growing a new blog from a cutting

…metaphorically speaking. I'm bringing an old, idle blog out of retirement. That blog started out as the blog and primary website for iCreate, a Mountairiair NM service organization focusing on community gardening and music/arts education.

On leaving the organization, I turned the Facebook page over to someone else and kept the blog because a) I so liked the design, and b) one else in the organization ever helped with the blog or knew anything about blogging. Not that anyone ever helped with the Facebook page but those are designed with an even lower bar for tech competence than even the simplest of blogs. Eventually -- and quite logically, the local arts council absorbed iCreate. The Facebook page, ICreate NM, remains, mostly music now. All or most of the primary agents are active members of the arts council, and a number of arts council members are active in iCreate.

Time to get growing...

#Mountainair Community Garden manager Joan Embree writes,

Gardeners and friends,
     

With May 15 passed, those who have adopted plots at the community garden can (probably) safely plant veggies, flowers, whatever... starting now.  A few brave souls have already put in some starts.
     

We work every Saturday from 10 am to about noon, and whenever else the mood strikes us. The keys to the work sheds -- tools, seeds, etc.-- are hidden out back of the sheds for access. (Just ask if you need to know where. Send my your email address too ~ it's always a pleasure to add new gardeners to our list)

Sat Oct 29, Music in Mountainair: iCreate Recital

Pueblo Art-Deco Ceiling, Shaffer Hotel Dining Room, Packs Cafe

RMJ Photography 2008, on Flickriver

iCreate's Music Outreach program will hold its first #Mountainair recital Saturday October 29, 4 pm at Packs Cafe in the Shaffer Hotel. Performing in public is the final program completion requirement. Performances by students completing certificates include a solo by Wyatt Greene and a trio of five songs by students from the adult class. Depending on yesterday afternoon's lesson, additional students may join the recital playbill.

iCreate thanks Alita Garcia at Pete's Carpet Thrift Story on Broadway for donating lesson space and would like to recommend supporting this new business (or rebirth of an old one made over ~ Pete's Carpets + Thrift Store) to our iCreate friends and supports. Shop local and support Music Outreach's program and free guitar and violin lessons in Mountainair

Kay working with a Music Outreach student at Off-Center

(cross-posted to Mountainair Announcements and iCreate NM)

Friday May 20: Sonic Follies

The line up includes Gerard Bezzeg, Poets and Writers Picnic favorite and host of "Hello in the There!" (New Mexico Eclectic), along with a number of other singer/song writers and poets from slam and traditional spoken word to cowboy and folk, guitarists for all seasons, styles and tastes, a mandolin player and a fiddler. The event is also supposed to include open mic time.

Sonic Follies: Music, Poetry & More  a fundraiser for the OFFCenter / iCreate Guitar Program

Friday, May 20th, 5:30 - 8:30 pm Suggested Donation $7 at the door Come join in the fun with many wonderful performers! This special concert raises funds for OFFCenter and the unique iCreate Guitar program held free every week at OFFCenter. iCreate is a non-profit organization fostering creativity and the arts in underserved communities. Their volunteer instructors present the guitar workshop on Fridays at OFFCenter where people can attend 12 free sessions, learn 5 songs by heart, perform a recital and earn their very own guitar!  Please help support the continuation of this unique program held at OFFCenter!

Alas, the long awaited and much anticipated list of performers did not come in a ready to use format. Silly me expecting a flyer, a program or even plain text I could copy and paste. I'm hoping for the best from OCR because I won't type out the program after having specifically asked for ready to use copy. 

Get Poetry Broadsided: Botanical Garden )

Is poetry trespassing into the garden part of iCreate's cyberspace pièd á terre? I love the smell of oxymoron in the morning. Consider it a National Poetry Month 2011 / Broadsided mashup. Throw in a touch of bridge building between groups who have more in common than they are sometimes willing to admit. 

Nature poetry is as old as the genre; the garden, an ever blooming literary trope not limited to poetry. 

The garden has always held a special place in literature – from hidden gardens to secret doorways, from giant plants to gardens that appear out of nowhere. And the Botanic Garden in Oxford is also strongly connected to literature. It was a favourite spot for the Liddell family to visit (Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland for little Lizzie Liddell); Tolkien often sat there under his favourite tree, the majestic black pine, which looks uncannily like Tree Beard the ‘Tree Ent’; and Pullman set one of the most poignant scenes in ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy on the bench under the witch-hazel, next to the Water Garden. (from Picnics inspired by gardens in literature, U Oxford)

The Guardian's John Mullen lists 10 of the best walled gardens in literature. Ecopoetry is a more recent chapter in that same tradition, as are cross-disciplinary Nature and Culture programs

Here's an article that explains more about Broadsided. So print out this poem (or another) and get broadsiding...  PS ~ wouldn't it be neat to broadside a poetry walk at the Community Garden? Publish the poetry project IRL by weatherproofing and broadsiding?