Local writers to present original scripts at April 10 event in San Benito

The Writers’ Forum of the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center will showcase original writings at their first-ever public event on April 10 in San Benito at 6:30 p.m.

Songs, poetry and short stories, all composed by area residents, will be presented at the event in the recently remodeled Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center, 225 E. Stenger.

Among those scheduled to perform are Beto Conde, Gene Novo, Rosa Perez, Joe Perez, Edgar Clinton, Ken Trevino and others.

The public is invited to join in Author’s Night, which begins with a social gathering, prior to the presentations by 12 members of the NMCAC Writers’ Forum, according to Beto Conde, the forum’s co-founder.

“For the last nine years, the NMCAC Writers Forum has been providing a venue for local writers to experience reading their works before an audience,” he said.

“The Writer’s Forum has been the first place many of these talented local writers have read before an audience. The Forum has inspired many of these new writers to pursue their writings with more enthusiasm as a result,” he added.

Admission is $3 per person at the door. Refreshments and snacks will be served.

Co-sponsors of Author’s Night are the City of San Benito and the San Benito Chamber of Commerce.

The Writer’s Forum meets the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center. Membership is open to the public.

For more information, please call Beto Conde at 956-465-7876.

Recognizing Great Value in the Arts of the Rio Grande Valley

You are receiving this arts alert because you are on RGV_ARTS@LISTSERV.UTPA.EDU

http://www.ArtsRGV.com

Opening Reception: Thursday, 01 October, 6:00 p.m.

Chris Leonardski: ‘Depression Proof CommOddities Deliberately Designed for that Sweet, Lazy Life’
Paintings / Ceramics
Free Admission
Show runs through 24 October

Noche de Pena: Sunday, 04 October, 7:30 p.m.

Benito de la VillaMoreno – Techno Sitar
Joey Tamayo – Singer, songwriter
Ensamble La Misiøn – International music, art song
Suggested admission $5, includes refreshments

We will have a Noche de Peña every Sunday, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Galerîa 409 is located at 409 East 13th Street, between Elizabeth and Levee, a block fromthe Gateway Bridge. Hours are Wednesday- Saturday from noon until 5:00 p.m. or by appointment. For information: 956 455 3599

The University of Texas – Pan American Library will host the second of its “Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story” presentations on Thursday, September 17, with a visit of one of the foremost scholars of Texas literature, Dr. Don Graham.  Graham will speak to an audience of students, faculty, staff, and the general public in the UTPA Student Union Theater at 7 pm.  He will speak on “Texas Writers from the Great Depression of the 1930s: Their Careers and Legacies.” Graham wrote the introduction to the 1986 reprint edition of The WPA Guide to Texas which was part of the Work Progress Administration (WPA) American Guide Series. For that guide, first published in 1940, J. Frank Dobie wrote the chapter on Literature.

Graham grew up north of Dallas and graduated from North Texas State University with a B.A. and M.A.  He took his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin where he holds the J. Frank Dobie Regents Professorship of American and English Literature.  He regularly teaches the course made famous by Dobie, Life and Literature of the Southwest, and a course that Graham himself invented, Australian Literature and Film.

Graham’s publications include scores of articles and essays dealing with Texas culture.  Among his works on Texas are Cowboys and Cadillacs:  How Hollywood Looks at Texas (1983); Texas:  A Literary Portrait (1985); and South by Southwest:  24 Stories from Modern Texas (1986), which he edited.  In 1989 Graham published a highly regarded biography, No Name on the Bullet:  A Biography of Audie Murphy.  In 1998 Giant Country:  Essays on Texas won a Violet Crown Award from the Austin Writers’ League.

In 2003 two more books appeared:  Kings of Texas:  The 150-Year Saga of an American Ranching Empire and Lone Star Literature:  From the Red River to the Rio Grande, an anthology of Texas writing edited by Graham.  Both have since come out in paperback editions.  Kings of Texas won the Carr P. Collins Prize for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, awarded by the Texas Institute of Letters, in 2004.  It was also a finalist for a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.  Lone Star Literature was chosen for the One Arlington/One Book Program in Arlington, Texas, for Fall, 2004.

Graham is past-president of the Texas Institute of Letters and winner of the Best General Criticism Award for 2005 from the City and Regional Magazine Association, for literary criticism published in Texas Monthly.  In 2006 he received the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Texas.  Literary Austin, which he edited and which was published by TCU Press, appeared in 2007.  His most recent book is State Fare:  An Irreverent Guide to Texas Movies, published in 2008.  A Writer-at-Large for Texas Monthly, Graham recently received the A.C. Greene Literary Award from the West Texas Book and Music Festival.

Several of Graham’s publications are on display in the UTPA Library lobby.

UTPA Library is the only Texas library among thirty in the nation to be awarded the Soul of a People grant sponsored by the American Library Association Public Programs Office and supported by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): great ideas brought to life.  Virginia Haynie Gause, Web and Marketing Librarian, is serving as project coordinator and Dr. Rob Johnson, Professor of English, is serving as lead project scholar for UTPA Library. The purpose of the grant is to present five different library outreach programs in connection with a major documentary about the Federal Writers’ Project called “Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story.” “Soul of a People” is produced by Spark Media, Washington, D.C., and is being broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel HD after September 6.  That’s Channel 897 on local Time Warner Cable.

For more information on the UTPA Library programs contact Virginia Haynie Gause at 956-381-2303 or vgause@utpa.edu.

The Brownsville Museum of Fine Art is the result of the dedication and inspiration of eight artists who gathered together almost 75 years ago in Brownsville to develop their artistic talents and to provide educational and exhibition opportunities. These eight women would marvel at their legacy.

The City of Brownsville has supported and valued the private efforts of the Museum founders and their many, many followers throughout the Museum’s history. The Museum’s new facility dedicated three years ago is an investment by the citizens of Brownsville with the Museum’s Board of Trustees which allows the gifts of the founders to be shared by everyone in south Texas.

The City of Brownsville’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Committee will present a recommendation to the City Commissioners and Mayor that promotes the cessation of City funding for operations of our Museum of Fine Art. This recommendation will be made at a special workshop on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 4:25 p.m. prior to the regular meeting at 5:30 p.m.

Please plan to join the Museum’s Board of Trustees, Membership and staff at the Commissioners Meeting to demonstrate your support of your Museum. The Cultural Affairs Advisory Committee is charged to make a recommendation and does not determine policy. Policy is the responsibility of our elected leaders. Please plan to join us to show our leaders that the Museum has your support.

When? Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 4:25 p.m.

Where? City Administration Building (downtown Post Office Building) E. Elizabeth St. at E. 10th St; 2nd Floor

Barry Horn
Executive Director, Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts

The Art of Personal Adornment
Fashion by Carmen Rion

Mexican fashion designer, Carmen Rión, will present her international fashions to a red carpet crowd on Thursday, August 13 at 5:30 p.m.

Rion’s use of Mexico’s traditional embroidery in contemporary fashion has created a cottage industry for the talented artesanas of southern Mexico. Her design style blends the worlds of fashion and art into the art of personal adornment.

Rion’s collections have been showcased at the Louvre Museum in Paris and around the world. The fashion presentation will feature volunteer models from both sides of the border. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Tickets are $35 and available at the door or online at www.brownsvillemfa.org. ;

For more information contact the Museum at (956) 542-0941.

Brownsville native Oscar Casares will launch his new novel, Amigoland, at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art on August 6 at 5:30 p.m.

The event will feature a reception followed by a book reading and signing.

Amigoland recently received a “starred review” from Publisher’s Weekly, which called it “a winning novel.” The novel was described as “exceptional” by Kirkus Review.

His story collection, Brownsville, was selected by American Library Association as a Notable Book of 2004, and earned critical praise from such publications as The New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and Entertainment Weekly.

Casares’s literacy work has earned him fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Copernicus Society of America, and the Texas Institute of Letters.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he now teaches creative writing at the University of Texas in Austin, where he lives with his wife and two young children. He is an alumnus of Texas Southmost College and The University of Texas at Austin.

Proceeds from The Art of the Novel will benefit the Museum Building Fund. For more information, contact the Museum at (956) 542-0941.

Valedictory address delivered June 1, 2009 at Sams Stadium, Brownsville, Texas for the 2009 graduating class of Lopez High School

I’d like to start off by saying thank you to some of the people who have helped me get where I am today. To Ms. Ascott and Mr. Simons, for loving their jobs more than any teachers I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if Mr. Paris is here, but I don’t think this speech would be complete without saying, Mr. Paris, you are wise beyond your years.

To all of my friends. They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps. If that were completely true, then someone might mistake me for the Dalai Lama. To my older brother, for beating me up when I was little so that I learned to work harder, and for still beating me up whenever I deserve it. And, of course, to my parents. I could spend the rest of my life trying to thank you for everything you’ve done for me, and I wouldn’t even get halfway there.

I think it goes without saying that today is a momentous occasion. After so many years of school, it’s finally over. Sometimes it flew by, and, more often than not, it seemed like it would never end. For me, this day always seemed like it was years away. Even during the last weeks of school, it never occurred to me how close this day was. For some of you it probably seemed even longer. I have had it relatively easy. Some of you have probably overcome obstacles far more difficult than I could imagine. Some of you might be the first in your family to graduate, and you have nothing but my utmost respect.

So, all in all, what is this ceremony for? A cynical man might say that it is to honor all of the students who met a bunch of minimum state requirements, but it’s so much more than that. Today marks the end of a chapter in our lives, which is something that no ceremony or diploma could ever truly represent. Most of the things we’ve learned in classes will be forgotten. The articles of the Constitution you memorized, the quadratic formula and Pythagorean theorem, how to explicate a poem – unless it’s a part of your career, it will make way for more relevant information later on.

What we take from all these years of school are the experiences that make us stronger. We learned how to work hard. We learned how to make friends, and we learned to set goals. Most importantly, we learned how to become effective learners. For the rest of our lives, we will20need this skill. As we move into college or the work world, learning will never cease to be an important part of our lives.

So as this part of our lives comes to an end, we are bound to feel nostalgic for the days behind us. We all had some great times in school, but don’t look back too longingly. We’ve all heard people say that high school is the best four years of your life, but we should never, ever, think that. Looking back over the last four years, I felt that each year was better than the previous one. I don’t see any reason why that has to stop now. Let us not mourn the end of this era, but celebrate the beginning of the next. The best years of our lives are, and will always be, in front of us. To the class of 09, may every year be the best of your life.

The Wall documentary will screen on July 17th at el Cine el Rey Theatre in McAllen (Cine El Rey, 311 South 17th St., McAllen, TX 78501) and July 18th at Guadalupe Theatre in San Antonio. Both showtimes at 8:00PM. The film will be followed by a Q&A with the director.

A new trailer of the film is up and our website has been redesigned and looks great! Please forward this email along to as many people as you can! Let’s all work together getting the message of the film out to as many people as possible.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me directly at info@thewalldocumentary.com
Thank you for your consideration and below is the press release for the film’s premiere.

Ricardo Martinez
Director

Synopsis

In 2006, Congress passed The Secure Fence Act calling for the construction of over 700 miles of fence along the US/Mexico border. Fueled by the War on Drugs and the debate on Immigration Reform, politicians jumped at the chance to “secure our borders”. They were not prepared for what followed.

Filmed over two years, The Wall, a feature documentary, chronicles the impact of constructing a border fence along the Southwest. From policy makers to citizens of border towns in Texas, Arizona, and California, the debate elevates as residents respond to having a fence built in their backyard.

Gloria Garza sat on her porch, in Granjeno, Texas. She was enjoying her stretch of land by the Rio Grande River, when a man from the Department of Homeland Security arrived with a piece of paper. He asked her to sign a letter granting permission to build a 25 foot wall on her property. She thought it was a joke.

In Nogales, Arizona, Sheriff Tony Estrada, completed his routine check of the border wall. Since the border fence had been built, violence and immigrant deaths are steadily rising. This is not a policy he could believe in, but few were listening.

Determined to stop immigrant crossing, the Minutemen had taken matters into their own hands. They patrolled the area intercepting immigrants and notifying border patrol. Armed with ammunition and an ideology, they openly advocated more fencing to help their objectives.

At the epicenter of this controversy, Wilfredo and Adan are undocumented immigrants with a lot at stake. Wilfredo is trying to get across the border and will have to pass several layers of fencing and security. Adan waits for his father who must make the same dangerous trip he himself took several years earlier. How will their lives be changed by The Wall?

Director, Ricardo Martinez brings The Wall to life; intertwining rare surveillance footage and controversial interviews. He and his crew often risked their own safety while filming.
At the forefront of the debate, the film includes commentary by The Texas Border Coalition, The Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition, No Border Wall Coalition, the Minutemen, Border Patrol officers, congressional hearings, and more.

A group of young adults who recently graduated from high school will be having a summer festival called “Sparks of Art”. This event will be the last chance for these young adults to showcase their art before heading off to college in the fall where they plan to pursue careers in similar creative fields. This festival will feature creative talents such as singing, dancing, bands, art, photography, poetry, fashion, arts & crafts and much more. When I asked Sarah Sparks what their motivation was to put on a show like this, she said that they wanted to show their community what today’s youth are passionate about and to gain the experience of showcasing their talents for a large group of people.

This is going to be a really fun, unique and exciting event that will showcase the talents of our youths. The show will have something for everyone, so mark your calendars for Monday, July 13th at 5pm at the McAllen Creative Incubator. For more information, please visit our website at www.mcallenart.com or contact Sarah Sparks at (956) 212-3329.

I want to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to all those poets who joined me last night at Savory Perks in Weslaco. You guys have no idea what you did to my heart when I saw all of you before me, beaming. I swear there’s was a light buzzing sound floating all around the place because of your highly-charged presence. It was a blast, wasn’t it? Each and everyone of you made it magical.

I will keep you posted for the next one, and for those who couldn’t make it this time, be sure to clear your calendar for the next one. More than likely, there will another one before school resumes and many more in the Fall.

Stay in touch. Have a great summer and see you very very soon.

Dios los cuide a todos.

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