Tradition in Transition: Poetry & Cookies

Altadena Poets Laureate: Two-year Term Interrupted by Fire

Michael Sedano

Among certain rude tipos it’s been heard, “organizing poets is like herding cats.” The phrase comes to mind with Sehba Sarwar at the lucite lectern watching her incredibly organized agenda start descending into chaos at Saturday’s Poetry & Cookies celebration inside Altadena Library District’s Bob Lucas Memorial Library & Literacy Center

It is good trouble. 

Saturday’s SRO gathering filling this community space celebrates the two-year culmination of the term of Altadena Co-Poets Laureate. People come for cookies and books at this annual event, which appear in generous portion. And for the past twenty years people read their own poetry to everyone. 

So gente are itching to get onto the open mic list and Sarwar senses her predicament. She’s planned two sets of six open mic readers and ya stuvo. Folks are restless over that change in Poetry & Cookies.

Altadena Laureates take on particular roles. Sehba Sarwar, Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events, organizes events including readings and workshops over the two-year term. Lester Graves Lennon serves as Altadena Poet Laureate Editor-in- Chief of Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2026, published by local press Golden Foothills Press.

Sarwar adopts an experimental attitude to this annual celebration, designing an elegant program featuring ten readers published in the anthology, a noted guest reader, spotlighted readings, and a limited number of open mic readers. Not everyone. And that’s the good trouble.

Sarwar accommodates more than the plan, so a lot of gente get up there and share stories of the fire and emptiness and not-thereness, as well as a few ass-kicking proclamations, and some funny ones. William Archila reads in Spanish then English. Brenda Vaca reads from Somos Xicanas, Riot of Roses Publishing’s all-Xicana multi-genre collection. Hazel Clayton Harrison reads about the indomitability of spirit we all wish we have today in Altadena. Adhalia R, a high school student, reads as a peer with published, seasoned writers for the first time. No one didn’t have a good time but not everyone who could have read read. 

The book itself has not yet arrived. The printer targets a date just beyond Poetry & Cookies so there’s a distribution plan already in operation. Distribution is always the bugaboo of independent press. It’s key there’s a plan.

Every published poet gets a copy to acknowledge their selection. Golden Foothills Press offers tiered discounts for additional copies and classroom sets. Golden Foothills Press plans a “driveway distribution day” at Thelma Reyna’s residence. Thereafter, Bob Lucas librarians will have a supply of books for published poets to pick up at their convenience.

Readers in general can order the $20 book directly from Golden Foothills Press (link), or via ISBN 978-1-7372481-3-2 from indie booksellers. Editor-in-Chief Lester Graves Lennon selected 180 poems from 158 poets to encompass the spirit of “1 town rising from ashes with solidarity and hope.” Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2026 is an impressive collection.

Working under tight deadlines since the open call for poetry submissions in December, publisher Thelma T. Reyna, herself an Altadena Laureate Emerita, marshals the process as Lennon selects and organizes the contents. Reyna engages Michael Sedano to photograph Altadena’s devastation and new development, fire and rebuilding, for the book’s cover.  As the book comes together, Sarwar provides author bios and other data to Reyna, ensuring the completeness of book content.

Now poets and public wait to get their eyes on this important and engaging "After the Fires" collection. Lennon’s work has been exceptional. Moreover, the book’s 180 poems inspire, inform, whelm and overwhelm with deep emotion. Golden Foothills Press shared a galley proof with La Bloga and I anxiously await the printer's shipment. I have a prose poem in the book. 

Altadena’s new Laureates take over from here.  New Editor-in-Chief Shahe Mankerian doesn’t attend owing to inescapable conflict. Poetry & Cookie’s happy audience meets and welcomes Rhonda Mitchell as Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events.

Here is a portrait gallery of Poetry & Cookies’ readers. La Bloga welcomes poets to comment below offering their name and website and see their portrait updated with identification.

Poetry & Cookies: Readers & Readers

 Nikki Winslow, Director of Altadena Library District, works closely with Laureates to host readings and workshops and offer generous staff, media, and facilities support for the Laureate program, now in its twentieth year under the library's aegis.

Rhonda Mitchell, Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events

Sehba Sarwar in her farewell reading.

Lester Graves Lennon in his farewell reading.

Susan Rogers

Mani Suri

Christopher Cressey

Beth Paulsen

Darren J. De Leon

Brenda Vaca

Laureate Emerita Hazel Clayton Harrison

Sharyl Collin

Olga García Echeverría

Jessica Abughattas

Anna Broome

Lynne Bronstein

William Archila

Viet Thanh Nguyen and Simone.
Nguyen's fire book is titled "Simone."

Laureate Emerita Teresa Mei Chuc

Laureate Emerita Thelma T. Reyna

Laureate Emerita Carla Sameth

Laureate Emerita Elline Lipkin

Felita Kealing

Adhalia R

Editor-in-Chief Lester Graves Lennon holds the fruits of his labor

Celebrating the Anthology: Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home

Melinda Palacio  

National Hispanic Heritage Month continues as the festivities are spread out over September and October. In conjunction with heritage celebration is a national grant to promote a new book: Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, an anthology from the Library of America. The Santa Barbara Public Library has at least three copies of the anthology. Some of the themes in the Anthology include: Ancestry & Identity, Voice & Resistance, Language, First & Second Homes, Family & Community, Music & Performance, Labor and Eco-consciousness. The anthology, along with the grants offered for promoting the Latino Poetry anthology, has drummed up some exciting events that I hope will continue in years to come. Both Santa Barbara City College and the Santa Barbara Public Library have future programming associated with the Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home Anthology. 

 

Last month, I offered an hour-long poetry and music set for Palabras Vitales: Latiné Poetry Series at Santa Barbara City College. This was a kick off series for the college’s participation in promoting the anthology and the grants celebrating Latino poetry. The anthology’s themes include Voice & Resistance, Home, and Music. I decide to include poems about my own childhood home, especially those that feature my grandmother, as well as poems about children displaced at the border, who do not have a home. Since some of the poems have companion songs, I played a few of the songs on my guitar. I have really enjoyed sharing my poetry and music as part of my laureateship. 

 

Another event that was part of the anthology was a community open mic that I hosted along with the Santa Barbara Public Library and La Casa de la Raza. On September 26, community members were invited to read a poem that speaks to and from our Latino Community, as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month and the Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home Anthology. I asked Sofia De La Cruz to read her poems again because her parents came in late. I think it’s important for young people to be supported by their parents, and everyone enjoyed hearing her powerful poems for a second time. 

 

*an earlier version of this column appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent

Glassy Arte Graces Fullerton Event, Building Community Through Writing and Arte

Reports from Fullerton, Altadena, Pico Blvd, Denver

Michael Sedano

"Culture" is the concatenation of things people do, make, share in common. It's the theoretical basis of a physical community. Today's La Bloga-Tuesday examines a variety of community-building cultural activities. An upcoming art exhibition offers Southern California residents a prime opportunity to join in celebrating sublime material cultura--art fashioned from glass. We look back at a pair of recently experienced events, a writing and crafting workshop sponsored by Altadena Poets Laureate, a conversation between an artist and his model in a newly-founded gallery. These illustrate ways people come together to make and share community. A literary anthology of work by first-time and professional writers illustrates a strategy anyone can emulate to uncover cultural connections that fashion community through individual effort to create material culture in readily accessible ways.

Shattered Hearts: Illuminated Minds

September 12 - November 8 • Muckenthaler Mansion, 1201 W. Malvern Ave. Fullerton, CA 92833

Looking back at a party at Casa Sedano in 2016, it was obvious that Margaret Garcia's then-new interest in fused glass portaits would become an important part of the painter's repertoire. "Come out to the car," Garcia told the guests. "It's too heavy to bring inside."

Indeed. Given the scale Garcia likes working in, and the fragile mass of ¼" plate glass, the portait would have required kid gloves and hefty gente to move the compelling magnificence of the portait resting on the cushioning carpet of the vehicle. So we all gathered at the curb in puro wonderment at what Margaret had wrought.

That was the beginning.

Margaret Garcia shares a fused glass work-in-progress

The artist's vision and skill working in glass and fire have taken on a maturity that a wider public has the opportunity to share at an upcoming exhibition in Fullerton, California, at a venue new to many art collectors and aficionados, the Muckenthaler Mansion (link).

From the Muckenthaler's publicity:

Experience a visual feast and immerse yourself in the beauty of glass in its many shapes and forms. This unique exhibition showcases a Southern California collection of both established and emerging artists, each sharing their techniques and diverse skills. Artists on show:

Cat Machine Gems Einar & Jamex de la Torre Evan Chambers Frank Romero Indre Bileris McCraw Jesse E. Rodriguez Lee Harris Leigh Adams Magda Audifred Margaret García Ron Garcia Tina Arroyos Zara Gomez

The exhibit is inspired by the fragility and functionality of glass and the artist’s ability to push design boundaries in the studio. 

Join us to explore this beautiful world of glass art, where shattered hearts are transformed into illuminated minds and visions of clarity.

La Bloga will attend with camera in-hand to share the opening night's festivities on Thursday September 12, 2024 commencing at 6:00 p.m. 

You're invited to join us, to be among the first to enjoy this unparalleled exhibition of amorphous solid. We won't necessarily delve into the physics of supercooled liquids, slow-moving molecules, and crystallography. We'll just dig the arte and the company.

Margaret Garcia's Most Recent Painting: Gloria Molina tribute mural
https://labloga.blogspot.com/2024/08/boyle-heights-mural-honors-gloria-molina.html
https://labloga.blogspot.com/2024/09/voices-of-future-powerful-women-at.html

Six-Word Memoir 5-Pocket Libro Cartonero: Olga García Echeverría and Altadena Laureates

It seems there's always someone who doesn't get the word. Count me that "someone" when I attended Olga García Echeverría's (link) six-word memoir and book making workshop hosted by Altadena Poets Laureate in the Altadena Library Community Room. I persistently thought it a five-word memoir. Ni modo. When you distill a lifetime or an event into pocos palabras, five will do as well as six. I added the disambiguating title to my workshop creation.

Alzheimers: Five Years Loving Intensely, Ends

García urged each person in the full-house workshop to craft an important personal statement that would become an element in a hand-made, low-cost no publisher needed, book. The libro cartonero is a crafty activity that provides hours of classroom creativity and fun with a capital "U" in fun. Kids, adults, writers, crafters, all will enjoy the activity and its precious results.

Here is a libro cartonero-in-progress, solo falta su cardboard cover. García supplied workshoppers with index cards, magazines, loteria cards, and related recyclable materials. Fashioned from two brown paper bags, the project creates five pockets for inserts, and six surfaces to decorate or write upon.

Olga and her attentive workshoppers. Attendance demanded an extra table.

Workshopper affixes a carboard cover to the double-bag libro

Altadena Poets Laureate Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon
flank workshop leader Olga García Echeverría

Matter Studio Gallery Open to Community: J Michael Walker and Gerda Govine-Ituarte

"Intersectionality Matters" Solo Exhibition

Karla Funderburk, Gallerist of Matter Studio Gallery, welcomes an excited audience to enjoy a colloquy between Gerda Govine-Ituarte and J. Michael Walker for Walker's solo exhibition, Intersectionality Matters. 

For most of the house, it is an initial visit to the space located unobtrusively on Los Angeles' Pico Boulevard (link). The place is easy to reach from anywhere in Southern California. Only a few days remain in the exhibition, so there's urgency to make the trek.

Funderburk issues an open invitation to poets, writers, artists to hold events at her space. It's for the community, she says. The comma La (Kamala)-wearing gallerist wants people across the region to take her up on the invitation. All sensible and moral people will heed that playera  and mark their ballots straight D. And seek out those hiding-in-plain-sight Rs in "nonpartisan" races like school boards and county supervisors and deny their infiltration of the body politic.

Walker tells La Bloga the event "felt like we covered a lot of ground, with Gerda's incredible insight". Govine-Ituarte, a poet, is one of nearly a hundred women who've posed nude for Walker's portraits. The portraits, while sensuous, are effective because Walker's camera, per Govine-Ituarte, captures the spirit and personhood of his subjects.

But the gallery conversation and audience Q&A weren't solely about the nude photographs of women of color, but the exhibition of Walker's drawings. Of women of color. Órale.

Q&A creates interactive community triangulating artist, arte, and the exhibition's implicit narrative

J. Michael Walker earned a residency in Bahia, Brasil where the artist was befriended by the community, creating a profound inspiration to capture faces and bodies of the residents of the 80% African-descendants community.

Years before the residency, Walker bought a tattered folio-size book written in Portugese. The artist, fluent in Spanish but not Portugese, had no idea the pages of a history of slaver settlers would be the perfect media for his portraits of people generations removed from chains. Creating the drawings becomes a form signifying not liberation but justice. The work is glorious!

Govine-Ituarte and Walker speak in front of a large scale drawing of a woman's legs. Walker explains he was intrigued by the way the model held her right foot. He wanted to capture the pose, and feared the detail would be lost in the full work--which is 12 feet high. 

When the model sees what you see in the foto, she immediately recognizes herself, exclaiming "my legs!" The experience illustrates a personalized potency that converts Walker's drawings into duende. Here are not portraits of people but evocations of Soul.

J. Michael and Mimi Walker join poet Gerda Govine-Ituarte

A Little Rock, Arkansas native, Walker exemplifies intersectionality in so many ways. An outcast in racist Arkansas, J. Michael found love and welcome in a Tarahumara community in Mexico. His drawings depict people of color. His first nude subject is a 90-year old woman. When he exhibits the portrait, a bevy of women surround him and demand he photograph them, too.

Collectors can acquire Walker's individual works at Matter Studio Gallery, 5080 W. Pico Boulevard LA, CA 90019. HOURS: Fridays 4-6 PM. Saturday and Sunday'12-6 PM and by appointment with gallerist Karla Funderburk at telephone 323-697-4988. The exhibition closes September 15. View the full exhibition at this link.

Admirers who want to view the artist's work can order the book, All the Saints of the City of the Angels: Seeking the Soul of L.A. on Its Streets. The book collects Walker's interpretation of the Saints with streetnames in the city (link).

"San Miguel Street: The Last Judgment of Don Vicente de los Reyes de la Osa"

Sumi ink on three panels of polypropylene paper; 84" high x 150" wide overall. 2017.

Communitarian Anthology: Mentors and Mentees On the Front Range

There's a meme circulating on the Face(book), citing a Robert Frost quotation to the effect half the world has something to say but cannot, and the other half has nothing to say but keep on saying it. I cannot cite the source, although doing my own research, I find a possible attribution to The Life of Robert Frost: A Critical Biography by Henry Hart.

In Denver, Colorado (the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains) a community of professional writers formed CALMA, Colorado Alliance of Latino Mentors and Authors, as a way of creating community from voices silenced by their lack of opportunity to speak.

Opportunity arrives for Colorado's silenced voices in book form, Ramas y Raices, available through calmaco.org and indie booksellers via ISBN 978-1-7328244-3-0.

Editor Mario Acevedo echoes Frost's thoughts when he writes, "with this anthology, we of CALMA present an historic collection of work showcasing what we admit is a narrow and limited slice of the rich talent of Latino voices from those who must be heard."

Fiction, poetry, memoir, vignette, history, essay, short story, these are the materials that fill the contents of this worthy collection. The literary quality of the anthology makes it worth the effort to order the book. More so, the communitarian nature of the book stands as an avatar for other localities to do like they do in Denver: Form your own coalition of experienced voices and find that missing half, the gente who have a lot to say but have never had the opportunity to say it.