Thanks to a grant from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry and the support of NMLA as the fiscal agent for the grant, Michelle Holland organized a Poetry Immersion Week at McCurdy High School in Espanola, April 22-26.  Students in Davita Ritchie and Thomas Ashman’s English classes had the opportunity to work with Rosalia Triana, Joan Logghe, Hakim Bellamy, and me for the week in order to prepare to present their poems at a public reading at the Espanola Library on Friday, April 26. Sixteen student poets performed their poetry to an audience of family, fellow students, teachers, and other supportive members of the community, including the principal of McCurdy, and Steve Schwartz, the director of the Witter Bynner Foundation grant program.

The poets who are working with the students during the week represent the best of contemporary New Mexico poetry.  Hakim Bellamy is currently the Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, and a former member of a couple of slam teams that have made the national stage.  His first book of poetry, Swear, was just published by West End Press.  Joan Logghe is a former Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, and a long-time resident of La Puebla.  Her most recent books are The Singing Bowl, University of New Mexico Press which was a finalist in three book awards, and Love & Death: Greatest Hits with Miriam Sagan and Renée Gregorio, Tres Chicas Books, which won a New Mexico Book Award. Rosalía Triana is a New Mexican-born theatre artist with a Master’s Degree in Teatro Chicana/o, and is co-founder of Española’s MainStreet Theatre.  As director of the Theatre Program at NNMC, she specialized in directing plays by Chicana/o artists, emphasizing the poetic nature of Latino writing.  And soon, MainStreet Theatre will continue with this work!! 

 Michelle Holland lives, writes, gardens, and runs in Chimayo, New Mexico.  Her books include the collection “Event Horizon,” included in The Sound a Raven Makes (Tres Chicas Press), and Chaos Theory (Sin Fronteras Press).  She is the treasurer of the New Mexico Literary Arts (NMLA) board, one of the poetry editors of the Sin Fronteras Journal, and an active member of the board of New Mexico CultureNet.  She currently teaches English at Los Alamos High School.

Don McIver is on a roll.

Last Poet Standing
By Don McIver

In Amiri Baraka’s review of Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, I was struck by not only the vitriol, but how he was making a similar argument that I had made a few years ago during my review of In Company: An Anthology of New Mexico Poets After 1960.  Lacking the vitriol, I took the editors to task for trying to be inclusive but missing what was happening outside the Academy.   Similarly, Baraka argues that the Black Arts Movement had not gotten the attention it deserved in this anthology.  On the purpose of the movement he writes, “We wanted it to be a mass art, not hidden away on university campuses. We wanted an art that could function in the ghettos where we lived. And we wanted an art that would help liberate Black people.”  Baraka’s review, “A Post-Racial Anthology?,” basically makes an argument I find all too common in poetry circles:  poets aren’t inclusive enough in describing the history/importance of poetry and what they define as poetry.  

- See more at: http://newmexicomercury.com/blog/comments/the_last_poet_standing#sthash.qPdnGHeN.dpuf
http://newmexicomercury.com/blog/comments/the_last_poet_standing

Great think piece by Don McIver online at New Mexico Mercury--

"When I first started producing poetry shows, this was my format:  in a two hour block, I had 5 poets read for two sets of 10 minutes each with a 15-20 minute break between.   It worked, or at least the feedback from the poets was that it worked.  As the show (dubbed “Don McIver & Friends” by the venue) progressed I kept noticing that I would lose audience at the break.   So I adjusted to a 12 minute set and an 8 minute set but people still split at the break.   For a variety of reasons, after 3 years, I switched from the above format to the traditional 2 hour Open Mike-Feature-Slam format and we kept going until the venue went out of business.  When I switched to the new format a lot of the audience left at that break too.  To be honest, not everybody left at break, but enough people left that I tinkered with the schedule.   If given a break, many of the audience would leave after about an hour.  Recently I realized that I had been asking the wrong question when I asked, “How can I hold on to them longer so they hear more poetry before leaving?”  When I should’ve been asking, “Why are they leaving after about an hour?”  . . . "

read more at: newmexicomercury.com/blog/comments/a_spoonful_of_cinnamon_poetry_is_better_in_doses

The Southwest Book Fiesta
Albuquerque Convention Center, Southeast Hall
May 10-12, 2013

The first Southwest Book Fiesta will be in the Southeast Hall of Albuquerque Convention Center on Mother’s Day weekend, May 10-12, 2013. In addition to the trade area of booths and tables, the floor will also have a stage that will feature talks by well-known authors and cooking demonstrations by cookbook authors. In the breakout rooms adjacent to the Southeast Hall, there will be three rooms devoted to presentations by authors and publishers: Author Readings, Publishing Seminars, and Writing Seminars. This will be a true family activity to celebrate books and reading.

Show management is handled by Sunbelt Shows. the producer of the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show, the largest food show in New Mexico for 25 years, partnering with Local iQ magazine.

Net proceeds from the event will be donated to literacy groups and non-profit organizations devoted to books, media, and learning. In addition to over the author and publisher vendors, author readings, and special author events we will feature exhibitors devoted to other media such as graphic novels, comics, films, videos, blogs, and social media groups.

La Alameda Press, plus around 200 exhibitors, and a Poet Laureate panel with Joanne Bodin

New Mexico Literary Arts has been around for awhile, but we just haven't gotten around to having a website until now. We will begin posting news and events as we get them—or create them!

Originally granted 501(c)3 status as the Poetry Center of New Mexico, the board of that organization threw in the towel. In 1997, a meeting was held with numerous poets and small press people as to what to do next. Consequently a new board of directors was formed as New Mexico Literary Arts.

There has been a lot of activity over the years and various incarnations with every board constellation. Each member of each board has themselves produced many literary/visual art shows, readings, forums, workshops, small press faire, and participation in events from north to south. As an organization, we have successfully collaborated to co-create the kinds of projects that fulfill our goals, if not our desires. We also act as a fiscal agent for many other organizations. We like poetry in particular, but firmly believe that “art saves lives” so we strive to interact in fresh ways with creative projects of many stripes and persuasions.

All of us on the current board have been around the poetry scene in New Mexico for a long time. We know who does what and what happens because of grassroots passion and community idealism. We have tremendous enthusiasm for dedicated people willing to do the work to make things happen, holding things together, and making a potent and viable contribution to the literary arts and cultural
community of New Mexico. We would like to hear from others around the state who we may not know, or would like to know better. Please contact us with your own news and events so that we may post the information.