one scarlet leaf
on the grey steps
among the bronze-brown litter
of the oaks
Frances Donovan
Resources in the USA and Canada for GLBT Folks and the People Who Love Them
My company’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) employee organization forwarded me this list, compiled by the Employee Assistance Trade Organization. These are organizations and hotlines that can help queer folk with all areas of our lives, including coming out, advocacy, workplace issues, healthcare access, legal problems, gay-friendly religious organizations, and violence recovery. I’ve added a couple of links to organizations in the Boston area as well.
Continue reading “Resources in the USA and Canada for GLBT Folks and the People Who Love Them”
Garden of Images – The Back Courtyard
Beautiful things can happen when you give yourself permission to let them. But usually it involves digging through a few layers of distraction. It took two pages of maundering before I settled down to make this drawing. Just before I did, I wrote “Never let someone take away your own agency as an artist. You don’t have to give that up — ever.”
Frances Donovan
Boston Area Poetry Readings for the Rest of November and Early December 2014
I’m very sad to have missed Jill McDonough’s reading at On the Dot Books. She’s one of my favorite Boston poets and the director of the UMass Boston MFA program in Creative Writing. Oh, well. At least I can still buy one of her books.
Many other fine readings abound as the days turn short and crispy. And if you’re pinching your pennies in anticipation of Christmas/Yule/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus shopping, please note: Poetry readings are usually free.
Thursday, November 6, 6 pm
Jill McDonough and Anna Ross
On the Dot Books Reading
Dot 2 Dot Cafe
1739 Dorchester Ave
Dorchester, MA
Thursday, November 6, 7 pm
Cammy Thomas
Concord Bookshop
65 Main Street
Concord, MA
Friday, November 7, 7 pm
Ewa Chrusciel
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton Street
Cambridge, MA
Friday, November 7, 7:30 pm
Suzanne Doppelt – a bilingual reading (French/English).
McCormack Family Theater
70 Brown St.
Providence, RI
Friday, November 7, 8 pm
Kevin Pilington, Kelly DuMar, and Erica Ferencik
Dire Literary Reading Series
Out of the Blue Art Gallery
541 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA
Saturday, November 8, 6 pm
John Skoyles, Dorianne Laux, Jennifer Jean, Michael Todd Steffen, Nathan Comstock, Shari Caplan, and more
Mr. Hip Presents: Reading Series
UFORGE Gallery
Jamaica Plain, MA
Saturday, November 8, 6 – 8 pm
Kim Jensen “Fanny Howe: Fictions of Provocation and Resistance”
with reading by Fanny Howe
SCRUTINY
Center for Marxist Education
550 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA
Sunday, November 9, 12 pm
Barbara Siegel Carlson and Elizabeth Gordon Mckim
Poetry: The Art of Words/Mike Amado Memorial Series
The Plymouth Center for the Arts
11 North St
Plymouth, MA
Sunday, November 9, 3 pm
Shane McCrae and Caryl Pagel
jubilat / Jones Reading Series
Goodwin Room
Jones Library
43 Amity Street
Amherst, MA
Tuesday, November 11, 4:15-6 pm
Eleanor Goodman and Ao Wang
Starting Anew as a Poet: Tendencies in Contemporary Chinese Poetry
A Reading and Conversation with Two Poet-Translators
Harvard University Fairbank Center
CGIS South, Room S250
1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA
Tuesday, November 11, 7 pm
Denise Bergman, Joseph Fazio, Kate Leary, Mehdi Okasi, Emily Ross
New Art Center
61 Washington Park
Newtonville, MA
Wednesday, November 12, 7 pm
Powow River Poets Reading Series
Caki Wilkinson and Michael Cantor
Jabberwocky Books
50 Water Street (in the Tannery Mall)
Newburyport, MA
Thursday, November 13, 6 pm
Linda Leavell presents Marianne Moore
Edison Newman Room, Houghton Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Thursday, November 13, 6:30 pm
Ernest Hilbert & Daniel Tobin
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway
Cambridge, MA
Thursday, November 13, 6 pm
Edward Hirsch, Eavan Boland and Kevin Young
discuss “The Political Life of Poetry”
Clough Series on the Arts and the Culture of Democracy
Devlin 101
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA
Thursday, November 13, 7 pm
Denise Bergman, Molly Lynn Watt, Susan Freireich
Fifth Annual Reading of New Work plus Reception
Central Square Public Library
45 Pearl Street
Central Square
Cambridge, MA
Thursday, November 13, 7:30 pm
David Daniel, Ann McArdle, Marsha Pomerantz and Laura Harrington
Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Commonwealth Reading Series
Cultural Center at Rocky Neck
6 Wonson St.
Gloucester, MA
Thursday, November 13, 7 pm
Peter Fallon and Jean Valentine
Suffolk University Poetry Center
Sawyer Library, 3rd Floor
73 Tremont Street
Boston, MA
Library entrance in back of the building, on Tremont Place
Friday, November 14, 7:30 pm
Emily Carroll and David R. Surette
Chapter and Verse Literary Reading Series
Loring-Greenough House
12 South Street
Jamaica Plain, MA, right across from the Monument
Friday, November 14, 7:30 pm (CANCELLED)
Tony Hoagland
presented by The Robert Creeley Foundation
Acton Town Hall
472 Main Street
Acton, MA
Saturday, November 15, 10:30 am
Wake up and Smell the Poetry
Karen Skofield, Diana Whitney and Licia Sky
HCAM Studios, 77 Main Street
Hopkinton, MA
Saturday, November 15, 8 pm
Chris Hosea, Christina Davis, Josh Bell, and Peter Gizzi
Harvard Advocate Reading Series
21 South Street
Cambridge, MA
Sunday, November 16, 2-4 pm
Afaa Michael Weaver, opening reader TBA
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village
Brookline, MA
Sunday, November 16, 3 – 5 pm
Jericho Brown, Jennifer Markell, and Frannie Lindsay
Calliope: Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library
575 West Falmouth Highway
Falmouth, MA
Donation: $5. Refreshments provided
Monday, November 17, 8 pm
Maureen McLane and David Roderick
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA
$3
Tuesday, November 18, 7 pm
Zachary Bos, Krista Oehlke, and Curtis Perdue
U35 Poetry Reading
The Marliave Restaurant
10 Bosworth Street
Boston, MA
Tuesday, November 18, 7:30 pm
Annie Boutelle
Stoddard Hall Auditorium
Smith College
Northampton, MA
Wednesday, November 19, 6 pm
Ariana Reines
Woodberry Poetry Room, Lamont Library, Room 330
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Wednesday November 19, 7 pm
Mary Buchinger-Bodwell, George Kalogeris, and Franz Wright
First Church Congregationalist
11 Garden Street (by the Sheraton Commander)
Harvard Square
Cambridge, MA
Wednesday, N
Gloucester Writers Center
126 East Main Strovember 19, 7:30 pm
Otto Laskeeet
Gloucester, MA
Thursday, November 20, 7 pm
Doug Anderson
followed by open mic
Midnight Voices: Warrior Writers and Veterans for Peace
Friends Meetinghouse
5 Longfellow Park
Cambridge, MA
Thursday, November 20, 7:30 pm
Sharon Olds
Boston University, The Castle
225 Bay State Rd
Boston, MA
Friday, November 21, 7 pm
Sandra Lim and Katie Peterson
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton Street
Cambridge, MA
Wednesday, November 26, 7 pm
Caki Wilkinson and Michael Cantor
Powow River Poets Monthly Reading Series
Jabberwocky Bookshop
50 Water Street
Newburyport, MA
Monday, December 1, 8 pm
A tribute to Bill Knott
with David Rivard, Jonathan Aaron, Tom Lux, Gail Mazur, John Skoyles, Peter Shippy, and Andrea Cohen
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA
$3
Tuesday, December 2, 2:30 pm
Sandra Doller
McCormack Family Theater
70 Brown St.
Providence, RI
Wednesday, December 3, 6 pm
Dan Beachy-Quick, Fanny Howe, Peter O’Leary and Patrick Pritchett
Introduction by Professor Amy Hollywood
Thompson Room, Barker Center
12 Quincy Street
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Wednesday, December 3, 6:30 pm
Fred Marchant
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway
Cambridge, MA
Monday, December 8, 7 pm
Jane Bachner, Sandy Weisman, and Emily Ferrara
Newtonville Books
10 Langley Road
Newton, MA
Monday, December 8, 8 pm
Carole Oles and Ani Gjika
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA
$3
Thursday, December 11, 2:30 pm
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
McCormack Family Theater
70 Brown St.
Providence, RI
Saturday, December 13, 6 pm
Danielle Jones-Pruett, Bianca Stone, Ben Pease, Mckendy Fils-Amie, Chris Siteman, Heather Tresseler, Eric Eidswick, and more
Musical Guest: Rob Flax
Mr. Hip Presents: Reading Series
UFORGE Gallery
Jamaica Plain, MA
Sunday, December 14, 12 pm
Vincent Dorio and Denise Rainey
Poetry: The Art of Words/Mike Amado Memorial Series
The Plymouth Center for the Arts
11 North St
Plymouth, MA
Sunday, December 14, 3 pm
Sandra Lim
With book signing reception
Poetry at the Library Series
Concord Free Public Library
129 Main St
Concord, MA
Saturday, December 20, 10:30 am
Wake up and Smell the Poetry
Ted Reinstein, Dan Zampino and Lloyd Thayer
HCAM Studios, 77 Main Street
Hopkinton, MA
Sunday, December 21, 2- 4 pm
Sandra Lim and Jennifer Tseng
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village
Brookline, MA
Garden of Images – Egg Moon Mandala
I often draw mandalas. Here’s one I drew in March of 2014, around the time of the Egg Moon — the same month that holds Passover and Easter in the Judeo-Christian calendar, and around the time of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. In the Wiccan Wheel of the Year, it’s known as Ostara, a festival of the Germanic Goddess of the same name in which eggs and rabbits figure prominently. All these holidays share the themes of rebirth and renewal, a theme that is self-evident to anyone who’s lived through springtime in a temperate (or colder!) climate.
Garden of Images – Frances Quadcore Processor
Someone suggested I do some visual journaling on the theme of “process,” which made me think about computer processors. My brain seems to favor multi-threaded processing but it’s a little out of date, so a quadcore processor seemed like a good idea. Here’s what my design specs might look like. Click to view a larger version.
Visual Art as a Tool for Healing (Going Public)
Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been living with a chronic illness for 25 years. Stress and complications with bronchitis caused a flare-up in early October. I spent about a week in hospital, and have been convalescing since then — I plan to return to work on a reduced schedule in the next week or so.
Writing has always been a major tool for me in making sense of (and peace with) these episodes. This past year though, in the depth of the illness I’ve found myself relying on right-brain visual self-expression. Words just haven’t seemed sufficient. Entering a pre-verbal space seems to get to the roots of my troubles in a deeper way and to allow healing to happen at a more fundamental level.
My family was highly creative, however we had an unspoken territorial agreement about who practiced what kind of art form. My father and mother were musicians, my brother was the visual artist, and I was the writer. While I had some early training in the visual arts, I chose to focus on writing partly out of respect for my brother’s “domain” and partly because writing was something that came very naturally to me. Visual art has continued to play a part in my life, though. I’ve kept this work private for the most part. But I think it’s time to send some of it out into the world.
I’ll be posting some of the images and artwork I’ve been creating since early October. Some readers may be more interested in the written word — and the name of the site certainly implies that that’s my primary focus. I like to think of creativity as being all of a piece, though.
Haiku Ode to Wind & Rain
how you move the trees
and make a music in their leaves
that eases me
Speaking Out About Sexism and Harassment is a Way for Feminist Writers to Find One Another
The Hairpin recently published a piece by Emma Healy about the subtle and not-so-subtle ways men ignore, negate, and harass women in the world of writing and publishing. Stories like the ones she and her colleagues recount make me feel so much less crazy as I contemplate returning to the world of writing and publishing, an industry I ran from years ago when New Media was the big idea. The Web seemed like an easier alternative to the hermetically sealed world of NYC publishing houses and academic presses. I started publishing my work on my own website in 1996 and haven’t looked back since. On a few occasions, it’s even resulted in literary journals soliciting my work — something unheard of in the more traditional literary world.
Like just about any industry on earth, web development (or web design, or web application development, or interactive design, or UI/UX design, or whatever the kids are calling it these days) is also a boys’ club. In the 1990s, I was a member of an organization called Webgrrls that brought women in the field together, but sometime around the turn of the century its founder Aliza Sherman sold it to a man (!) and it faded into obscurity. That heralded the end of the golden days of the web, a world that’s been co-opted by Silicon Valley startup capital and an increasingly crowded and complex Internet (or the Intarwebs, or the Tubes, or the blagosphere, or whatever the kids are calling it these days). The gender discrimination I’ve faced has been subtle and difficult to name. On the whole, my experience has been less creeptastic dudebro trying to get in my pants and more male coworkers bonding over football and beer and then passing me over for promotions.
Review of Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick is a lyrical, haunting book which I devoured in a single night. It was shelved in the science fiction/fantasy section of my local bookstore, but the novel really defies genre. It’s more in keeping with the Gabriel Garcia Marquez tradition of magical realism than the stereotypical pulp fiction often found in the sci-fi aisle.
I love narratives that challenge the linear nature of time and push at the edges of everyday reality, especially when they incorporate beautiful language and recurring motifs. This novel does all that and more.
Set on the same island in seven different time periods, the novel explores the themes of love and sacrifice as it weaves together characters who recur in different iterations and permutations. “I might be lots of people […] Why do I have to be just one? I am lots of people and I love all of the and they love me.”
Sedgewick drew inspiration from a painting in the Swedish National Gallery called Midvinterblot (Wikipedia link here). His vivid description of the painting and the way he brought its narrative to life inspired me to research it further. This passage from the book echoes its real-life reception, which relegated it to the dust-heap of history until almost a century after its creation:
“Sacrifice. That’s a somewhat… outdated… notion, isn’t it? In this modern world?”
“Outdated?” echoed Eric. Suddenly, he felt very old. He felt that he didn’t understand.
“The theme is old, but not outdated,” he explained, feeling bewildered. “And it refers to the island, whose very name is written in blood!”
“Really?” said one of the men.
“Indeed. People think the name of this island means ‘blessed,’ and so it does, but ‘blessed’ does not mean what people think it does. In the old tongue it was blestian and before that blotsian, and before that, just blod. It means sacrifice.”
“Sacrifice.”
“To bless means to sacrifice, and in blood.”
There is a pause. A long pause.
Then, “Good. Well, thank you for your time here today, Mr. Carlsson.”
With that they left.
[ NOTE: This review was originally published at Goodreads on 7/18/2014. ]
Garden of Words 