The New Mexican’s Weekly Magazine of Arts, Entertainment & Culture
January 10, 2014
the poetry issue
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THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN
January 10 - 16, 2014
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On the cOver 19 Meter made: the poetry issue It’s time to dump the need to understand poetry and the notion that it’s quaint and stodgy. Curated by staff writer Bill Kohlhaase, this special issue on the local poetry scene wants you to enjoy poetry in the same way you enjoy music, dance, painting, film, and all the arts — for what it says, for its craft, for its beauty. Here’s who to read, where to go, and what to listen for in our poetry-rich town; everything but how to understand. On the cover is Susan York’s The Unfolding Center no. 5 from 2012.
BOOKS and talKS
MOvIng IMageS
11 In Other Words Haiku in English 12 Bryan Stevenson A Lannan event
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MUSIc 14 listen Up Poetry and music
calendar
POetrY 20 22 24 26 30 32 33 34 36 37 38 40 42 44
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embrace the hmmmm Jon Davis Found in translation Malena Mörling From the center of self Joanne Dominique Dwyer collaboration Arthur Sze & Susan York Forged in pain Jimmy Santiago Baca an opener of the heart Henry Shukman Up her sleeve Valerie Martínez Poetic justice Witter Bynner experience the sensual Carol Moldaw to the barricades Tony Hoagland rhythm section Add-Verse educators Miriam Sagan, Joan Logghe, Dana Levin Poetry sampler A selection Bards of a feather Poets flock to New Mexico
PaSatIeMPO edItOr — KrIStIna Melcher 505-986-3044, kmelcher@sfnewmexican.com
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art director — Marcella Sandoval 505-986-3025, msandoval@sfnewmexican.com
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assistant editor — Madeleine nicklin 505-986-3096, mnicklin@sfnewmexican.com
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chief copy editor/Website editor — Jeff acker 505-986-3014, jcacker@sfnewmexican.com
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associate art director — lori Johnson 505-986-3046, ljohnson@sfnewmexican.com
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calendar editor — Pamela Beach 505-986-3019, pambeach@sfnewmexican.com
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StaFF WrIterS Michael abatemarco 505-986-3048, mabatemarco@sfnewmexican.com James M. Keller 505-986-3079, jkeller@sfnewmexican.com Bill Kohlhaase 505-986-3039, billk@sfnewmexican.com Paul Weideman 505-986-3043, pweideman@sfnewmexican.com
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cOntrIBUtOrS loren Bienvenu, laurel gladden, Peg goldstein, robert Ker, Jennifer levin, robert nott, Jonathan richards, heather roan-robbins, casey Sanchez, Michael Wade Simpson, Steve terrell, Khristaan d. villela
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PrOdUctIOn dan gomez Pre-Press Manager
The Santa Fe New Mexican
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Robin Martin Owner
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and 6 Mixed Media 9 Star codes 56 restaurant review: atrisco café & Bar
corrections In Pasatiempo’s Dec. 27 issue, we mentioned chef Kim Müller’s past association with Fast Food Nation; we meant Real Food Nation. In the magazine’s Jan. 3 issue, we described master potter Margaret Tafoya as an artist of traditional basketry.
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Pasatiempo is an arts, entertainment & culture magazine published every Friday by The New Mexican. Our offices are at 202 e. Marcy St. Santa Fe, nM 87501. editorial: 505-986-3019. e-mail: pasa@sfnewmexican.com
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The Screen at 15 Looking to the future as much as to the past, The Screen celebrates its 15th anniversary on Friday, Jan. 10. When the uniplex opened in 1998 on the campus of the College of Santa Fe (now home to the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive), seating was limited to 20 folding chairs inside a production soundstage. Today The Screen can accommodate 165 spectators, and it boasts a new state-of-the-art digital projector. Below, scenes from The Palm Beach Story
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
The Screen founder and curator Brent Kliewer will be on hand to share anecdotes and lore from the early days to the present. He said visitors can look forward to guest talks by Ali MacGraw (of Goodbye, Columbus and Love Story fame), Godfrey Reggio (director of Koyaanisqatsi), and Pasatiempo’s Jonathan Richards, in addition to “a big cake.” A special screening of Preston Sturges’ 1942 screwball comedy The Palm Beach Story follows the talks. Kliewer explained, “Sturges is one of my favorite directors, and it brings us to something that we focused on for our first 15 years, which is showcasing classic titles. Now with our new [digital projector] we’re going to bridge the gap — it’s a tip of the hat to the past and a tip to the future.” The event begins at 7 p.m. and costs $10. Advance tickets and details are available at www.thescreensf.com or by calling 505-473-6494. — Loren Bienvenu
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We’re right in the middle of a three-year astrological period of radical societal changes, but the planetary assignment this week is to look at what we need to save, preserve, and strengthen. This week, Venus and the sun want to know as they conjunct in industrious Capricorn and sextile taciturn, industrious-making Saturn. Our ambitions whisper to us. Organization becomes an art form, and professional development moves ahead. Although we can be romantic, we may have little spare time to show it unless we work together. If we don’t like our work, or don’t have access to sustaining work, it’s a good week to try and change the situation. The news buzzes with employment issues and minimum wage. Let’s look at our habits and personal disciplines — how we eat, work out, and practice our craft. If our inner critical voice berates us for not having done enough, let’s refocus. Friday begins steadily industrious. The mood grows more sociable over the weekend under the Gemini moon. On Saturday, Mercury enters Aquarius and encourages us to be open-minded, but stubborn if directly opposed. Early next week a refreshing irreverence can help us ask tough questions and make sure we’re on the right track. At midweek the mood is introverted and self-protective under a full moon in sensitive Cancer. Thursday, if our inner adolescent gives us a quick tour of our usual emotional complications, let’s forgive ourselves and make mature choices.
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Friday, Jan. 10: The mood is steady, competent, and literal; don’t bother discussing theory. Work is clearly laid out. Keep a steady rhythm and we will accomplish things; when we’re at rest, we tend to remain at rest under a comfort-loving Taurus moon. Familiarity and coziness help tonight; review the week kindly as the moon opposes Saturn. Saturday, Jan. 11: We may want to be cozy this morning, but we can be industrious once we leave our cocoon. The mood grows more versatile and collaborative as the moon enters talkative Gemini tonight. Sunday, Jan. 12: We want to know why we do what we do. Social obligations bring up important concerns. Discomfort forces us to take action as the Gemini moon trines Mars midday. Keep lines of communication open. Monday, Jan. 13: Don’t count on luck. Leave time for mistakes as the easily distracted Gemini moon makes a series of inconvenient aspects. Small things go awry but our deeper, intuitive connections sing. Tuesday, Jan. 14: We may be territorial and safety-oriented as the moon waxes in emotional and self-protective Cancer. We can get touchy, so stay warmhearted and save the constructive criticism for later. Share information and stay connected even if it feels exposed. Wednesday, Jan. 15: The mood is sensitive and subjective as the moon opposes Pluto. We can easily read inappropriate conclusions into our experience with Venus challenging illusory Neptune. If loss, or fear of loss, mobilizes us, make it constructive action. Although most people will be fine, there will be some crises in the next few days. Appreciate the solid ground underneath us. Thursday, Jan. 16: As Venus and Mars square off, we can do the same — preemptive attention and flirtation can prevent trouble. The moon in Leo brings us out of our shells. We easily take an adversarial stance or find we’re wrestling with internally conflicted feelings. Look for the root causes of the problem. ◀ www.roanrobbins.com
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Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, and Allan Burns, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 424 pages
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haiku in english pageturner That’s my haiku lauding two achievements of Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years. It refers first to the collection’s overview of the form’s century-long development among English-language writers. In that sense, English-language haiku has turned the page from the traditionally Japaneseonly genre. My three-liner also pays tribute to the book’s readability, the way most of the more than 800 poems provide a succulent mini-epiphany, which like ikura (salmon roe sushi) impels the reader to savor just one more pop. An introduction by Billy Collins provides the former U.S. poet laureate’s personal take on the history, character, and import of haiku in North America. We learn that Allen Ginsberg considered Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums to be a novel “of a thousand haiku,” that haiku’s invasion of America in the 1950s started what Collins calls the Great Seventeen-Syllable Debate (which still rages), and that “haiku is both easy and impossible to define.” Collins then does just that, praising the small poems’ enormous ability to startle, delight, and instruct, “an experience directly without commentary and with an immediacy not possible in longer poems.” Collins explores the inner workings of the form, including the “cutting word” (kire) and the “pivot” (kake kotoba), and claims, “The best haiku contain a moment in time caught in the amber of the poet’s attention ... out of which arise powerful moments of dazzling awareness.” The book’s second section contains the poems themselves, representing the work of some 200 seminal practitioners. They are presented without remarks, chronologically, beginning with what is widely considered the first fully realized haiku in English, written by Ezra Pound in 1913:
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IN A STATION OF THE METRO The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. Langston Hughes’ 1925 “Suicide’s Note” reads, “The calm,/Cool face of the river/Asked me for a kiss.” The form grows through time in innovative directions, with one-line, twoline, four-line, three-vertical-line, and organic forms. We encounter “eye-ku,” concrete haiku, and even one-worders (Cor van den Heuvel’s “tundra”). By the end, we’ve seen so many variations that one almost forgets the 5-7-5 nature sketch that is considered standard practice. General editor Jim Kacian notes that English-language haiku writing has undergone a “stylistic revolution that has become the norm today: shorter, sharper, with a minimum of adjectives and an emphasis on action.” Kacian’s essay “An Overview of Haiku in English” plumbs the intricacies of the form, calling it “a wide-ranging, emotive, capacious genre capable, in the right hands, of expressing anything a poet might wish to convey.” Kacian discusses the origins of English-language haiku; its first practitioners; its uptake by the Imagists, Beats, and beyond; its major anthologies and journals; the haiku community; and “outliers” who have made their reputations writing other forms. Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years is not just for the initiated. The general public will also find this a delightful, surprising read. As John Stevenson writes, “jampackedelevatoreverybuttonpushed.” — Wayne Lee
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Casey Sanchez I For The New Mexican
IN ALABAMA
To be brought up in a space that you are taught that you are better than other people because of your skin color is a pretty tragic thing to do to children. It will corrupt your worldview and it’s a lie, even though we sustained that lie, invested in it, and lived by it for decades. — Bryan Stevenson
AP photo/Rob Carr
ore than 50 years after the Montgomery bus boycott, the Birmingham church bombings, and the long march to Selma, Alabama remains ground zero for racial inequality when it comes to the criminal-justice system. The Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama nonprofit group, reports that on a per-capita basis, the state leads the nation in sending people to death row. Disproportionately black and poor, Alabama capital-case defendants are the only Americans whose judges can and routinely do override life-without-parole jury verdicts in favor of the death penalty. EJI also notes that the state’s death-row inmates are the only such prisoners in the country with no access to state-funded lawyers for legal assistance. That these facts are even known outside Alabama legal corridors is largely due to the organization, whose death-penalty work in the state has been instrumental in getting capital cases reversed after prosecutors were found to have illegally excluded blacks from juries. Another EJI investigation revealed that capital-case defendants are often provided with overworked and out-of-touch public lawyers who have on occasion “slept through parts of trials, shown up in court intoxicated, and failed to do any work at all in preparation for the sentencing phase.” EJI is headquartered in Montgomery, just blocks away from the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. pastored and organized in the late 1950s. (It is now known as the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church.) The organization works directly with clients and on a policy level to eliminate racial bias in the state’s court system. EJI seeks to change the social climate and limited racial understanding that make such bias prevalent. Its latest project is called A History of Racial Injustice.
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PASATIEMPO I ????????? ?? -??, 2013
Don Usner
“The period between Reconstruction and World War II I refer to as an era of terror, terrorism through lynching, violence, and abuses of power targeted toward African Americans,” said Bryan Stevenson, founder and director of EJI. “What we’re trying to do is recast the civil rights era, where it focuses less on its success and heroism and instead try to understand the humiliation endured and trauma inflicted on African American communities for decades.” In an event marking the 85th anniversary of King’s birth, Stevenson speaks at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, Jan. 15, as part of the Lannan Foundation’s In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom Series. Following his talk, criminal-justice journalist Liliana Segura leads Stevenson Liliana Segura and the audience in conversation. “I’m very interested in changing the way we talk about race in this country,” Stevenson said. “We’re trying to address that history of slavery, myths, and legacy it has created to this day. … What we have seen in South Africa and Rwanda is that you can’t overcome the past without a truth and reconciliation committee.” One of the teaching tools of the History of Racial Injustice project is a 12-month wall calendar on which historic moments pertaining to racial injustice — from the Dred Scott decision to the day of Trayvon Martin’s killing — are described in brief. Each month of the calendar comes with an image designed to pique interest and provoke dialogue. One is of 5-year-old Ruby Bridges walking under National Guard escort as the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school (in New Orleans). Another is of hundreds of enslaved men crammed together in an African prison awaiting transport on a slave ship. Where there is an image of a well-known figure, the incident tends to be less well-known, such as that captured in a 1955 photo of King being arrested and placed in handcuffs in Birmingham as his wife watches. “These images tell a very different story — they are images of a very different America,” Stevenson said. He said that across the United States, the project has provoked a welcome reaction from members of an older generation. “We’ve actually gotten quite moving reactions. … There are many people who feel they have been denied space to talk about things they grew up with, things they feel burdened with. It’s been very therapeutic for me, to make it acceptable to talk about the trauma, the pain, the anguish, separate from our death-penalty work and our work with children. The first thing that experts will tell you is that an individual’s experience of trauma is not about a person’s weakness or their fragility. It’s about the ugliness of the challenge they faced. It’s about being affirmed that something happened to them that should not have happened.” Stevenson does not believe blacks were the only ones who suffered before the civil rights era. “We have whites who were affected by this thinking too. My view is that to be raised, to be brought up in a space that you are taught that you are better than other people because of your skin color is a pretty tragic and difficult thing to do to children. It will corrupt your worldview, and it’s a lie, even though we sustained that lie, invested in it, and lived by it for decades. “We passed the civil rights movement, but we never had the difficult conversation about the pain and violence created by institutional racism. You have to have a place for understanding the ongoing basic human rights violations for people of color.” ◀
details ▼ Bryan Stevenson in conversation with journalist Liliana Segura, a Lannan Foundation in Pursuit of Cultural Freedom Series event ▼ 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15 ▼ Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. Francisco St. ▼ $6, $3 students & seniors; 505-988-1234, www.ticketssantafe.org
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LISTEN UP
James M. Keller
Poetry and music: ever the twain shall meet For centuries, poets and composers have been practically joined at the hip. In their pure forms, poems and musical compositions are entirely selfsufficient. Emily Dickinson can say “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” and readers don’t need a C-sharp or an E-flat to help them grasp the line. Of course, that hasn’t kept composers from providing exactly that; among the 20 or so art-song settings of that little poem, we find entries by such notables as Vincent Persichetti and Augusta Read Thomas. On the flip side, the instrumental pieces of the masters — sonatas, symphonies, chamber music — get by perfectly well outside the verbal realm, although we may be grateful nonetheless for the music appreciationist Sigmund Spaeth, who fitted mnemonic rhymes to the themes of such otherwise textless musical monuments (“Beethoven still is great/In the symphony he numbered eight ...”). Indeed, Beethoven himself crossed the verbal divide, if not in the symphony he numbered eight then at least in the symphony he numbered nine, with its famous choral finale based on Schiller’s ode “An die Freude” (To Joy). Certainly Schiller’s hopeful verses clarify that Beethoven’s concluding symphony was conceived as an outcry in support of brotherhood and humanitarianism, a point that four soloists and a chorus can make more unambiguously than can a conglomeration of violins, clarinets, and trombones. Still, not everyone agreed unreservedly on this count. Consider Giuseppe Verdi’s remark, “The alpha and omega is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, marvelous in the first three movements, very badly set in the last.”
Manuscrip t images cou Bib lio th è q u e nationa rtesy le de Fran ce
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
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oetry and classical music most often overlap in the areas of opera (and related musical theater), oratorio (and other sacred genres), and art song, in which the one art form is supposed to intensify the impact of the other. It doesn’t always work out as intended. One recalls the observation of the 17th-century Sieur de Saint-Évremond: “Opera is a bizarre mixture of poetry and music where the writer and the composer, equally embarrassed by each other, go to a lot of trouble to create an execrable work.” The early-20thcentury maverick Erik Satie felt roughly the same way: “The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest. It is he who has invented the sublime art of ruining poetry.” Much though we cherish such prodigies of the epigram, the fact is that most composers exercise a great deal of care when setting poems. They tend to select their texts cautiously and craft musical lines to support the words with optimal sensitivity. It is perhaps surprising to note how infrequently composers double as their own wordsmiths. In the realm of musical theater, Wagner did, to be sure, and Boito and Sondheim; but they are rare exceptions in a field where composers and librettists almost always bring specialized skills to the task. In the domain of the art song, instances of a composer and lyricist coinciding in the same person are similarly atypical. Schumann, Brahms, Wolf — none of them ever wrote the poems they set in their lieder. Of Schubert’s approximately 600 songs, exactly one uses a text he verifiably penned, a song of farewell he jotted at the spur of the moment in the visitors’ album of a friend who was embarking on a trip. Ravel similarly did it only once; ditto Barber, who refrained from publishing that single effort. Debussy furnished seven examples, but that qualifies as a tiny fraction of his song catalog. Poulenc, a great aficionado of poetry, steered clear of self-setting entirely, but he showed finesse and acumen in picking poems for his songs. “The setting to music of a poem,” he wrote, “must be an act of love, never a marriage of convenience.” There are, however, a few cases in which the poet and the musician intersect in a single person. No doubt the most remarkable instance
M
achaut invented, or at least was decisive in shaping, the principal forms of medieval poetry — the ballade, the rondeau, the virelai — but more important still is that he was the first major French poet whose concerns were predominantly secular. Rather than trace familiar topics of divine reverence, he wrote what he felt. “Since I was not always in the same mood,” he declared, “I learned to compose chansons and lays, ballades, rondeaux, virelais, and songs according to how I felt about love and nothing else; because one who does not compose according to feelings falsifies his work and his song.” He showed self-awareness as a poet, and he worked with an eye cocked toward posterity. Late in life he gathered his lifework of music and poetry into continued on Page 16
Emma Brown
was Guillaume de Machaut (circa 1300-1377), who stands in the front rank of both composers and poets of the 14th century. It was not the easiest time to flourish in the arts, what with the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death and all that, but Machaut somehow managed to live a long and prosperous life. Born in or near Reims, in the Champagne region of France, he secured a clerk’s post in the court of John I “the Blind,” count of Luxembourg and king of Bohemia, who had named him his secretary by 1333. For more than two decades, Machaut accompanied the king on military campaigns — part of his responsibility involved reading to the king — and at the same time he was granted a series of canonic posts. After John was killed in the Battle of Crécy (“Let it never be the case that a Bohemian king runs,” the blind ruler was said to declare), Machaut went on to work for other aristocrats, including John’s daughter Bonne (who was swept off by the plague in 1349) and her sons; one of them was Jean de Berry, remembered today for commissioning the magnificent illuminated volume Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Machaut eventually settled into a sinecure at the Cathedral of Reims, basically a pensioned retirement that enabled him to concentrate on his poetry and music for the rest of his years. He was prolific in both fields. Almost no other composer of his century rivaled the quantity of his musical output, which included a famous Mass as well as some 140 songs and motets for solo singer or multiple voices. Apart from the Mass and sections of his motets, which follow prescribed Latin liturgical texts, all of these compositions seem to use his own poetry, written at a time when Middle French was coalescing as a widespread language. That’s a boon to anyone conversant with modern French, as it means a generous investment in hints and patience renders his words more or less accessible, analogous to how today’s English speakers approach Chaucer, who lived just a generation later.
Angus Smith
Going solo Although the polyphonic songs on Songs From Le Voir Dit are enchanting, the track I found myself revisiting most often was “Longuement me sui tenus,” the only monophonic song that figures in Le Voir Dit. It is a long (21-minute!) solo piece cast in the form of the lai, which was by Machaut’s day an old-fashioned throwback to the time of the trouvères, the northern French equivalents to the southern French troubadours. Writes the noted Machaut scholar Yolanda Plumley in the booklet: “These large-scale works were not just a challenge for the poetcomposer, but also for the (usually) solitary singer who performs them: stamina, control, and endurance is required to deliver the twenty-four unaccompanied stanzas, as well as expressive powers to engage the audience throughout this technical tour de force.” That is precisely what tenor Angus Smith accomplishes here. His spellbinding performance worthily suggests the unity of poetry and music that characterizes the art of Guillaume de Machaut, who was a master of both. — J.M.K.
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Listen Up, continued from Page 15 a manuscript collection, and the very last poem he wrote appears to have been his prologue to these collected works. A captivating new recording provides an entrée into the works of Machaut: Songs From Le Voir Dit, featuring the Orlando Consort (on the Hyperion label). Machaut wrote more than 40,000 lines of poetry, and much of this corpus is assembled into dits — “tales” — of which Le Voir Dit (“The True Tale”) is widely considered his masterpiece. It recounts what he claims is a true story: A man in his 60s, rich in fame and artistic repute, courts a 19-year-old high-born maiden, who puts him through many trials. Machaut enriches the narrative with what he claims are 60 actual love letters exchanged between the two, as well as 46 flirtatious poems and nine musical compositions. It all adds up to what is widely considered an “erotic autobiography,” if one that is embellished with what we would call poetic license. As such, it is the principal French contribution to a genre that also embraces medieval works from Germany (Ulrich von Liechtenstein’s Frauendienst of 1255), Italy (Dante’s La vita nuova, from 1295), and Spain (the Libro de buen amor, completed by Juan Ruiz in 1343). A British all-male quartet comprising countertenor, two tenors, and baritone, the Orlando Consort bows to no rivals when it comes to medieval polyphony, and we are happy to note that this new release is the first in what Hyperion plans as the group’s ongoing exploration of Machaut’s songs. It was a fine idea to begin with Le Voir Dit; since Machaut apparently wrote that work in 1363 or 1364, this is the 650th anniversary of its creation. Listeners who are unfamiliar with Machaut, or with 14th-century music in general, may find themselves confronting music that is bracing and exotic in how its harmonies and rhythms unroll. The several voices don’t always coincide in ways that modern ears expect. Voices can enter and drop out unexpectedly, and the music often advances with a stop-and-go gait that nonetheless grows hypnotic the more one listens. Of the pieces on this CD, one that Machaut particularly admired was the three-voice ballade “Ne que on porroit.” Sending it to his maiden, he praised its lower voices for being “as sweet as unsalted gruel” — really, he did — and begged her “to deign to hear it and get to know it just as it was made, without adding or omitting anything.” Paying attention to the poem and its English translation (both are provided in the CD booklet) helps draw modern listeners into this jeweled miniature of courtly love. Here is the ballade’s opening stanza, with a translation by R. Barton Palmer: Ne que on porroit les estoiles nombrer Quant on les voit luire plus clerement, Et les goutes de pluie et de la mer, Et la greve seur quoy elle s’estent, Et compasser le tour dou firmament, Ne porroit on penser ne concevoir Le grant desir que j’ay de vous veoir. No more than a man could number the stars When they are seen to shine so clearly, And the drops of water in rain and the sea, And the sands that make up its bed, Or map the stars in the firmament, Could anyone fathom or imagine The great desire I have to see you. ◀
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
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You’ve seen them.
But you may not have seen their need. Sometimes the people who need help the most are the most reluctant to ask. They aren’t standing on a street corner with a sign or by a car with its hood up on the side of the highway. They don’t run up to you at the supermarket and ask for rent money or for $60 to keep the heat on. Need doesn’t have a profile; it can look like any of us. Need can hide.
A season of hope. A time to share. For more than three decades , The Empty Stocking Fund has served as a critical safety net for those in our community experiencing a significant financial challenge during the holiday season. Consider making a donation today — either monetary or a special skill or service. Your contribution is so deeply appreciated by those who receive it and has lasting effects that ripple through our community. Read daily stories in The New Mexican featuring profiles of community members requesting assistance and updated Empty Stocking Fund donation tallies. 18
PASATIEMPO I January 10 - 16, 2014
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Bill Kohlhaase I The New Mexican
How to not understand poetry
W
ho decided you had to understand a poem to enjoy it? A high school teacher? That college English professor? How many of us have excused the fact that we don’t read contemporary poetry by saying we don’t understand it, as if getting it were key? But guess what — you don’t have to get it to get a laugh, feel the desperation and delight, or identify with other bits and pieces of a poem. In fact, you can’t understand poetry, not in any perfect way, just as you can’t completely understand a painting, an art film, or a piece of instrumental music. The whole idea of a single, agreed-on understanding of a poem does more harm than good by scaring people away. Poetry’s not a puzzle. It’s an experience. Other false clichés about poetry: it’s old, it’s quaint, it’s stodgy. Our grade school teachers introduced us to verse from long-dead writers. Shame on us if we ignore the numbers of great contemporary poets who speak to our times because of something Longfellow wrote. And when did we decide that reading poetry wasn’t entertainment? Was it sometime after the Beat era and before slam poetry? Poetry is visual art with your eyes closed. It requires no frame, no screen, no backdrop. It’s like music. It’s heard in the imagination. Like dance, it has movement. And as serious as poetry can be, it can also have a sense of humor. Sometimes it can be laugh-out-loud funny, if you’re paying attention. Chuckles come at our own expense. These questions and more came up last April in poet and Santa Fe resident Tony Hoagland’s piece “Twenty Little Poems That Could Save America,” which appeared in Harper’s. Hoagland champions the kind of education that would make poetry a valuable part of our culture rather than demonizing it with the curse of understanding, as has happened in the last few decades. We want our progeny to have the poetic advantage that we may not have had.
That doesn’t mean that those of us who were spoiled on poetry can’t come to love it. One gets engaged in poetry like one gets engaged with music or any of the arts. Find a poet you like. Find other work by the same poet. Find other poets that poet likes. Read the poems over and over. Read them out loud. You know the drill. Take it personally. Not understanding poetry doesn’t mean you avoid meaning. You might get plenty of it just by airing the words in your head. When Robinson Jeffers describes the tourists in “New Mexican Mountain” as “Pilgrims from civilization anxiously seeking beauty, religion, poetry;/pilgrims from the vacuum,” you know what they look like. You’ve seen them. Identifying with place is often a reward, especially when poets familiar with your terrain are writing about it. When Arthur Sze writes in “North to Taos,” “The aspen twig/or leaf will snap; bells in the wind,/and the hills obsidian,/as the stars wheeling halt;/ twig and bark curling in the fire/kindle clusters of stars,” you can see it. The places you don’t know? Poets bring them to life. Poetry is often about things, and often not the things you expect. When Jon Davis in “The Sound” describes “The sound of a hammer mollifies the dawn. The sound/of a hammer malleable in cold air. The sound of a hammer/ is a raven folding its wings falling into the valley meadow,” we can hear that hammer. But are we ready to accept? Are we ready to risk the leap required to hear the silence of that falling crow? This is one of the great rewards of poetry — taking the chance to accept what the poet says. The way they say it? Poets put words together in new ways or they make the plain-spoken sound musical. They describe things in different, surprising ways. When Valerie Martínez in “On Absence” writes, “The military jets are making parabolic moves against the blue again,” we wonder at those parabolas. There’s no understanding required. ◀
PASATIEMPOMAGAZINE.COM
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Jon Davis Embrace the hmmmm
Jane Phillips/The New Mexican
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
Jennifer Levin I For The New Mexican
T
he very first poem Jon Davis ever wrote was an imitation of “The Emperor of Ice-Cream” by Wallace Stevens, which is famously difficult to analyze for meaning, though people try. A lifetime later, Davis still has no idea what the poem means, and he doesn’t care. He thinks understanding is overvalued, while the pleasure one can experience reading a poem doesn’t get enough attention. “There was no reason for me ever to read ‘The Emperor of Ice-Cream,’” said Davis, who directs the low-residency master’s of fine arts program in creative writing at the Institute for American Indian Arts and serves as Santa Fe’s current poet laureate. “In high school, I avoided reading everything, and then I worked construction for seven years. We had almost no books in the house, but we had this anthology of verse — I remember it had a gold cover — and ‘The Emperor of Ice-Cream’ was in there. I fell in love with the words and the sounds in it. And then I wrote a terrible imitation of it because I’d torn my calf muscle and I didn’t have anything else to do.” From then he was off — reading, writing, studying, and eventually teaching poetry. To date, Davis has published three full-length books and four chapbooks of poetry. He also frequently writes poems that are published in literary journals under a variety of alter egos and pseudonyms, and he quotes these poets as if they were separate sentient beings. When asked whether he thinks it’s true that no one reads poetry anymore and all poets are basically writing for other poets, he said, “Chuck Calabreze has a joke about everyone in the audience of poetry readings being poets who just want to be seen and recognized.” Chuck Calabreze is Jon Davis, but Chuck’s been holding his own since the mid-1990s, performing his work around town and blogging about the state of poetry in America. Though they disagree on the purpose of poetry and what makes a good poem, Calabreze and Davis share a sense of humor. Trying to keep them on topic or get a straight answer out of either of them is a challenge. “Chuck also writes about people who clap after every poem,” Davis said. “If a poet is going to read for 45 minutes, does that mean you’re going to be there all night? In the slam tradition, you clap after every poem. If you have a page poet reading with a slam poet, you have page poets waiting until the end to clap and slam poets clapping after every poem — or hooting or snapping or whatever — and it creates a real difficult situation. Maybe that’s why more people don’t go to poetry read-
ings. Because of the disturbing audience behavior.” A “page poet” is what you will typically find in academic writing programs, though performance and slam poets, many of whom eschew formal writing training, do sometimes find their way to the hallowed halls. It’s been a challenge for many college and university creativewriting programs to figure out how to cultivate strong performance poets who are also eager to wrestle with language and depth. Twenty years ago at IAIA, Davis said, the work tended to be rife with clichés, but in the last decade, as Davis and other faculty members have pushed students to be more rigorous with themselves, the words are becoming more purposeful and less of an afterthought to the performance aspect. But what, if anything, can be done to get more people to read poetry? “We can turn everyone into poets; that’s one approach,” Davis said. “That’s maybe not the best approach. Probably it’s only the second-best approach.” He recalled that when he first got into poetry, everyone was blaming the modernists — T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, and Gertrude Stein among them — for being too difficult and ambitious with their language to be accessible to many readers, but that never really won him over as an argument because that difficulty was the reason he enjoyed poetry. (He notes that anyone reading David Foster Wallace has no excuse, from the standpoint of difficulty, for not reading poetry.) Now he thinks that students should stop being tested in school on their ability to analyze poems, since poems with the easiest answers on a worksheet are often the least interesting, the poems least likely to “approach the mystery” of where language can take us and how. “A lot of the poems I love, I have no idea what they’re about,” Davis said. “Subconsciously I have some emotional connection, but if I had to take a test on it, I would probably fail that test. But I don’t think I should have to take a test. I think if we’re trained to read in a certain way, we forget to notice our own reactions to the reading. Instead of paying attention to ourselves reading, there’s a goal of getting an answer, and that goal kind of ruins the experience.” Davis’ best advice for cultivating a taste in poetry is to go to a bookstore or library and read — to find one poem or poet you like and then let that lead you to other poems. Look at the work of poets who have written blurbs for books you like. Find poems that explain something to you or that leave you with an irrational, unsettled feeling. Davis calls the latter the “hmmmable” poems, a category name inspired by the sighs that
Larger than life
A poetry reading entertains imaginations
N
How the World Works Jon Davis Inside his head, the fragments collude: river of metal, river of sheen, eyes of a woman gone muddy like a southern river — flickering like time, all cohesion gone, ministering now to the chaos. The relief between the foldings, infoldings, where nuance meets grand scheme. Inside his head, where ends call out to causes, where dreams drive him downward first, into the subtonic, the slithering bass line, where misery tilts its porkpie and strides blithely down the October street of vendors with their fenced merchandise, their knockoff watches and CDs lined on the sidewalk. Then the bridge, quick modulation, then the solo, all technique where the fingers meet the keys, all life-falling-apart in the chest. A wail at the edge of musicality, sweetness, lover on your chest, all moment, all now with the light dying across the Hudson, dying, yes, but all now, you could see it that way, all now, the smell of her hair, her eyes big and hopeful, all now, then the sudden snarl of everything waiting, the sirens flaring below, the lights coming on against dusk, all the denials waking in the veins, in the nerves, the solo shrieking now, baby in pain and the chords keep changing keep churning underneath now he’s grappled his truck to the pillars now he’s revving the engine dropping the clutch now he’s tearing it all down angry child because he can’t have everything all the time forever — © 2010 Jon Davis
often erupt from the audience during poetry readings — a feature of readings that some people love but some hate. (According to Chuck Calabreze, W.S. Merwin is the most hmmm-able poet in America because his poems are short, Zen-influenced, and enigmatic.) “Enter poetry the same way you would enter jazz or classical music or bluegrass,” he said. “You find one thing you like and then follow the trail. I was so excited when I found poetry. It wasn’t about understanding it; it was about finding a whole new world.” ◀
ot all poetry readings compare to the now-famous October 1955 unveiling of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. Jack Kerouac, Michael McClure, Neal Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gary Snyder, among others, were in attendance. The crowd has been described as exuberant, with Kerouac hollering out “Go! Go!” the same way he’d encourage a saxophonist. Cassady reportedly passed a hat for the writers, and jugs of wine were passed as well. That moment transcended Beat history to become larger than life. Now we don’t think that every poetry reading or even the majority need to be boisterous, wine-sloshed affairs (though that can be fun too). But we do like it when poetry readings are larger than life. City of Santa Fe poet laureate Jon Davis’ Dec. 15 event at the Institute of American Indian Arts was a more solemn, meditative reading than the “Howl” affair, though there was some exuberance involved. The event was the second in Davis’ series of six readings by six poets. It was a mostly quiet, reverent look into others’ lives, aired in unexpected terms. Some 50 people attended in an upstairs, semicircular room with a stacked stone wall backing a podium with no microphone, a fact that made everyone listen more carefully. Chuckles, guffaws, quiet exclamations (“ah!”), and lengthy “hmmmms” often followed a poem’s last line. The laughs were of the sort that revealed a shared familiarity with the absurdity of life. Laughing or not, no one who was listening could escape the view beyond the normal horizons of our lives. It’s said that poetry is the most serious form of entertainment. But it doesn’t have to be. Nothing here was formal, stodgy, highbrow, or swirling out of the new age. Everything read entertained the imagination, which is something not all popular culture can claim. Many of the poems were on practical matters, and all employed insidious images and fast-talk metaphors that aimed to take up residence in our thinking. And they were entertaining. There were ritualistic airs: “We will go in alphabetical order with me last in the tradition I have created,” announced Davis. The gentleman next to me, hands in his lap, kept his eyes closed as if focusing until a poet finished. Then he would lift his head and scan the room as if looking for what had changed.
Lauren Camp, who’s combined music and poetry on different public radio shows, read about Ornette Coleman but also gave us a new word, dailiness, which includes everyday events like an ant invasion of your kitchen and is also the title of her recent collection. Camp reads her poems like she loves them. Her poems love her back. Her reading is rhythmic and offbeat and just a bit self-conscious, accents and sentence ends carefully considered. Joanne Dominique Dwyer’s poems were uncomfortably honest and disturbingly funny. She read her lines directly, without overt emphasis on the language. She took her rhythmic cues from punctuation, not line endings. She destroyed us with the opening lines of “In the Arms of Morpheus,” lines that exploit an innocent familial relationship to suggest generations of addiction and suffering. This is what poetry is for: showing us things we never before considered, things that carry strong social and emotional inference. Jamie Figueroa, who attends IAIA’s MFA program and teaches at the New Mexico School for the Arts, made us squirm a bit when she dedicated her poem to “anyone who has found love and lost it.” But then, with sharp images, she addressed the subject in a way that shames pop-music lyrics. She read deliberately, making it easy to hear the accents, in a style popular among today’s “paper poets,” those who write poems to be read rather than recited. Dg nanouk okpik, a graduate of IAIA recognized in 2013 with an American Book Award for her collection Corpse Well, brought the natural world of Alaska in touch with the natural world of Northern New Mexico. She invoked litany — “musk moth, ink, larvae” — and frequently beamed as she read. Arthur Sze read a poem on the comet Hyakutake and somewhere along the way asked, “Who knows the mind of a watermelon?” Finally, there was Davis himself, riffing on Thelonious Monk, making us laugh, making us consider what it’s like in Cambodia, reading with a cadence your father may have used when telling you a story, making us see what he’s talking about, making us pull hard at the edges of who we believe we are. Did I mention he was funny? Even sober, I wanted to yell, “Go! Go!” A few chuckles stood in instead. — Bill Kohlhaase
PASATIEMPOMAGAZINE.COM
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Malena Mörling Found in translation
Bill Kohlhaase I The New Mexican
M
alena Mörling wasn’t interested in poetry until a teacher at her school in Mamaroneck, New York, read T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to his class of 15-year-olds. “I was taken by the beautiful music of the English language, the mellifluousness of it, even as I was still learning it,” Mörling explained. “And then the imagery that Eliot used: I’d never experienced anything like it. I was overwhelmed by its intensity.” Mörling is the author of two collections of poetry, Ocean Avenue, which was selected in 1998 by former U.S. poet laureate Philip Levine as winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize from Western Michigan University, and 2006’s Astoria, from the University of Pittsburgh Press’ respected Pitt Poetry Series. Born and raised in Sweden and educated in New York, New Hampshire, and Iowa, Mörling now spends part of the year as associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, but most of the time she’s in Santa Fe. She’s familiar with traveling between worlds, and it’s this experience that permeates her poems. She’s not so much interested in how those worlds are different as in how they can be perceived differently, what we can see of the other worlds contained in this one. As she writes in “If There Is Another World”: If there is another world, I think you can take a cab there — or ride your old bicycle down Junction Blvd. past the Paris Suites Hotel with the Eiffel Tower on the roof and past the blooming Magnolia and on — to the corner of 168th Street. The landmarks of the other world are the same landmarks of the world we inhabit. And the hometown street with its hint of France — worlds within worlds — is in the same place with “a kind of moth/here on earth/that feeds only on the tears of horses” and where “Two days ago 300 televisions/washed up on a beach in Shiomachi, Japan” looking like “so many/oversized horseshoe crabs /with their screens turned down to the sand.” The lines suggest that we too readily define our world as outside the larger one, and the end of the poem reinforces this idea of self-contained worlds:
Jane Phillips/The New Mexican
where people inside their cars pass you by in space and where you pass by them, each car another thought — only heavier.
In Mörling’s poems, simple realization often leads to complex, surprising imagery, as in those crab-like televisions in Japan. In “The Floating World”: I am not who I was or who I will be here on this beach that is also a desk the waves are trying to climb. “It’s almost like we pretend we’re familiar with this world,” said Mörling. “But maybe we aren’t; maybe we’re only familiar with our own thoughts about this world.” An undergraduate obsession with Levine’s landmark collection 1933 led Mörling to an interest in translating poetry. “It was the first book of poems by a living poet that I’d ever read. Before that, it was all dead people. There was something about this particular collection. It was about family, but it also engages surrealism in a very interesting way. I had read that book so many times that I started hearing those poems in Swedish. I did the first draft [of translations] in one sitting while I was on an airplane but then continued to work on them for a long time.” She has translated a collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer’s early poems as well as his Prison: Nine Haiku Poems From Hällby Youth Prison. Her new book of translations, The Star by My Head: Poets From Sweden (with Jonas Ellerström; Milkweed Editions), is a bilingual collection of works by 20th- and 21st-century Swedish poets. Mörling will tell you that translation influences her work, but she’s not sure why. “The closest reading a person can do is translating a poem. You’re forced to go beyond the words and conceptualize it almost on your own, as if you’re writing in a new language. I don’t know how [translation] influences my own work, but I know I learn a tremendous amount when I translate.” Mörling, whose poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s public radio program The Writer’s Almanac, said that going into a poem with the idea that you’ll understand it can be counterproductive. “One way to read a poem is to decide to look at the images or pay attention to the way the lines sound and hear the music of it. I think we’re obsessed with understanding everything. And if that’s always the approach, then we might not notice the beauty the poem holds. There might not be a single meaning in a poem but a combination of many things we need to hear, we need to see.” ◀ poetry © 2006 Malena Mörling
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
La Casa Fina Consignment
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In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom
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B O D Y presents
How to Write Your Book in a Weekend Thu January 23, 6:00 to 8:30pm $15 including tax How to Become a Best Seller Via this New Age of Publishing Fri January 24, 6:00 to 8:30pm $15 including tax Legendary writing coach and #1 Best Selling Author, Tom Bird
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BRYAN STEVENSON with LILIANA
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WEDNESDAY 15 JANUARY AT 7PM LENSIC PERFORMING ARTS CENTER One of the great tragedies in this country was that we had generations of people who were raised and taught and told that they were better than other people because of the color of their skin. And there is nothing more abusive that you can do to a child or to a community than to persuade them that their worldview should be shaped by a lie, and that they should experience everything and interpret everything through that lie. And because we haven’t talked about that lie, a lot of what we say and what we do reflects an identity that is complicated and compromised by this history. — Bryan Stevenson, www.AL.com, 31 December 2012
Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, and a professor at New York University School of Law. He has gained national acclaim for his work challenging the U.S. legal system’s biases against the incarcerated, the poor and people of color. EJI recently won a historic ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court, holding that mandatory life imprisonment without parole sentences for children seventeen years or younger is unconstitutional. Stevenson has Photo by Peter Ogilvie
been awarded the ACLU National Medal of Liberty, the National Public Interest Lawyer of the Year Award and the NAACP Ming Award for Advocacy for his work. His appearance with Lannan coincides with the 85th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. TICKETS ON SALE NOW
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23
Joanne Dominique Dwyer Missives from the center of self
Casey Sanchez I For The New Mexican
I
n medieval times, the occupants of Turkish harems found romantic solace in their eunuch bodyguards and groomed themselves using a hot wax of peppered honey, scraping their flesh with the shells of blue-lipped mussels. In the present era of hard science and hard drugs, writes poet Joanne Dominique Dwyer, “the world’s first morphine addict was the wife/of the man who invented the hypodermic needle.” For Dwyer, these images of love’s forgotten casualties are no mere curios of exotica but empirically researched examples of the longing for mercy or acceptance that dot the landscape of her poems. In an evocative string of associations, Dwyer connects these images to her own search for love, family, and union. As with many female poets who frankly recount their trysts and trauma, Anne Sexton comparisons abound. But the confessions in Dwyer’s poetry arise like alms or sacrifices, a cover charge on the way to entering a higher order of understanding history and our common human impulses. “I think the more potent poetry is, the more it gives us a shared humanity,” Dwyer said. “As a speaker of the poem, I’ll reveal something emotional or personal, but I will also mix in a reference to a saint, history, a painting. If anything, I feel my work can be a little too associative at times.” Many of her best lines brim with aphoristic precision (“How carnal the faith of the innocent”), self-lacerating humor (“I’ve heard it is hell to be in love with a painter/better to be in love with the paint”), and a gripping realism about reluctance and relationships (“In Spain we swam in the sea and I wrapped my legs around your waist/and it scared you as if I were a cinderblock”). Some of her best work animates the inner lives of forgotten saints or well-known sinners. Consider “Surrender,” her dark meditation on baptism and Andrea Yates’ 2001 drowning of her five children in a bathtub. We are urged to reflect that the murderous mom held “the same rationale as the priest: to save them from Satan/Only she didn’t let them back up” from their baptism. Far from mere equivocation, Dwyer creates a scrapbook-cum-police procedural of the multiple filicide, drawing on a maternal attention to the ways of children that is devastating in its specificity: Paul shat in the water Luke wanted his rubber duck John bit her finger Mary spoke her first word underwater. Noah struggled still in his pajamas — reaching for the plug
Clyde Mueller/The New Mexican
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
Few poems in the book strike notes quite as somber, but nearly all march to the same metronome of beautiful/ugly. That’s one possible translation of Belle Laide, the French title of her book of poems published in 2013 by Sarabande. The other meaning of the term is a more tongue-in-cheek reference to a talented seductress whose sensuality and gift of gab transcend her plain looks. That good-time-gal humor is also at work in poems like “Discalced,” where she pleads, “Forgive me, St. Teresa of Avila —/There are enough pairs of shoes in my closet/to shod a homeless shelter or a small orphanage.” A lover of arcana and etymology, Dwyer takes the poem’s title from the name of certain austere Catholic orders whose members must go barefoot. “A lot of people in the poetry world tell me about the need to make my poems friendly and enjoyable. It may be a cliché, though, but I really do write for myself. I have to write a poem that is satisfying for me. I need to.” Dwyer came to writing and studying poetry later in life. With kids and a family in tow, she began taking fiction and poetry classes, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the College of Santa Fe and later a master’s degree in fine arts at Warren Wilson College’s low-residency program for writers in North Carolina. During the late 1990s, she briefly sojourned in the world of slam poetry, rising quickly enough to be invited to join an Albuquerque team headed toward a national competition, only to back out at the last moment. “Probably not a nice thing to do, but it wasn’t me,” she said. “I still learned a lot from the slam scene, though, with its focus on memorization and the cadences of sentences.” Despite the many accolades for her poetry — among them, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Anne Halley Poetry Prize, The American Poetry Review’s Jerome J. Shestack Prize, and a scholarship at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference — Dwyer is not one for publicity, shunning any social-media promotion of her work or personal life. “I don’t write to sell books; I’m not on Facebook,” she said. “It’s communication with myself, like yoga — a way to calm me down and focus.” The poet does frequently step outside the cloister of the writing room. Over the past few years, she has read several times at Collected Works Bookstore and at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Through a grant from the Witter Bynner Foundation, she has been working with Bernalillo High School students on a project about poetry and identity. As a facilitator for the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, she also helps people with dementia in assisted living facilities in Santa Fe
Bent Joanne Dominique Dwyer If love is to be thirsty in the night un-slaked in the day, the day without parameters — or motion detectors monitoring the way I configure my neck unruly on the axis of my spine, the down-turned mouths of many in the immeasurable heat petitioning bits of pollen for their throats. Tell me, how close I can place my hands up against a man’s cage? How close our veined temples to rock? There is a statue from ancient Greece of a veiled man — so as not to be disturbed or diverted While on a sacred pilgrimage. Tented in the day, unguarded in the night, opening like the five poisonous petals of a trumpet flower. Shuddering on the sheath of a mountain. Eve was bent into being to allay the isolation of Adam. Seated behind him on a vintage Indian bike, she leans her lithe body into each turn, tugs at her jeans to cover her ass and sips tequila from a flask. Neither one wears a helmet. If love is to be thirsty in the night un-slaked in the day, I am bent around the darkness of the sun siphoning salt from your skin, eating almonds from your cupboards, drinking the last of the lake water as the sails come to a halt on the sand. I will never give back the lake its love! It’s mine! It’s mine! — Loch Ness monster or man on the shore carving canoe paddles, I’m not certain. It’s so dark without the moon, difficult to find the far encampment — the inward holy body. © 2013 Joanne Dominique Dwyer
produce poems of personal memory. Teens and seniors might not be the natural or intended audiences for her work, but Dwyer’s poetic concerns dovetail with the tendency of these two groups to obsess on passing moments that end up as lifetime memories — that is to say, what love demands of us, how it sweetens, why it sours, and what it leaves tattooed on our skin long after it is gone. ◀
Katie Broyles ‘15
Looking for the school that will challenge, support, and inspire your child? Come learn more about Santa Fe Prep! Coffee and Q & A for prospective parents:
Saturday, January 25, 11-12 pm in the Santa Fe Prep Library
Tuition Assistance Available We are committed to making a Prep education possible for motivated students. In that spirit, we have awarded $1 million in aid this year.
Mike Multari, Director of Admissions 505 795 7512 mmultari@sfprep.org Learn more at sfprep.org Serving Grades 7 - 12 PASATIEMPOMAGAZINE.COM
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Michael Abatemarco I The New Mexican
Lines of collaboration Arthur Sze and Susan York Fireflies brighten the darkening air: desire’s manifest here, here, and here’s the infinite in the intervening emptiness. — from “The Unfolding Center” by Arthur Sze
F
or artist Susan York, drawing is an intensely physical, repetitive process that involves control of breath and endurance. Her drawings are multilayered compositions in graphite, minimalist works with an interplay between dark and light areas and positive and negative space. York goes over the paper with 50 or 60 layers of graphite until the surface achieves a lustrous density. York’s process is primarily a solitary one, like a poet working at her desk. But she has spent the past few years in collaboration with Arthur Sze, Santa Fe’s first poet laureate. Their collaboration is a multifaceted visual experience. It will culminate in a book, The Unfolding Center, coming in February from Radius Books, and an exhibition of the same name runs through Wednesday, Jan. 15, at the Santa Fe Art Institute. “The Unfolding Center,” the title of the last poem in Sze’s book Compass Rose (slated for release by Copper Canyon Press in spring), is divided into 11 sections and paired with 11 diptychs of York’s graphite drawings. “Arthur and I have known each other a really long time,” York told Pasatiempo. “Not really well, but New Mexico Arts [a division of the state’s Department of Cultural Affairs] had an artist-inresidence program a long time ago, and we worked together in that. I think that’s how we met.” Sze offered specifics: “We met at Downtown Subscription on, I think, May 26, 2010. You can see we were not in a hurry to make this collaboration. It was Susan’s idea to collaborate. We didn’t have any preconceived notions of what it should be, how extensive it should be. We talked about different aesthetic interests. I took notes. Then I went home and wrote a section to a poem, and a few weeks later I called Susan and went back to her studio. We talked some more; then I wrote another section. Over time, the piece just grew and grew. It took me about nine months to write the first draft of the poem.” The process of writing the poem, complete with Sze’s edits and revisions made during proofreading, has been retained in the book, along with images of York’s drawings. Sze and York examined the poem for tonal shifts and the introduction of new poetic images or ideas. York’s challenge was to represent that visually in graphite. “The poem was basically complete, and Susan was trying to figure out how to work with the text,” said Sze. “She
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
had this idea that if we took each section, we could draw a line through what we thought was the key point of tension, and we didn’t consult each other.” Each of York’s diptychs are of rectangular forms, offset from each other by horizon lines set at different heights. York blurs the horizon line of the graphite rectangles so that the dark areas bleed subtly into the unblemished white areas of the paper, avoiding hard edges. “If it was just a straight line, it would be too static, so I think the halo is a very calm way to merge the white and the black,” she said. “It wouldn’t be the same drawing without the halo. The smudging is a manifestation of that dynamic.” The horizon lines represent where, in each of the poem’s 11 sections, she and Sze identified a critical line of poetry. For most of the sections, York and Sze singled out different lines. In one section, for instance, Sze drew a line through “linkages that smoke, linkages that flower,” and York drew a line through “The owls never returned to the hole.” In that section, the two lines are close together, so the corresponding diptych has horizon lines at nearly the same height. “At a certain point we actually come to agreement,” Sze said. “We did it independently, without wanting to consult each other. I thought it was interesting that, as we worked our way through, finally in sections nine and ten we were in complete agreement. Then we diverged again at the end.” Throughout the process Sze would send a completed section of the poem to York to review. They would discuss why each chose the lines he or she chose, and she would begin to work on the drawings. “We didn’t want it to be me illustrating Arthur’s poems or Arthur’s [words] being some kind of concrete relationship to the drawings. It was almost like we needed to invent our own language. That is the collaboration. Arthur was looking at it from the inside out, and I was looking at it from the outside in. So, in general, my points of tension are more surface, and Arthur’s are more in the cell of the poem.” Sze added, “There is a very specific correlation, but we didn’t want to explain it too much. In the book there’s an interview at the end with [poet] John Yau, where we discussed the process. We wanted to have a little mystery and let that unfold through the 11 sections.” The third section of the poem commences with the line “— Damn, I’m walking on the roof of hell …” It is the start of the first of two monologues written into “The Unfolding Center.” “It begins and ends with dashes, so the whole thing is an aside linguistically, syntactically,” Sze said. “It’s segregated from the continued on Page 28
Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican
Eric Swanson
Susan York
Arthur Sze
Below left to right, Susan York: The Unfolding Center, no. 9, graphite pencil on paper, 2013; Section 9 from Arthur Sze’s “The Unfolding Center”
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ClassiCal WeekenD Susan York: The Unfolding Center, no. 1, graphite pencil on paper, 2012 Right, Section 1 from Arthur Sze’s “The Unfolding Center”
Lines of collaboration, continued from Page 26
Santa Fe Pro MuSica orcheStra Thomas o’Connor, conductor Cármelo de los sanTos, violin
Saturday, January 25 at 6PM Sunday, January 26 at 3PM* *5pm Post-concert reception — Meet the Musicians, Lensic Lobby LenSic PerForMing artS center
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis BarBer Concerto for Violin and orchestra, op. 14 BeethoVen symphony no. 1 in C major, op. 21 Meet the Music one hour before each concert with Thomas O’Connor and special guest John Clubbe. TiCkeTs $20, $35, $45, $65, students and Teachers $10 santa Fe Pro Musica Box Office: 505.988.4640 Tickets santa Fe at the lensic: 505.988.1234 www.santafepromusica.com
dominant voice of the poem. The speaker in this section is a basket restorer. As he’s working, it’s his thoughts coming out. There are strike-through lines where he says something, then changes his mind, so there’s a kind of tension between what he’s thinking or saying and what he’s holding back or revising. That sense of language came to me by thinking about Susan’s visible point of tension.” The strike-through lines were retained in the published version of the poem as well as in the text displayed alongside the drawings at SFAI. “In terms of the poem, one of the things I wanted to do was challenge myself and do some things I’d never done before,” he said. “I was interested in a kind of meditative layering and also the sense of being able to visibly see that physicality of process and the sense of how the process is part of the product at the end.” Sze said that the poem itself is written in three voices and has an understated narrative structure. “On one very simple level it’s meditative, where the image is tea leaves and a black bowl. Later on, the person sips the tea. You can say the narrative is as simple as someone who makes a cup of tea and drinks it. But, with that narrative structure in mind, all sorts of things happen. I was interested in the phenomenology of space that occurs in Susan’s sculptures but also in the drawings, the way they’re so layered and textured. I started to research different architects, and I did a lot of research on Tadao Ando, the Japanese architect. He has a kind of physicality with the way he uses light and water and landscape. I also had lunch with Trey Jordan, an architect in town. In the last section, I paraphrased from an interview that he did, where he talked about how you can have a space and it’s empty, and if you turn it, it’s suddenly, magically full. People come and go. The space is transient and full of things. This idea of full and empty, which is like the black and the white, is even like the exhale and inhale of the breath. You can think of these drawings in many different ways, I think, but those kinds of polarities run through the poem. At the very end, in section 11, the whole thing ends on a colon, so it’s incomplete. You never arrive at a point of finality. You arrive at emptiness.” ◀
details ▼ The Unfolding Center: Susan York and Arthur Sze Platinum Lodging Partner: The 2013-2014 Season is partially funded by New Mexico Arts (a Division of the Department of Cultural Affairs) and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
▼ Exhibit through Wednesday, Jan. 15 ▼ Santa Fe Art Institute, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive, 505-424-5050 ▼ No charge
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29
Jimmy Santiago Baca Forged in the crucible of pain
Paul Weideman I The New Mexican
I walk north to recover my souls, to recover my daughters, my sons, my parents, my sisters, millions of them who have vanished into air, into moths and stars, I come to recover them, bring back their dreams to the Mestiza people so we are not separate from earth.
T
his moment from Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Rita Falling From the Sky” is among the less gut-wrenching ones. In the piece from his new book, Singing at the Gates, he tells a story based on the true tale of a Rarámuri — or Tarahumara — Indian woman charged in Chihuahua, Mexico, with killing her husband. After fleeing across the desert to the United States, she surfaces rummaging for food in a Kansas City waste container and ends up in an asylum, where her native tongue is mistaken for deranged gibberish. “I never met the woman, but she reminds me a lot of my grandmother Baca, who worked all her life,” Baca said. “My grandma had a tiny body, but she had big feet and big hands for making tortillas and picking beans and cutting wood. Her body seemed to conform to the necessities of survival. “She was Apache. They kidnapped her, and she came north with Geronimo’s band. She was living up by the Quarai ruins, and she met my grandpa, who was in charge of white mules. He worked for a haciendero, a big Mexican guy who owned about 300 white mules, and since my grandfather was so strong — he was a bare-knuckle fighter — he took care of them. There were stories that they were stolen, but because my grandpa was Tarahumara, he took off on foot and caught ’em and brought the mules back. That’s how he got money to build his house.” Baca, born in Santa Fe, was abandoned by his parents as a child. He lived with his grandparents but was placed in an orphanage in his early teens. He ran away at 13; by the time he was 18, he was serving time for drug possession in a maximum-security prison, where he learned how to read and write and discovered the world of poetry. Today he has a bachelor’s degree in English and an honorary Ph.D. in literature from the University of New Mexico. Baca has published more than a dozen poetry books as well as essays; a screenplay, Bound by Honor, that was made into a feature film; and a memoir called A Place to Stand about his life before and during his prison stay. The first thing he talked about with Pasatiempo was that his son Gabe raised more than $200,000 on Kickstarter for his film version of A Place to Stand, which comes out this month. Baca’s poems run the gamut from ultra-gritty to delightful; his experiences have shaped in him a powerful voice for addicts, the poor, and those who are otherwise disenfranchised. That includes the world of transvestite prostitutes. He says his own bicultural (Apache and Chicano) heritage gave him an immediate understanding of the dual character of these men, which he glimpsed in photographer James Drake’s La Brisa collection. In his poem “Smoking Mirrors,” which he penned to accompany Drake’s images in Que Linda La Brisa, he writes, fantasies unravel like spools of red yarn caught in claws of flame, and quickly the mouth that was some construction worker’s mouth becomes Marilyn Monroe’s puckering tease
Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
The spectacle of transformation is the brighter side of the story. “The poem is all about compassion; with compassion, you can empathize with anybody’s experience,” Baca said. “The photographs James Drake showed me, these men — I would run from them if I saw them. These guys are ... tough. But at night
poetry © 2014 Jimmy Santiago Baca
they were gorgeous. I would die to get with any of them, now knowing they were men, right? But James showed me that they got murdered. The guys they were with would find out they were men and kill them. I said to myself, they need to have their story told.” The six years that Baca spent in prison, even though that was more than 30 years ago, made an unforgettable imprint on his psyche. During his incarceration, the horrors finally had relief in a sort of salvation through poetry. In his introduction to Singing at the Gates, he writes of “living in a place where men were stripped down to their essential cores, screams of torturous madness crackling the midnight air ... . What a magnificent place to set a poet to record the human soul! And there I was, witness to the human landscape under epic conflict.” Ever since his release, he has spoken and held writing workshops in prisons. “I have stories about everywhere. One was going into a Guatemala prison with thousands of gangsters.” If he has a speaking engagement at a university, chances are he will also visit the nearest prison to “spread the gospel” of reading. In his early 60s, the poet has seen advantages from a degree of fame. “I had a call from Hollywood saying a woman had done a play using material from my books. They put me and my wife and kids up in Santa Monica, and the play was beautiful. I said, Don’t give me any money; just make sure it’s going to every high school in California, because it’s a play about the importance of reading books.” Baca’s résumé includes successes at the Taos Poetry Circus, although he insists he’d rather study poetry and write than perform. Nevertheless, he was a spirited poetry performer, a two-time defending champion of the circus, who was dethroned by Sherman Alexie in 1998. “Quincy Troupe was my first victim” in the contest, Baca recalled. “He came to town in a convertible T-bird, and I couldn’t even pay my electric bill, and I said, You know what, dude? I’m going to fight dirty. I don’t much like performing, but if my kids don’t have bread on the table, and they’re expecting me to get on stage and read poetry, I’ll do it. And it’s been great meeting people. You don’t get that in a classroom.” Baca is an example of the idea that the best, deepest poetry comes from those who have had many experiences out in the world. I asked him about Emily Dickinson, so much of whose poetry was written in the seclusion of a room in her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts. “Consider this. Consider this,” he said excitedly. “Consider the fact that I’m an 18-year-old that got into a gun battle with the DEA on the border — who was almost killed. The DEA guy had a ... gun to my head, and a Vietnam vet blew his arm off only because he heard the commotion and was having a post-traumatic-stress flashback. “I end up going to prison for drug possession. I refuse to go along, and they beat the hell out of me. I’ve got teeth knocked out and a busted chin. I end up in the dungeon for stabbing a guy where all the death row inmates are, and all of a sudden Emily Dickinson pops up. This guy who was accused of murdering some guy who was molesting his daughter said, Here, Jimmy, take this, and I took it back to my cell, and I’m reading Dickinson. Who could tell that a century later her words would come to me like that? That’s the transcendent power of poetry. “What was she doing all alone in that room? She was writing, and she was very much in tune with my soul somewhere in the universe. She felt that amazing universal vibration, and when I was shot out of the sky, I instantly felt this familiarity in my soul: I know what these words are.” Baca’s next book will be his second memoir. “Writing it was like steering a rowboat on the worst storm in the Pacific, but it’s more about delight than torture. It’s a memoir about life after prison and the choices a man makes.” ◀
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PASATIEMPOMAGAZINE.COM
31
Henry SHukman An opener of the heart
Jane Phillips/The New Mexican
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
Loren Bienvenu I For The New Mexican
H
enry Shukman considers the Zen koan to be the most condensed narrative. “They are very inscrutable. They make no sense to the mind, but they can bring on a dramatic shift in how we experience and see everything, which is accompanied by a vast opening of the heart. When it happens for real, we’re just weeping and laughing and overwhelmed with joy and love. … I think great poems do something similar.” The British poet and teacher at Santa Fe’s Mountain Cloud Zen Center devotes his time to the contemplation of words. He composes poems, stories, novels, and articles (including for Pasatiempo), in addition to teachings for his Zen class. Following the traditional Sanbo lineage, his classes introduce various koans for meditation, the most famous one being What Is the Sound of One Hand. Growing up in Oxford as the son of two professors, Shukman said he had “a very literature-heavy education. When I was 13, I had already read a lot of poetry, including in other languages, especially Latin, Greek, and French.” At this early age, Shukman began writing verse of his own with a close friend. “We would go into the library and pull out Shakespeare or Wordsworth or Milton from a shelf and try to find things we liked. And somehow that morphed into having a stab at writing poems; we’d meet in a café and trade the scraps.” The friendship proved lasting, as did the shared pursuit: his friend, Sam Willets, had his first poetry collection published by Jonathan Cape, one of the most esteemed houses in England. Cape is also the publisher of Shukman’s two collections. The first of these is In Doctor No’s Garden, which was named a Book of the Year in 2003 by The Guardian and The Times in the United Kingdom and won a number of prizes, including the Jerwood Aldeburgh Prize. Though that award is given to a first collection, this was not Shukman’s first book. “When I was 18, I went to work in Argentina, and while there I started writing prose about what I was experiencing and seeing, and that ended up becoming my first book — Sons of the Moon — which I think of as a somewhat poetic prose narrative about a journey.” Traveling, too, can lead to an opening of the heart, and Shukman has contributed travel reportage to a number of international publications, including pieces about Santa Fe for The New York Times. His arrival in New Mexico was precipitated by an assignment to write a book about D.H. Lawrence, which was published as Savage Pilgrims in 1996: “It’s a nonfiction narrative account of characters I met out here, with a little bit of Lawrence here and there.” Lawrence was an influence for Shukman even in childhood. He said that reading Lawrence’s accounts of his experiences in New Mexico was incredibly evocative. “In suburban, rainy England, it was truly transporting to read about the elemental lifestyle, and the sunshine, and the mountains, and the rattlesnakes, and the spaciousness.” He was similarly transported by the writings of the Beat poets, admiring the “candor and frankness and anything-goes” spirit of their work. In Shukman’s opinion, the history of poetry is defined by successive waves of bringing poems back to the
language of common speech. The Beats did this, as did (in his reverse chronology) poets like Seamus Heaney, Robert Frost, Shakespeare, and even Chaucer. He counters this approach with the currently prevalent American movement of lyrical abstraction in poetry, defined by deliberately upsetting the impulse to make meaning. “It seems to me the challenge is to write well and intelligibly and yet with fantastic beauty and depth. Not a word spared,” he said. “You may kind of understand the poem at the first reading, and yet you’re very significantly troubled by the sense that there is much, much more than you got. I don’t think it has really changed that much from Homer to Heaney.” Shukman’s own work has this quality. His prose is lyrical, while his lyrics are lucid. In his novel The Lost City, a young man searching for the capital of a disappeared Peruvian empire encounters landscapes both extreme and exotic: “Banana trees bushed in the valleybeds, fields of alfalfa blazed under the sun and along either rim eucalyptus trees shivered and smoked, the colour of old copper.” The poems in Archangel, his most recent collection, bring the profound within an arm’s reach, rather than distancing meaning through poetic language. One poem, “Household,” inventories the material elements that make up a home — “The tons of brick and stone, the pounds of piping,/the sinks and china basins, the tiles and bathtub” — and concludes by asking, “what would it all weigh? One kiss,/one breathed declaration: the mass of love.” As the familiar physical items in his catalog accumulate, the reader feels the physical and associative weight of each in his or her mind. Then the burden dissipates, as the earthly transitions to the airy. Such weighing and unweighing of words denotes the deft touch of the poet. At the same time, like a Zen koan (but less inscrutable), a poem like this offers the mind a chance to shift and the heart a chance to open. ◀
Sangre de Cristo Henry Shukman The rag of lamb had twisted like a swami, one leg right across the chest, another behind the back, and the whole thing sunk, losing whatever mass was once there to the wind. But that wouldn’t have been much: it hadn’t seen more than a day or two of life. Already the fleece was gone on the limbs, and honey-coloured bone shown through. But the face, the long jaw laid on the grass, the stretched neck, the firmly closed eyes — there was such intention in it, like a human dreamer, as if it had been caught trying to see something or get somewhere, and now it had closed its eyes to see something else, to see it better. © 2013 Henry Shukman
Valerie Martínez Has everything up her sleeve
Clyde Mueller/The New Mexican
Bill Kohlhaase I The New Mexican
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hen Valerie Martínez’s Each and Her, winner of several national poetry prizes, was published in 2010, she was poet laureate of Santa Fe. Each and Her is an unsettling collection of 72 pieces centering on the murders of girls and women around Juárez. It’s a mix of first- and third-person accounts as well as poems constructed from news stories, religious writings, and other sources. Some sections are simply long litanies of the dead. One section is a single word: sígame (“follow me”). A chilling one-sentence quote from a drug smuggler that precedes that poem makes it all the more disturbing. “I never expected to write that book,” Martínez said of Each and Her. “I’d been following the story for many years, but I never consciously wanted to take on a project so daunting.” The book was inspired by a performance of the Latina Dance Project at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. The group presented an interpretive piece about the women of Juárez. Martínez was particularly moved. “I started writing the next morning and didn’t stop for three weeks. I ended up with nine threads, even though I didn’t know what I was doing. I called a poet friend, who said, ‘This sounds like a strong thing. You should just keep going.’ Three months later I had half the book.” An earlier book, World to World (University of Arizona Press), is a collection of individual poems that use both physical and cerebral images to portray life’s moments: “Yes, yes, the inside of morning/is cheekbone, elbow, pelvis” (from “Rock and Marrow”). Each and Her is different. The thematic material and the factual seriousness of the subject made it a more difficult undertaking. “I’d never done a book-length poem before, and there were enormous challenges structurally. I did a lot of research on the women, and the poems came out of everything I found. This was the hardest book I’ve ever written, aesthetically.” Discussions of roses, offered in the poet’s voice — “Carefully cut away the infected plant parts then pruned four of six/bushes/according to instructions”— provide an ongoing symbol. “I was really trying to save some rose bushes,” Martínez said, “and had to consult with a horticulturalist to learn cultivation of roses, learning the history. In the book, it becomes a metaphor of training women in what they want to be. It’s a very dark image, cutting out what you consider diseased.” The honor of being the city’s poet laureate from 2008 to 2010 had an effect on the kinds and temper of verse Martínez wrote. “I was poet during the city’s 400th anniversary, and I attended and read at some 65 events. I was on stage with politicians and the mayor. I even attended the Pet Parade. I was called on to write occasional poems
and a longer poem which is sort of a poetic creation story of Santa Fe. It was all written with love for the city. People gave me different ideas for poems than I had used previously. But you can still recognize they were written by the same poet.” Born and raised in Santa Fe, Martínez has taught at the University of New Mexico, New Mexico Highlands University, the Institute of American Indian Arts, and the College of Santa Fe. After spending a year as a visiting professor of English at the University of Miami, she’s now working on a long poem on water and climate change, something again very different than what she’s done before. “What I love most about poetry is when it uses the language of misdirection. We have plenty of the language of direction, in the media, in all communication. But I like not being directed. I don’t always understand a poem when I read it, and I don’t expect to. But I’ll read a line or a stanza 10 times, and if it’s good, it will open itself up to me. That’s the way to think about good poetry. You shouldn’t expect to consume it. It’s not a hamburger. It’s circular. We need to return to it and learn from it.” ◀
15. Valerie Martínez at the checkpoint border crossing Mother Father the six of us body to body in the Chevy trinkets blankets wrought-iron fence pieces bottles of Montezuma tequila cheap over the limit in the back wet-seamed to the seat we blow on each others’ backs pass a Shasta bottleneck you cradle and wave your yellow and indigo paper- flower bouquet
© 2010 Valerie Martínez
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Above, Witter Bynner, circa 1925, photo by Margrethe Mather; right, Bynner in rehearsal, as Stark the plume hunter, Sept. 1913, photo by Arnold Genthe, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division; opposite page; Bynner (center) with D.H. and Frieda Lawrence, 1923
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James McGrath Morris I For The New Mexican
Poetic justice in a land of possibility Witter Bynner
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itter Bynner, remembered 45 years past his death for his poetry, his translations of Chinese poetry, and his advocacy for Native American and Hispanic cultures, also made a splash with a glass of beer during Robert Frost’s visit to Santa Fe. In 1935 Bynner invited the visiting poet to lunch at his home at 342 Buena Vista St. Frost would not be the first artistic celebrity to be entertained by Bynner and his longtime companion, Robert Hunt, in the beautiful two-story adobe that had been their home since the 1920s. At one time or another, their guests included writers D.H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, and Aldous Huxley; actors Clara Bow, Errol Flynn, and Rita Hayworth; photographer Ansel Adams; painter Georgia O’Keeffe; and dancer Martha Graham. All who gained entry to Bynner’s home, according to author Paul Horgan, “keenly remember his presence, his gusty humor, his generous sensibility in honor of any honest human manifestation, his range of civilized and often hilarious reference, and above all his feeling for the common cause of human life itself, with all his hopes, wonders, and satisfactions, which he saw as deserving of tolerance and respect even at its most pathetic or misguided” — except for during this particular lunch with Frost, then without question America’s bestknown and -loved poet. He was in town to give a speech, and it was natural he would visit with Bynner, with whom he had been friends for more than a decade. But Bynner had begun to resent how Frost had succeeded where he had not, according to Bynner’s biographer James Kraft. True, Bynner’s work, similar in many respects to that of Frost, had been as well-known in poetry circles as that of Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. But his day in the limelight had come and gone. “By this time,” wrote Kraft, “he could see that he would never reach the level of recognition he sought, that the world of poetry had begun to pass him by, even forget him.” Frost arrived late for the lunch after having visited a pueblo. Mealtime discussion was apparently not congenial. Bynner praised a book of poems by Horatio Colony. The volume, according to The Taos Truth Game by Earl Ganz, “was full of thinly veiled celebrations of homosexuality.” When Frost declared it “bestial,” wrote Kraft, Bynner raised a glass of beer and dumped it on Frost’s head. “After a stunned moment, the incident was passed over — at least Frost said nothing and Bynner did nothing more.” A note of apology was soon mailed to Frost. In it, Bynner disingenuously suggested the gesture had been intended as a joke.
In the years after, Bynner devoted himself to his craft, publishing several collections of poems, and pursued his passion for Chinese poetry and philosophy. His 1944 translation of the Tao Te Ching (The Way of Life According to Lao Tzu) can still be found in bookstores. He traveled widely and even maintained a second house in Chapala, Mexico. But for the Brooklyn-born poet, Santa Fe remained his home. “The city was gossipy, but so was he, and it tolerated what it talked about, recognizing that in a land as ancient as this, little was new or impossible,” Kraft said. “This provocative place seemed to fit his sense of America and his sense of himself.” He became a popular and very public figure in Santa Fe. “A man of commanding stature, splendid good looks, and infectious energy, he presided throughout five decades, by common consent, over the cultural and convivial life in Santa Fe,” recalled Horgan. “He was an eloquent orator, in poetic forms, who spoke out for the individual dignity of his fellow men, whether in terms of politics, popular mores, or artistic commitment.” In the late 1940s Bynner grew blind and infirm. In 1951 he suffered a severe heart attack, and in the mid-1960s a stroke, from which he never fully recovered. He died in 1968, leaving to St. John’s College his house and money to create a foundation that supports poetry. The house and grounds are now the Inn of the Turquoise Bear. As to the Frost beer incident? Years later Bynner spotted Frost in the dining room of the Hanover Inn in New Hampshire. “Robert, do you remember me?” he asked when he approached the venerated poet. “I apologize for pouring that beer on you.” Frost looked at his old friend and rival in silence as if he were taking his measure. Then he recited by memory two of Bynner’s poems. Kraft wrote, “A great compliment had been paid that was always to amaze Bynner.” ◀
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Carol Moldaw Experience the sensual, don’t stress the cerebral
Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican
Jennifer Levin I For The New Mexican
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hen asked why they don’t read poetry, many people answer, with a slight frown and a shrug, “I don’t really get poetry. I never know what the poem is supposed to be about.” If you’ve taken high school or college-level literature courses and analyzed poetry for its metaphors and meter, it’s easy to get caught up in whether or not you understand a poem. It’s also easy to get distracted by meaning if you think a poem should read like a tiny story. But it doesn’t have to be so serious. Opening yourself up to the language of a poem and letting it provoke a response in you is also a way of understanding a poem. “My first relation to a poem is sound,” said Carol Moldaw, author of five books of poetry, including her most recent, So Late, So Soon: New and Selected Poems, and a lyric novel called The Widening. “If I am moved by rhythmic sounds of the poem — the way the words sound together, the way the phrases move together, the way the poem has its beats, its pulse — then I’m engaged with that poem. It’s almost embarrassing, but particularly when I was young, I would read poems and love poems and never ever think of what they meant. I just loved them. It’s never the paraphrasable quality of a poem [that matters]. It might be one line that I get the meaning in without really thinking about how the poet got there.” As she got older and developed as a reader and writer, she learned to tease apart different analytic strands in poems, but she confesses that outside of a classroom setting, she finds it hard to appreciate a poem whose sounds don’t viscerally move her. “It’s a bit of a liability on my part,” she said. “Sometimes I miss things that are great, that other people love.” Moldaw, the recipient of several fellowships and awards, including a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, has taught at colleges and universities and has led private workshops. If she had the opportunity to persuade a resistant reader to give poetry a chance, Moldaw would begin by explaining that poetry is an unmediated art. “The poet has written something in his or her own voice that’s a pure expression. You, as a reader, have access to that, and it often hits very deeply. There’s also a linguistic pleasure that poetry offers that most other art forms or written forms don’t offer. Language reverberates more in a poem. Whether it’s sound, whether it’s using sound or meaning in a precise or revelatory way, I think you feel it more. We live in a culture that both intentionally misuses language, in a kind of Orwellian doublespeak, and uses language sloppily. It’s refreshing and revivifying to read poetry, to connect back to language in a pure and deep way.”
But what of meaning? In a narrative poem, you can catch a thread of story and follow it. But in other kinds of poems, meaning seems to be deliberately shrouded. If a reader doesn’t know that in a vast amount of contemporary poetry, known as language poetry, meaning is intentionally left out, then reading it, fruitlessly searching for meaning, can feel like being the victim of an elaborate practical joke. Though Moldaw doesn’t specifically write language poetry — in fact, she prides herself on clarity in her work — she appreciates the way it knocks meaning off a pedestal and pushes poetry forward. “In every art, there’s a cutting edge that is more involved in the art in an intellectual way. In music, you have atonality. It can be beautiful if you’re comfortable enough with the medium that you can deconstruct and reconstruct it. I think if poetry was reduced to story — and I love story — but if it was reduced to that, it would be a dead art. I think what I like most about poetry is that meaning and content are fused in one expression. To paraphrase a poem is not to experience a poem. To quote from a poem is to experience a part of a poem. The quote has the actual word order, the sounds, the progression of thought, the switchbacks. And sometimes you try to delve, to figure out why that experience was so great — why you related to the poem, why you’re intellectually engaged or confounded. And then you can analyze, but the experience needs to come first.” ◀
Conduit Carol Moldaw Because the branches of the tall trees surrounding us are winter bare, the moon has been able to project its luminance more than usual these past few nights. I went to bed thinking about the Pashtun word that translates as “man-with-no-penis” and means “man-who-doesn’t-beat-his-wife,” but woke up thinking about a writer I used to know, a woman whose re-marriage was featured in the Sunday Times. In our courtyard, above the spindle-tip branches, the moon looked sublime, unfazed by footprints and flags, the cost of reflecting back to us our secrets through the one side of its surface ever available to be read into. Once, on a transatlantic red-eye, eye-level with the moon, I stayed awake all night leveling with myself, my life stripped clean under the discipline of her indifferent gaze. — O Moon, what I want back now is not my naiveté but my nerve, through which your implacable waves ran. © 2010 Carol Moldaw
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
Tony Hoagland To the barricades — for poetry!
Jane Phillips/The New Mexican
Bill Kohlhaase I The New Mexican
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ony Hoagland, a poet who writes well about sex, jazz, and modern materialism, among other social and cultural topics, created what passed as a stir in the wide world of poetry in April 2013 with his Harper’s magazine piece “Twenty Little Poems That Could Save America: Imagining a Renewed Role for Poetry in the National Discourse — and a New Canon.” In it, he argues that contemporary poetry, the poetry of our lifetimes, is the poetry we should be reading and teaching. The 20 poems he cites support his arguments for the psychosocial benefits America could get from a true love of poetry. Each of Hoagland’s subtitles — “Poetry Teaches the Ethical Nature of Choice,” “Poetry Stimulates Daring,” and “Poems Defuse Sexual Anxiety and Acknowledge the Naturalness of Curiosity” — is accompanied by his meditation on a single poem. In the “sexual anxiety” section, it’s Sharon Olds’ beautifully frank “Topography.” Hoagland recalls how one-time U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky suggested that “American poetry would be a warmer, more inviting place if it included more sex, humor, and violence.” Hoagland is tut-tutted in the comments section for tossing aside the classics — which he doesn’t — but is mostly congratulated for wanting to make poetry more central to education and more relevant to the American public. “I’m a believer in the integration of poetry and American culture,” Hoagland said to Pasatiempo. “I would really like to try to do what I can to reestablish its vitality in relationship to the culture in general, popular culture, continuing culture.” The poems he integrates into his manifesto come from William Stafford, Linda Gregg, Louis Simpson, Mary Oliver, and a Native American poet who goes by the name Speaks-Fluently. There’s also one from Walt Whitman. “It’s an accident of history that poetry fell out as a popular art form,” Hoagland said. “American poetry is an incredible fiesta of daring and visibility and laughs. There’s a reason everybody should know a lot of poems and not be intimidated by them. I feel that the humanism, the permission to be yourself, the kinds of combinations of self-knowledge, and the practice of introspection poetry contains — all these things integrate directly with the culture. Poetry has the medicine for the appalling degradation in American culture and the soul sickness it creates.” Hoagland’s prescriptive views on the art and craft of poetry have been on display before. Graywolf Press released a collection of his essays, Real Sofistikashun, in 2006, and another essay collection is due this year. One of the pieces in Real Sofistikashun, “Negative Capability: How to Talk Mean and Influence People,” opens with the line “Meanness, the very thing that is unforgivable in human social life, in poetry is thrilling and valuable.”
But Hoagland’s own poetry isn’t usually mean, even as it pokes fun. His first collection, 1992’s Sweet Ruin from the University of Wisconsin Press, won that university’s Brittingham Prize in Poetry as judged that year by Donald Justice. His 2004 collection, What Narcissism Means to Me, also from Graywolf, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The poems in that collection examine bits of the human condition while suggesting larger lessons. A first plunge into materialism becomes something of a baptism in the poem “At the Galleria,” from his 2010 collection Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (Graywolf Press): And here is my niece Lucinda, who is nine and a daughter of Texas, who has developed the flounce of a pedigreed blonde and declares her favorite sport is shopping. Today is the day she embarks upon her journey, swinging a credit card like a scythe through the meadows of golden merchandise. Today is the day she stops looking at faces, and starts assessing the price of purses; So let it begin. Let her be dipped in the dazzling bounty and raised and wrung out again and again. And let us watch. Hoagland is on the faculty of the University of Houston’s creative writing program and has been on the master’s in fine arts residency staff at Warren Wilson College near Asheville, North Carolina. He has also taken his enthusiasm for poetry education on the road, appearing in a handful of major American cities, as well as Santa Fe, with his “Five Powers of Poetry,” a seminar that instructs teachers how to discuss and analyze poetry, from both a technical and a personal level. Most of all he teaches how to make poetry attractive to students and enjoyed by the population at large. “The secret gate to poetry is pleasure,” he said. “You have to go through the gate to find the poets and the individual poems that delight you. Poems run ahead of cognition, short-circuit cognition; they delight us with another kind of intelligence. And delight is always the answer in poetry.” Hoagland might be at the barricades in the struggle to update and reintroduce relevant poetry to our schools and social discourse. But first he’s a poet. “I’m a comic, philistine poet; those are the terms of the art I like. And I’d like to make you like them too.” ◀ © 2010 Tony Hoagland
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V.B. Price
Allan Graham and Nathaniel Mackey
Anne Waldman
Michael Abatemarco I The New Mexican
Rhythm section Add-Verse salutes Beat-era poets and their successors I had wanted a quiet testament and I had wanted, among other things, a song. — from “A Song” by Robert Creeley
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rtists Allan and Gloria Graham focused on internationally known poets over age 50 for their video and photography project AddVerse, a series of recorded interviews and portraits. Thus the project is a tribute to poets of a certain generation and a few generations that followed. Talking to the Grahams about their project, it becomes clear that Add-Verse resulted from the artists’ own love of poetry. The video component of the project, which was created between 2003 and 2005, captures each poet at home, reading from his or her original works. There are 25 poets in all, including Anne Waldman, Robert Creeley, Barbara Guest, and Santa Fe poet Arthur Sze. “We just had a number of poet friends that are very well-known and we used them as guidelines as to who else we should go to,” Allan Graham told Pasatiempo. “Anne Waldman told us, You should do Carl Rakosi. He’s going to be 100 years old. But we’d never heard of Carl Rakosi, and Carl lives in San Francisco. We contacted him, and he agreed to do it. Are you coming to my party? he said. We’ve had seven of these poets die since we did this, and Carl was one of them.” The Add-Verse video is a two-hour loop, showing close-ups of the poets’ hands as they read. The photo portraits are candid, intimate shots in black and white. “I don’t like posed photographs,” Gloria Graham said. “Each poet was so
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different. Some people were dressed just perfectly, sitting just right. I wanted something casual, so I’d just wait until they did something casual.” Color photographs are presented on the project website (www.add-verse. info), while black-and-white images have accompanied showings at museum and gallery installations, including Allan’s exhibit Any Position Limits the View (We Are Only Here for a Spell) at David Richard Gallery in the fall of 2013 and most recently the exhibit Come Together: Surviving Sandy at Industry City in Brooklyn. The website also includes video stills and sound bites from the readings. At their Santa Fe home, the artists sifted through a stack of the portraits, discussing each poet in turn. “This is one of the important poets here in New Mexico, V.B. Price, Barrett Price,” Allan said. “He’s Vincent Price’s son. Barrett and I spent so much time together. We used to have what Gloria called boys’ club on Friday afternoons. We’d make a big pot of coffee, and he’d discuss the merits of language and I’d discuss the merits of the visual arts. Through him was where we got the idea of doing this project.” Add-Verse took the Grahams around the country, with most meetings conducted on the east and west coasts. “When we did Creeley, he was in Maine,” Allan said. “He died about four months after we dealt with him. Creeley, who lived in New Mexico part time, had a history here. He was in Placitas. There was a cave outside of Placitas where they found Sandia Man remains. He used to go up there with these other poets — Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg — and they’d sit in this cave, and it had to do with poetry and the whole Beat thing that was going on. If you read The Dharma Bums, Michael McClure was actually one of the characters.”
Photos by Gloria Graham
Michael McClure
Gloria Graham and Carl Rakosi
Robert Creeley
McClure is one of several Beat-era poets included in Add-Verse. Another is Waldman. “She and Ginsberg started this Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa,” Allan said. “She was so fantastic to take photographs of, because we were sitting on the edge of her couch, and she would just come right forward into the camera,” Gloria added. “She’s such a showperson.” Barbara Guest is among the poets who have died since the project’s completion. “She came downstairs — it was morning — in this old sweatshirt and sweatpants, kind of in disarray, and started reading things she’d written the night before,” Allan said. “She had been up all night,” Gloria added. Allan continued, “The last book she published was of that group of poems, but we recorded the originals before she went back in and made adjustments to them. It’s a very first reading. We got all these private readings out of this.” The Grahams worked in tandem as they conducted their interviews, with Allan videotaping and Gloria shooting photographs. “Then we’d take out sections and put sections together and edit it,” Allan said. “I listened to it to try to figure out if it worked.” In a gallery setting, as on the Add-Verse website, the portraits identify poets by name, but the video component is a montage, with one poet’s hands and voice dissolving and fading into the next with no indication of who is speaking. “They chose what they wanted to read,” Allan said. “My job was to best represent what they wanted. Most of the poets were enthusiastic about the idea of this being seen by a different audience rather than just academia.”
“One of the interesting things, since the video focused on the hands, was the difference in how people would use their hands,” Gloria said. “The big difference is some people read off their laps, others off tables,” Allan added. “I focused the video camera on whatever they were reading. Anne Waldman would shake and wave her hands and all that kind of thing. With Nathaniel Mackay, for the longest time you could hear his voice and there would be no motion. You thought you were looking at a still photograph. Then, all of a sudden, one hand would move and turn a page.” Among the poets based in New Mexico, the Grahams worked with MeiMei Berssenbrugge, Jimmy Santiago Baca, and Gene Frumkin. “Mei-Mei is a very well-known international poet,” Allan said. “Barrett’s a little more known regionally, but they are very active, important poets that live in the state. Jimmy was in [prison] for a while, so he writes about being in prison. Gene Frumkin taught at the University of New Mexico for years. He was a poet in Los Angeles and well-known out there. Gene died a couple years ago. He’s one of the casualties.” Several of the poets, such as Creeley, were active at North Carolina’s Black Mountain College. “The Beats looked at Black Mountain as too intellectual, but they all communicated with one another,” Allan said. “But that was the main other driving force in poetry in the United States along with the Beats, which was split between east and west coasts.” At Black Mountain, Creeley was introduced to poet Charles Olson, the college’s final rector before the school was closed in 1956. A mutual friend, Vincent Ferrini, is among the subjects the Grahams included in Add-Verse. “We met Vincent Ferrini and recorded him and took his photograph here in Santa Fe,” Allan said. “He was visiting and staying with a close friend. He had been living back east in Gloucester and was its first poet laureate. Olson wrote The Maximus Poems, a big thick thing. There’s one that’s just scathing, where he makes fun and says bad things about Vincent. When we were talking to Vincent, he said, Have you ever read my Maximus poem? He didn’t care what Olson said about him. The idea was he was historic because he’s [the subject of] one of the Maximus poems.” The Grahams counted Creeley as among their poet friends. After his death, the Grahams presented the Creeley section of Add-Verse at the poet’s memorial. “I thought maybe we shouldn’t have shown that, because everybody was crying,” Gloria said. “But everybody knew him. It was a good way to end a memorial service.” ◀ The Add-Verse project can be seen online at www.add-verse.info.
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Versed in verse Poets reflect on teaching their craft Loren Bienvenu I For The New Mexican
Sudasi Clement
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Clyde Mueller/The New Mexican
Miriam Sagan
Jane Phillips/The New Mexican
Joan Logghe
Dana Levin
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
hough schoolchildren today may be more likely to equate the name Homer with a doughnut-loving cartoon character than with a great poet, Homer’s two epic poems form the starting posts for any study of the Western canon, as they did in ancient Greece. Poetry composition and analysis have long been formally taught. The methodologies, however, have changed drastically from the time when most poets learned almost entirely from verses left behind by their creative forebears. With the rise of writing workshops and university degree programs, influence today is just as likely to pass down directly and personally, from one poet to the next. A notable mentor-mentee pairing of American poets was that of Robert Frost and Wallace Stegner. Though more active as a writer of fiction and history than poetry, Stegner reflected his tutelage under Frost through his pioneering work as an educator of future writers. He founded the creative writing program at Stanford University, which awards the coveted Stegner Fellowship annually to 10 writers of fiction and poetry. This fellowship is typical of the current approach to teaching writers how to write, in that participants convene weekly and are led by an instructor in a lengthy workshop where they read and critique one another’s work. In individual exchanges with Pasatiempo, three of Santa Fe’s most accomplished poets, all well versed in the workshop format, discussed the importance of mentorship for burgeoning poets. Not coincidentally, they all recognized with gratitude the support they received in their own early years. Dana Levin, co-chair of the Creative Writing and Literature Department at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, named Charles Simic and Louise Glück as personal mentors. Joan Logghe, poet laureate of Santa Fe from 2010 to 2012, said she had the great fortune to study with Robert Bly and Natalie Goldberg. And Miriam Sagan, director of the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College, recognized former teachers John Malcolm Brinnin and Robert Fitzgerald (whose translations of Homer remain highly influential). This formidable triumvirate of poet-educators weighed in on three questions about poetry pedagogy. The first concerned what classroom methods most effectively teach students how to write better poetry. Levin stressed the importance of learning how to read poems, whether written
by a master or a novice. “I want my students to be able to talk about feeling and form and to be able to link the two. There is no feeling expressed in a poem without form; form is the vehicle.” In her classes at SFCC, Sagan combines the “old-fashioned craft” she learned in her university studies with the more informal approach she reads in the work of Beat poet Philip Whalen, “who loved how poetry is fragmentary and talkative.” Logghe’s approach is highly adaptive, as she teaches students of all ages in many contexts across Northern New Mexico and beyond. She said that when running a workshop in a place like Santa Clara Pueblo’s day school, “I present a poem and read it to them or show it to them on the page, then get them to write something from a line or the form of that poem, so it’s not analysis or editing; it’s trying to connect kids with their own material through other writers of great poetry.” Transitioning from classroom methodology to its merits, the poets were asked about the impact of formal poetic study on their lives and how it might pertain to prospective students. Logghe said that writing with other people around can be stimulating: “There are all different kinds of psyches. For some people the pressurized social environment of a workshop is a little terrifying but also gets the creative fires going.” Logghe said she “never attended a semester studying poetry anywhere,” and the success of her career is a testament to a belief of Sagan’s: “To be honest, you don’t need to go to school to write fiction or poetry or creative nonfiction. But you need a community. Classes at SFCC provide that — along with inspiration and guidance.” Levin brought up a related benefit to the formal study of poetry. In her case, the opportunity to teach undergraduates as part of her master’s program at New York University led her to an important realization: “After my first day in the classroom, I felt a total rush and thought, ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life!’ — an incredible gift I would not have received without attending a writing program.” One merit of teaching in a workshop setting for Levin is the ability “to emphatically enter the feelings and ideas student poems are trying to express.” Given that the study and critique of poetry are often exercises in empathy, the poets were asked whether it was difficult or even desirable to disentangle their classroom
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The Santa Fe Concert Association presents
work from their creative work. “Teaching is a great aid to my own writing of both poetry and essays; in teaching others I often teach myself,” Levin said. “Teaching has helped me become a swifter and cannier apprehender of developing patterns in both my own and student poems in progress: musical, imagistic, syntactical patterns.” In Sagan’s case, the benefits of being a teacher extend to being involved in the community she has helped create, including campus-wide initiatives such as the Santa Fe Literary Review and a series of 10 “poetry posts” on the community college campus where students can “curate a changing show of poetry just by slipping new text into a frame on a post.” Logghe often writes during her own workshops, and the poems that result are reflective of the group in the room. When she writes with advanced poets who attend her Ghost Ranch retreats, “I let it rip. … [But] sometimes I’ll write along with young students, and then I have to be respectful of my classroom audience.” Logghe mused on the possibility of one day collecting some of that work into a book of children’s poems, similar to Federico García Lorca’s The Cricket Sings. In the meantime, her students have the opportunity to hear her recite poems written just for them. A similar intimacy exists in all the workshops led by Logghe, Sagan, and Levin — almost as if the creative journeys their students are embarking upon were helmed by their own personal Homer. ◀
Notes on self
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Miriam Sagan: I’ve published over 25 books, blog at Miriam’s Well (www.miriamswell.wordpress.com), which is always looking for student and community submissions, and do text installations. A recent project is “Haiku in the Hood” — check out recycled metal signs, two on Kathryn Street and one parallel on Cortez on Santa Fe’s west side. Joan Logghe: Joan Logghe was poet laureate of Santa Fe from 2010 to 2012. She works at poetry and arts activism in the community, off the academic grid in La Puebla, New Mexico. Awards include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry grants. Her most recent book, Odes & Offerings, is a collaborative exhibit of poetry and the visual arts undertaken during her tenure as poet laureate and published by Sunstone Press. — from www.joanlogghe.com Dana Levin: I remain the astonished author of three books of poetry, most recently Sky Burial, which garnered me a cartoon portrait in The New Yorker (score!). The grateful recipient of fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim, Whiting, Witter Bynner, and Rona Jaffe foundations, I co-chair the Creative Writing and Literature Department with Matt Donovan at Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
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Poetry SamPler Expensive Hotel Tony Hoagland
Quetzal Feathers Jimmy Santiago Baca
When the middle-class black family in the carpeted hall passes the immigrant housekeeper from Belize, oh that is an interesting moment. One pair of eyes is lowered. That’s how you know you are part of a master race — when someone humbles themselves without even having to be asked. And in that moment trembling from the stress of its creation, we feel the illness underneath our skin — the unquenchable wish to be thought well of wilting and dying a little while trying to squeeze by the cart piled high with fresh towels and sheets, small bars of soap and bottles of bright green shampoo, which are provided for guests to steal.
Lying down on a bed, dying, with old fingers he places quetzal feathers on his ancient gray head, then entering flowing green forest of his thoughts, he drums untamed air, whips faster the feathers, shreds silence with this long gliding flight, descends into thick viney treetops, and downward into wooden trails, among other birds where he met the sun’s eyes behind each leaf, and offered to the sun his feathers, then entered the heart of the sun, like a bird in the sky forever disappearing into the sun, with a smile on his already pale lips. © 2014 Jimmy Santiago Baca
© 2010 Tony Hoagland
Comet Hyakutake Arthur Sze Viaje al Sur Anne Valley-Fox
Comet Hyakutake’s tail stretches for 360 million miles —
You wake each day to a different place — thrum of traffic or surf breaking?
the ion tail contains the time we saw bats emerge out of a cavern at dusk —
Light tightens the white-washed walls of elephant palms, campfire ash, spoons stabbed into sand.
first silence, then reverberating sound —
in 1996, we saw Hyakutake through binoculars —
A pair of macaws alights on a post, squawking in Spanish. It is as if you married in passion one afternoon and wake beside a stranger. Your husband rises, stumbles about, connecting the dots between objects and vegetation. A village daughter of six or seven steps into camp, intrepid and shy, hawking her mama’s tamales. Your child shakes out his woven shoes, checking for scorpions. © 2004 Anne-Valley Fox
in the cavern, we first heard stalactites dripping — our touch reverberates and makes a blossoming track — a comet’s nucleus emits X-rays and leaves tracks — two thousand miles away, you box up books and, in two days, will step through the invisible rays of an airport scanner — we write on invisible pages in an invisible book with invisible ink — in nature’s book, we read a few pages — in the sky, we read the ion tracks from the orchard — the apple orchard where blossoms unfold, where we unfold — budding, the child who writes, “the puzzle comes to life”— elated, puzzled, shocked, dismayed, confident, loving: minutes to an hour — a minute, a pinhole lens through which light passes — Comet Hyakutake will not pass earth for another 100,000 years — no matter, ardor is here — and to the writer of fragments, each fragment is a whole — © 2014 Arthur Sze
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
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The uh-huh of Desire Lauren Camp
She waited for a story to be written, and to travel through it, through the increasing tightened space, both syllables poised, but resisting.
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The way his hyphen flattened the beveled air, how it slipped between them and spread off his tongue with one of 26 dialects she didn’t yet know. It was this she wanted and this she’d recall: the edge coming toward her and the breath as he paused in that dash, the sudden architecture of line.
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And she knew she would look back at that sliver of air, that original moment of suspension hung lightly between words, the moment before persuasion was final. The subtext of each scarcely moving sound brimmed over the edge, and the span of words passed into them with such economy, such need. © 2013 Lauren Camp
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Bards of a feather Poets flock to New Mexico
N
ov. 3, 2013, was a big day in Santa Fe poetry circles. Five highly regarded poets from New York City and California were in town to read at Teatro Paraguas Studio as part of a national tour. It wasn’t the only poetry event happening that day: Jane Lipman — a local poet and winner of the 2013 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award in poetry — was leading a daylong workshop; former poet laureate Arthur Sze was reading at Collected Works Bookstore; and Red Mountain Press and the New Mexico State Poetry Society were co-hosting an afternoon-long gathering to support an initiative to establish a New Mexico poet laureate. Such scheduling logjams are not uncommon. The Santa Fe Poetry and Prose Meetup Group (www.meetup.com/Santa-Fe-Poetry-and-ProseMeetup-Group), which boasts 464 members, publicized some 270 events last year, and numerous other poetry-related readings, workshops, signings, gatherings, and other events weren’t even listed on the site. In a 2011 posting, the now-inactive blog Santa Fe Literary News (www. sfliterarynews.blogspot.com) proclaimed Santa Fe “the writing capital of the United States — there are more writers per capita here than any other city in the nation.” Regardless of whether that claim can be substantiated, there’s no arguing that Santa Fe is something of a poets’ paradise, with far more than its share of published poets, publishing houses, events, projects, and educational offerings. — Wayne Lee The Poets The Santa Fe area boasts at least 75 poets who have published one or more books of poetry — plus many others who have published individual poems — and untold numbers of unpublished writers who actively write poetry and attend poetry events. Here, in alphabetical order, is a working list of local poets with published books and the title of each one’s latest book. Jimmy Santiago Baca: Singing at the Gates: Selected Poems Barbara J. Berkenfield: The Earth Behind My Thumb Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge: Hello, the Roses John Brandi: Seeding the Cosmos Janet K. Brennan: Gentle Tugs: Poetry of Life, Love and Other Addictions Debbi Brody: Freeform Shirley T. Burton: Awakening Lauren Camp: This Business of Wisdom Colleen Carias, Laurie Hilton, and Katherine Seluja: Braided Voices Sudasi Clement: The Bones We Have in Common Steve Counsell: Illuminations Sheila Cowing: Banked Fire Jon Davis: Preliminary Report Victor di Suvero: Considering Matt Donovan: Vellum Joanne Dominique Dwyer: Belle Laide Janet Eigner: What Lasts Is the Breath Catherine Ferguson: The Sound a Raven Makes Ann Filemyr: Love Enough Patricia Flasch: Becoming a Love Dog: From Emptiness to Tenderness Susan Gardner: To Inhabit the Felt World Greg Glazner: Singularity
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
Literary impresario and poet Christoper J. Johnson hosts Collected Words at 10 a.m. Wednesdays on KVSF-FM 101.5. Johnson talks to poets on the second Wednesday of each month. Jon Davis, Lauren Camp, and others can be heard on podcasts of previous shows at www.santafe.com/thevoice/show/collected-words.
Veronica Golos: Vocabulary of Silence Renée Gregorio: Drenched Vijali Hamilton: Of Earth and Fire Judyth Hill: A Presence of Angels Tony Hoagland: Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty Michelle Holland: Chaos Theory Robyn Hunt: The Shape of Caught Water Tom Ireland: The Man Who Gave His Wife Away Mary Strong Jackson: Witnesses Elizabeth Jacobson: Her Knees Pulled In Kathleen Johnson: Burn Marina LaPalma: Persistence Alice Lee with Wayne Lee: Twenty Poems From the Blue House Wayne Lee: The Underside of Light Piper Leigh: My Thin-Skinned Wandering Donald Levering: Algonquins Planted Salmon Dana Levin: Sky Burial Jane Lipman: On the Back Porch of the Moon Joan Logghe: The Singing Bowl Yves Lucero: Portmanteau ... con Carne John Macker: The Royal Road: Artistic Impressions of El Camino Real Valerie Martínez: Each and Her Mary McGinnis: Listening for Cactus James McGrath: Valentines and Forgeries, Mirrors and Dragons Devon Miller-Duggan: Pinning the Bird to the Wall Carol Moldaw: So Late, So Soon Gary Worth Moody: The Hazards of Grace Marcia Muth: Fake Ivory Dana Negev: I OM the World Janie Oakes: Creased dg nanouk okpik: Corpse Whale Elizabeth Raby: Ransomed Voices Sheila Raeschild: Lessons in Leaving Miriam Sagan: Seven Places in America: A Poetic Sojourn Andres C. Salazar: Seasons: Sounds and Amorous Observations Lorraine Schechter: The Seasons of Yes Michael Scofield: Whirling Backward Into the World Patricia Sharpe: The Unspoken Voice Henry Shukman: Archangel
Marcia Starck: Unraveling the World James Thomas Stevens: A Bridge Dead in the Water Mike Sutin: Graven Images Arthur Sze: The Ginkgo Light Judith Toler: In the Shine of Broken Things Charles Trumbull: A Five-Balloon Morning Elaine Upton: Children of Apartness Anne Valley-Fox: How Shadows Are Bundled Lew Watts: Lessons for Tangueros Cynthia West: In the Center of the Field Jesse White: Dominion of Wings: Unbound Poems for Contemplation Linda Whittenberg: Somewhere in Ireland: A Journey of Discovery
At the Santa Fe Indian School, Timothy P. McLaughlin runs the highly successful Spoken-Word Program, which helps students create and perform poetry that incorporates Native languages and cultures. The SFIS Spoken Word Team has been featured in The New York Times, on the PBS NewsHour, and in an HBO series about teen poetry. Elsewhere, New Mexico CultureNet (www.nmcn.org) runs Poets-in-the-Schools. Coordinated by executive director Alex Traube, the program places poets in classrooms, where they work directly with students. Other area poetry teachers include James McGrath, Joan Logghe, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Arthur Sze, Jane Lipman, Valerie Martinez, James Thomas Stevens, Lauren Camp, Debbi Brody, Ann Filemyr, and Miranda Merklein. The Organizations Santa Fe Poetry Trails is the local chapter of the New Mexico State Poetry Society (www.nmpoetry.org/index.shtml), an organization affiliated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Members include chairman Jim Raby and glass artist and poetry impresario Paul White, who also administers the online meetup group. The Cut + Paste Society, founded by Edie Tsong, is “community of woman writers and artists.”
The Educators The biggest news last year on the local educational front was the creation and implementation of the low-residency master’s program in creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Santa Fe poet laureate Jon Davis directs the program, which provides a professional degree while allowing students to live off-campus. Faculty mentors include such luminaries as Sherman Alexie, Sherwin Bitsui, Joy Harjo, and Orlando White. In conjunction with the program, the second-annual IAIA Writers Festival has presented a week of free campus readings, with the final event taking place on Friday, Jan. 10. Featured writers included Davis and Bitsui, along with Linda Hogan, Ken White, and other professional and student poets. The Jan. 10 reading, featuring Alexie, begins at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the Library and Technology Center at IAIA (83 Avan Nu Po Road). There is no charge, but reservations are required; call 505-428-5931 or see www.iaia.edu/iaia-news/events/iaia-writers-festival. The Santa Fe University of Art and Design staged its second-annual Artfest13 in July of 2013, when the creative-writing program’s co-chairs, Dana Levin and Matt Donovan, offered poetry workshops by Levin, Davis, and Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Glück. Santa Fe Community College offers a creative-writing program in three genres (fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction) and publishes the annual Santa Fe Literary Review. Miriam Sagan is founder and director of the program, and Barbara Rockman also teaches poetry classes.
The Reading Series and Open Mics The Lannan Foundation offers a dozen or so poetry and prose readings each year at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. The Lensic also collaborates with Santa Fe Public Schools and ArtWorks (a program of the Partners in Education Foundation, www.sfpartnersineducation.org) to invite schoolchildren to attend free arts and literary events at the theater. Muse Times Two Poetry Series stages periodic dual poetry readings at Collected Works Bookstore. Collected Works also offers an open-mic platform for unpublished poets and other performers the fourth Sunday of each month from 3 to 4:30 p.m., with the next event on Jan. 26. Poetry Trails organizes an open mic at 6:30 p.m. the first Monday of each month at Teatro Paraguas Studio (www.teatroparaguas.org). The next date is Feb. 3. Artistic director Argos MacCallum also hosts numerous individual and group readings and stages poetic/theatrical productions. Other readings occur frequently at area bookstores, including Garcia Street Books and Op.Cit. Books, as well as at various galleries, churches, schools, and eateries.
New Mexico is one of only four states without a poet laureate. On Nov. 3, 2013, the New Mexico State Poetry Society and Red Mountain Press of Santa Fe initiated a drive to designate an official state poet with a reading at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Laureates from other states were among the readers. Why a state laureate? Education, entertainment, and improving the state’s image are among the reasons. The state legislature reconvenes on Jan. 21. Send the legislators a note, or write them a poem.
The Publishers Santa Fe is home to a handful of successful poetry publishers. The largest, Sunstone Press (www.sunstonepress.com), has published dozens of area writers among its 1,200 titles. Red Mountain Press (www.redmountainpress.us) now has a dozen poets in its stable. Sherman Asher Publishing (www.shermanasher.com) is the general-literature imprint of Western Edge Press. Since 1951, the Museum of New Mexico Press (www.mnmpress.org) has published finely designed and crafted broadsides and books that reflect the collections of the Museum of New Mexico and explore the cultures of the Southwest. Tres Chicas Books is a cooperative run by Joan Logghe, Miriam Sagan, and Renée Gregorio that publishes their books and those by other area poets. continued on Page 46
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Bards of a feather, continued from Page 45 Black Swan Editions is another cooperative, publishing works by members Janet Eigner, Steve Counsell, Jane Lipman, and others. Earth Medicine Books produces titles by Marcia Starck and Dana Negev. The Foundations The Lannan Literary Foundation (www.lannan.org), which moved to Santa Fe in 1997, offers “substantial investments in ambitious and experimental thinking” in literature and other arts through grants, fellowships, and awards. The Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry (www.bynnerfoundation.org) has been promoting poetry in America since 1972 by awarding grants in four categories: individual poets, translation and the process of translation, developing the poetry audience, and uses of poetry. The Awards Santa Fe poets have fared well in the prestigious New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards competition, with Jane Lipman (2013); Barbara Rockman (2012); Renée Gregorio, Joan Logghe, and Miriam Sagan (2011); and Michelle Holland, Sawnie Morris, and Catherine Ferguson (2007) all winning the poetry category. The Gratitude Award, bestowed by New Mexico Literary Arts, has gone to local poets Mary McGinnis, James McGrath, and Stan Noyes in recent years. The Mayor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts were started in 1989 to acknowledge “living individuals, organizations, and corporations that have made outstanding contributions to the arts in Santa Fe.” Recent honorees have included Tom Leech (2013), director of the Press at the Palace of the Governors; the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, Collected Works Bookstore co-owner Dorothy Massey, and SFIS Spoken Word Program and Team (2011); and Miriam Sagan of Santa Fe Community College (2010). Pasatiempo sponsors an annual writing contest that includes poetry and prose. The Santa Fe Reporter runs a yearly writing contest. The Red Mountain Press Book Award is now in its third year. Since its inception, the Santa Fe Poet Laureate Program, sponsored by the Santa Fe Arts Commission (www.santafenm.gov/arts_commission), has named Arthur Sze, Valerie Martinez, Joan Logghe, and Jon Davis to two-year terms as the city’s poetry representative (www.santafelaureate. blogspot.com). For the past eight years, more than 7,500 high school students across New Mexico have participated in Poetry Out Loud state recitation competitions. The state finals, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation, are set for March 9 in Santa Fe.
January reading not to be missed: Jimmy Santiago Baca (see story, Page 30) reads from Singing at the Gates: Selected Poems at Collected Works Bookstore (202 Galisteo St., 505-988-4226) at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21.
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
Poet, artist, and eclectic deejay Lauren Camp stirs up spoken word and music — jazz, global sounds, and some surprises — in her weekly radio program Audio Saucepan on KSFR-FM 101.1, every Sunday at 6 p.m. Recent shows have included poems from Robert Lowell, Denise Levertov, Billy Collins, Theodore Roethke, Lucille Clifton, and Antonio Machado, as well as new contemporary work.
The Projects Santa Fe has been the scene in recent years of some highly innovative poetry projects, many instigated by poets laureate. Axle Contemporary’s Haiku Roadsign Project presented two new poems (one on each side of a portable road sign) each week for four months during the summer of 2011. Photos of the 32 poems were published in an anthology the following year. Axle also mounted the Renga Project in the summer of 2013. Each week through mid-June 2014, the organizers gather at a stand in the Railyard, ring a bell, and hang a placard bearing a new stanza on the stand as the collaborative poem unfolds. Odes and Offerings was a 2012 collaborative exhibit of poetry and the visual arts, with 36 visual artists incorporating the words of 36 poets in their work. Conceived by Joan Logghe, the collaboration also spawned an anthology. In September 2013, the David Richard Gallery mounted Add-Verse, a two-part collaborative video and photographic project involving the work of 25 area poets (see story, Page 38). The Snow Poems Project was a community poetry venture by the Cut + Paste Society. The citywide exhibit featured poetry excerpts in more than 40 downtown Santa Fe windows. The resulting book launch and poetry reading takes place at Collected Works (202 Galisteo St., 505-988-4226) at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12. There is no charge for the event. The Alzheimer’s Poetry Project (www.creativeaging.org) was founded by Gary Glazner in 2004 to facilitate the creativity of people living with the disease and related neurocognitive disorders. There are many other poetry initiatives in Santa Fe: Kathleen Johnson’s quarterly publication New Mexico Poetry Review; email poetry groups by Rachelle Woods, Paul White, Jim Raby, and others; and Jon Davis’ monthly critique column, “The Yawp Barbaric,” in The Santa Fe Reporter. Stay tuned — there’s much more in store for local poetry lovers in 2014. Information compiled by Wayne Lee.
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BO O LE KS CT & UR ES
LIV & EM NI U GH SIC TL IFE
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CO MM EV UN EN ITY TS
MOVING IMAGES pasa pics
— compiled by Robert Ker
two crazy kids get together in the end? Amy Adams co-stars. Rated R. 119 minutes. Regal DeVargas, Santa Fe. (Not reviewed) I AM DIVINE Most people know Divine (born Harris Glenn Milstead) from his work with filmmaker John Waters, whether eating dog droppings in 1972’s Pink Flamingos or acting the outlandish housewife in 1988’s Hairspray. Fewer people know he also had a prolific stage and stand-up career and even some disco hits. If you’re in the latter group, this documentary is for you — it’s primarily for fans but also reveals how queer culture and artists like Divine were punk rock before punk rock. Divine was a performer who never held back, but it feels like the documentary does. It devotes several minutes to Lust in the Dust, Divine’s 1985 Western comedy, which was shot in Santa Fe. Not rated. 90 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe. (Robert Ker) Flamingo road: I Am Divine at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe
opening this week AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY Tracy Letts adapts his Pulitzer Prize-winning play for the screen, with an embarrassment of riches led by Meryl Streep as the poisonous matriarch of one of the most dysfunctional families you’ll ever meet as they gather to cope with the suicide of the patriarch (Sam Shepard). Streep is joined but not matched by a generally strong cast, with particular kudos to Julia Roberts and Chris Cooper. But director John Wells, a TV producer and director with one mediocre film credit (The Company Men), isn’t up to the job, and the result is an uneven movie at once too dispersed and too intimate to capture the theatrical lightning. Rated R. 119 minutes. Regal DeVargas, Santa Fe. (Jonathan Richards) BETTIE PAGE REVEALS ALL Documentary filmmaker Mark Mori uses audio interviews with the late-1950s pinup star — who died in 2008 — to anchor this compelling biography, which is chock-full of talking heads, amusing anecdotes, historical footage of bondage films, and Bettie revealing all. But the film wears out its welcome near the end by letting a bunch of people who were influenced by Bettie gab on. Still, Page fans must see it. Rated R. 101 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema, Santa Fe. (Robert Nott)
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
EVANGELION: 3.0 YOU CAN (NOT) REDO If this title doesn’t make a lick of sense to you, then move on. If you’re one of the many who adore this anime series (which began as Neon Genesis Evangelion), then you’re already thrilled to see this installment. Not rated. 106 minutes. Dubbed in English. Jean Cocteau Cinema, Santa Fe. (Not reviewed) GAME OF THRONES MARATHON The HBO series Game of Thrones, based on a book series by George R.R. Martin, is not typically screened in theaters. The Jean Cocteau Cinema shows the first three seasons, screening two or three episodes per week (first come, first served) until March 24. Occasionally, Martin will drop by in person or a cast or crew member will appear via Skype. Season 1 episodes 4 and 5 screen at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13. Not rated, but not suitable for children. Each episode runs roughly 55 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema, Santa Fe. (Not reviewed) GLEN OR GLENDA Ed Wood directs and stars in this 1953 exploitation film that exposed the director’s cross-dressing fetish on the big screen. He plays a transvestite who gets entangled with a hermaphrodite in the kind of romance that has long made “worst movie ever” lists. 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 10 and 11, only. Not rated. 65 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema, Santa Fe. (Not reviewed) HER Director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) takes a crack at the romantic-comedy genre with this tale of a sad-eyed man with a mustache ( Joaquin Phoenix) who falls for a computer operating system with a Siri-like voice (Scarlett Johansson). Will those
IN NO GREAT HURRY: 13 LESSONS IN LIFE WITH SAUL LEITER “One nice thing about photography is that it teaches you to look,” says Saul Leiter in this 2014 film. “It teaches you to appreciate all kinds of things.” His appreciations are obvious in his vibrant, slightly abstract images of New York City in the 1950s — shot in color, something few others thought of doing then. The man behind such wonderful images as a barber’s pole and street scene viewed through a rainy barbershop window and gauzy portraits of his longtime companion, Soames Bantry, is explored in this film by Tomas Leach. Leiter died in November 2013 at age 89. Not rated. 75 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe. (Paul Weideman) INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS The Coen brothers have made a richly textured, visually gorgeous film set in the Greenwich Village folk scene at the start of the ’60s. The title character (Oscar Isaac) is loosely inspired by Dave Van Ronk, one of the core figures of the folk revival, but he doesn’t achieve that stature. The Coens handle the music with respect and treat the life of a marginal artist with humor, sympathy, and a nice streak of cynicism. The film is about opportunities missed, lost, and squandered; about doors opening and closing; about failure and redemption and second chances and the Möbius strip of a life that keeps folding back in on itself. Rated R. 105 minutes. Regal DeVargas, Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards) See review, Page 52. THE LEGEND OF HERCULES The cheapie “swords and sandals” flick, that B-movie staple, gets a modern update with this loose retelling of the Hercules fable, which stars people with names like Kellan Lutz and Gaia Weiss, boasts special effects that look less impressive than Playstation 4 games, and is smeared
with a recycled 300 visual style. Director Renny Harlin’s fall from grace is complete. Rated PG-13. 99 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe. (Not reviewed) LONE SURVIVOR A movie based on a memoir of a combat mission and titled Lone Survivor has to find its strengths in something other than suspense. Peter Berg’s blood-and-guts tale is based on Marcus Luttrell’s (Mark Wahlberg) account of an ill-fated 2005 attempt by four Navy SEALs in the mountains of Afghanistan to take out a murderous warlord. The acting is solid, the action is tough, and the real-life consequences were tragic. But the movie comes across as a two-hour hybrid of a video game and a recruitment film. Rated R. 121 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. ( Jonathan Richards) See review, Page 54. THE PALM BEACH STORY This special screening of the 1942 screwball comedy by Preston Sturges — a favorite director of Brent Kliewer, curator at The Screen — shows as part of the art-house theater’s 15th-anniversary festivities, which also include words by several guest speakers and a cake. The Palm Beach Story stars Claudette Colbert as a woman who divorces her husband, Tom (Joel McCrea), to marry a millionaire and fund Tom’s big invention. 7 p.m. Friday, Jan 10, only. Not rated. 88 minutes. The Screen, Santa Fe. (Not reviewed) PERFORMANCE AT THE SCREEN The series of high-definition screenings continues with a showing of Wagner’s Parsifal from London’s Royal Opera House. Simon O’Neill and René Pape star. 11 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, only. Not rated. 330 minutes, plus two intermissions. The Screen, Santa Fe. (Not reviewed) THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY Director Sophie Fiennes and cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek delighted audiences with 2006’s The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, a rollicking guide through movies from a psychoanalytical perspective. They return to continue the conversation through re-creations of more classic cinematic scenes. Not rated. 136 minutes. The Screen, Santa Fe. (Not reviewed) SWEET DREAMS Produced and directed by siblings Lisa and Rob Fruchtman, Sweet Dreams follows Ingoma Nshya, Rwanda’s first female drumming group, as they work to open Rwanda’s first ice cream shop, Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams). The film also tells the story of the country’s recovery from the devastating 1994 genocide, in which neighbor turned on neighbor. The film tells the women’s stories without self-congratulation on the part of the filmmakers. Not rated. 89 minutes. The Screen, Santa Fe. ( Jennifer Levin) See review, Page 55.
now in theaters ALL IS LOST A man (Robert Redford) is stranded on a crippled vessel somewhere in the Indian Ocean in this often-enthralling drama from writer and director J.C. Chandor (Margin Call). All Is Lost is basically Robert Redford against the sea, and it relies on good old-fashioned storytelling to keep you involved. It’s a gutsy project that trusts its audience to trust it back, but be warned: the final third of the film gets a bit repetitious — in a most soggy manner. Rated PG-13. 106 minutes. The Screen, Santa Fe. (Robert Nott) AMERICAN HUSTLE Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) bond over Duke Ellington at a party. This is appropriate, because David O. Russell has orchestrated his wild and wonderful riff on the 1978 Abscam sting operation like an Ellington suite. The film is an extended cinematic jazz composition, weaving themes and rhythms, tight ensemble work and electrifying solos, and building to a foot-stomping climax. The performances are terrific, including Jennifer Lawrence as Irving’s cagey, dumb-smart wife. Rated R. 138 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. (Jonathan Richards) ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES This sequel to the muchloved 2004 comedy finds the Channel 4 news team (Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, and Christina Applegate) headed to cable news and the 1980s. It avoids the trap that sinks many comedy sequels by not getting too plot-heavy and not simply repeating the best bits of the first film. Some commentary about modern news networks slows the pace, but the crew’s Monty Python-esque approach to delivering humor in offbeat, unexpected ways carries the day, and a shark named Doby nearly steals the show. Rated PG-13. 119 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe. (Robert Ker) DALLAS BUYERS CLUB In 1985, a cocky homophobic sex-, booze-, and drug-addicted Texas redneck named Ron Woodroof was diagnosed as HIV-positive, at a time when AIDS was known almost exclusively as a gay disease. His reaction to the diagnosis, and his battle against the big-hospital/big-pharma/FDA cartel that put profit ahead of patients is the basis for this remarkable story. Taking it to the next level are the terrific performances of Matthew McConaughey as Woodroof and Jared Leto as his sweet but steely transvestite sidekick Rayon. Thursday, Jan. 16, only. Rated R. 117 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
FROZEN Disney’s latest animated fable is a strange one: it is a tale of misunderstanding with a complicated setup but no real villain or central conflict. Two princess sisters in a fantasy kingdom are split apart when one is revealed to have magical powers to summon cold, snow, and ice. With the help of a big lug (Jonathan Groff), the younger woman (Kristen Bell) must pull her older sis out of her wintery withdrawal from society. The film is a breeze, despite the awkward first act and uneven songs. Rated PG. 108 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. (Robert Ker) THE GIRLS IN THE BAND Director Judy Chaikin gives an overdue ovation to female jazz instrumentalists past and present in this touching music doc, which offers the perfect blend of sometimes grainy, sometimes vivid archival footage and thoughtful interviews. From the vaudeville performers of the 1920s and ’30s and pioneering all-female big bands like The International Sweethearts of Rhythm all the way up to the most sensational players of today, the film makes the case that these women may be female jazz musicians, but they are first and foremost jazz musicians. Not rated. 87 minutes. The Screen, Santa Fe. (Loren Bienvenu) THE GREAT BEAUTY Director Paolo Sorrentino’s breathtaking excursion through Roman high life is a funny, sexy, and heartbreaking look at a society dancing as fast as it can to keep up with a past that can’t be caught or even quite remembered. Our guide through this funhouse labyrinth of beauty, debauchery, pretension, and yearning is Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), an aging writer and bon vivant who made a literary splash with a slim novel 40 years ago and hasn’t been able to think of anything worth writing about since. La Grande Bellezza is a conscious and masterful updating of Fellini. Not rated. 142 minutes. In Italian with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards) GRUDGE MATCH Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro rose to fame playing iconic boxers. That was more than 30 years ago. Now the two men play ex-boxers who hate each other’s guts but agree to get back in the ring for a payday and — for one of them — payback. Alan Arkin and Kevin Hart co-star in this comedy. Rated PG-13. 114 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. (Not reviewed) HAUTE CUISINE Not much happens in this whimsical cream puff of a film, a fictionalized version of the years Danièle continued on Page 50 PASATIEMPOMAGAZINE.COM
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Mazet-Delpeuch spent as personal chef to French president François Mitterrand. Standing in for her is Hortense Laborie (Catherine Frot), who leaves her tiny Périgord village and takes over the private kitchen at the Élysée Palace in Paris. Rated PG-13. 95 minutes. In French with subtitles. Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe. (Laurel Gladden) THE HOBBIT: DESOLATION OF SMAUG As if in reaction to criticism that the first Hobbit flick was too slow, director Peter Jackson keeps the action pumping in this sequel. Given that the film is nearly three hours long, it gets exhausting. It also feels shorter than many 90-minute films thanks to its attention to detail, swashbuckling action, operatic drama, and a jim-dandy of a dragon (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch). Rated PG-13. 160 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe. Screens in 2-D only at DreamCatcher, Española. (Robert Ker) THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE This is a rare case of a movie that’s just as good as — if not better than — the book on which it’s based. Defiant Katniss ( Jennifer Lawrence) has inspired unrest in Panem, a dystopian nation where a totalitarian government punishes its citizens for their rebellion by forcing children to compete in an annual televised battle to the death. To dampen Katniss’ fire, sinister President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and a new Head Gamemaker (Philip Seymour Hoffman) force her back into the arena. Rated PG-13. 146 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. (Laurel Gladden) NEBRASKA Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) has won a million dollars, or so his letter from Publishers Clearing House says, and he’s determined to go to Lincoln, Nebraska, to claim his prize. His son David (Will Forte) agrees to drive him. This is the slender setup for Alexander Payne’s sweet, biting, funny comedy-drama of a receding American Midwest. As important as the characters is the black-and-white photography, which renders the landscape in muted, evocative charcoal washes and brings out the lonely feeling of an era and a generation disappearing into the past. Rated R. 115 minutes. Regal DeVargas, Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
spicy
medium
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mild
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PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES The Paranormal Activity franchise started with a haunted house and a hidden camera. Now it’s expanded to be about whatever it wants — in this case, a young man (Andrew Jacobs) who acquires powers and finds himself pursued by supernatural scaremongers. Rated R. 84 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. (Not reviewed) PHILOMENA Steve Coogan plays a down-on-his-luck journalist who takes on a human-interest story by bringing an Irish woman (Judi Dench) to America to find her long-estranged son. The film is marketed as a lighthearted, odd-couple comedy — and there are laughs — but the material runs much deeper and darker than that. Before director Stephen Frears is done taking us on all his unpredictable and often-rewarding turns, we’ve pondered aging, forgiveness, the existence of God, and how different perspectives paint a distorted picture of one’s life. Rated PG-13. 98 minutes. Regal DeVargas, Santa Fe. (Robert Ker) SAVING MR. BANKS Fans of Mary Poppins will probably find this biopic depicting the struggle between Walt Disney and author P.L. Travers fascinating, if disturbing. But as the film moves back and forth between the harsh reality of Travers’ childhood in the Australian outback and the fairy-tale environment of Disney’s studio, the screenplay’s arc just isn’t strong enough to carry the two tales. Still, Emma Thompson gives a beautiful turn as the strong-willed Travers, while Tom Hanks is all easygoing charm as Disney. Rated PG-13. 125 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. (Robert Nott) THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY James Thurber’s 1939 short story about an unimportant man who daydreams big is brought to life as a feel-good (if flimsy) midwinter film directed by and starring Ben Stiller. He plays Mitty as a meek man who works at Life magazine and embarks on a real-life adventure to track down a slide from a reclusive photographer (Sean Penn). The film is charming — how could it not be with Stiller and Kristen Wiig as the central couple — but it wants to be life-affirming, and my life was not affirmed. Rated PG. 114 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. (Robert Ker) SPINNING PLATES It’s rare that foodie documentaries explore restaurants with fewer than four stars, but this film balances one such fancy-pants establishment in Chicago with an eatery in Iowa and an upstart Mexican joint in Arizona to show how the mind-sets of restaurateurs are the same regardless of circumstances. Spinning Plates is comfort food — it goes down easy and fills you up, while conforming to expectations rather than
pasa pics defying them. Not rated. 93 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema, Santa Fe. (Robert Ker) 12 YEARS A SLAVE Director Steve McQueen takes us into America’s slave trade with the same clinical observation and exquisite composition he used in his previous features, Hunger and Shame. Alas, he tarnishes his adaptation of Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography — about the free-born man’s stint as a slave after being captured and shipped south — with too many movie moments, blunting the impact and putting his intentions into question. There’s fine acting all around. Rated R. 133 minutes. Regal DeVargas, Santa Fe. (Robert Ker) WALKING WITH DINOSAURS This film uses animation to present dinosaur life by following a young creature through life and telling its story. Rated PG. 87 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe; DreamCatcher, Española. (Not reviewed) THE WOLF OF WALL STREET Martin Scorsese’s celebration of chicanery and gluttony in the world of finance is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), who fleeced his way to the top selling penny stocks and then did time in a federal prison for fraud. Scorsese has turned his story into a dazzling but repetitious movie that halfheartedly masquerades as a cautionary tale laced with dwarf-tossing contests, exotic cars, yachts, helicopters, and acres of naked women who serve, among other things, as surfaces off of which to snort cocaine. Rated R. 179 minutes. Regal Stadium 14, Santa Fe. ( Jonathan Richards)
other screenings Center for Contemporary Arts Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony. DreamCatcher Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas. Jean Cocteau Cinema 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14: What Happened Was ... Regal DeVargas The Book Thief, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Regal Stadium 14 47 Ronin. 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12; 2 & 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15: The Princess Bride. 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan 16: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. ◀
What’s shoWing Call theaters or check websites to confirm screening times. CCA CinemAtheque And SCreening room
1050 Old Pecos Trail, 505-982–1338, www.ccasantafe.org Dallas Buyers Club (R) Thurs. 1:15 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 7:45 p.m., 8:15 p.m. The Great Beauty (NR) Fri. to Wed. 1:45 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 7:45 p.m. Thurs. 1:45 p.m., 4:45 p.m. Haute Cuisine (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 2:15 p.m. I Am Divine (NR) Fri. to Wed. 8:15 p.m. In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter (NR) Fri. to Wed. 4:15 p.m., 6:15 p.m.
Thurs. 3:45 p.m.
JeAn CoCteAu CinemA
418 Montezuma, 505–466–5528 Bettie Page Reveals All (R) Fri. 2 p.m., 8:30 p.m. Sat. and Sun. 8:30 p.m. Wed. and Thurs. 2 p.m., 8:30 p.m. Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (NR) Fri. 6:20 p.m. Sat. and Sun. 2 p.m., 6:20 p.m. Wed. and Thurs. 6:20 p.m. Game of Thrones (NR) Mon. 7 p.m. Glen or Glenda (NR) Fri. and Sat. 10:30 p.m. Spinning Plates (NR) Fri. to Sun. 4:15 p.m. Wed. and Thurs. 4:15 p.m. What Happened Was ... (R) Tues. 7 p.m. regAl deVArgAS
562 N. Guadalupe St., 505-988–2775, www.fandango.com 12 Years a Slave (R) Fri. and Sat. 10 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 7:10 p.m. The BookThief (PG-13) Fri. and Sat. 1 p.m., 3:55 p.m., 6:50 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 1 p.m., 3:55 p.m. Her (R) Fri. and Sat. 1:30 p.m., 4:20 p.m., 7:20 p.m., 10:10 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 1:30 p.m., 4:20 p.m., 7:20 p.m. Inside Llewyn Davis (R) Fri. and Sat. 1:40 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 9:55 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 1:40 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (PG-13) Fri. and Sat. 9:45 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 6:50 p.m. Nebraska (R) Fri. and Sat. 1:20 p.m., 4:10 p.m., 7:10 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 1:20 p.m., 4:10 p.m. Philomena (PG-13) Fri. and Sat. 1:50 p.m., 4:40 p.m., 7:40 p.m., 10:05 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 1:50 p.m., 4:40 p.m., 7:40 p.m. regAl StAdium 14
3474 Zafarano Drive, 505-424–6296, www.fandango.com 47 Ronin (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 4:10 p.m. 47 Ronin 3D (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 1:10 p.m., 7:15 p.m., 10:15 p.m. American Hustle (R) Fri. to Wed. 12:55 p.m., 4:15 p.m., 7:20 p.m., 10:25 p.m. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 11:20 a.m., 2:10 p.m., 4:50 p.m., 7:40 p.m., 10:30 p.m. Frozen (PG) Fri. to Wed. 11:45 a.m., 2:40 p.m., 5:15 p.m., 7:50 p.m., 10:30 p.m. Grudge Match (PG-13) Fri. to Tue. 4:20 p.m., 7 p.m., 9:50 p.m. Wed. 4:20 p.m., 9:50 p.m. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in HFR 3D
(PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 10:45 p.m. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 12:05 p.m., 4:15 p.m., 8 p.m. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 12:50 p.m., 4:05 p.m., 7:25 p.m., 10:45 p.m. The Legend of Hercules 3D (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 12:20 p.m., 5:10 p.m., 7:35 p.m. The Legend of Hercules (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 2:45 p.m., 10:10 p.m. Lone Survivor (R) Fri. to Wed. 1 p.m., 4 p.m.,
7:10 p.m., 10 p.m. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (R)
Fri. to Wed. 12:50 p.m., 3:10 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 8 p.m., 10:20 p.m. The Princess Bride (PG) Sun. 2 p.m. Wed. 2 p.m., 7 p.m. Saving Mr. Banks (PG-13) Fri. to Wed. 11:05 a.m., 1:55 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 7:45 p.m., 10:40 p.m. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (PG) Fri. to Wed. 11:45 a.m., 2:40 p.m., 5:15 p.m., 7:50 p.m., 10:30 p.m. Walking With Dinosaurs (PG) Fri. and Sat. 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m. Sun. 11:30 a.m. Mon. and Tue. 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m. Wed. 11:30 a.m. The Wolf of Wall Street (R) Fri. to Wed. 12 p.m., 4:10 p.m., 8:10 p.m.
“A POWERHOUSE. ‘Lone Survivor’ laces action with moral questions that haunt and provoke.” Peter Travers
“UNFORGETTABLE.” Pete Hammond, MOVIELINE
NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW
ONEOFTHEBESTFILMSOFTHEYEAR
the SCreen
Santa Fe University of Art & Design, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive, 505-473–6494, www.thescreensf.com All Is Lost (PG-13) Fri. 12 p.m. Sat. 1:30 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 3:30 p.m. The Girls in the Band (NR) Sat. 3:45 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 1:30 p.m. The Palm Beach Story (NR) Fri. 7 p.m. The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (NR) Fri. 4 p.m. Sat. and Sun. 7:35 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. The Royal Opera House: Parsifal (NR) Sun. 11 a.m. Sweet Dreams (NR) Fri. 2:15 p.m. Sat. 11:45 a.m., 5:40 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 5:40 p.m.
© 2013 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
LOCAL LISTINGS FOR STARTS TODAY CHECK THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES
mitChell dreAmCAtCher CinemA (eSpAñolA)
15 N.M. 106 (intersection with U.S. 84/285), 505–753–0087, www.storytellertheatres.com American Hustle (R) Fri. 4:40 p.m., 7:35 p.m. Sat. and Sun. 1:50 p.m., 4:40 p.m., 7:35 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 4:40 p.m., 7:35 p.m. Frozen (PG) Fri. 4:35 p.m., 7:05 p.m., 9:30 p.m. Sat. 2:05 p.m., 4:35 p.m., 7:05 p.m., 9:30 p.m. Sun. 2:05 p.m., 4:35 p.m., 7:05 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 4:35 p.m., 7:05 p.m. Grudge Match (PG-13) Fri. 4:50 p.m., 7:25 p.m., 9:50 p.m. Sat. 2:25 p.m., 4:50 p.m., 7:25 p.m., 9:50 p.m. Sun. 2:25 p.m., 4:50 p.m., 7:25 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 4:50 p.m., 7:25 p.m. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (PG-13) Fri. 6:55 p.m. Sat. and Sun. 2:20 p.m., 6:55 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 6:55 p.m. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG-13) Fri. 6:50 p.m., 9:50 p.m. Sat. 2:30 p.m., 6:50 p.m., 9:50 p.m. Sun. 2:30 p.m., 6:50 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 6:50 p.m. Lone Survivor (R) Fri. 4:25 p.m., 7 p.m., 9:40 p.m. Sat. 1:50 p.m., 4:25 p.m., 7 p.m., 9:40 p.m. Sun. 1:50 p.m., 4:25 p.m., 7 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 4:25 p.m., 7 p.m. Paranormal Activity:The Marked Ones (R) Fri. 4:55 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 9:45 p.m. Sat. 2:15 p.m., 4:55 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 9:45 p.m. Sun. 2:15 p.m., 4:55 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 4:55 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Saving Mr. Banks (PG-13) Fri. 4:35 p.m., 7:15 p.m., 9:55 p.m. Sat. 1:55 p.m., 4:35 p.m., 7:15 p.m., 9:55 p.m. Sun. 1:55 p.m., 4:35 p.m., 7:15 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 4:35 p.m., 7:15 p.m. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (PG) Fri. and Sat. 7:15 p.m., 9:45 p.m. Sun. to Thurs. 7:15 p.m. Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas (PG-13) Fri. 4:45 p.m., 7:10 p.m., 9:35 p.m. Sat. 2:10 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 7:10 p.m., 9:35 p.m. Sun. 2:10 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 7:10 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 4:45 p.m., 7:10 p.m. Walking With Dinosaurs (PG) Fri. 4:30 p.m. Sat. and Sun. 2 p.m., 4:30 p.m. Mon. to Thurs. 4:30 p.m.
Santa Fe Community Orchestra
Oliver Prezant, Music Director
2013-2014 Concert Season
Winter Concert
Sunday, January 12th at 2:30pm St. Francis Auditorium
New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave.
Works by Beethoven & Prezant
SFCO Side-by-Side with students from Gonzales Community School
Jody Ellis: Too Late Works by Popper & Piazzolla Dana Winograd, cello
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 Free admission - Donations appreciated This concert is sponsored in part by:
Thornburg Investment Management
Like us
For more information visit our website: www.sfco.org or call 466-4879
SFCO projects are made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Santa Fe Arts Commission, and the 1% Lodger’s Tax.
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movIng Images film reviews
Close enough for folk music Jonathan Richards I For The New Mexican Inside Llewyn Davis, Village folk-music homage, rated R, Regal DeVargas, 3.5 chiles At the start of the ’60s, the folk-music revival was beginning to spread its wings in urban America. Its beating heart was in New York’s Greenwich Village, swirling around the arch in Washington Square, filling the stages at the pass-the-hat joints and music clubs along Bleecker and MacDougal streets. One of the most familiar figures in this ragtag people’s army of guitar- and banjo-toting folk troubadours was a tall, shaggy bear of a guy named Dave Van Ronk, who could play the guitar like nobody’s business and growl his way through ballads, blues, and traditional folk songs. He never became a breakout big-time star like his disciple Bob Dylan. But a street in Sheridan Square was named for him after he died. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), the title character of the Coen brothers’ funny, sad, elegiac tribute to the early ’60s folk scene, is not Van Ronk, but he breathes the same air and sings the same songs. The movie opens with Davis onstage at the Gaslight Café, one of the churches of the Village folk scene, hunched over his guitar and singing Hang Me, Oh Hang Me, an early Van Ronk song, in its entirety; a little later on he does another of the singer’s signature numbers, the beautiful Dink’s Song (If I Had Wings). There are a few other Van Ronk references, including a scene in which Davis auditions for Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham) — modeled on
Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
The cat and the canary: Oscar Isaac
music manager Albert Grossman, owner of Chicago’s Gate of Horn — and is told that if he’ll trim his beard and play backup, he might be a good fit for a folk group of two guys and a girl that Grossman is putting together. The reference is to Peter, Paul, and Mary, for which Grossman considered Van Ronk before filling the slot with the less distinctive Paul Stookey. And the movie’s title is a tip of the Coen hat to the 1963 album Inside Dave Van Ronk. But this isn’t a biopic; it’s a fictional story of the struggle of a poor soul of an artist who does what he does not because he sees a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but because he can’t imagine doing anything else. At one point Davis’ sister (Jeanine Serralles), a Queens housewife who embodies the life from which Davis has fled, tartly advises him to give it up and get a job. “What,” he says, “and just exist?” Davis is barely doing even that. He has no fixed address, no steady income. He’s trying to make it as a solo act after the demise of the duo with which he’s put out one not-very-successful album on a small label (not unlike Moe Asch’s Folkways) that seems to be ripping him off. He crashes on the couches of friends and acquaintances, including his folksinger friends Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan), the latter an angelic singer onstage with a mouth full of vitriol offstage and a love-hate relationship with Davis in which the needle currently points to hate. Davis also sleeps on the couch of some well-heeled uptown Columbia professor types, the Gorfeins (Ethan Phillips and Robin Bartlett), folk-music fans who have a cat that figures in what story there is in this atmosphere-driven film. “The film doesn’t really have a plot,” Joel Coen said in an interview at Cannes, where the movie won the Grand Prix. “That concerned us at one point; that’s why we threw the cat in.” The cat, named Ulysses, also provides a subtle link to the Coens’ 2000 hit O Brother, Where
Art Thou? That movie had a loose Homeric armature that also provided a rich trove of traditional songs. The music here (as there) is produced by the ubiquitous T Bone Burnett and beautifully evokes the sounds of the era, from traditional songs to those of the new breed of songwriters (Tom Paxton’s The Last Thing on My Mind) and even a folkie novelty number, Please Mr. Kennedy, which sounds a bit like Phil Ochs’ Draft Dodger Rag. Inside Llewyn Davis is a richly textured, visually gorgeous film, shot by Bruno Delbonnel in a palette that maintains a chilly temperature of velvety blues, browns, and grays. It’s a movie about opportunities missed, lost, and squandered; about doors opening and closing; about failure and redemption and second chances and the Möbius strip of a life that keeps folding back in on itself. Fans of the Village folk scene of the period may recognize some of the characters suggested here. Among the various reallife figures glimpsed in some form or another are Paul Clayton, Ochs, Paxton, the Clancy Brothers, Jean Ritchie, and a marvelous John Goodman as a Doc Pomus-esque junkie jazzman named Roland Turner, who dominates the movie’s road trip to Chicago. None of them are direct references, but as they used to say, it’s close enough for folk music. Isaac does a terrific job in the central role of Davis, who is not a particularly nice guy, although he has a moral core, and not even a particularly great performer, although he has a good voice and plays a fine guitar. He’s a dedicated folkie, which almost by definition means a loser. He’s never going to have the career of the guy who follows him onstage at the end of the movie, and he’s never going to achieve the quasi-legendary stature of a Dave Van Ronk. Llewyn Davis is never going to have a street named after him. But he’s got his name on a damned good movie. ◀
“iRResistible!” –WALL STREET JOURNAL
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SWEET
DREAMS a film by Rob and liSa fRuchTman
A film by Sophie Fiennes Photo: LEX FLEtChER
“A REMARKABLE tale of resilience. JOYOUS and especially potent. RESONATES DEEPLY.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times zeitgeistfilms.com/pervertsguide InternatIonal FIlm CIrCuIt presents a lIro FIlms production “sweet Dreams” oDIle “KIKI” Katese Ingoma nshya Drum troupe Blue marBle Dreams tIFFany sChauer co-executive producers DeBorah santana graCe hIghtower De nIro cinematography by roB FruChtman lex FletCher produced, directed and edited by lIsa FruChtman roB FruChtman www.sweetdreamsrwanda.com
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53
movIng Images film reviews
Signed, SEALed, delivered Jonathan Richards I For The New Mexican Lone Survivor, drama, rated R, Regal Stadium 14, 2 chiles A movie based on a memoir of a combat mission and titled Lone Survivor has to find its strengths in something other than suspense. In the case of Peter Berg’s blood-and-guts tale of the adventure of four Navy SEALs in the mountains of Afghanistan on a 2005 mission to take out a murderous warlord, those strengths are found in some solid tough-guy acting, impressive sound effects, and the visceral filming and editing of action sequences whose ultimate outcome is never in doubt. The toughness of these guys is unquestionable, but just in case, the opening sequences of the movie take us through SEAL training so harrowing that you may find yourself speculating on how many recruits die in a weeding-out process designed to produce the ruggedest, orneriest sons of bitches ever to strap on hardware in defense of the fatherland. Berg (Battleship) gives us a close-up look, and we sit like spectators in the expensive seats at the Roman Coliseum watching gladiators struggle for their lives, as a voice-over describes “an unrelenting drive to push yourself harder and further than anyone could think possible.” The voice belongs to Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), who wrote the book on which the movie is based. The team is made up of Luttrell, Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), Matthew “Axe” Axelson (Ben Foster), and squad leader Mike Murphy (Taylor Kitsch). Once their training is done, we get to know them a little: they engage in a bit of high-spirited
54
PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
Four on the floor: Taylor Kitsch, Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, and Emile Hirsch
horsing around and some humanizing personal stuff about their wives and girlfriends and their lives back home. But all of this is the overture. The show really starts once the four men are surveilling the bad guys in the mountains of Kunar (a landscape that looks a lot like New Mexico, where the film was shot). We know how bad these bad guys are because we see their leader, Ahmad Shah (Yousef Azami), in flashback committing atrocities upon his own people. The values of the Americans, on the other hand, are tested when three goatherds stumble upon their hiding place. The old man, boy, and angry young man are unarmed, and the rules of engagement dictate that you can’t shoot such people. The rules of engagement, however, don’t do the math. The simple calculus is that if released, these Afghans, especially the young hothead, will run straight to the Taliban, and vastly greater bloodshed will ensue. Still, rules are rules, and American soldiers are nothing if not honorable. It is not long before the consequences are upon them. Berg introduces the onset of trouble with a classic Western-movie shot of
a row of enemy warriors silhouetted along the top of a cliff as far as the eye can see. Moments later hostilities are joined, and our vastly outnumbered heroes are taking and returning heavy fire. We watch through the telescopic sights of their rifles like players in a video game as they take down their Taliban enemies — each with a single shot — the turbaned heads and vested chests exploding in blood. But again, the math is against our heroes. They each kill 10, 15, or 20 of the enemy, but the bad guys keep on coming. The Americans take plenty of hits themselves, but they wince and shrug them off. Trying to escape, they plunge down a cliff, ricocheting off boulders and slamming into trees with sickening cracks and thuds. Unfazed, they pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start all over again. The hardest-working people on this picture are makeup artists Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, heroically applying buckets of blood and creating grisly prosthetic wounds. The beleaguered squad tries to call the base for help, but they can’t get a good satellite phone signal. When they finally get through to their commanding officer (Eric Bana), he sends a rescue helicopter that meets with tragic results, upping the body count on this ill-fated mission that was known as Operation Red Wings. One by one, the American guys drop, sometimes with a farewell line like “Tell my wife I love her.” Finally only Wahlberg is left, and there’s not much left of him. Only a miracle can save him, and in case you’ve forgotten the title, I won’t give anything away. War movies generally fall into the categories of anti or pro. Berg puts his considerable talents as an action director to the service of a story that plays like a two-hour recruitment video. The nobility and sacrifice these men demonstrate seem more calculated to inspire than to caution. That’s all very well and good if there were a point to it. For war to make any sense at all, there has to be an unequivocal idea of good and bad. Here, it’s only ours and theirs. ◀
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The beat goes on: Ingoma Nshya
Different drummers Jennifer Levin I For The New Mexican Sweet Dreams, documentary, not rated, The Screen, 3 chiles In the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Hutus slaughtered Tutsis over a threemonth period. When it was over, nearly a million people were dead. After the country was rebuilt, a woman named Kiki Katese started a drumming group, Ingoma Nshya, open to both Hutu and Tutsi women, to bring art and music into the lives of Rwandans. Traditionally, women in Rwanda don’t drum. Katese investigated, assuming the rule was religious or legal, but she found out that drums were considered too heavy for women. Recalling this moment in the documentary Sweet Dreams, Katese explains that if the drums’ weight was the only issue, then the women would see how strong they were. Produced and directed by the brother-sister team of Lisa and Rob Fruchtman, Sweet Dreams picks up with Ingoma Nshya after the group has decided to open Rwanda’s first ice cream shop, which they name Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams). The women connect with a variety of volunteers, including the founders of Blue Marble Ice Cream, a Brooklyn-based company run by Jennie Dundas and Alexis Miesen. Dundas and Miesen are investors in the shop and are key to showing the women how to run it, but how they came to know Katese or get involved in the project is left out. At first this seems like an odd oversight, but as the film progresses, it becomes clear that the Fruchtmans wanted to keep focus on the women of Ingoma Nshya. Sweet Dreams follows two trajectories: progress toward opening the shop, including a lot of collective decision-making among the women, and the triumph of the first batch of ice cream; and the story of the country’s recovery from the genocide, which is told through the women’s individual memories, confessional-style, straight to the camera. It’s an effective, affecting structure for the documentary, which has a slight educational-film quality to its production values — a distinct, intentional lack of slickness, preventing the kind of grand scope that would turn the women into selfless heroes. The film tells their story without pretense or self-congratulation on the part of the filmmakers. Lisa Fruchtman won an Oscar for editing The Right Stuff; Rob Fruchtman has three Emmys for his work with PBS. There’s an intimacy to Sweet Dreams that indicates the women had confidence in the filmmakers and in the audience, whom they trust with the horrific stories of their childhoods. As for watching people taste ice cream for the first time: it’s pretty great. Everyone reacts the same way. First they experience how cold it is, and then, right after that, they smile. ◀
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55
RESTAURANT REVIEW Bill Kohlhaase I The New Mexican
Local warming Atrisco Café & Bar 193 Paseo de Peralta (in the DeVargas Center), 505-983-7401 Lunch & dinner 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily, breakfast 8-11 a.m. Saturdays & Sundays Vegetarian options Takeout available Wheelchair-accessible Full bar Credit cards, local checks
•
The Short Order Atrisco Café & Bar is a dependable, occasionally exceptional spot to enjoy New Mexican cooking, including nicely flavored red and green chile. It’s apparent that the kitchen takes care in preparing just about everything. Locally sourced beef and lamb contribute to the best dishes, whether burritos, cheeseburgers, stews, or meat loaf. Beans are thick and meaty, the posole is firm and flavorful, and the guacamole is all about the avocado. The atmosphere is especially friendly, maybe because the bar does a brisk business in margaritas and specialty drinks. The only thing you could (and probably should) skip is dessert. Recommended: meat loaf, lamb burrito, green chile cheeseburger, green chile stew, chile rellenos, and posole.
Ratings range from 0 to 4 chiles, including half chiles. This reflects the reviewer’s experience with regard to food and drink, atmosphere, service, and value.
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
The simple, savory green chile stew at Atrisco Café & Bar is a soothing tonic on a cold day. It’s a thin yet richly flavored brown broth with tender chunks of beef and potato, speckled with stewed tomato and holding a centered swirl of chopped green chile that brings the fall harvest to mind. It’s warm on the tongue and carries that signature taste, an almost indescribable tease of chlorophyll and minerals. As you dig in, the flavors mingle, and soon the entire bowl is redolent with chile. That stew is representative of the consistently prepared comfort food (can you describe a stacked enchilada smothered in red chile and sporting a fried egg any other way?) served at Atrisco. Atrisco’s location in the DeVargas Center rules out the opportunity to call it homey, but the place is welcoming and pleasant enough, with its center row of booths, bright hardwood floors, and long bar beneath vigas. You’ll spot regulars when you visit the place — some of them local celebrities, some of them treated like family (which they may in fact be). Owner George Gundrey traces his roots to Albuquerque and his mother’s cooking at the now-defunct Central Café at the corner of Central Avenue and Atrisco Drive. If the red chile ladled over your tamale tastes familiar, there’s good reason. Gundrey acknowledges the inspiration of aunts and uncles who have owned Tia Sophia’s, Tomasita’s, and other local establishments. Actually, Atrisco’s thick, concentrated red chile is better than some served at its “cousin restaurants.” Its cooking? Equal to the best. Part of the family tradition is the meat loaf. The dish was a staple at the Central Café, and it’s a standout here. The fine grind of beef from the 4 Daughters Land & Cattle Co. near Los Lunas cooks up to a pleasing firmness, and the seasoning, with an emphasis on pepper, accentuates its flavor. The meat loaf is served with decent mashed potatoes, disappointing only in the absence of any hint of the promised jalapeños, and with bright, firm vegetables — a square meal no question. Daily specials — such as mahimahi tacos and a tamale plate — are listed on an entrance chalkboard. We didn’t get to try the flat veggie enchilada with grilled mushrooms, squash, peppers, and onions, but the chile rellenos, retaining some of their breaded crispness under that stiff red chile, were perfect, right down to their melted cheese centers. A roasted-leg-of-lamb burrito, the meat from Talus Wind Ranch (near Galisteo) sliced thin, tastes like the best gyro you’ve ever had. The flat enchiladas, whether chicken or cheese, make maximum use of onions. The beans here are thick and meaty, but the rice, red as can be, needs some spicing up. Posole, firm and in a rich broth, is worth ordering as a side, even if some of it comes with your meal. The Atrisco combo plate includes beans, posole, a relleno, an enchilada, and a decent ground-beef taco.
I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in my rolled chicken enchilada, as good as it was, after having the flat style and its slathering of sauce. The sopaipillas are a bit more substantial than others found around town, and of course they are available stuffed. The decent green chile cheeseburger stands out for the quality of its beef. The guacamole is fresh and coarsely chopped; it’s hit with a bit of lemon but is otherwise all about the avocado. The chips that come with it are thin, crisp, and equally fresh. An OK pork tamale was worth ordering on the side just for the radiant red that was spooned over it. At dessert, two whole fried bananas, rolled in cinnamon and served with ice cream and whipped cream, were dried out and chewy, a major disappointment. Atrisco is often busy, even late into the afternoon. I like it best at lunch, when you can sit at the bar, joining professionals perhaps straight from the office (not everyone dressed for success shies away from margaritas at noon), retired types, or a couple of students who stayed out way too late the night before. There’s a gleaming frozen margarita machine at the ready, the bartender will splash Grand Marnier in your drink, and you can get a Herradura-andCointreau margarita for a buck less than 10, a price that’s becoming a bargain. As homey as Atrisco is, the servers, though friendly, won’t treat you like family. And nobody at home is this efficient in the kitchen. Even at the restaurant’s Friday-lunch busiest, the food comes promptly, something important to those of us who have to stick to an hour for our noon meal, whether we’re enjoying margaritas or not. ◀
Check, please
Dinner for two at Atrisco Café & Bar: Guacamole and chips ................................... $ 6.25 Roasted-leg-of-lamb burrito ......................... $12.95 Central Café meat loaf .................................. $10.95 House margarita on the rocks ....................... $ 6.00 TOTAL........................................................... $36.15 (before tax and tip) Lunch for two, another visit: Chile rellenos ................................................ $10.50 Bowl, green chile stew .................................. $ 8.95 Side, tamale with red chile ............................ $ 4.50 Fried bananas with ice cream ....................... $ 4.25 TOTAL .......................................................... $28.20 (before tax and tip)
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57
pasa week Friday, Jan. 10
Tradición! and present Phil Lucero’s documentary Cultural Threads, 3 p.m., Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St., 505-988-4226. Memoir writing with Pamela Boyd Brief writing exercise based on a personal memory followed by five-minute readings of participants’ works, 3-4:30 p.m., Op. Cit. Books, 500 Montezuma Ave., Suite 101, Sanbusco Center, 505-428-0321. Novel-writing workshop Led by Kyle Dillon Hertz, hosted by Santa Fe Writers’ Workshop, noon-1 p.m., Garcia Street Books, 376 Garcia St., no charge, 505-986-0151.
GALLERY/MUSEUM OPENINGS
Art Exchange Gallery 60 E. San Francisco St., 505-603-4485. Recent paintings by Brad Price, reception 4-6 p.m., through January. Santa Fe Clay 545 Camino de la Familia, 505-984-1122. In House II, group show, reception 5-7 p.m., artists’ talks 5:30 p.m., through Feb. 22. Santa Fe Prep 1101 Camino de Cruz Blanca, 505-982-1829. Featuring works by alumni including Peter Sarkisian, Ted Larsen, and Eliot Fisher, reception in the library, 5:30-7:30 p.m., through January.
EVENTS
OPERA
The Barber of Seville A Santa Fe Concert Association Family Concert Series mounting of Rossini’s opera, Scottish Rite Center, 463 Paseo de Peralta, no charge, 505-984-8759, encores through Sunday.
IN CONCERT
Gregg Turner’s screening party The local musician celebrates the release of his CD Gregg Turner Plays the Hits and his new video Satan’s Bride; also, short sets by guitarists Turner and Steve Terrell, 10:30 p.m., Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave., no charge, 505-466-5528.
THEATER/DANCE
I Can Hear You ... But I’m Not Listening Jennifer Jasper presents her unscripted onewoman show, 8 p.m., Teatro Paraguas Studio, 3205 Calle Marie, $18, $15 seniors and students, 505-424-1601.
BOOKS/TALKS
IAIA Writers Festival Sherman Alexie reads from and signs copies of his works, 6 p.m., Institute of American Indian Arts Auditorium, 83 Avan Nu Po Rd., no charge, RSVP to 505-428-5931.
EVENTS
The Screen’s 15th anniversary celebration Hear anecdotes by founder and curator Brent Kliewer, listen to guest speakers actors Ali MacGraw and Jonathan Richards and filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, and enjoy a screening of Preston Sturges’ 1942 comedy The Palm Beach Story, 7 p.m., The Screen, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., $10 in advance, thescreensf.com, 505-473-6494.
NIGHTLIFE
(See Page 59 for addresses) ¡Chispa! at El Mesón Three Faces of Jazz, revolving piano trio, 7:30-10:30 p.m., no cover.
Pasa’s Little Black Book......... 59 Elsewhere............................ 60 People Who Need People..... 60 Pasa Kids............................ 60 In the Wings....................... 61
58
PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
compiled by Pamela Beach, pambeach@sfnewmexican.com pasatiempomagazine.com
Singer/songwriters Mike & Ruthy perform Saturday, Gig Performance Space, 1808-H Second St.
Cowgirl BBQ Guitarist Ben Wright, 5-7:30 p.m.; Jay Boy Adams & Zenobia, with Mister Sister, R & B, 8 p.m., no cover. Duel Brewing Bill Palmer’s TV Killers, rock ’n’ roll, 7-10 p.m., no cover. El Farol The Gruve, classic soul and R & B, 9 p.m., call for cover. La Fiesta Lounge at La Fonda Cathy Faber’s Swinging Country Band, 8-11 p.m., no cover. La Posada de Santa Fe Resort and Spa Nacha Mendez Trio, pan-Latin rhythms, 6:30-9:30 p.m., no cover. Low ’n’ Slow Lowrider Bar at Hotel Chimayó Jazz off the Plaza with the Revolver Trio, Robin Holloway on piano, Justin Bransford on bass, and Loren Bienvenu on drums, 9:30 p.m.-12:20 a.m., no cover. Mine Shaft Tavern DJ Sass-a-Frass 5 p.m.; open mic with blues guitarist Timbo, call for cover. Palace Restaurant & Saloon John Kurzweg Band, alt-folk-rock, 10 p.m., call for cover. Pranzo Italian Grill Geist Cabaret with pianist David Geist, 6-9 p.m., call for cover. Second Street Brewery Blues/rock band The Attitudes, 6-9 p.m., no cover. Second Street Brewery at the Railyard Gypsy-jazz ensemble Swing Soleil, 7-10 p.m., no cover.
At the Galleries.................... 62 Libraries.............................. 62 Museums & Art Spaces........ 62 Exhibitionism...................... 63
Tiny’s Mark Yaxley, Brazilian jazz, 5:30-8 p.m.; Rolling Stones tribute band Little Leroy & His Pack of Lies, 8:30 p.m.-close, no cover. Vanessie Pianists Doug Montgomery (6-8 p.m.) and Bob Finnie (8-11 p.m.), call for cover.
11 Saturday GALLERY/MUSEUM OPENINGS
Art Gone Wild Gallery 130-D Lincoln Ave., 501-820-1004. New expressionist paintings by D. Arthur Wilson, reception and book signing for Little Red Rhupert 5-7 p.m.
OPERA
The Barber of Seville A Santa Fe Concert Association Family Concert Series mounting of Rossini’s opera. Scottish Rite Center, 463 Paseo de Peralta, no charge, 505-984-8759, Sunday encore.
IN CONCERT
Mike & Ruthy Acoustic folk-rock singer/songwriters Mike Merenda and Ruthy Ungar Merenda, 7:30 p.m., Gig Performance Space, 1808-H Second St., $20 at the door, gigsantafe.com.
BOOKS/TALKS
Herman Martínez and Patricia Martínez The authors discuss members of Hilos Culturales of Colorado featured in their book !Viva La
Contra dance New England-style folk dance with live music by The Mullanys, beginners’ lesson 7 p.m., dance 7:30 p.m., Odd Fellows Hall, 1125 Cerrillos Rd., $9, students $5, 505-820-3535, folkmads.org. LGBT Wedding Expo More than 25 vendors offer assistance with wedding planning, noon-5 p.m., entertainment and a bridal fashion show, Courtyard by Marriott, 3347 Cerrillos Rd., RSVP in advance for two free tickets, $5 at the door, 505-424-2453, proceeds benefit Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance. Santa Fe Farmers Market 8 a.m.-1 p.m., Railyard Plaza and Farmers Market Pavilion, 1607 Paseo de Peralta, santafefarmersmarket.com. Trader Walt’s Southwestern & International Marketplace More than 100 vendor booths with antiques, folk and fine art, books, jewelry, and snacks, 8 a.m.3 p.m., El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, 555 Camino de la Familia, no charge. Identifying Your Community Participants of the workshop, led by Moises Gonzales, share their photographs; held in conjunction with the exhibit In/Visible Borders: New Mexico Photographers, noon4 p.m., Santa Fe Arts Commission Gallery, Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., no charge, 505-955-6707.
NIGHTLIFE
(See Page 59 for addresses) Anasazi Restaurant & Bar Guitarist Jesus Bas, 7-10 p.m., no cover. ¡Chispa! at El Mesón! Tierra Soniquete, jazz and flamenco with J.Q. Whitcomb on trumpet and Joaquin Gallegos on guitar, 7:30-10:30 p.m., no cover. Cowgirl BBQ Bluegrass/nugrass band Mystic Lizard, 2-5 p.m.; blues/rock guitarist Jono Manson, 8:30 p.m., no cover. El Farol Controlled Burn, classic rock and country covers, 9 p.m., call for cover. La Fiesta Lounge at La Fonda Cathy Faber’s Swinging Country Band, 8-11 p.m., no cover.
calendar guidelines Please submit information and listings for Pasa Week
no later than 5 p.m. Friday, two weeks prior to the desired publication date. Resubmit recurring listings every three weeks. Send submissions by mail to Pasatiempo Calendar, 202 E. Marcy St., Santa Fe, NM, 87501, by email to pasa@sfnewmexican.com, or by fax to 820-0803. Pasatiempo does not charge for listings, but inclusion in the calendar and the return of photos cannot be guaranteed. Questions or comments about this calendar? Call Pamela Beach, Pasatiempo calendar editor, at 986-3019; or send an email to pasa@sfnewmexican.com or pambeach@sfnewmexican.com. See our calendar at www.pasatiempomagazine.com, and follow Pasatiempo on Facebook and Twitter.
La Posada de Santa Fe Resort and Spa Pat Malone Trio, 6-9 p.m., no cover. Low ’n’ Slow Lowrider Bar at Hotel Chimayó R & B off the Plaza with The Bus Tapes, 9:30 p.m.-12:20 a.m., no cover. Mine Shaft Tavern Felix y Los Gatos, zydeco/ Tejano/juke-swing band, 8 p.m., call for cover. Molly’s Kitchen & Lounge Dance band Jaka and rock trio 50 Watt Whale, with Spectrastic Marimba, 7 p.m., $5 cover. Palace Restaurant & Saloon Local rockers the Sean Healen Band, 10 p.m., call for cover. Pranzo Italian Grill Geist Cabaret with pianist David Geist, 6-9 p.m., call for cover. Second Street Brewery Neil Young tribute band Drastic Andrew & The Cinnamon Girls, 6-9 p.m., no cover. Second Street Brewery at the Railyard Alt-country/Americana band Boris & The Saltlicks, 7-10 p.m., no cover. Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen Hawaiian slack-key guitarist John Serkin, 6 p.m., no cover. Tiny’s Showcase karaoke with Nanci and Cyndi, 8:30 p.m., no cover. Upper Crust Pizza Country-tinged folk singer/songwriter Dana Smith, 6-9 p.m., no cover. Vanessie Pianists Doug Montgomery (6-8 p.m.) and Bob Finnie (8-11 p.m.), call for cover.
12 Sunday oPeRa
The Barber of Seville A Santa Fe Concert Association Family Concert Series mounting of Rossini’s opera, Scottish Rite Center, 463 Paseo de Peralta, no charge, 505-984-8759.
317 aztec 20-0150 317 Aztec St., 505-8 e Inn th at agoyo Lounge E. Alameda St., 3 30 a ed am al e on th 21 505-984-21 nt & Bar anasazi Restaura Anasazi, the of Rosewood Inn e., 505-988-3030 113 Washington Av Betterday Coffee 5-555-1234 50 905 W. Alameda St., nch Resort Ra e dg Lo ’s Bishop Lodge Rd., ps ho Bis & Spa 1297 505-983-6377 Café Café 5-466-1391 500 Sandoval St., 50 Casa Chimayó 5-428-0391 409 W. Water St., 50 ón ¡Chispa! at el Mes 505-983-6756 e., 213 Washington Av Cowgirl BBQ , 505-982-2565 319 S. Guadalupe St. fé Ca den at Coyote 5-983-1615 50 , St. r ate W . 132 W duel Brewing 5-474-5301 1228 Parkway Dr., 50 lton el Cañon at the Hi 88-2811 5-9 50 , St. 100 Sandoval
oPeRa In Hd
Performance at The Screen The broadcast series continues with Wagner’s Parsifal performed at London’s Royal Opera House, 11 a.m., SFUA&D, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., $20, discounts available, thescreensf.com.
In ConCeRT
Melanie Monsour Piano recital series with bassist Paul Brown; jazz, Middle Eastern, and Latin music, noon2 p.m., Museum Hill Cafe, 710 Camino Lejo, no charge.
BooKS/TaLKS
Poetry Storm The Cut + Paste Society presents readings at the launch of Snow Poems Postcard Book; including local poets Jon Davis, Wayne Lee, Jaime Figueroa, Lauren Camp, and Raina Wellman, 2-3:30 p.m., Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St., 505-988-4226. The Joy of Financial Security Journey Santa Fe presents Donna Skeels Cygan, 11 a.m., Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St., 505-988-4226.
oUTdooRS
History hike Join local historian Bill Baxter to learn about how the Cerrillos Hills area played a role in the settlement of New Mexico, 2-4 p.m., Cerrillos Hills State Park, 16 miles south of Santa Fe off NM 14, $5 per vehicle, 505-474-0196.
eVenTS
Life drawing Weekly figurative-drawing class led by Cari Griffo, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Duel Brewing, 1228 Parkway Dr., $25 includes refreshments, 505-474-5301
Pasa’s little black book Spa eldorado Hotel & St., 505-988-4455 o isc nc Fra 309 W. San el Farol 5-983-9912 808 Canyon Rd., 50 ill Gr & el Paseo Bar 92-2848 5-9 50 , St. teo lis Ga 208 evangelo’s o St., 505-982-9014 200 W. San Francisc erging arts High Mayhem em -2047 38 5-4 50 ., 2811 Siler Ln Hotel Santa Fe ta, 505-982-1200 1501 Paseo de Peral asters Iconik Coffee Ro -0996 28 5-4 50 , St. na Le 00 16 La Boca 5-982-3433 72 W. Marcy St., 50 ina La Casa Sena Cant 5-988-9232 50 e., Av e 125 E. Palac at La Fonda La Fiesta Lounge , 505-982-5511 St. o isc 100 E. San Franc a Fe Resort nt Sa de La Posada Ave., 505-986-0000 e lac and Spa 330 E. Pa g arts Center Lensic Performin St., 505-988-1234 o 211 W. San Francisc e Lodge Th at ge un Lo e Lodg Francis Dr., St. N. 0 75 Fe at Santa 505-992-5800
nIGHTLIFe
(See addresses below) Cowgirl BBQ Santa Fe Revue, Americana/ R & B/experimental jam-rock, noon-3 p.m.; Alto Street, blues/rock/alt-country, 8 p.m., no cover. el Farol Pan-Latin chanteuse Nacha Mendez, 7-10 p.m., no cover. Iconik Coffee Roasters Ad Hoc Bluegrass Band, 10 a.m.-noon, no cover. Vanessie Pianist and vocalist Doug Montgomery, 6:30-10:30 p.m., no cover.
13 Monday BooKS/TaLKS
Genetic ancestry Testing: ancestry Informative Markers and Their applications A Southwest Seminars lecture series; with Jeffrey Long, 6 p.m., Santa Fe Community Foundation, 501 Halona St., $12, 505-466-2775. Friends of the Wheelwright lecture Alan Osborne discusses the influence of early Spanish contact on traditional Pueblo culture; refreshments 2 p.m., talk follows, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, 704 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill, $10, 505-982-4636.
eVenTS
Game of Thrones screenings Free screenings of the HBO series every Monday at 7 p.m. through March 24, Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave., jeancocteaucinema.com.
nIGHTLIFe
(See addresses below) duel Brewing Blue Monday with James T. Baker, Delta blues, 6-8 p.m., no cover.
Low ’n’ Slow Lowrider Bar at Hotel Chimayó de Santa Fe 125 Washington Ave., 505-988-4900 The Matador 116 W. San Francisco St. Mine Shaft Tavern 2846 NM 14, Madrid, 505-473-0743 Molly’s Kitchen & Lounge 1611 Calle Lorca, 505-983-7577 Museum Hill Café 710 Camino Lejo, Milner Plaza, 505-984-8900 Music Room at Garrett’s desert Inn 311 Old Santa Fe Trail, 505-982-1851 Palace Restaurant & Saloon 142 W. Palace Ave., 505-428-0690 The Pantry Restaurant 1820 Cerrillos Rd., 505-986-0022 Pranzo Italian Grill 540 Montezuma Ave., 505-984-2645 Rouge Cat 101 W. Marcy St., 505-983-6603 San Francisco Street Bar & Grill 50 E. San Francisco St., 505-982-2044 Santa Fe Community Convention Center 201 W. Marcy St., 505-955-6705
el Farol Monday jazz with saxophonist Trey Keepin, 7 p.m., call for cover. La Fiesta Lounge at La Fonda Zenobia and her trio, rockin’ soul and R & B, 7:30-11 p.m., no cover. Vanessie Pianist Doug Montgomery, 6:30-10:30 p.m., no cover.
14 Tuesday THeaTeR/danCe
What Happened Was Staged reading of Tom Noonan’s humorous play, 7 p.m., Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave., $10 suggested donation, 505-466-5528.
BooKS/TaLKS
Hilary Fields The Santa Fe novelist reads from and signs copies of Bliss, 6 p.m., Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St., 505-988-4226. Santa Fe archaeological Society lecture Reflections From a Middle Eastern Archaeological Diary, with Marie-Henrietta Gates, 7:30 p.m., Santa Fe Community Foundation, 501 Halona St., no charge, 505-982-2846 or 505-455-2444. The Suppressed Memoirs of Mabel dodge Luhan: Sex, Syphilis, and Psychoanalysis in the Making of Modern american Culture Presented by Lois Rudnick, 3-4 p.m., School for Advanced Research, 660 Garcia St., no charge, 505-954-7203.
eVenTS
International folk dances Weekly on Tuesdays, dance 8 p.m., lessons 7 p.m., Odd Fellows Hall, 1125 Cerrillos Rd., $5 donation at the door, 505-501-5081 or 505-466-2920. ▶▶▶▶▶▶▶▶
Second Street Brewer y 1814 Second St., 505-982-3030 Second Street Brewery at the Railyard 1607 Paseo de Peralta, 505-989-3278 Steaksmith at el Gancho 104-B Old Las Vegas Highway, 505-988-3333 Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen 1512-B Pacheco St., 505-795-7383 Taberna La Boca 125 Lincoln Ave., 505-988-7102 Thunderbird Bar & Grill 50 Lincoln Ave., 505-490-6550 Tiny’s 1005 St. Francis Dr., 505-983-9817 The Underground at evangelo’s 200 W. San Francisco St., 505-819-1597 Upper Crust Pizza 329 Old Santa Fe Trail, 505-982-0000 Vanessie 427 W. Water St., 505-982-9966 Warehouse 21 1614 Paseo de Peralta, 505-989-4423 Zia diner 326 S. Guadalupe St., 505-988-7008
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NIGHTLIFE
Los Alamos Historical Society lecture series Our Biosecurity Mission: From Radiation Biology to the Plague, with Elizabeth HongGeller, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14, Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Ave., no charge, 505-662-6272.
(See Page 59 for addresses) Cowgirl BBQ Folk singer/guitarist HallyAnna, 8 p.m., no cover. El Farol Canyon Road Blues Jam with Tone and Company, 8:30 p.m., no cover. Second Street Brewery Open-songs night hosted by Ben Wright, 8 p.m., no cover. La Fiesta Lounge at La Fonda Zenobia and her trio, rockin’ soul and R & B, 7:30-11 p.m., no cover. Vanessie Pianist/vocalist Bob Finnie, 6:30-10:30 p.m., no cover. Zia Diner Weekly Santa Fe Bluegrass Jam, 6-8 p.m., no cover.
TAos
David Anthony Fine Art 132 Kit Carson Rd., 575-758-7113. Exothermic Reactions, photographs of pyrotechnic tableaus by David Mapes, through Feb. 28. Harwood Museum of Art 238 Ledoux St., 575-758-9826. Ninetieth-anniversary exhibits: The Paintingsof Burt Harwood • Single Lens Reflex: The Photographs of Burt Harwood • Peter Parks: New Works, all through Jan. 26 • The Taos Municipal Schools Historic Art Collection, through Feb. 2. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday, $10; seniors and students $8; ages 12 and under no charge; Taos County residents with ID no charge on Sunday. Taos Art Museum and Fechin House 227 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, 575-758-2690. The Animal World of Eugenie Glaman, etchings and paintings, through March 2. Open 10 a.m.4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, no charge.
15 Wednesday BOOKS/TALKS
Hosteen Klah: Navajo Medicine Man and Sand Painter A Friends of the Wheelwright Book Club discussion with Franc Johnson Newcomb, 1:30 p.m., Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, 704 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill, no charge, 505-471-4970. Lannan Foundation In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom series Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative in conversation with Liliana Segura, editor at The Nation magazine, 7 p.m., Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $6; seniors and students $3, ticketssantafe.org, 505-988-1234. (See story, Page 12).
Events/Performances
Taos Chamber Music Group The 21st season continues with Animal Variations, music of Schubert, Saint-Saëns, and Richard Rodney Bennett, 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 11-12, Arthur Bell Auditorium, Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux St., $20 in advance; $22 at the door; ages 15 and under $12; taoschambermusicgroup.org.
NIGHTLIFE
(See Page 59 for addresses) ¡Chispa! at El Mesón! Singer/songwriter Jesus Bas, 7-9 p.m., no cover. Cowgirl BBQ Singer/songwriter Emmett Williams, 8 p.m., no cover. El Farol Nacha Mendez with Santastico, 8 p.m., no cover. La Fiesta Lounge at La Fonda Bill Hearne Trio, classic country tunes, 7:30 p.m., no cover. Palace Restaurant & Saloon Rockabilly band Jane and the Deadend Boys, 7:30 p.m., call for cover. Tiny’s 505 Electric Jam with Nick Wimett and M.C. Clymer, 8 p.m., no cover. Vanessie Pianist/vocalist Bob Finnie, 6:30-10:30 p.m., no cover.
16 Thursday CLASSICAL MUSIC
The Sing-Along of the Nibelung Santa Fe Concert Association artistic director Joseph Illick leads a sing-along through Wagner’s Ring Cycle at 7:30 p.m., United Church of Santa Fe, 1804 Arroyo Chamiso; 5 p.m. reception and light buffet dinner, Quail Run Clubhouse, reception and dinner $30, 505-984-8759, rsvp@santafeconcerts.org, sing-along $20, discounts available, ticketssantafe.org, 505-988-1234.
NIGHTLIFE
(See Page 59 for addresses) ¡Chispa! at El Mesón! Jazz pianist Andy Kingston, 7-9 p.m., no cover. Cowgirl BBQ Alt- and classic-rock band Secret Circus, 8 p.m., no cover. El Farol Guitarras con Sabor, 8 p.m., call for cover. 60
PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
▶ People who need people Artists
Mesa Public Library’s gallery shows paintings by Mi Ra Won, 2400 Central Ave., Los Alamos
La Fiesta Lounge at La Fonda La Fonda. Bill Hearne Trio, classic country tunes, 7:30 p.m., no cover. Low ’n’ Slow Lowrider Bar at Hotel Chimayó Tenor guitarist and flutist Gerry Carthy, 9 p.m., no cover. Palace Restaurant & Saloon Thursday limelight karaoke, 10 p.m., no cover. The Matador DJ Inky Inc. spinning soul/punk/ska, 8:30 p.m., no cover. Tiny’s Americana band Santa Fe Revue, 8 p.m.-close, no cover. Vanessie Pianist/vocalist Bob Finnie, 6:30-10:30 p.m., no cover. Zia Diner Trio Bijou, vintage jazz with Gemma DeRagon on violin and vocals, Andy Gabrys on guitar, and Andy Zadrozny on bass, 6:30-8:30 p.m., no cover.
▶ Elsewhere AlbuquErquE
Chatter Sunday Violin and horn recital: music of Vivaldi and Stravinsky, 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, poetry reading by Rich Boucher follows, The Kosmos, 1715 Fifth St. N.W., $15 at the door, discounts available, chatterabq.org.
Don Quixote Minkus’ ballet presented by New Mexico Ballet Company and New Mexico Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, 6 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11-12, Albuquerque Journal Theatre, National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 Fourth St. S.W., $24-$68, vendini.com.
El PrAdo
The Imagine-a-Nation of Lala Child Rivera Sun’s one-woman show, 7 p.m. FridaySaturday, 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10-12, Metta Theatre, 1470 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, $12, 575-776-3973.
los AlAmos
Mesa Public Library Gallery 2400 Central Ave., 505-662-8253. Works by painter Mi Ra Won, figurative artist Christine Haein Chung, and ceramicist Mei Li Shih Milonni, through Jan 25. Pajarito Environmental Education Center 3540 Orange St., 505-662-0460. Exhibits of flora and fauna of the Pajarito Plateau; herbarium, live amphibians, and butterfly and xeric gardens. Open noon-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.1 p.m. Saturday, no charge, pajaritoeec.org.
Events/Performances
Ravens Are Special, Too Presentation by ecologist/storyteller Teralene Foxx, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14, Pajarito Environmental Education Center, no charge, 505-662-0460.
Call for sculpture One-inch-high sculptures sought for The Royal Breadshow; sculptures will be exhibited and then baked into breads; March 31 deadline; visit theroyalbreadshow.com or axleart.com for submission guidelines. MasterWorks of New Mexico 2014 Open to all New Mexico artists; accepting miniatures, pastels, watercolors, and oils/acrylics; digital entries deadline Jan. 31; miniatures must be shipped by March 15 or hand-delivered by March 22; for prospectus and information visit masterworksnm.org.
Filmmakers/Performers/Writers
Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra Conductor sought; email letter of interest and résumé to rachel.hixson@gmail.com by Jan. 20; 505-500-8061. Teatro Paraguas auditions 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20; seeking men and women ranging in age from 25 to 55 for a production of Quiara Alegria Hudes’ play Water by the Spoonful; 3205 Calle Marie; 505-424-1601.
Volunteers
Santa Fe Stories Project The Santa Fe V.I.P. seeks material on the post-World War II era in Santa Fe; to submit stories or images, visit santafestories.com; submissions accepted through March.
▶ Pasa Kids Origami crafts Make peace cranes for the new year (ages 3 and up), 11 a.m.-noon Saturday, Jan. 11, Bee Hive Kids Books, 328 Montezuma Ave., no charge, 505-780-8051. ◀
In the wings MUSIC
Music Café series Jazz trumpeter Bobby Shew, with Jim Ahrend on piano, Colin Deuble on bass, and John Trentacosta on drums, 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, Museum Hill Café, 710 Camino Lejo, $25, 505-983-6820, santafemusiccollective.org. Mardi Gras/Carnival Concert Enchantment Chamber Music performs a program of traditional New Mexican, Latin American, and European music; featuring violinist Ellen Chávez de Leitner and guitarists Lynn McGrath and Genevieve Leitner; 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, Immaculate Heart of Mary Retreat and Conference Center Chapel, 50 Mount Carmel Rd., $25, discounts available, chavezdeleitner.com. Santa Fe Symphony Music of Bruckner and Mozart, featuring soprano Rachel Hall, 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 19, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $20-$70, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Pink Martini Latin, jazz, and classic pop orchestra, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $54-$84, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Guitar Shorty Veteran bluesman, concert 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24; guitar workshop 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25; Garrett’s Desert Inn, concert $25 in advance online at brownpapertickets.com, workshop $79, for workshop reservations call Garrett’s Desert Inn, 505-982-1851 Santa Fe Pro Musica Classical weekend with music of Vaughan Williams, Barber, and Beethoven, featuring violinist Cármelo de los Santos, 6 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25-26, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $20-$65, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Music on the Hill Elevated St. John’s College hosts its annual jazz series beginning Jan. 25 and running monthly through March 29; performers include Kathy Kosins, Alan Pasqua, and Chase Baird, concerts begin at 7:30 p.m., Great Hall, Peterson Student Center, 1160 Camino de Cruz Blanca, $25, 505-984-6000. Ray Wylie Hubbard Country, folk, and blues artist, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave., $25 in advance, brownpapertickets.com, $29 at the door. Santa Fe Concert Association Family Concert Series Mozart and Mendelssohn violin concertos with soloists Ezra Shcolnik and Phoenix Avalon, 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, United Church of Santa Fe, 1804 Arroyo Chamiso, $10, 505-984-8759 or 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Those Were the Days Classic-songs medley with vocalist Marvelous Maggie B, pianist Robin Holloway, bassist Andy Zadronzy, and percussionist Gerald Rodriguez, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, Teatro Paraguas Studio, 3205 Calle Marie, $15, 505-424-1601. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys The bluegrass legend’s farewell tour, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $29-$79, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Canticum Novum winter concerts The chorus and orchestra perform works by Mozart, Schubert, Cimarosa, Hovhaness, and Holst; lecture by Oliver Prezant one hour ahead of show, 7 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday,
Feb. 1-2, St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave., $25 and $35, ticketssantafe.org, 505-988-1234, discounts available. George Winston R & B piano recital, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, the Lensic, $28-$52, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. The Met Live in HD Dvorak’s Rusalka, 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, the Lensic, $22-$28, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Serenata of Santa Fe Twists and Turns, music of Brahms, Herrmann, and Tower, 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, Scottish Rite Center, 463 Paseo de Peralta, $25, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Zappa Plays Zappa Guitarist Dweezil Zappa’s band, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12 ($32-$67); Dweezilla on the Road, Zappa’s master class ($75), precedes the concert at 3 p.m., Greer Garson Theatre, SFUA&D, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., tickets available at the Lensic box office, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Santa Fe Symphony: In Honor of Lincoln Presentation of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait with narration by N. Scott Momaday, and Fanfare for the Common Man, 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, preconcert lecture at 3 p.m., Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $20-$70, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Legends of the Celtic Harp Acoustic trio, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28, Gig Performance Space, 1808-H Second St., $20 at the door, gigsantafe.com. David Russell Classical guitarist, 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 7, Great Hall, Peterson Student Center, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino de Cruz Blanca, $40 at the door, 505-984-6000. Yacouba Sissoko Kora player, 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 14, Gig Performance Space, 1808-H Second St., $20 at the door, gigsantafe.com. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Soul and funk; Valerie June opens, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $34-$54, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Curtis on Tour The Santa Fe Concert Association presents students from the Curtis Institute of Music, performing works of Mozart, Poulenc, and others, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave., $20-$40, ticketssantafe.org, 505-988-1234.
Upcoming events Salt and Pepper Teatro Paraguas presents Los Alamos playwright Robert Benjamin’s comedy on maturing, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17-19, Teatro Paraguas Studio, $18, seniors and students $15, 505-424-1601, teatroparaguas.org. Winter Dances 2014 New Mexico School for the Arts student showcase, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17-19, James A. Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf, 1060 Cerrillos Rd., $10 in advance, discounts available, nmschoolforthearts.org. Anna in the Tropics New Mexico School for the Arts Theater presents Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in a 1929 Florida Cuban-American cigar factory, 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 23-25, James A. Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf, 1060 Cerrillos Rd., $10, discounts available, nmschoolforthearts.org. The Jewel in the Manuscript Rosemary Zibart’s new play about Fyodor Dostoevsky, 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan 30-Feb. 16, Warehouse 21, 1614 Paseo de Peralta, $20 for Saturday and Sunday performances, $12 each, two for $20 on Thursdays, 505-989-4423. National Theatre Live in HD Coriolanus, Donmar Warehouse’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31; War Horse, based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel set in France during WWI, 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27; the Lensic, $22, student discounts available, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Don’t Panic: It’s Only Finnegans Wake Solo performance by Adam Harvey, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31Feb. 2, Teatro Paraguas Studio, 3205 Calle Marie, $12, 505-424-1601. Aziz Ansari Stand-up comic, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $35, 505-988-1234, ticketsantafe.org. Benchwarmers 13 Festival of eight 15-minute playlets by local playwrights, Feb. 6-March 2, Santa Fe Playhouse, 142 E. De Vargas St., santafeplayhouse.org. Tao Phoenix Rising Contemporary dance and taiko drum troupe, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, the Lensic, $25-$45, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses Playwright Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of the novel about seduction and revenge, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 7-16, Greer Garson Theatre, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., $12-$15, discounts available, ticketsantafe.org, 505-988-1234. The Other Place Fusion Theatre Company presents Sharr White’s drama, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 7-8, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $20-$40, ticketssantafe.org, 505-988-1234.
HAPPENINGS
2014 Franklin Fiesta Art and Engineering in the World of Benjamin Franklin, lecture by Andrew Baron on his restoration of an 18th-century Maillardet automaton, 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 19, screening of Martin Scorsese’s 2011 movie Hugo 1 p.m., New Mexico History Museum Auditorium, 113 Lincoln Ave., by museum admission, 505-476-5200. Armistead Maupin The author reads from his new book The Days of Anna Madrigal, 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $10$15, 505-988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. Peter S. Beagle appearance The Last Unicorn, a two-day exhibit of work by the screenwriter; plus, a reading, book signing, and screenings of the film at noon, 6:30, and 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, conversation with Beagle and George R.R. Martin 5 p.m., Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave., $12 for each event, $20 for screening and conversation, 505-466-5528. Souper Bowl XX Annual Food Depot fundraiser; local-chefprepared soups and recipes, noon-2p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1 Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., $30 in advance, $35 at the door; children ages 6-12 $10, 505-471-1633. Cancer Foundation for New Mexico Sweetheart Auction Buffet dinner, live and silent auctions, and vacation raffle, 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., $75, 505-955-7931, cffnm.org.
THEATER/DANCE
King Laz Susana Guillaume’s one-woman show on negotiating the rocky terrain of old age, sickness, and death, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17-19, Santa Fe Playhouse, 142 E. De Vargas St., santafeplayhouse.org, 505-988-4262.
Ralph stanley and the clinch mountain Boys on tour Jan. 30 at the Lensic.
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AT THE GALLERIES David Richard Gallery 544 S. Guadalupe St., 505-983-9555. Unity, paintings by Leon Berkowitz, through Jan. 25. Eight Modern 231 Delgado St., 505-995-0231. Part and Parcel, paintings by Rebecca Shore, through Saturday, Jan. 11. El Museo Culural de Santa Fe 555 Camino de la Familia, 505-992-0591. La Blanca Ciudad: The White City, 11 contemporary artists of Arequipa, Peru, through March. Jean Cocteau Cinema 418 Montezuma Ave., 505-466-5528. Surrealistic landscapes by Mark Kane, through Jan. 23. LewAllen Galleries at the Railyard 1613 Paseo de Peralta, 505-988-3250. Now and Then, group exhibition of contemporary and historical artists, through Jan. 26. Monroe Gallery of Photography 112 Don Gaspar Ave., 505-992-0800. The Life Photographers, through Jan. 24. Peyton Wright Gallery 237 E. Palace Ave., 505-989-9888. Art of Devotion, historic art of the Americas, through March 9. Photo-eye Gallery 370-A Garcia St., 505-988-5159. Photo Objects & Small Prints, group show, through Feb. 1. Red Dot Gallery 826 Canyon Rd., 505-820-7338. Third annual show featuring work by IAIA and SFCC students and faculty, through Feb. 15. Sage Creek Gallery 421 Canyon Rd., 505-988-3444. Winter Magic, group show, through Friday, Jan. 10. Santa Fe Art Institute SFUAD, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., 505-424-5050. The Unfolding Center, poetry and drawings by Arthur Sze and Susan York, through Wednesday, Jan. 15. (See story, Page 26).
Santa Fe Community College School of Arts and Design Visual Arts Gallery 6401 Richards Ave., 505-428-1501. From the Inside, Part II, works by faculty members, through Wednesday, Jan. 15. Santa Fe Community Gallery Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., 505-955-6705. In/Visible Borders: New Mexico Photographers, including works by Carlan Tapp, Patrick Nagatani, and Norman Mauskopf, through Feb. 21. Scheinbaum & Russek 812 Camino Acoma, 505-988-5116. Santa Fe Legacy, prints and photographs by Gustave Baumann, Gerald Cassidy, Louie Ewing, Laura Gilpin, Kate Krasin, Eliot Porter, and Todd Webb, through January. A Sea Gallery 407 S. Guadalupe St., 505-988-9140. Works by Renate Lewis and gallery artists, through Wednesday, Jan. 15. Sugarman-Peterson Gallery 130 W. Palace Ave, 505-982-0340. New multimedia work by Michael Protiva, through January. Tansey Contemporary 652 Canyon Rd., 505-995-8513. Devocionales: Neo-Colonial Retablos From an Archetypal Perspective, paintings by Patrick McGrath Muñiz, through January. Verve Gallery of Photography 219 E. Marcy St., 505-982-5009. La Réve, works by Susan kae Grant, Kamil Vojnar, and Krzysztof Wladyka, through Saturday, Jan. 11. Vivo Contemporary 725 Canyon Rd., 505-982-1320. As Though Ice Burned, group show of works by gallery artists, through Jan. 28. Wade Wilson Art 217 W. Water St., 505-660-4393. Review: A Gallery Revisited, group show, through Jan. 18. William R. Talbot Fine Art 129 W. San Francisco St., second floor, 505-982-1559. Under a Western Sky: Photographs by Craig Varjabedian, through Friday, Jan. 10. Zane Bennett Contemporary Art 435 S. Guadalupe St., 505-982-8111. Privacy and Secrets, through Friday, Jan. 19.
LIbRARIES
The Museum of International Folk Art exhibit Tako Kichi: Kite Crazy in Japan shows through March.
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PASATIEMPO I January 10-16, 2014
Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Library Santa Fe University of Art & Design, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., 505-474-5052. Open by appointment. Catherine McElvain Library School for Advanced Research, 660 Garcia St., 505-954-7205. Open Monday-Friday, call for hours. Chase Art History Library Santa Fe University of Art & Design, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., 505-473-6569. Open Monday-Friday, call for hours. Faith and John Meem Library St. John’s College, 1160 Camino de Cruz Blanca, 505-984-6041. Visit stjohnscollege.edu for hours of operation, $40 fee to nonstudents and nonfaculty.
Fray Angélico Chávez History Library Palace of the Governors, 120 Washington Ave., 505-476-5090. Open 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Laboratory of Anthropology Library Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, 505-476-1264. Open 1-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, by museum admission. New Mexico State Library 1209 Camino Carlos Rey, 505-476-9700. Upstairs (state and federal documents and books) open noon-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; downstairs (Southwest collection, archives, and records) open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. MondayFriday. Quimby Memorial Library Southwestern College, 3960 San Felipe Rd., 505-467-6825. Rare books and collections of metaphysical materials. Open MondaySaturday, call for hours. Santa Fe Community College Library 6401 Richards Ave., 505-428-1352. Open Monday-Saturday, call for hours. Santa Fe Institute 1399 Hyde Park Rd., 505-984-8800. Open 1-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Visit santafe.edu/library for online catalog. Santa Fe Public Library, Oliver La Farge Branch 1730 Llano St., 505-955-4860. Open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Closed Sunday. Santa Fe Public Library, Southside Branch 6599 Jaguar Dr., 505-955-2810. Open 10 a.m.8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. FridaySaturday. Closed Sunday. Supreme Court Law Library 237 Don Gaspar Ave., 505-827-4850. Online catalog available at supremecourtlawlibrary.org. Open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
MuSEuMS & ARTSpAcES Georgia O’Keeffe Museum 217 Johnson St., 505-946-1039. Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, through Jan. 26. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. SaturdayThursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday; $12; seniors $10; NM residents $6; students 18 and over $10; under 18 no charge; no charge for NM residents first Friday of each month. Museum of Contemporary Native Arts 108 Cathedral Place, 505-983-1666. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; noon-5 p.m. Sunday; closed Tuesday. Adults $10; NM residents, seniors, and students $5; 16 and under and NM residents with ID no charge on Sundays. Museum of International Folk Art 706 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill, 505-476-1200. Tako Kichi: Kite Crazy in Japan, exhibition of Japanese kites, through March • New World Cuisine: The Histories of Chocolate, Mate y Más • Multiple Visions: A Common Bond, international collection of toys and folk art • Brasil and Arte Popular, pieces from the museum’s Brazilian collection, through Aug. 10. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. TuesdaySunday. NM residents $6; nonresidents $9; ages 16 and under no charge; students with ID $1 discount; no charge for NM residents over 60 on Wednesdays; no charge for NM residents on Sundays; school groups no charge.
Museum of Spanish Colonial Art 750 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill, 505-982-2226. Filigree & Finery: The Art of Adornment in New Mexico, through spring 2014 • BeltránKropp Peruvian Art Collection, exhibit of gift items, including a permanent gift of 60 art pieces and objects from the estate of Pedro Gerardo Beltrán Espantoso, through May 27 • San Ysidro/St. Isidore the Farmer, bultos, retablos, straw appliqué, and paintings on tin • Recent Acquisitions, colonial and 19thcentury Mexican art, sculpture, and furniture; also, work by young Spanish Market artists • The Delgado Room, late-colonial-period re-creation. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. TuesdaySunday. $8; NM residents $4; 16 and under no charge; NM residents no charge on Sundays. New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors 113 Lincoln Ave., 505-4765200. Water Over Mountain, Channing Huser’s photographic installation • Cowboys Real and Imagined, artifacts and photographs from the collection, through March 16 • Tall Tales of the Wild West: The Stories of Karl May, photographs and ephemera in relation to the German author, through Feb. 9 • Santa Fe Found: Fragments of Time, the archaeological and historical roots of Santa Fe. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday; 5-8 p.m. Fridays. NM residents $6; nonresidents $9; 16 and younger no charge; students with ID $1 discount; school groups no charge; no charge on Wednesdays for NM residents over 60; NM residents no charge on Sundays; free admission 5-8 p.m. Fridays. New Mexico Museum of Art 107 W. Palace Ave., 505-476-5072. Back in the Saddle, collection of paintings, prints, photographs, and drawings of the Southwest, through Sunday, Jan. 12 • Renaissance to Goya: Prints and Drawings from Spain • Collecting Is Curiosity/Inquiry • A Life in Pictures: Four Photography Collections, through Jan. 19 • 50 Works for 50 States: New Mexico, through April 13 • It’s About Time: 14,000 Years of Art in New Mexico, through January. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. TuesdaySunday; 5-8 p.m. Fridays. NM residents $6; nonresidents $9; 16 and younger no charge; students with ID $1 discount; school groups no charge; NM residents over 60 no charge on Wednesdays; NM residents free on Sundays. Pablita Velarde Museum of Indian Women in the Arts 213 Cathedral Place, 505-988-8900. Gathering of Dolls: A History of Native Dolls, through April 27. Open 10 a.m.5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. $10 admission. Poeh Museum Poeh Museum. 78 Cities of Gold Rd., 505-455-3334. Doing Being Sharing Laughing, group show, through January. Open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday; donations accepted. SITE Santa Fe 1606 Paseo de Peralta, 505-989-1199. Alan Shields’ installation Maze, accompanied by the film Into the Maze, through Sunday, Jan. 12. Open Thursday and Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday noon-5 p.m. $10; seniors and students $5; no charge 10 a.m.-noon Saturday; no charge Friday. Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian 704 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill, 505-982-4636. The Durango Collection: Native American Weaving in the Southwest, 1860-1880, through April 13. Open 10 a.m.5 p.m. daily, donations accepted.
exHIbItIonIsm
A peek at what’s showing around town
brad Price: Near Ribera, 2012, oil on canvas. A show of Brad Price’s recent landscapes and paintings of Southwestern architecture is on view at Art Exchange Gallery (60 E. San Francisco St.). Price paints with a vibrant color palette in an impressionist style. There is a 4 p.m. reception on Friday, Jan. 10. Call 505-603-4485.
Alex Irvine: Self Portrait, 2013, black stoneware. Santa Fe Clay (545 Camino de la Familia) presents In House II, an exhibition of work by members of the studio’s teaching faculty, including Alex Irvine, Mike Walsh, and Abby Salsbury. Twenty-five artists participate in the exhibit. The show opens on Friday, Jan. 10, with a reception at 5 p.m. An artist talk follows at 5:30 p.m. Call 505-984-1122.
nicola López: Infrastructure + 3, 2012, lithograph. Paula Castillo, art department chair at Santa Fe Preparatory School, presents an alumni art show in honor of the school’s 50th anniversary. The show includes work by Peter Sarkisian, Ted Larsen, Will Clift, and other nationally and internationally known artists who attended the school. The reception is Friday, Jan. 10, at 5:30 p.m. in the school’s library. Prep is located at 1101 Camino de Cruz Blanca. Call 505-982-1829.
margaret bourke-White (19041971): Fort Peck Dam, Fort Peck, MT, 1936, gelatin silver print. The Life Photographers, an exhibition of work by Margaret Bourke-White, Ed Clark, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and others who documented events and people throughout the 20th century, continues at Monroe Gallery of Photography (112 Don Gaspar Ave., 505-992-0800) until Jan. 24.
Hung Liu: Into the Clouds (Study II), 2010, mixed media on panel. An exhibition of new work by Bay Area artists Hung Liu and Rex Ray is currently on view at Turner Carroll Gallery (725 Canyon Road). Both artists use vibrant colors to convey emotional intensity. Liu’s mixed-media pieces explore her personal experience of China before, during, and after Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Ray’s work draws on Op Art, Abstract Expressionism, and hard-edged abstraction. The exhibit runs through March 15. Call 505-986-9800. PASATIEMPO
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PASATIEMPO I January 10 - 16, 2014
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7501 Cerrillos rd.
471-8642