Local Kansas City Poetry & Arts Scene

• Friday, October 2, 2009 - 7 pm - Poet Richard Newman will read from his new book Domestic Fugues (Steel Toe Books, 2009). The reading at  the Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania -Kansas City, Missouri.
• Saturday, October 3, 2009 – 1pm -  African American poet Kimberly Britton reads from newly published work.  Kansas City Public Library, Southeast Branch, 6242 Swope Parkway, Kansas City, Missouri.
• Wednesday October 7, 2009 – Noon - WORKSHOP @ THE LANDON CENTER ON AGING -3599 Rainbow Blvd, Kansas City, Kansas. Free to those 55 and older. "Improve Your Mental Health Through Writing" will be taught by Maril Crabtree.  Call 913-588-3094 to register.
• Friday, October 9, 2009 – 8 pm - Pamela Garvey and Carl Bettis  Riverfront reading series at the Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Missouri
• Friday, October 9, 2009 –6:30 – 8:00 pm - Art Walk Poetry featuring Glenn North at the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library, 625 Minnesota, Kansas City, Kansas.
• Wednesday, October 12, 2009 5:30 pm - Billy Collins, Former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads at Kansas State University, K-State Alumni Center Ballroom, Manhattan, Kansas.  Contact Elizabeth Dodd, Department of English for details. Tele:785-532-6716.
• Friday, October 16, 2009 – 7 pm - Caryn Mirriam Goldberg, Kansas Poet Laureate -  reads at Border's Books, 91st & Metcalf, Overland Park, Kansas – contact Border's  @ 913-642-3642.
• Sunday, October 18, 2009 8 pm - MAIN STREET RAG
  Hosted by Shawn Pavey with poet Christina Pacosz reading. Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania -Kansas City, Missouri.
• Tuesday, October 20, 2009 7 pm - Poets Brian Daldorph and Bill Bauer at  Writers Place Poetry Reading Series @ THE JOHNSON COUNTY LIBRARY - 9875 W. 87th, Overland Park, Kansas.
• Thursday, October 22, 2009 Reception 6 pm & reading 7 pm - Robert Pinsky  guest of the Midwest Poets Series. Poet laureate of the United States from 1997-2000; Rockhurst University, 54th Street and Troost, Kansas City, Mo.  Admission to Midwest Poets Series is $3.  No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
• Monday, October 26, 2009 - 8:00 pm Wriiters Place Open Mic
  Hosted by Sharon Eiker - Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania -Kansas City, Missouri.
• Saturday, October 31, 2009 - 10:00 am- 1:00 pm
  The Art of Poetry - This workshop is intended for beginners and others interested in hearing, writing, talking about, and understanding the beauty of poetry. Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania -Kansas City, Missouri.

Special Exhibits -  Keltie Ferris: Man Eaters  At Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art- October 23, 2009–February 13, 2010

Keltie Ferris is a post digital painter, employing formalist strategies and materials—oil, acrylic, sprayed paint, and oil pastel—to create enigmatic and visually seductive abstractions.

The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art -   American Art on Paper: Impressions of the Southwest and Mexico  October 14, 2009— April 11, 2010

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Thought for the Day

Saints have no moderation, nor do poets, just exuberance. ~ Anne Sexton

 

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Around the Net This Week

A few things that I found on the internet this week. Some are in the humorous category. Others I found interesting in a variety of ways.  Things I liked, things I learned from, etc.  Anyway, if you missed any of these, then you might want to check them out.

• Death by Bananas.  I found this nifty piece of work by Daniela Edburg on The Big Window. This falls mostly under my Humor Department.  You’ll find a link on The Big Window to a host of other photos by Edburg in a whole “Death By” series.  I was struck by these because they remanded me of some interesting photo shoots that one of my daughters did in college.
• Maya Ganesan it seems, is no average 12 year old writer. Her book Apologies to an Apple (actually written at age 11) is highlighted in a virtual book/blog tour by poet Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Small Knots on her blog Book of Kells.  While I’ve not read Maya’s book yet I hope to. Small Knots I have read, and reread and count among my favorites.
• Joannie Stangeland offers an interest pictorial of fall grape harvest for those like me who enjoy wine. Check out Crushed. Umm…  I’ll have a glass of Chardonnay, thank you!
• Pigs in JPs!!!!  Yes.  This clip is adorable. Thanks Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Technorati Tags: Aimee Nezhukumatathil,Joannie Stangeland,Kelli Russell Agodon,Daniela Edburg,Maya Ganesan

I did the “S” word!

It’s cool here today. Not unpleasantly so, but it is a sign of things to come.

I made a pot of chili for lunch. It seemed like a good day for it.

I’ve read today, written, and yes, the “S” word.  That would be submitted material least you think it is something more adventuresome.  Over the past year, I’ve taken to considering it a burdensome task. It wasn’t that way always, but it has become my least favorite part of writing poetry.

In looking through my material I realized I need to better organize it. By that I mostly mean review my material and decide it some of it perhaps needs to go back into the work folder. I do have a few things that I’ve been sitting on that perhaps are really ready.  I just don’t like to rush them off.

I brought some work home from the office as well this weekend and I really ought to tackle on of those projects tonight… then I won’t have so much to do tomorrow.

I got eaten up on the deck this afternoon, sitting with the dogs. I fear tonight will be a Benadryl night.

Off to make espresso!   My earlier one got pitched while it was cooling down.

Anne Sexton – Early Writing Success

Anne Sexton’s public persona was not unlike that of Sylvia Plath’s. Both were women who seemed to be transfixed by 1950’s mores. Both had histories of mental instability. Both were poets. Both ultimately took their own lives. The final writings of both might well have foretold their suicides.

Plath’s mother saw to it that Sylvia had an academic background.  This is where the two differ. Anne was not interested in pursuing an academic path, she did attend finishing school and for a short period of time was a fashion model.

Sexton married at the age of 19 and following the birth of her first daughter required hospitalization for postpartum depression.  The birth of her second daughter heightened her depression and it was at the nudging of her therapist that she began to write.

What I find particularly impressive about Anne Sexton is that in 1956 Anne saw a program on educational television, “How to Write a Sonnet.” After Christmas Anne unveiled her first sonnet to her mother, knowing her mother had suffered an unfulfilled literary dream and would likely be a fierce critic.

In September of 1957, she enrolled in a poetry workshop at a Boston adult education center. She met the poet Maxine Kumin there. She would forge a lifelong relationship with Kumin that resulted in routine workshopping of poems by both as well as a deeply personal friendship.

By Christmas of 1957 Anne presented he mother with a stack of poems written and rewritten over the previous year. During 1959 she submitted poems with tremendous success to top flight lit magazines. Poems were taken by The Hudson Review, The New Yorker, The Christian Science Monitor, and in April of 1959, signed a contract to publish her first book, To Bedlam and Part Way Back.

According to Anne Sexton a Self-Portrait in Letters, I learned that on her 1960 Joint Income Tax forms with her husband, she listed herself as “Poet” and it would clearly seem that she had earned the right do so, taking an incredible and unconventional path to success as a poet. 

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National Punctuation Day

My wife called to my attention that today is National Punctuation Day.

It was created in 2004 by writer "Jeff Rubin"-- after he was annoyed by improper use of punctuation. This morning-- we've got three pieces of punctuation you might not have heard of. First -- this mark -- the asterism. It is used to call attention to a passage or to separate subchapters in a book. Next is the "irony mark". It looks like a backwards question mark -- it was supposed to be used to indicate when something should be taken ironically-- but it never really caught on. Last up -- the "interrobang". It's intended to combine the question mark and the exclamation mark. By the way -- we have more on national punctuation day -- including a recipe contest to celebrate -- at kmbc.Com -- under news links.  Or just click here –> National Punctuation Day

 

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Tug of Time

The week is knotted,
the ends pulling each
against the other.

Time stops to watch.