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Spoken Word Artist and arts organizations
Mary McGinnis
Mary McGinnis has been writing and living in New Mexico since 1972. Her work has been published in over 65 little magazines and anthologies. The terrain and the spaciousness of New Mexico have inspired her to write poems about nature, love and death, and becoming part of the disability community. Working at her local center for independent living has inspired her to write about her disability experience. She has learned that she has more in common with other people with disabilities than she had realized. She participates in two writing groups where lots of laughter, writing, and sharing of good food and words take place.
So far in 2004, she was one of the judges for the All As One poetry contest sponsored by VSA arts and the Harwood Arts Center. She gave a poetry reading at Theater Works in Santa Fe with poet Jane Lipman and was a featured poet at the Mountain Air Poets and Writers Picnic. She had a reading her work at Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe on April 12th, 2005. Her latest book contains pieces about altered states, grief and loss, food and communications with ghosts.
Dream-Seeing
People want to know
the way my camera works;
(there are different cameras,
different ways of seeing —)
different ways of looking,
one where you strain
to see into shadows,
staring until confused,
and one where you appear not to be looking —
and the picture has a strange flower
outside the appropriate fence.
In dreams my body is my camera
I'm where I am, it's kinesthetic,
in the beginning the circles of confusion
are manageable
the way the child's world is supposed to be
though a small aperture:
the back steps, the anonymous square of bland lawn
above the flood plane.
But then I make my own colors
bright and dark reds, blues and bluegreens.
Whether they are like your colors,
I don't know.
And I bring in my own people:
mother, father, therapist, lost lovers,
the ex-husband of a therapist, whoever I
didn't know I was thinking about before I fell asleep.
To My Third Boss
Open a little at a time —
you are not granite.
Rub soft colors around your prissy mouth,
listen to the flute outside our window;
when we frustrate you,
as we will most certainly do,
being prone to laughing too much,
and working with our voice mails blocked —
remember the cool, dark trees you saw out skiing:
think of the words, “cool and calm,”
surrounding you in your room.
If your tension continues to increase,
drift over white snow and lower your head slowly,
to study the ragged prints of birds.
When you are ready to pelt us with tart words,
remember your grandmother.
Pull her out of the pot of your regret, pull out
her arthritic hands and feet and uncurl them gently.
Say good morning to grandmother's hands,
bringing tears to your eyes.
Open and stretch a little at a time:
try belching and guffawing.
Finger paint a Mandela;
get one of your friends to bring you an ice cream
so big you will be eating it for half an hour;
spill it on your blouse and don't wipe it off —
go out into the street and fall in love
with a man who dances while he walks.
Pick Up The Broken
Pick up the broken pieces and hold them —
the dead child, the dry sound,
the brick that was worn away by water,
the untagged cup of ashes.
The dry child, the dead letter; the medicine bottle
without a label, read and throw over your left shoulder.
Shake and mail, untie and make haste,
put back together then separate carefully —
the green wood, the black edge, the appointment
rescheduled. Hold and undo, lick and dream,
breathe and put to rest. The dry sound can live
on nothing if it has to. The wood will go up and out
once struck by a match.
Break though the old lesions and let them go.
After the first stage of pain, there was a place where
nothing and everything mattered equally —
numbness came like a witch hazel compress
to smooth out the forehead. I welcomed numbness
and tickled her like an uncle would. Then as the old stones
broke, I let the chirr of a bird in.
I moved toward the bird and distributed the ashes
as requested. I started a dishwasher
for the first time, started that curious and secret
heart beating again.
When I needed to hold something,
I held the part of me that was broken.
Here, along a new edge,
hold it together, now hold it apart;
sit on a bridge, opener closed;
so much of us will do what we can:
will re-do and fold over,
will repeat. If you need to hold something,
hold the part of me that is unknown to you.
Barbara J. McKee
Barbara J. McKee — a writer, playwright, actor and performance poet, has done readings for a variety of audiences, emulating the journey of the disabled experience. She is the author of a ten minute play titled The Letter, a dramatic short showcasing a teenage girl with spina bifida and her confrontation about her disability with her father. The play was produced and performed at the Tricklock Theater in Albuquerque. Her poetry book, Trilogy of One and other poems is an eclectic collection of her thoughts and experiences of life before and after her entrance into the disabled culture in 1975. Barbara's poetry and short stories have been published in poetry newsletters, anthologies and university publications.
Barbara was the first wheelchair user to graduate Suma Cum Laude with a degree in culinary arts from an accredited CIA (Culinary Institute of America) school. She writes feature articles and a weekly column for the Albuquerque Tribune. She has created two websites that are now used as teaching tools for several prominent universities: Lenore Chinn — Break in Pulp; and Disability Culture Timeline — A Brief History. The latter website was once quoted in the Scottish National Holocaust Memorial Day website. She was also the webmaster for VSA arts of New Mexico, North Fourth Art Center's previous web site.
Barbara's future includes completing her Masters in Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing and Directing at the University of New Mexico, the expansion and promotion of her production company EPL Productions, Inc., and to further the extermination of the disabled myth Better Off Dead.
Iinah Iliih Inc.
Iinah Iliih Inc. (Precious Life) encourages and promotes independence, self-sufficiency and wellness for persons with disability. Located in Gallup, the organization provides training in marketing crafts, and small business development. Work by some 23 artists with disabilities is available through a retail outlet run by Iinah Iliih Inc. at the Rio West Mall in Gallup, New Mexico. Fine traditional Native crafts and contemporary work are available.
The Art Center Design College creates Public Service Announcement for VSA Day Arts
VSA North Fourth Art Center proudly releases its first Public Service Announcement (PSA), a collaborative project with The Art Center Design College, Albuquerque, NM. The PSA was created in animation classes where students took the project from start (idea, script, storyboards) to finish (traditional animation, compositing, editing and rendering).
Their assignment: “a visual representation of what the VSA North Fourth Art Center’s Day Arts Program is all about. Hinting at only a few of the different arts programs available, the PSA aims to draw attention to art as a way to express oneself when all other avenues may have failed.”
The project started in class AN310 2D1 with instructor Teri Farley and with artists Shannendoah Gallagher and Levon Washee. The project was then completed in the AN320 2DII class with artists Shannendoah and Levon joined by Natasha Woodards and with Aaron Barreras as the instructor. The music and voice over was donated for this project by composer and actor Timothy Joseph. Special thanks to all those who contributed their talents to this PSA.
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Date de dernière mise à jour : Samedi 11 Février 2012