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.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Del Sol Quartet, 7:30 Thursday, September 16, Lensic
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.
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.
Friday, September 4, 2009
VIVA Event, Lines & Circles Families
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.
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.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Mark Your Calendars--January 15, 2010
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.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Reading at the National Book Festival, September 26, 2009
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
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
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Ignatius Mabasa, Zimbabwean Poet, in Santa Fe on July 30th
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
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
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.
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.
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