tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101581922024-03-13T08:15:45.346-07:00Make A Living As A Poet<i>How to Make a Living as a Poet</i> is now available <a href="http://www.softskull.com">Soft Skull Press.</a>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-37615488793506875982018-12-16T05:50:00.002-08:002018-12-16T05:50:24.473-08:00JAMA Article<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHyBWY43UIzHZArUzFcG5rECjY3FYwfB5QxzBtYA8BOvt1s-3Hb42VZe5jqnJTaMxzbNePRYxZ3AIxnnOkCB6uN909qcntdkckeRRWdr_bRUB-h67wSxNZ8_jNWgWcoxl48rDO/s1600/PerformingPoetry2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHyBWY43UIzHZArUzFcG5rECjY3FYwfB5QxzBtYA8BOvt1s-3Hb42VZe5jqnJTaMxzbNePRYxZ3AIxnnOkCB6uN909qcntdkckeRRWdr_bRUB-h67wSxNZ8_jNWgWcoxl48rDO/s320/PerformingPoetry2.jpg" width="320" height="173" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="864" /></a></div>JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, a peer-reviewed medical journal published my article, on performing and creating poetry with people living with dementia. Co-author Dan Kaplan, PhD and I are thrilled! It is the most in-depth description of my theory of what is happening at the neurological level, when you are performing poetry using call and response.
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The paper is a call for further research and ends with, “Reciting poetry is unlikely to change the progression of dementia, but it can help change the narrative of how unaffected individuals and society perceive dementia. Changing that narrative to include examples of creativity and moments of joy, and the tantalizing possibility that it can positively affect the consolidation of new short-term memories into long-term memories, alters the perception of dementia from an experience defined by isolation and lost personhood to one of social vitality and enduring personhood. This shift may help combat the stigma of memory loss and promote more humane and effective care environments and therapeutic strategies for working with these patients.
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Here is a link to the <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2718041?alert=article&fbclid=IwAR328UG6eYCa0DjqSXDuahaStckdde8c2V2V7tLX2nF4Em-ynT6HhMBZEcY"><b>JAMA essay</b></a>JGary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-13600947084848729252016-02-16T10:19:00.002-08:002016-02-16T10:49:04.247-08:00Macaroni Tapes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Back in 2004 in the waning days of telemarketing, I undertook a project that changed my life. For too long I had expressed my frustration with the “industry.” No More! Each time an unsuspecting telemarketer called I would befriend them and ask for the recipe for macaroni and cheese.
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After the first call I would offer to read them the poem, “Elbow Macaroni,” by Don McIver and began to improvise with the poem blending it into the conversation. The telemarketers were surprisingly open to hearing the poem. Only one got really angry and threatened to switch my service.
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The friends that I made that week and the circle of humanity I entered still leaves me glowing. Not to mention the delicious bowls of mac and cheese I have eaten.
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Since the advent of the “National Do Not Call Registry.” there has been a decline in the endless calls at dinnertime. It almost makes me miss them.
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On another note did you know that the first American recipe for Macaroni and Cheese is not credited to Thomas Jefferson’s aunt?
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/garyglazner/sets/macaroni-tapes">Macaroni Tapes on Soundcloud</a>
Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-12007498009434947962015-07-27T04:01:00.001-07:002015-07-27T08:14:25.586-07:00RIP Richard Taylor...Hello My Name is Richard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnE04f6goSRsOyTtfmSjI-Qxqqd3x1J9VmFRtBYRFoBSMvYFZRx_0jhWB4YX4qAWJ6Ko4eT3EqSGoQhB0_qzOMz7gbp-z6nyXuvRfavEDPMhZ2vOn0pWtmAJRShKevrtA0L2go/s1600/GaryRIchardsmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnE04f6goSRsOyTtfmSjI-Qxqqd3x1J9VmFRtBYRFoBSMvYFZRx_0jhWB4YX4qAWJ6Ko4eT3EqSGoQhB0_qzOMz7gbp-z6nyXuvRfavEDPMhZ2vOn0pWtmAJRShKevrtA0L2go/s320/GaryRIchardsmall.jpg" /></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Like so many people I considered Dr. Richard Taylor a friend. Richard died on June 25th, 2015. He was the most passionate and outspoken advocate
for people living with memory loss. This treasured photo was taken after he testified at the Dementia Arts on Capitol Hill. The project included an exhibit of people living with memory loss participating in the arts in the The Russell Senate Office Building and a panel briefing, which was sponsored by Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico.
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The speakers in addition to Richard and the Senator among others included: Rocco Landesman, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts; the Guest Poet, Stuart Hall who read poems about living with memory loss; Sunil Iyengar, Director of Research and Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts; Dr. Anne Basting, Executive Director, Center on Age & Community and founder, TimeSlips; Maria Genné, founder, KAIROS ALIVE! and Margery Pabst, Executive Director, Pabst Charitable Foundation for the Arts and author of “Enrich Your Caregiving Journey."
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All of them were well spoken and articulate about memory loss and care-giving but it was Richard who brought the issue to life and who
made the standing room crowd of Senate staffers and the public laugh and cry. So many of the people who attended the panel briefing on the state
of Dementia Arts Research came up after the event and talked about how moving Richard's talk was.
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I first met Richard at an Alzheimer's Foundation of America Conference in Dallas in 2006. It was the first time I had attended a conference on Alzheimer's where a person living with memory loss had spoken at the conference. Richard always pushed for including that voice. When I began organizing Dementia Arts on Capitol Hill, it was my great hope he would be able to attend and I organized the event around him.
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When I first contacted Richard about speaking at the event, he knew I would need sponsors and he said, "Are you sure you want me? You know I can be considered quite controversial." As Richard predicted, when I was talking with a marketing person for one of the major Alzheimer's advocacy groups, the person asked about the speakers at the event and said, "You know Richard Taylor called me an angel of death." We talked it through and agreed that if we were living with memory loss, we might also have Richard's sense of urgency and frustration, at how most if not all the resources and funds raised around Alzheimer's, are put to use for a distant cure and not towards helping people today.
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In the end, the Alzheimer's advocacy group, did help us to promote and get the word out about the event. I believe that although is was difficult, that it helped the person to talk out how it felt to be described that way. The conversation was frank and honest and Richard loved hearing the story.
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Below are a few of the remarks he made that day, shaped into a poem. Like so many people I am missing my friend Richard today, but take heart in his words and send to his family and all his friends thoughts of love.
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<b>
Hello, My Name is Richard Taylor </b>
<p>
It’s not complicated<br>
understanding who I am<br>
once you get past the stigmas.<br>
I am Richard,<br>
a whole human being<br>
living with the disabilities <br>
associated with the symptoms<br>
of Dementia.<br>
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Please do not give up on me <br>
when I do not voluntarily<br>
communicate as you.<br>
<p>
Assume the best<br>
for me, and in me.<br>
Speak to me <br>
as if I am all here.<br>
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It is a moral imperative<br>
to support those who <br>
for no reason <br>
of their own cannot <br>
meet their own needs. <br>
<p>
A clean bed, a warm meal,<br>
surroundings that mimic a hotel-<br>
these are the basic needs.<br>
<p>
It is the higher level needs<br>
you all best support. <br>
<p>
The needs that bring a smile <br>
to my face, a bounce to my step, <br>
and a handshake, a hug, or a kiss <br>
for you when you leave. <br>
<p>
Hello, my name is Richard Taylor; <br>
I am a retired psychologist <br>
living with the symptoms <br>
and diagnosis of Dementia, <br>
probably of the Alzheimer’s type.<br>
<p>
Why is it everyone <br>
is so amazed when we <br>
dance, sing, and write? <br>
Could it be we have been <br>
hitherto written off as being fully human? <br>
<p>
As our symptoms increase <br>
do our needs for happiness, <br>
connectedness, friendship, <br>
self-esteem decrease? <br>
Of course not. <br>
<p>
I will be a complete <br>
human being until <br>
about two minutes <br>
after I have drawn <br>
my last breath. <br>
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<a href="http://www.richardtaylorphd.com/">Read More of Richard's Work Here.</a>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-57368121258690842302015-02-20T10:27:00.000-08:002015-02-20T10:27:23.972-08:00APP in Wisconsin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This event was made possible by Bader Philanthropies’ funding, formerly the Helen Bader Foundation and a leader in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease throughout Wisconsin. Big thanks to all the students at Altoona High School and their wonderful teacher Angela Roloson. Thanks also to Ella Shaw teacher extraordinaire, who organized the events and to her students at Durand High School. Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-84484203905331687432015-01-22T06:31:00.001-08:002015-01-22T06:32:59.915-08:00Poetry for Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Minds like locked boxes<br>
Presented in the round<br>
I used language like keys<br>
And love is what I found<br>
Love for the now and for history<br>
And the love was unlocked <br>
With the key of poetry<br>
- Jalen Bell <br>
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So excited with get to work with talented Jalen Bell, the 2014 Poetry Out Loud, Arkansas State Champion and his family! He wrote that wonderful poem after our poetry session on Tuesday performing and creating poems with the people at Innisfree Senior Living Community in Rogers.
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His younger sister Jaden also participated in the session as did his father Donovan. Jaden is preparing to take part in the National Spelling Bee. When I asked about her favorite word to spell, she said Pfeffernuesse, the German Christmas cookie. As soon as she replied one of the men in the group jumped up, went to his room and brought back a Pfeffernuesse! It was delicious!
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Yes we also read the patron poem of the home, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." The event was hosted by the Arkansas Arts Council. Big thanks to Cynthia Haas the Arts in Education Program Manager.
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Poetry for Life is a pilot project to bring students who are participating in Poetry Out Loud to assisted living, adult day care and senior centers to perform and create poems with the elders. Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-68844243435749998622014-12-27T08:55:00.000-08:002014-12-27T08:55:44.470-08:00Dementia Arts Research Article in the Washington Post<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Fredrick Kunkle of the Washington Post asks,
<b>"Can Alzheimer’s be treated with the arts? Researchers aim to determine the answer."</b><br>
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<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/studies-aims-to-quantify-how-the-arts-can-help-the-elderly-and-cognitively-disabled/2014/12/26/e0d5561a-87b1-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html">Click here to read the full article.</a>
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The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Institutes of Health and others are pushing for more answers. At Birmingham Green, researchers from George Mason University are conducting a federally subsidized study to examine the impact of the arts on the emotional and cognitive health of older adults.
<p>
“There still needs to be a lot of work done,” said Sunil Iyengar, who heads the Office of Research and Analysis at the NEA. Iyengar said research into the effect of art on people with cognitive impairments has suffered from a lack of rigor.
<p>
Too many studies lacked proper controls, involved samples that were too small, and were poorly defined. They also may have been looking for the wrong thing, Iyengar said. While searching for hard evidence of biological improvements in memory or cognition, many also overlooked measurable improvements in the mood and well-being of people with Alzheimer’s, and their caregivers, too.
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<b>I am thrilled to be included in the article:</b><br>
<p>
“But outside of these things is sheer joy,” said Gary Glazner, founder and executive director of the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. Glazner said he was working at an adult day-care center in Northern California and searching for ways to connect with people with Alzheimer’s disease when he discovered the power of poetry to reach people with cognitive impairment.
<p>
Having studied poetry in college, Glazner shared Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Arrow and The Song” with a resident and from the first line — “I shot an arrow” — hit the mark. Glazner uses poetry, particularly beloved classics learned by older adults, in call-and-response with older people and guides them in writing poems. Jump-rope rhymes, even military cadences, can evoke responses from people with cognitive impairment that engage them, he said.Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-86789797994174130792014-11-13T06:44:00.001-08:002014-11-13T12:08:55.542-08:00Memory Arts Cafe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht8M5v_L6RMCYYTR0Ee8J20APfek74tWXlNYfgQZcaDXtbgKyU5lZX_1yXv5JjGo9nGHqAocjRQEmXIVvxig8IT06Hxm9YqG_CPM24YoyLSWnH68WlRaTdIyneoBkqSIjD6EtS/s1600/MAC-DEC2014-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht8M5v_L6RMCYYTR0Ee8J20APfek74tWXlNYfgQZcaDXtbgKyU5lZX_1yXv5JjGo9nGHqAocjRQEmXIVvxig8IT06Hxm9YqG_CPM24YoyLSWnH68WlRaTdIyneoBkqSIjD6EtS/s320/MAC-DEC2014-web.jpg" /></a></div>
Wednesday, December 10th, 6pm<br>
New York Memory Center<br>
199 14th Street, (At 4th Ave.)
Take the R to Prospect Avenue
<p>
This special holiday season Memory Arts Café will highlight<br>
the artists of the New York Memory Center. Meet new friends and greet<br>
old ones as we ring in the holidays with laughter, toasts and cheer.<br>
Poet-in-Residence Gary Glazner will host the evenings entertainment.<br>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-83934939975997830102014-11-10T05:22:00.000-08:002014-11-10T05:22:20.945-08:00NEA Audio Piece on the APP<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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He interviews Professor Kate de Medeiros of the University of Miami-Ohio on using poetry with people living with memory loss.
To listen to the piece click here:
<a href="http://arts.gov/audio/sparking-memories-poetry-alzheimers-poetry-project">NEA Audio Piece on the APP</a>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-76887143842571254942014-09-27T05:30:00.002-07:002014-09-27T05:33:32.722-07:00Australia Radio Interview<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Thrilled to be interviewed on by Melanie Tait on Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio!<br>
<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/weekendarts/alzeihmer27s-poetry-project/5765976">Click here to hear the broadcast</a><br>
Brought back all the wonderful poems from last year's visit to give a workshop at the Arts and Health Australia conference including
"I love a sunburnt country," by Dorothea Mackellar. The photo is from a group I worked with at an assisted living center in Sydney. <br>
<a href="http://www.artsandhealth.org.au/conferences/the-art-of-good-health-and-wellbeing-melbourne-2014/program-at-a-glance.html">More info on the 2014 International Arts and Health Conference click here.</a> Big shout out to Margret Meagher the conference organizer and founding executive director of Arts and Health Australia for bringing me out last year. Oh give me a home among the gum trees with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two and a kangaroo.<br>
<b>My Country</b><br>
by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)<br>
<p>
The love of field and coppice,<br>
Of green and shaded lanes.<br>
Of ordered woods and gardens<br>
Is running in your veins,<br>
Strong love of grey-blue distance<br>
Brown streams and soft dim skies<br>
I know but cannot share it,<br>
My love is otherwise.<br>
<p>
I love a sunburnt country,<br>
A land of sweeping plains,<br>
Of ragged mountain ranges,<br>
Of droughts and flooding rains.<br>
I love her far horizons,<br>
I love her jewel-sea,<br>
Her beauty and her terror -<br>
The wide brown land for me!<br>
<p>
A stark white ring-barked forest<br>
All tragic to the moon,<br>
The sapphire-misted mountains,<br>
The hot gold hush of noon.<br>
Green tangle of the brushes,<br>
Where lithe lianas coil,<br>
And orchids deck the tree-tops<br>
And ferns the warm dark soil.<br>
<p>
Core of my heart, my country!<br>
Her pitiless blue sky,<br>
When sick at heart, around us,<br>
We see the cattle die-<br>
But then the grey clouds gather,<br>
And we can bless again<br>
The drumming of an army,<br>
The steady, soaking rain.<br>
<p>
Core of my heart, my country!<br>
Land of the Rainbow Gold,<br>
For flood and fire and famine,<br>
She pays us back threefold-<br>
Over the thirsty paddocks,<br>
Watch, after many days,<br>
The filmy veil of greenness<br>
That thickens as we gaze.<br>
<p>
An opal-hearted country,<br>
A wilful, lavish land-<br>
All you who have not loved her,<br>
You will not understand-<br>
Though earth holds many splendours,<br>
Wherever I may die,<br>
I know to what brown country<br>
My homing thoughts will fly.<br>
Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-37862764004006346862014-09-15T04:14:00.002-07:002014-09-15T04:17:31.832-07:00Dementia Arts Conference: Celebrating Creativity in Elder Care<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg5scQ5RYt08qiJPRd2db2iG3VraGBU1XIF8b9XgnpIvEl1kkgbm0QRPyvQIZPMpal971NwsQJYexQc917ZwcsmpMKgaIvu525aF5rvjT1BKpx5uHdtA7aKMRUMO5Nd3VYXbZ2/s1600/Conference+Flyer+page+one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg5scQ5RYt08qiJPRd2db2iG3VraGBU1XIF8b9XgnpIvEl1kkgbm0QRPyvQIZPMpal971NwsQJYexQc917ZwcsmpMKgaIvu525aF5rvjT1BKpx5uHdtA7aKMRUMO5Nd3VYXbZ2/s400/Conference+Flyer+page+one.jpg" /></a></div>
The New Mexico History Museum joins the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project to share techniques for reaching people with memory illnesses through literature, performance and visual art and museum exhibits on Saturday, October 25, 9am to 4pm, New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue Santa Fe, NM 87501. Registration fee of $35 includes light breakfast and lunch. Continuing Education Units will be available.
<p>
To register or for more information call 505-577-2250 or go to: <a href="http://www.dementiaarts.com">www.dementiaarts.com</a>
<p>
Workshops will be led by: Gary Glazner, Alzheimer’s Poetry Project; Alysha Shaw, Lifesongs℠; Jane Tygesson, Discover Your Story; Ruth Dennis, Vista Living; and Jytte Lokvig, Alzheimer’s Café. Poet Stuart Hall will be the featured guest artist.
<p>
Partnering Organizations: Alzheimer’s Association, New Mexico Chapter; Alzheimer’s Café; Alzheimer’s Poetry Project; Discover Your Story, IAIA MFA Creative Writing Program; Institute of Dementia Education & Art; Life Songs; New Mexico Literary Arts; Southwestern College, and Vista Living Communities. The conference is in support the New Mexico Alzheimer’s and Related Dementia State Plan, with the endorsement of: the officeof Governor Susana Martinez New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department and the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
<p>
Partially funded by the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission; Santa Fe Community Foundation; McCune Foundation; National Endownent for the Arts; New Mexico Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
<p>
<a href="http://www.dementiaarts.com">www.dementiaarts.com</a>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-65815889956986874942014-06-25T05:12:00.000-07:002014-06-25T05:20:36.084-07:00Celebration of Creativity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih02juyE4QtyG7wdGEv-HOjBcvMvBZM0xIXnPgxOsLfiiq8mWb9BJv2yI-h5-yVhLmS6lUS6DhTWxNqgpC57_Xq9NDHb8BC4wrIauRyh1s-GWU6Qei_jDq0IfjF7PNNxv_d2Js/s1600/MAC-JUNE14-PCRD_Page_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih02juyE4QtyG7wdGEv-HOjBcvMvBZM0xIXnPgxOsLfiiq8mWb9BJv2yI-h5-yVhLmS6lUS6DhTWxNqgpC57_Xq9NDHb8BC4wrIauRyh1s-GWU6Qei_jDq0IfjF7PNNxv_d2Js/s320/MAC-JUNE14-PCRD_Page_1.jpg" /></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /></div>
New York Memory Center, Alzheimer’s Poetry Project and the<br>
Brooklyn Public Library Present:<br>
A Celebration of Creativity<br>
A Memory Arts Café event, featuring singer Hannah Reimann<br>
<p>
Saturday, June 28th, 10:30 am to 12:30pm,
Brooklyn Public Library
Dweck Center
10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn.
For info: call (718) 499-7701 or visit alzpoetry.com
<p>
Memory Arts Café is 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 includes light refreshments and the opportunity to chat with the guest artists.
<p>
The Celebration of Creativity with feature guest artist, singer and actor Hannah Reimann and be hosted by poet Gary Glazner. The highlight of the day will be the artists leading the audience, in the creation and performance of an exciting new work combining music and poetry.
<p>
Hannah Reimann has performed at Lincoln Center, the Grand Canyon Music Festival, and mostly recently performing the music of Joni Mitchell at the Cutting Room. Jim Brenholts for All Music writes, “Hannah’s range allows her to sing love songs, simple ballads, melancholy blues, and torch songs with equal gusto. Her lyrics are complex and simple; they are heartfelt and liberating.” She has collaborated with violist Paul Coletti performing the music of Argentine Astor Piazzolla. As a film actor, Reimann has appeared in over 20 independent films including the award-winning "The Wounded & the Slain" and “Things I Don’t Understand.” Her original music has been featured on CNN.
<p>
The event is co-produced by New York Memory Center, Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, and the Brooklyn Public Library.Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-72436744040052913652013-08-19T17:50:00.003-07:002013-08-21T05:16:09.453-07:00Memory Arts Cafe in Prospect Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNeQIq_t3Zfxffp2n3wdu9BPUJa90A0VVtyZrQ_xRH86cpeElJBqpqStsslo3Uw_zgomkO3_BMtBAn6GlCBUcrpy9OrHqzZhE4-c8kFUkzrjK7rtv6BuNKHlMpvo55PaNdJ-O4/s1600/MAC-AUG2013-web-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNeQIq_t3Zfxffp2n3wdu9BPUJa90A0VVtyZrQ_xRH86cpeElJBqpqStsslo3Uw_zgomkO3_BMtBAn6GlCBUcrpy9OrHqzZhE4-c8kFUkzrjK7rtv6BuNKHlMpvo55PaNdJ-O4/s400/MAC-AUG2013-web-1.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>
<b>Picnic in the Park</b><br>
<p>
Special Guest: United States Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>
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.
<p>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-88419410991072257222013-06-04T07:33:00.000-07:002013-06-05T14:10:47.381-07:00Memory Arts Cafe at Brooklyn Museum<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPWS1KdeEnRWity5YbzGbmVIMDvPx_LzLaKPQJ9vY_R7-6cyoiXzTIwdZJmmWLdp3nnMPXVDCyyKjwAWuQYaJhRQyjcx52n9IOhpK9jrPEX-7VKkEX_ULMrMrySAFXKiCjmGdX/s1600/Jesseanddancers.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPWS1KdeEnRWity5YbzGbmVIMDvPx_LzLaKPQJ9vY_R7-6cyoiXzTIwdZJmmWLdp3nnMPXVDCyyKjwAWuQYaJhRQyjcx52n9IOhpK9jrPEX-7VKkEX_ULMrMrySAFXKiCjmGdX/s320/Jesseanddancers.jpg" /></a><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /></div>
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.
Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-16219666351465614662013-05-08T07:01:00.000-07:002013-05-08T07:01:55.341-07:00Memory Arts Cafe at Brooklyn Museum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg30ISOJx8CX7JnAxC8QqWebvxzKJ1dyV2VR_pvMFEX_QE1xmXYj6h0Gy8n3w-_oQD-r4ESI1RfbaLrzX3AaP_ipQIMf5bYO33ubxUBnpt_O5HMOGigwRcVCvAAEAqylOp_VGJW/s1600/BM+MAC.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg30ISOJx8CX7JnAxC8QqWebvxzKJ1dyV2VR_pvMFEX_QE1xmXYj6h0Gy8n3w-_oQD-r4ESI1RfbaLrzX3AaP_ipQIMf5bYO33ubxUBnpt_O5HMOGigwRcVCvAAEAqylOp_VGJW/s320/BM+MAC.jpg" /></a>
<b>MEMORY ARTS CAFÉ CELEBRATION</b><br>
at the Brooklyn Museum<br>
Saturday, May 25, 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.<br>
Rubin Pavilion, 1st Floor<br>
Free<br>
<p>
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
<p>
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/
<p>
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.
<p>
Photo by Jonathan Dorado
Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-56482465272438839052013-01-29T16:55:00.002-08:002013-01-29T17:03:16.300-08:00Jack McCarthy RIP<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidw4-fTu4DUlZnHMm8VyPIUKSOJ7pXVj5k_VRzdEWxJ-__qBZBRky5q5RtWfTXx9mpXQ3W1fsT-vu3shDFz9vcWlVanMm8n5mc1dBoQ2iVxbKpYvPTM6OMBGt9Lp795YCdsLxg/s1600/jackbyandiburk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidw4-fTu4DUlZnHMm8VyPIUKSOJ7pXVj5k_VRzdEWxJ-__qBZBRky5q5RtWfTXx9mpXQ3W1fsT-vu3shDFz9vcWlVanMm8n5mc1dBoQ2iVxbKpYvPTM6OMBGt9Lp795YCdsLxg/s320/jackbyandiburk.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Credit Seattle Poetry Slam</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In a week when the Washington Post publishes an article with the title, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2013/01/22/is-poetry-dead/">"Is Poetry Dead?"</a> we have lost one of the poets whose work gave that question a resounding no.<br />
Or as Keats said <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238438">"...the poetry of the earth is never dead." </a><br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/01/27/jack-mccarthy-legendary-writer-boston-slam-poetry-scene/0SHmgSBAy9MLKeds0d2EIL/story.html">Boston Globe</a> called McCarthy a"...consummate storyteller whose métier was verse."<br />
<br />
You may read his work and see videos of his performances at:<br />
<a href="http://standupoet.net/">http://standupoet.net/ </a><br />
<br />
Here is a link to a tribute from fellow poets on IndieFeed at<br />
<a href="http://indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/jack-mc-carthy-victory">http://indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/jack-mc-carthy-victory</a><br />
<br />
Victor Infante wrote a beautiful piece in the Worcester Telegram:<br />
<a href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20130118/COLUMN86/130119557/0">http://www.telegram.com/article/20130118/COLUMN86/130119557/0</a><br />
<br />
"Here and Now," on Boston's NPR Station has a podcast on Jack entitled<br />
"Remembering a Slam Legand" at:<br />
<a href="http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/01/25/jack-mccarthy-poetry">http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/01/25/jack-mccarthy-poetry</a><br />
<br />
<b>Memorial Services for McCarthy will take place at:</b><br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Finally, the California memorial service will be at 4PM on Saturday,
March 2, 2013 at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center in Venice,
California.<br />
<br />
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 <a href="http://standupoet.net/178/">"Drunks</a>." <br />
<br />
Write Bloody Press is publishing a book by Jack on recovery that includes "Drunks."<br />
You can read on how the book came about in this lovely exchange of emails<br />
between Jack and publisher/poet Derrick Brown on <a href="http://writebloody.com/">Write Bloody.</a><br />
<br />
PS The Washington Post issued a retraction <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2013/01/25/poetry-is-not-dead-says-poetry/">Poetry-is-not-Dead-Says-Poetry</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-61858948281488851202013-01-17T08:46:00.001-08:002013-01-17T08:48:20.563-08:00Valentine's Dance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="Noparagraphstyle" style="mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">New York Memory Center & Alzheimer’s Poetry Project Present</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Valentine’s
Dance at the Memory Arts Café</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">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. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">This
Memory Arts Café event features</span> the dance company <i><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Rhythm Break</span></i><span class="st"> Cares (RBC)</span>. <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Poet
Gary Glazner will host the event. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Wednesday, February 13th, at
6 pm</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">New York Memory Center</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">199 14th Street at 4th
Avenue • Brooklyn, NY 11215</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">(Take the R to Prospect
Ave.)</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">For info: call (718)
499-7701 or visit alzpoetry.com</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
</div>
Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-50758278520132652342012-11-16T13:29:00.004-08:002012-11-21T08:24:15.972-08:00Jim on Dementia Arts<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kZghIE4qCQU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br>
Jim describes participating in the Memory Arts Cafe performance at IONA Senior Services on Thursday, Sept. 20th in Washington DC. The event was part of the Dementia Arts Festival and featured musician Judith-Kate Friedman, Songwriting Works, dancer Maria Genne, Kairos Alive! and poet Gary Glazner More info at dementiaarts.com</div>
Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-16355970643382065892012-09-25T14:29:00.001-07:002012-09-25T14:31:32.829-07:00Memory Arts Café<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGB8NXhHzC8rdYBhxf1j5m0y9QdzGRKpi_QMEz0lcRjZcwFp3FBbFhRNm5U6fGNc1zG0wyMzD-GAGiGU5dulrxM5tJuADLm4_Knp5dqXea97zFSZMx_Xs5xrdcLRYTVYLLACW/s1600/cafe2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGB8NXhHzC8rdYBhxf1j5m0y9QdzGRKpi_QMEz0lcRjZcwFp3FBbFhRNm5U6fGNc1zG0wyMzD-GAGiGU5dulrxM5tJuADLm4_Knp5dqXea97zFSZMx_Xs5xrdcLRYTVYLLACW/s400/cafe2.jpg" width="307" /></a></div>
<div class="Noparagraphstyle" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">New York Memory Center & Alzheimer’s Poetry Project Present</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Memory
Arts Café</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Brooklyn,
NY – September 12, 2012 – 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. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">The series, which takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of each month,
includes light refreshments and the opportunity to chat with the guest artists.
</span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">This
Memory Arts Café event features </span>Jesse Neuman, musician and Founder and
Director of MusicWorks NYC. <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Poet
Gary Glazner will host the event. </span></div>
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<b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Wednesday, October 10th, at
6 pm</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">New York Memory Center</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">199 14th Street at 4th
Avenue </span></b><br />
<b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Brooklyn, NY 11215</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">(Take the R to Prospect
Ave.)</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">For info: call (718)
499-7701 </span></b></div>
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</div>
Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-31447066901143596762012-08-28T16:41:00.001-07:002012-08-28T16:43:20.394-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>National Center for Creative Aging & Alzheimer’s Poetry Project Present
Dementia Arts Festival</b>
<p>
We are thrilled to announce a series of performances focused on bringing attention to the expanding opportunities the arts bring to people with Alzheimer’s. The events take place at Washington DC assisted living and adult day care centers in support of the National Alzheimer’s Plan Act. For a full festival schedule please see dementiaarts.com.
<p>
<b>Memory Arts Café Performance
Thursday, September 20th, 6 to 8pm
Iona Senior Services,
4125 Albemarle Street, Washington, DC 20016.</b>
<p>
You are invited to a performance for people living with Alzheimer’s disease, their caregivers and the general public. New Mexico poet Stuart Hall reads work documenting his experience in living with dementia. Maria Genne, Kairos Dance and Judith-Kate Friedman, Songwriting Works and Gary Glazner, Alzheimer’s Poetry Project will lead the audience in the creation of a new performance. The event includes light refreshments and the opportunity to chat with the guest artists. We are excited to show an excerpt from Anne Bastings’ film “Penelope Project,” which documents the performance of using the Penelope story from Homer’s Odyssey to engage an entire long-term care community in the creative process and Songwriting Works’ new music video, “WWII Homecoming Song.”
<p>
<i>Sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association Washington DC Chapter, Center for Aging Heath and Humanities, Generations United, Iona Senior Services, and the Society Arts and Healthcare with support from the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, the Helen Bader Foundation, the MetLife Foundation and the Pabst Charitable Foundation for the Arts. </i>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-17509261969762693842012-08-01T12:04:00.002-07:002012-08-07T13:42:32.321-07:00Memory Arts Cafe, Wed. August 8th 6pm<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>New York Memory Center<br>
and Alzheimer’s Poetry Project<br>
Present Memory Arts Cafe</b><br>
<p>
This Memory Arts Cafe event will highlight the artists of New York Memory Center in performance. They will lead the audience in the creation of new work featuring music, dance, poetry and collage. Poet Gary Glazner will host the event. PLUS a SUMMER BBQ!
<p>
The performers and artists include: Ismail Butera, Musician in Residence; David Azarch, Percussionist in Residence; Ruth Azarch, Artist; Pamela Lawton, Artist; Jennie Smith-Peers, Improv and the Rhythm Breaks Dance Group.
<p>
<b>Wednesday, August 8th, at 6 pm<br>
New York Memory Center</b><br>
199 14th Street at 4th Avenue • Brooklyn, NY 11215<br>
(Take the R to Prospect Ave.)<br>
For info: call (718) 499-7701 or visit alzpoetry.com<br>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-33274563819307504842012-07-10T12:35:00.001-07:002012-07-10T12:35:02.512-07:00Memory Arts Cafe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Memory Arts Café </b>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.
<p>
This <b>Memory Arts Café</b> event will feature dancer <b>Heidi Latsky </b>in performance and she will lead the audience in the creation of a new dance. Poet Gary Glazner will host the event.
<p>
<b>Wednesday, July 11 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</b>
<p>
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<p>
"Latsky asks us to look at people for what they are capable of, rather than what they can't do." - The Washington Post
<p>
"Latsky…diminutive vessel of energy, concentration, and passion- personifies that state every dancer aspires to-in which intent and execution are one." -The Village Voice
<p>
About the performer:
<b>HEIDI LATSKY</b> the Artistic Director of Heidi Latsky Dance has been a moving force in the dance world for many years, as a choreographer for stage, theater and film. Latsky initially received recognition as a celebrated principal dancer for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance. In addition to creating more than fifteen works for Heidi Latsky Dance, Latsky has been commissioned to create new work by the Cannes International Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, the Joyce Theater: Altogether Different Festival, Performance Space 122, 92nd Street Y, Alvin Ailey Dance Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Heidi Latsky Dance was a recipient of a 2006 rehearsal residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and a residency at the Abrons Arts Center, 2009 where GIMP premiered. Latsky is an innovator in disability arts. Her piece GIMP features four trained dancers and four performers who have physical disabilities. It turns on its head accepted notions of dance, performance and body image. Latsky and company have created a piece of work that is a natural and completely unique vehicle for dialogue, increased understanding and civic engagement.Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-55613251784880812232012-05-12T08:52:00.003-07:002012-05-12T08:55:26.910-07:00Memory Arts Café<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h3>
<b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri;"> New York Memory Center & Alzheimer’s Poetry Project
Launch</span></b></h3>
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<b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 120%;">New York
State’s First Memory Arts </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 120%;">Café</span></b></div>
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<div class="Noparagraphstyle" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">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 takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of each month and includes
light refreshments and the opportunity to chat with the guest artists. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="Noparagraphstyle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">Wednesday, June 13 at 6 pm</span></b></div>
<div class="Noparagraphstyle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">New York Memory Center</span></b><b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;"></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">199 14th Street at 4<sup>th</sup>
Avenue • Brooklyn, NY 11215</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">(Take the R to Prospect
Ave.)</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;"></span></b></div>
<div class="Noparagraphstyle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">For info: call </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">(718) 499-7701</span></b><b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;"> or visit alzpoetry.com</span></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">About the performers:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">Legendary
jazz critic, Nat Hentoff, has praised Roger’s work as "the most joyously
encouraging way of expanding the audience for jazz." In partnership with the NYC Alzheimer
Association Chapter and jazz singer, Peter Eldridge, Ms. Rogers has produced
two Alzheimer's benefit concerts entitled “For Those We Love.”
(louiserogers.org)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">The
Boston Globe wrote of pianist, composer, educator, and bandleader Mark Kross
"Kross digs hard with a bright contemporary piano style with Monkish bop
influences.” He is the Head of the Music Department at the Middlesex School, an
independent high school in Concord, MA and has released five CD’s with his
band, The Mark Kross Five-Piece Trio.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">About
the producers:</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
Founded in 1983, the mission of New York Memory Center is to help older adults
who have cognitive, physical, and emotional limitations, to maintain or improve
their level of functioning so that they may enjoy their later years at home and
within the community. Through an innovative wellness center, New York Memory
Center meets the needs of individuals living with Alzheimer’s and related
dementia disorders and their Caregivers. NYMC offers two primary programs:
Lotus Club, an early intervention and support program for those experiencing
the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s and related dementias; and Memory Life
Services, a program which provides more extensive services suitable for adults
in the community with middle to later stage memory loss. For additional
information, please visit nymemorycenter.org.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">Gary Glazner founded the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project (APP)
in 2004. The APP was awarded the 2012 MetLife Foundation Creativity and Aging
in America Leadership Award in the category of Community Engagement. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">The National Endowment for the
Arts listed the APP as a “best practice” for their Arts and Aging initiative.
NBC's “Today” show, NPR's “All Things Considered” and Voice of America have
featured segments on the APP.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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</div>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-86773945788486462712012-04-13T06:14:00.003-07:002012-04-13T14:05:01.746-07:00Alzheimer's Poetry Project in the News<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dBHXcww9gWE" width="560"></iframe></div>Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-27539888455224441652012-03-19T17:42:00.002-07:002012-03-19T22:25:44.816-07:00Carnegie Hall- Clint Needham- When We ForgetThrilled to announce this Saturday, March 24th at 7pm at Carnegie Hall is the world premier of "When We Forget," by the composer Clint Needham which was inspired by my poem, "We Are Forget." You may hear part of the composition at: <a href="http://alzheimersweekly.com/content/chamber-orchestra-presents-when-we-forget"><b>Dementia Weekly Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
Needham writes about his experience as a father of twins leading him to think about memories of their lives and how that led him to research memory. During his research he came on the Alzheimer's Poetry Project website and my poem, "We Are Forget," which he generously credits as his inspiration. I was knocked out when he wrote me a few months ago to tell me about the composition. <br />
<br />
The piece was commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra more on them at:<a href="http://www.orpheusnyc.com/about.html">http://www.orpheusnyc.com/about.html</a><br />
<br />
<b>We Are Forget</b><br />
Gary Glazner <br />
<br />
We are the words we have forgotten.<br />
We are shifting and pacing.<br />
We wrote this poem.<br />
It’s a pretty poem.<br />
Can you bake a cherry pie?<br />
Never more, never more.<br />
We have no horizon.<br />
We don’t recall washing or eating<br />
or what you just said.<br />
Ask me my name.<br />
Ask me if I have children?<br />
You’re a pretty lady.<br />
You have beautiful eyes.<br />
Wash me, put me to bed clean,<br />
hold me as I fall asleep.<br />
Give me a kiss, brush my hair.<br />
You are my daughter?<br />
Light washing over us moment, moment.<br />
You’re a handsome man.<br />
Our hand writing is beautiful<br />
twists and loops of letters<br />
we can’t remember our hands.<br />
Our ears are wishful<br />
we can’t remember our ears.<br />
We can speak every language,<br />
we can’t remember our mouths.<br />
We are porous.<br />
We are the past.<br />
We are forget.Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10158192.post-70024768086110086362011-12-15T01:21:00.000-08:002011-12-15T01:24:52.655-08:00The Tumbleweed Hotel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgucA3P2HLydYeEktrmiBodJCNixLnicyhtCDWEl9EFQ2yh0YSCVxwW7tKHIAxR2nmtNwGKyXPJ4xvaj63KzXEjmfhQprcqeyhhiYbAj0rqnq1Vu3b23oZl3xAn2qJkN_mda0Mn/s1600/ears-on-fire-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="294" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgucA3P2HLydYeEktrmiBodJCNixLnicyhtCDWEl9EFQ2yh0YSCVxwW7tKHIAxR2nmtNwGKyXPJ4xvaj63KzXEjmfhQprcqeyhhiYbAj0rqnq1Vu3b23oZl3xAn2qJkN_mda0Mn/s320/ears-on-fire-cover.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Sad news about George Whitman passing. Like so many people Margaret and I spent a week in Paris at Shakespeare and Company as his guests. Our thoughts are with Sylvia and her family. Here is a story from Ears on Fire about our week with George. <br />
<br />
Every substance has a burning point at which any increase in temperature causes a burst of flame. When we travel we know the history of places that once grew to fire. We search them out hoping a little spark will be left. A glow on which to warm our hands to feel what Rome was like. To stumble into a café and find Picasso and Appolonaire. Mostly we are groping in the dark unable to feel that heat. <br />
<br />
Paris life is fascinating. Full of gorgeous flirty people, full of stunning flirty history, statues, paintings, lights, action. Still, as a newcomer you can walk for days awed by the beauty but feel the prime is gone, a city of museums, a keeper of relics. Hemingway once drank beer in this café. This is where Sartre and De Bouliver huddled. Would you like a seven-dollar cup of coffee?<br />
<br />
Then you turn into Shakespeare and Company bookstore, sitting on the bank of the Seine across from Notre Dame. George Whitman is at the helm and you are thrust into the thick of the book. The pages swirl, turn around you. Open your mouth let the words spill. You are a character sleeping in the Tumbleweed Hotel, the rooms above the bookstore. <br />
<br />
I hear a voice so close to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s I have to look to see if it is he. This is when I realize how much the two men have gotten from each other and how much these two book-sellers/ writers share. Whitman handsome and sharp at 84 is holding a blackened-bottom mess kit frying pan. He comes into his bookstore. The clerk shows him his recent straightening up of the shelves, to which George replies, “Good, yes they look good.” I ask him how the Tumbleweed Hotel is doing. Sizing me up, says, <br />
“I can book you a room for two.” <br />
“Well we are leaving to catch a train in a few hours.”<br />
“Where are you from?”<br />
“San Francisco.”<br />
“What is your occupation?”<br />
“Poet.”<br />
“Then for God’s sake you have to stay, we’re having a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning, a tea party in the afternoon and a poet from Bengal is reading on Monday.”<br />
“We’ll take it.”<br />
The clerk hands me the keys.<br />
“Go on, it’s two flights up; the big double bed in the back.”<br />
“What do you think of San Francisco’s poet laureate?”<br />
“Tell me they chose Ferlinghetti, we’ve been traveling since February.”<br />
“Who else? You’ll be staying in his bed.”<br />
<br />
The front room is books from floor to ceiling. Entering the back bedroom, you enter a sanctuary. The walls here are half bookshelves and half photo gallery. Copies of photos of Anais Nin, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durell, all with inscriptions to George. Photos of George as a young man around the blazing fire of the wishing well, where they held the readings. I pick up a book, a play by Picasso, The Second Sex, and Ginsberg’s collected poems and see that they all are signed. The feeling of the authors presence is strong, they had slept here, drank here, written here. Now it was my turn. <br />
<br />
Where are you from? It is a question we all ask, gives us a magnet, a pull. Where? Why not? Each shard of light from the sun, each moment from the bell. I look in you, the mirror. I am from here knowing the lie. What are you made of? We ask when that fails.<br />
I am sweet of air molecules. I am from Paris, but that will not last, the last free room in the world. <br />
<br />
I look down to the Seine. I see a woman drawing; she includes me in her sketch. I include her in this poem. She is tiny, far away. She leans on the wall. I search for words to describe her. I wonder where she is from. She kneels down. Her paper rippling in the wind. She packs up, walks towards Notre Dame. I can still see her. She stops, sits down, looks for an angle, anything to capture with her hand, puts it down on paper, and lodges it in her memory. She has found it, takes out her tools, begins to work, gives up, ascends the steps, going back from were she came.<br />
<br />
The light on the tour bus rests on the woman’s hair. The cobblestones. The spires,<br />
gargoyles shinning. The cars are full of laughter. Everyone knows where he or she is going. Where they are coming from. So why is it so hard to answer? Do you need a map? Are you your job? Are you your body? Your mind?<br />
<br />
Is this a Buddha quest? Buddha questions? What is this a maze? To hold the miniature Minotaure? Keep him in a cage. Yes, the question binds to you as well as any handcuffs. You are from where you are, we all can see that in the mirror; just look.<br />
<br />
George is down-stairs, in front of the bookstore. He is dressed in coat and tie. He is from here. From inside these walls. He makes his home. Opens it like a monastery of the word. Why would he ever want to be from somewhere else? Paris. Here comes the mailman, another letter, four decades of mail. George watches him walk away.<br />
<br />
I find letters to George tucked away in books from many of the writers who have stayed here, a museum of words, a temple of skill.<br />
<br />
For over 40 years, George has presided over his bookstore. It has been his passion, his view of the world. You may be asked to stay, given a room. Thousands of people have been his guests. He never asks for a penny. All he asks for is an autobiography just a word or two about you. Wants to know where you are from? Of course sometimes he shouts at people, shouts, “Where is my damn autobiography?” or “Who left the skin on this pumpkin, I thought you said you could cook!” Once quietly he said, “You say you are a poet but even your wife doesn’t believe you.”<br />
<br />
Ok George, here it is:<br />
Oklahoma, Texas, New York, California, Paris.<br />
Eighteen years I worked in a florist. Always the plan to use the money to become a poet<br />
Now I am. <br />
Because of you, I live here now, so this is where I am from as much as anywhere. Your kingdom of words that line up and dance, a can-can of wisdom! Showing their naked butts to the world, bare ass books, open their dresses, and flash the light of the goddess. O purple prose will you ever fail me?<br />
<br />
Where? It is a map to your heart. A peg to hang your skin. <br />
<br />
Where is George from? Once he was from Panama, as he writes in the Panama American on April 3, 1938:<br />
“Panama! It has a sonorous sound for an Indian Word. In aboriginal language, it means the land of bountiful fish. To the Spaniards, it meant gold. But to me Panama is a tiny dot on a map of the earth, which I have drawn at odd moments. Between this dot and other similar dots there stretches a red line. This line represents the trajectory of the journey I am working around the world. It twists back and fourth from Greenland to Tiara Del Fuego, from Cape Town Africa to Urga Mongolia. Through all six continents and seven seas.”<br />
<br />
But where is he from originally?<br />
“I was born in New Jersey, lived 15 years in Salem Massachusetts. Home of the daring sea captains who sailed the famous clipper ships to China and India. I spent a year in China, where my father taught at Nanking University. I traveled through Turkey, Greece, and Europe, when I was a boy of 12. Studied journalism at Boston U: I am now roughing it around the world in order to get a background for journalistic work later on.”<br />
<br />
Later George would fall in love with books. Would root, grow into Paris. Cut him open count the rings. See this year was good for poetry. This is a translation, a transcription a neurotransmitter crossing a synapse, a spark throbbing inside.<br />
<br />
Today the bookstore is closed. The movie crew is making the inside of the bookstore look like the inside of a bookstore! Catherine Deneuve is nowhere in sight. I am an erect baguette. I sense you looking into my pigeon eyes. A group of children walks by holding hands. Please stop reading and hold my hand. Now I feel safe. Inside this book where you have found me. Are you a detective or just lonely? So many poets have slept here it feels like an orgy, just lying here reading; “Excuse me Ferlinghetti would you please pass me Anais Nin?” <br />
<br />
Yesterday at the tea party a woman told a story of how when she was a little girl her parents brought her to see a friend of theirs, “Now don’t be alarmed she loves a tree.”<br />
The woman brought the little girl into the backyard; “They must have told you I’m mad, in love with a tree.” She threw her arms around the trunk and hugging it said, “When you can have this why would you want a man?” Arbor-sexual This is something like around here, Biblio-sexual. You may love books, but please be careful with your thrusting, and never use your tongue for a bookmark. That’s word from the river Seine, where all the children are tumbleweeds and the bookseller an angel in disguise.<br />
<br />
The poet from Bengal does not show up. George asks if I would like to give the reading. Because of the film crew, we moved the reading upstairs to the writer’s apartment. Some students from Madrid, and a few regulars. I read my reply to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, called “Dear Mr. Sonnet 130”, had one of the guys read the lines from Shakespeare. Then I read in the dark woman’s voice. If the Bengali poet had showed up I wouldn’t have gotten to read. My resume would never have truly reflected where I am from poetically speaking. I am from Shakespeare and Company; I am the poet in residence. <br />
This is my address:<br />
37 Rue De La Bucherie, 75005, Paris France.<br />
Please write me soon...<br />
<br />
Shakespeare and Company is a pilgrimage, a monument, each time I look out of the window someone is taking a photo of the store. They will take it back from where they are from, put it in an album and say I was there.<br />
<br />
Here let me show you around the place. That is were Simon touched the tip of her pen to the “Second Sex.” Here is where Ginsberg clipped his beard. This refrigerator contains food made by Sylvia Beach for Pound. Now step in here this is the bedroom so full of ghosts, I think the cockroach on my forehead at night is Henry Miller. <br />
“Get out, I shout, I am the poet in residence!”<br />
“Flee,” I say.<br />
“Fleas,” he replies.<br />
Then he starts to go on and on about the light in Greece. <br />
“I’ve been there,” I say. “You forgot to tell them about the salads.”<br />
He rolls over goes back to sleep. All of us who have slept here dropping like flies, back to where we came from.<br />
<br />
Writers are supposed to be quiet, so why do I feel like shouting out of the window? Shouting out my poems? Flinging open the window, letting Paris in. Lots of Paris, all the streets, all the lobster walking poets. Letting them hear me, <br />
“Get out of my way you language bastards! I’m trying to write.”<br />
So I grab the metal bar, rip open the window. Spewing out my poem. <br />
The Gargoyles start giggling. “Another poet,” they spit. <br />
“Another poet giving a reading from an open window. Who? Who?” They chime. <br />
“Go back to America! Go home Yankee boy writer. Zoot!”<br />
High noon show down.<br />
“This town ain’t big enough.” <br />
Shouts, Gerard de Nerval<br />
“I am the most horrible creature.”<br />
“No, I am.”<br />
On and on, until he jumps into a pot of boiling water. Dissolving like a snail in salt.<br />
I notice the streetlights are on at noon. No wonder they call this place the City of Lights.<br />
<br />
Here are the facts:<br />
This place is a rite, a ritual. The secret to George, to the Tumbleweed Hotel, to Shakespeare and Company, is that he is empty. You must enter him. As Jonah did the whale. See the world through his eyes. Through his windows. He takes off his mask and there is the face you thought was yours. The faces of all whom have stayed here. Swallowed by the stories. Why worry about myths when you can dance? Why not take his hand? It is open. Just reach out. All he asks is to paint a self-portrait with words. Wants your memories. He houses them and they feed him. Can you imagine his hunger? Forget etiquette and precedence this is a fire. You are common that’s reassuring. We are fallen, let us enter the door together. The gates of the bazaar. Into the word department. Let’s order a full meal. Let us draw the human figure. Naked waiting for someone to offer us love. O mischievous bookseller, who holds your council? Whom have you not blessed? A sign? Of course and a caravan. Let us all pull up stakes and head off to Paris. Let us not judge. I erect a statue in your honor. I require myself to seek out your methods, your saintliness, and your glory.Gary Glaznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12249612560922029331noreply@blogger.com