Santa Fe Poets 2 Rescheduled for December 15!

On Sunday, December 15, from 3:00 to 4:30 pm, in the Common Room at the Institute of American Indian Arts' Center for Lifelong Education, City of Santa Fe Poet Laureate Jon Davis will host “Santa Fe Poets 2,” the second of six readings that will take place over the next nine months at various venues in and around Santa Fe. Each reading will feature a different group of five poets reading with the poet laureate. Readers on the program for Santa Fe Poets 2 are Lauren Camp, Joanne Dominique Dwyer, Jamie Figueroa, dg nanouk okpik, and former Santa Fe Poet Laureate Arthur Sze.

The Yawp Barbaric, 2

 

 The second installment of "The Yawp Barbaric" introduces "[Malinche]" by Carmen Gimenez Smith. My historical account is, of course, much compressed and simplified. La Malinche was placed in a difficult situation--abandoned, disinherited, and enslaved. Her rapid climb from slave to power broker led some feminists in the 80s to reevaluate her legacy, but it's a difficult legacy to approve, given the consequences. Gimenez Smith's poem looks primarily at the role of language in the conquest: The Yawp Barbaric.

The Yawp Barbaric

The first of my monthly columns, called either "The Yawp Barbaric" or "Poetry Unexplained" (I'm leaning toward the latter, since it suits my sense of irony) came out in the Santa Fe Reporter yesterday. This one discusses "Horse Face" by Santa Fe's first poet laureate, Arthur Sze. The column will appear the last week of each month at least until June, maybe longer. You can read it online here: The Yawp Barbaric.

"Santa Fe Poets 2" Reading on November 24 at the Institute of American Indian Arts

On Sunday, November 24, from 3:00 to 4:30 pm, in the Common Room at the Institute of American Indian Arts' Center for Lifelong Education, City of Santa Fe Poet Laureate Jon Davis will host “Santa Fe Poets 2,” the second of six readings that will take place over the next nine months at various venues in and around Santa Fe. Each reading will feature a different group of five poets reading with the poet laureate. Readers on the program for Santa Fe Poets 2 are Lauren Camp, Joanne Dominique Dwyer, Jamie Figueroa, dg nanouk okpik, and Arthur Sze.

At this second reading, Davis will read from a new manuscript, Reply All, and from his most recent books, Preliminary Report, published by Copper Canyon Press in 2010, and Thelonious Sphere, a chapbook published by Q Ave Press in 2013.  Davis is director of the Low Residency MFA Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he has taught for 23 years.

Lauren Camp, a workshop leader at various venues in and around Santa Fe and host of the poetry show Audio Saucepan on KSFR,  is author of the collection, This Business of Wisdom (West End Press, 2010). 

Joanne Dominique Dwyer is the author of Belle Laide (Sarabande Books, 2013). She works as a facilitator for the Brooklyn-based Alzheimer’s Poetry Project.  

 

Jamie Figueroa, a Jack Kent Cooke Arts Scholar, is currently attending IAIA's MFA program and teaching at the New Mexico School for the Arts. 

 
dg nanouk okpik, an Inupiaq-Inuit, is author of a chapbook, In the Time of Okvik, that appeared in Effigies (Salt Publishing, 2009) and a full-length book, Corpse Whale (University of Arizona Press, 2012).  

 
 Arthur Sze, IAIA Professor Emeritus, was Santa Fe's first Poet Laureate and is now a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. He is the author of eight books of poetry, with a ninth, Compass Rose, forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in 2014.

For directions to the Institute of American Indian Arts' campus, visit the website: http://www.iaia.edu/about/directions/

For more information, call Jon Davis at 424.2365 or e-mail him at jdavissimo52@gmail.com.

Established in 2005, the Poet Laureate program actively promotes poetry and the spoken word as integral parts of our civic life.

Beyonce, Renga, New Mexico Poetry, and a Return to the Laureate Trail

No, I'm not the popstar. The popstar was, apparently, Beyonce, or someone very like her. I wrote the story of her visit to Marfa, Texas. Well, sort of. I mean, not exactly. I exaggerated. Obfuscated. Made stuff up. But it's all true. In a way. And can be found in Versal 11.


After an intense several months creating an MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, I'm planning some readings and a series of monthly columns on New Mexico poetry for the Santa Fe Reporter. Watch for announcements here.

And don't forget the ongoing renga project which erupts suddenly and briefly on Fridays at 5 pm between Site Sante Fe and W21. Still the fastest poetry reading on the planet. Get in, get cultured, get out.

William Butler Yeats

This past April, I spent a month in Ireland, part of it in Cill Rialaig on the Southwestern Coast. At the end of my stay I toured the country with my partner, Teresa. It was a cold, rainy day when we caught up with the old man of Irish poetry.

Portrait by Christopher Felver

Was honored to have Chris Felver shoot an impromptu portrait. He's shot a few other folks, too. Check out the poets here: Christopher Felver