Are You Ready for David Sedaris at the Koger Center?

How are YOU getting ready for the latest news and insightful comedy from DAVID SEDARIS, one of contemporary culture’s most hilarious and erudite storytellers who will be reading, speaking, and splitting our ribs with comedy at our very own Koger Center for the Arts, Wednesday, October 11th at 7:30?

At Jasper, we’re reading the latest from David Sedaris, Happy-Go-Lucky and think you should be, too! Here’s a little preview from the Sedaris website:

David Sedaris, the “champion storyteller,” (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso.

Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes.

But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. To cope, he walks for miles through a nearly deserted city, smelling only his own breath. He vacuums his apartment twice a day, fails to hoard anything, and contemplates how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine.

As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger’s teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own, and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone’s son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America: people weary, storefronts empty or festooned with Help Wanted signs, walls painted with graffiti reflecting the contradictory messages of our time: Eat the Rich. Trump 2024. Black Lives Matter.

In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.

TICKETS TO DAVID SEDARIS HERE!

 

Poetry of the People: Elizabeth Robin

This week's Poet of the People is Elizabeth Robin. She speaks the past into the future with descriptive poems that engage the reader's memory and senses: there is a kindness that engages and you ask for more.

STEPHANIE ELLEN SILER MEMORIAL PRIZE

Omens

           The Alarm
The earth shakes me awake.
The fifth tremor in five days.

            Foul Warning
rain hastens the de-camp
and a knee-knock in the rush
replacement time

              lunch
coconut should feel exotic
aromatic and tropical, the grit-grain
slivers chew like shredded wood

              the commute
i follow the chicken truck
miles down I-26, baffled
jammed ten-high, box-huddled
feathers fly, shit sprinkles
behind the ride to slaughter
windshields grow snow-spots

              house call
cookie cutter cottages clutter
acres cleared for golfing clusters
club joiners locked into homogenized cells
white milk

               bland custard
down time
noodling a poem in the rain
a roofer’s nail-gun ruins the rhythm

               Tequila!
lick salt from the rim
slurp salsa from the chip
slam that shot

down

half moon dents riddle the bar

---

The Wedding Tree

after “Heaven and Earth” by Patricia Sabree

melding heaven and earth under
a Grandmother Tree, a family expands

in Sunday bests, not broom-jumping
but a rite recast with tree as witness, backlit

by spirits She captures in hanging blue
bottles among the moss: ghosts fire the sky
gold-orange to shock-pink, their dance
slow, save one livened ring-shouter, arms
raised in splayed finger joy, hands outstretched

wide hats shade the facelessness of their story
What do they mask? asks Mr. Dunbar. What
magnet draws them together, knotted
in a seedling branch, to a faceless love?

---

A Lesson in Sea Glass

tumbled in sea, salt, sand
random rubbish recycles

smoothed and pitted bits
transform noxema jars and skye
vodka, beer bottles, dead crystal
and french wines into shore search
and discovery, gleaning the beach
for the ocean’s spilled-out trophies

blue: slightly unique
well-worn, hard to find
and easy to treasure

everyday whites and greens and browns:
a rare vestige of print or rim or logo

proof some things, spent
old and odd-shaped
attract the discerning collector

---

The Nose Knows

On July 15, 2022 KRCC reports: Colorado Springs Man Becomes
Fourth Person to Push a Peanut up Pikes Peak with his Nose

if my quest seems silly, why, then, all the tourista
photo-ops? why the headlines: NPR, NBC

Colorado public radio, even? i did it, set a record
seven days up Barr Trail—thirteen miles, mind you—

don’t call me crazy. i planned it out, went through two
dozen peanuts and fought dehydration: life on the edge

how rugged pioneers and champions power-push
peanuts by the nose uphill, to fourteen-thousand one-

hundred fifteen feet: HA! ask me if i’m insane, or bored
or a cheater, pushing not really with my nose, but

a plastic spatula duct-taped to my face, used a CPAP
mask to affix—i am American ingenuity at work—no nut

here, just a man, Bob Salem, proving why i was born
not to solve a pandemic. or close ozone holes. not

to worry over fires floods famine
S U P E R B U G S

nitpick away, pass judgment, “the poster boy for human absurdity”
frivolous goals, you say? but i’m a headline now: who are you?

---

Elizabeth Robin, an award-winning poet, has three books: To My Dreamcatcher (2022), Where Green Meets Blue (2018),  Silk Purses and Lemonade (2017). In 2023 Robin established the 24-stop Hilton Head Poetry Trail and appeared at Piccolo Spoleto as a Sundown Poet. See her website.

Review – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Trustus Theatre

Trustus Theatre opened its 39th Season on September 29th with Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This often produced thriller-musical from 1979 is a mainstay of the American Theatre cannon, having gone on to a film adaptation by Tim Burton in 2007, being hilariously featured on Season 7, Episode 3 of The Office (“Andy’s Play”), and currently running on Broadway with a full orchestra and star-studded cast. With Trustus Theatre having produced two lauded productions from Sondheim’s catalog (Assassins, Company) in the past twelve seasons, expectations were high on opening night for Columbia’s professional theatre which has had great success with Halloween-adjacent programming like Evil Dead and The Rocky Horror Show. A sold out audience filled the intimate Thigpen Main Stage with applause and laughter throughout the evening, which is just short of a three hour experience, ultimately proving that this unexpected murderous musical still connects with us in the 21st Century - though this particular production proves to be somewhat anemic. 

The character Sweeney Todd originated in penny dreadfuls, the favored serialized fiction of the Victorian Era. The musical humanizes the murderous barber by introducing plot elements that allow viewers to connect with and, at times, even pull for Todd. The story follows Sweeney Todd’s obsessed quest for vengeance against the tyrannous and corrupt Judge Turpin - who exiled Todd on false charges. Upon returning to Fleet Street, Todd meets the meat-pie-making Mrs. Lovett who reveals that Todd’s wife was raped by Turpin and that he also imprisoned Johanna (Todd’s daughter) and made her his ward. With Lovett restoring Todd’s single edge razors to him, his “right arm is complete” and there will be blood (well, disappointingly very little blood appears in the Trustus production). It’s a deranged plot for an opéra comique, but this complex script and score does it so well that it won the Tony Award for Best Book, Best Original Score and Best Musical (among others) in 1979. 

Music Directors Amanda Hines and Ayushi Joshi did an admiral job of reducing the 26-piece orchestra that the show was written for, to an effective combo of piano, violin, clarinet, double bass and percussion. Savannah Elgin on violin was most notable, with this voice giving the production the sophistication that this score desires. 

The Trustus Company members who were entrusted with the sacred roles of the play were the greatest success of this production. Christopher Cockrell, who plays the demon barber, commands the stage with poise and coolness. Coming into the role with the experience it requires,Cockrell is a winning Todd having appeared in all of Trustus’ previous Sondheims, and playing many major roles for the classically-trained vocalist like Jekyll & Hyde and Jean Valjean. Matching Cockrell’s unquestionable skill is Katrina Garvin in the role of Mrs. Lovett. Garvin brings her powerfully delicious vocals to Sondheim’s score, and utilizes her expert musicality and undeniable magnetism to bring Lovett to life - making her an audience favorite. She is genuinely funny while not playing for laughs, and provides the much-needed levity that the script intends. Also providing many giggles and guffaws throughout the evening due to their character commitment are Company members Hunter Boyle and Jonathan Monk, who portray The Beadle (Turpin’s manservant and secondary antagonist) and Adolfo Pirelli (a sleazy “Italian” snake-oil-selling barber) respectively. Both actors are comic maestros who connect with the audience and react accordingly in the moment, making it very fun to follow their tracks. Though the Beadle character could be darker - more despicable and threatening - Boyle leans into a Beadle that seems to enjoy simply knowing he has power, and it ultimately works in this production (whether or not it was the authors’ intent). 

Mandy Applegate, who plays The Beggar Woman, is a clear standout in this cast. With short bursts of storytelling shrouded in a cape, Applegate proves herself to be one of Columbia’s finest performers every time she takes on a role. This production benefits greatly from her performance, effectively mixing the mystery and intensity that the role demands.

When one considers the rest of the casting, it becomes clear that this production would have been better served with more of the theatre’s resident company members on the stage. When looking at the company roster in the playbill, we see some of Columbia’s most notable and trusted musical theatre talents. Rather than a who’s-who slate of actors that many Sondheim productions have possessed here in Columbia, the rest of this production’s ensemble is composed primarily of who-are-theys. It cannot be denied how important it is to introduce new talent to our stages, but this production seems to decline due to inexperienced performers who make the proceedings feel more like church pageantry rather than a professional production in the hands of skilled technicians. 

Though some of the casting could be credited with, what feels like, an undercooked production, perhaps the challenges lie with the director. Patrick Michael Kelly has been at the helm of many successful and effective productions of 20th Century classics here in Columbia. However, according to his selected playbill credits, Kelly has had no experience directing musicals or large ensemble casts. The grandeur and demand of Sweeney Todd may have been an overwhelming task, and it shows. 

The staging of this production fires on all cylinders when it is limited to 2 to 3 performers on the boards, however it becomes incredibly static and disinteresting when the number of performers increases. The ensemble is misused, embodying none of the swell and motion of the music - rather opting for imbalanced stage pictures as they park and bark. This production could have used a choreographer. Other strange choices were made as well, with the entire spectacle of the killings being left for dead. Basically everyone who succumbed to Sweeney’s blades gagged in the barber’s chair (a leather office chair), and then walked off stage - sometimes looking back at the barber as if to say “not cool.” At the most pivotal moment of violence, we waited anxiously as a member of the ensemble soaked a rag in red water and then splashed it on the victim’s face. This victim also got up and walked off stage. It is unclear if this is an unsuccessful use of stylized storytelling, an ill attempt at Poor Theatre, or if the production team just gave up on creating the illusions that make this musical so thrilling. An inordinate amount of time was also added to the evening with pregnant scene changes in Act I where birds were piped in through speakers, and the cast mumbled as they slowly moved platforms around. It is clear from the band’s tacet that Sondheim did not intend these breaks in the storytelling.

The production designers did a commendable job in creating the mid-1800s world of the play. Marc Hurst’s lighting design produced impact in many of the climactic moments, accentuated the music and provided sculptural looks that captured the creep-factor needed for the piece. Though Danny Harrington’s set provided scene change challenges, it was appropriately looming, spooky and well-styled, providing us with the grit and grime of London at the time. Jessica Bornick’s costumes felt well researched and executed, although everyone in the filthy smoke-ridden streets of London looked freshly laundered and pressed. 

This production will tighten up over its run, and if you’re a fan of Sondheim and this show - you will definitely enjoy hearing some of your favorite songs in the hands of a talented principal cast. It will also augment your horror digestion through October as we approach Halloween. Trustus Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street runs through October 28th, with plenty of opportunities to “attend the tale.” You can get tickets at trustus.org, and you can also donate there. We recommend you do so with the memo: “barber chair and blood effects fund.”

Koger Center Unveils Their Brand-New Seats with a Free Concert

On Sunday October 1, the Koger Center for the Arts is hosting their “Seat Reveal Party,” an event that falls under the umbrella of their “Live Outside” series. To improve audience accessibility and diversity, the series is a collection of free concerts on their outdoor Plaza Stage. Previous acts in the series include David Rodriguez and the Latin Hustle, Rex Darling, Som’bout, and Claudette King. The Seat Reveal Party event will be accompanied by free performances by the USC Jazz Studies student ensemble and the Randy Lucas Trio!

Randy Lucas is the group’s guitar and banjo player. He started playing at a very early age and it is evident when you hear him play. He has earned several banjo competition awards during his career, including the prestigious national championship contest at the 1997 Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS, the 2001 and 2015 banjo competition at the RenoFest bluegrass festival in Hartsville, and the 2004 Fiddle fest in Roanoke, VA. Randy’s creative playing style is the backbone of the group’s sound. Jim Graddick plays violin and mandolin in the trio. He is a 2012 graduate of the USC School of Music with an undergraduate degree in music education. Fortunately, he became interested in bluegrass and old-time fiddling at a young age and has been playing these styles along with classical music for years. He is the 2017 South Carolina Old-Time Fiddle Champion and the 2018 Carolina Country Music Fiddler of the Year for NC and SC. The “senior” member of the group is bassist Dave Holder. He started playing folk music in 1964 and has continued playing acoustic music of some sort to this day. He enjoys his role as the trio’s foundation holding down the beat and groove and feels privileged to be playing behind two great instrumentalists.

Starting at 5:00 p.m., the Koger Center will open the doors to their auditorium for patrons to see and sit in the new seats without the trademark squeaking. The event is also a part of the “Name a Seat” campaign, where those who have purchased one can choose the seat they would like to have their name on an attached plaque. If you are interested in purchasing a seat the day of, you are more than welcome to! There will be staff available to answer any questions about this fundraising campaign.

The event is free and open to the public. Café Strudel’s food truck will be on site. For more information, visit the Koger Center website or reach out to kogercenter@sc.edu.

Event Featuring Works by Five Artists at Rob Shaw Gallery

On Friday, October 6, from 6 to 9 p.m., Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery will host a reception for a month-long show featuring works by artists Rebecca Horne, Rob Shaw, George Stone, Tianova, and Cody Unkart. The gallery is at 324 State Street in West Columbia.

The show represents an array of styles, from highly representational to eclectic and abstract. At the opening reception, the artists will be on hand to discuss their artwork, which will be available in the gallery for viewing and for sale throughout October.

Ruby River by Rebecca Horne

Since 2018, Horne has focused on mixed media and fluid acrylics, rendering highly textured and multi-dimensional works. In addition to receiving numerous awards in juried shows, Horne was recognized in 2020 by Destig Magazine as one of the top 20 artists of the year. Her work has appeared in a juried Piccolo Spoleto exhibit and in the Vernum Ultimum Gallery international show as well as in other prestigious shows and galleries.

Shaw’s newest works feature large, bright, colorful paintings that represent a bold new direction defined by loose strokes and fresh colors. His art continues to be inspired by iconic South Carolina landscapes and city scenes: “My work has always been impressionistic and, thus, abstract to an extent. Lately I have been pushing the boundaries of the subject matter even further,” says Shaw.

A Stroll Among the Oaks by George Stone

Stone is a representational oil painter focusing primarily on landscapes and still life subjects. Presenting a clear concept, accurate drawing, expressive values and colors, and a well-designed composition, Stone evokes moods in his landscapes by capturing the quality of light present at different times of day, different seasons, and different locations.

The Sun by Tianova

Tianova’s preferred media are oil, acrylics, and watercolor. Using negative spaces to transport the viewer through emotions ranging from nostalgia to present-moment awareness, her work captures the intimacy of solitude and silence and the tension between realism and dreamscape.

Gervais Bridge at Noon by Cody Unkart

Unkart’s paintings depict intimate spaces that he visits daily, including views near his home in the New Brookland Mill Village, the Congaree River, and the Vista. Inspired by colors, shapes, and forms that change with the seasons, he enjoys painting from observation, slowing down and being present to the fleeting beauty and liveliness of ordinary surroundings.

Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery is a full-service frame shop and fine art gallery. Since opening his gallery in April of 2019, Shaw has showcased the work of many South Carolina artists. For the remainder of 2023, the gallery will host First Friday at Rob Shaw Gallery receptions every month.

Two More Authors Featured Under the Jasper Literary Arts Tent at Rosewood Art & Music Festival 2023 -- Susan Craig and Evelyn Berry

We’re excited to invite you to join Jasper and 16 of SC’s finest working writers under the Jasper Literary Arts Tent at this year’s Rosewood Art & Music Festival on Saturday, October 7th from noon - 5 pm. Over the next few weeks we will be spotlighting each of these literary artists here at Jasper Online. Come back to this site often to learn more about these local literary treasures!

SUSAN CRAIG

Susan Craig spent more than thirty-five years as a graphic artist and owner of a design/marketing studio in Columbia.  Throughout her career, the interplay of image, syntax and lyricism influenced both her poetry and prose writing.  

Author of the chapbook “Hush” (2022, Seven Kitchens Press), her work has been published locally, regionally and nationally in journals including Fall Lines, Jasper, Twelve Mile Review, Poetry Society of SC, Kakalak, Poetry South, Quiet Diamonds and Mom Egg Review.  Her poems were featured multiple times as part of Columbia's Poet Laureate projects, including Poetry on the Comet and others.  Her work has also been published online in What Rough Beast.

While her primary focus has been poetry, she is also a past winner of the SC Fiction Project for her short story "Beyond the New Moon.”  Another short story, “Sam Macklin Says Grace” won first place in Kentucky's Green River Writers contest.

She finds greatest inspiration in the natural world, and life’s daily curiosities.

EVELYN BERRY

Evelyn Berry is a trans, Southern writer, editor, and educator. She's the author of the forthcoming debut poetry collection Grief Slut (Sundress Publications, 2024) and the poetry chapbook Buggery, winner of the BOOM Chapbook Prize (Bateau Press, 2020). She's a recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 2022 Dr. Linda Veldheer Memorial Prize, 2019 Broad River Prize for Prose, and 2018 Emrys Poetry Prize, among other honors. Her recent work has appeared in South Carolina Review, Drunk Monkeys, Day Job Journal, Gasher, Horns, and elsewhere.

PHOTOSC TO HOLDS CYANOTYPE WORKSHOP ON WORLD CYANOTYPE DAY

From our friends at PhotoSC —

PhotoSC will hold a Cyanotype workshop on World Cyanotype Day on Saturday, September 30, 2023 at 918 Lady Street in the Vista from 12 – 3 p.m.

Since 2015 the cyanotype is celebrated on the last Saturday in September in the yearly event World Cyanotype Day. According to Alternate Photography, this year’s theme is Inheritance, but PhotoSC’s focus is to have fun with alternative photography and any theme or design is welcome.

The cyanotype was discovered by Sir John Herschel who in 1842 published his investigation of light on iron compounds. The process is still in use today and many know it as the blueprint.

Young and old, families and fellow photographers are encouraged to experience the magic of cyanotype, one of photography’s camera-less processes on World Cyanotype Day. Join PhotoSC as it presents the fascinating alternative photographic process, cyanotype, in a unique workshop that combines a brief history with a fun, hands-on project making a beautiful, cyan-blue and white print.

The workshop is appropriate for both photographers of all experience levels as well as non-photographers (to include the youngest photo enthusiasts) interested in gaining an understanding of one of the first photographic processes. All materials are supplied.

The folks at PhotoSC will guide participants through the fun and straightforward process of creating beautiful blue and white prints while presenting a brief history about the cyanotype and its history. All materials are supplied.

PhotoSC encourages attendees to bring their favorite small objects that address the theme of Inheritance, create a print of your hand, or use the botanicals to place on their pre-coated sheets to create a Prussian blue print to cherish always!

Photo Workshop: Saturday, September 30 at 918 Lady Street, Columbia, SC from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Sign-up for Fun: www.photosc.org/Cyanotype or thru Eventbrite.

For more information, contact PhotoSC at photo.society.sc@gmail.com

Announcing Call for Original New Plays for PLAY RIGHT SERIES 2024!

Play Right Series: 2024 Call for Submissions

The Jasper Project announces the fourth cycle of its Play Right Series, a collaboration between area theatre artists and Jasper Community Producers—or theater aficionados, supporters and even newcomers. The project will culminate in summer 2024 with the staged reading of a brand-new South Carolina play. 

Submitting A Play

The play submission window is now open. 

• Playwrights must be natives or residents of South Carolina.

• The winning playwright must be present for development sessions with Community Producers in Columbia during the summer, 2024 (specific dates to be determined later), and must agree to offer program credit to The Jasper Project at any subsequent productions or publications.

• Plays may address any topic, using language appropriate to the subject matter; we are not, however, considering musicals or children’s plays. 

• Submissions must be one-act plays, 45-75 minutes in length, typed according to industry-standard format (see our Sample Format). Collections of shorter revue sketches on a common theme will be considered.

• Please include, as a cover sheet, a one-page bio of the playwright and description of the play, including cast size and any unusual technical demands, bearing in mind that smaller and fewer are usually preferable.

• One submission per playwright, please.

• Please submit your play no later than January 31, 2024,  to playrightseries@jasperproject.org

Play Selection

When the submission window closes on January 31, 2024, the Play Right Series committee will read and select a play for development through the spring and summer.  “Development,” in this case, means round-table readings with paid actors and directors and attended by Community Producers and Professional Others, followed in the summer by rehearsals and presentation at Trustus Theatre’s Side Door stage. 

The process will be facilitated by Jasper Community Producers—audience members invested in the development process and supportive of the state’s literary talent. In exchange for a modest financial contribution Jasper Community Producers will be offered insider views of the steps and processes inherent in creating theatrical art by attending readings and rehearsals, and informative talks and presentations including conversations with the actors, director, playwright, stage manager, costumer, and sound and lighting designer. The result: Community Producers learn about the extensive process of producing a play and become invested personally in the production and success of the play and its cast and crew, thereby becoming diplomats of theatre arts.

Two More of the Sixteen Writers Featured Under the Jasper Literary Arts Tent at This Year's Rosewood Art & Music Festival - Jo Angela Edwins and Randy Spencer!

We’re excited to invite you to join Jasper and 16 of SC’s finest working writers under the Jasper Literary Arts Tent at this year’s Rosewood Art & Music Festival on Saturday, October 7th from noon - 5 pm. Over the next few weeks we will be spotlighting each of these literary artists here at Jasper Online. Come back to this site often to learn more about these local literary treasures!

Jo Angela Edwins has published poems in over 100 journals and anthologies, recently or forthcoming in The Hollins Critic, Sho Poetry Journal, ONE ART, and Delta Poetry Review. Her collection A Dangerous Heaven was published this year by Gnashing Teeth Publishing, and her chapbook Play was published in 2016 by Finishing Line Press. She has received awards from Winning Writers, Poetry Super Highway, The Jasper Project's Fall Lines, and the South Carolina Academy of Authors. She is a Pushcart Prize, Forward Prize, Best of the Net, and Bettering American Poetry nominee. She teaches at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC, where she serves as the first poet laureate of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

Randy Spencer is a retired child psychiatrist living in Chapin. He has a B.A. from William and Mary, his medical degree from Emory University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from South Carolina. He has published two chapbooks of poetry, The Failure of Magic and What the body Knows, and one full-length collection, The Color After Green, a volume of environmentally-inspired poems. His poems have appeared in regional and national journals and anthologies, and in 2022 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for a poem on the war in Ukraine. His stories and poems have been in Jasper's Fall Lines a literary convergence. His next book, Andersonville, will be out this winter from Muddy Ford Press and is a long sequence of poems telling the story of a prisoner in Andersonville Military Prison in 1864.

Poetry of the People Featuring Yvette R. Murray

My eighth Poet of the People is Yvette R. Murray. Yvette writes without fear in the language of her people. Her poetry is both jarring and refreshing at the same time. She is truly a poet of the people. 

I am also excited to host Murray on Saturday, 09/30/23, at 2 pm at Richland Library Southeast, 7421 Garners Ferry Road, Columbia, SC at my quarterly poetry series, Words, Words Words.

          My Nostalgia Ain’t Like Yours

It’s wearing a brand new pair of feet,

The old ones got worn out,

My nostalgia has been against the law,

Still is in several of these united states,

My nostalgia has water added to dilute it,

My nostalgia has been lied on, lied on, lied on,

My nostalgia has a shot of espresso,

My nostalgia is brick,

My nostalgia is wool,

My nostalgia flows like the Nile,

My nostalgia ain’t blue,

My nostalgia lives in the inner city,

My nostalgia also lives behind God’s back,

My nostalgia is the singularity that you drool.

~~~
 

The Poem in Which I Finally Say Their Names

(An Unending Verse) 

It is with sorrow, no wait. Sandra Bland Start over. Rayshard Brooks I am here today to. Eleanor Bumpurs *shakes head* Michael Brown Wrong. Michelle Cusseaux The skeleton of a poet sits wearily by a boiling river. Philando Castile She watches words flow instead of blood. Deborah Danner He etches the stone tablets on his knees. Jordan Davis No more tears. Janisha Fonville Yes, more.  George Floyd There are more tears than I can cry. Darnesha Harris Fresh death weekly. Eric Garner And the echoes grow louder. For concrete pillows. Kathryn Johnston For Skittles and ice tea and cell phones in pockets. Trayvon Martin So what if my music is loud? For feeding hungry people. Cynthia Graham Hurd, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Rev. Dr. Daniel Simmons, Sr., Ethel Lee Lance, Rev. Sharonda Ann Coleman-Singleton, Susie J. Jackson, Tywanza Sanders, Myra Thompson, Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney My wallet is in my pocket. Do not take me into custody.  I am already in custody. Aiyana Jones The created glitch is in the system.  I am not who you think I am.  Am not.  Charleena Lyles I have been on the ground for four hours. Me? Twelve. Dreasjon Reed Minding my own business is not enough. Jogging in the morning is not enough. Breathing is too much. Gynnya McMillen Wish I could jump overboard into a sea of forgetfulness and still be alive. Tamir Rice I was playing with a toy gun.  But I’m just trying to go to work. Tyre Nichols Blown out like a candle. I was sleeping in my own bed. Breonna Taylor Sleeping with my grandmother on our couch. I was selling loose cigarettes. James Scurlock Have a bachelor party.  Get a cup of joe.  Alesia Thomas What was his name again? Walter Scott I must remember her.  Can’t forget him. Don’t forget.  Remember. Remember. Remember. Please forgive me for not knowing all of your names! How. Can. I. Ever. Fly. Again?

“Poem in Which I Finally Say Their Names” Emrys Journal

~~~

 Line Street

 corner stores, candy ladies, and dirt,

grandmothers with eyes all over their bodies,

a yad man*, fush man** and Barbara, the woman who

did hair in her kitchen.

In this kingdom, lived

magnificent energies of one purpose.

Grandchildren of bondage

watering little sprouts with love,

and scolding as if the two were one.

Some with less; some with more.

Enough was always enough there.

Working men eating lunch on a stoop

cashiers struttin’ to the second shift at Edward’s

and the flow of Friday five o’clock laughter

over a plate of hot, fried fush*** and a cold one!

I etch stone tablets

because those at the bottom of the mountain

bask in a lovely unknown.

Hush now.  I must tell it right.

Ghosts are listening

in the silence of rusty locks.

Gullah Dictionary:

 * yad man [yad man]-Noun; yard man or gardener

 **fush man [fush man]-Noun; fish man; man who sells fish

 ***fush [fush]-Noun; fish

 “Line Street,” Catfish Stew

~~~ 

Old Photos

 . . . Brionna Taylor, George Floyd, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Rev. Dr. Daniel Simmons, Sr., Ethel Lee Lance, Rev. Sharonda Ann Coleman-Singleton, Susie J. Jackson, Tywanza Sanders, Myra Thompson, Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, Gynnya McMillen, Walter Scott, Donovan Lewis, Amir Locke, Fanta Bility, Tyre Nichols   Ahmaud Arbery. . .

A fresh death no matter what I do.

Chased up, then a cold Georgia shootdown.

There will be no new photos of you.

Men and bullets split our time in two:

Before and after your run in that town.

A fresh death no matter what I do

In good ole Georgia, these cowardly two

called you outta your name; followed you ‘round.

There will be no new photos of you.

Again. Again. Stillness governs our view.

One mother now wears a mourner’s crown.

A fresh death no matter what I do.

Ceremonies go long; life’s now a different hue.

A still smile flashes in skin deep brown.

There will be no new photos of you.

There will be no new photos of you.

Not your voice; not nary a sound.

A fresh death no matter what I do.

There will be no new photos of you.

“Old Photos,” Chestnut Review

 ~~~

 Ode to the Creases in My Pants

You, meticulous detail of mine, garner admiring looks; sit with me at the head of any table. You open doors for me like a Southern gentleman. Your power never ending. You put my fear in its place and lock it there.  I feel particularly powerful when the creases in my pants are so sharp they cut the palms of my hands. Mountain ridges created by heat and spray starch on my blue linen slacks. That’s that casket sharp. That conquering-a-world-that don’t-want-you-sharp. I get this from my Mama. Although I, in sheer defiance, rebelled like the Russian citizenry in 1917. It was actually 1975 and that teen thing told me I didn’t need no creases in my pants to make it. I could raise my fist and do anything I wanted . . . Except plow through that wall in universities or bank offices trying to get mortgages if I looked liked yesterday’s newspaper left on a park bench. She insisted. And like all good rebellions mine came to an end or I came to my senses. Or I went back to my future. Generations have been wired in violence, tuned for this moment right here. She was one of the first to raise her fist by plowing through walls with creases and the magnificent intelligence, talent and wit that are in our genome. Who am I to argue with that? 

 “Ode to the Creases in My Pants,” The Petigru Review

Yvette R. Murray is an award-winning poet and the author of Hush Puppy (Finishing Line Press 2023). She has been published in Chestnut Review, Emrys Journal, Litmosphere, A Gathering Together, and others. She is the 2022 Susan Laughter Meyers Weymouth Fellow, a 2021 Best New Poet selection, a Watering Hole Fellow, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Find her at missyvettewrites@gmail.com or on Twitter at @MissYvettewrites.   

USC Theatre Presents Show for Young Audiences with Sideways Stories from Wayside School Adaptation

From our Friends at USC Department of Theatre and Dance:

There’s an early October treat in store for Columbia’s young audiences, as the USC Theatre Program will present a live stage version of Louis Sachar’s beloved book series, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, October 6-14 at Drayton Hall Theatre.  

Special show times are 7pm Thursdays and Fridays, 11am and 3pm on Saturdays and 3pm on the first Sunday.  Admission is $15 for students, $20 for USC faculty/staff, military, and seniors 60+, and $22 for the public. Tickets may be purchased online at sc.universitytickets.com. Drayton Hall Theatre is located at 1214 College St.  

Things are always a bit wonky at the 30-story Wayside Elementary – the building’s only one classroom wide, for starters, and its 19th floor has mysteriously ceased to exist. It’s in mean Mrs. Gorf’s top-floor class, however, where things have gone completely sideways. Known for punishing students by magically turning them into apples, she finds herself the victim of her own spell and soon becomes lunch for a hungry, passing teacher!  Adapted by John Olive and incorporating stories from the best-selling children’s books, Sideways Stories from Wayside School is a wild, wacky adventure full of fun and surprises, with some valuable lessons to share along the way. 

Guest artist Ilene Fins is directing the production.  A veteran director, actor, and teacher, Fins has a long history of work in the children’s theatre realm, with many years of experience teaching and directing at Seattle Children’s Theatre and Harrison School for the Arts, a performing arts high school in Florida. Fins is currently a Professor of Theatre at Midlands Technical College. 

“It's this absurd look at life in an elementary school,” Fins says about the show’s zany plot. But ultimately, she adds, the story contains messages about inclusion and embracing diversity. “All the child characters in the play have special traits, divergent ways of thinking or behaving, that can make them feel like outsiders. But at Wayside School, it's all part of the magic and the love. If you're a little wonky here, you belong.” 

The USC Theatre Program has a decades-long history of producing plays in a variety of genres and styles, from the heightened language plays of Shakespeare to contemporary stories from modern playwrights. Professor Peter Duffy, who heads the M.A.T. in Teaching Theatre degree track at the university, says offering a show specifically for young audiences fits perfectly with the theatre program’s mission. 

“A lot of young actors get their start working in theatre for youth, so this is great opportunity to get them on-the-job training,” he says. “The worlds that you get to create and live in [in children’s theatre] are so imaginative and otherworldly. It’s an incredible chance to dig into their craft – for designers to create elaborate worlds and for actors to inhabit big characters, yet still convey truth in these imaginary circumstances.” 

The benefits are just as rewarding for the community, he says. “There are a lot of interesting studies that have shown that exposure to theatre helps kids’ connection to creativity and imagination, and there is even some work around emerging literacy skills that are connected to theatre. It’s also an incredible thing for families to be able to enjoy together.” 

“Doing a play for young audiences is a brilliant way to remind us what the value of theater is, but also open the door to youngsters to be able to see what's possible and what storytelling can look like in lots of ways,” Duffy adds. “So much storytelling now is two-dimensional through a handheld device or on a screen. To be able to be in a three-dimensional space, to share a story with a family, is a pretty unique thing to do. And there aren't a lot of opportunities to do that.” 

Fins concurs.  “Theatre for young audiences is, to me, the most important theatre because this is what builds the audiences of tomorrow.”  

Cast in the production are undergraduate students Eliza Dojan, Cameron Eubanks, Lavender Grant, Sunni Greene, Paul Hommel, Vaibhav Kishore, Rowland Marshall, Phillip Parker, Asher Thompson, Olivia Wamai and Kennedy Williams.  Designers for the show are graduate students Ruihan Liu (scenic), Andrew Burns (costume) and Lorna Young (lighting), with guest artist Danielle Wilson creating the sound design. Guest artist Joseph Boyd, an alum of the USC dance program, is choreographer for the production. 

It all adds up to a special offering that will provide audiences of multiple generations a chance to share the pure fun and magic of theatre together, Fins says. “You'll have a blast. It’s an unexpected story that will take you into a world that is flipped on its head. You've got to experience it to believe it.” 

For more information on Sideways Stories from Wayside School or the theatre program at the University of South Carolina, contact Kevin Bush by phone at 803-777-9353 or via email at bushk@mailbox.sc.edu. 

Presenting the Featured Authors Under the Jasper Literary Arts Tent at Rosewood Art & Music Festival -- Sandra E. Johnson and Cassie Premo Steele

We’re excited to invite you to join Jasper and 16 of SC’s finest working writers under the Jasper Literary Arts Tent at this year’s Rosewood Art & Music Festival on Saturday, October 7th from noon - 5 pm. Over the next few weeks we will be spotlighting each of these literary artists here at Jasper Online. Come back to this site often to learn more about these local literary treasures!

SANDRA JOHNSON will read from noon - 1 pm

Sandra E. Johnson is the author of The Resilience Journal:  365 Days to Balance and Peace of Mind (Clarkson Potter), a 365-day journal designed to strengthen skills to not just survive adversity but thrive from it.  Praised by bestselling authors Sharon Salzberg and Karen Casey, as well as mindfulness leaders Richard Miller, PhD, Stacey Milner-Collins, and Shivani Hawkins, The Resilience Journal offers inspirational quotes by great thinkers followed by interactive writing prompts to serve as guides towards greater wellness and resiliency.  It is preceded by The Mind-Body Peace Journal:  366 Mindful Prompts for Serenity & Peace (Sterling Publishing), which has sold widely around the world and been highlighted in Psychology Today.  Sandra’s first book is Standing on Holy Ground:  A Triumph over Hate Crime in the Deep South, the true story of how a courageous African American woman and her white friend risked their lives to help rebuild an African American church in Lexington County after it was destroyed by racially motivated hate crime.  Standing on Holy Ground earned rave reviews from O:  The Oprah Magazine, Southern Living, and USA Today. 

CASSIE PREMO STEELE will read from 4 - 5 pm

Cassie Premo Steele, PhD, is a lesbian ecofeminist poet and novelist and the author of 18 books including Swimming in Gilead, her seventh book of poetry, out later this month, and Beaver Girl, her third novel coming in November. Her poetry has won numerous awards, including the Archibald Rutledge Prize named after the first Poet Laureate of South Carolina, where she lives with her wife.

Jasper Presents Acclaimed Artist Stephen Chesley for Third Thursday Art Night at The Nook - September 21st

Please join the Jasper Project as we welcome acclaimed visual artist Stephen Chesley to Jasper’s little corner of the Koger Center — The Nook — a rotating 2nd floor gallery space for featuring some of the best of the Midlands visual artists.

According to Chesley, “This exhibition is the result of ghost prints from direct painting in a variant style of Sumi Japanese ink drawings. The inclusion of an Asian aesthetic in the manner of Zen brush drills is to obtain emotional content through understanding abstraction of tone and form. The sheer thousands in volume of process has the intent of teaching one's understanding of autography and brushstroke. The yin-yang of black and white references balance of nature embellished with concepts of summary outline and simultaneous contrast set forth by Ogden Rood's 1879 color treatise notably embraced by George Seurat.”

Sumi-e, which means back ink painting, is typically described as art created in monochrome with the use of sumi ink and handmade paper.

Chesley goes on to say that, “Images in this exhibition are a unique hybrid of direct painting and printmaking. Elements of mysticism in these works emanate from ideas of forerunners Morris Graves, Paul Gauguin, Walter Anderson, and George Inness, who all sought to reveal the spirit world always before us.”

Chesley continues, “These figure ground pieces present and lyrical and poetic rendering of the gift of the sublime ordinary found in life and nature. All life, both animate and inanimate, is in consideration of treatises of physics including: Big Bang, singularity, and concepts of deep time. It is apparent that we share atoms with all things and that there is unfathomable structure and connection that is universal, timeless, and infinite. Human sentience is not the only sentience. As we look at landscapes, trees, animals, plants, waves, clouds, and stars, we look at ourselves.”

Stephen Chesley was born in Schenectady, New York in 1952. He exhibited a natural proclivity for drawing and art almost as soon as he could hold pastels and pencils, which were often Christmas gifts from his family. Growing up in Virginia Beach in the late 1950s, he was exposed to the Beat Generation of musicians, artists, and writers when it was still a seasonal seaside resort. Self-motivated, he continued with his drawing and small paintings along with exposure to local artists. Recognized in 1981 by the Columbia Museum of Art as an emerging talent, he went on to win top 100 in the first National Parks competition of 1987. He continues his creative journey with an art spirit in Columbia, SC.

We are delighted to welcome Stephen Chesley to The Nook and invite you to view his work throughout September and October, and to join us for a small reception Thursday, September 21st from 5:30 - 7 pm.

Join Us Under the Jasper Literary Arts Tent at Rosewood Art & Music Festival – October 7th

You’re invited to join the Jasper Project and some of your favorite local writers of poetry and prose under the Jasper Literary Arts Tent at the 2023 Rosewood Art & Music Festival on Saturday, October 7th from noon – 5 pm.*

You’ll get to hear some of your favorite Columbia-based writers read from a selection of their works, purchase their books, and then meet the authors and have your books signed.

*Authors will read during the first half of each hour and then sign and greet friends during the second half of each hour.

901 S Holly St, Columbia, SC 29205

 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Noon – 1 pm

Carla Damron

Jane Zenger

Sandra Johnson

 

1 – 2 pm

Evelyn Berry

Debbie Daniel

Susan Craig

 

2 - 3 pm

Terri McCord

Ann Chadwell Humphries

Robert (Bo) Petersen

 

3 – 4 pm

Jo Angela Edwins

Randy Spencer

Kristine Hartvigsen

4 – 5 pm

Al Black

Ed Madden

Cassie Premo Steele

For more information about the performing and visual artists you’ll see at the Rosewood Art & Music Festival, check out the festival website!

Amy Kuenzie at Sound Bites Eatery!

Amy Kuenzie is Jasper’s featured artist at Sound Bites Eatery this month!

A native South Carolinian currently based in Lexington, Kuenzie says her artistic inspiration is the beauty in everyday life and attributes this policy to “the result of living in the moment and seeking refuge from memories of trauma.”

Kuenzie’s favorite medium is acrylic and she uses special techniques such as bokeh (bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image) and brush work to create depth and focus.

Kuenzie studied art for seven years in her youth but did not pursue further education after high school. After retiring, she began painting as a means of therapy for C-PTSD. Her work has been included in over a dozen shows including Piccolo Spoleto 2022 at City Gallery, in Charleston, SC.

According to Kuenzie, “Borrowing subjects from my life or nature, I use color and depth of field to draw the viewer in to see the emotion and personality of each piece.” She continues, “Painting has helped me heal from Complex-PTSD and to connect with my truest self. Through use of value and contrast, I expose and preserve a moment in time and provide the viewer a new perspective on the beauty all around us.”

Kuenzie’s Jasper-sponsored exhibit at Sound Bites will be on view throughout the month of September at 1425 Sumter Street in downtown Columbia, SC.

REVIEW: A New Realization of a Classic Work -- The Glass Menagerie at Workshop Theatre

Workshop Theatre opened its 56th Season with Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie on Friday, September 15th at Cottingham Theatre at Columbia College.  As this 78-year-old play is frequently included in high school literature curricula and regularly produced at community and professional theatres around the country, it is likely that many audience members have already had an experience with this play. It continues to relevantly examine escapism, unfulfilled desire, and familial responsibility in an old American South that is in conflict with modernity and advancement. Friday’s audience seemed to enjoy the production, leaning into the intended comedy of scripted moments, while also finding levity in moments that seemed absurd to contemporary audiences. For example: one of the biggest laughs came when a character decided to put a newspaper on top of a rug in order to “catch the drippings” of a candelabra that was being used to combat a blackout. The audience seemed to scream with their laughter: “Somebody call the Fire Marshal! This guy is nuts!”

          A quick recap of the story: The Wingfields live in St. Louis, Missouri. The patriarch has long since abandoned the family, leaving them to fend for themselves. The matriarch, Amanda Wingfield, is an overbearing mother hellbent on refining her modern children and pushing them towards the life she wishes for them. Tom, her son (and the narrator of the play), is the main bread-winner of the family – working a very unsatisfying job at a shoe factory. Amanda is constantly badgering him about pretty much everything. Laura, the daughter, is an incredibly timid young woman who spends most of her time indoors with her phonograph and her animal figurines made of glass (cue title of the play). Amanda obsesses about Laura’s future, and after learning that her daughter’s anxiety has kept her from her typing classes – she insists on Tom finding a gentleman caller for his sister. He says he will, and indeed this former high-school hero, Jim O’Connor, comes to the house for dinner. Go see this production if you are not aware of what happens next. 

          In the first scene of the play, Tom Wingfield, played by Lamont Gleaton, steps onto his “safe place” – the fire escape outside of his home. Here, he tells the audience that what follows is a “memory play,” and that “nothing is real.” Thus, Williams has explicitly told the audience to expect the unexpected, while also freeing a director and production team to dream outside the constraints of slice-of-life realism and engage in the magic, idealism, romanticism and, sometimes, regret that memory can conjure. Workshop’s production, under the direction of Bakari Lebby, intentionally exercised creative freedom with their production rendering a thoughtful dive into the memory-world of the play that truly made this a 21st Century production - with mixed results.

          Workshop’s The Glass Menagerie is performed by an ensemble comprised of Columbia-based actors Lamont Gleaton (Tom Wingfield), Katie Mixon (Amanda Wingfield), Carly Siegel (Laura Wingfield), and Marshall Spann (Jim O’Connor). Contemporary productions of Williams and Arthur Miller plays are being cast more frequently with Actors of Color in the past 20 years here in America – offsetting the decades long practice of casting only white actors to portray the families that these playwrights created. The multiracial casting of Workshop’s Menagerie invites the audience to engage in a different kind of discomfort when witnessing Amanda Wingfield’s talon-tight grip on the old Southern way of life. When insisting she clean the table after a meal in Scene II, Amanda uses a racial epithet to describe her domestic services to the family – something that creates a unique tension on stage and in the audience as a white mother says this to her non-white children. The casting also begs more questioning of Amanda’s southern-fried prejudices within the context of her relationship to her now-absent husband. These questions provide good fodder for post-show conversation, but do not overshadow the author’s original intent during the performance – which focuses more on universal and poetic themes.

          As Tom Wingfield, Lamont Gleaton was taxed with a large order to play an iconic character from the American canon. Having wowed audiences this time last year with his portrayal of Lola in Workshop’s Kinky Boots, this seems to be Gleaton’s first foray into non-musical theatre. He shines in scenes with other actors – letting his cool-heeled naturalism serve the play throughout. He particularly brought control to a scene where he returns home drunk from “going to the movies” – realistically exhibiting a man on a bender who is returning home to live a lie.  Gleaton does seem to struggle with inviting the audience into the poetic monologues that connect the scenes all evening. Gleaton might gain more command as the production continues if he realizes that this story is Tom’s to tell.

          Katie Mixon in the role of Amanda Wingfield was an audience favorite – she confidently commanded the stage as her character created most of the conflict in the play. Her portrayal was theatrical, outrageously comedic – and the audience rewarded it with laughter. However, this choice makes it seem that Amanda is not only in a different world in her head – it feels as if she is in a different play. Gone is the brutality and seething criticism that the character garners on the page, leaving the stakes low for Tom’s need for exodus and freedom, and completely eradicating the possible indications that Amanda’s narcissistic abuse exacerbates her daughter’s severe insecurity and anxiety. Still, when Mixon took her final bow – she was met with audience members who were inclined to stand to show their appreciation.

          As Laura Wingfield, Carly Siegel was one of the strongest performers in the production. Siegel emphasizes the affliction of Laura’s anxiety disorder – a condition that, as we understand it today, can be a crippling disability. Though the character is traditionally portrayed with a limp or costumed to wear a leg-brace, this Laura does not. In 2023, we can totally acquiesce to the concept that this character’s timidness and fragility (a trait she sees in her glass figurines) is a product of her own anxiety which is made more severe through her mother’s scrutiny. Seigel beautifully executed the moment in the play when her “gentleman caller” accidentally causes the destruction of one of her beloved glass animals. She grows in the moment right in front of the audience – controlling her response and avoiding a sure panic attack.

          Marshall Spann was a solid choice for the prized gentleman caller, Jim O’Connor, who finally enters the play in Act II. His charming portrayal of the character makes him a magnetic interest for Laura, while also welcoming allure from Amanda (and possibly Tom?). The scene in Act II in which Spann and Siegel are left alone on stage is very rewarding, with both actors creating a welcome tension between the possibilities of the future and their ultimate hopelessness.

          Director Bakari Lebby and the design team present a very thoughtful concept of this memory play – accepting Williams’ scripted invitation to be inventive in creating the world on stage. A painted portrait of the absent father changes over the course of the play, with each following iteration becoming more and more abstract. The Wingfield home is a foundational structure that is faced with reflective material – making the set a literal glass enclosure from which the characters cannot escape. The sound design proffers a delightful mix of period-appropriate jazz that is peppered with contemporary music – drawing modern connections to the story and giving the audience permission to see how moments in the story could feel like “here and now.” Most notably, the media used in the show is instrumental in this production’s presentation of memory. Film clips that were filmed and edited specifically for this production were featured throughout the performance, giving the audience glimpses into the minds of these characters. These inventive and well-produced clips were shown on two TV’s nestled in the on-stage structure.

          Ultimately these production design elements put a unique stamp on Workshop’s production of The Glass Menagerie. One can feel that these elements were intended for a larger presentation. Perhaps more specific lighting and projection mapping on the set could have elevated these elements to a more effective level for the audience. In the end, this production seems like a laboratory or workshop for a future production. Whether it was lack of resources or technical capabilities, this production suffers from a grander vision not being realized. This production should be seen and supported, because there is quite a bit of thought and inventiveness that went into it. The stylized concepts, though they could have been pushed much farther, do present Columbia with a new realization of this classic work. Tennessee Williams continues to prove that he was a skilled auditor of the human condition, and we can still see ourselves in these characters. The Glass Menagerie runs through September 24th at Cottingham Theatre at Columbia College, and you may book tickets at workshoptheatreofsc.com.

Poetry of the People: Jo Angela Edwins

My seventh Poet of the People is Jo Angela Edwins. What impresses me the most about Jo Angela is her humor and ability to find the divine in unexpected places. 

Jo Angela Edwins is the poet laureate of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina and a professor of English at Francis Marion University. Her collection A Dangerous Heaven appears in 2023 from Gnashing Teeth Publishing.

Parts of Speech

Verbs do the heavy lifting:
shoot, explode, weep, scream.

Adverbs tell us, mostly, how:
often, swiftly, wildly.

Adjectives describe:
fearful, mad, thunderous.

Conjunctions link:
armed and dangerous, dead or alive.

Articles define:
an ally, the enemy.

Prepositions direct:
over the wall, through the tunnel, across the killing field.

Interjections exclaim:
Stop! No! Help!

Nouns remind us
that earth is filled with places
where people turn persons
into things.

When Louis Armstrong Landed on the Moon

Quiz question: Who was the first person to set foot on the moon?
Student answer: Louis Armstrong
Picture his space helmet
specially equipped
to accommodate the trumpet.
He must have resembled
a Seussian cartoon:
that polished horn
sticking stiffly through the visor,
the aperture gasketed
tightly with polymers,
a protection against oxygen leaks,
for this man with elastic cheeks
needed all the air he could get
on that airless orb
to shatter silence across
the Sea of Tranquility.
His jaunty rendition
of “When the Saints Go Marching In”
bopped its best that day,
and those saints in their heaven
that hovered like a low ceiling
over his bobbing head
realized slowly
that their feet had gone to tapping
against narrow golden streets.
As he leapt from rock to rock
across that milky desert,
surely his heart skipped beats
in time to music. Back home,
Mission Control heard his gritty vibrato
crooning a capella
through the fuzz of the two-way
as he gazed backwards at the foggy earth:
I think to myself—
what a wonderful world.

(Originally published in Porcupine Literary, issue 2, Summer 2020)

The Lilies You Sent

were lovely for so many days,
and I cannot bring myself to throw them out.
They still offer sheen and a shadow of flair,
but the petals fall in a whoosh. Gravity
is brother to death, and all the green is blackening,
and the water that once held them firm goes brown,
and even a carpel comes tumbling down
here and there. I collect what falls,
dutiful steward to withered angel wings,
and my fingers stain with the glitter of each anther,
the pollen that would propagate what lived
had it not died for the sake of spreading kindness,
a better reason than most, I suppose, to die,
and for this killing that brightened my life, I thank you.

South Carolina's Own Sergio Hudson at Columbia Museum of Art!!! Get excited!

From our Friends at Columbia Museum of Art:

The Columbia Museum of Art is pleased to announce Sergio Hudson: Focused on the Fit, an exhibition showcasing the work of iconic fashion designer and Midlands native Sergio Hudson, on view Saturday, November 18, 2023, through Sunday, June 30, 2024. Organized by the CMA in partnership with Sergio Hudson Collections, LLC and community curator Megan Pinckney Rutherford, this exhibition showcases the remarkable moments of a designer who fell in love with fashion at 5 years old while living in Ridgeway, South Carolina, and has become one of the biggest names in the industry today.
 
“Many things are happening in my life that I could only dream of — this exhibition at the CMA is one of them,” says Hudson. “I feel very lucky, and I hope my story can inspire other young men in South Carolina to believe in themselves and follow their passion.”
 
Hudson will be at the CMA on November 18 for a special opening day program — tickets go on sale to museum members on Monday, October 16.
 
“As a lifelong lover of fashion, I am thrilled to be the community curator behind this exhibition showcasing the incredible work of my dear friend, Sergio Hudson, a successful Black fashion designer that was born and bred right here in the Midlands and is well on his way to becoming the next iconic American designer,” says Rutherford. “I am honored to get to share his story with a community that inspired and supported him, and also with the next generation that I’m sure will be inspired by his familiar beginnings.” 
 
Born and raised in Ridgeway, Hudson has always taken inspiration from the strong women in his life, particularly his mother, Sheldon Hudson, who introduced him to sewing. Since launching his first eponymous label in 2014, his fresh perspective on luxury American sportswear has taken the fashion world by storm. Hudson’s high-profile clients include Beyoncé, Michelle Obama, Serena Williams, Rihanna, Kamala Harris, Kendall Jenner, Issa Rae, Rachel Brosnahan, and Keke Palmer, a close friend whom he has called a muse.
 
Hudson’s philosophy is that fashion should be for everyone and include everyone. He designs to empower the wearer and often includes a nod to the ’90s of his youth. Focused on the Fit features eight signature garments from key moments in his revolutionary career alongside more than 20 sketches and drawings exploring his career from the early days winning Bravo’s Styled to Rock in 2013 up through the present day.
 
“Sergio is an example of what it means to ignite a passion and never let go of the dream. Focused on the Fit is not only a show about fashion, but also a story of how one makes their mark in the world,” says CMA Director of Art and Learning Jackie Adams. “We are so proud to present Sergio’s work right here in his home state, and we hope this show will inspire and educate visitors about a creative visionary driven to make a difference in how we choose to show up in the world through fashion.”
 
This exhibition is organized by the Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, in partnership with Sergio Hudson Collections, LLC and Community Curator Megan Pinckney Rutherford.

About Megan Pinckney Rutherford
A Charleston native, Megan Pinckney left the Lowcountry to attend the University of South Carolina where she earned a degree in fashion merchandising. She began developing her social media skills during her reign as Miss South Carolina USA when she was tasked with managing the title’s account across several platforms. Since then, she’s developed Shades of Pinck, a lifestyle brand + online moniker that serves as a lady’s guide for styling yourself, your home + your travels. She believes in champagne for breakfast, that pink is a neutral, and that life is only what you make it! When Megan isn’t creating digital content for local + national brands, she’s supporting the arts community of South Carolina, encouraging her generation to become more involved in local politics, cheering on her beloved Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium, and spending time with her 2-year-old son, Teagan.

You're Invited to the 1st Launch Party & Reading of Ed Madden's new book of poetry -- Story of a City: poems occasional and otherwise - Saturday September 23rd, 6 pm, 1013 Duke Avenue

Please join Muddy Ford Press and friends and family of former Columbia city poet laureate Ed Madden for a launch party for his new book of poetry, Story of a City: poems occasional and otherwise, published by Muddy Ford Press.

Saturday, September 23rd

6 pm

1013 Duke Avenue

In addition to hearing Ed read from his new collection of poems written in his role as city poet laureate, Ed has invited some special guests to read as well.

And there will be cake!

Books are $20 and will be available for purchase at the event or, prior to the event at Amazon, Barnes & Noble dot com, Booktopia, and more.

Cover Artist is Steven Chesley.

1013 Duke Avenue is located up North Main Street by turning left on Arlington. Parking is available in the designated lot across the street.

Ed Madden is the author of five books and four chapbooks of poetry, most recently A pooka in Arkansas, which was selected for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection, and Ark, a book about his father’s last months in hospice care. He is a professor of English and the former director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches Irish literature, queer studies, and creative writing. Ed served as the poet laureate for the City of Columbia, SC, 2015-2022. He is recipient of an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship and artist residencies at the Hambidge Center in Georgia and the Instituto Sacatar in Itaparica, Brazil.

Jonathan Byrd at the ToL Coffeehouse October 28th

From our friends at the ToL Coffee House:

Jonathan Bryd has been one of the most the most dynamic performers we've drawn for the ToL Coffeehouse series. He writes with intense emotion, keen observation and a wry sense of humor. The musical range is astounding — from the "dark cowboy fairy tale" that is "May the River Run Dry" to the philosophicating whackiness of "Jimmy Says." And if you're really, really lucky you might hear his cover of Rob Vaarmeyer's song, "A Big Truck Brought It."

Jonathan Byrd is a preacher’s kid, Gulf War veteran, and award-winning songwriter with a near-cult following. With twenty plus years of touring and over a dozen albums, Byrd’s deceptively simple, working-class songs have become campfire standards and crowd favorites for artists like Sam Bush and Tim O’Brien. A Jonathan Byrd show will take audiences on a journey from hell-raising sing-alongs to heart-wrenching ballads and back across the backroads of his native North Carolina.

A lifelong collaborator and innovator, Jonathan Byrd’s latest project is Song Miners, a project to not only write and release new songs, but also to teach others how it’s done. Leading powerful online songwriting workshops and creating free songwriting education for social media, Byrd seems on a mission to fill the world with great songs — not least, his own. Not to be missed.

Here are the basics again: Jonathan Byrd performs Oct. 28 at the ToL Coffeehouse at the Tree of Life Congregation at 6719 N Trenholm Road, Columbia, SC 29206. Tickets are $27 online by Oct. 26 and $29 after online and at the door.