Not Just Another Evening to Remember

Since 1972, I have worked with a diverse and multicultural range of creative people who frame all idioms of creative, performing, and visual arts: dancers, theatrical folk, writers, poets, musicians, painters, photographers, and mixed media artists. While working on a Masters’ degree in Afro-American History and Culture, I spent a year working at the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, National Center for Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) and was there when Ms. Lewis was cited as a MacArthur Fellow.  A few years later, I produced a theatrical performance by the Native American Spiderwoman Theater; knew Garth Fagan Dance when it was “Bottom of the Bucket But…,” and worked with choreographer Rod Rodgers; learned a life lesson as to how you treat and present artists from jazz great, Betty Carter; and witnessed several off-Broadway theatrical productions before shows were transitioned to Broadway. I was a founding member of the Boston chapter of Billy Taylor’s Collective Black Artists in Boston, and celebrated musicians who left the Berkeley School of Music for professional jobs with Mongo Santamaria and other established jazz artists.  Knew Ntozake Shange and promoted her readings at a Boston coffee house before she finalized “For Colored Girls…..” And as freshman in college, recorded a LP with a Latin band out of East Harlem, NY: Eddie Hernandez and his orchestra, ten members strong.

I worked with (and continue to do so) emerging and established writers and poets, and had the opportunity to personally interact with Jamaica Kincaid, Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka (LeRoy Jones,) Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and others back in the day.  In the present, “word, revisited” and aaduna have given me the opportunity to re-new relationships with Howard Nelson, Jeff Delbel, Merlyn Fuller, Victor Garlock, Bruce Bennet, Bobbie Panek, and other poets and writers who keep “words” passionate, vibrant and inspiring in the Finger Lakes region.  So, if this post is NOT ABOUT ME, why am I sharing all this extraneous information that I normally do not share? Because…

I think I know and understand the sensibilities of artists especially poets and writers.

I know creative people and the complexities of manifesting what lurks in the recesses of the mind to something tangible that can be shared with the public.  

I know the intricacies of the creative arts.

And my experiences over four decades give me a knowledgeable platform to embrace and appreciate those “elders” who continue to have the ability to give back and pass on well-earned life lessons through their written expressions.

And it is within that spirit of creative knowledge that I easily articulate a special “Thank You” to grande dame Elizabeth Patton for her featured reading and presentation at the Carriage House Theater in Auburn, NY to joyously kick-of the fall 2018 season of “word, revisited” sponsored by the Cayuga Museum of History and Art, Olive Trees, a print literary publication, and aaduna.   

Elizabeth Patton, featured poet,  "Word, Revisited" at the Carriage House Theater, September 13, 2018

Ms. Patton’s Southern charm and graciousness, subtle eloquence, graceful memories and reflections shaped and nuanced her readings. Introduced by Clare Songbirds publisher and poet, Heidi Nightengale, who was a former high school student in Ms. Patton’s creative writing class. Elizabeth Patton has spent a lifetime in central New York teaching and evolving her craft as a well-esteemed and respected poet, writer, and colleague. Elizabeth continues to live in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and maintains an ongoing presence reading her work at regional libraries, bookstores, and other venues while being an active member of area book writing groups. Her chapbooks has been published by Pudding House, Downtown Books, and a full length book of her poems was recently published by Clare Songbirds Publishing House. 

For “word, revisited,” Elizabeth read new and previous poems that covered a comprehensive range of human activity, desires, hopes, accomplishments, and recognitions.  She grew up listening to family and friends’ stories, and intertwined those memories in her work to reflect Southern voices, harvest festivals, childhood memories of the library, grandparents and loss of a spouse.  And there is more to her poetic storytelling.

Patton weaved words that conjured Sunday mornings at Barnes & Noble, her writing box. She shared how she was introduced to poetry and its life-long impact on her; the gaiety of autumn and picking apples in an orchard and the aftermath of death. She evidenced the intricacies of canning tomatoes as influenced by the nuances of a spousal relationship. Red shoes, the ongoing comfort of Emily Dickinson and Tom Wolfe, her burial and out of body ability to converse with and react to her passing with living attendants framed the conversation and dialogue that she was having with the audience.  And in closing her Q&A session, Ms. Patton eloquently and with respectful wit reflected on her deceased husband and their initial meeting as graduate students in Nashville, TN.

Patton is an elder’s elder. 

And I think I know what I am talking about. 

If you missed her reading, try and catch her at some point in the near future.  She will quietly and humbly enthrall you.

*****

(left to right)  bill berry, jr., CEO/Publisher aaduna Inc., Kirsten Wise, Curator/Cayuga Museum, Elizabeth Patton, featured poet, Laura Williams French (open mic), Rachael Z. Ikins (open mic), Jeffrey-Paul Horn (open mic), Ron Newman (open mic), Eileen McHugh, Executive Director/Cayuga Museum and Ron VanNostrand, MC and Publisher/Olive Trees

The evening’s open mic session featured five regular readers, Laura French, Rachael Ikins, Ron Van Nostrand, Jeffrey-Paul Horn, and Ron Newman.

As is the “word, revisited” standard, those diverse and distinctive voices moved words, phrases and stanzas seamlessly across several intriguing plateaus and sublime levels of poetic understanding.  Their themes reflected who they were as poets and people. The readings captured sister and daughter relationships, the aftermath of no permanent injuries. Rites of spring, snow, computer personality, and a poetic homage to a fellow poet on his passing. Long term relationships known and not known, growing old, being a serious artiste. Secretes of love and sin, a lost love story, and nature’s wind. This or that questions, and cha, cha, cha.

****

“word,revisited” is off and running with its fall 2018 season every 2^nd and 4^th Thursday at 6 PM at the Carriage House Theater, Cayuga Museum of History and Art, Auburn, NY through to the 2^nd Tuesday of November. Admission is $3/person and wine, beer, soft drinks, water and snacks are available for purchase.  All proceeds directly and solely benefit the Cayuga Museum. 

“word,revisited” is sponsored by the Cayuga Museum along with Olive Trees, a three decades young print publication and aaduna, a thrice yearly online-literary journal.  

"word, revisited" is not associated with any other sponsoring entity

in its bi-monthly literary series.

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