| Ark City native left mark in journalism, poetry and jazz | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 12:51:15 PM by Blog57 Team | | This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties." BY BECCY TANNER "I was a weaver of jagged words A warbler of garbled tunes A singer of savage songs I was bitter Yes Bitter and sorely sad For when I wrote I dipped my pen In the crazy heart Of mad America" --Frank Marshall Davis, from his poem "Writer" As a black boy growing up in south-central Kansas, Frank Marshall Davis felt the sting of discrimination. But when he turned 8, he found solace in music. "The blues," he would later write, "talked my language." Davis would rise to become one of the most prominent black poets and journalists of the 20th century.... | |
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| | | War on terror vet uses poetry to heal | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 2:50:42 AM by Blog57 Team | | EDINBURG — National Guardsman Juan Cantu wasn't like the other attendees of a Veterans Day art exhibit at the University of Texas-Pan American Annex. They were middle-aged participants in past wars like Vietnam and Korea. He was just old enough to drink and six months removed from the fighting in Afghanistan. They were jovial. He was distant. They were memorabilia collectors and crafts makers. He was a poet. Amid veterans' displays of model airplanes and woodwork, Cantu sat at a bare table Saturday with a compilation of his poems and some Hershey Kisses. "The chocolate was my girlfriend's idea," he said. Cantu, 21, of Progreso, served in Qalat, Afghanistan, with a Weslaco-based National Guard unit. After a year-long tour that ended in May, he turned to writing as a way to deal with what he saw overseas and the slightly altered landscape of his hometown.... | |
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| | | UM hosts Alabama poetry society fall meetings | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 2:50:25 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Alabama State Poetry Society held its fall meeting at the University of Montevallo in Montevallo on Oct. 21. The winners of the ASPS Fall Poetry Contests were announced following the luncheon.First place winners included Susan Luther of Huntsville, for "Crow, Crone, Crown" and for "Cornucopia"; Jeri Hardesty of Brierfield, for "Inspirational Elements" and Joseph Whitten of Odenville for "Evensong Meditation." .... | |
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| | | Participants are sought for poetry contests | | Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 2:47:25 AM by Blog57 Team | | The Oregon Arts Commission invites high schools to participate in "Poetry Out Loud," a national initiative that encourages high schoolers to learn about poetry through memorization, performance and competition. Participating schools will organize poetry-recitation contests in fall and winter. Winners can participate in a statewide competition March 10 in Salem. The winner of that competition will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the national finals. The state winner's school will get a $500 stipend to buy poetry books for the school library. A runner-up in each state will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library. The National Endowment for the Arts will award $50,000 in scholarships and stipends at the national finals, with at least a $20,000 college scholarship for the Poetry Out Loud champion.... | |
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| | | Special poetry session to mark Ramadan | | Posted Sunday, October 15, 2006 6:47:00 PM by Blog57 Team | | LOCAL Indian and Pakistani poets marked the holy month of Ramadan by presenting their Hamdiah and Na'atiyah Kalam (poetry in praise of Allah and Prophet Muhammad), at a session organised by literary forum Pasban-e-Adab - Qatar (PAQ), recently. The session was presided over by Khursheed-ul-Hassan Abidi while project director of a US-based consultancy Tariq Javed Cheema and Adnan & Sultan Trading manager Rashed Rafiq Butt were the chief guest and guest of honour, respectively. PAQ president Abdul Razzaq Sadaf welcomed the guests. A Anzar compered. Besides Sadaf and Anzar, local poets who took part in the session included Abu-al-Khair, Mohamed Latif Sabiri, Amjad Nabeel, Muzaffar Nayab, Abu-ul-Hassan Qabil, Atir Siddiqi, Syed Jamshed-ul-Hassan Rizvi (chief patron Bazm-e-Urdu - Qatar), Jalil Nizami, (Indian Urdu Society) Rashid Niaz (Pakistan Cultural Forum) and Nasim Kazimi (Bazm-e-Urdu - Qatar).... | |
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| | | I'm just not much good at poetry.. verse luck | | Posted Friday, October 06, 2006 2:47:32 PM by Blog57 Team | | AS a self-conscious teenager, Ian Rankin hid his poetry under a mattress so no-one could read it. Now, as a best-selling author and creator of one of Scotland's most famous fictional characters, he is finally ready to show the world his work. But even in the doggerel Rankin penned for National Poetry Day yesterday, he mocks his inability to compose a decent poem, and in a self-deprecating final line admits he should have stuck to prose. The creator of Detective Inspector John Rebus wrote the piece as a light-hearted response to an e-mailed request from the Scottish Poetry Library (SPL) to take part in a new scheme matching up poets and authors. • To read this story in full, pick up a copy of the Evening News Related topic Ian Rankin & Rebushttp://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=810 This article: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1480992006 Last updated: 06-Oct-06 12:02 BST .... | |
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| | | Poetry of pottery | | Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:46:46 AM by Blog57 Team | | It is the venue that makes artist Anju Kumar nostalgic. Her exhibition, Clay at Play, on display at the Blind Relief Association, is the same place where she had held her first show over 17 years ago. The exhibition has a potpourri of urns, vases, fountains, murals, tables, floor lamps, table vases and Ganesha figurines. The artist, who has 70 shows to her credit, says that pottery had always been a hobby but she had never expected it to turn into a profession. "I used to love it. But after marriage, I started taking it seriously." Later she got an offer from ITDC and since then there has been no looking back. "After ITDC, I worked on various projects with interior designers and also exported my pieces to the USA, UK, France, Germany and other countries," says Anju.... | |
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| | | Poetry and Puncture Wounds | | Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006 12:49:02 PM by Blog57 Team | | There's an old saying about Ginger Rogers, who did everything Fred Astaire did -- but backwards and in heels. This Australian western seems to be saying something similar about gritty American westerns: You think that's hard? Try living in the Outback. The Proposition mucks about in dust, blood, and moral ambiguity with all the cheerfulness of a Nick Cave song -- which is appropriate, seeing as Cave wrote the screenplay and composed the score. Guy Pearce plays a scoundrel sent to murder his older brother so that his younger brother will be spared. It's all very gorgeous, solemn, and ponderous, except for the many excellent scenes of bullets and spears poking holes in people. The informative, dour commentary confirms that the filmmakers think their movie is important, but who cares? It's mostly a big bucket of sour-faced fun.... | |
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| | | Winners Announced for Third Annual Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse | | Posted Sunday, September 17, 2006 6:47:04 PM by Blog57 Team | | Northampton, MA (PRWEB) September 15, 2006 -- Tom Howard Books is pleased to announce the results from its third annual Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse. Susan Keith of Los Angeles won first prize and $1,000 for her poem "Remembrance". Over 3,000 poems were received from around the world. .... | |
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| | | Crying wolf in Thompson | | Posted Saturday, September 02, 2006 12:47:55 PM by Blog57 Team | | Yes, nature lovers, what CancerCare did here in the 'Peg with the Bears on Broadway, Spirit Way Inc. -- a community group of volunteers in Thompson -- is accomplishing with 24 seven-and-a-half foot painted concrete wolf statues, each sitting on their own rock. All the wolves will be finished and put in place for the official opening of Spirit Way on Thursday, Sept. 14. Titled the "Wolves Along the Way" project, it is an enhancement to Thompson's new Spirit Walkway -- a walking and biking route from the Heritage North Museum to the Miles Hart Bridge. It's also a complement to Thompson's overall wolf theme, which already features a 10-storey wolf mural and, next year, wolves carved in the rock face! I can't wait to get up there and see it all in person.... | |
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