Breaking News - November 30, 2011 - Rainstorm Press just accepted my NY-noir crime novel, Nobody Wakes Up Pretty!
estimated pub date to follow.
And creative nonfiction, "Sweet City," just accepted (12/12) by Yalobusha Review.
I've been trying to hide out in the apartment as a kind of stay-at-home writers retreat, but I do get lured out. February, Cochabamba, Bolivia to work with the organization Educar es fiesta. How could I say no to that!?!?!? Especially as compa Silvana Gariboldi will arrive from Argentina too.
Thank you Jerry Mansfield - my host on January 25 for a performance and reading Moorpark College (Third Floor, LLR Building). And to Melody Mansfield for dinner. I'm am looking forward to Melody's collection of insect stories--ick--to be published with buggy artwork by Kitsune Books in 2013.
January 16, 2012 I was at Valparaiso University (in Indiana, not Chile) to lead a focus session during the whole-day Martin Luther King, Jr. event which this year was devoted to education. I felt so honored to be invited. Check out the blog post that tells about Tim King's keynote address and luncheon Q&A. Later that week, Hector and I were at the University of Chicago thanks to the incredible efforts made by talented writer Stephanie Friedman. Hector performed Nightwind and led a TO workshop. We spoke at lunch to people in the Latin American Studies department and other interested people. I offered a performance/reading/discussion, was supposed to speak at the Or Chadash synagogue (oops, canceled due to extreme snow!), led a workshop for the Graham School of the University and then Stephanie drove me all the way to Barrington to work with the Barrington Writers Workshop thanks to Tamara Tabel and my friend, the terrific writer and milonguera (is that the right word?) Natalie Pepa. To feel honored and grateful for a trip there in January...I must have been motivated! More on this at the blog, along with my reunion my Naty Vesga, my roommate from the first trip to Colombia.
November 12th, Lorenzo Montanini in Rome, Italy performed my short interactive play, Ave Atque Vale, via Skype for an audience in New York City as part of Around the World, a whole day event produced by global directors collective, The Internationalists. More info on the intriguing program here: http://theinternationalists.org/ATW11.html
Recent:
I was back at Cal State-Fullerton to address the Media Literacy class on September 13 with updates on What We [Think We] Know about Torture.
August 6: I performed in the Monologue Slam at the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood--and won!
Went back to the Santa Monica Mountains late in June to offer a theatre workshop to the high school and college student activists attending Peace Camp -- the inspiring program of San Pedro Neighbors for Peace & Justice.
May 20-30, I led writing workshops (in Spanish, no less), at the International Theatre Festival for Peace in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. Hector performed Nightwind and offered a workshop in Theatre of the Oppressed, and we got to see work and attend talks by people in the arts and human rights from 14 countries and all over Colombia. It was an honor and privilege to have the experience. Thank you, Yolanda and Guido!
Spokane! Thanks to Greg Spatz--not to mention Kyle Dunn and Monet Patrice Thomas -- I was visiting artist at the MFA Program, Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington State University
in early May and had a wonderful time.
My essays went up recently on the sites of LA Progressive, New Clear Vision, and Numero Cinq.
The Associative Press published two of my poems in the Fall 2011 issue. And this wonderful journal will fund a group of women in Cochabamba through Kiva as my reward! Another poem coming right up in Paper Crow. My story, "Sin-Tra-La!", will appear in Willow Springs in the issue due out January 2012. And my 12,000-word essay on the juvenile in/justice system, "Facing Life," was published April 15 by Connotation Press. I heard about it while I was on the road:
estimated pub date to follow.
And creative nonfiction, "Sweet City," just accepted (12/12) by Yalobusha Review.
I've been trying to hide out in the apartment as a kind of stay-at-home writers retreat, but I do get lured out. February, Cochabamba, Bolivia to work with the organization Educar es fiesta. How could I say no to that!?!?!? Especially as compa Silvana Gariboldi will arrive from Argentina too.
Thank you Jerry Mansfield - my host on January 25 for a performance and reading Moorpark College (Third Floor, LLR Building). And to Melody Mansfield for dinner. I'm am looking forward to Melody's collection of insect stories--ick--to be published with buggy artwork by Kitsune Books in 2013.
January 16, 2012 I was at Valparaiso University (in Indiana, not Chile) to lead a focus session during the whole-day Martin Luther King, Jr. event which this year was devoted to education. I felt so honored to be invited. Check out the blog post that tells about Tim King's keynote address and luncheon Q&A. Later that week, Hector and I were at the University of Chicago thanks to the incredible efforts made by talented writer Stephanie Friedman. Hector performed Nightwind and led a TO workshop. We spoke at lunch to people in the Latin American Studies department and other interested people. I offered a performance/reading/discussion, was supposed to speak at the Or Chadash synagogue (oops, canceled due to extreme snow!), led a workshop for the Graham School of the University and then Stephanie drove me all the way to Barrington to work with the Barrington Writers Workshop thanks to Tamara Tabel and my friend, the terrific writer and milonguera (is that the right word?) Natalie Pepa. To feel honored and grateful for a trip there in January...I must have been motivated! More on this at the blog, along with my reunion my Naty Vesga, my roommate from the first trip to Colombia.
November 12th, Lorenzo Montanini in Rome, Italy performed my short interactive play, Ave Atque Vale, via Skype for an audience in New York City as part of Around the World, a whole day event produced by global directors collective, The Internationalists. More info on the intriguing program here: http://theinternationalists.org/ATW11.html
Recent:
I was back at Cal State-Fullerton to address the Media Literacy class on September 13 with updates on What We [Think We] Know about Torture.
August 6: I performed in the Monologue Slam at the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood--and won!
Went back to the Santa Monica Mountains late in June to offer a theatre workshop to the high school and college student activists attending Peace Camp -- the inspiring program of San Pedro Neighbors for Peace & Justice.
May 20-30, I led writing workshops (in Spanish, no less), at the International Theatre Festival for Peace in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. Hector performed Nightwind and offered a workshop in Theatre of the Oppressed, and we got to see work and attend talks by people in the arts and human rights from 14 countries and all over Colombia. It was an honor and privilege to have the experience. Thank you, Yolanda and Guido!
Spokane! Thanks to Greg Spatz--not to mention Kyle Dunn and Monet Patrice Thomas -- I was visiting artist at the MFA Program, Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington State University
in early May and had a wonderful time.
My essays went up recently on the sites of LA Progressive, New Clear Vision, and Numero Cinq.
The Associative Press published two of my poems in the Fall 2011 issue. And this wonderful journal will fund a group of women in Cochabamba through Kiva as my reward! Another poem coming right up in Paper Crow. My story, "Sin-Tra-La!", will appear in Willow Springs in the issue due out January 2012. And my 12,000-word essay on the juvenile in/justice system, "Facing Life," was published April 15 by Connotation Press. I heard about it while I was on the road:
April 14, 2011 at Prescott College in Arizona to lead a workshop on political theatre for Charissa Menefee's course on Theatre and Social Change and then talking about environmental justice in Colombia to students in Randall Amster's class on the Ecology of War and Peace.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 I offered a presentation on What We [Think We] Know About Torture for Philippe Perebinossoff's Media Literacy class at California State University-Fullerton.
Grupo Ta'Yer at the Frida Kahlo Theatre presented a workshop production of my play, "God's Flea," (nspired by the classic Colombian short story, "En la diestra de Dios Padre" by Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo) on March 5, directed by Rubén Amavizca-Murúa. I am honored that a condensed and simplified version of the script will take on Arizona's anti-immigrant legislation as it will be included in New Carpa Theater Company’s “Performing 1070: A Short-Play Festival”, on March 30, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Annual Border Justice Conference at ASU West, and on March 31, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., on the House lawn of the Arizona State Capitol. (Rabid State Senator Russell Pearce tried but failed to ban the performance.)
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 - 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM -- Hector, Enzo and I were at Soka University, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656, for a performance of Nightwind, a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop, and discussion of The Blessing Next to the Wound. Soka was founded on Buddhist principles of peace, human rights, and the sanctity of life and has a student body drawn from about 40 countries in addition to the US.
Hector and I also have an essay, "The Wounded Joker," in Come Closer: Critical Conversations about the Practice of the Theatre of the Oppressed and Pedagogy of the Oppressed (ed.Emert & Friedland), Peter Lang Publishing and I'll have a short play in Teatro Vida's upcoming anthology: Bullying: Beyond the Schoolyard (Teens and Adults Speak Out).
Not So Recent
(But rather than delete, I'll keep all this here for my own records at least...)
"Out of the Wilderness: Torture and Healing,” available as of December 30, 2010 in the anthology Peace Movements Worldwide: History, Psychology, and Practices, (edited by Michael Nagler and Marc Pilisuk), Greenwood/Praeger, which puts us in the company of contributors like Daniel Ellsberg, Kathy Kelly, and Howard Zinn.
Sunday, December 5, a rainy night in Los Angeles, but a warm crowd at the Rhapsodomancy reading series at the Good Luck Bar. I performed fiction and Steve de Jarnatt read one of the best stories I've come across in a long time and it was great to be introduced to the poetry of Robin Ekiss and Candace Pearson.
The Blessing Next to the Wound was named the November selection for the Amnesty International book club at Vromans Bookstore. We had an incredible night at Vromans in Pasadena, CA on November 12th, talking about the book, Hector drumming and telling stories, and the whole audience -- standing room only -- joining in a West African song. The morning after, this response came via email: I felt like exploding I loved it so much.
I hope everybody gets to read it!
We can thank Sonali Kolhatkar of KPFK for some of the turnout (and the night before as well atVillage Books in Pacific Palisades). You can catch the first 8 minutes of her interview with us on video or hear audio of the whole half hour (preceded by news of the labor issues at KPFA) by following this link.
In September, my one-act play No More Romance (immigrants, unions, jail) went up at the Luna Playhouse, 3706 San Fernando Road in Glendale, CA, directed by Maggie Grant of Three Roses Players. With Rebecca Brooks, Sommer Garcia, Stephanie Dimont.
Thanks to all who joined us Wednesday, June 16th at 7:00 PM when Hector Aristizabal and I discussed our new book, The Blessing Next to the Wound, at Eso Won Books, 4331 Degnan Blvd. in the Leimert Park neighborhood of LA. And to all who made it to the Lower East Side of Manhattan where I led the discussion on September 15th at Bluestockings.
I was thrilled to lead a theatre workshop on July 8th at the 6th annual Peace Camp in the Santa Monica Mountains. At the end of the month, the kids took what they learned to the streets! Thank you, San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Justice.
My long story, "The Tangerine Quandary," is in the Spring 2010 issue of the Santa Monica Review, a longer story, "California Asparagus," appears in the Evening Street Review, "Eydie Gorme Was a Little Spanish Girl” is in the Platte Valley Review, and an excerpt from The Blessing Next to the Wound is in Two Review. "Future-Forward” just (August) came out in Volume V of The Ampersand Review. And you can find essays and political journalism at LAProgressive.com.
Thank you, Andrew Tonkovich, for Friday, April 23, at Beyond Baroque, where I had a blast performing a story along with readings by two wild and great authors, Jim Krusoe and Steve de Jarnett, celebrating the Santa Monica Review.
Thank you, Charlie Jane Anders, for the chance to perform in San Francisco on April 10, at the pleasantly notorious Writers with Drinks, (writerswithdrinks.com).
Thank you to Annie Bronston and Rogue Machine Theatre for their staged reading of Penalty Phase.
Thanks to Barbara Lewis and all the Festival gurus who flew me out two years running to the glorious Orcas Island Writers Festival.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 I offered a presentation on What We [Think We] Know About Torture for Philippe Perebinossoff's Media Literacy class at California State University-Fullerton.
Grupo Ta'Yer at the Frida Kahlo Theatre presented a workshop production of my play, "God's Flea," (nspired by the classic Colombian short story, "En la diestra de Dios Padre" by Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo) on March 5, directed by Rubén Amavizca-Murúa. I am honored that a condensed and simplified version of the script will take on Arizona's anti-immigrant legislation as it will be included in New Carpa Theater Company’s “Performing 1070: A Short-Play Festival”, on March 30, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Annual Border Justice Conference at ASU West, and on March 31, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., on the House lawn of the Arizona State Capitol. (Rabid State Senator Russell Pearce tried but failed to ban the performance.)
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 - 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM -- Hector, Enzo and I were at Soka University, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656, for a performance of Nightwind, a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop, and discussion of The Blessing Next to the Wound. Soka was founded on Buddhist principles of peace, human rights, and the sanctity of life and has a student body drawn from about 40 countries in addition to the US.
Hector and I also have an essay, "The Wounded Joker," in Come Closer: Critical Conversations about the Practice of the Theatre of the Oppressed and Pedagogy of the Oppressed (ed.Emert & Friedland), Peter Lang Publishing and I'll have a short play in Teatro Vida's upcoming anthology: Bullying: Beyond the Schoolyard (Teens and Adults Speak Out).
Not So Recent
(But rather than delete, I'll keep all this here for my own records at least...)
"Out of the Wilderness: Torture and Healing,” available as of December 30, 2010 in the anthology Peace Movements Worldwide: History, Psychology, and Practices, (edited by Michael Nagler and Marc Pilisuk), Greenwood/Praeger, which puts us in the company of contributors like Daniel Ellsberg, Kathy Kelly, and Howard Zinn.
Sunday, December 5, a rainy night in Los Angeles, but a warm crowd at the Rhapsodomancy reading series at the Good Luck Bar. I performed fiction and Steve de Jarnatt read one of the best stories I've come across in a long time and it was great to be introduced to the poetry of Robin Ekiss and Candace Pearson.
The Blessing Next to the Wound was named the November selection for the Amnesty International book club at Vromans Bookstore. We had an incredible night at Vromans in Pasadena, CA on November 12th, talking about the book, Hector drumming and telling stories, and the whole audience -- standing room only -- joining in a West African song. The morning after, this response came via email: I felt like exploding I loved it so much.
I hope everybody gets to read it!
We can thank Sonali Kolhatkar of KPFK for some of the turnout (and the night before as well atVillage Books in Pacific Palisades). You can catch the first 8 minutes of her interview with us on video or hear audio of the whole half hour (preceded by news of the labor issues at KPFA) by following this link.
In September, my one-act play No More Romance (immigrants, unions, jail) went up at the Luna Playhouse, 3706 San Fernando Road in Glendale, CA, directed by Maggie Grant of Three Roses Players. With Rebecca Brooks, Sommer Garcia, Stephanie Dimont.
Thanks to all who joined us Wednesday, June 16th at 7:00 PM when Hector Aristizabal and I discussed our new book, The Blessing Next to the Wound, at Eso Won Books, 4331 Degnan Blvd. in the Leimert Park neighborhood of LA. And to all who made it to the Lower East Side of Manhattan where I led the discussion on September 15th at Bluestockings.
I was thrilled to lead a theatre workshop on July 8th at the 6th annual Peace Camp in the Santa Monica Mountains. At the end of the month, the kids took what they learned to the streets! Thank you, San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Justice.
My long story, "The Tangerine Quandary," is in the Spring 2010 issue of the Santa Monica Review, a longer story, "California Asparagus," appears in the Evening Street Review, "Eydie Gorme Was a Little Spanish Girl” is in the Platte Valley Review, and an excerpt from The Blessing Next to the Wound is in Two Review. "Future-Forward” just (August) came out in Volume V of The Ampersand Review. And you can find essays and political journalism at LAProgressive.com.
Thank you, Andrew Tonkovich, for Friday, April 23, at Beyond Baroque, where I had a blast performing a story along with readings by two wild and great authors, Jim Krusoe and Steve de Jarnett, celebrating the Santa Monica Review.
Thank you, Charlie Jane Anders, for the chance to perform in San Francisco on April 10, at the pleasantly notorious Writers with Drinks, (writerswithdrinks.com).
Thank you to Annie Bronston and Rogue Machine Theatre for their staged reading of Penalty Phase.
Thanks to Barbara Lewis and all the Festival gurus who flew me out two years running to the glorious Orcas Island Writers Festival.
