Taking Root: The Artfields Collection at 701 CCA

Taking Root: The ArtFields Collection   

3/28/24   

6:00-8:00 

Taking Root: The ArtFields Collection is an exhibition presenting select pieces from the ArtFields Competition prize winners over the last 12 years. Figurative and representational work dominates the collection and the presentation shows the volume and expanse of southeastern talent. On view at 701 CCA March 28 through May 18th, this exhibition highlights the living, breathing proof of the power of art.  

Opening reception March 28, 6-8pm, in the Olympia Room, 2nd floor at 701 Whaley Street, Columbia, SC. 

 

*Cash Bar and light refreshments served. 

 

 

Featured Artist at Jasper's Sidewalk Gallery at the Meridian Building - Gretchen Evans Parker

Gretchen Evans Parker

Gretchen Evans Parker, CPSA/CPX - OTRL/ret., Is a retired pediatric/hippotherapist (horse) occupational therapist. She has embarked on a second career in fine art since retiring. The avant garde medium of colored pencil allows her to achieve great detail and realism in her paintings. In her wildest dreams, Gretchen could never imagine how well-received her art would be nor where it would take her.  

Her commissioned portraits hang in homes around the Midlands and North America. Her work has won many awards and honors including signature status in the Colored Pencil Society of America. She is also a juried member of the International Guild of Realism. Gretchen has written extensively on colored pencil artwork.

Her work has been featured in several publications locally, nationally, and internationally. In the evening, to relax from a day at the easel, Gretchen creates baskets from pine needles and found objects. They can take weeks/months to complete. Many become gifts or commissions.

- Kimber Carpenter

Josef Berliner’s “Black and Blues” Collection Now Featured in the Jasper Galleries’ Nook

Reception

Thursday March 21st

5:30 - 7 pm

The Nook at the Koger Center for the Arts

The Jasper Project is proud to welcome Josef Berliner as our new artist-in-residence in the Nook, our gallery location in the Koger Center for the Arts. The opening reception for his show coincides with March’s Third Thursday—the 21st—and goes from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

Dedicated to making the world a more beautiful place “one canvas at a time,” Josef has held the drive to create art since he was a child. His artistic journey grew with every gifted sketchpad and drawing pencil, until he got to college where he double majored in Theatre and Studio Art.

Josef affixes the signature “Jobey” to his paintings; in Josef’s words, “Jobey is the more outgoing and confident alter ego. Behind the mask is a thoughtful, somewhat shy, and introspective artist.” His confidence as an artist shines through with each portrait in the exhibition, all focused on different Black women musicians who helped shape the blues and jazz scenes.

Josef has been recognized as a contributor to many charitable causes, always willing to give of himself as much as possible. He has been cited for his participation in organizations such as Bullets and Band-Aids, the USC Department of Dance Gala (in which he also serves as a board member), the Atlantic Institute, and was most recently honored as a featured artist for the Artists for Africa winter event.

He works predominantly in oil on canvas, with a keen eye for detail and the innate ability to look far deeper than the mere surface, all the while seeking for a level of perfection that, while perhaps unattainable, is indeed his ultimate and far-reaching goal.

 

REVIEW: Trustus Theatre's Blues for an Alabama Sky

If there was ever a question whether or not Katrina Garvin is the first lady of Columbia theatre, that question is put to rest in perpetuity with her performance in the role of Angel in Pearl Cleage’s 1995 play, Blues for An Alabama Sky, which opened on March 15th at Trustus Theatre.

Having seen Garvin perform for years now, we knew to expect excellent work from this multi-talented actor, but this particular part allows Garvin the latitude to flex all her chops, from the exuberant and sometimes drunken highs, to the still wistful, but resigned lows. While Blues for the Alabama Sky is not a musical, we do get a nice sampling of Garvin’s considerable vocal talent, which punches up the storyline, making the character of Angel, an out of work singer, even more authentic.

Blues for an Alabama Sky is set in 1930, during the waning days of the Harlem Renaissance, a period of time well after the Great Migration and World War I, but smack in the middle of the Great Depression when the multitudes of Black families and artists who had fled from the South to Harlem were feeling the pressure of unemployment, scarcity, and cultural exploitation by wealthy whites. The play takes place after Garvin’s Angel has just been fired from the famous Cotton Club, Harlem’s pantheon of racial exploitation where Black performing artists like Duke Ellington and Billie Holliday were predominantly featured, but Black audiences were not allowed to enjoy their shows.

As a drunken and hilarious Angel is escorted home by her friend and on-again off-again roommate, Guy, flawlessly played by Lamont Gleaton, a stranger encounters the two and offers to assist Guy in getting Angel safely home. Guy is a gay costume designer in Harlem, but he dreams of traveling to Paris to design wardrobe for the famous ex-pat entertainer, Josephine Baker. The stranger is Leland, also exceptionally well-played by Equity actor, Samuel James Pygatt, who is a conservative Alabama carpenter visiting Harlem after the death of his wife and baby in childbirth. Leland lingers a bit as Guy and Angel go upstairs to Guy’s apartment where next door neighbor and social worker, Delia, played by Courtney Sims helps Guy settle Angel down. Delia is an employee of famed birth control activist Margaret Sanger and hopes to help Sanger establish a family planning clinic in Harlem. The next day we also meet Sam, played by William Paul Brown, who is an obstetric physician at a Harlem hospital with a complicated moral compass and a penchant for partying with his friends.

Over the course of the next eight stage weeks we see Angel faced with a number of choices about who controls her future; herself, or the pre-designed culture in which she lives that stacks the deck against a Black woman in a white man’s world. In fact, every character in the play is faced with a similar choice to one degree or another. Will Guy continue to be hopeful of a better future? Will Leland be controlled by his conservative religious roots? Will Delia continue to work for reproductive freedom despite a senseless backlash of violence and destruction? And will Sam compromise his personal values for a friend?

Blues for an Alabama Sky is a study in conflict, represented by the straightforward resignation of the blues versus the progressive complexity of jazz. Traditionalism versus progressivism. Forbearance versus optimism. Guy and Delia versus Leland. And Angel, who vacillates between all positions but must decide her own fate, whether she wants to or not, with Sam left to suffer the consequences of his friend’s not-always-steady decisions.

Blues for an Alabama Sky is also a study in history with notable icons of Black history surfacing in the dialogue and lending even more authenticity to the fictionalized story. In addition to Guy’s preoccupation with Josephine Baker, the friends also attend a party thrown by artist Bruce Nugent in honor of writer Langston Hughes. Margaret Sanger was the founder of Planned Parenthood. Booker T. Washington was the founder of the Tuskegee Institute (University) where Sam went to school. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. was the founder of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the largest Protestant Church in the US at the time and the church that Delia attends, and his son, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. who began preaching at his father’s church in 1937 before becoming a member of Congress and advocate for Black voting rights, is teased as her potential suitor.

Opening Night for Blues for an Alabama Sky demonstrated an exceptionally solid cast, well-coached by veteran director Terrance Henderson. The use of alternative entrances to the stage brought the audience into the action from the beginning when Garvey’s Angel caused an appropriate but humorous stir as she made her way, with some intentional effort, to her place. And I’m just going to say it. Katrina Garvey looked beautiful in that black evening dress with bright red lipstick. As my viewing companion said, “She was adorable!”

Kudos to whoever did hair and makeup, as well as to costume designer Tashera Pravato, who dressed Garvin chicly, Sims orthodoxly per Delia’s character, Gleaton snappily with just the right amount of panache, Brown professionally but with a fabulous broad brimmed hat, and Pygatt like the country man come to Harlem that his character was.

Scenic and property design was handled by Ashley Jensen and G. Scott Wild, respectively, who created a textured and cozy period set that kept the audience exploring the details through the inordinately long pauses between acts. Lighting was designed by Mark Hurst and board operation was by William Kirven, with Trinessa Kirby assisting Henderson in direction, and stage management courtesy of Chastity Shell and Elizabeth Houck.

As can happen with live theatre, opening night suffered just a couple of flubs that were evident to the audience; an unavoidable lighting board crash, leading to one of those long pauses mentioned above, and a precocious doorknob. Making the best of the unfortunate doorknob situation, Lamont Gleaton improvised a solution, and he did so with a flourish, inspiring the audience to applaud the actor for both his ingenuity and his style!

This writer fell in love with all the characters with the exception of Pygatt’s Leland, whose job was not to make us love him. Henderson and his cast made us identify with the characters and care about them. The play, though almost 30 years old and set in 1930, holds up disappointingly well as American society still grapples with a woman’s right to control her own body, queerness, and racial equity. Some things are certainly better, but they are far from fixed!

Complementing the play in the Trustus lobby is an art exhibition by Columbia-based visual artist Thomas Washington. Washington’s mesmerizing art is also a study in contrast as it is both brooding but magical, dark but hopeful. And his price points for this show are more affordable than they should be. To see more of Washington’s work, visit his Jasper-sponsored exhibition, Love Quest, at the 701 Whaley Community Hallway Gallery or at Jasper’s Big Tiny Gallery at Richland Library through April 19th. Collect this artist’s work while you can afford it!

Blues for an Alabama Sky runs through March 30th on the Thigpen Main Stage at Trustus Theatre. For tickets, go to the Trustus website.

This Week's Featured Poet of the People with Al Black is Stephen Wing

This week's Poet of the People is Stephen Wing. In the environmental poetry scene, Stephen Wing is a force to reckoned with. I spent three days at the Off the Grid Festival outside Spartanburg, SC with him last Autumn and he has featured twice for events I organized in the Midlands area. He is authentic and writes from his strong belief in the sanctity of nature. We need more Stephen Wings. 

-       Al Black

 

Stephen Wing discovered the wilderness in the summer after ninth grade, and suddenly the world made sense. A deep connection to wild nature has been his spiritual center ever since. His work as a poet ranges from the personal to the pastoral to the fiercely political. Once each season he hosts the “EarthPoetry” workshop, exploring metro Atlanta's many protected greenspaces and nature preserves. His new book Wild Atlanta combines poems from 23 of these locations with stunning color photos by Luz Wright. He is the author of three previous books of poems and the Earth Poetry chapbook series. Visit him at StephenWing.com.

 

Lightning’s Compass

With every flash and flicker of the sky,
I glimpse another few steps
of the trail back to my tent,
this slow pilgrimage between the trees
without a flashlight—
fork to the left, jog to the right,
slippery downgrade, low-hanging branch—
like my life sometimes,
the chain of epiphanies lighting up my path
and the pitch-dark
between

 

 

Underfoot

Every time I walk down
into the hollow
through the winter woods
or up the mountain again,
I stop right here.
Standing on the packed earth
of an old logging road
where the creek slips quietly
through its rusty culvert
underfoot,
I’m not so much listening as feeling
a kind of tickling caress
through the soles of my shoes
and I recognize
a crossing of paths, a choice,
a way back
if I could only turn
and follow.

 

 

Ever Since Evolution              
     
              for Dawn Aura

Of all that’s ever
begun with an orgasm,
I think I like you
best:

Ever since the Big
Bang, ever since Genesis,
ever since the Milky Way gave birth
to a green-blue baby
called Earth—

All down the generations
of amorous plankton,
the dynasties of protozoa,
whole species that married and merged
into new species,
brewing up an atmosphere of
hospitable chemicals . . .

Down the golden ages
in the Garden, whole
civilizations of bacteria
that slowly grew into specialized
cells of one another,
building over millennia
the confederation of organs . . .

Ever since Evolution
conceived a tribe of naked mammals
begotten by the lineage
of Chimpanzee, I think
of all the protoplasm in the diaspora
of Creation, you
are my favorite animal

 

 

Grandmother’s Seeds

                  for Anna Maude, my grandmother

She’s out in her garden,
bending down to touch the soil.
She covers each seed as she
must have tucked me into bed, long
ago.  Her old hoe is worn
to a shining crescent, sifting
earth into dark flour.

She never knew the shelves
in her bathroom were lined with
the signs of the zodiac.
I never heard her mention the moon.
She sprinkled poison like
holy water and thanked the Lord
for filling her deep-freeze.

She sits at the lamp
over her morning devotions.
Outside in the dimness
the first seed stirs in the ground.
She folds her glasses, closes
her book on its bookmark and goes out
to turn on the hose.

 

 

The Naked Scientist

I am the naked scientist
singing as I set my specimens free
Joyfully I observe the positions of things
and nudge them off their courses,
gauge their direction and budge them
from their places

The green things around me lap my exhalations,
my fresh odors startle the ancient
solution of gases, I let my hand pass experimentally
down the mossy flank of a boulder
purring in the sun

I ache sometimes at sunrise
for the waking of the world to what it knows
Each day I gather data, and grieve
for the grieving of one or two or eleven people
I hadn’t counted before

And I look over my notes at sunset
comforted by this work of the Study of Woe,
calculating my Theory of Revelation
in the face of entropy and decay

I live to know this world as my grandmother
knew her Bible, but best of all
I love the pilgrimage
of the search—

(Shall I tell you my discovery?
It is all alive.
And the snowflakes are not
all one sex.)

 

 

Asphalt Nights

Looking back now, I often
regret that night in my delinquent youth
when I impulsively
borrowed a shovel and buried
my memories of childhood down by the creek
under a full moon.
How was I to know the entire floodplain
would be paved for parking
when they built the new mall?
Night after night now I dream I’m a lost child
roaming mile after mile
of fresh black asphalt under the floodlights
between the slumbering cars,
kicking my shadow ahead with every step,
stopping to listen
at every storm drain for the faint
trickle or drip of some other world
to wake up in.

 

 

Man Breathing Life into Metal
(Note italics at end)

 

The saxophonist wets his lips
and caresses his mouthpiece

sucks it in and lets it escape
and then draws it back

into himself so its dark twisting
entrails join with his own

clamps the dormant light of that
gleaming muscle in his

fingertips and forces through its
thin lips from his own

the infinite compression of a breath:
the golden bell sings out

with the panic of inarticulate matter
waking to the agony it is

to be an animal, the joy it is
to move and speak and sing

“Now when I get through playing it,
it going to be just as warm as my body . . .”

 

 

Moth

I bit my fingernails too short
waiting for this bus, I stood
too close to the road too long, peering
through the haze of engine fumes—

Everyone around me pretends not to know.
So naturally by now they‘ve all
long since forgotten.
No one on this bus remembers
poetry overhead among the ads:  today
hundreds of cockroach silhouettes,
the extermination campaign . . .

A dead moth
on the stairs in the train station knows:
startled black and red and yellow eyes
on shattered wings
stare past me through the concrete overhang,
and suddenly I see
right through the step I’m about to take—

Its furry underbody
leaves a yellow pollen on my fingertips.
Ridiculous
to carry the fallen creature home.
Ridiculous to choose one place
out of all the galaxies
to go.

 

 

Distant Singing

Listen:
somewhere off in the distance,
a motor.
It too has a song.
It’s the song of pushing eagerly forward,
heedless of how,
careless of where,
regardless of why,
intoxicated
with the singleminded joy
of burning its little tank of fuel,
never mind
where the fuel came from
or where that little plume of smoke
might go.

 

 

Hurtling Through Darkness

Hurtling
between the silver ribbons
uncurling eternally
out through the darkness,
steering by a chain of diamonds
strung through space,

I start again every time
I stray from my lane and they
bump under my tires, the reflecting
eyes of all the animals
who have died for this highway—

Focusing my own wild eyes
into the rainstorm,
the floodlights of billboards,
the pulse of blue lightning
at the power plant,

leaning back in the cushioned engine
of my will
with the road’s vibration
humming in my vitals,
gripping the steering wheel as tight as my life,

I ride the thirsty beast
of my momentum, obedient to the signs,
barely in control,
hurtling through the darkness of the eons
of extinction

OVERDUE: CURATED FOR THE CREATIVE SET FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 15th - in connection with The Jasper Project's BIG TINY GALLERY featuring 20+ Jasper Artists!

Join Richland Library for This FREE, After-Hours Program

WHAT: Overdue

WHEN: March 15 | 7-11 p.m.

WHERE: Richland Library Main(1431 Assembly St., 29201)

WHO: Adults, ages 18 & olderExperience a night of creativity and entertainment at Richland Library's Overdue: Curated for the Creative event on Friday, March 15, from 7 - 11 p.m. at Richland Library Main (1431 Assembly St., 29201). Join Richland Library after hours for interactive activities like block printed stickers, zine making with Eden Prime, and more! Be entertained with live music performances by Dear Blanca, Niecy Blues, and Katera. Enjoy delicious food from Dae's Delicious Dogs and drinks from the cash bar by Transmission Arcade. This free event, open to those ages 18 and up, promises an evening of artistic exploration and community engagement.

Attendees of Overdue will have the first opportunity to view Richland Library's newest exhibit, Jasper Presents: A Big Tiny Gallery. The Big Tiny Gallery is a collection of small artworks created by a collection of local artists previously showcased in The Jasper Project’s online exhibition series. Over the years, Jasper's Tiny Gallery series has allowed artists to show a selection of smaller pieces offered at affordable prices. The exhibit will be on view in the gallery from March 15 - April 26th. A closing reception for the gallery is scheduled for April 19, 2024.

A complete list of activities, musicians and partners is available online.

This event is sponsored in part by the Richland Library Friends and Foundation.

For questions, please contact Tacara Young at 803-351-5616 or tyoung@richlandlibrary.com.


South Carolina State Museum Presents SC Artist Homecoming June 22, 2024

SAVE THE DATE!

JUNE 22, 2024

The South Carolina State Museum invites you to an Artist Homecoming for SC visual artists and arts supporters, honoring iconic living artists and fostering new connections in the arts community. This day-long program will include panel discussions, behind-the-scenes tours and time to explore the museum, followed by a reception.

Registration is free and will open on April 22nd.

REVIEW: Workshop Theatre's CATS

CATS … finds success with a cast that exhibits unflinching commitment to the task at hand (and they seem to be having a rather good time while they’re doing it).

Workshop Theatre of South Carolina opened their production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS last weekend, starting a three-week run of this show which ran for 18 years on Broadway. As the resident community theatre troupe at Columbia College’s Cottingham Theatre, the Workshop presentation is a special collaboration between Workshop and the Columbia College Dance Education and Dance Studies program - creating a unique opportunity for community actors and dance students to work together. 

Based on T.S. Eliots Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Webber’s CATS has been performed for over 40 years and had a feature film adaptation in 2019. For those reasons, we’ll spare you a synopsis and move right along.  

CATS, under the direction of Julian Deleon, finds success with a cast that exhibits unflinching commitment to the task at hand (and they seem to be having a rather good time while they’re doing it). This ensemble, which consists of over 35 performers, hits their marks, are constantly engaged in catlike activities, and ultimately offers an energetic performance that feels dutifully rehearsed.  

Actors Bobby L. Rogers (Munkustrap), Katherine Brown (Bombalurina), Carly Siegel (Demeter) and Blythe Long (Jellylorum) hold the audiences’ hands (read: paws) throughout the production as their characters are charged with introducing us to many of the characters or informing the viewers about the history and traditions of the Jellicle Cats. All four performers have truly lovely voices that are fitting for Webber’s vocal score, and they all lead the proceedings with poise and control that makes the audience feel welcome to their secret society.  

Lisa Baker, as Grizabella, does an admirable job in this production. Baker’s performance of “Memory” satisfies fans of the song due to her powerful vocals and purr-fect tone (sorry, we had to) that throws comforting nods to the Betty Buckley performance we’ve heard countless times over the last four decades.  

The performances of Nathan Jackson (Mungojerrie) and Jessica Roth (Rum Tum Tugger) are also winning moments for this production. Jackson’s Mungojerrie feels incredibly familiar to folks who have experienced the original production of this piece. He’s fun, mischievous, and quite comfortable with his dance duties. Roth’s Rum Tum Tugger deviates from the usual characterization that mixes Tom Jones with glam rockers of the 80s and provides audiences with a Janis Joplin-esque rock-n-roller that is delightful when she takes the show over.  

Without a doubt, Choreographer Erin Bailey was responsible for a larger part of the production than is usual with most musical theatre works. Bailey has created a lot of movement for the cast that allows the trained dancers to wow us when they take the spotlight, and for the “movers” in the cast to look their best throughout most of the production. While some moments aren’t as successful as others, there is a lot of varied movement throughout the production and your eyes don’t get tired seeing a large cast execute it.  

To that end, Emily Jordan (Victoria on March 9th), Katherine Brown (Bombalurina) and Jack Thompson (Mistoffilees) gave us professional performances in regard to dance in the production. They lend Bailey’s work the talent that it desires, and they give longtime CATS fans a glimpse into the choreographic focus with which the show originated.  

Music Director Taylor Dively, in his first time navigating the music for a full-length musical, shows promise in that the vocals of CATS are rather good - especially when regarding the soloists. However, the sound design makes the proceedings uncomfortable at times as the sopranos are too high in the mix - which can make certain moments feel like a caterwaul rather than the good blend coming from stage. On March 9, the band was unfortunately not meeting the cast’s performance level, as the show began with wrong notes on the keyboards, destroying the iconic opening melody. These sorts of accidents occurred often throughout the evening, leaving us hoping that the musicians will realize that they are being paid to be there, and should therefore be just as prepared as the cast who is donating their talent. 

Ultimately, despite the efforts of the cast, this production suffers from a design concept that simply does not work. The show has been promoted as “not your mother’s CATS” - and this is truthful advertising. Our mother’s CATS had humans in fully committed feline-wear, and the illusion worked rather well to make such a bizarre concept a Broadway and West End hit. Workshop’s cats have painted noses with headbands or hats that have “cat ears” attached. Our mother’s CATS had fun set pieces that allowed the cast to create a train out of oversized junk pieces laying around the set along with other moments of inventive whimsy. Workshop’s cats had bare bones structures with some castored scaffolding that left us thinking we were watching CATS on a scaled down set of RENT. The show asks for many moments of reveal, surprise, inventiveness and magic that, in this production, were simply absent. We were not tricked into thinking Macavity was in disguise as Old Deuteronomy. We did not believe we had witnessed magic when Mistoffelees motioned for the cast to wheel Old Deuteronomy back on stage when he’s supposed to be miraculously summoned. The same lack-of-illusion applies when Grizabella is wheeled off stage left as she finally ascends to the Heaviside Layer. Where’s the thrilling sleight of hand? The possibility of that felt lost in the first 30 seconds when a crew member, portraying a human in the wrong alley, walked across the stage making it clear the felines were the same scale as he.  

Cast member Harrison Ayer’s bio briefly and aptly reads that Ayer “is a human, acting like a cat dressed like a human.” That’s pretty much what you get with this directorial concept. If it was a big idea that didn’t come to fruition due to the immensity of the project, then it can be forgiven. However, if this production meets the vision of those who created it - then perhaps this CATS shouldn't have been let out of the bag. Doing “different” is welcome, but only when there’s a relatable or inventive perspective that exposes something newly relevant or unexpected about a cherished work.


We always invite patrons to challenge our reactions by taking the time to see the work themselves. Art is entirely subjective, and you may have a very different experience. If you want to see a fully committed cast giving you undeniable energy in tandem with some rather talented dancers that are performing one of the theatre industry’s most successful works, then you should book your tickets to see Workshops’s production of CATS. The show runs through March 23rd at Cottingham Theatre on the campus of Columbia College. You may buy tickets at www.workshoptheatreofsc.com. Also, don’t forget that the theatre is taking donations for animal shelters, so be sure to bring some treats, litter, or toys with you.

Congratulations to Poetry Out Loud Winner JESSIE LEITZEL!

JESSIE LEITZEL

The Jasper Project congratulates Jessie Leitzel on winning first place in the South Carolina Poetry Out Loud State Finals, held Saturday, March 9th at Richland Library. Leitzel was one of six finalists who competed in the finals for the national recitation competition and will go on to compete in the final competition in Washington DC later this spring.

“Leitzel was composed, confident, and they presented themself as a bright and progressive representative of South Carolina,” says the Jasper Project executive director Cindi Boiter who, along with Jasper Project board of directors member, Al Black, Marilyn Matheus, and Lester Boykin, adjudicated the event. Ray McManus was the host of the event, and Paul Kaufmann was the accuracy judge. Shannon Ivey was the performance coach and Eric Bultman served as recitation coach.

Leitzel is a nonfiction writer and poet studying creative writing at Charleston County School of the Arts in North Charleston. They are the co-founding editor of the literary magazine, Trace Fossils Review, a 2024 Presidential Scholar in the Arts nominee, a gold medalist of the Scholastic Writing Awards, and a YoungArts Award winner with distinction in nonfiction.

Winning second place was Abhirami Nalachandran from Calvary Christina School in Myrtle Beach and Catherine Wooten of Westgate Christian School was awarded the third place prize.

Other finalists included Eve Decker of Spartanburg Day School, Erin Maguire of Socastee High School, and Gemma Williams of Ashley Hall in Charleston.

Congratulations to all the finalists, as well as to the Columbia SC arts community for coming out to support your literary artists!

Columbia Children’s Theatre Welcomes Debra Leopard

From our friends at Columbia Children’s Theatre —

Columbia Children’s Theatre (CCT), the Midlands’ only professional theatre specifically for families and young audiences, is thrilled to announce the addition of theatre veteran Debra Leopard to its artistic staff. 

Debra has been involved in Theatre Arts since she was 11 years old. She received her BFA with an Acting Specialty and her MA with a Directing Specialty from the University of South Carolina. She has been teaching, acting and directing in the Midlands since the early 1980s. Her directing experience includes shows at USC, Workshop Theatre, Lander College, Chapin Theatre Company, and Village Square Theatre. She has directed over 100 shows, most recently Young Frankenstein and The Addams Family. 

Debra also has an extensive acting resume including lead roles in shows such as As You Like It, The Odd Couple: Female Edition, The Wizard of Oz, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Always Patsy Cline, Second Samuel, CLUE, and many more. She most recently served as the Artistic and Education Director at Village Square Theatre in Lexington. Her teaching experience includes USC, Workshop Theatre, ICRC, Lander College, Newberry College, Millie Lewis of Columbia, and DeAbreau  modeling Agency. Debra has taught acting, directing, voice and diction, audition techniques, dialects, improv and acting for the camera across the state. She has also collaborated with actors with special needs in a number of programs including the award-winning Carolina Actors with Special Talents. 

Deb joins CCT as Artistic Associate and will helm this summer’s production of Seussical. “Debra and I went to college and graduate school together,” says CCT Artistic Director Jerry Stevenson, “and we finally get to work together!” Deb will also be directing for CCT’s Mainstage, The Peanut Butter and Jelly Players and our Entr’acte Ensemble. “I am thrilled to be working with the 2022 South Carolina Theatre of Distinction,” says Leopard, “not to mention that their new location is just minutes from my house in West Columbia.” 

Stay tuned for info regarding our summer show and Deb’s Audition Workshop!

 

About CCT

Columbia Children’s Theatre is a professional resident not-for-profit theatre dedicated to providing quality live theatre experiences for families and young audiences and is supported in part by the City of West Columbia and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

It's Oscars Weekend -- Columbia Creatives & Film Lovers Pick Their Faves from This Year and Others by Wade Sellers

As the cinematic award season concludes Sunday evening with the Academy Awards, Jasper asked creators and film lovers around Columbia about their most memorable movie viewing experience of 2023. Some loved new film offerings from the year. Others re-visited older classics or childhood favorites and saw them with a new point of view. Some anticipated a film only to be disappointed. Our list of Columbia creators and film lovers offered a diverse list of favorites, and we invite you, if you haven’t already, to view some of their favorites when you can.

 

Kwasi Brown - Founder, Black Nerd Mafia  

My favorite movie this year was Thanksgiving. Horror is my fav genre, which typically has a lot of disposable content. This movie, while set in modern times felt like a throwback slasher. It also explores themes of American consumerism and how out of hand it has gotten. Great kills, light humor, and an interesting compelling story. Eli Roth can be hit or miss but I’ve been waiting for this movie since the fake trailer appear in Tarantino's grindhouse forever ago and he didn't disappoint.

 

Marty Fort - Musician & Owner, Columbia Arts Academy, Irmo School of Music, Lexington Arts Academy

I watched The Goonies with my daughter. As far as what was new about The Goonies was how intense parts of it were. Sloth in hand cuffs. The mobsters. And the visuals, Oregon, the music, etc.

 

Laura Kissel - Director, School of Visual Art and Design, University of South Carolina

I loved Barbie! It captures the powerful, fun, and imaginative play a lot of young girls have when they are full of agency and fearless. Great, nostalgic set design for Barbieland, catchy song and dance sequences, and a terrific critique of the patriarchy. And I had no idea there was once a video of Barbie with a camera in her body. I want one! 

  

Merritt McNeely - CEO, Flock and Rally 

Nimona was #1. And magically, was also created by a local. But we didn't watch it the first time through that lens. For me, I cried b/c I realized the struggle that Nimona was sharing with the world - about having to be someone else until you finally just have to be you, and how hard that can be. I felt like it was the exact message my child needed to hear - whether he understood that or not. I don't know why my son cried during Nimona, he can't quite explain his feelings yet, but something moved him to tears as well. 

Tracie Broom - Co-Founding Partner, Flock and Rally 

I absolutely loved Poor Things. I found it incredibly funny and creative, and it shows a version of what women *might* want to question and explore if we weren't conditioned from a very young age to see ourselves, and our usefulness, in a limited way. Plus, what a treat for a Yorgos Lanthimos movie to wrap up on a high note!

Ed Madden - Poet

The Quiet Girl. Gorgeous. Irish film, part in Irish language. Based on novella Foster by Claire Keegan. Heartbreakingly beautiful. Things unsaid. Gestures. What is family. Who is a parent. A slow revelation, the ambiguity of the ending. The cast—Carrie Crowley was so amazing, and Catherine Clinch.

 

Cedric Umoja - Artist

Surrounded. I found the storytelling, cinematography, and acting to be excellent. It was a great way to expand upon the western genre by making its hero a Black woman who had served as a Buffalo soldier before becoming a traveler. She was everything we, as the audience, hoped she would be. 

 

Sumner Bender - Executive Director, Nickelodeon Theater 

I really enjoyed AIR, Barbie, Past Lives, and Oppenheimer. I think Oppenheimer is my favorite though. It's almost cliche because it is so critically acclaimed. I didn't see it when it first came out, but I watched it later and 10 minutes in I realized why it was so hyped up, because it is incredible! I have no qualms about loving popular movies!

  

Jay Matheson - Musician, Owner The Jam Room 

Biggest disappointment was Leave the World Behind. Looking through the 2023 film list the only one that stands out is Jules. It was quite offbeat and dealt with quite a few subjects in a unique way. Aging being a theme. Brian and Charles had to be the standout film that I ran across. Very funny and quite absurd. Not for everyone but I thought it was great. I don't keep notes so I'm sure I've forgotten a few. It was a busy year for me, so I did not watch as many films as usual.

 

Keith Tolen - Artist 

I found myself watching a film I know I have seen almost a hundred times. It’s Cool Runnings. I can’t get enough of it. I don’t know why. It has the beating the odds moments and yet how to handle defeat. I also love the flavor of the film. After all you are in Jamaica. What could be better. Solid acting and my go to film when I need to recharge.

 

Amy Brower - Actor, Artist, & Owner, Brower Casting 

2024 gave us....Barbie. The first act of the film can only be described as a cotton candy fever dream. (Which my inner 5-year-old unapologetically enjoyed) As someone familiar with (and deeply appreciative of) Greta [Gerwig]'s work, I was bracing myself for the gut punch of unflinching reality in there somewhere. And sure enough there it was, sandwiched palpably between hysterical one liners and over-the-top costume changes. Overall, it was a mixed bittersweet bag (as is womanhood) that succeeds in offering a fresh take on gender equality and self-love amidst toxic culture patterns in society and yes, in ourselves. As much as I look forward to sharing Barbie with my daughters in a few years, I feel no need to wake them from their cotton candy dreams of childhood just yet.  

 

Chad Henderson - Theatre Director & Marketing Director, South Carolina Philharmonic 

My favorite film that I watched last year was Good Vibrations, a 2013 music flick based on the life of Terri Hooley - a record-store owner instrumental in developing Belfast’s punk rock scene. I heard about Hooley while watching a PBS documentary about Northern Ireland and The Troubles, then I saw there was a movie about him. Saw the movie (loved it) and read Hooley’s autobiography. Then, by chance, when I was in NYC last summer the musical adaptation of the film was playing at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan. So I’m a bit of a Hooligan at this point. 

 

Debi Schadel - Co-Founding Partner, Flock and Rally


Two of my favorites were Women Talking and Nimona. Women Talking was a bold movie with little action which was so refreshing. Nimona made me so proud to see a Columbia native make it and it goes to show you that the big budgets aren't always the best and it's always about the story.

 

Cindi Boiter – Founder & Executive Director, The Jasper Project

A unique film that  may not be on everyone’s radar was 2020’s Kajillionaire. I was drawn to it because it was written and directed by Miranda July (You and Me and Everyone We Know, 2005) and starred some of my favorites - Richard Jenkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger, and Gina Rodriguez, with a smaller part played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph (nominated for Holdovers this year.) I loved it because it was quirky, and Wood’s character was a huge departure for her. But more so, I loved its treatment of parenting, and the holes parents can leave in the emotional makeup of their children. In a powerful scene, Jenkins and Winger demonstrate how parenting can be a performance more than a mission. Heartbreaking but, in the end, satisfying.

— Wade Sellers

 

 

MONIFA LEMONS is this week's Featured Poet

This week's Poet of the People is Monifa Lemons.  Before there were titles for poets there was Monifa - one name, no title, was enough.  She personifies what it means to be a poet: gracious, mentoring, talented, and selfless. To know Monifa is to experience poetry in and of the Kakalak. I am honored to call her friend.

Monifa Lemons, also recognized as SelahthePoet, began her poetic journey in Columbia, SC in the late 90s, both as a Spoken Word Artist and as a host at various venues. Her work can be found in various publications. She is currently an elementary school teacher, and a facilitator with USC Trio Upward Bound. Her focus is on creative writing and intentional creation with children and community. She is also following her entrepreneurial dreams as Coffee Roaster and Co-Owner at Haiku Coffee 575, a company she opened in Fall 2020 along with her four daughters and has returned to her original art of acting, playing the principal role of Mama in the short film Crooked Trees Gon' Give Me Wings, Directed by Cara Lawson and Produced by Hillman Grad Productions.

After Dogon Krigga

Bouncing lateral
On wind cutting our eyes
At revelations

B Boys spinning like
Dreidels on pointe listening
To scratched petals bloom

No blinking allowed
Instead, a creation stare


Calloused eyes don’t crack   

Letter from my Grandmother 

Monisa, 

it’s still da same. Dem chickens still gotta be fed, even pass dat rooster. You still gotta wake earlier when youra mothuh. You still gotta find dem chaps a home. You still gotta find a job. a real one. You still gotta stir grits, even if you raisin’ chillen that don’t want em. You still gotta do all of it. Ain’t nobody gon’ cayit forya. You still need a car. You shouldn’t be afraida da walk. You still gotta carry da wood in e’en when there ain’t no stove. You gotta wash. He’s still your uncle an’der was nothin’ we could do. You still gotta learn’na sat here an’ stay. Here. Wit’ us. You know howta make dat nana puddin’? Den you gotta teach’em. Still.   

Moon Cycle

I pinch tissue between first second and thumb
Wrap the roll like gauze over and over. Hand

Slide off palm. Fold in half. Reach between legs. Shove cover.
The hole He hallowed. Seeping. Cursed.

With standing we adjust. Loose.
Plugged crazy. Gathered insane. Stuffed.
Granules of sugar in my spoon. Stirred.
Echoes muffled. Hope absorbed. Picked by cotton.
I now walk in the room.

Water Beckons

Water beckons. Step by step I fill
myself. Up my legs. Down my hands.
slap. splash and play.
Wash me
River. Wash me whole.
Twirl my spirit til I know knot.
Cleanse me. Send a smile down.
Stream it tickling past the legs of another.
Call them out
to wade. Join us…
within the wade.



You Look good

You look good. You look good. Yeah good.

You look good. What are you doing now?

What are you doing? You look good.

You look good. What have you been doing?

What.

What have you not been doing? What were you not doing?

When did you care? When did you care about looking good?

When you do that, you look good.

Look.

Look, you are good. You are good. When did you start to care.

When did you start to care about looking? You look like you care.

About looking good, you look like you care.

You care now. We see that. We can see that you now care about

your look.

See. Look. at What. Care.

Care.

You care now. You now care. Care has been taken in your look.

Now.

What could you be doing? What have you done?

You care. We'll care now. To look at you.

We care to look at you. You look good.

Now.



Al Black Celebrates 1000th Poetry Event March 13th at Cool Beans

At the Jasper Project, we’re excited to share the news of a celebration of one of our own, Al Black, SC’s poetry guru!

Fueled by a labor of love to share and encourage the creation of poetry among his friends and neighbors writ large, for years, Al Black has been staging poetry events ranging from readings to open mic nights to song writers’ circles, and more. Next Wednesday, March 13th will be Al’s 100th poetry event. We’re happy to join the SC Poetry Society in congratulating Al and celebrating this momentous occasion at t pm at Cool Beans coffee in Columbia, SC.

The event is open and free to the public.

Congratulations, Al!

Jasper Announces the Winning Playwright for the 2024 Play Right Series

The Jasper Project is excited to announce that Chad Henderson’s play Let it Grow, has been selected as the winning play in the 2024 Play Right Series competition. Henderson’s play was unanimously chosen from 14 submissions by a committee of four theatre artists including Dewey Scott-Wiley, Libby Campbell, Bakari Lebby, and Jon Tuttle. Henderson’s play will be workshopped during the summer as part of the Jasper Project’s fourth Play Right Series, then presented as a staged reading. Previous winners of the Jasper Project’s Play Right Series include Randall David Cook’s Sharks and Other Lovers, Colby Quick’s Moon Swallower, and Lonetta Thompson’s Therapy.

The Play Right Series was created by Jasper in 2017 as a catalyst for encouraging new theatre art from South Carolina playwrights. The project is unique in that it invites community members to join the project as Community Producers, individuals and couples who take part in the workshopping of the manuscript while they learn about the process of creating theatre art. A minimum fee of $250 per person allows an individual to become a Community Producer who goes on to be recognized as an honored guest at the staged reading of the new script at the end of the project. Previous Community Producers have included James and Kirkland Smith, Bill Schmidt, Ed Madden, Bert Easter, Wade Sellers, Libby Campbell, Paul Leo and many more. Stay tuned for more information on openings for the 2024 Community Producer roster.

Chad Henderson is a professional theatre artist in South Carolina who is known for directing contemporary plays, musicals and original works that mix music, movement, imagination, and invention to create unforgettable works for the stage. Henderson served as the Artistic Director of Trustus Theatre (2015-2021) in Columbia, SC, and is the current Marketing Director for the South Carolina Philharmonic, where he most recently produced Home for the Holidays at Koger Center for the Arts. Selected Trustus Theatre credits include: The Brother/Sister Plays, Green Day’s American Idiot, Evil Dead, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Last 5 Years, Assassins, The Great Gatsby, Next to Normal, and The Restoration’s Constance - an original musical for which Henderson also authored the book. Henderson has directed with various theatres in South Carolina including Workshop Theatre of South Carolina, The Columbia Children’s Theatre, Spartanburg Next Stage, and Theatre South Carolina (USC). Henderson has completed three residencies at The Studios of Key West, where he developed new works and directed as part of TSKW’s One Night Stand, a 24-hour new play project. His short film Overture, which he wrote and directed, won the 2017 Second Act Film Festival Audience Choice Award. In the last theatre season, Henderson directed Hundred Days (Workshop Theatre), a staged reading of Moon Swallower (Jasper Project), Don’t Let Pigeon Drive the Bus (Columbia Children’s Theatre), and Clyde’s (PURE Theatre). Other Charleston directing credits include Living Dead in Denmark (College of Charleston), The Brothers Size (Piccolo Spoleto), and PURE Theatre’s lauded production of Fun Home in 2018 which was revived for Piccolo Spoleto that same year. Chad lives in Columbia, SC with his wife Bonnie, whose love and support fuels his passion for the theatre. Visit his website for more information on the artist.

Jasper's Sidewalk Gallery at the Meridian Building Featured Artist - Debi Kelley

The Jasper Project welcomes four new artists to our 24/7 gallery space in the large streetside windows of the Meridian Building along Washington and Sumter Streets in downtown Columbia. Our board of directors member and Sidewalk Gallery curator, Kimber Carpenter, shares the goods on a new artist each week. This week we’re featuring the artist, Debi Kelley!

Debi enjoys painting classic cars/trucks, wildlife and the colorful landscapes of the South. She is currently an Associate Member of the Pastel Society of America and a Master Pastelist with the Southeastern Pastel Society.  She is also a member of the Pastel Society of SC and the Crooked Creek Art League.  She has received awards in international, regional and local shows, including the Pastel Society of SC, Southeastern Pastel Society, Union County Arts Council, Fairfield County Arts Council, Spartanburg Art Museum, SC State Fair and Crooked Creek Art League.  Her work has also been exhibited at ArtFields.
"My goal as an artist is to draw the viewer in to the painting for a closer look by using liberal touches of color, unusual angles, and detailed drawing to capture movement and life.  I want my audience to create their own story while traveling through the painting."

Join The Jasper Project for Dogon Krigga’s Closing Reception and Artist Talk at Koger

The Jasper Project and the Koger Center for the Arts have teamed up to showcase the work of Dogon Krigga in The Nook, the rotating Jasper Gallery in the latter’s second floor lobby. The work will be up until the third week of March, but we will host a Closing Reception and Artist Talk for the exhibition on March 13 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Dogon will be present to give a talk about Afrosurrealism in art, what inspires them to create, and the intentions behind each piece. Additional prints and merchandise of Dogon’s will be available for purchase during this reception! We are excited to work with Jared Johnson, the onsite photographer and reporter, for the evening, who will be moderating the talk.

Dogon’s Artist Statement:

I use vinyl, paper, and other media on a variety of surfaces to create mixed media collages and murals printed on vinyl, paper, and other adhesive substrates. I draw inspiration from spiritual principles and esoteric concepts found across the African Diaspora to create surrealist artworks at serve as portals into other worlds, and viewsations of Queer, Black people, culture, and identity in an alternate dimension. I use these materials and approaches to encourage the viewer to experience and seek the subtle and unseen worlds, while reflecting on their place in it. I use my work to challenge the status quo and disrupt the conventions of what we know to be cisgendered, heteronormative, and patriarchal ideologies, while offering something beautiful and uplifting in its place. Through this creative process, I seek to make a real way of being in, thinking of, and viewing the universe that celebrates, preserves, and restores historically excluded communities.

Jasper Welcomes "Embracing Your Inner Child: The Art of Cait Patel" to Jasper's Tiny Gallery for March

DOT MATRIX

Cait Patel, also known as “The Blissful Hippie,” has been popping up around the local art scene with her bright, inviting abstract paintings for some time now. Learn more about Jasper’s March Tiny Gallery artist here!

 

Patel has called South Carolina home for life, growing up around the Cayce area. She has loved art since she was a child, inspired by her father, who is also an artist and one of her biggest supporters. This led to her studying Studio Art at the University of South Carolina and graduating with a degree in 2014.

 

“I used to love drawing, which was my focus in college, but as I got older, I got more into abstract work,” she recalls. “I was inspired by the great abstract artists of the past like Matisse and Picasso and that has very much influenced the kind of work I do now.”

 

Once she started painting, Patel couldn’t walk away from it, saying that she “love[s] painting because of how free and colorful it is.”

 

Mostly, Patel focuses on abstract expressionism, presently inspired by the flowers and plants she collects around her home. Her paintings are an encapsulation of the nature around her everyday life, and this liveliness is key to her work.

 

“My goal is to create something and nothing at the same time. I love color and want to brighten spaces with my work,” Patel shares. “But I love that everyone can see something different in a heavily abstracted work of art.”

 

ARCHIVE

Patel continuously works to connect to her inner child—something she believes everyone has—and she hopes her work will help others connect to this as well. Part of this connection is letting go of “rules and restrictions” of what her work “should” look like.

 

“I don’t want to put a lot of restriction on myself when creating a new painting because I want it to be the truest expression of my feelings in that moment,” she says. “However, if I want to create a cohesive set of pieces, I may stick to one color scheme or style for a body of work.”

 

When it comes to actually putting a piece on canvas, Patel rarely has a concrete plan, instead selecting a color scheme and simply going with the flow. Though ideas may form in her head, she tries to resist any boundaries, following the piece as it grows and shifts organically.

 

“I also frequently ‘finish’ a piece and hate it and then immediately paint over it. I feel a work isn’t fully finished until I can look at it and say, ‘I love this, and it makes me feel like an artist’, she says. “That’s typically my gauge of when a piece is done. This can take anywhere from three days to three months.”

 

For this Tiny Gallery show, Patel made a whole new slate of pieces, each rife with the unboundaried colors she loves. On the show, she says:

 

I like to think of this show as my Summer Love collection. I wanted to evoke feelings of excitement about spring flowers and warm weather. Two things which I dearly love! I want my paintings to be eye catching and bright and to inspire others to their creative pursuits. My favorites are probably “Dot Matrix” and “Boba Party.” I love bright neon colors juxtaposed with black as it tends to really make a piece pop! I also have been experimenting more with having the frame be a part of the artwork, which is why I really love “Dot Matrix.”

Excitingly, this is Patel’s first solo show. Though this is the case, she has participated in other shows, and she recently took part in the Art for Africa fundraiser, which is an experience she holds dear.

 

“I really love doing fundraisers or gift pieces as an artist,” she says. “I love being able to use my art voice as a way to help others.”

 

To peruse and purchase her works from this show, check out Jasper’s virtual Tiny Gallery, and to stay updated on Patel as she continues to work towards larger piece and an in-person gallery show, follow her on Instagram @the_blissful_hippie

This Weeks's Poetry of the People with Al Black features Charles Watts

This week's Poet of the People is Charles Watts. I know Charles from his work with the Poetry Society of South Carolina when he sends me emails asking if I paid my dues this year and from hearing him read his work at various events. He uplifts any room he is in and is an asset to Carolina poets. —Al

Early in his career, Watts had an underground play (“Visigoths”) produced in Los Angeles, which led to scriptwriting contracts for several TV series, including “Kojack” and “Here Come the Brides.” He fled Hollywood, got an MFA in poetry, and went to Iran to teach literature at several Universities. For five years, he edited Seizure, a magazine of poetry and fiction. He has also been a cab driver, social worker, refugee worker in camps in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Costa Rica, and owner of a tour company. His poems and stories have been anthologized in Road Poets, Adirondack Epiphanies, Schroon River Anthology, Northern Oracle, and Karma in the High Peaks, which received the “People’s Choice Award” for best book of 2010 from the Adirondack Center for Writing. His poems won the Patricia and Emmett Robinson Prize (2015 - Poetry Society of South Carolina) and first place at the North Country Writers Festival twice. His books include Cure Cottage (five one-act plays), Raptures (short stories), Waking Up in a Beautiful Room (poems), and The Road to Swat (a chapbook of travel tales). He splits his time between Charleston, SC and Lake Placid, NY.

Of That Which We cannot Speak

“Of that which we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent.”

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

-Ludwig Wittgenstein

God does not manifest in the world

Because s/he does not exist in it

The mystical fact is that creation abides

Beyond the realm of words, beyond saying

Theology is an impotent attempt

To blur our vision with bones

Sans flesh, odes to the ineffable

That can only lead to misinterpretation

The ethical, the metaphysical, the aesthetic

The existence of the real and indescribable

Truths that my words can only compromise

Or misrepresent or falsify the meaning of

Darwin my beagle inhales squirrel musk

Spots the beast on a branch and howls, leaps

Against the tree truck and snorts like a pig

And I can describe it but not what he feels

Not the truth within his experience

Which is equally real to him as his dream

Of a forest filled with rabbit deer coyote fox

And all the joys that force his tail to wag

Oh, do not ask me to be silent

I must write my words until they approach

The edge of truth, not the truth itself

For that is where God dwells

Cancer Redux

A year and a half

Clean and clear

Is all that was granted

Through the chemo and

Immuno and who doth know

What else became involved

There was not a single symptom

No nausea, palpitation, fever

Fear, regret, or why the hell me

Took up swimming and made a mile

Took up walking the dog as we

Both forest bathed in the mountains

In fact, did all that was asked

And yet here we are

With new scans and new cancer

Send no damned affirmations

No prayers or it will be alrights

No links to peace and serenity sites

I am not happy nor am I pissed

Nor have I given up nor

Accepted what I cannot change

The recycling truck just passed my window

My view of the pond is clean and clear

If Nothing Lasts

If nothing lasts

Everything matters

The lizard on the palmetto palm

The glass hummingbird feeder

Its contents and patrons

The mouse I emptied into the trash

After the trap I set committed murder

The monk who condemns me for it

The sparrow that broke its neck

Trying to fly through the window

Into my room, the fly I swatted

Fireworks over the palace of ice

A week before the rain

Begins its melting

The mushrooms I picked and ate

Even though I could hear their screams

In the silence of the forest

The snow leopard that stalks me

In my dreams, the poison frog

I lick to fall asleep

My coonhound, who ambled with me

Out of the car into the vet's office

For his final shot at life

Everything matters

If nothing lasts

The Emptiness of Time

In a world with no sense

Of time, no word for past

Or present or future, where

All is the eternal moment

With no separation of then

From when or when

From now, there is

No need for watches

Watch only the moon

Test your emotions

As they change from

Night to night

At the new moon

You will be open

To new ideas

Write a poem

As the moon moves

Toward fullness

You will get more done

Edit the poem

As the moon begins

Its fading you will

Get no thing done

Time to dance

And in the moon’s

Fourth week

Organize yourself

Coldly calculate

The subject of your

Next poem

Jasper Collabs with Richland Library for A BIG TINY GALLERY Art Exhibition March 15th through ARTISTA VISTA

The Jasper Project is delighted to join forces with Richland Library for A BIG TINY GALLERY, an art exhibition inspired by the Jasper Project’s Tiny Gallery series which originated in the Jasper studio at Tapp’s Arts Center in October 2018 and transitioned to an online only project early during the Covid pandemic. A BIG TINY GALLERY will feature a selection of previous Jasper Project Tiny Gallery artists who were invited to show and sell physically smaller pieces of art at affordable price points that would ostensibly be more attractive to beginning art collectors and other artists. No art measures more than 25 inches in any direction or is priced over $250.

The exhibition will open on Friday March 15th  from 7 – 11 pm during Richland Library’s OVERDUE: Curated for the Creative event, with a closing reception on Friday, April 19th from 6:30 – 8:30 as part of Richland Library’s celebration of Artista Vista.  Both events are free and open to the public.

Visual artist and Jasper Project board of directors member, Keith Tolen, is managing this project, working with Ashley Warthen, who is a librarian and arts coordinator at Richland Library.

Artist - Renee Rouillier

Participating artists include Tennyson Corley, Ginny Merritt, Chilly Waters (Richard Hill), Regina Langston, Benji Hicks, Ron Hagell, Christopher Lane, Keith Tolen, Lucas Sams, Lindsay Radford Wiggins, Thomas Washington, K. Wayne Thornley, Jeffrey Miller, Kathryn Van Aernum, Mary Ann Haven, Fred Townsend, Adam Corbett, Crush Rush, Vanessa DeVore, Pascal Bilgis, Michael Krajewski, and Sean Rayford.

Artist - Sean Rayford

The Jasper Project will oversee sales of art via QR codes, scannable with a smart phone anytime the library is open.  Proceeds go directly to the publication of Jasper Magazine.

The Jasper Project is an all-volunteer organization with no paid employees and a working board of directors who manage a number of multidisciplinary projects ranging from the Second Act Film Project to Fall Lines literary journal, the Play Right series, and many more one-off adventures. For more information please visit JasperProject.org.

Opening Friday March 15th  from 7 – 11 pm during Richland Library’s OVERDUE: Curated for the Creative

~

Closing Reception on Friday, April 19th from 6:30 – 8:30 during ARTISTA VISTA