Saturday evening is the last opportunity to view “Shelf Life: Paintings and Objects,” the current exhibit at the Sacramento Poetry Center  featuring the work of poet laureate emeritus Julia Connor. The closing reception, free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. and will feature the music of Barkin’ Dog Bluegrass, a California-based band that plays traditional and progressive bluegrass, and a poetry reading by the artist Julia Connor. “I think of this exhibition as a gathering, a way of sharing where I have been by sharing with you what remains,” Connor wrote in her statement about “Shelf Life.”  

Poets and musicians gathered Friday night at the Guild Theatre to raise funds for C.O.R.E., Chicano Organizing and Research in Education, and their Que Llueva Café scholarship fund. C.O.R.E. is a non-partisan, research, and advocacy organization with the purpose of improving the education environment of all Chicano/Latino students. C.O.R.E.’s membership, including its board members, come from various backgrounds and fields and support the organization’s many efforts, which include a variety of scholarships, such as the Que Llueva Café. The Que Llueva Café scholarship was founded in response to “what is an unfair immigration system that continues to deprive aspiring new scholars from cont

Put a poem in your pocket or tuck one into someone else’s pocket this Thursday because April is National Poetry Month and April 26 is Poem in Your Pocket Day. This annual event was started by the Academy of American Poets who “encourage folks to stuff their pockets with their favorite poems and spend the day sharing them with others,” says Richard Hansen, proprietor of The Book Collector in Midtown. Hansen is no stranger to small poems, as his own project, Poems-For-All, is about the creation and scattering of poems. “It is about building tiny books of poetry to be scattered like seeds,” he said. “These little books fit perfectly into pockets.” Hansen creates these books for special ev

April 1 kicked off National Poetry Month, an event “inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 . . . when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.” Although National Poetry Month is held every April, and Sacramento and its neighbors are celebrating in various ways, Sacramento is certainly no stranger to poetry and the banding together of poets. About poetry, bookseller Richard Hansen, aka The Book Collector (24th a

Even the gray and overcast skies did not dampen the enthusiasm of those who attended the “Crossroads” poetry reading on Sat., March 17 at the Center for Contemporary Art in Sacramento. Free and open to the public, it was standing room only with nearly 60 people in attendance. The program showcased the work of featured poets, Julia Connor and Victoria Dalkey. The attentive audience showed their appreciation for the poems which were by turns reflective, imaginative, picturesque and profound. Eleven distinctive and evocative poems were selected by each of March’s featured readers. Julia Connor served as Poet Laureate of Sacramento from 2005-2009. She is the author of “Making the Good” as wel

On Sunday morning at the University of California, Davis Mondavi Center, Kevin O’Connor, Slater Penney, Christine Germain and Emily Leap led two free workshops on rope climbing, juggling, building human pyramids and using the trapeze. Each 90-minute workshop accommodated 60 very lucky participants ranging from age 4 to adult. More than 300 people could not be accommodated. Kevin O’Connor, an MFA choreography candidate and graduate of the National Circus School of Montreal, was the event’s organizer. O’Connor invited three other trained professionals to lead the four simultaneous workshops sponsored by the new UC Davis Institute for Exploration in Theatre, Dance and Performance. The morn

People came for the music and because Sunday’s musical feast at Folsom’s Powerhouse Pub was a charity event. At $15 per ticket, with six bands lined up to cover a spectrum of blues music, and all ticket proceeds benefiting the 147 year old Sacramento Children's Home, there was no better place to be. The Randy Carey Band opened the show at 1:50 p.m. and their rocking country blues sound had people dancing early on. They opened with “Born Under a Bad Sign,” sung by Carey, who also penned several of the songs, including “Blue Boy Blues,” their next to last song. The band’s rendition of “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues” had feet tapping and bodies swaying in seats and on the dance floor tha

The bumper sticker read, “I’d rather be at a Tommy Castro Show,” and the crowd that filled Folsom’s Powerhouse Pub Saturday night agreed. Ben and Robin Penn chose Castro over the lighted boat parade, and others chose the show over competing concerts and Sacramento’s Second Saturday events, braving the cold and the Santa Pub Crawlers to hear Castro and his band. The band that performed Saturday night is not the same lineup fans will see in 2012, when Randy McDonald will replace Scot Sutherland on bass, Keith Crossan will take his sax skills elsewhere, as will Tom Poole and his horn and Tony Stead and his keyboards. Byron Cage will remain at drums. Castro fans were clearly not disappointe

The Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento presented “Honoring Facundo Cabral: a Día de Los Muertos Poetry Reading” Friday evening. More than two dozen people attended the event, which included music, poetry, art and history. Friday’s event was one of several associated with the “Voice for the Voiceless” exhibit featuring the artwork of Malaquías Montoya, who had created a piece in memory of Cabral, an Argentinean writer, singer and peace messenger who was murdered in Guatemala City on July 9, 2011. “Facundo Cabral Presente” was the backdrop for the evening’s reading and music, which featured poets Betty Sánchez, Nancy Aidé González and Francisco X. Alarcón, and musician Manuel Lopez. B

On Friday, the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento will present “Honoring Facundo Cabral: a Día de Los Muertos Poetry Reading,” one of the events associated with the “Voice for the Voiceless” exhibit, featuring the artwork of Malaquías Montoya. Curator Xico González will host Friday’s reading. A poet, artist and activist, he recruited four area poets to pay homage to Argentinian Facundo Cabral, a writer and performer of protest songs who gained fame in the 1970s when dictatorships, coups and other crises plagued Latin America. Cabral’s most famous song was “No Soy de Aqui, Ni Soy de Alla” (“I’m Not from Here, I’m Not from There Either”). Cabral went into exile in Mexico from 1976 to 1

Garden plots in two sizes will be available at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Garden in Oak Park Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m. Approximately nine of the several dozen original plots are still available. A 10x10 plot costs $25 per calendar year, and the 10x20 plot costs $50 per calendar year. A $25 refundable cleaning deposit is also required for both sizes. “I will throw in the rest of this year, plus free seeds,” said Bill Maynard, director of the city’s community gardens. Since the grand opening in August, community gardeners have grown and harvested corn, Swiss chard, spinach, peas, Brussels sprouts and flowers. Garden plots are laid out in rows, curves, or in any manner that garde

The Red Night poetry series will close at Beatnik Studios after a year that has featured Mary Mackey, Kathryn Hohlwein, Josh Fernandez, Sandy Thomas, Bill Gainer, Lara Kaapuni, Phillip T. Nails, Crawdad Nelson, James Lee Jobe, Mario Ellis Hill and numerous others, including B.L. Kennedy, who was featured in the first show with Charlene Ungstad. Kennedy will join Ann Menebroker and Paul Fericano to close the popular reading series that has run the third Wednesday of each month since July 14, 2010, and has been well-attended by poetry and prose enthusiasts. Organizer Genelle Chaconas, a Sacramento State alum, artist and poet, envisioned the series as a place “where our shared instinct to c

It was standing room-only for the people who came to hear Malaquías Montoya speak about art, life, protest and language Wednesday evening at the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento. The crowd spilled out the door onto 19th Street and included UC Davis students, CCAS members, artists and activists. An electricity filled the room as voices rose and fell. Current and former students proclaimed they are all fans of Montoya. Curator Xico Gonzáles served as the evening’s host, leading the audience in a welcome applause before speaking about Montoya, under whom he had studied. Montoya stepped up, without a microphone, and asked, “Why do we do the things that we do daily?” He answered tha

Saturday morning was warm enough to draw more than 38 people to Martin Luther King Junior Community Garden for seminars and discussions on composting, cover crops, vermicomposting and the benefits of ladybug larvae. More than a dozen people attended the first of two composting seminars, led by Bill Maynard, master gardener and director of community gardens for the city. Sacramento waste reduction coordinator Doug Houston opened the 8 a.m. event by speaking about waste reduction and the cost of green waste. Houston told the group that Sacramento pays for green waste disposal. Bins cost residents less money each month, and they are environmentally friendly because green waste is kept out

A cultural reception was held Saturday, opening with a blessing performed by Kalpulli Maquili Tonatiuh, a spiritually-based local Aztec dance circle, thanks to Xico González, curator of Malaquías Montoya’s solo exhibit, “Voice for the Voiceless” at the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento. “In the Chicana/o tradition, we pay homage to those that came before us, to the people that Malaquías pays homage to in his artwork,” González said. Homage was certainly paid as the dancers assembled outside of the center to first bless the building. Jessica Alvarado, donning a headdress with green feathers, carried a smoke pot in which tree sap burned. She read the blessing in the Nahuatl language.

A solo exhibit featuring the work of Malaquías Montoya, “Voice for the Voiceless,” opened September 20 at the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento and will continue through November 18. A cultural reception will be held this Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., opening with “a Mexica blessing to be performed by Kalpulli Maquili Tonatiuh (a local Aztec dance circle),” said Xico González, curator of the exhibit. “In the Chicana/o tradition, we pay homage to those that came before us, to the people that Malaquías pays homage to in his artwork,” said González. Montoya, one of the founders of the social serigraphy movement, will speak about himself and his art, which includes “Undocumented,” from 1

Bill Maynard, Director of Community Gardens for the City of Sacramento, will lead two composting seminars for City of Sacramento residents Saturday morning (8:15 and 9:15) at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Garden at 3663 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Attendees will learn how composting works, what materials should and should not be composted, how to maintain the compost pile, and how to obtain the right balance of food, air, and moisture. In addition to composting training, Maynard will include a session on planting cover crops, which help revitalize the soil. “Discount coupons for composters from Home Depot and free post waste kitchen countertop bins to carry your waste to the com

Wednesday evening was filled with poetry, music and activism when Rafael Jesús González (poet, professor, artist and bilingual studies innovator) read to a full house at La Raza Galería Posada. He was accompanied by flautist and Rooted in Community co-director Gerardo O. Marín and artist and activist Colin Miller. The event was hosted by Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol / Writers of the New Sun and opened with local writer JoAnn Anglin. She spoke of the group’s founding in 1993, its monthly writing group, monthly readings and of the group’s anthology, “Voices of the New Sun: Songs and Stories / Voces del Nuevo Sol: Cantos y Cuentos.”  González was introduced by Dr. Fausto Avendaño, a retire

The Crest Theatre’s Screen 3 is where a large crowd viewed 12 three-minute films for the first ‘Open Reel’ competition. The evening began with a few words from Mike Azevedo, gallery manager at the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, and a reminder that all films would be shown Saturday and Sunday at 1020 16th St. as part of the annual Capitol Artists’ Studio Tour. The screening began with two one-minute films by Adam Bearson that featured Lisa Fernald Barker and Shirley Hazlett in their studios. Bearson captured the essence of the artists, focusing on their tools and works, allowing the film to say as much as the subjects. Barker spoke mainly of one painting, while Hazlett spoke of

Ten years after the events of 9/11, Karen Bearson brings large-scale photographs of Lower Manhattan to Axis Gallery at 1517 19th St. in a solo exhibit entitled “Reflection Spot: Ten years before, ten years after.” The exhibit opened Sept. 3 and runs through Sept. 25. “On the tenth anniversary of this event I wanted to create a series of images that explored the loss – the absence of what once existed,” Bearson wrote in her artist statement. “I visited NYC in May to recollect my own past history there 20 years ago, photograph familiar places, visit old friends and spend some time at Ground Zero. Ten of the images are a result of this trip.” Bearson is a painter and professional photograph