May 7 Rubi Orozco Random Acts of Poetry

Rubí Orozco is co-founder of mussa and former editor of BorderSenses. A poet and public health worker, she is interested establishing arts-based public health programs.

May 13 Nancy Lechuga The Voiceless Vagina

In this workshop, we will figuratively explore The Vagina, in all its splendor and vulnerability. We will share our thoughts and feelings concerning menstruation, sensuality, and womanhood. Come and let your Vagina speak.

May 20 Steven Ogrey Hot Monkeys on a Fire Escape: Random things, by random people, for random writing

Steven Ogrey is studying creative writing at UTEP. This will be the fifth workshop he has presented for the Tumblewords Project.

May 28 Gene Keller The Virtues of Pith, or the Loneliness of the Short-Distance Writer

Gene Keller still makes poems and songs in the midst of contemporary clamor, continues to explore the “lunaverse” of psyche and culture, and persists shaping the 99 Names of Poet in the chaos of 10,000 things.

Where: Memorial Park Public Library 3200 Copper Avenue (915) 566-1034
Cost: Free, but donations accepted for the presenter
When: All events are Saturday afternoons from 12:45 to 2:45
Contact: Donna Snyder at 328-5484 or tumblewordsproject@yahoo.com

soy solo palabras but wish to be a city, un poemic book written by León De la Rosa, illustrated by Gui.ra.ga7 and published by Unlikely Books is out and available for purchase in print and digital format. You can preview a chapter of it here.

Check out this playlist of spoken word poetry put together by the amazing Sarah Kay in celebration of April being National Poetry Month.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DFBC4DBF7976778A

April 2        Gene Keller: The Inner Fool

Topic: The Fool, traditionally, is permitted to Speak Truth to Power. Here’s an opportunity to practice truth-telling with humor and tears, but without fear. Loosen your buttons and embrace your inner fool.

Gene Keller is a well-known fool. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Keller still believes in Truth and Beauty. He also professes the 99 Names of Poet as Maker, Seer, Healer, Singer, and Storyteller. Keller has written countless poems and songs in the past six decades. Some of them have been published or recorded to little acknowledgment. Nevertheless, he persists with the help of supportive family and friends. Keller is a long-time member of Tumblewords Project writing group.

April 9     Robin Scofield: The Radical Amazement of Pablo Neruda

Robin Scofield has volunteered and participated in the Tumblewords Project for fifteen years. Her publication credits include the Paris Review, the Texas Observer, Mezcla: An Anthology of Art and Writing, Sin Fronteras, Rio Grande Review and other journals. In 2011 Mouthfeel Press published her chapbook And the Ass Saw the Angel and will bring out her book Sunflower Cantos in 2012.

April 16    Michael C. Ford: Poetry is a Black and White Movie in your Mind

Michael C. Ford has published more than 25 books of poetry. Over the years, his work has also included prose, plays and spoken word recordings. A resident of Los Angeles, California, Ford has lectured at universities, and he’s a frequent instructor for the Pen USA, Pen in the Classroom Program. During the past 30 years, he has performed at dozens of venues, many times with a wide range of jazz musicians. Ford was in residency with the Tumblewords Project in 2000.
He will be featured in a reading at the Santa Teresa, New Mexico country club on April 16 at 7:00 pm.

April 23   Donna Snyder: The Cruelest Month

Snyder founded the Tumblewords Project in San Miguel, New Mexico in the summer of 1995 and brought the weekly workshop series and periodic performance events to El Paso in early 1996.  Working with Maria Miranda Maloney of Mouthfeel Press and a staff of volunteers, she brought out Mezcla, an anthology of visual art and writing from the Tumblewords Project in 2009.  Virgogray Press published Snyder’s chapbook, I Am South in 2010 and nominated her for the Pushcart Prize for her work in their anthology, Valium in 2009.

April 30  Leslie Council: Whimsical Mimesis

Topic: Seeing images, by whim, which stir emotions and entice reactions, ideas in writing. Scenarios and visions from chopped up magazine pages to create a new perspective image of which to inspire writing and mimicking shapes in poetry.

Post EPCC Tejano tribune journalist and editor, artist, art director and graphic design specialist, photographer, tattood, pierced and multi-field educated single mom of a young indigo challenge. Proud participant of Tumble Words Writing Project and slamming Enchilada-making-Mama.

Saturdays 12:45 to 2:45

Memorial Park Library

Copper at Copia

El Paso, Texas

info: 915/328-5484 or tumblewordsproject@yahoo.com

March 5            Chris Carmona    And the Beat Goes On:  Writing Beat Poetry

Carmona hails from the Rio Grande Valley in Deep South Texas.  He is beat poet following in the tradition of Jack Kerouac, Bob Kaufman, and Raul Salinas.  Deeply interested in the intersections of Native Americans and Latinos, he believes in practicing poetry as a form of social resistance.  Much of his work works to redefine what it means to be ‘beat’ as a poet and scholar.  Carmona is currently pursuing his PhD at Texas A&M University.  He has been published in The Writers’ Block, Beatlick Art & News, World Audience Literary Journal, and Tecolote.  He has published a chap book called My (Mex)quite Beat Refried Revolution by Slough Press. His first book of poetry entitled beat is due out in 2011, also by Slough Press.  Currently he is editing an anthology of Beat Texas writings for UT Press with Chuck Taylor and Rob Johnson.  He has been part of the Savory Perks Reading Series, the Narcisco Martinez Cultral Arts Poetry Reading Circle, the reading series for Wordspace in Dallas, the Prairie View A&M University Reading Series, and the Lunada: Aullidos a La Madre Luna at the Café Citlali in San Antonio.

March 12         Robin Scofield       The Radical Amazement of Rilke

Scofield has volunteered and participated in theTumblewords Project for fifteen years.  Her publication credits include the Paris Review, the Texas Observer, Mezcla:  An Anthology of Art and Writing, Sin Fronteras, and other journals.  Her first book is forthcoming from Mouthfeel Press in 2010.

March 19         Steve Ogrey    De-Rezzing The Greatest Hits

Ogrey will provide a survey of pop hits from the sixties to the nineties as interpreted by a 20 year old computer with a MIDI sequencer and a text-to-speech program. Learn a few things along the way about deresolution and how you can apply it to your own creative works. Ogrey is a Creative Writing major at the University of Texas at El Paso, a voice actor for The F Plus, a social critic, a great drinking buddy, and a frequent participant in the Tumblewords Project.

March 26        Yvonne Collins                    Wisdom in Words A regular Tumblewords participant, Collins is a writer, painter, and artist.  This will be her third workshop for Tumblewords.

Feb 5 and 12   Steve Ogrey TWO AFTERNOONS WITH SHAYE ST. JOHN:

MADNESS LOVES COMPANY

Steven Ogrey is a Creative Writing major at the University of Texas El Paso and a voice actor for The FPlus <http://www.thefpl.us>.

Feb. 19          Jorge A Polanco      Looking for the Sub-conscience

Polanco is an independent scholar born in Cd. Chihuahua and was reared in the Sun City .  Participants will write in response to abstract paintings by J.Alfonso.
Feb. 26          Jorge A. Polanco    Non-sense Makes Sense
Polanco is currently working on his debut art exhibition.  In this workshop, participants will use Dr.Suess as a point of take off for writing our own non-sense that makes sense (or not, as non-sense can be fun, too).

Where: Memorial Park Public Library 3200 Copper Avenue (915) 566-1034

Cost: Free, but donations accepted for the presenter

When: All events are Saturday afternoons from 12:45 to 2:45

Contact: Donna Snyder at 328-5484 or tumblewordsproject@yahoo.com

JIM SPARKS IN RESIDENCY WITH TUMBLEWORDS PROJECT

JANUARY 2011

Jim Sparks, aka Doctor Chispas, retired from everything, is an aging beatnik cum hippy.  A former musician, he received his dream work and existential training from the Gestalt Institute in San Francisco, Esalen Institute and the Institute for Clinical Philosophy in San Jose , Calif. He currently writes music reference books and is currently updating a book on psychiatric interviewing.

Jan 8^th Celebrating the Beat Life. Sparks celebrates the beat life with readings from Howl by Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, and a blues song from Janis Joplin.

Jan 15^th Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues. Telling the story like it is: Writing your own blues song with directions from Sparks and music videos from blues women Billie Holiday, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and others.

Jan 22^nd Discovering the dreamer inside. An exploration of your dreams with Sparks , a practicing dream worker. By giving a voice to all the characters and objects that occur in a dream, the dreamer can discover the true meaning of the messages within.

Jan 29^th Existential Journaling. A tour of the labyrinths of self and not-self. Discover doorways and potholes along the highway of life while uncovering the posturing self through writing and self disclosure. With existential facilitator, Jim Sparks, aka Doctor Chispas.

Where: Memorial Park Public Library 3200 Copper Avenue (915) 566-1034

Cost: Free, but donations accepted for the presenter

When:       All events are Saturday afternoons from 12:45 to 2:45

Contact:     Donna Snyder at 328-5484 or tumblewordsproject@yahoo.com

Oct 2 and 9     Robin Scofield                The Art of Revision:  Killing your Darlings

A native Texan, Robin Scofield is the author of Sunflower Cantos, from Mouthfeel Press in El Paso , and has written poetry, memoir, and fiction for 44 years.  She earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986.  Robin’s poetry has appeared in Paris Review, Western Humanities Review, Theology Today, Poetry Motel, Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, and Texas Observer. As an experienced editor, she offers manuscript consultations and creative workshops.  She has been a featured reader in several venues, including the El Paso Arts Museum ’s MuseoLiterati series, and   she is active in regional as well as international literary events, such as the juried San Miguel Poetry Week.  You can find out more about Robin at robinscofield.com.

Oct 16   Chevalterre Nabil         Morrissey Mood (Protest & Rebellion in Writing)

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Karla, as she is known to friends, focuses on the balance of life by creating both poetry (under the name Chevalterre Nabil) and visual art (as Karma Llegua Renee).  She participates in slam competitions and open mics at the Percolator.  Her work has been published in Border Senses in 2008, in two anthologies released by Virgogray Press in 2009 and 2010, and most recently inFever News. For more info:  klrabstracts.blogspot.com.

Oct 23             Donna Snyder            Waking the Dead

Donna founded the Tumblewords Project in 1995 to present weekly writing workshops and occasional performance events, and continues to coordinate its work.  Virgogray Press published her first chapbook, I Am South, in 2010, and a second book is forthcoming from Unlikely Books.  She was co-editor of Mezcla: Art& Writing from the Tumblewords Project in 2009, and most recently served as Assistant Editor of Unlikely Stories of the Third Kind.  Her work has appeared in various anthologies and small magazines, including Virgogray’sValium, Puerto Del Sol, Sin Fronteras, Border Senses, Chrysalis, Rio Grande Review, and  unlikelystories.org.  Her blog raw poetry can be found at myspace.com/fronteriza.

Oct 30             Raquel B. Mejia        Calaveras Poetry:  Kicking it with Catrina

Raquel will show us how to write a calavera, and what salsa to eat it with. We are instructed to “bring satire, paper and pen.”  Raquel’s work has appeared in Mezcla and Calaveras Fronterizas, both published by Mouthfeel Press and in Taller Literario Pablo Ochoa:  XXV Aniversario, published by ICHICULT. She participates frequently with the Tumblewords Project and is a founding member of Rincon Bohemio for bilingual writers. Raquel is one of forty-eight international women poets includedin 2009-2010 in the Huajuquilla, Chihuahua Reporter’s RANCHOLASVOCES an art and cultural magazine. (Presented from 11:00 to 12:30 at the Downtown Library at Great Southwest Book Festival.)

Where: Memorial Park Public Library 3200 Copper Avenue (915) 566-1034

Cost: Free, but donations accepted for the presenter

When: All events are Saturday afternoons from 12:45 to 2:45 except for

October 30 event which is at the downtown library at 11:00 am

Contact: Donna Snyder at 328-5484 or tumblewordsproject@yahoo.com

July 17 Steven Ogrey Staring into Madness

Steven Ogrey is a Creative Writing major at the University of Texas El Paso, and a reader for The FPlus podcast (http://thefpl.us/).

July 24 Ivy Magaña Igniting our Scent-ces

Ivy is 18 years old and this will be her first workshop presentation. She has been participating in the Tumblewords Project for two years. She has her own blog, under the name of ivy_renee, which can be found at www.livejournal.com. She has a novel in progress. Her workshop will explore the use of scent as a writing prompt.

July 31 Deb Hoag Going Gonzo
Deb has been writing professionally for going on 20 years, starting at a weekly alternative newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, The Metro Times. In the early ’90s, Deb went back to school and was awarded a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Detroit-Mercy. Since embarking on her new career, Deb’s worked on the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation in a variety of mental health positions, as in-patient therapist at the psychiatric hospital in Show Low, Arizona, and now lives and works in Flagstaff. You can find her “Meatloaf of the Apocalypse” in the May 2008 issue of Polluto Magazine. Dog Horn Press published her novel Crashin’ the Real. Her novel Dr. Gonzo is coming out at Burning Man, first week of September, from Unlikely Books.

Where: Memorial Park Public Library 3200 Copper Avenue (915) 566-1034
Cost: Free, but donations accepted for the presenter
When: All events are Saturday afternoons from 12:45 to 2:45
Contact: Donna Snyder at 328-5484 or tumblewordsproject@yahoo.com