Quartocentenario Celebration of Santa Fe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.