What does it take to ignite a ten-year-old’s imagination? We love Laurel Brittan’s interpretation of “Glitter and Smoke” by Allie Costa, as performed at our Words & Music show in San Jose’s St. James Park. Watch Laurel bring Allie’s words to life:
Stay tuned for more footage from our July 14 show. Big thanks to Michelle Anderson for capturing this on film.
Play On Words fans will surely recognize Gary Singh’s signature poetic style–declarative, language-focused, narrative poems. In case you missed it on July 14, watch the unbeatable Adam Weinstein perform two of Gary’s poems, starting with “”On a Mattress Above a Supermarket in the Capital of Silicon Valley”:
Here’s Adam reading Gary’s second piece, entitled “The Day in Question”:
Gary Singh is an award-winning travel journalist with a music degree who publishes poetry, paints and exhibits photographs. As a scribe, he’s published nearly 1000 works including newspaper columns, travel essays, art and music criticism, profiles, business journalism, lifestyle articles, poetry and short fiction. His poems have been published in The Pedestal Magazine, Dirty Chai, Maudlin House and more. He is the author of The San Jose Earthquakes: A Seismic Soccer Legacy (2015, The History Press).
When Melinda Marks started reading Betsy Miller‘s short story, “A Moment in the Rain,” the wind in San Jose’s St. James Park picked up. The temperature began to drop. Check out Melinda’s fabulous performance of Betsy’s chilling story:
Thanks to Michelle Anderson for capturing this on film.
POW fans might remember Betsy’s piece, “Bees,” that Adam Magill performed back in June. Betsy is one of the co-founders of Thinking Ink Press, a small independent press. She is currently working on a children’s picture book, Brooklynn Bunny’s Super Boots, and on a young adult novel called Dance, Interrupted.
When you visit a sculpture garden, what do you see? This week we were excited to perform two pieces by local writer Ben Black at our Words & Music show in St. James Park. Ben is a graduate of the creative writing MFA program at San Francisco State University. His work has been published in Smokelong Quarterly, New American Writing, Harpur Palate, The Los Angeles Review, and other journals. His stories have been finalists for the Calvino Prize and the Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction Chapbook Contest, and one of them won the FOGcon 2013 Student Writing Award. He sometimes lectures at SFSU.
Here’s the wonderful Adam Weinstein reading “Sculpture Garden” (apologies, as part of our video was truncated):
And here’s Brian Van Winkle reading Ben’s second piece, entitled “Timber”:
Thank you to everyone who joined us this week in San Jose’s St. James Park! We really appreciated the opportunity to fill our downtown park with stories and friends. Today we are excited to feature our first video footage from one of our returning authors, Sarah Lyn Rogers. Here’s footage of Adam Magill reading “Haunted”:
Melinda Marks read Sarah’s second piece, entitled “Mountain State”:
Thank you to Michelle Anderson for filming these pieces.
Sarah is a writer, editor, and illustrator from the San Francisco Bay Area. When Sarah’s not writing or doodling, she selects short fiction for The Rumpus, gives editorial feedback to young novelists through Society of Young Inklings, and writes snarky humanities content for an education website. For more of her work, visit http://sarahlynrogers.com.
Publications, Honors or Awards:
James D. Phelan awards in metrical verse, free verse, and familiar essay. Academy of American Poets’ Virginia de Araujo Award.
Recent publications:
“‘Sleeping Lady Plate,’ 1976” in Cosumnes River Journal
“‘You can never quite forgive’ (148),” in Caesura.
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
I submitted work for the last two performances, “Take Flight” and “Spring Fling.” Nicole Hughes, who used to be one of the PoW organizers, goaded me into submitting the first time. Now I’m hooked!
Which writers or performers inspire you?
I’m on a poetry kick again, rereading pieces I like by Matthew Zapruder and Erin Belieu. Leigh Stein is another writer I admire—she’s able to cram so many evocative objects and ideas into poetry that sounds both nostalgic and conversational. These poets in particular make me think, How did they do that? Can I?
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, is something I come back to again and again. Her shtick is that she’s a Zen practitioner and a writer who had an epiphany: What if she used writing as her meditation, her practice? This book is about “writing practice”—which isn’t so much about honing a craft it is about letting your thoughts flow freely without judgment. Use a fast-writing pen. Don’t look back. Don’t erase. If you reread later and any of your recorded thoughts have special resonance, go ahead and harvest them—but that’s not the goal.
Last night we were thrilled to bring back one of our favorite local writers, Pratibha Kelapure, in our Words&Music show at San Jose’s St. James Park. POW fans might remember her piece “Swimming Lessons,” as performed by Laurel Brittan back in June. This time we were treated to one of her lovely poems, “Mango Pulping.”
Pratibha is the founding editor of The Literary Nest Journal. She writes short fiction, literary essays, and poetry. In her previous life, she served the Silicon Valley as a VLSI Software Engineer. Other than that she is a wife, mother, and a community volunteer.
Recent Awards:
Honorable Mention for the poem “Monet on Her Mind” in the Los Gatos Poet Laureate Poetry Contest
First place in the South Bay Writers WritersTalk Essay Contest in January 2014, July 2014, and January 2015.
I have won several weekly flash fiction contests such as Flash! Friday Microfiction Contest, Finish That Thought, Monday Mixer, 55 Word Challenge, Midweek Blues Busters, and others.
Upcoming projects:
I would like to grow and nurture my online literary journal, The Literary Nest. In the coming months, I will feature some great guest poetry editors. The submissions are always open.
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
I participated in the June event, “Play On Words: Take Flight,” and I am impressed with the energy and professionalism of the Play On Words organizers and the community.
Which writers or performers inspire you?
The musical theater performers and dancers inspire with the flow of energy and grace of movements.
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
“My Fair Lady” was the very first musical I saw, and it inspired me for several reasons: the class commentary, perseverance of human spirit, and witty dialogue, not to mention graceful dancing.
Our July 14 show was made possible through the generosity of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in partnership with the San Jose Downtown Association.
What happens when a young educator meets her match in a challenging student? Christina Shon’s short story, “Closure,” explores the ambiguity of a relationship between a teacher and her student. We love this piece of writing and are excited to perform it TONIGHT in San Jose’s St. James Park.
Christina is an amateur writer. She grew up in Southern California and moved to the Bay Area in 2012 after a 5-year layover in New York City. She enjoys writing stories about twins and hopes to someday record all the stories that her grandmother used to tell her about their family life in Korea.
Upcoming projects:
I am interested in starting a local Writing Club. If anyone is interested, please send me an email at christinashon@gmail.com
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
I have enjoyed attending “Play on Words” events in the past. I was initially a bit intimidated about handing over my writing to another artist to read and interpret, but it’s not any more intimidating than having your work published. Once it’s out there, it belongs to the reader (or the audience) to do what they want with it. I’m actually very excited to see how my story is going to be performed.
Which writers or performers inspire you?
My friend Julia. She is not only a beautiful writer, but also a truly grounded person. She inspires me to believe in myself as a writer and to sit down and actually do some writing instead of just dreaming about it.
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
Amy Tan has a collection of essays called The Opposite of Fate. In one of the essays, she talks about an experience she has as a child. She is sitting under a tree, and a peach falls from the sky and lands in her hand. Her mother later tells her that it was not a peach, but an apricot, and it fell from the tree and not the sky. But in her mind’s eye, in her memory of the event, of that piece of fruit in her tiny hand, she remembers that it was peach. So which is the truth, and does it matter? This story helped to shape me as a writer, because as writers, we want to write something that is truthful, even if it’s not necessarily factual. A lot of what I write about comes from what I remember.
Tonight’s show is made possible through the generosity of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in partnership with the San Jose Downtown Association.
What’s your dream car? It’s an innocent question, but as the character in Lyra Halprin’s “Drive, She Said,” explores, it can pack surprising meaning. We can’t wait to produce Lyra’s piece tomorrow night at San Jose’s St. James Park for our Words&Music show.
Lyra is a Davis, Calif. writer whose commentaries have aired on NPR, Capital Public Radio, and KQED San Francisco, and appeared in newspapers, magazines and online venues. A former newspaper, television and radio reporter, she worked for more than 20 years as a public information officer for the University of California sustainable agriculture programs. She enjoys writing about growing up in California in the 1950s and ‘60s, family, fresh food, and access to healthcare.
Publications:
Sequoia in the Storm, California Northern
Tinge of Pink, Sacramento News & Review
The Nativity and the Trailer, Santa Monica Daily Press
Upcoming projects:
I’m working on a collection of memoir stories.
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
Sometimes I’ve enjoyed the audiobook version of a book more than reading it because actors can take the words to another dimension. Twenty years ago I was thrilled to hear my own written words make that shift when someone else read them aloud. I look forward to hearing that again!
Which writers or performers inspire you?
I appreciate writers who can teach me something as well as entertain, often historical fiction: Andrea Barrett, whose fiction about women in science leave me thinking (her short story collection Servants of the Map is my favorite); Mario Zusak’s The Book Thief combines a gripping, loving story with important history; Sherman Alexie, who brings “life on the res” alive in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; Chris Bojalian, who taught me about the Armenian genocide with grace in Sandcastle Girls; Anthony Marra, whose A Constellation of Vital Phenomena pulled me into a time and place I didn’t know I needed and wanted to understand; Zoe Ferraris, who introduced me to the hidden life of women in the Arab world through an unlikely female heroine – a Saudi Arabian morgue assistant (Finding Nouf), and Kristiana Kahakauwila, whose stories about Hawaii forever changed the way I feel about the island (This is Paradise). Two non-fiction writers skillfully introduced me to their lives: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in My Beloved World, and Anne Lamott in Operating Instructions.
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
Each year there are books that knock me to the wall with their beauty and meaning (above). Seeing the Broadway production of Rent reinforced my belief that the arts are our key to making change.
What’s it mean to be a moth to a flame? Keenan Flagg’s piece “Spun Mythologies” paints a new picture of metamorphosis. We’re excited to produce it at our Words&Music show this Tuesday at San Jose’s St. James Park.
Keenan studied Creative Writing and Poetry at the University of Puget Sound and is currently enrolled in the Writing Program at San Jose State. When not writing or composing, his hobbies include live theater, picnics, salsa dancing, and distance running.
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
I enjoy being a part of the local artistic community. The value of this organization far transcends that of simply providing artistic exposure; it creates a place for writers and performers alike to network, share ideas, and then regurgitate those ideas back into the laps of friendly and enduring audiences.
Which writers or performers inspire you?
Adrienne Rich, Robert Frost, Gary Snyder, and Hoa Nguyen are a few of my favorite poets. Anis Mojgani and Taylor Mali are two of my favorite spoken word performers.
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac; Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs; and The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall because they each caused me to reevaluate the changing landscape of written language.
This is made possible through the generosity of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in partnership with the San Jose Downtown Association.
Play On Words 