National Poetry Month

The temperature in Arizona is on the rise and if you're the kind of person that wants to do something other than swimming to stay cool, come listen to some fascinating poets for poetry month! 

So, What's There to Do in Phoenix? (Lit-Wise)

From handwriting to book-in-hand: A tour of how the contemporary book is published. Michael Wiegers, Executive Editor of Copper Canyon Press, will be giving a unique talk on Monday, January 26 at 2:30 in the Language & Literature Building (Room 316) on ASU's main campus. It is free and open to the public. The talk he will be giving comes straight from the trenches—he is a first rate, first line literary editor hard at work in contemporary letters. He is the editor many writers, at least metaphorically, will be facing as they go out into the field. Here is a chance to listen to and ask questions of the voice on the other end of that submission.

Among the collections he has edited are award winning books by poets such as David Bottoms, CD Wright, W.S. Merwin, Ruth Stone, Ted Kooser, Arthur Sze, Norman Dubie, and Alberto Ríos as well as major works in translation and books by emerging authors. He serves as the poetry editor for Narrative Magazine, a web-based international literary journal. He is the editor of two anthologies, This Art and The Poet’s Child, and is co-editor, with Mónica de la Torre, of Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry. His book and magazine publication credits includes Connecting Lines: New Mexican Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Five Points, The Great River Review, and the Washington Post. He lives in Port Townsend, WA.

So, What's There to Do in Phoenix? (Lit-Wise)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Phoenix may not be New York or San Francisco, but we've got our fair share of fun art and literature events. We'll keep you posted of these events (and more!) in our sporadically updated review "So, what's there to do in Phoenix?"

ArtEvent: Stray Cat Theater's "A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant"

Join in the holiday spirit with this fantastic performance, described as a mixture of "avant-garde performance art and children's theater." Grade-school children portray luminary figures of the Church of Scientology movement, such as Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley, John Travolta, and L. Rob Hubbard. The performance follows Hubbard's rise from struggling science fiction writer to leader of the highly successful New Age religion. Scientology teachings are "explained and dissected against the candy-colored backdrop of a traditional nativity scene."

"A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant" is directed by Gary Minyard and based on a concept by Alex Timbers. Books, music and lyrics were done by Kyle Jarrow. Show runs from December 5 - December 20, 2008. Showtimes are Thursday-Saturday at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM at the Tempe Performing Arts Center (132 East 6th Street). Buy tickets online here. $15/ students + military, $15/seniors, $20/adults. Thursdays are $10 Student Night and Sundays are $12 for everyone!

For more information and a photo slideshow, see this article from the East Valley Tribune.

Fine Art Swap Meet this Sunday

Prints! Drawings! Photographs! Ceramics! Sculpture! Paintings! EPHEMERA! Oh MY!

Current and Former ASU Art graduate students are clearing out their studios and letting go of their originals at bargain basement prices for one day only!

When? Sunday, November 16th, 10:00am - 2:00pm
Where? Neeb Plaza, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

No entry fee. Cash, check & paypal payment accepted. Come early for the best selection! Featured artists include HFR art editor Chad White. Snatch up some amazing deals before the Holidays!

So What's There to do in Phoenix? (Lit-Wise)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Phoenix may not be New York or San Francisco, but we've got our fair share of fun art and literature events. We'll keep you posted of these events (and more!) in our sporadically updated review "So, what's there to do in Phoenix?"

(NotExactlyA)LitEvent: Changing Hands' "Books for Schools"

It probably doesn't need to be said but all of us over here at Hayden's Ferry Review really love books. I mean, the Piper Center itself is nearly bursting with books; we've got them stacked in random corners and crevices of the center. Our houses too follow the strange design concept of migratory books-- that is, piles of books that have a daily exodus from desk to bed to desk again. Mostly because we have nowhere else to put them but also because we just love seeing all of those books stacked up on each other, like little anthills of literature. It makes me smile just now thinking about it.

Anyways. For most of us, our love of books began sometime in childhood and so we believe *cue sappy rant* that all children should have as much opportunity to pore over those golden treasures as we did in our youth. That's why we're spreading the word about Changing Hands' event "Books for Schools." It's easy enough. November 1 through December 31, 2008, a percentage of your Changing Hands purchases will go to the school of your choice. They'll save a copy of your receipt and donate 20% of the purchase towards a gift certificate for your preferred school-- just make sure and indicate which school at time of purchase. All purchases of new and used books, music, cards, calendars and gifts can go towards the donation.

So What's There to Do in Phoenix? (Art-Wise)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Phoenix may not be New York or San Francisco, but we've got our fair share of fun art and literature events. We'll keep you posted of these events (and more!) in our sporadically updated review "So, what's there to do in Phoenix?"

ArtEvent: Northlight Gallery Photo Exhibit

Northlight Gallery, part of ASU's Herberger College of the Arts, is hosting the photography exhibit "Diverging Views" which features artwork by members of The Women's Caucus of the Society of Photographic Education. From the gallery's website:

"The Women’s Caucus is committed to the advancement of women in the profession of photography and photographic education and to the advancement of women’s issues in the exhibition, discussion and teaching of image making."

The exhibit runs from October 20 - November 15, 2008. The gallery is open Monday 7-9 PM, Tuesday - Thursday 10:30 AM from 4:30 PM, and Saturdays 12:30-4:30 PM. Admission is free.

So, What's There to do in Phoenix? (Art-Wise)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Phoenix may not be New York or San Francisco, but we've got our fair share of fun art and literature events. We'll keep you posted of these events (and more!) in our sporadically updated review "So, what's there to do in Phoenix?"

ArtEvent: F.A.R. Lectures

F.A.R (Future Arts Research) will be hosting two lectures in the coming days which are both free and open to the public (and likely filled with much brain-enhancing and arty coolness talk).

Peter Sellars will be speaking this Wednesday, October 22nd at 7 PM about the role of the arts in the new economic environment. The lecture will be hosted at the Tempe Center for the Arts. From F.A.R's newsletter:

"Peter Sellars, world-renowned director and librettist, will speak on the role of the arts in the new economic environment of crisis and uncertainty. He will discuss strategies for the arts and humanities during this period of projected strife, and about how to enter this new Depression when de-funding of the arts and humanities are almost a certainty. He will expand on the need for artists to de-institutionalize their thinking when the institutions will also be uncertain about their futures as well. Sellars' talk will concentrate on the re-imagining of the artists role through coalition building and re-thinking new institutions to accommodate the crises that surround the artist today. Sellars is an inspirational speaker who has come up with possible answers to these difficult questions."

David Elliot, director of Oxford's Museum of Modern Art from 1976 to 1996, will be lecturing at Bentley Projects in Downtown Phoenix on October 27th at 7 PM. His lecture "In Praise of Impurity: Universal Values versus Geo-aesthetics in Contemporary Art" is described in the F.A.R newsletter:

"Starting with genetic theory, research and a consideration of pre and early history, David Elliott will examine different kinds of pictorial creativity and how influence is, and always has been, spread through art and different types of cultural interchange. He will argue that it is only relatively recently that this “natural” state of affairs been disrupted by ideas of nationhood which unfortunately stressed the separateness and hierarchy of cultures. He believes that this has had disastrous historical effects and, in spite of recent theories of “globalization,” has continued, in a debased form, to the present. Elliott argues that now, as before, it is the normal and desirable state of one culture to beg, steal and borrow from other cultures. This, and the fact that all culture – even one’s own – has to be acquired, means that an openness of mind and willingness to learn are the basic tools that are needed to appreciate and enjoy what is best in the contemporary cultures of the world."

For more Phoenix literary and arts events, please visit HFR's calender.

Reading with Fiction Writer T.M. McNally

Fabulous fiction writer, ASU professor, and HFR advisor T. M. McNally will be reading from his short story collections Low Flying Aircraft and The Gateway on Monday, September 15, 2008 at 7:00 p.m at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe. Spanning a period of fourteen years, the stories in Low Flying Aircraft are connected by the pasts of Orion McClenahan and Helen Jowalski, childhood friends whose fathers shared a law practice in Chicago. In 1976 a freak accident changes their lives irrevocably, and the stories are about the people Orion and Helen grow up to be, the people they love, and the people they lose along the way. The Gateway, a finalist for the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award, answers the age-old question: Why do fools fall in love?

Tempe Center for the Arts Celebrates One-Year Anniversary

In honor of its one-year anniversary, the Tempe Center for the Arts is hosting an exhibition through January 10, 2009 featuring works on paper, art made of paper and artists inspired by paper, including the work of current HFR Art Editor Chad White.

For more information about exhibitions at TCA, see their gallery page.