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Artists Corner
Exciting News from Playwrights Theatre’s Teaching ArtistsFrom book releases to upcoming performances, Playwrights Theatre’s Teaching Artists are doing some exciting work in the literary and performing arts. Playwrights Theatre prides itself in working with professional artists who not only have a knack for teaching the art form, but who are also active participants in the current art and literary scenes, writing books, presenting at poetry readings, and performing in shows in the New York/New Jersey area.
Diane Lockward is happy to announce that What Feeds Us, her second full-length poetry collection, has just been released by Wind Publication. The book was awarded the Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize. This book is available from your favorite local bookstore, Amazon.com, Spring Church Books (800-496-1262), or directly from the publisher.
Wind Publications
600 Overbrook Dr
Nicholasville, KY 40356
e-mail: books@windpub.com
ISBN:1893239578
$15.00
“This is a wonderful book that might not nourish your body but certainly will nourish your heart.”
—Thomas LuxLamont Dixon completed the recording of his jazz-poetry CD, entitled The 2nd Set. As well, he has just received notice that Graterford Prison, in Pennsylvania, has invited him back for the 3rd year to perform for the population there. In late November, he will be conducting a "performance poetry" workshop for the Nat'l Assn. of Black Storytellers' 24th Fest. & Conf., being held in San Diego, CA.
Darcy Cummings
Darcy Cummings's book, The Artist As Alice: From A Photographer's Life, won the Bright Hills Press book competition and was published in September. The book is a fictional biography in verse of Alice in Wonderland, from immediately after her adventures, until her death at 85.
Eleanor Wilner has written about the Alice book: "‘in the arbor's lacy shade, a swing creaks.' And, from the chrysalis of time, in brilliantly lit detail, an imagined life unfolds itself, as Darcy Cummings's Alice emerges from a child's wonderland to become a figure for the woman artist, and an eloquent carrier of female experience: a girl's magic, a wife's bondage, a mother's mourning; above all, an artist's vision: camera with poetic license, unlimited depth of field."
Darcy Cummings and Daniel Hoffman will be reading from their new books on November 9th at 7:00pm at Robins bookstore in Philadelphia.Meredith Sue Willis
The Fall 2006 issue of Appalachian Heritage features Meredith Sue Willis, including a short story, On the Road with C.T. Savage and an essay by her as well as a biographical essay about her by Phyllis Wilson Moore; a reappraisal of her 1981 novel Higher Ground by Keith Maillard, and a personal essay about growing up by her oldest friend, West Virginia University President David C. Hardesty. For information on getting a copy, go to Appalachian HeritageShe also taught "Beginning Your Novel" at the 2006 Writers Conference at Penn on October 14, 2006, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. She was one of the honored writers at the 25th Appalachian Writers' Festival at Emory & Henry College on September 21 - 23, 2006, along with Lee Smith, Fred Chapelle, Robert Morgan, Lisa Alther, and others.
Natasha Yannacañedo will be performing in a staged reading of Medea, by Euripides. This performance will take place on Monday November 6th and Tuesday November 7th, 2006 at 7pm, at the National Black Theatre. The Admission is free and open to the public, however calling ahead is strongly recommended. The theatre is located at 2031 Fifth Avenue, 125th & 126th Streets, Harlem, NY. To RSVP call 212.696.6572.William Higginson has released two new books. Butterfly Dreams: The Seasons through Haiku and Photographs is an e-book with nature photographer Michael Lustbader, available on CD-ROM. 130 images paired with 130 translations of classical and modern Japanese haiku. Published by Natural Tapestries. A preview is available online, at http://handh-fromherepress.home.att.net/scrapbook_bd/. Bill’s other book, Surfing on Magma, is a 48-page chapbook of poems on diverse themes. Both are published by From Here Press.
Laura Henry: In July, the Hangar Theatre as part of their Lab Company’s season produced Laura’s play left. She then spent the month of September in Montauk on an Edward Albee Fellowship writing her new play Cherry Red. Also in September she ended her 2005-2006 Dramatists Guild Fellowship with a reading at the Dramatists Guild. She is directing a workshop of her play left/left\left as part of Six Figures' Artists of Tomorrow Festival on November 19th and 20th (http://www.sixfigures.com.) and her play The Six That Fell opens at Theatre Plus in Buffalo on November 9 (http://alleyway.com/alleyway)
JC Todd: Currently, a group of J.C.’s poems are in Wild River Review. As well, there's an interview with her: "J. C. Todd, the Quiet Maverick" www.wildriverreview.com. It will be up another week or so, then available through the archive. Her poem In So Deep won Second Place in the River City Competition and will be published this winter in The Pinch, a literary journal from University of Memphis.
Older news: Grace Schulman selected J.C’s poem What's Left as a finalist in the Lucille Medwick Memorial Lyric Poetry Contest of the Poetry Society of America.Dominique Cieri: Double Play Connections will present the New York premiere of Off World Theatre's production of Count Down, a play by Dominique Cieri, directed by Elyse Knight with choreography by Pene McCourty. Performances will begin on Nov. 2. Opening is Nov. 8 for a run through Nov. 19 at The Bank Street Theatre (155 Bank Street).
Forty days, 7 angry girls, 1 reluctant teaching artist … set in an all-girls residential facility, Count Down follows a teaching artist as she attempts to break down the barriers of a group of neglected young women through a creative process. The drama is inspired by the playwright's experiences over the last 15 years working as a teaching artist with many groups of at-risk youth, including abused and neglected teenage girls.
The cast includes Valerie Blazek, Sandi Carroll, Reina Cedeno, Major Dodge, Megan Ferguson, Kasey Lockwood, Shawand McKenzie, Adepero Oduye and Dania Ramos (another Playwrights Theatre Teaching Artist). Tickets are $18 and can be purchased by visiting www.SmartTix.com or calling (212) 868-4444. For more information visit http://doubleplayconnections.home.att.net.
Anndee Hochman recently taped a segment of the upcoming Book Channel, a production of New Century Television, which broadcasts via the Internet. The program includes readings and interviews with regional authors. More information about NCTV available at http://newcenturytv.com/subs/master_c.php
Therese Halscheid new book of poems, Uncommon Geography (Carpenter Gothic, 2006), was released this Spring.
Penny Harter: On September 26th, Penny was the featured reader for the Highland Park Public Library Poetry Night, and she has a poem in the current issue of Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature (due out soon).
Penny read her work at the Walt Whitman Poetry Festival in Ocean Grove on October 7th. Several other current and former teaching artists participated in various ways in the Festival, including William Higginson, Diane Lockwood, Madeline Tiger, and B. J. Ward.
In addition to the aforementioned poets, Cat Doty, Therese Halscheid, and J. C. Todd were all featured in the new Festival anthology Spindrift, published by the Historical Society of Ocean Grove.
