Need to get your literature fix before next month’s QUILL reading on April 24th?! Well you’re in luck with two worthy reading events taking place this Thursday, March 15th! Whether you find yourself in Queens or Brooklyn, you can hear from a diverse mix of poets, playwrights and novelists. Now your only dilemma will be how to be in two places at once…

Boundless Tales, a new reading series curated by Aida Zilelian, features Queens-based authors in a monthly reading to take place this Thursday, March 15th from 7:30-9:30pm at Waltz-Astoria, 23-14 Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria. Admission is free with a $10 drink minimum. Featured authors include: Michael Alpiner, Robyn Burland, Audrey Dimola, Maddy Lederman, and Richard Marx Weinraub. Waltz on over and check them out! (But if you miss them, the next reading will take place on Thursday, April 19th).

Brooklyn Reading Works presents In the Year of the Dragon at The Old Stone House in Brooklyn, also on Thursday, March 15th at 8pm. Curated by author Sophia Romero, this event features Asian and Asian American writers, including QCA’s very own Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer alongside Brooklyn poet laureate Tina Chang, novelists Susan Choi and Sabina Meyer and playwright Linda Faigao-Hall.  A $5 donation includes light refreshments and wine.

Elizabeth Torres, Guillermo Filice Castro, Urayoan Noel and Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer. Photo by Corey Melton

Presenting at the Queens Museum of Art, three contemporary poets of Latin decent did more than read aloud their poetry. They combined visuals, technology, and music to illustrate their work to its fullest potential while mixing both the Spanish and English language. Elizabeth Torres, Urayoan Noel, and Guillermo Filice Castro turned a dreary, grey afternoon into a world of colorful imagery through words and through art.

The audience sat in front of a white projector screen that would soon come alive. First up was Columbian poet Elizabeth Torres, much accomplished at such a young age. Her first poem was a long narrative that is the intro to her book “Edad de Sol.” The lights dimmed in the room and she performed her piece as the screen lit up with a video of her own distorted paintings, the poem’s words (in Spanish) hovering hauntingly over them. Mysterious music accompanied the desperation in her voice, which rose up and down. One line that that stuck with me was actually part of the title of the poem, “Escaper hasta perder el pulso,” which would translate into “escape until losing pulse.” The last poem she read did not need any visuals, for her words painted the pain felt in a troubled relationship. A piece from her other book, “Streetlight Vision,” the poet would ask herself questions and answer them back. After every stanza she would monotonously repeat “heartbeat” four times, emphasizing the gravity of her emotions. My favorite line from this poem was “I wear black dresses just in case I’m the fool in the waiting room.”

The next poet, Urayoan Noel from Puerto Rico, brought our spirits up with humor. Noel does not simply read poems, he animates them in front of his audiences. Every word comes out with a personality of its own as he makes them sing-songy and satirical at times. A lot of Noel’s poetry reflects Queens and his observations of everyday life. He translates sonnets into Spanish and he has a collection of work resulting from his collaboration with musician Monxo Lopez, called “text-sound” poems. These are poems put to music and he performs one of them, a funny poem called “Costco”: “Con el Costco no se puede,” (“With Costco, you cannot”) he would repeat as a chorus. Not able to have Mr. Lopez in person, he used his iPhone to provide the music. He also used a voice-to-text app to translate an American woman’s Spanish. When the American read his Spanish poetry into the phone, it would translate “Era era era” to “En data en data no data.” “Mañana mañana mañana” translated to “Montana Montana Montana.” The audience giggled profusely through this. Noel also showed a series of videos of him reading poetry about Far Rockaway’s building construction, passing out poignant photographs to the audience of certain objects or images in the videos. This was a sober ending to his reading, where the theme of gentrification was strong. He asserted, “We were renters, we were here when MCs represented.”

The last poet to read was Guillermo Filice Castro, who hails from Argentina. He started on a light note where he presented his first “poem” called “The Silent Treatment,” turning his back to the audience for a few moments, turning back around to a chuckling audience. He first translated an Italian poem and then a poem comparing American and Argentinean kisses, but more generally, how different they are as people. He claimed that, “Americans are cold.” Castro explained that he used brackets at the end of stanzas to represent kisses. He then read an ode to Lindsay Wagner, the actress who played the Bionic Woman in the 70′s. Another humorous poem was “For the Record,” which was about about a photograph he took of a woman struggling with her umbrella in a park. This very photograph was projected on the the screen, and he comically described the scene, as he encountered her boyfriend who did not appreciate him taking a picture of his girlfriend. He described it from the third person point of view, simply stating, “He was not trying to take a picture of her ass or something.” He also read a couple of poems set to paintings of some the artists featured in the museum. The last set of poems ended on a mournful note, as he read a series of elegies for his late mother: “She introduced me to water, I to swimming.”

Before this event I was not familiar at all with any of the poets whose works I reviewed, but I am now well acquainted. It shows how much our art can reflect who we are as people and how it makes it easier for us to share ourselves to others whenever simple conversation fails to have the same grace.

Katherine Florencio is a Queens College undergraduate English Major, and current student of Susan Bernofsky, author/translator and former QUILL advisor.

QCA’s Build Your Own Business for Individual Artists offers a unique opportunity for emerging artists to work one on one with an experienced arts consultant to build better business practices to promote their work.

We are thrilled to announce the 7 recipients of this award who will launch the 2012 cohort of this program.

Mary Crawford

Victoria Febrer

Mary Giancoli

Evan Mazunik

Alejandra Regalado

Gabriel Roldos

Tom Snelgrove

Featured author/translators Guillermo Filice Castro, Urayoan Noel and Elizabeth Torres will present works and images in a multidisciplinary reading focusing on the translation of the visual world to the written word at the Queens Museum of Art.  A suggested donation of $5 includes light refreshments provided in part by Lagunitas Brewing Co.. Join us for the performance and stay for the beer, plus an informal tour of the Queens International Exhibit!

Click here to Register

Or visit www.queenscouncilarts.org for more information

“The painful contrasts of lights and darks in every instant of our daily life leaves a footprint in our voices and spirit… and that’s exactly what I want to capture in my work” – Elizabeth Torres (artwork, above)

Queens in Love with Literature (QUILL) is a forum for Queens writers who are committed to developing and defining the creative field of translation, and offers audiences in Queens the opportunity not only to hear from authors working in their own neighborhood, but also perhaps in their own language. This year QUILL seeks to expand the concept of translation through a series of creative translation events, featuring artists from other disciplines in collaborative interpretations of literary works.

QUILL is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts.

QCA’s Build Your Own Business for Organizations offers a unique opportunity for burgeoning arts organizations to work one on one with an experienced arts consultant to build better business practices to promote their work and be a successful organization.

We are proud to announce the 7 recipients of this award who will launch the 2012 cohort of this program.

Dina Denis Dance – Dance Into Light, Inc.

EarSay

Queens Media Arts Development (QMAD)

Mare Nostrum Elements

Talea Ensemble, Inc.

thingNY

Voelker Orth Museum

In our last post about SPARC we announced the 2012 artists-in-residence. Now that it’s officially 2012, and they have just begun working on their residency projects, we wanted to tell you a bit more about them.

Amy Reid, CCNS Catherine Sheridan: Amy’s will be collaborating with seniors at CCNS Catherine Sheridan to make narrative videos based on the seniors memories. She will also be working with seniors to make unique props for the videos based on images from the seniors’ memories. Amy is currently working with Elders Sharing the Arts.

Alejandra Regalado, IRPHE (Elmhurst): Alejandara is a photographer who will work with seniors on a project that features portraits of seniors from IRPHE with personal objects of significant emotional value.

Rachel Sullivan, Florence Smith: A theater-artist, Rachel plans to create a devised theater piece with her center members. She will draw on her past experience as a teaching artist working with seniors.

Constance Gemson, NORC Forrest Hills:  Constance is working on a oral history and writing project. She will begin her contact hours with the residents at her center in February! She comes to the program with a lot of experience conducting writing workshops with seniors.

Andrea Burgay, Ridgewood Older Adults Center: Andrea is a visual artist working with textiles and collage.  She will work with members from ROAC to create their own collages culminating in a public exhibition of the work. Next week Andrea’s work will be featured in The Bricoleurs, an exhibition at the the BRIC Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn Heights.

Abigail Weg, Ridgewood Older Adults Center: Abby is an experienced teaching artist based in Ridgewood who will lead her students from the Ridgewood Older Adults Center on a journey through the visual arts incorporating various forms of media and techniques.

Carla E. Reyes, Selfhelp Austin Street: Carla will be leading seniors from Selfhelp Austin Street in an art-making and journaling project culminating in a public exhibition of the seniors’ works. Seniors will be asked to make work that touches on their perception of time.

Ka-Man Tse, Selfhelp Benjamin Rosenthal: Ka-Man is a photographer, and she is no stranger to Selfhelp Benjamin Rosenthal, having conducted a photography workshop there in 2011. She will be continuing her photography work with the center in 2012, and they are thrilled to have her back!

Robin Benson, Sunnyside Center for Active Older Adults: Robin will lead several performing arts workshops that deal with improvisational work and working from written scripts, culminating in a public performance.

Valerie Green, Sunnyside Center for Active Older Adults: A dance and choreographer, Valerie will conduct a series of movement classes with center members, assisted by her dance company, Dance Entropy. She has generously arranged for the members of her center to attend an upcoming performance of Dance Entropy. You can learn more about the performance (including how to buy tickets) here. Valerie worked with Sunnyside in 2010 as well.

An Image from Alejandra Regalado’s prior project, Memorabile

SPARC is being programmed city-wide, with a different set of artists and centers participating in each borough. Check in with the arts councils in Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx for information about those boroughs – and you can find a list of all participants here on the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs website.

The Chinese Dragon is the most intriguing and auspicious of the mythological creatures that make up the twelve year cycle.  To celebrate the Year of the Dragon, there will be a wonderful free music event in Queens at Crossing Art Gallery in Flushing at 3:00 pm this Sunday, January 22^nd, where you can hear a live performance of the Shanghai String Quartet.  You can also hear it on WQXR.  While you are in Flushing, take time to sample some of great food with a cup of tea.  Not only is there great music, there is great art and amazing food in Queens to enjoy as you welcome the new year!

If you are hungry for more cultural and culinary events, come to www.queenscouncilarts.org and see what else is happening in Queens. Remember you can also call or email. The year is just beginning and filled with upcoming unique literary events and arts networking for you to enjoy in New York’s most diverse borough.

Don’t miss the chance to build your artistic career goals in 2012.  Our Build Your Own Business Program for Artists offers you the  opportunity to work strategically with a professional arts consultant on a specific project and share your experiences with your peers in a monthly peer leadership circle.

Applications are due Thursday, January 12th.

For more information and to apply click here.

Do you have a project you want to launch in 2012?  Do you need to figure out how to fund it? Are you confused about how to get crowdsourcing to work for you?  Join us next week as Kickstarter’s own Stephanie Pereira leads us through Kickstater school.

Kickstarter: Bringing Your Creative Idea to Life 

Wednesday, January 11, 2012
6:30pm
Flux Factory
39-31 29th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101.

N/Q to Queensboro Plaza
E/M/R to Queens Plaza
F to 21^st Street Queensbridge

Click here for more details and to RSVP

Happy New Year!

QCA would like to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who supported our programs and activities in 2011.

This past giving season, we shared with you the phrase, “Thank you and come again!” It’s a simple yet sincere phrase that local restaurants say. Its more literal meaning is “thank you (for your business) and come again (and enjoy our food soon)”.

At QCA, we like to change it up to mean “thank you (for supporting us) and come again (and enjoy our borough’s art and culture)”.

 It’s because of your donations, your feedback, and your attendance at our free workshops and events that are so meaningful to us and our community that one phrase alone can’t ever sum up its value. Together, we can support one another – block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

So come back in 2012!

Attend a workshop. Sit in on a reading. Come with a friend. Support the arts in Queens. It’s good for the mind, soul and belly.