
Reading: Santa Fe Institute “The Road Less Traveled” Gala Event, 7 p.m. (SFI)

11/3/08
Presentation and Reading: "The Poet in the World: Poetry, Community, and Place," Breakfast with O’Keeffe, 8:30 a.m., Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

10/30/08
Reading: Mayor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts, Community Convention Center, 6:30 p.m.

10/17/08
Santa Fe Opera Big Read Event, with elders at the Bear Canyon Retirement Community, Albuquerque, 12 noon

10/2/08
First Meeting of the Lines and Circle Families

9/27/08
Reading and Book-Signing: New Mexico Women Authors’ Book Festival, Museum Hill, Santa Fe, 2 p.m.

9/29/08
Reading & Writing Workshop: International Conference on Creative Tourism, Santa Fe

9/25/08
Reading: Phitya Series, Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA), 7:30 p.m.

9/14/08
Panel Presentation: "Integrating Poetry Into Life," STIR: A Festival of Words, Harwood
Arts Center, Albuquerque

9/13/08
Reading: Grand Opening of the new Santa Fe Railyard Complex, 1-3:30 p.m.

Poem Read at the Mayor's Awards Dinner

2008-11-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

SANTA FE SESTINA

Late autumn blows leaves into women’s hair. On the plaza,
Lydia feeds the pigeons—iridescent feathers gone blue
in the tangerine sun. It is afternoon and adobe,
crush of pueblo-style hotel rooms against a sky
that holds them steady. Her skirt is wound in ribbons,
gathered in ruffles, wind-flipped velvet, black and silver.

Merrymakers tumble from the doors of La Fonda, blue
windbreakers and cowboy hats. Spun from adobe,
they rush by Lydia like a tornado. A glance at the sky
stuns them, for a moment, then they’re a ribbon
of raucous laughter. Sunlight descends in silver,
travels the metal rain gutters, trimming the plaza

in a membrane of liquid light. Like the gold (not adobe)
the Spaniards thought they saw, coffers as wide as sky
over Seven Cities. Lydia pulls on her coat, pushes on ribbon,
remembers there’s jewelry to be sold, turquoise and silver
flashing like eye-lets along the streets of the plaza.
These days, under the shade of the portal, there’s the blue

of lapis and sapphire, too. All the colors of sky
remind Lydia of dawn, on the mesa, digging. Ribbons
of pale blue embedded in rock and aching for silver.
Now the stone-cold cuff on her wrist jolts her back to the plaza,
the bracelets for show and sell, cupped in the pale blue
of a tourist’s cashmere gloves. Not unlike adobe

cast into bricks and walls, hugging windows ribboned
in Virgin Mary ultramarine. Bells swing and ring the silver-
toned song of the cathedral. It’s a late Mass, the nave a plaza
of bowed heads. Where Lydia prays, the vault is a blue
arc from mountain to mesa, over the endless adobean
earth. Lydia knows it as the one, limitless sky

that cradles everyone from above--the caricaturist, silver-
haired, at his booth, the Mexican girls skipping in the plaza,
the santero wrapping up Saint Agnes in crisp blue
tissue paper. It’s October. The day feels old as adobe,
new as the drugstore’s cursive neon sign (sky-
high and glowing), fluid as the clouds’ unruly ribbons.

My hair is silver, thinks Lydia, the veins in my hands are large
and blue; my legs are earth-bound adobe. This plaza floats
on time’s swirling ribbons. I’m swaddled; I’m half-swallowed in sky.

V. Martinez, copyright 2008

Mayor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts

2008-11-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to attend the Mayor's Recognition Awards for Excellence in the Arts last Thursday night, October 30, 2008. Congratulations to the following individuals and organizations for their enormous commitment to the city of Santa Fe and its residents:

The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Nicolas Steven Flores--Melissa Engestrom Youth Artist
ARTsmart
Arlen Asher
Judith Espinar
Juliet Myers

And thanks to the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission and its staff for a wonderful event. In the next post, please see the poem I read at the awards dinner. Thanks for asking.

Hiatus

2008-11-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

Friends, forgive the long hiatus, here, since the death of my older sister, Andrea, on September 28th. I haven't been able to write anything for a long time.

My family and I would like to thank the Santa Fe community for its incredible support, kindness, and generosity during this ordeal. It has been overwhelming, and demonstrates the compassion and strength that defines real community. We are nothing without each other.

The Lines and Circles Family Project is moving forward, with a second family meeting on November 16. During this meeting, families will begin to visualize (and even draw) their family pieces and we will compose lists of needs--equipment and materials, supporting artists, etc.--to help families create their pieces in 2009. The exhibition is set for March 2010, at the end of my tenure as Poet Laureate. I am honored to work with these families and looking forward to our years of work, together.

Pet Parade Poem--So Many of You Have Asked

2008-09-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

DAYS LIKE THIS

Shoulder to shoulder, with our sun umbrellas
and stadium seats, baseball caps and tubes

of SPF 30, I see the cashier from the carnicería
on Cerrillos, the dot.com retiree, the roofer

from high on Agua Fria Rd., the high school
teacher and downtown jewelry-maker.

And their children--ponytails, midriffs,
Raiders t-shirts, high-top Keds. This is a city

of markets, fiestas, community days, 4th of July
pancake breakfasts. If familiarity can no longer

gather us, then fry bread and Navajo tacos--
no matter how long and slow the line—

or a tortilla and bowl of green chile stew.
Grandma sits next to me on the curb

with no more short term memory. She tells
Serafina, her fidgety great-grand-girl,

about the way her father used to keep butter cold
in 1926 on the porch of the house in Española.

A system of shelves and wet canvas in the shade,
chilled by the summer breeze. Serafina says, “Wow,

Grandma, you ARE old,” and swings her monkey
purse over her left shoulder. These days

the city seems split in isolated directions—
east-side, Airport Road, Park Plaza,

and Casa Solana. The eighty year old
next to me says, in his day, all Santa Feans

lived in all the neighborhoods, at fisticuffs
or pleased as sardines. Today, it’s the saving

grace of the Pet Parade: goldfish bowls
in red wagons, a golden retriever in tails,

someone’s ferret in disco glitter. Is it
dogs in drag that bring us together?

There’s a pueblo song that calls
the four directions so many times

I nearly believe we have come here
for some kind of blessing. Like the bones

of the skeleton, in that Hispanic folktale,
coming together to grant the courageous

the chance to do good. Or the Puritan,
Jonathan Edwards, writing persons of all

nations and all conditions. These four
third-graders, dressed up like daisies

and tethered to three family cats form
some kind of unlikely and fabulous family.

And here we are. My sister says, “stop
asking me and just eat your chicken-wrap

burrito thing.” When she leans forward
I see the purple shadow on her lower back--

mark of the Moors, they told Mother,
distant remnant of old, bloody Spain.

There are no simple answers there, just
a chubby blonde girl throwing candy

from a wheelbarrow, the strangers
across the street rubbing upper arms,

the seams of the city zipping up
at the threshold of donkeys and pet snakes.

Grandma says a veces la gente necesita
juntar codos. It’s true, we’ll never

own things equally, agree and agree,
but there are days like this, lucky crush

and mosaic of blue jeans, baby bags,
sun hats and cowboy boots. She’s right,

of course. Unlikely, mismatched, contentious.
“Sometimes, people just need to rub elbows.”

Valerie Martínez
©2006

Poem for the Railyard Complex Opening Celebration

2008-09-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

BLUE WINDING, BLUE WAY

I tell you—City, City, City—a story you told me--brown eyes, green eyes, black--in the days of snow drifts, mini-skirts, nothing beyond Richard’s Ave. The center of earth was a patch of land where the house was, the backyard, arroyo humming over the reddish concrete wall, and one immortal turtle. The neighbor’s immense ham radio antenna and Mr. Chang hunched to static and metal under the morning buzz of Osage Ave. We went to school in pick-ups and dented sedans, or workmen showed up to build vigas in the big room that swelled our home, Alfonso saying, Linda, get me that bucket and ¿donde está tu mama? Me saying, at the grocery store buying tubs of ice cream, you know, those big ones? Get me, ice cream, you know took to the air over the rooftops to Frenchy’s Field. We weren’t supposed to go there—He’ll shoot, you know--and I imagined him hunched somewhere near the water, listening. In those days the Santa Fe River ran and sang. It’s true? you ask, staring at the empty bed, dust rising at the dead end of Avenida Cristobal Colón. There was water? Now, we dream of blue winding, blue way along West Alameda—barbershop, coop, health clinic. The clog and cough of St. Francis Drive. Back then there were cars and wanderers and children just like now—towheads, dark braids, dirty cuffs—rolled up with all of us on the days of markets and parades along San Francisco and Palace Ave. Hmmm went the afternoon sun and you really could get fry bread for a quarter after walking down Washington Street from Fort Marcy after Zozobra burned. Now I go downtown where the acequia crosses Closson and Maynard, stutters along Water St. and sings the parallels of East Alameda and Canyon Road. Like a whisper, it lays itself down between Camino del Monte Sol and Camino Cabra, two streets with the river in-between—one with her skirt trailing southwest to the Paseo Real, the other reaching her fingernail moons to the foothills. And the river itself, p’oe tsawa, flushed from the red burn of the Sangres, running headlong downhill into this city of ours, then and now, with her canciónes encantadas--with her blue, with her brown mouth open.

Valerie Martínez
Santa Fe Poet Laureate
© 2008

Upcoming Events

2008-09-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

Please join me and members of the community for the upcoming events in Santa Fe:

9/13/08 Grand Opening of the New Railyard Complex, Santa Fe, 1-3:30 p.m., at the corner of Cerrillos Road and Guadalupe St. http://www.railyardgrandopening.com/

9/14/08 STIR: A Festival of Words, workshop, “Integrating Poetry Into Life,” Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, 2 p.m. http://harwoodartcenter.org/ss/stir-a-festival-of-words

9/23/08 Santa Fe Opera Big Read Event, a reading and discussion of Twain's Tom Sawyer, North 4th Arts Center, Albuquerque, 7 p.m.http://www.neabigread.org/

9/25/08 Pihtya Mixed Media Series, Reading, Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA), Reception and Reading, Santa Fe, 7:30 p.m. http://www.ccasantafe.org/

WESTERN HORIZON

2008-09-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

The sky’s a triplet--
indigo, navy, dusty pink.
Thirteen gargantuan ravens.
Bits in their beaks; Asian eyes.
Cheeky moon playing Jupiter.
I count nineteen black branches
and Lorca’s three gold letters:
SUN.

Valerie Martinez
copyright 2008

How Not to Blog

2008-09-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

I am brand new to blogging and have often told others that no one wants to know what I'm thinking about every day. Even so, when I think about poetry and community and Santa Fe, there's a lot to tumble with.

One, Santa Fe is a city that sits in many layers of beauty, conquest, conflict, and reconciliation. My friend Selena Sermeno has taught me a lot about "conflict engagement" in the last year--the idea that there are some conflicts that will never have a resolution for various reasons--historical realities, religious incompatibilities, entrenched (so much so they might be called "innate") beliefs. What we can hope for, in these situations, is to learn the "stamina" to stay with a dialogue about conflict, to engage with it in fruitful ways, to keep trying to listen to, empathize with, and understand the "other's" point of view, whether we will ever agree with it or not. This process of "conflict engagement" presents us with an opportunity to let go of the idea of resolution (which may blind us to the present moment) and concentrate on LISTENING to another and deepening our understanding of what s/he thinks and feels.

What kind of conflict, you may ask? How is Santa Fe a place of conflict? Next weekend is the annual Santa Fe Fiesta, a "celebration" of the "bloodless" reconquest of Santa Fe by Don Diego de Vargas in 1693. However bloody or bloodless the actual reconquest was, the event was preceded by many violent years of conflict between the Indians and Spaniards. Many have argued, fruitlessly, about what happened during the actual "reconquest." Is it not more important to acknowledge that Indians and Spaniards were at war with each other and that our history lies in the truth of this?

Acknowledgment of this truth may direct us away from impossible arguments about what happened and toward the present need for more open and productive dialogue about how people feel about the past and present of Santa Fe. Once, while in graduate school, I took a class with N. Scott Momaday in which we read his WAY TO RAINY MOUNTAIN. On the back cover was a quote that said something like "This book nags at the white man's conscience." On the first day of discussion, a graduate student blurted out that she was sick and tired of being accused of being complicit in the oppression of Native Americans. As a white woman, she said she had not participated in violence against Indians, would never do so, and was tired of being grouped with those who did, ancestors or not. This sparked a long and contentious debate in the class.

After some time, a Navajo student, who didn't (as it turned out) talk a lot in class, waited for a rare hiatus in the discussion and spoke up. She said that most of the time, native people just want to hear that people acknowledge what happened in the past and see the darkness of it, its legacy in the present. I have never forgotten this. We sometimes get caught in the cycle of guilt or defiance against guilt, in the effort to resist the ugly past, so much so that we forget that we "simply" need to acknowledge what happened and express our remorse.

As a mestizo woman, I sometimes feel the warring between different parts of my own psyche--the dark and historic legacy of my Spanish ancestors, the presence of Navajo blood and the absence of any real experience of a Navajo community (as our native ancestry was subdued). I am learning to accept this warring as a fact of my body, blood, and psyche and trying to engage with this conflict by listening to myself and others as they reflect, probe, and grapple with the past. These undercurrents rumble beneath the streets of Santa Fe and it seems wise to acknowledge their movement.

I am talking, here, of some very first steps in what will be a long process, I hope, of building a future together as once warring peoples. We have made strides, yes (many would urge me not to be negative, to concentrate on the fact that people in Santa Fe live in relative peace). But we have all seen prejudice, anger, resentment, hurt reflected in the faces and words of our fellow citizens, have we not? Rather than turn away, we could lean forward and listen, stay with what might feel uncomfortable, unfair, wrong-headed, unfriendly. This is acknowledgment. This takes stamina. And, it might be the beginning of something "else."

Diversity, Understanding, and Reconciliation in Santa Fe

2008-08-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Diversity, Understanding, & Reconciliation in Santa Fe
Valerie Martínez, Santa Fe Poet Laureate
©2008

Yesterday, as I drove to the College of Santa Fe, I realized that I almost always take the same route from home to office, so much so that my head leans left and right, forward and back, and so habitually that the path must be ingrained into muscles of my body. On the way, I see the same daily bicyclers and morning runners, the same train tracks, the same horizon of townhouses on Zia Road. At work my days are routine, for the most part, and I interact with many of the same people each day.

Last spring, I did things differently. Each Friday and Saturday, I traveled to Cuba, Torreon, and Ojo Encino, New Mexico to collaborate with public school students and a large group of community residents. Twice a week, eight artists from Santa Fe and Albuquerque (part of a Littleglobe, Inc. team) traveled to the Cuba area to partner with “ordinary people” to create art. To get there, I crossed several county lines and drove through some of New Mexico’s most magnificent landscapes—lizard-shaped earth formations in red and brown, pale-beige mesas, the unfolding llano. In the process, I crossed all sorts of invisible lines, too.

Cuba is a town of 9,000 with a largely Hispanic/Norteño population. Even so, Cuba High School, where we worked on Friday mornings, is about 80% Navajo, serving the outlying areas—Torreon, Counselor, Ojo Encino—and their largely Navajo populations. On Saturdays, we gathered with 45 people across the geographical, socio-economic, ethnic, and generational lines that usually divide us. There were children ages 6-11, high school students, 20-30-somethings, and others aged 40-80. We were/are White, Navajo, Hispanic/Norteño, Pueblo, Irish, Black, Japanese-American, and Mixed-Blood/Mestizo. Most have lived in the area for their entire lives. Many moved to the area many years ago. At the beginning of the project, few knew each other well.

It’s safe to say that every one of us, in this gathering, had taken a risk to be together. And it was intimidating, sometimes. I felt the force of history upon me, both pride in my Spanish

ancestry and the historical reality of Spanish oppression and violence. I felt embarrassed, sometimes, when I answered a Spanish-speaking native in my half-fluent Spanglish. I was afraid to offend the Navajo elders in the group, not knowing enough about Navajo etiquette. I made mistakes.

But, with time, fellowship did happen. We sat next to each other, ate together, sang, painted, wrote, laughed. After a couple of months, we began to have conversations about some of the historical and contemporary tensions and issues that divide us. After several months, we began to understand each other. It wasn’t something we could rush; we had to give each other time.

Back home in Santa Fe, I see that we, too, are struggling with the invisible lines of language, culture, socio-economics, ethnicity, and history that separate us. We grow increasingly diverse and, often, increasingly separate. We sometimes feel like strangers to each other, in our own home town. At the least, we feel isolated; at the most, hostile.

Because of this, and because Santa Feans often talk to me about their desire to bring our community together, we are going to have to take some risks. We need to step off the beaten path, walk across invisible lines, and spend some time with people we don’t know. It will be intimidating. We will make mistakes. It will take time. But I believe this is the first step in moving our complex, deeply-layered, and diverse city toward fellowship, understanding, and reconciliation. Si se puede.

This essay first appeared in Spanish in La Voz de Nuevo Mexico.

Poet Laureate Community Outreach Project

2008-08-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

LINES AND CIRCLES:
A CELEBRATION
OF SANTA FE FAMILIES

A Project of the City of Santa Fe Poet Laureate Program
Valerie Martínez, Poet Laureate 2008-2010

Description of Project:

This project will gather three generations of 10-15 individual Santa Fe families to compose/create a unique family “work” (story, short film, photograph, woodwork, quilt, sculpture, pottery, recording, etc.). The families will represent the rich diversity of the Santa Fe community--ethnically, socio-economically, historically, etc. The families will work inter-generationally, with the Poet Laureate and (periodically), in company with each other. The works may reflect the family name, family history, or simply the inter-generational collaboration that happens during the project. In some cases, assistance for the families may come from local artists (documentarians, filmmakers, artists, etc.) as necessary. Each work will also be accompanied by a poem. The poem may be collaboratively written--authored by the family members and Poet Laureate--or the Poet Laureate may compose the poem for the family, depending on the family’s wishes. The finished pieces will constitute an exhibit entitled “Lines & Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families” to be presented to the city, other New Mexico communities, and (possibly) other U.S. cities. The title “Lines & Circles” refers to the idea of family lines as well as the circular nature of communities working together.

Goals:

To actively engage the Poet Laureate with her community in the collaborative creation of art and poetry of significance to Santa Fe
To raise awareness of the power of poetry and the spoken word to build and celebrate community
To encourage positive relationships within families and between families
To foster a sense of shared community
To encourage meaningful and creative dialogue
To reflect the rich family life and community of Santa Fe
To generate a body of art and poetry that commemorates the life of Santa Fe

Duration:

March 2008-March 2010

Tentative Timeline:

March-July 2008 Call for participation by Santa Fe families—ads in newspapers, flyers
in schools, libraries, community centers, and elsewhere.
March-October 2008 Poet Laureate & Arts Commission arrange for a local museum, gallery, or public arts space to host the exhibition and schedule meeting venues
July 2008 Deadline for “application” by families
July/August 2008 First meeting of Santa Fe families with poet laureate & Arts Commission
representatives. Introductions, presentation of project and schedule,
discussion, socializing.
August-Sept. ’08 Poet Laureate and Arts Commission work with families on ideas
November 2008 Family ideas due, along with a list of needs and materials assessments
Oct. ’08-Feb. ’09 Poet Laureate and Arts Commission gather materials, volunteers, resources, and work with families.
March 2009 Second families meeting and working session
April-August 2009 Families continue work on project and meet, individually, with Poet Laureate
September 2009 Third families meeting to share works-in-progress
December 15, 2009 Deadline for completed projects, including poems
Jan.-Feb. 2009 Creation/Construction of Exhibit
February/March ‘09 Public Exhibition

Poet Laureate Readings and Events

2008-08-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

POET LAUREATE PUBLIC READINGS AND EVENTS (as of 8/14/08)
Valerie Martínez, 2008-2010

DATE READING/APPEARANCE/EVENT

3/10/08 Santa Fe City Counselors and Judges Swearing-In Ceremony, Lensic Theater
4/2/08 Panel: “Sibling Rivalries: Spoken and Written Word Poetry and the Literary
Tug of War,” College of Santa Fe
4/5/08 Poem-Palooza 2008 (a celebration of poetry in all its forms) Greer Garson
Theater, 7 p.m., Santa Fe
5/6/08 School Visit, English Classes: Monte del Sol Charter School, Santa Fe
5/14/08 Reader and Brief Talk, Mentorship Program: Monte del Sol Charter School, College of Santa Fe
6/16/08 Poetry & Jazz, Counter Culture Café, 7:30 p.m. (with the SW Jazz Orchestra)
6/21/08 Interview: OnWord, Talk Radio, with Alaina Alexander, Los Angeles, 3:30 p.m.
7/9/08 “Metamorphosis: Bookmaking and Poetry,” A Workshop for Teens, Southside Library
8/30/08 Noon: Women’s Focus Radio Program, KUNM
Evening: Fundraiser for the Poet Laureate Program, hosted by Sallie Bingham
9/2/08 Celebration for the Poet Laureate and the 20th Anniversary of the College of
Santa Fe Creative Writing Program
9/13/08 Grand Opening of the New Railyard Complex, Santa Fe, 1-3:30 p.m.
9/14/08 STIR: A Festival of Words, workshop “Integrating Poetry Into Life,” Harwood
Arts Center, Albuquerque
9/15/08 American Cancer Societies Cancer Action Network (CAN) Bus Event
9/23/08 Santa Fe Opera Big Read Event, North 4th Arts Center (Albuquerque), 7 p.m.
9/25/08 Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA)—Santa Fe, Reading, 7 p.m.
9/27/08 Workshop: International Conference on Creative Tourism, Santa Fe
10/2/08 Meeting of the Lines and Circle Families
11/3/08 Breakfast with O’Keeffe, 8:30 a.m., Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
11/18/08 Workshop: Georgia O’Keeffe and the Art of the Self-Image, 7-9 p.m.
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
2/13/09 Panel Moderator: Associated Writing Programs Annual
Conference, Chicago: “Sibling Rivalries: Spoken & Written Word Poetry and the
Literary Tug-of-War,” with Jon Davis, Danny Solis, Jill Battson, Michelle Holland,
and Gabe Gomez
2/14/09 Panel: Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, Chicago: “Women
Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections”

Please re-visit this site for updates to the above list of events and readings.

Valerie Martinez Named Santa Fe Poet Laureate

2008-08-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

News Flash

Valerie Martinez Named Santa Fe Poet Laureate for 2008-2010

The City of Santa Fe Arts Commission has named poet, playwright, essayist, teacher and community artist Valerie Martinez as the City of Santa Fe’s new Poet Laureate.

Valerie Martínez’s first book of poetry, Absence, Luminescent, won the Larry Levis Prize and a Greenwall Grant from the Academy of American Poets. Her second book, World to World was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2004. Martinez’s poetry, translations, and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines as well as many anthologies of contemporary poetry.

Martinez is the city’s second Poet Laureate, taking the reigns from Poet Laureate Arthur Sze whose term is now complete. Not wasting any time, Martinez’s first public appearance as Poet Laureate was at the Inauguration Ceremony for newly elected City officials on March 10, 2008.

The Poet Laureate program of the Santa Fe Arts Commission, established in 2005, strives to promote a meaningful poetic presence as part of the diverse cultural fabric of the city. This is an honorary position given to a person who has established a presence in the world of poetry, has demonstrated a commitment to and passion for poetry, and embraces the opportunity to engage in civic discourse.

The objectives of Santa Fe’s Poet Laureate Program are to:

• Enhance the presence of literary arts in Santa Fe. • Create a focal point for the expression of Santa Fe’s culture through the literary arts. • Contribute to the continued growth of the individual Poet Laureate. • Raise awareness of the power of poetry and the spoken word. • Provide a forum for cross pollination of art forms. • Celebrate the spirit of the people and the special qualities of our city. • Create a unique program that will become a model for other cities. • Create, over a period of time, a body of work that commemorates the life of our city.
Funding for the Poet Laureate Program has been established through the Santa Fe Literary Education Fund, an endowment at the Santa Fe Community Foundation.

VALERIE MARTINEZ BIOGRAPHY:

Martínez has a B.A. in English from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Poetry from The University of Arizona. She has taught at the University of Arizona, Ursinus College, New Mexico Highlands University, University of New Mexico, and in the rural schools of Swaziland. Martinez is currently Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing and Director of Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of Santa Fe.

Her books include Absence, Luminescent; World to World; A Flock of Scarlet Doves; and Reinventing the Enemy's Language.

An excerpt from Martínez's new work, “Each and Her” (a book-length poem) is forthcoming in The American Poetry Review (APR), Mandorla, and JUNTA: Contemporary Avant-Garde Poetry by Latino/a Writers. Her essay about Joy Harjo (along with poems by Harjo and Martínez) currently appears in the anthology “Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections” (University of Iowa Press, 2007).

For more information about the work of Valerie Martinez, please visit her Website: http://www.valeriemartinez.net.