Readings by Writers

Saint Paul Poet Laureate

Carol Connolly

Hosts

Readings by Writers

Sponsored by Public Art Saint Paul

WEDNESDAY MARCH 16, 2011

25^TH Annual SAINT PATRICK’S DAY Reading

7:30 PERFORMANCE

All programs are free and open to the public

at the historic University Club Saint Paul

420 Summit Avenue

The Bar is open and serves throughout the evening.

5:00 Dinner not connected to the performance. Reservations 651-222-1751

Not a member? Simply say you are attending Poetry Night

Readers will be: Carol Connolly, Tom Cassidy, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Ethna McKiernan, Jeri Reilly and Brian Laidlaw

Readings last one hour. The writers will have books to sell and sign.

The Carol Connolly Readings by Writers series celebrates the rich diversity of emerging and established writers and poets in the Twin Cities literary community.

CAROL CONNOLLY, Saint Paul’s first Poet Laureate, appointed by Mayor Chris Coleman, will host, as well as read from her new book All This and More Nodin Press. She writes Hearsay for Minnesota Lawyer.

TOM CASSIDY, artist and poet, whose work has appeared worldwide, and has been acquired by LA County Art Museum and The Getty. His books include From the Scenic Outlook, Green Bean Press; ONDA, visual poetry collaborations with John Bennett, Lost & Found Press; and Casino Stories, Musical Comedy MN. Tom performs at colleges, art festivals, high schools, and co-founded the Portland, Oregon performance troupe reunited by the Oregon Heritage Commission The Impossibilists,. He serves on the boards of Patrick’s Cabaret and Cheap Theatre, which hosts ten yearly Black Forest reading events.

KEVIN FITZPATRICK, poet, author of Down on the Corner and Rush Hour, Midwest Villages & Voices, and Greatest Hits 1975 to 2000, from Pudding House Press, Johnstown, Ohio. He is a founder and editor of the Lake Street Review, a highly regarded literary magazine, now extinct. Widely published in literary magazines and anthologies, his poems have been read by Garrison Keillor on MPR’S The Writer’s Almanac.

ETHNA McKIERNAN, poet, whose book The One Who Swears You Can’t Start Over, from Salmon Publishing in Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland, follows Minnesota Books Award Nominee Caravan, Midwest Villages and Voices. Her work is widely published in anthologies here and in Ireland, and her new Sky Thick with Fireflies, also from Salmon, will be released in October.

JERI REILLY, poet, whose poem Valentines has been stamped into the sidewalks of Saint Paul, has also been published in Dust & Fire; The Sun Magazine; and Voices for the Land, MHS Press. . Jeri sometimes lives in Ireland, where she is a member of Pig Executive; a group of writers who meet in County Leitrim.

BRIAN LAIDLAW, poet, folksinger, from San Francisco, whose poems are forthcoming in New American Writing, FIELD, Quarter After Eight, Iowa Review, soon to be released artist book from Deer Let Loose Press, and his lyrics appeared in American Songwriter Magazine. The recipient of many awards:: 2009 Gesell Award for Poetry; 2011 Intermedia Arts SASE Jerome; the inaugural University of Minnesota Book Arts Fellowship; he is a Loft Mentor Series finalist, and is completing an MFA in poetry at the U of M. He teaches songwriting at McNally Smith College of MusicMore info? University Club 651-222-1751 or publicartstpaul.org.

Public Art Saint Paul sponsors the Readings in celebration of the public art project Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk by Saint Paul City Artist in Residence Marcus Young and city poets.

Readings by Writers Series, January 18, 2011

Every Third Tuesday
Saint Paul Poet Laureate
Carol Connolly
Hosts

Readings by Writers

Sponsored by Public Art Saint Paul

TUESDAY January 18, 2011
On and Under the Sidewalks
7:30 PERFORMANCE

All programs are free and open to the public

at the historic University Club Saint Paul
420 Summit Avenue
The Bar is open and serves throughout the evening.
5:00 Dinner not connected to the performance. Reservations 651-222-1751
Not a member? Simply say you are attending Poetry Night

Readers will be: Marcus Young and Greg Brick
Readings last one hour. The writers will have books to sell and sign.

The Carol Connolly Readings by Writers series celebrates the rich diversity of emerging and established writers and poets in the Twin Cities literary community.


ON AND UNDER THE SIDEWALKS
Featured readers are:
MARCUS YOUNG. He is the genius who created Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk, which is garnering international attention. He doubles as the Saint Paul Artist in Residence. His many contributions include Wishes for the Sky, a great annual Harriet Island event that ushers in spring. Marcus will be reading winning sidewalk poems, all chosen by a panel of qualified judges, from those sent by Saint Paulites – think about sending yours - that now embellish the ten miles of new sidewalk installed each year in our capitol city.

GREG BRICK, much published author of SUBTERRANEAN TWIN CITIES, University of Minnesota Press, is a geologist, historian, and urban speleologist, who has been caving for two decades. His book, winner of a 2010 American Institute of Architects Award, is loaded with wit, local history, and adventure. It looks at the fascinating and very real world beneath our feet. Greg is editor of a national caving publication and recipient of the Peter M. Hauer Award from the National Speleological Society for research in cave history. He has appeared on the History Channel’s program "Weird U.S." Author Steve Thayer asserts that this book is “… a treasure - a book for the Tom Sawyer in all of us...” Musician John Knowles says, "SUBTERANNEAN TWIN CITIES rules."


More info? University Club 651-222-1751 or publicartstpaul.org.


Public Art Saint Paul sponsors the Readings in celebration of the public art project Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk by Saint Paul City Artist in Residence Marcus Young and city poets.

2010 PASPider Workshops in Western Park!

Public Art Saint Paul presents
The PASPider: A Summer of Art in Western Park!

The center for imagination and creativity is open and the artists are in at Western Sculpture Park!

The PASPider is a mobile art center that seeks to foster curiosity, imagination and appreciation of public art by engaging the community in creative interactive workshops. The PASPider will appear 12 times throughout the summer in Western Sculpture Park, on select Tuesdays and Saturdays from June 12th to August 28th. Join us on Saturday, June 12th from 1:00-4:00p, for the summer kick-off workshop!

Click here to download the 2010 PASPider Schedule! (.pdf)

On Art Days, the PASPider will be open for 3 hours, from 1:00-4:00pm. The PASPider promotes sustainable art making: all art-making materials will be environmentally friendly, organic or collected from the waste-stream. Each 3-hour workshop will consist of interactive art making activities with professional teaching artists from the Twin Cities area. The workshop content and medium will vary each Art Day: storytelling, drumming, dancing, plaster sculptures, mosaic tiles, poetry, performance, painting, metal stamping and, of course, spider marionettes!

The workshops are free and open to children and families. Special efforts are being made to serve children of the Western Sculpture Park neighborhood just west of the State Capitol, on Marion Street between I-94 and University Avenue. Last year the PASPider served nearly 300 young artists; this year we are hoping to reach even more!

Eek – I saw the PASPider! This tent-like shelter itself is a giant artwork – a kinetic spider puppet, created by artist Christopher Lutter-Gardella. Installed atop a custom-built 13-foot Scamp trailer, the PASPider is mobile – even its mandibles are animated! With its 8 googly eyes rolling and winking and a small megaphone in its smiling lips, the PASPider will creep through the neighborhood streets to announce its arrival. Once in the Park, PASPider’s 8 legs will stretch 25 feet, providing a webby sun canopy to shade art-making below!

Public Art Saint Paul’s continuing commitment to Western Sculpture Park. For 12 years, since the re-designed Western Park opened in 1998, the non-profit Public Art Saint Paul has produced a display of sculpture by leading mid-career American Artists. Currently 20 artworks are exhibited, on loan from artists coast to coast. The park is anchored by a 70- foot kinetic sculpture by the eminent American artist Mark di Suvero: Grace à Toi (Homage à Michel Guy). The exhibition is curated by John Hock, artistic director of Franconia Sculpture Park.

Says Public Art Saint Paul President Christine Podas-Larson, “the sculpture exhibition was our response to the initiative of neighborhood residents and artists. They approached us to give this park in the heart of a densely populated neighborhood a purpose. They wanted it to be a safe place for community gathering and for creative activity. We have kept it going for 12 years.”

The park is a story of vision, risk, determination of the local Fuller Aurora Neighborhood Association; it is credited over with increased civic attention to larger neighborhood needs and public safety, improved housing conditions, and public space improvements and for new confidence among residents and property owners. In a neighborhood that is home to an increasingly diverse population, art is becoming a common language.

“Saint Paul Parks and Recreation has been tremendously supportive of these efforts. The park was specifically designed by city landscape architects to accommodate and feature the sculpture display and Parks Operations has bent over backward to provide advice and special assistance,” says Podas-Larson. “However,” she notes, “all cash costs of the exhibition and special programs such as PASPider have been paid by Public Art Saint Paul with support from generous private donors.”

An Artist With Whimsy and A Sustainable Vision: Christopher Lutter-Gardella, founder and artistic director of Puppet Farm Arts, is a sculptor and theater artist, whose work revolves around the design, construction and performance of masks, puppets, contraptions, costumes, theatrical accessories, and sculpture installations. They are all produced from waste stream materials. His work is seen in schools, parks, festivals and art centers. For years he delivered his services through a waste vegetable powered vehicle as part of his effort to maintain a sustainable practice. This is evident in PASPider: the legs are made of salvaged thin-walled aluminum tubing detailed with waste nylon window screening. The leg joints are from recycled bicycle wheel bearings, the shoulders are adapted pedal crank hubs. Then there’s the PASPider’s song – a symphony of antique car horns rasping along.

The Scamp -- Egg Sac and Art Shop: As Public Art Saint Paul and the artist considered how to transport the spider and house the art workshop supplies everything from Yurts to campers were considered. The ideal solution was found in a compact aerodynamic trailer made right here in Minnesota. Kent Eveland, President of the Scamp Company, had never quite considered this as a use for the popular camper trailer, but was game for the adventure and on a field trip to the Scamp headquarters in Backus, Minnesota, Lutter-Gardella and PASP worked with the shop to agree upon a design that, among other things, reinforced the roof to carry this extra 1000 load. Says Podas-Larson “Scamp has been so generous and in helping us make this happen!”

The PASPider is made possible with generous support of the Elmer and Eleanor Andersen and R. C. Lilly Foundations, the Constance Otis Fund of the Saint Paul Foundation, and contributors to Public Art Saint Paul’s 20th Anniversary Fund.

Documentary Release

Public Art Saint Paul is proud to announce the airing of a documentary of its Sustainable Artmaking Fellowship Program The Sustainability Equation: Between Creativity and Environmental Consciousness.


Produced by Public Art Saint Paul and developed by Jonathan Kranzler, The Sustainability Equation follows our sustainable artmaking fellows Christopher Lutter-Gardella, Janna Schneider, Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad of the BodyCartography Project, and Aaron Dysart through their exploration of their own artmaking practice and consideration of dynamic new directions.



The documentary will also be aired on community cable stations throughout the state in the weeks and months ahead and is being sent in DVD format to all studio arts departments in the state of Minnesota.

Airs:
11/05/09, 8:00 pm CH15;
11/07/09, 3:30 pm CH15;
11/08/09, 5:30 pm CH15;
11/14/09, 10:00 pm CH15;
11/15/09, 8:00 pm CH15

Fall Stewardship

The fall stewardship season is upon us! PASP team made their way around Saint Paul completing the annual fall cleaning and recoating of our beloved sculptures. This very important procedure helps to protect and maintain the sculptures through the harsh Minnesota winter months.

This year saw a great decline in the amount of vandalism to our sculptures, which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our stewards. Please remember that the stewardship protocol for instances of graffiti is to inform Public Art Saint Paul and not to take independent cleaning actions. Our trained team will take care of removing graffiti to ensure no further damage to the surface of the sculpture.

This is also an excellent time to complete your fall Stewardship Survey Form, which is available on our website. Please follow the link http://www.publicartstpaul.org/stewardship_sc.html and click on ‘fill out an online stewardship survey.’

Western Park Planting

Early this fall, Public Art Saint Paul partnered with Saint Paul Parks and Recreation and Summit University Planning Council, to sponsor a community planting to beautify Western Park. Enthusiastic volunteers of all ages, dug into the fun - planting, watering and mulching the gardens in preparation for the winter months.

We were happy to get everything planted before the freeze and hope that you have a chance to take an autumnal walk through the park to enjoy the hard work of our volunteers before the winter. Next spring, we will be looking for volunteer gardeners to help care for, weed and water designated garden plots. If you would like to be added as a volunteer gardener, please contact ashley@publicartstpaul.org.


A very special thanks to Karl and Mark from Saint Paul Parks and Recreation; Irna and Lisa from Summit-University Planning Council and all of our dedicated young artists from the Western Park neighborhood!

Readings by Writers

Every Third Tuesday at 7:30 pm
Saint Paul Poet Laureate
Carol Connolly Hosts
Readings by Writers
Sponsored by Public Art Saint Paul / Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk
at the historic University Club Saint Paul
420 Summit Street
Tuesday September 15, 2009

We present a quartet of contributors to FICTION ON A STICK: Stories by Writers from Minnesota, Milkweed Editions. This anthology is an homage to our State Fair and like the Fair, presents a wide variety of magic. Our readers are:

JOHN REIMRINGER, whose first novel VESTMENTS is forthcoming in fall 2010, also from Milkweed Editions. BETTY GARCIA, an excerpt from this novel appears in FICTION ON A STICK. He is a current Loft-McKnight Fellow and the recipient of a Susannah McCorkle Scholarship to the 2009 Sewanee Writers' Conference. Reimringer is married to the poet Katrina Vandenberg,. They live in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul.

MAY LEE YANG, playwright, prose writer, poet, performance artist., lives in Saint Paul, and performs with the spoken word group FIRE. Her plays include STIR-FRIED POP CULTURE and THE CHILD’S HOUSE. Published in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies, including FICTION ON A STICK, where her THE SECOND WIFE’S DAUGHTER appears. She is the winner of many prestigious awards, including the National Performance Network Creation Fund award.

ETHAN RUTHERFORD, writer whose work has appeared in many prestigious publications, including FICTION ON A STICK, is set to be included in BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2009. A Special Mention recipient in the 2009 Pushcart Prize anthology, he has been awarded a SASE/Jerome Foundation Grant for Emerging Writers, and in 2009 received his MFA from the University of Minnesota.

SARAH STONICH bestselling author of the novels THESE GRANITE ISLANDS and THE ICE
CHORUS, just out in paperback. ASSIMILATION, her FICTION ON A STICK story, is from
VACATIONLAND, her forthcoming collection that follows fourteen different characters to the same Minnesota resort. Longtime Cathedral Hill resident, Sarah has moved Northeast.

Some University Club reading sites are handicapped accessible. Some are not. Best to heck.
The University Club of Saint Paul and Public Art Saint Paul/Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk celebrate the rich diversity of voices that make up the Twin Cities community of writers, readers, and their audiences, with this monthly free and open to the public series: Readings by Writers.