We open this week's inch with some sad news. Sutter Hospital has cut its Literature, Arts, and Medicine Program (LAMP). Please join the write-in campaign attempting to get Sutter Hospital to reconsider their unfortunate budget decision. Details can be found at: http://www.sacfreepress.com/2007_07_01_archive.html#6900836850302251428
This month is french-themed. The 6th annual Sacramento French Film Festival begins Friday, July 20th. Presenting French films over two weekends at the Crest theatre, the SFFF gets bigger and better each year. Tapping into the French Spirit, the Sacramento Poetry Center will host a French Poetry Reading on Monday, July 23rd. Read your favorite French poet during the Open Mic. And Gilberto Rodriguez has announced that his monthly poetry series Unheimlich! will feature an evening dedicated to Baudelaire on Saturday, July 21st.
FRIDAY, JULY 13, 7:00PM.
Shiny Object Film Screenings:
ROCK THAT UKE
Fools Foundation, 1025 19th St, off K St, between 19th & 20th next to the back end of Old Spaghetti Factory. Admission: $5.00. Digital projection on to a large screen. Seating is on folding chairs - feel free to bring a pillow or cushion - or even your own folding chair! web: www.shiny-object.com/screenings/
A funky, curiously philosophical cinematic love poem that examines the near mystical allure of the four-stringed underdog of the musical world and the recent surge of alternative, post-punk musicians on the American mainland who have taken up the instrument, and have incorporated the ukulele not just into their raucous and irreverent original compositions, but into a counter cultural, post-punk ethos. With introductory narration by Academy Award winner Holly Hunter. Featuring Carmaig de Forest, Songs From a Random House, Janet Klein, Ukefink, Robert Armstrong (who was also the creator of Mickey Rat), Travis Harrelson, Oliver Brown, Heinous Rynes, Uke Til U Puke, The Haoles, Williwaw, Frank Novicki, Robert Wheeler, King Kukulele, Pineapple Princess, The Rumble Pups, and Ian Whitcomb! The film was directed by William Preston Robertson, who has lent his voice to numerous Coen Brothers films, authored the book "The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film," and possibly most impressively, was the voice of the creepy mounted deer head (and other possessed objects) in "Evil Dead II." Best of all, the amazing William Preston Robertson will be in attendance at the screening for a Q&A!! Yes, you will have the chance to meet the famous voice from Evil Dead II and director of this hip and bizarre doc!! We also might have some live uke playing going on!
SATURDAY, JULY 14TH, 6PM - 9PM
2nd Saturday Reception: "Los Primos"
MACEO MONTOYA, TOMAS MONTOYA
La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd Street, Midtown Sacramento, 916-451-1372.
SATURDAY, JULY 14TH, 7PM
Exhibition Closing party:
"VISEGRIP" THE ANTI THEME SHOW
Ongoing Exhibit: JUNE 15TH - JULY 14TH
Toyroom Gallery, 907 K Street, Regular Hours 11am till 7pm Tues-Sat / 12noon till 5pm Sun. Show will run from June 15 to July 14 - 2007. Closing Reception July 14th. Reception Hours 7pm till late.
Sacramento's premiere alt-sider gallery the TOYROOM will be presenting one hell of a show this June, when the art will be as warped as the heatwaves bouncing off the central valley blacktop! "Vise Grip" features John Bell, Mike Bell (related only in twistedness), Bruce Gossett, Kepi, and Rob Struven, a quasi-quintet (obviously one can short of a six-pack!) with five one-track minds: Create! Create! Like a whacked-out tribe of Dr. Frankensteins, these artists are obsessed with bringing their visions to life: Hot Rods, VooDoo, Cussed-Dumb Culture, the dark side of Pop Culture... you name it, they'll mame it! In the grip of their own vices, share the madness with a friend as you creep past the color, darkness, shadow and light that these five have presented, then pass your own judgement...innocent or guilty? Crazy or connected? No one can tell, and that's the fun! From the hot dirty race track to the seedy underbelly of society, from bad TV to even worse movies, it's the art of it all at the heart of it all that provides the motivation for these jerks-of-all-trades, and the inspiration springs (super?)naturally from the five wise guys to whom no rule applies! VISE GRIP...grab on to it!
MONDAY, JULY 16TH, 7:30PM
Sacramento Poetry Center presents:
SIBILLA HERSHEY, JENNIFER PICKERING, FRED STAAL, KIMBERLY WHITE, JEANINE STEVENS, JOANNE SCHOEFER, ANN PRIVATEER, JOHN CHENDO, REBECCA MORRISON
HQ: Headquarters for the Arts, 1719 25th Street, 25th & R Sts, www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org. (916) 451-5569.
SIBILLA HERSHEY: She was born in Riga, Latvia and came to the United States at the age of 16 as a WW II Displaced Person. Her poetry reflects this experience. Her poems have appeared in regional literary publications such as Poetry Now, Rattlesnake Review, The Yolo Crow, A Woman’s Place: An Anthology of Davis Women Writers, and on the Web in Writers Against the War. She lives in Davis, CA. JENNIFER PICKERING: Jennifer was born in California and grew up in the rural communities of Tierra Buena and Yuba City. She studied writing at University of New York at Buffalo and Sacramento City College and has an MA in Studio Art from California State University, Sacramento. River Poem was selected for the site specific, Open Circle, in Sacramento in 2006. In 2007 her art was selected for the cover of 13th Moon, Literary Magazine (SUNY, Albany). Her writing is published across the United States. FRED STAAL: Fred lives on the Sacramento Delta and writes that he is a “diplomat, brain surgeon, soldier of fortune, race car driver, Nobel prize-winning author, ...those are the other guys; I just hear words in my head and try to get them onto paper. Later I try to massage them a little, but I'm never sure if its helped or hindered.” KIMBERLY WHITE: Kimberly White's work has received awards from the Bay Area Poets Coalition and has been published in Rattlesnake Review, Comstock Review, Drumvoices Revue and other journals and anthologies. She is the author of two chapbooks, "A Reachable Tibet" and "Penelope," as well as two unpublished novels. She was recently involved in an ekphrasic project with visual artist Victoria Corona, which was produced by the Rice University Print Shop. She has lived in Sacramento since 1983. JEANINE STEVENS: “The grammar school I attended for eight years was named after the Indiana state poet, James Whitcomb Riley, so every holiday, and new season, we had “poetry assemblies.” I lived in the city, but many of the hardwood forest were still standing. I walked to the woods near Butler University watching for cardinals, jack-in-the-pulpits and violets. I purchased my first books of poetry when I was in my teens—a double volume of collected sonnets and lyrics by Edna St. Vincent Millay. She writes beautiful and striking images of the Maine coast and the gardens at her farm in upstate New York. Being in nature has always been inspiring and even though I now live just a few minutes from the American River, with hiking trails, deer, and wild turkeys, I find Cache Creek to be special. I’ve attended a number of writing workshops and enjoy the “free time” quietly watching the pond, waterfall, rocks, trees, or sitting on the ground with my back against the old barn waiting for an interesting leaf or bug to appear.” JOANNE SCHOEFER: She lives along the American River in Carmichael and it provides the inspiration for much of her work. ANN PRIVATEER: Ann has published poems in Manzanita, Poetry of the Motherload; Sacramento Anthology: One Hundred Poems; Rattlesnake; News & Review; and several other journals and newspapers. She is retired from teaching and has attended several Cache Creek Poetry sessions. JOHN CHENDO: John is a poet raised in the Garden State of New Jersey, cultivated hydroponically in Manhattan, sowed to the winds of Vermont and Colorado, rehabilitated in California. Editor of Union Seminary Quarterly Review, 1966-1969. Retired undefeated from some cases; still actively working to appeal decisions in the rest. Favorite T-shirt slogan: "My other shirt is clean." REBECCA MORRISON: She is the author of 3 chapbooks including Raining All Over, The Cook Inlet Poems, and Border Crossing. She is co-founder of the Third Sunday Writing Group and was one of the founding editors of Poetry Now. She has published in many local anthologies and is the editor of www.eskimopie.net. She graduated summa cum laude from UC Davis with a major in Modernism and a minor in Primate Evolution. She has performed her work many times on local radio and television stations and is one of the featured readers on the 2006 CD, I Began to Speak: An Anthology of Sacramento Poets.
http://www.cachecreekconservancy.org
TUESDAY, JULY 17TH, 8PM
COMEDY & POETRY OPEN MIC
Butch-N-Nellie's, corner of 19th & I Streets, Downtown Sacramento. 548-8391.
The hue & cry for more open mic opportunities for poets has been answered. Butch-N-Nellie's now hose a weekly poetry and comedy feature with open mic. Support the businesses that support the literary arts.
JULY 20-22 and JULY 28-29
SACRAMENTO FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL
Crest theatre. http://sacramentofrenchfilmfestival.org/
Save the dates for the 6th Annual Sacramento French Film Festival which runs Friday through Sunday on two weekends in July.
FRIDAY, JULY 20, 7:00PM.
Shiny Object Film Screenings:
ELECTRIC PURGATORY: THE FATE OF THE BLACK ROCKER
Fools Foundation, 1025 19th St, off K St, between 19th & 20th next to the back end of Old Spaghetti Factory. Admission: $5.00. Digital projection on to a large screen. Seating is on folding chairs - feel free to bring a pillow or cushion - or even your own folding chair! web: www.shiny-object.com/screenings/
A documentary examining the struggles of black rock musicians and the industry's ambivalence towards them. Director Raymond Gayle spent the better part of a year traveling around the United States interviewing many of Black Rock's elite including Fishbone, Vernon Reid, Adam Falcon, Jimi Hazel and Cody Chesnutt. Distinguished journalists such as Flip Barnes, Darrell McNeil, Charlie Braxton, and Greg Tate, share their opinions and insight on the dilemma facing these artists. Also contains plenty of archival footage! We're working on some speakers for this night, too. We'll update if/when we're able to pull that together!
SATURDAY, JUNE 21ST, 7:30PM
Unheimlich Theater:
A BAUDELAIRE EVENING!
LESLIE KRAMER, TODD MANN, GILBERTO RODRIGUEZ, SHERI ADEE, ROB LOZANO, DYLAN MORGAN and others to be announced
The Book Collector, 1008 24th Street, between J & K Streets, (916) 442-9295.web: www.poems-for-all.com.
Unheimlich unfolds as a weekly presentation of poetry as you've never seen or heard it before. Featuring Artaud & His Doppleganger and a rotating roster of special guests. Unheimlich Theater re-emerges from the Bardo state at The Book Collector to inseminate a new myth of Chaos, Anarchy, and Lucid Unreason. Unheimlich is here not to raise consciousness, but to release the tide of the Uncanny. To breakout the underside of Pandora's hoary box and release the likes of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Poe, Hoffmann, Holderline, Michaux, and especially Antonin Artaud in order to undermine a society that has allowed psychology & technology to be on a first name basis with the creation of it's imperious culture. We invite you to the first performance of Antonin Artaud and His Dopplegangers.
SATURDAY, JULY 21ST, 1PM - 4PM
Celebrating Xilonen
AURORA y CLAUDIA TAPIA
La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd Street, Midtown Sacramento, 916-451-1372.
Aurora y Claudia Tapia will facilitate a workshop to make ofrendas for the annual Xilonen ceremonia that honors the rites of passage into womanhood.
SATURDAY, JULY 21ST
Youth and Community Mural Project:
JOSE LOTT & Students
La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd Street, Midtown Sacramento, 916-451-1372.
An ongoing Art Exhibition July 21 to August 18, Presentation and Reception in August.
MONDAY, JULY 23RD, 7:30PM
Sacramento Poetry Center presents:
FRENCH POETRY NIGHT
HQ: Headquarters for the Arts, 1719 25th Street, 25th & R Sts, www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org. (916) 451-5569.
In collaboration with Alliance Francaise to help celebrate the French Film Festival July 20-29. Hors d'oeuvres and visual entertainment. After the featured readers, please join the open mic and read poems in French, in translation or about France. Hosted by Rebecca Morrison.
SATURDAY, JULY 24TH, 7PM - 9PM
Summer Speaker Series: Decolonizing the Chicana Body
DRA ANNA SANDOVAL
La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd Street, Midtown Sacramento, 916-451-1372.
Many Chicana visual artists and writers are re-imagining Mexican female symbols and images, such as La Virgen de Guadalupe, La Malinche, and La Llorona. Dra Sandoval will speak about alternative visions of mujeres presented in the work of Chicana artists.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH, 10:30AM - 4PM
ART BOOK FAIR
Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street. 264-5423.
Publishers from around the country will bring in their newest special art books, plus their classics on art. Children's readings. Lectures for the whole family.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH, 3:30PM
SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE
Southside Park, 6th & T Streets Bandshell. Music starts at 3:30pm; show 4pm. Free show in the park!
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH, 10AM - 5PM
ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR
Scottish Rite Temple, 6151 H Street, 849-9248. jimkay@comcast.net
The fourteenth Central Valley Antiquarian Book Fair; books of all kinds and all price ranges. Dozens of dealers. $5.
FIN
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Sutter Hospital cuts its Literature, Arts, and Medicine Program (LAMP); join the write-in campaign to save it.
Sacramento friends of poetry,
I have fond memories of a Jack Hirschman reading held in Sacramento in May 2005. He read with Agenta Falk in the intimate circumstances of the Sutter Hospital Resource Library. Not the typical poet-behind-podium affair; imagine instead a fireside chat kind of arrangement (sans fireplace.) They both encouraged the audience to ask questions and it was an evening that became a conversation; Hirschman and Falk poems read as punctuation marks between its sentences. It was beautiful. And it was all thanks to Sutter's Literature, Arts, and Medicine Program (LAMP) under the Direction of Lawrence Spann.
Now comes the sad news that LAMP is closing. Lawrence's letter below provides details and a possible recourse. Please consider taking a moment to do as he suggests.
As he points out, LAMP has done much for members of the program, but it has also been a remarkable asset to our larger poetry community. In addition to the Hirschman/Falk reading mentioned above, LAMP has put on a number of incredible readings, all open to the public. Jane Hirshfield, Luis Rodriguez, Ellen Bass, Naomi Shihab Nye are just some of the poets LAMP presented to Sacramento.
"I have always been impressed by the quality of the program and how much it helps people dealing with chronic or terminal health situations, mental or physical, their own or others," writes poet JoAnn Anglin in her own appeal to save LAMP. "Closing it would mean closing a unique source of help and healing for patients and the community."
This is a loss that will weaken our poetry community. Again, please consider taking the action suggested in the letter below.
Regards,
Richard Hansen
poems-for-all.com
Here is Lawrence Spann's letter:
From: "Spann, Lawrence"
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:54:22 -0700
To: "Spann, Lawrence"
Subject: Sutterwriters Write-in
-- John Fox,nationally known Poetry Therapist
who recently visited LAMP & Sacramento
Dear Sutterwriters,
When I was told last week that LAMP was cut due to a budgetary crisis, I was in shock. We've come such a long way--the groups are full of committed and soul-searching writers. And there are now six other writing groups in the community based on this model. As for LAMP, I love that this is done in a hospital and open to everyone, as illness knows no race, religion or socioeconomic barrier.
I am sending an email to the entire mailing list to inform you that LAMP is closing.
Your voice needs to be heard. The only way this can be done is if you let your thoughts and feelings be known to Sutter Health administrators. A few sentences is enough, and email makes that easy. Please don't polish or search for words. This can be a simple 5-minute
write.
Please send your letters to Tom Gagen, CEO Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento and copy Sarah Krevans, Regional Executive Officer, and Patrick Fry, President and CEO, Sutter Health as below:
To: gagent@sutterhealth.org
cc:
krevans@sutterhealth.org ;
fryp@sutterhealth.org
It has been such a pleasure to work with each of you. The two hours became precious, a place to tell our truth through fiction.
Keep that lamp lighted in your heart,
Lawrence
Lawrence H. Spann, Ph.D.
Director, Sutter's LAMP
Literature, Arts, and Medicine Program
2800 L Street, Library
Sacramento, CA 95816
Phone: 916-454-6802
www.sutterwriters.com
I have fond memories of a Jack Hirschman reading held in Sacramento in May 2005. He read with Agenta Falk in the intimate circumstances of the Sutter Hospital Resource Library. Not the typical poet-behind-podium affair; imagine instead a fireside chat kind of arrangement (sans fireplace.) They both encouraged the audience to ask questions and it was an evening that became a conversation; Hirschman and Falk poems read as punctuation marks between its sentences. It was beautiful. And it was all thanks to Sutter's Literature, Arts, and Medicine Program (LAMP) under the Direction of Lawrence Spann.
Now comes the sad news that LAMP is closing. Lawrence's letter below provides details and a possible recourse. Please consider taking a moment to do as he suggests.
As he points out, LAMP has done much for members of the program, but it has also been a remarkable asset to our larger poetry community. In addition to the Hirschman/Falk reading mentioned above, LAMP has put on a number of incredible readings, all open to the public. Jane Hirshfield, Luis Rodriguez, Ellen Bass, Naomi Shihab Nye are just some of the poets LAMP presented to Sacramento.
"I have always been impressed by the quality of the program and how much it helps people dealing with chronic or terminal health situations, mental or physical, their own or others," writes poet JoAnn Anglin in her own appeal to save LAMP. "Closing it would mean closing a unique source of help and healing for patients and the community."
This is a loss that will weaken our poetry community. Again, please consider taking the action suggested in the letter below.
Regards,
Richard Hansen
poems-for-all.com
Here is Lawrence Spann's letter:
From: "Spann, Lawrence"
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:54:22 -0700
To: "Spann, Lawrence"
Subject: Sutterwriters Write-in
-- John Fox,nationally known Poetry Therapist
who recently visited LAMP & Sacramento
Dear Sutterwriters,
When I was told last week that LAMP was cut due to a budgetary crisis, I was in shock. We've come such a long way--the groups are full of committed and soul-searching writers. And there are now six other writing groups in the community based on this model. As for LAMP, I love that this is done in a hospital and open to everyone, as illness knows no race, religion or socioeconomic barrier.
I am sending an email to the entire mailing list to inform you that LAMP is closing.
Your voice needs to be heard. The only way this can be done is if you let your thoughts and feelings be known to Sutter Health administrators. A few sentences is enough, and email makes that easy. Please don't polish or search for words. This can be a simple 5-minute
write.
Please send your letters to Tom Gagen, CEO Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento and copy Sarah Krevans, Regional Executive Officer, and Patrick Fry, President and CEO, Sutter Health as below:
To: gagent@sutterhealth.org
cc:
fryp@sutterhealth.org
It has been such a pleasure to work with each of you. The two hours became precious, a place to tell our truth through fiction.
Keep that lamp lighted in your heart,
Lawrence
Lawrence H. Spann, Ph.D.
Director, Sutter's LAMP
Literature, Arts, and Medicine Program
2800 L Street, Library
Sacramento, CA 95816
Phone: 916-454-6802
www.sutterwriters.com
