Spoken Word Archives - ArtsMendocino - Serving Mendocino County CA

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William de la Mare

Literary Arts; Performing Arts: Spoken Word; Visual Arts: Ceramics, Photography, Sculpture

Growing up in the vicinities of London and New York, and coming from a family of artists and art lovers, I’ve been exposed to the arts all my life. I received my first camera as a child and developed the interest through high school. I was scouted in high school and given a scholarship to attend art school. Transferring into a more photography-specific path, I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with high honors from RIT. By that time, I was concentrating on photographing water and glass as a means of visually depicting spiritual/philosophical ideas pertaining to concepts of infinity. Along the way, I became a lawyer, ultimately focusing on global risk management, but continued to photograph, wrote the first book in a trilogy of epic novels on the theme of life, and also picked up practices in wood sculpture and porcelain pottery. More recently, I have returned my primary focus to art and water, concentrating on water’s various forms – snow, ice, rain, stream, sea, mist, steam, fog, cloud – and, for more than two years now, the Pacific Ocean from the Mendocino Headlands. Since being in Mendocino I have written the second part of my trilogy called Archetypes (Books I and II are now for sale in the Water Gallery) on the theme of death, and am currently working on the third – on the theme of Rebirth.

Lavender Grace

Media; Multi Arts; Performing Arts: Actor/Actress, Dance, Music, Radio/Television, Spoken Word, Storytelling, Theatre, Vocal; Visual Arts: Graphic Arts, Performance Art, Performers and Writers

“Music is my medicine, my story of healing. my offering to you, on your journey, to help you find your Medicine in your own song, within your own rhythm.” Lavender Grace is dedicated to the tools of Heart Song Medicine, for the good of all, for the collective evolution of all beings. She is a Sacred Ecology Specialist, and facilitator of Intuitive Drum Song, a course created by the lands and people of Northern California, informed by the lineage of her Celtic Ancestors & the influences of Moorish song and dance. At the very core, Lavender Grace is instructed by the Bees. She moves to the rhythm of the hive, the path of co-existence, the life song path, the life dance to the beat of the heart drum. Dedicated to the shared responsibility of our times, to elevate our consciousness. Come, show up, be courageous, you are needed! She is a facilitator, musician, actor, dancer, poet, artist, and consultant to those in need of her services. For more info visit www.honeyhivemendo.com

Happy/L.A. Hyder

Performing Arts: Spoken Word; Visual Arts: Mixed Media, Photography

I am celebrating 48 years of making images. My desire to photograph began in the 1950s as I became aware of the power of photographic imagery (although I wouldn’t have been able to articulate it at the time) through the Life magazines that came through our door weekly. A self-taught photographer, I count Margaret Bourke-White, W. Eugene Smith, and the myriad other pictorialists in Life’s pages, as my mentors. Shortly after moving to San Francisco in 1969 and two days after using a friend’s 35mm camera, I had my own Nikkormat with a 105mm (portrait) lens. At a camera store, I learned about film and how to load the camera. I joined the SF Photo Center, and, following their two-hour fundamentals in developing and printing class, was let loose in a darkroom. Within two years, I began working with a Hasselblad medium format camera (the negative is 2 ¼” square and there are 12 shots to a roll of film) with a 150mm lens (equivalent to the 105mm) and had my own darkroom. I grew to love the square format and credit the twelve shots per roll of film with the honing of my style of shooting – I spend much time setting up my shot, using my negative as a painter would her canvas, in order to print full frame. I walk away without shooting if my framing cannot achieve what first attracted me to look through the lens. I still credit those Life photographers for helping me hone my visual perspective. While the Hasselblad remains my most cherished tool, in 2009 I was dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age. I find the lightweight digital cameras I’ve been using feed my creativity. Able to carry one at all times, I am able to capture those images that earlier would only be captured in my mind since the heft of the Hasselblad meant I would only carry my camera when I was focused on photographing. With digital, I am also enjoying, and getting very interesting results, working with movement to produce abstract images. I also work with mixed-media assemblage, most often using my own images within the piece. Although taking more images using a digital format, I retain the habit of setting up shots with precision and printing my images full frame, and continue to retain a strict sensibility when choosing what to print. I also use an Epson 1400 printer and the immediacy of these digital tools is truly a wonder to my years of working in film, first in a darkroom during my 22 years working in b&w, and, with a switch to color exclusively in 1997, in having film developed and working with a professional printer.

Mary Rose (Redwood Mary) Kaczorowski

Literary Arts; Performing Arts: Spoken Word; Visual Arts: Ceramics, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography

Mary Rose “Redwood Mary” Kaczorowski resides on the Mendocino Coast. She studied photography at Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport, Maine; fine arts at Mason Gross School for the Arts/Rutgers University; at U.C. Berkeley Extension and at College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg. At San Francisco Art Institute she studied photography with Larry Sultan and Linda Connors. In the 1980s Kaczorowski co-curated/produced “Artists at the Rock Project and Exhibition” in cooperation with the National Park Service Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This interpretive exhibition was the first of its kind in the Western U.S. Kaczorowski was a member of several artists’ groups including ArtLab (San Francisco), Secession Gallery (San Francisco), Ft. Bragg Center for the Arts (Gallery Artist) and the Women’s Caucus for Art. She took part in the San Francisco feminist protest group known as the Guerrilla Girls–originally formed in NYC to protest discrimination against women artists and artists of color in the art world. Kaczorowski’s works range from large scale to smaller paintings, photographs, oil pastels, drawings and watercolor. She states, ” My art delves into another way of seeing. I push beyond the boundaries between what is considered “fine art” and abstract expressionist-style.” She is a published poet & is a member of The Fort Bragg (CA) Poets. Her photos/art cards are available at Indigo in Mendocino Village and at the Frame Mill in Fort Bragg.

Blake More

Graphic Arts; Literary Arts; Multi Arts; Performing Arts: Dance, Spoken Word, Theatre; Visual Arts: Constructions/Collage, Functional and/or Decorative, Graphic Arts, Murals, New Media/Technology, Painting, Performance Art, Performers and Writers

A 1987 graduate of UCLA and a lifetime member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, Blake More is an artist with many creative voices and expressions. Blurring the boundaries between disciplines, her work embraces visual art, poetry, video, performance, costume design, teaching, functional mixed media art/life pieces and hand-painted art cars, including her newest artcar, a Mercedes SL500 painted with a metallic palette she calls “Star Yantra” (staryantra.life). Blake first stepped on stage in Japan in 1994, when she agreed to recite poetry with a friend’s jazz band at a Shinjuku music club in Tokyo. Since then, she has performed her spoken word art in a range of venues—from cafes, art galleries and museums to 1000 seat theaters—in major cities all over the world, including Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York City, Amsterdam, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Her performance art is a fusion of spoken word, music, yogic contortion, dance, trapeze, clowning and costuming. She creates to reveal, questions to inspire and shares to engage the audience in soulful expression. Among her performance highlights are the time she shared the stage with jazz pianist Cecil Taylor and beat poet Tony Seymour in a Bob Kaufman tribute reading at the Main branch of the San Francisco Public Library, and the International Poetry Festival in Amsterdam (sponsored by the Provost Poets). She has traveled cross country on a performance tour with a group of San Francisco performance artists and musicians that then became the movie “Head Trip”. But her favorite project to date is a multimedia play called Boxing Pandora, which she wrote, produced, costumed, directed and stared in; 75 minutes long, the play itself involved the efforts of over 20 local artists and included an original score, original video (both live and prerecorded), a 13 member Greek-inspired chorus, poetic monologue, dance, audience participation and a trapeze (no monkeys though). A freelance writer for 15 years, Blake’s work appeared in Utne Reader, Yoga Journal, Intuition Magazine Alternative Medicine Digest and Tokyo Time Out. To date, she has written two non-fiction books, one fiction book, and three poetry chapbooks. Her most successful book is a holistic health book entitled Alternative Medicine’s Definitive Guide to Headaches, which has sold over 100,000 copies sold to date. Her poetry has appeared in a number of literary journals and books, including Heart Flip (CPITS anthology), The Alchemy Of The Word: Voices At the Edge, San Francisco Poets Live At Venue 9, Wood, Water, Air and Fire: Anthology of Mendocino Women Poets, Hard Love: Looking at Violence & Intimacy, The Toaster Broke, So We’re Going To Get Married. Author of five books of poetry, her book godmeat is a collection of poetry, prose, color artwork, and a DVD compilation of poem movies (available at godmeat.com), and her chapbook Up In the Me World is available on her website. In addition to her writing, she teaches poetry, multimedia art and performance to K-12 youth. A California Poets In the Schools (CPITS) poet teacher since 2000, she is also the Mendocino County Area Coordinator for CPITS. She organizes two annual Mendocino County High Schgool Poetry Slams and serves as the coach of the Point Arena Youth Poetry Slam Team. She also writes grants to do special, longer residencies, including: One of these projects was entitled “The Poetry Of The Blues”, in which she and New Orleans blues pianist Nelson Lunding guided 2nd thru 8th grade students in the writing of original 12 bar blues songs (with titles such as “Rocks in my Shoes”, “Our Bus Life” “Soap Opera School”), which were then arranged by Nelson and sung by the kids. These recordings were compiled into five original Kids Blues CDs, and one compilation CD entitled “We’re Playing Blues”, which is currently on sale as a fundraiser for “Gualala Arts In the Schools”. In another especially noteworthy youth project, she and videographer Christian Birk guided six Native American youth in the creation of a documentary film about living on the Pomo Reservations of Kashia, Point Arena, and Manchester in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. Because of its raw power and unadorned honesty, the youth film crew became one of 14 youth groups in the nation to be invited to participate in the 2003 Reel Studio Young Filmmakers Workshop at Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah; the film has been widely shown to diverse audiences, from schools to art centers, from tribal centers to businesses and social service organizations. It even managed to land a spot on the shelf in the Smithsonian Cultural Heritage Library. She hosts an hour-long public affairs program called Women’s Voices on KZYX&Z FM Mendocino. She is also sits on several non-profit arts and education boards, and volunteers with many local organizations. For an extensive list and exploration of Blake More’s creative world please visit her website: www.snakelyone.com

Performing Arts: Spoken Word, Storytelling, Vocal; Visual Arts: Film, Illustration, Murals, Painting, Performance Art, Visual Arts Instructor, Works on paper

JAYE ALISON MOSCARIELLO, MFA, Transart Institute/Plymouth University Cell/Studio: 310.970.4517 artisall@earthlink.net www.chasethemonkey.org BORN New Haven, CT RESIDE Redwood Valley, CA SELECTED MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS 2007 “The Last Show,” Asto International Art Festival, Asto Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA “Simultaneous Multiplicity,” Asto Museum, Los Angeles, CA Gwangwhamoon Int’l Art Festival, Korea National Assembly Library of Korea GIAF, Korean Cultural Center, Bejing, China 2006 “15th Lantern of the East LA International,” Asto Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2002 “Mane Manebu,” Kid’s Plaza Museum, Osaka, Japan. 2000 “Bridging Two Milleniums,” Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India 1999 “Group Show,” Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India. Rutman, Howard, “What’s Up & Coming,” LA City Search.com, January 2002. Emenegger, Ashley, “How to Get Unstuck,” Artline Newsletter, Los Angeles, CA, Fall 2001. Etkin, Jay S., “Body & Self – A Hit in Memphis,” I.A.S.G. Newsletter, vol.7, num.2, Mar 2000. Lalit Kala Akademi, Catalog, I.A.S.G. Invitational, March 1999. Shaw, David, “1nE Review,” Memphis Flyer, Memphis, TN, December 1999. Shay, Daniel, “7th Street Int’l: Round Up the Usual Suspects,” I.A.S.G. Newsletter, vol.4, num.10, Washington, DC, December 1997. ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCIES 2006 – 2008 SEA, Montebello, CA Berendo Middle School, Los Angeles, CA La Vida West Pregnant Minor Program, Lawndale, CA Sponsored by Theatre of Hearts/Youth First, Los Angeles, CA PUBLIC ART 2008 Walgrove Elementary School – Courtyard Mural , Mar Vista, CA Hillcrest Elementary School – Outdoor Mural, Los Angelels,CA 2007 99th Street Elementary School, Library Mural, Los Angeles, CA 42nd Street Elementary School, Outdoor Mural, Los Angeles, CA ART WORKSHOPS 2000-2005 “Breaking Out”, Art Bootcamp for Blocked Creatives, Santa Monica, CA “One Minute Storytelling” Sister Corita Art Center, Los Angeles, CA “Sending a Message,” Sister Corita Art Center, LA, CA EDUCATION MFA, Transart Institute/Plymouth University, Berlin, Germany and Plymouth,UK

Michael Riedell

Literary Arts; Performing Arts: Spoken Word

Michael Riedell is a poet, songwriter, occasional playwright, and teacher of English and Creative Writing. He is the author of 3 books of poetry, most recently What We Have Left: Elemental Poems, and he is the editor of Deep Valley: Poets Laureate of Ukiah 2001-2018. He served as Poet Laureate of Ukiah (2016-2018) and currently MC’s Ukiah’s monthly literary salon, Writers Read.

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