"Taking a Stand" is Theme For Annual SLV Poetry Event

Felton Library Friends invites SLV residents to submit poems on the theme of "Taking a Stand" for the 8th Annual San Lorenzo Valley Poetry Reading.

Entries must be submitted on or before April 5 by email to: feltonlibraryfriends@gmail.com or by mail to Felton Library Friends, PO Box 1245, Felton, CA 95018. One poem per poet may be submitted, and must include poet's name, age category, and phone number. The age categories are 4-8 (dictation OK), 9-12, 13-17, and adult.

Poems, selected from all age categories by Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate David Swanger, will be read at the SLV Poetry Reading on Thursday, April 26 at the Felton Community Hall. For more information, contact Felton Library Friends, a chapter of Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, at: 335-9553, feltonlibraryfriends@gmail.com or visit feltonlibraryfriends.org.

Ben Lomond's F.Scott Krueger: Art in Central America

Ben Lomond's Frank Scott Krueger is spending a year volunteering and producing art in Central America. He's been there for 7 months now creating short, mixed media (spoken word, painting, drawing, music, ambient noise, dance) telling the stories of the people and cultures that he encounters.

He plans to spend several months working in a Peruvian orphanage for abused and handicapped street children, a month in a sustainable community in Ecuador, and a month working on a lumber mill in Bolivia.

He wants to purchase a video camera and has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds. You can help by becoming a backer and he promises great rewards for your participation.

You can follow his journey via his blog: http://franksk.tumblr.com/ and we'll try and keep you up to date on his adventures here as well.

Doreen Devorah Writes, Directs New Play

Mountain Parks Foundation and California State Parks
 invite you to a theatrical performance beyond compare!  
“TALES OF THE MAGIC REDWOOD FOREST”
A Play by Doreen Devorah
Starring the Helping Hams Theater GroupPark Hall in Ben Lomond 

Friday, February 10 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, February 11 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, February 12 at 2:00 pm

 Is there really magic in a forest? Are there fairies, princes, talking animals? Do witches and large furry creatures from times gone by roam the woods? Is the forest alive? Do trees communicate with each other? With people? This is the tale of one young lady who didn't care about trees or any sort of magical happenings and didn't do what she was told. And, ominously, she got lost in the Magic Redwood Forest...

Find out what happens along her journey and join us in support of our local California State parks at Park Hall, 9370 Mill Street, Ben Lomond, CA 95005. Ticket price to this fundraiser is $20 General Admission; $18 for Seniors / Students / MPFDiscount Card Holders. Tickets can be purchased online beginning January 18th atwww.mountainparks.org <http://www.mountainparks.org/> or by phone by calling (831) 335-3174 Proceeds from this event will help provide funding for:
• Visitor and nature centers
• Natural and cultural history events
• Professional interpretive staff
• Supplies and resources used by the parks’ more than 200 volunteers and docents
• Facilities, services, special programming and other activities

Writer and Director Doreen Devorah brings a wealth of experience to the local theater scene. She has written, directed and starred in theater productions from New York to Florida, New Mexico to Santa Cruz. Along the way, Doreen introduced English as a second language through theater productions in Europe, Mexico, and Latin America.

Since settling in Santa Cruz, Doreen has written and performed an original one-woman laugh and learn lecture called "Professor Starma Tours the Solar System" for local schools, private parties and in our State Parks. Doreen is the author of one novel, many short stories, and two plays; “Murder and Mayhem in Boulder Creek”, a melodrama based on actual events in Boulder Creek history, and “The After Christmas Carol”, a comic take on Charles Dickens’ classic holiday story.

Doreen is a docent at Big Basin Redwoods State Park where for the last ten years she has lead hikes, worked with school groups, and written, staged and acted in historical pieces depicting the struggles to preserve Big Basin, California’s oldest State Park.

Paintings by Felton's Lucy Martin on Exhibit in SF

San Francisco Botanical Garden Society presents “Secrets of the Forest: Portraits of Wild Mushrooms,” an exhibition of paintings in gouache and watercolor by Lucy Martin. The exhibition is open to the public Wednesday-Saturday, January 4th through April 28th at the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture, located at San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park. An artist’s reception will be held from 5-7pm on Thursday, January 19, 2012.

Lucy’s artwork reveals her love of mushrooms and other fungi and of their forest habitat. In contrast with the more familiar tradition of botanical art in which the subject is shown as an isolated specimen, her paintings show mushrooms in their natural setting, along with leaves, moss, bark and fir cones. They are small landscapes of the forest floor. The paintings reflect Lucy’s appreciation of fungi as participants in the continual process of decay and transformation going on in the forest: the cycle of life. Her art draws us to contemplate the vital, intimate relationship of fungi with trees and other plants, often growing in mutually beneficial symbiosis. Lucy paints the mushrooms with scientific accuracy, but says, “My goal as an artist is to awaken a sense of the mystery, strangeness and beauty of the natural world.”

Lucy’s interest in mushrooms began in 2006 when she moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains and began to discover the tremendous abundance of fungi in this area of heavy rainfall. She was captivated by the amazing diversity of fungi and was drawn to make them a major subject for her artwork as well as to study them.

Lucy Martin lives in Felton, California, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and has been drawing and painting most of her life. She has studied with the well-known artist and illustrator Maryjo Koch, who lives in Bonny Doon, California. Recent exhibits include Women Illustrating Nature, at Galeria Tonantzin, San Juan Bautista (juried, June-July 2011) and the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County Open Studios Art Tour (juried, Oct. 2011). She was also commissioned to do artwork for the poster and t-shirt for 2010 Mycological Society of San Francisco Fungus Fair.

The Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture is open Wednesday-Saturday from 10:00am to 4:00pm, except for major holidays. A special evening reception for the artist will be held at the Library on Thursday, January 19, from 5:00 to 7:00pm. The reception is open to the public and admission is free. The artwork in the exhibition and giclée prints are available for sale, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Library. For more information the public may call (415) 666-2211 x 403 or visit http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org.

The Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture is recognized as one of the finest horticultural resources in the nation. Its 27,000-volume collection ranges from new gardening titles to antique herbals. The library also features a 1,600-volume children’s library of books about plants and gardens, and offers children’s story reading programs, as well as its noted botanical art exhibits.

San Francisco Botanical Garden Society Presents Paintings of Wild Mushrooms

Last Chance To Take In Middle School Production of High School Musical

If you want to experience some warm, fuzzy feelings about our community’s support for the performing arts in our schools, come see the middle school’s performance of Disney’s High School Musical tonight or tomorrow at the SLV High Performing Arts Center. ( Saturday 12/16 at 7 p.m.; Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.) The show closes Sunday, so this is the last chance to enjoy it.

The theme of High School Musical is positive and family-friendly; it’s about being true to oneself despite pressures and stereotypes of cliques in school. The energy of the kids performing is fantastic, and I think the relevance of the theme added to their enthusiasm, making it easy for them to act their parts.

I saw two performances opening weekend, and the first thing that impressed me was the number of kids on stage and the energy of their combined performances. More than 40 students perform, and I was impressed by the animation these middle schoolers brought to their roles, the quality of much of the singing, and the comic flair of many actors.
The choreography channeled the actors’ energy perfectly, and there’s a particularly fun scene called Getcha Head in the Game, in which the basketball team ends by singing and dancing up the center aisle, drawing all eyes with them. There is also a funny pie-in-the-face moment that delighted young audience members sitting in the front of the theater.

The show is the most fast-paced school performance I’ve watched, moving from one musical scene to the next so swiftly that when it was time for intermission I was caught by surprise – no checking the program to see “how much longer” with this show.

But the strongest feeling I came away with was gratitude for living in a community where our kids get to participate in a production of this quality as part of their public school education. The set includes a high-tech feature that allows a computer to project scenes onto the background behind the students. There are other professional touches like body mikes for the lead roles, and the kids were given weeks of professional choreography and vocal coaching. The drama teacher, Will Guilford, put in countless hours outside of school to coordinate and direct the musical, and he said that SLV Middle School is one of the last middle schools in the county to still offer kids the chance to participate in musical theater on this level. Some of the costs were borne by parent donations and generous support from area businesses, but box office sales help make it possible as well.

The cast for High School Musical is double- and quadruple-cast for many of the roles to give most students a chunk of time in the spotlight. With each cast the audience will experience a slightly different performance, but I enjoyed both of the casts I saw, and I’m confident anyone else will have the same experience.

Tickets are available only at the box office, which opens half an hour before the performance. No advance sales. General admission: $13, Seniors $10, Students $8.

Review Contributed by "proud parent" Joni Martin

Joni's daughter April plays Taylor in Sunday’s show, she promises this review is free of proud-parent bias.

Mountain Art Center Ceram-A-Rama This Weekend

Ceram-A-Rama 2011 3 Days of Clay! September 16, 17, 18th, 2011 At the Mountain Art Center on Mill St. in Ben Lomond September 16, 6 - 9 p.m. Potluck BBQ & Movie For FREE admission, bring something to share for the potluck BBQ. We'll be showing a claymation movie and more on our "big" screen in the gallery! September 17, 10 - 4 p.m. Workshop with noted ceramic artist Wesley Andregg. Thanks to generous support from Bruce Bangert, we are able to bring to you the Wonderful World of Wesley! This day-long demonstration workshop is only $25 for Adults and $20 for Students...and this INCLUDES LUNCH! Wesley's approach to his sculpture includes combining mixed media with his clay figures. He brings a whimsical, yet political point of view to our lives. Register on-line: Adults $25 Students $20 (Fee Includes Lunch) September 18, 11 - 5 p.m. FREE fun day of clay! Demos by Open Studios Artists Liz Crain (Studio #210) and Andrea Dana-McCullough (Studio #33). Clay contests & prizes, Raku firing, hands-on clay, fun for the whole family! Be a spectator or participant...it's always entertaining. Music by Mark Wallace. Clay for this event was donated by Kevin Wahl, Phoenix Ceramics. We ask experienced potters to come and throw bowls throughout the day. These bowls will be trimmed and glazed and donated to Loaves & Fishes"Empty Bowls" fundraising event (Oct 15) which raises money to feed the hungry in our community!

Ben Lomond Author to Read in Saratoga


By Mary Ann Cook
for Los Gatos Weekly Times

LITERARY TWOSOME:

Sally Ashton and Kat Meads are local authors who met when both won artist fellowships from Arts Council Silicon Valley. Ashton is a poet; Meads writes prose and poetry, but both share a love of prose poetry and flash writing, which is a shortened form of short story writing. Ashton lives in Los Gatos; Meads is a former Los Gatan who now lives in Ben Lomond.

Both have new books out. Now the two have teamed up to present a reading and Q&A session at the Saratoga Library May 15. Ashton's latest book is Some Odd Afternoon. This follows hard upon her prose poem "Her Name is Juanita," which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She teaches creative writing at SJSU and is editor of the online poetry/art journal DMQ Review.

Meads is the author of The Invented Life of Kitty Duncan, Sleep, Born Southern and Restless, Not Waving and four books of poetry. Her latest, Little Pockets of Alarm, was runner-up for the U. of Massachusetts Press Juniper Prize. She has received national and California grants and fellowships, plus artist residencies to Provincetown, Yaddo and Millay Colony.

Mead won the Chelsea award for fiction, the New Letters award for essay, and her short plays have been produced in New York and Los Angeles. Meads was writing program coordinator at UCSC Extension.

Local Poets Inspire, Enthrall Audience

A packed house at the Felton Community Center enjoyed an "Evening of Poetry"  by local poets Wednesday.  The sixth annual event, sponsored and organized by the Felton Library Friends featured over a dozen readings of original works as well as favorite selections read by local residents.

Santa Cruz poet, Amber Sumrall, a 2010 Gail Rich Award winner, was tasked with selecting from among over 100 submissions for inclusion in the program. After offering advice and encouragement, particularly to the young students in attendance, she explained how difficult a job it was to choose which poems would be read.

The selected poets who ranged in age from 6 to 73 read works which interpreted the theme of "Place".