In honor of Women’s History Month, the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM, in partnership with local arts organizations, artists, writers, and businesses has organized a month-long celebration: Women & Creativity 2010. All over the city, you can attend workshops, exhibits, panels, and many other fun activities. Case in point:
creativity + the artist
Seeds: The Spirit of Women Writers
6 p.m. March 11 at National Hispanic Cultural Center
1701 Fourth St. SW, Salon Ortega
A featured event in the Women & Creativity series
Join us for an invigorating evening of readings from women writers featuring poet Kathleen Driskell, whose collection of poems, Seed Across Snow, was on the Poetry Foundation’s best seller list twice in 2009; Lisa Lenard-Cook, author of Dissonance and Coyote Morning, as well as The Mind of Your Story; Carolyn Flynn, award-winning literary fiction and creative nonfiction writer, as well as author of numerous books and editor of the Albuquerque Journal’s SAGE magazine; and yours truly (aka ybonesy, Roma Arellano), writer, artist and co-founder of this wonderful writing and art community blog.
Santa Fe poet laureate and organizer of Women & Creativity, Valerie Martinez, will kick off the evening with an introduction and reading.
The theme of the panel will be the interrelatedness of the arts — other forms of art as inspiration for writing. Admission is free.
If you are in Albuquerque or the surrounding area, please join us!
redravine.wordpress.com 
Awesome event. Congratulations Roma. It’s so great to see you soaring on those recently spread wings. 🙂
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Wish I could be there!
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Wow! Our own yb on stage. Wish I could be there too. Congratulations.
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Thanks, guys! I’m planning to read a couple of essays I wrote for rR, one having to do with stress incontinence 8) . One of the things about writing for a blog is that you get immediate feedback on your work, and so I also plan to talk about the conversations—some quite hysterical—that take place on the blog. It’s one of the benefits of writing for a blog. Others share their similar experiences, and often there is a fun interplay between writer and reader.
I’ll be talking, too, about the interrelatedness of art and writing. The blog offers oodles of opportunity for mixing those, as this venue has served as a muse of sorts for my artwork. That I can illustrate my own posts, which I do now and again, has been a big motivator.
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yb, I’m so excited for you! Break a leg tomorrow. I’ll be thinking about you. Wish I could be there, sitting in the audience with Teri and Bob. You’ll have to come back and let us know how it goes. I’ll also be curious to see what red Ravine pieces you read. For me, the collaboration of red Ravine has proved to be an excellent muse for writing and art. And how cool is it that the opening will come from Santa Fe’s poet laureate.
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Oh, I wanted to say one other thing. I’ve heard some excellent pieces on MPR about Women’s History Month. I’m glad you are celebrating because it’s important to acknowledge women’s contributions to the world. And all of you are among them.
Today I listened to a segment on the first women fighter pilots of WW II. They weren’t acknowledged as such. And when men started coming home from the war, the women were displaced with not so much as a thank you. The woman being interviewed will be going to the White House to receive her just due — the year is 2010.
If I find the link, I’ll come back and share it. There are just so many ways that women contribute to the world as equals and so many times when that is still not acknowledged. In fact, I was talking about this tonight with a woman whose work is going unrecognized at her place of employment. It seems like more is expected of her than her male counterpart. We were talking about ways to address that directly.
Thanks for celebrating the month! You become strong role models for the women of the future.
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Hey, QM, I heard about those women fighters of WWII, also, but on Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. It was cool to hear about and see those women being honored, finally. The “Fly Girls.” Love that. I’ll look for a link tomorrow, too, for the program I saw. Thanks for bringing that up.
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I think QM said it best “How cool is that?”
Dang, I’d have loved to be there to slap you on the back in person.
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Thanks, Heather.
QM, I enjoyed myself thoroughly at the reading. The best part was meeting the fellow panelists. Valerie Martinez’s introduction was inspiring and gave me a whole new appreciation for intimate readings. Kathleen Driskell had the quiet strength that so many Southern writers have. I will buy her book of poetry, Seed Across Snow. Wow, what a treat to meet her and have her here in NM. Lisa lives in my community, has touched many aspiring writers in her role as a writing teacher, and made us laugh with her funny anecdotes about how she’s had to make up stories given that her family left out so much while she was growing up. And Carolyn almost made me cry with her warm words about each of us, not to mention her writing rocked.
I read three pieces, all posts from red Ravine:
I. P. Freely [LINK], my story about how I am becoming my mom insofar as leaving the bathroom door open is concerned (and my theory that it’s because we both suffer from stress incontinence).
CAUTION! You May Need To Read This Lying Down [LINK], about another family trait, our fear of blood.
The Hummingbird Messenger [LINK], about Jim’s connection to hummingbirds and the disbelief we all have when we first hear of it.
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ybonesy, wonderful! I like the way you describe the writers who were there. And how fantastic that you read the pieces from red Ravine. They are pieces that are alive with detail and personal experience. Also show your sense of humor. Makes me proud to be a part of red Ravine! And to be lucky enough to work with you weekly. Cool that poetry was represented there in such a prolific way. Is there anything you’d tell others about being on a panel like this? Did people ask questions?
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Hi QM. Bless your heart! You’re a great friend, writing partner, blog partner, and general all around inspiration. 8)
Other things to tell others about being on a panel like this? Well, first, I would encourage writers and artists to do it. Get out there and read. Reading out loud is one of the easiest things you can do to understand whether or not your writing has captured your voice, or vice versa. So even if you read out loud your writing to yourself or to your friends or family, it’s something worth doing. I can pick up a piece of mine and start reading it–right away I can hear my voice or hear that my voice is not there. And so reading in a panel like this is taking that experience to another level, to a larger audience. It’s a great thing to do.
Also, being able to meet other artists, writers—that’s great, because you do feel a kinship with whoever it is that you read with, I think.
And it’s good risk-taking. It’s another way to not let yourself get tossed away, to embrace yourself as a writer. And to give back to community.
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People did ask questions, QM. One woman asked about voice. She said she was a new writer and that people who read her writing often commented that she has a distinctive voice. So we all talked about how you know when you have it. I thought one person’s response, I think it was Lisa’s, was that now after hearing the four of us read, if someone were to pick up a story by one of us without knowing who wrote it, the voice should give it away, right? That’s voice.
A question about process, how and when we write. Answers: mornings, whenever we can, while driving (ha!). (I do actually always carry my doodle notebook with me and often doodle while sitting in the carpool line waiting to move up in the line.)
Question on self-publishing a book. One response to that was that the earliest self-published books were probably not as finessed as those today, and so self-publishing books got a bad name. That’s changing.
Questions about publishing and how hard or easy is it. Answer: tough in today’s economic climate.
Question about writing for money or not. Advice, really not all that feasible. Maybe if you are writing a screenplay, or about vampires 8) but best to not write with making money in mind.
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