Village Poets presents Katerina Canyon poet and Karen Winters, artist, November 13, 2022 at 4:30pm

Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga are pleased to return to the Bolton Hall Museum for a first in-person reading in three years, featuring Katerina Canyon, our Poet Laureate No. 2 (2001-2004) and presenting California landscape artist Karen Winters of La Canada Flintridge.  The reading will take place on Sunday, November 13, 2022, at 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm.  The Bolton Hall Museum is located at 10110 Commerce Ave, Tujunga, Los Angeles, CA 91042-2313.

Two segments of open mic will be available and refreshments will be served. Suggested donation $5 per person for the cost of refreshments and to donate to the Little Landers Society that manages the Bolton Hall Museum,  a Los Angeles Historical Landmark built in 1913.

KATERINA CANYON

Katerina Canyon is a 2020 and 2019 Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her stories have been published in the New York Times and Huffington Post. From 2000 to 2003, she served as the Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga. During that time, she started a poetry festival and ran several poetry readings. She was featured in the Los Angeles Times and was awarded the Montesi Award from Saint Louis University in 2011, 2012, and 2013. She has published multiple chapbooks and an album.

While living in Sunland-Tujunga, she was active in the local community, coaching girls basketball, teaching writing classes through the McGroarty Arts Center, and organizing both the Sunland-Tujunga Poetry Festival and local poetry slams. She also hosted the Eccentric Moon Poetry Reading Series at Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

She has been a featured poet in multiple venues across the country, including Beyond Baroque, Nuyorican, The Bowery Poetry Club and Chance Operations. She teaches poetry workshops to children and at universities. Her latest book, Surviving Home, was a Heartland Review finalist. She currently lives in Seattle, Washington, where she can often be found writing poetry near Pier 55. 

More information on her website: https://www.poetickat.com/

Village Poets presented Canyon on zoom in November 2021: 

https://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2021/10/village-poets-present-katerina-canyon.html 

Link to Video from the  reading  https://youtu.be/E0oN1CvHNGY

Staring Across the Atlantic

My people were born underwater

In the hulls of slave ships.

My people were pulled from farms in Nigeria

From trade ships along the Nile river

From the rainforests of Cameroon.

My people were tossed in cages

With people who didn’t speak their language,

But we learned to speak a new tongue

From the end of the whip’s lash.

We learned the mood of the ocean.

We learned to read the stars through knot holes,

And to sing songs in tune with the waves.

That’s when we became American.

We were slaves to the British, the Dutch, the Portuguese,

We were even slaves to the Cherokee.

We not only marched the Trail of Tears

We carried their bags, their homes,

Their children on our backs.

We have fought in every single war

Since the American Revolution.

We are not America, but we are American.

As the years passed, we forgot the Baka, the Nok, the Hyksos 

But in our songs, our jazz, our blues,

We can hear their ghosts.

That’s why we are Africa but not African.

We are cultural orphans

Grasping for the hem of our mother’s dress. 

Sudden Sparkle, 11 x 14 oil painting, Ca. Northern coast

After poetry it will be the time for art: Karen Winters will show six of her landscape paintings and discuss her artistic interests and technique. 

KAREN WINTERS

 Karen Winters is a native Californian, for whom "art and the love of nature have been lifelong passions."  She received my BA from UCLA, with a minor in Art History. A subsequent masters in journalism (also from UCLA) led to an award-winning career in advertising, followed by new ventures in broadcast news and documentary film making. Through all the years and all the travels, a sketchbook has been her steady companion, recording Egyptian archaeological digs, the movements of killer whales, or the dances of Tibetan monks. Now a full-time artist, she actively travels and paints on location throughout California and the western United States. 

She writes: "My work is inspired by the natural world, whether the medium I choose is watercolor, oil, acrylic or pastel. I am most interested in capturing the quality of light as it defines a landscape, a still life or floral portrait. I make a practice of painting daily, either in studio or, my preference, in the beautiful California landscape. I would characterize my style as borrowing from the best of impressionism and realism. Among my historical influences have been tonalist George Inness, Edgar Payne, J Bond Francisco, and many of the other early California impressionists."

Through group and solo shows, her work has been exhibited at the Autry National Museum, the Pasadena Museum of California Art, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, the Riverside Museum of Art, the San Luis Obispo Art Museum, the Santa Paula Art Museum, the Riverside Museum of Art, The Pasadena Museum of History, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in LA,  and is in the collection of the Huntington Library. Her paintings have been in National Watercolor Society shows, and won awards at Bowers Museum invitational events.

Affiliations: Artist member, California Art Club; American Impressionist Society; Pasadena Society of Artists.

The Oak on the Hill, 11 x 14 oil painting, Central California

Selected Recent Juried Exhibitions and Awards

2021

Art Tehachapi Plein Air Invitational

Mars: An Artistic Mission - "NASA and JPL, Bringing worlds together" - California Art Club

Welcome to California -"Palms of Dawn" - California Art Club

"Aqua Activated" show, Pasadena Society of Artists

2020

U.S. Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, "Upper Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park" On loan to the embassy until 2022 as part of the "Art in Embassies" program of the U.S. Dept. of State.

Pasadena Museum of History - Art Night exhibition and demonstration

"The Golden State" - Old Mill, California Art Club

"Wildflower Springtime - Central California" 14 x 18 inches oil painting

2019

Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History "Magnificent Migrations" "Red Fox"

Gold Medal Show, California Art Club "California Roll Sushi" - Pasadena Museum of California Art

Spring Show - "Quiet Spring Reflections" Old Mill, California Art Club

Summer Show - "Calafia Cliffs, San Clemente" Old Mill, California Art Club

Autumn Impressions: Painting the American Landscape, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, CA "Cottonwood Breezes"

Los Osos Autumn, 18 x 30 inches, oil painting

Ca. Central Coast, Los Osos Valley Road

2018

Yosemite Renaissance 34 - Yosemite Museum and Gallery, Yosemite National Park "Yosemite Awakening"

Art Matters - Huntington Museum and Botanical Gardens "Delphinium Dance"

Signs of Spring - A Day in the Garden - Old Mill, California Art Club "Blue Heron Lake"

Canyons to Coves - Old Mill, California Art Club - "Sculpted by Time"

SLOPOKE Fine Art of the West, Juried Exhibition and Sale (October 2018), Solvang, CA

2017

Descanso Gardens - Sturt Haaga Gallery juried "Bloom" show "Clivias" and "Descanso Sunflowers"

"Idyllic Impressions" - Old Mill, California Art Club

"Journey down the California Coast" - Old Mill, California Art Club

Central Coast Fields, 12 x 12 inches, oil painting

Central California

 

Featured Poets Alexis Rhone Fancher and Regina Higgins - Village Poets Zoom, September 27, 2020 at 4:30 pm

            

                                                                 Photo by W.A. LeVine

On Sunday, September 27, 2020, at 4:30 pm. Village Poets will meet on Zoom instead of the Bolton Hall Museum (10110 Commerce Avenue, Tujunga, CA 91042). The invitation is below.  We will feature two amazing artists: poet and photographer Alexis Rhone Fancher and poet Regina Higgins. The reading will include open mic segments.  

This event, a collaboration of Village Poets with the California State Poetry Society, is partly sponsored by the Dignity Health Foundation through the "Close to Nature" Project of Phoenix Houses of Los Angeles, in which the California State Poetry Society is one of collaborating partners. 

INVITATION TO VILLAGE POETS READING ON ZOOM

Topic: Village Poets Present A.R. Fancher and R. Higgins

Time: Sep 27, 2020 04:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 572 105 5171   Passcode: 3Q43Uq

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Alexis Rhone Fancher

Poet/photographer Alexis Rhone Fancher is published in Best American Poetry, Rattle, Hobart, Verse Daily, The New York Times, Petrichor, The MacGuffin, Plume, Tinderbox, Diode, Nashville Review, Wide Awake, Poets of Los Angeles, Pirene’s Fountain, Cleaver, Glass, Rust + Moth, Duende, The American Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. Her books include: How I Lost My Virginity to Michael Cohen & other heart stab poems (Sybaritic Press, 2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, (2015), Enter Here, (2017), and The Dead Kid Poems, (2019), all published by KYSO Flash Press. In 2018 Moon Tide Press published Junkie Wife, an autobiographical chapbook chronicling Alexis’s first, disastrous marriage.

She’s been published in over 60 anthologies, including the best-selling Nasty Women Poets (Lost Horse Press, 2017), Terrapin Books’ A Constellation of Kisses, (2019),and Antologia di poesia femminile americana contemporanea, (Edizioni Ensemble, Italia, 2018). Her photographs have been published worldwide, including the covers of Witness, Nerve Cowboy, Chiron Review, Heyday, and Pithead Chapel, and a spread in River Styx. A multiple Pushcart Prize, Best Short Fiction, and Best of the Net nominee, Alexis has been poetry editor of Cultural Weekly since late 2012. She and her husband live 20 miles outside of downtown L.A., in a small beach community overlooking the Pacific.They have an extraordinary view.

A.R. Fancher Self-Portrait

Overdose

No, he did not look natural in his coffin.
He is not in a better place.
Don’t compare your pain to mine. Your dog
getting hit by a truck is not the same.
You really don’t know how I feel.
Don’t say you’re devastated.
Does it always have to be about you?
Don’t ask me about Fentanyl.
Don’t tell me not to dwell.
Don’t minimize my loss.
My boy is not better off dead.
For once, let’s say it like it is:
He did not pass away.
He died.
There is no plan.
Don’t say he is at peace.
Silence is good. A hug.
Tell me you have no words.
Or tell me stories of that summer
he rode the bulls in Ogden,
all that life tightly in his grip.


for K.S-B.

Honorable Mention, Beyond Baroque Poetry Contest, 2019, Judged by Diane Seuss

Photo by A.R. Fancher

CRUEL CHOICES

When my husband’s two grown daughters are in town, the three of them go to the movies, or play pool. Share dinner every night. Stay out late. I haven’t seen my stepdaughters since my son’s funeral in 2007. When people ask, I say nice things about the girls, as if we had a relationship. When people ask if I have children I change the subject. Or I lie, and say no. Or sometimes I put them on the spot and tell them yes, but he died. They look aghast and want to know what happened.Then I have to tell them about the cancer. Sometimes, when the older daughter, his favorite, is in town, and she and my husband are out together night after night, I wonder what it would be like if that was me, and my boy, if life was fair, and, rather than my husband having two children and I, none, we each had one living child. His choice which one to keep. Lately when people ask, I want to lie and say yes, my son is a basketball coach; he married a beautiful Iranian model with kind eyes, and they live in London with their twin girls who visit every summer; the same twins his girlfriend aborted with my blessing when my son was eighteen, deemed too young for fatherhood, and everyone said there would be all the time in the world.

First published in ASKEW, 2016, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, 2017. Winner, Pangolin Review Poetry Contest, and nominated again for the Pushcart Prize in 2018 by Pangolin Review.

Photo by A.R. Fancher

REGINA HIGGINS

Regina Higgins lives in West Covina, grew up in Los Angeles, and carries Southern roots from the city of Memphis. She expresses herself creatively through poetry, art  and jewelry making. She began writing seriously at The World Stage Anansi Writer’s  Workshop in Leimert Park, in 2001, where the community of writers encouraged her  in truth-telling and witness. Regina’s poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Voices from Leimert Park: Redux. She has collaborated in the creation of  several jazz and spoken word CDs. She has published two chapbooks, and has featured through the Southern California venues. Her performative, passionate poetry style is full of love, humor and everyday life issues, expressed in a voice unique to her lived  experience.

MAGNOLIA

Summertime and the living is easy 

Fish are jumping and the cotton is high

Yo daddy's rich and yo Ma is good looking

So hush little baby, don't you cry

She could tell he wasn't from around here 

As she sashayed across the floor

Demanding attention

Her demographics read like honky tonk 

Lids at half mast, too sheer dress 

Slinky backside, thick lips

She was double-butt situated 

He was just another lonely soldier 

From somewhere between Georgia 

And a dog day afternoon 

Clueless as to why she was shoeless 

Her feet caked with red clay

He asked her to be his private dancer

As the music began, she moved her hips

Swaying to another tune

Only she could hear

Her voice all over him

A southern drawl dripped from her lips

Like fatback in a pot of mustard greens

She said her name was Magnolia

But she was more Venus Fly Trap

Read him like pulp in her fiction

He didn't have to read between the lines

By the end of the night he was hooked 

All for the price of a taxi-dance ticket

Regina Higgins

Since the poem starts with a quote from "Summertime" - a lullaby by George Gershwin from his opera "Porgy and Bess" here's its version by Ella Fitzgerald, recorded in 1968:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2bigf337aU

During the Reading we will also celebrate the recent publication of the Village Poets Anthology

http://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2020/06/where-here-village-poets-anthology-to.html

Alice Pero Named the Tenth Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga

Ms. Alice Pero, an eminent California poet, flutist, poetry teacher and cultural activist, has been named the Tenth Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga for the years 2020-2022. Ms. Pero was selected for her role by a ten-person Poetry and Literature Committee, convened by Village Poets, a local voluntary group presenting poetry readings at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. The Committee consisted of Chair, Joe DeCenzo, the Fourth Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, and of other Village Poets of Sunland Tujunga, all former Poets Laureate – Dorothy Skiles, Marlene Hitt, Pamela Shea, Elsa Frausto, and Dr. Maja Trochimczyk. The Village Poets were joined by invited representatives of local organizations: Ms. Liliana Sanchez, President of Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council, Mr. Ardem Tajerian, Senior Librarian, Sunland Tujunga Branch Library, and Ms. Laurell Gells, Executive Director of the McGroarty Arts Center. The applicants submitted poems, biographic notes, and plans for their term of service; they participated in an in-person interview at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga.

In their congratulatory letter, the Committee stated that Ms. Pero’s poetry “is truly accessible, emotional and relatable to many.  Her love and appreciation of Sunland-Tujunga is prevalent throughout her work.  Her sensitivity and skill as a poet and viable plan to foster the poetic creativity of the youth in our community have set her apart as the person most qualified to express in verse the life and hopes and aspirations of the people of Sunland-Tujunga.” Ms. Pero will start her service on April 26, 2020 and the official Passing of the Laurels Ceremony will take place this summer at the McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga.

Alice Pero’s poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies including Nimrod, National Poetry Review, River Oak Review, Poet Lore, The Alembic, North Dakota Quarterly, The Distillery, Fox Cry Review, The Griffin, and G.W. Review, California Quarterly, Coiled Serpent, Wide Awake, Altadena Poetry Review, and many others. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Altadena Poetry Review and California Quarterly. Her book of poetry, Thawed Stars, was praised by renowned poet, Kenneth Koch, as having “clarity and surprises.” In 2017 Shabda Press published a book of poems, Sunland Park Poems, written in Sunland Park by herself and former Sunland/Tujunga Poet Laureate, Elsa Frausto. The book also features photographs Pero took in the park.

Alice Pero and Maja Trochimczyk after a Windsong concert

with Maja as Featured Poet, 2017.

Pero is a teacher of poetry to children in schools for 29 years and a member of California Poets in the Schools. She is the founder of the reading series, "Moonday", ongoing in the Los Angeles area since 2002 and now located in Sunland. An accomplished flutist and former dancer, she created the performing group, "Windsong Players Chamber Ensemble" in 2015 which gives concerts regularly around the Southland. Pero continues to teach poetry to children throughout the Los Angeles area with a current residency at the Delphi Academy in Lake View Terrace. 

Pero lives on the edge of a Southland desert wash with her husband, Dennis, a pastoral counsellor, and she is the mother of two and grandmother of five.  She frequently takes her five year old grandson on walks in the desert wash in back of her house in Sunland, and he has developed a profound interest in nature, the local flora and fauna, particularly the bees that flourish on her very large rosemary bush.

Dorothy Skiles reads at McGroarty Arts Center, April 2012

The Passing of the Laurels ceremony, the tenth such event in 20 years was planned for April 26, 2020, but is now postponed to another date. It will be held at the McGroarty Arts Center (7570 McGroarty Terrace, Tujunga, CA 91042) as a celebration of poetry and the community.  The wreath of green olive leaves (olive for the oil of wisdom and spiritual inspiration, rather than laurel for fame) will be passed to Ms. Pero by the Ninth Poet Laureate, Pamela Shea, (2017-2020). The event, free and open to the public, will include music performances, presentation of honorary diplomas, and poetry readings by both the outgoing and in-coming Poets Laureate.

Pamela Shea (L) with Joe DeCenzo and Elsa S. Frausto, April 2017

Pamela Shea served as the Ninth Poet Laureate since April 2017. During her term as Poet Laureate, she has especially enjoyed writing poems for specific community events. A particularly meaningful event for her was honoring the volunteers and staff who fought the La Tuna Fire and saved the McGroarty Arts Center during the September 2017 fire.

Pamela Shea, photo by Meridyth MacDonald

Ms. Shea has also written for many events at the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library; she particularly treasures the time when she wrote a special poem that she read at the library’s Celebration Honoring African American History Month, featuring Lt. Col. Robert Friend, one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen. Another memorable event was reading her tribute poem for the Coast Live Oak Tree Celebration at the library in January 2020.

Ms. Shea dressed up as a Cat in the Hat reads to kids at LA Library, 2020

A city-wide event in which Pam participated was the NoHo Lit Crawl in October 2019, where she was part of the First Poet Laureate Parade. Through the L.A. Public Library, she contributed to the “Can We Get Your Autograph?” as well as the NEA Big Read events. She read at a meeting of SHPOA (Shadow Hills Property Owners Association) and participated in the 2018 Gathering of California’s Poets Laureate at McGroarty Arts Center hosted by Dana Gioia, California State Poet Laureate. In December 2019, Pam read a poem before the Los Angeles City Council in support of saving La Tuna Canyon as a historical and recreational site. During her term as Poet Laureate term she has achieved her goal in being published in a number of poetry journals and anthologies, such as the California Quarterly, the Altadena Poetry Review, and Spectrum. She looks forward to having a book of her poetry published soon.

McGroarty Arts Center with Commemorative plaque

The Poet Laureate Program was initiated in 1999 by local cultural activists as a tribute to John Steven and Ida McGroarty, who used their home as a gathering place for prominent town citizens to enjoy cultural and fund raising events. The McGroartys were the town’s most famous citizens. John Steven McGroarty (1862-1944) served as the California Poet Laureate from 1933-1944.  A man of many talents, he was known as a poet, journalist, congressman (1935-39), columnist, publisher, historian, playwright, and community activist.

The Assembly Proclamation declaring McGroarty Poet Laureate of California, 1933

McGroarty published several volumes of poetry, memoirs, and non-fiction. He wrote The Mission Play staged annually at Easter, and had a weekly column in the Los Angeles Times.  The reading of one of his poems, “Just California”, was required by all California elementary school students. The McGroartys donated their estate to the City of Los Angeles to serve as a cultural center for the local community.

Joe DeCenzo speaks to the audience, Passing of the Laurels, April 2017

In 2018, his memory was honored by Dana Gioia, then Poet Laureate of California, with the Gathering of Poets Laureate held at the McGroarty Arts Center – over 60 current and past Poets Laureate participated from the entire state, enjoying workshops and public readings, recorded by the California Arts Council, one of the sponsors of this worthwhile event.

Village Poets: L to R: Elsa Frausto, Dorothy Skiles, Marlene Hitt, 

Joe DeCenzo, Pamela Shea and dr Maja Trochimczyk

Mr. McGroarty’s involvement in the local community served as a model for future Poets Laureate that, so far, included: Marlene Hitt, 1999-2001; Katerina Canyon, 2001-2004; Joe DeCenzo, 2004-2006; Ursula T. Gibson, 2006-2008; Damien Stednitz, 2008-2010; Maja Trochimczyk, 2010-2012; Dorothy Skiles, 2012-2014; Elsa S. Frausto, 2014-2017; and Pamela Shea, 2017-2020.

Dr. Maja Trochimczyk with Joe DeCenzo, April 2010.

More information about the Poet-Laureate Program and former Poets Laureate is on the group’s website: villagepoets.com. Descriptions of past Passing-of-the-Laurels ceremonies may be found on the group’s blog, maintained by Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, villagepoets.blogspot.com:

http://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2017/05/from-elsa-to-pamela-wreath-and-heart.html
https://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2014/04/elsa-frausto-becomes-our-poet-laureate.html
https://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2012/04/this-sunday-passing-of-laurels-ceremony.html

Village Poets with L.A. Poet Laureate Luis Rodriguez, L-R Dorothy Skiles, 

Marlene Hitt, Joe DeCenzo, L. Rodriguez, Maja Trochimczyk

Village Poets Year in Review and Year in Preview - From 2018 to 2019

Merry Christmas to All and Happy New Year 2019!!!

 Village Poets have no scheduled readings in December 2018. Our next gathering is on January 27, 2019, with Gabriel Meyer and Elena Karina Byrne. Details to be posted later.

2018: YEAR IN REVIEW

Village Poets finished the monthly reading series in November, with a rich program of the Krak Poetry Group celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Poland's Regained Independence, the presentation of a new anthology "Grateful Conversations" by Westside Women Writers, and the music of March Achuff, classical guitarist. The year 2018 was very intense and full of poetic adventures, both individually, and for the entire group. Let us look back at the highlights.

Artwork by Susan Dobay

On January  28, 2018, a Hungarian American artist, Susan Dobay presented her new book about her artistic philosophy and creative path, or rather the blurbs she received about her book. Luckily for her audience, she also showed slides of her inspiring artwork, and the open reading was interesting, so poets had something to think about.

Poets with Susan Dobay in her Scenic Drive Gallery, Madame Butterfly Event.

On February 25, Deborah P. Kolodji and William Scott Galasso gathered a group of haiku poets for a wonderful reading from the Southern California Haiku Study Group's anthology that Galasso edited, and that Kolodji enriched with a history of the anthologies in the past 20 years.

Both Debbie and Maja wore cobalt blue...

On March 25, 2018, four poets from a new anthology "The Lullaby of Teeth" read their work, alongside with the poets featured in the California Quarterly vol. 44:1 edited by Maja Trochimczyk. The Quarterly is published by the California State Poetry Society and Maja invited several local poets to her issue, including Kathabela Wilson, Marlene Hitt (in the picture) as well as Pamela Shea, Alice Pero, Lois P. Jones and Susan Rogers, all regulars at the Village Poets readings. 

Poets with the California Quarterly, with artwork by local artist Abby Diamond. L to R: Kathabela Wilson, Maja Trochimczyk, Marlene Hitt.

California Quarterly cover by Abby Diamond

Poets with the Lullaby of Teeth anthology. L to R: Maja Trochimczyk, Eric Morago, Charles Harper Webb, Armine  Iknadossian, Bill Cushing and Dorothy Skiles.

An important event for all of Village Poets was the presentation of Pushcart Prize nominees by the editors of the Altadena Poetry Review 2017. We are proud to announce that Dorothy Skiles was one of the six Pushcart Prize Nominees – 2017 from the Altadena Poetry Review,  for her poem, “Yesterday’s Roses.”  The presentation and celebration was held on April 16, 2018 at the Altadena Library.

On Sunday, April 22, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. the Monthly Reading presented Andrew Robert Peterson, a poet of many hats and creative hands, as well as singer songwriter Art Stucco with percussionist John Palmer.   

A. Peterson, John Palmer, and Art Stucco at the Reading, some in their new hats. 

The reading was also notable because so many poets wore hats! 

Also in April, some Village Poets participated in the annual Poetry and Cookies event at the Altadena Library for the presentation of the 2018 Altadena Poetry Review.

Beverly M. Collins, Dorothy Skiles, Marlene Hitt, Pamela Shea, and Maja Trochimczyk. The artwork behind them is by another regular at the readings, Toti O'Brien.

Meanwhile, Maja enjoyed her rose photographs being presented at the Hellada Gallery in Long Beach, as part of an exhibition "California Blooming" curated by Mark Dzida for the months of March and April.

On May 27, 2018, we had a poetic encounter with Seven Dhar, and an art presentation by Abby Diamond.

Seven Dhar with Maja Trochimczyk and Abby Diamond

Abby Diamond's torn paper mosaic created especially for Moonrise Press.

The featured poet on June 24, 2018 was poet and actress Christine Jordan 

July was very busy. First the Village Poets rode in the 2018 Independence Day parade, featuring Poet Laureate Pamela Shea as Statue of Liberty, with a beautiful torch she made. Maja gave away Pam's poetry bookmarks, her own poem Independence Day, and America the Beautiful cards, while Joe was driving and Dorothy waving away...

Pamela Shea as Statue of Liberty, with her handmade torch.

Independence Day poem by Maja Trochimczyk

Joe DeCenzo as our driver, and DJ of patriotic music.

Then three weeks later, on July 22, Charles Harmon and Mira Mataric presented their poems to the delight of their audience. Mira Mataric and Charles Harmon. They both find humor an inspiration in daily life and relationship adventures, so there was lots to laugh about and be touched by.

Joe DeCenzo showed of his skills as an MC.

Mira Mataric, Charles Harmon, Kathabela and Rick Wilson.

August was the month of tanka. On August 26, 2018, Kathabela Wilson and the Art of Tanka presented the ancient Japanese art form in its modern American reiterations. With music, art presentation, and even a mini writing workshop. So much information in such a short time! Amazing! 

Rick Wilson accompanied Mira Mataric and other poets on shakuhachi.

Taura Scott and Dalton Perry read with Rick Wilson as well. 

On September 23, 2018, we welcomed backed Margaret Saine with her new book, Gardens of the Earth: According to Nature, just published by Moonrise Press, and with a young Cuban poet, Eliecer Almaguer.  This reading was bilingual with some of Eliecer's poems translated into English by Margaret.

Eliecer Almaguer and Margaret Saine with their summer bouquets.

Kathabela Wilson made drawings of poets in her notebook

Gardens of the Earth. Cover Photo by Margaret Saine.

Village Poets with guests. 

On October 5, 2018, we celebrated the Gathering of California Poets Laureate, with workshops and a massive reading in the afternoon, convened by California poet laureate Dana Gioia at the McGroarty Arts Center, narrated by Joe DeCenzo who played the role of the Master of Ceremonies at this monumental event, and attended by all Poets Laureate from the Village Poets group active at present. The event was funded by the California Arts Council and made possible by Connie Post who keeps current list of all Poets Laureate in the state of California. Over sixty poets attended, all Village Poets who are current or former Poets Laureate of Sunland Tujunga read their work. 

Dorothy Skiles reads at the Gathering.

Maja Trochimczyk presented a copy of "Grateful Conversations"

to Dana Gioia.

On October 28, 2018,  Village Poets Reading at Bolton Hall Museum was dedicated to the diverse humorous and touching poetry of Radomir Luza and Gloria Casey. 

On  November 16, 2018, Village Poets participated in the Open Mic Night at The Back Door Bakery Cafe, hosted by Pamela Shea and Joe DeCenzo.

Finally, November 25, 2018 brought the culmination of the season with the event that was both best attended and most impressive, in terms of poetic richness and intensity of emotion.  Krak Poetry Group celebrated 100th Years of Poland's Regained Independence, with Maja Trochimczyk , Konrad Tademar Wilk, and Andrew Kolo (as well as poems by Elzbieta Liebel who died in 2016). The second feature consisted of three poets from the "Grateful Conversations" Anthology (Susan Rogers, Sonya Sabanac, and Maja Trochimczyk). A much needed respite from so much poetry provided solo interludes by Mark Achuff, classical guitar.

This reading even had a poster made by Prof. Leonard Konopelski of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, ample red and white decorations in the colors of the Polish flag, and a handout with sample poems and poets' bios.

L to R: Andrew Kolo, Maja Trochimczyk, Konrad Tademar Wilk and Mark Achuff

Maja Trochimczyk reads.

Konrad Tademar reads.

Sonya Sabanac reads from Grateful Conversations. 

Susan Rogers, Sonya Sabanac and Maja Trochimczyk with Grateful Conversations.

Display of books by Moonrise Press with Krak Poetry Group flyers.

Maja Trochimczyk and Susan Rogers

Grateful Conversations (May 2018)

Finally, in December, Moonrise Press published Lloyd Hitt's collection of poetry, The Earth Time, edited by Marlene Hitt, with a cover based on his photograph of his hillside driveway with California poppies on the side. This selection from a life-time of poetry writing is an impressive portrait of a accomplished, successful and wise man, one of the key members of the Village Poets. 

PAMELA SHEA, POET LAUREATE 

Here's a list of 2018 Poetry Events and Readings by Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga, Pamela Shea:

• January: Two poems selected for publication by California State Poetry Society’s California Quarterly 44 No. 1
• February: One poem selected for publication in The Altadena Review 2018 Anthology
• March 3:  Reading at Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library, Dr. Seuss’s 114th Birthday Party
• March 31: Reading at Festival of Talents, Pasadena Senior Center, special guest Miodrog Jakaic
• April 2:  Online on Village Poets website, posted Update of Events, with poems Spring 2018 & Dr. Seuss poems, www.villagepoets.com/poets/html
• April 29: Altadena Main Library, 16th Annual Poetry & Cookies Reading Event, read "Trains"
• May 3" Reading at Joselito’s Restaurant, Relay For Life Fundraising event by The Painter in You, Dream-Catcher, Relay, and other poems
• May 5-6: Two readings at Clark Magnet School, Foothills Relay For Life, with poem Luminaria & closing
• May 18-19: Reading at A Concert of Music & Dance, California Contemporary Ballet and Windsong Players Chamber Ensemble, choreographed dance to poem Wash Wonderland 
• May 31: Village Poets website, poem Wash Wonderland,www.villagepoets.com/poets/html
• June 2:Submission to Can We Get Your Autograph? project sponsored by the LibraryFoundation of Los Angeles (Sunland-Tujunga Branch selected as one of 19 participating libraries out of 73 total in the city), Poetry
• June 9: Reading at McGroarty Arts Center, 15th Annual Ceramics Juried Open Exhibition, poem written and read for event, In Memorium for Michelle Barone. Just California by  John Steven McGroarty co-read with Joe DeCenzo
• July 4: Riding in Village Poets entry in the Sunland-Tujunga 4th of July parade as Statue of Liberty
• July 8-13: Drawing Inspiration from the Parks - participant in Sequoia National Park's poetry workshop with John Brantingham.
• July 26: Online publication on Village Poets blog, poem 2018 Fourth of July
• September 24, Online publication on Village Poets blog, Summer of Adventure 
• September 25: Reading at meeting of SHPOA (Shadow Hills Property Owners Association), poem "Our Fabulous Foothills"
• October 6: Gathering of California’s Poets Laureate event at McGroarty Arts Center, reading the poem "Oaks"
• October 18: published article in Crescenta Valley Weekly newspaper, Vol. 10, No. 8, article in Between Friends section, “Local Gathering of California’s Poets Laureate”
• October 22: Reading at Verdugo Hills YMCA, Chili Cook-Off, poems Chili, Carried Away by Cornbread
• November 16:  Reading at The Backdoor Bakery, “Village Poets Present” reading featuring Sunland-Tujunga Poets Laureate and open reading
• December 10:  Reading at Verdugo Hills YMCA, Holiday Potluck, Holiday Poem 2018
• December 10: Reading at The Elks Lodge, Hanukkah in the Foothills, Shared Celebrations
• December 15: Reading at Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library Winter Reading Club Kick-Off, two poems read

Pam Shea in Sequoia National Park.

VILLAGE POETS READINGS IN 2019

In 2019, Village Poets will  meet on the following dates:

• January 27 - Gabriel Meyer and Elena Karina Byrne
• February 24 - Toti O'Brien and Marty Fitzpatrick
• March 24 - Mandy Kahn
• April 28
• May 26
• June 23
• July 28
• August 25
• September 22
• October 27
• November 24

Visit this site for current information! 

Happy New Year 2019!