Memory Arts Cafe in Prospect Park

Picnic in the Park

Special Guest: United States Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey

Please join for a Memory Arts Cafe field trip to Prospect Park. We will visit the Boathouse, watch swans glide on a lake and see a waterfall. We will take in the park’s most famous tree the “Camperdown Elm,” which was planted in Brooklyn in 1872. It’s one of only a few surviving trees in the world grafted from an elm on the estate of the Earl of Camperdown in Scotland.

Poet Gary Glazner will lead the group in the creation of a new poem inspired by the nature of Prospect Park. Yes! It will be an easy walk in the park.

In 2012, Trethewey was named as 19th U.S. Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress. Trethewey plans to travel to cities and towns across the country meeting with the general public to seek out the many ways poetry lives in American communities and report on her discoveries in a regular feature on the PBS NewsHour Poetry Series.

Memory Arts Cafe at Brooklyn Museum

Jesse Neuman and Stine Moen of Rhythm Break Cares Dance Company celebrate the Memory Arts Cafe one year anniversary at at the Brooklyn Museum. Photo credit Carole Debeer.

Memory Arts Cafe at Brooklyn Museum

MEMORY ARTS CAFÉ CELEBRATION
at the Brooklyn Museum
Saturday, May 25, 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Rubin Pavilion, 1st Floor
Free

Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, their caregivers, and the general public are all invited to join this celebration of the Memory Arts Café, featuring jazz trumpeter Jesse Neuman and the Rhythm Break Cares Dance Company with Stine Moen and Hooba. Coproduced by the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, the Brooklyn Museum, and the New York Memory Center. Hosted by Gary Glazner of the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. Reception to follow. Email: access@brooklynmuseum.org for more information. The Brooklyn Museum also presents Brooklyn Afternoons: Art and Conversation for Individuals with Memory Loss, a free monthly program that invites individuals with memory loss and their caregivers to explore the Museum’s collections together. Information at access@brooklynmuseum.org

The New York Memory Center is a Brooklynbased agency providing services to adults with cognitive, physical, and emotional limitations to help them enjoy life beyond diagnosis of memory loss. http://nymemorycenter.org/

The Memory Arts Café is sponsored, in part, by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, the Axe-Houghton Foundation, and the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council.

Photo by Jonathan Dorado

Jack McCarthy RIP

Photo Credit Seattle Poetry Slam

In a week when the Washington Post publishes an article with the title, "Is Poetry Dead?" we have lost one of the poets whose work gave that question a resounding no.
Or as Keats said "...the poetry of the earth is never dead."

The Boston Globe called McCarthy a"...consummate storyteller whose métier was verse."

You may read his work and see videos of his performances at:
http://standupoet.net/

Here is a link to a tribute from fellow poets on IndieFeed at
http://indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/jack-mc-carthy-victory

Victor Infante wrote a beautiful piece in the Worcester Telegram:
http://www.telegram.com/article/20130118/COLUMN86/130119557/0

"Here and Now," on Boston's NPR Station has a podcast on Jack entitled
"Remembering a Slam Legand" at:
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/01/25/jack-mccarthy-poetry

Memorial Services for McCarthy will take place at:

The Northeast memorial will take place on Saturday, February 9, 2013 at the Follen Unitarian Church in Lexington, Massachusetts at 2PM. The service will be followed by a reception at the church and an open mic at 6PM at the Chelmsford Public Library.

The Washington memorial service will be on Saturday, February 16, 2013 in Marysville, Washington at the Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 2PM, followed by a reception.

Finally, the California memorial service will be at 4PM on Saturday, March 2, 2013 at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center in Venice, California.

Jack was much loved and one last rebuttal to the Washington Post who asked the age old question of if poetry can ever change anything, here is Jack's poem "Drunks." 

Write Bloody Press is publishing a book by Jack on recovery that includes "Drunks."
You can read on how the book came about in this lovely exchange of emails
between Jack and publisher/poet Derrick Brown on Write Bloody.

PS The Washington Post issued a retraction Poetry-is-not-Dead-Says-Poetry

Valentine's Dance

New York Memory Center & Alzheimer’s Poetry Project Present

Valentine’s Dance at the Memory Arts Café

Memory Arts Café is a new series of free art events for people living with Alzheimer’s disease, their caregivers and the general public and is co-produced by New York Memory Center and the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. The series, which takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, includes light refreshments and the opportunity to chat with the guest artists.

This Memory Arts Café event features the dance company Rhythm Break Cares (RBC). Poet Gary Glazner will host the event.

Wednesday, February 13th, at 6 pm

New York Memory Center

199 14th Street at 4th Avenue • Brooklyn, NY 11215

(Take the R to Prospect Ave.)

For info: call (718) 499-7701 or visit alzpoetry.com

Please join us for an evening of fun, dancing and socializing. Rhythm Break Cares (RBC) takes a unique and highly effective approach to address the widespread and immediate needs of individuals with Alzheimer’s, associated dementias, and their caregivers, by engaging them in partner dance as a means to improve their quality of life. Since 2009, RBC has successfully offered this interesting form of dance therapy, which capitalizes on the demonstrated benefits of music, movement and touch. Their sessions provide a rare opportunity for patients and their caregivers to escape some of the burdens associated with Alzheimer’s and dementia, in a stress-free environment where they can observe, participate and be entertained.