5 de Mayo Was No Match for Poetry
Michael Sedano
The first weekend in May arrived with a full schedule of poetry readings in communities across the land. The nation's cultural life appears fully re-awakened in the wake of the GOPlague years that kept the nation sequestered and isolated. Literary events were stiff competition for Cinco de Mayo stuff.
This was particularly the case in Altadena and Pasadena, California, where a two-day book and reading festival, "LitFest In the Dena 2024" filled the elegantly cavernous halls comprising Mountain View Mausoleum.
Choosing a program among hundreds of readers across two days, posed painful decisions.
Listeners seeking the Poetry Hall found themselves seated halfway into the mausoleum's focal point, its 180-foot-long Great Gallery where sixty-four varieties of Italian marble and tile work, stained glass windows, and mural-covered vaulted ceilings created a sublime setting for poets.
La Bloga-Tuesday shared a few Sunday hours at the festival, giving us time with the
"Pasadena Rose Poets", including Hazel Clayton Harrison, Carla Sameth, Gerda Govine, and Damian; "Embodied Landscapes Water, Wildlife, and the Geographies that Shape Us", featuring Sehba Sarwar, Erika Ayón, Olga García Echeverría, Jamie Asaye FitzGerald, and Alicia Vogl Saenz.
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Publisher Dr. Thelma T. Reyna can finally relax with the months-long labor of bringing the
anthology to life, from idea to actuality. |
The Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2024 features over a hundred writers. Publisher Thelma T. Reyna used her LitFest time allocation to invite readings from the book by Carla Sameth, Hazel Clayton Harrison, Sehba Sarwar, Lester Lennon, Mary Torregrossa, Pauli Dutton, Don Kingfisher Campbell, Elline Lipkin, GT Foster, Jackie Chou, Victor Cass, Dra. Martha Rivas, Sarah Flores, Emily Silich, and John Martinez. |
| Q&A: Mary Torregrossa |
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| Elline Lipkin |
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| Emily Silich |
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| Sarah Flores |
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| John Martinez |
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| Victor Cass |
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| Jackie Chou |
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| Hazel Clayton Harrison |
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| Don Kingfisher Campbell |
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| Mary Torregrossa |
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| GT Foster |
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| Dra. Martha Rivas |
Meet Altadena Co-Poets Laureate 2024-2026
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| Lester Lennon |
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| Sebha Sarwar |
5 comments:
Michael:
I appreciate you and your many gifts. You continue to weave in and out of the art and culture landscape using your gift of words to let us be in the know now! A Renaissance Man for sure.
Superb photos of these featured poets! Your work does justice to the excellence and dedication of these distinguished and emerging poets. Thank you for featuring them and the small, indie literary book press that brought them together in this anthology edited by nationally-renowned Poet Laureate Peter J. Harris. Thank you for your unwavering support of poetry writ large, and of SoCal poets in particular.
Great read, great photos. Thank you. This is inspiring
Fabulous read ! Fantastic poetry reading last Sunday at LitFest Dena! Great photos, Michael! Wonderful work, Thelma!
Same thoughts. Thank you.
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