Newsletter of the Friends of The Blue Mountain Center
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Many BMC residents have visited, worked and even lived in Central America. Now is the time for those of us who care about Central America to assist the recovery effort and help save lives.
The area has been ravaged by Hurricane Mitch, the fourth strongest hurricane on record. Honduras and Nicaragua were hit the hardest.
In Honduras 10,000 people are dead and 1 million are homeless. 70% of roads and bridges are destroyed, 50% of crops ruined. There is a desperate need for food, drinking water, shelter, and other essentials. Epidemics are following the devastation: cholera, tetanus, dysentery.
Latest figures released by the National Civil Defense in Nicaragua are just as horrifying: 153,833 families and 867,752 individuals have been affected: 32,000 people evacuated and over 110 thousand people living in 800 shelters. Over 2 thousand people have died and a thousand are still missing. 21 thousand houses have been completely destroyed, while another 15 thousand are partially destroyed. Over 500 communities are completely isolated.
Please send a donation ASAP to:
Quest for Peace
PO Box 5206
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Or another relief organization you trust.
Blue Mountain Center is a working community of writers, artists and musicians in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. The Center exists to provide a peaceful and comfortable environment in which guests are able to work, free from the distractions and demands of normal daily life. Established creative and non-fiction writers, and artists not requiring exceptional facilities, are eligible applicants. Residents are chosen by an Admissions Committee of accomplished authors and artists. The committee is particularly interested in fine work which evinces social and ecological concern and is aimed at a general audience.
Caroline Alexander has published Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition -- The Remarkable Journal of Shackletonžs Polar-bound Cat (HarperCollins), the story of a tiger-striped tabby who accompanied the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton on his 1914 Antarctic expedition.
The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom by Katherine Arnoldi is available from Hyperion Press.
Voices of Resistance: Oral Histories of Moroccan Women, by Alison Baker was published by the State University of New York Press. Thanks to Alison for sending us a copy.
We are grateful to have had the inspiration and fine company of Rudolf Baranik who died this March at age 77. Rudolf was a true gentleman with compassion and a determination for justice in his marrow and his work.
Anne Basting and Brad Lichtenstein were married on September 26. Anne also just published her book The Stages of Age, from Michigan Press.
Leslee Becker's story "Striking" was published in the summer 1998 issue of the Bellingham Review.
Miriam Beerman was in the exhibition of Artist Books at the Center for Book Arts in NYC. She also showed paintings at the New Jersey State Museum, and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo, which acquired her drawing "Lodz II" for its permanent collection.
Joan Puma Bennett is an art pioneer in northern Wyoming. She teaches writing and literature at Sheridan College, is a member of the Recycling Board, and even directed the Buffalo High School spring play. Two of her monologues from Spit!, a one act baseball comedy, were published in Baseball Monologues, Heinemann Books.
Phyllis Bennis and EqbalAhmad were among the authors of an Institute for Policy Studies pamphlet titled "Testing the Limits: the India-Pakistan Nuclear Gambit." Belated congratulations to LR Berger who was awarded a 1997 NEA Literature Fellowship, a PEN New England Discovery Award, and was a Visiting Artist this spring at the American Academy in Rome. Star Black showed her recent works on paper, including collages done at BMC, at the Wainscott Gallery in the Hamptons and the Red Door Gallery in NYC.
Nancy Hall Brooks' paintings were exhibited at the First Parish Universalist Church of Arlington, Mass. in May and June.
Neill Bogan and Lisa Maya Knauer will participate in a RepoHistory tour called "Civil Disturbances: Battles for Justice in New York City." This unusual public art project produces text and image street signs marking locations of fights for social justice, such as the nationžs first AIDS discrimination lawsuit.
Sharon Butler showed her paintings at the Z Gallery in NYC this past winter.
Patricia Chao and Jillian Medoff read together at the New York University Creative Writing Program Reading Series in March.
"Working Lives -- Paintings and Drawings: 1984-1998" by Eva Cockroft was at the A Shenere Velt Gallery in Los Angeles through Nov. 3.
Dan Connell writes "I just got a MacArthur grant for 18 months of writing and research on the movement for a New Sudan!!! Starts in January. I will head over to the region early in '99 with Debbie for the first round of field research."
Sculpture and drawing by Barbara Cooper were on view at Riverside Arts Center in Riverside, IL, this spring. In September-October her sculpture show "A Persistence of Growth" was at Fassbender in Chicago.
Janet Culbertson had a self-portrait in "Our Essential Images" at Atelier A/E in NYC. A number of her mixed media "billboard" paintings were in a show called "Dystopian Visions" at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, and also at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. She also showed her drawings and paintings at the Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts in New Castle, PA.
Priti Darooka's work was included in the exhibit "Engendered Species: the Cultural Context of Gender" at UMass Boston January-February 1998. Perugia Press just published Impulse to Fly, a book of poetry by Almitra David.
Jan Dove has been fighting the good fight to publish artwork created by inmates during her California Arts Council Residency in Jamestown, CA. Until there is some sanity in the California prison system you can check out her web page: http://users.lanminds.com/~jandove. She and Beth Thielen showed their prints and artist books at the Benicia Public Library.
Sustainability in Agricultural and Rural Development, the book co-edited by Gerard D'Souza during his å97 residency, is out from Ashgate Publishers.
Willie World, Maggie Dubris' book-length poem, has just appeared from Cuz Editions in NYC, with an author photo by Robin Michals.
Jessica Dunne, on the heels of her impressive $20,000 Pollock-Krasner grant, was in Belgium this past winter, making prints and learning about chemicals. She's had recent shows at the Brand Library Art Galleries in Glendale, CA, and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. Congratulations also to Xiaomin Gu and Stella Waitzkin for receiving Pollock-Krasner grants.
The Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, GA, held a solo show of the work of Diane Edison called "My Mother's Daughter" this spring.
Acting in summer stock and writing "totalitarian comedies" has been keeping T.J. Edwards busy."On we work, stretching ourselves as we can."
Constance Egemo has won the chapbook contest of Blue Light Press, Fairfield, IA. Many of the poems in Dreams and Silences were written at BMC. Constance also writes, "I've had to cut down on belly dancing, now that I'm 65 and very dignified!"
The grapevine reports that Paige Evans is off to Cuba for two years on a Fellowship with the Crane-Rogers Foundation (also known as The Institute of Current World Affairs). She will be studying and writing about Cuban performing arts.
John Feffer dropped off a couple of manuscripts with his agent and headed off to Korea for two years. He is taking a brief hiatus from writing to return to full-time activism, doing peace and reconciliation work with the American Friends Service Committee.
Bill Finnegan's book Cold New World was released this year by Random House.
Salvador Gonzalez was involved in the Metropolitan Pavilion Gallery (NYC) show "Maferefun Cuba: African Religious Symbols in Cuban Art." The word from Havana is that Salvador presides over a dazzling block party each week at his famous mural alley.
Owen Grayžs paintings were shown at the Blue Mountain Gallery in NYC this past winter, as were Michael Chelminskižs in the spring.
Four photographs from Stacy Greene's "Fingernail Extension Project" were included in the show "Super Freaks; Post Pop & the New Generation" at the Greene Naftali Gallery in New York City this spring.
"Obliteration or good grooming," writes John Massier about Sadko Hadzihasanovic, whose recent work is in "Wonderland ý MontrČal."
Twitch and Shout: A Touretteržs Tale (Dutton) by Lowell Handler received fine acclaim in the NY Times Book Review.
Marcy Hermansader's drawings and paintings were the subject of her show "Short Stories" at the Fleisher Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia last winter.
Olga Hiiva showed her oil paintings at the Abraham Lubelski Gallery in New York City in May.
Susan Hill curated her first exhibition last winter, Celebratory Moments, which centered on a series of installations by artists celebrating a particular sacred day of the winter season: Solstice, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwaanza, New Year's. It included work by BMC alum Richard Posner. Susan has been expanding her arts work with prisoners, working with incarcerated teenage mothers, young male gang members and young people in vocational education programs in East Los Angeles.
Colette Inez's book of poems Clemency was published by Carnegie-Mellon University Press. Colette was also a guest professor at Cornell University this past winter/spring semester.
Carol Isard showed her recent paintings at Artscape in Philadelphia. Bridge Suite, narrative poems based on the lives of African and African-American women, and A Khosian Tale of Beginnings and Ends, by Gale P. Jackson, were both published this year by Storm Imprints.
Dear Carry: a Film about Cameras & Travel by Joel Katz, was screened in the New Documentary series at the MOMA.
Richard Kamler was a partner in the col-laborative art project "Lead Into Gold: Alchemical Practice and Metaphor," held in Berkeley this summer. The Meetinghouse Center for Theology and the Arts included the work of Suzy Kitman in their juried exhibition Owning Each Other,ū new work engaging the stories of prisoners of conscience, held in Newton Centre, MA.
Thanks to Sybil Kollar for sending us a copy of her new poetry collection In Rooms We Come And Go which was just published by Somers Rocks Press in Brooklyn.
Planet of the Blind, a memoir by Stephen Kuusisto, came out this past winter from The Dial Press.
While Wicked is still selling and staying clear of the remainders shelf, Gregory Maguire's second novel for adults will be coming soon from HarperCollins.
Micki McGee brought forth Kaila (short for Mikaila Avery Augustine McGee Alacoque) last November. Kaila already has her own web site: www.docnet.org/virtual_nursery/kaila.html.
Maybe One: A Personal and Environmental Argument for Single-Child Families by Bill McKibben was published this year by Simon & Schuster.
Robin Michals' work was in the first anniversary exhibition at the Scott Pfaffman Gallery in New York City this summer.
Tom Miller was the non-fiction instructor this past winter at the Latin American Writers Workshop in Taxco, Mexico "a lovely colonial town halfway between Mexico City and Acapulco," thanks to a typically convoluted story involving the usual trail of propaganda and notices that linger around the BMC office and living room.
Bostonžs Gallery NAGA had works by David Moore in the show "Depth & Illusion: Varieties of Abstract Space."
Thanks to David Morse for sending us his novel The Iron Bridge, published by Harcourt Brace in July. It has sold out its first printing.
BMC alums Eileen Myles, David Shapiro and Star Black read at the KGB poetry reading series this spring in NYC.
Elinor Nauen sends a correction and news: "The fabulous Holly Woodward swam across Eagle Lake very close to the end of October -- long past the 5th (shoot, even I swam across later than that)." Elinor is now a freelance Byron scholar (you know, like, the Lord) and is the proud grandmother of Celeste and Caitlin.
Three cheers for Andy Newman who had two paintings at the Royal Academy show in London this summer. He had a solo show this fall at the Neuhoff Gallery in NYC.
Judith Nies (author of Native American History, Ballantine, 1996) recently had a piece in Orion Magazine entitled "The Black Mesa Syndrome: Indian Lands, Black Gold," a close look at how corporate and political collaborations have affected Black Mesa, AZ, site of one of Americažs most valuable mineral-rich Indian reservations.
Salvation and Other Disasters, a book of short stories by Josip Novakovich, is new from Graywolf Press.
Sigrid Nunez's work Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury (a biography of Leonard and Virginia Woolf's pet monkey) was published by Harper Flamingo in May.
Brooklyn poet Laureate Dennis Nurkse has changed the rules for PLžs across America. He heads a program called "Writing with Rhythm," which runs poetry writing workshops for teenagers in branch libraries throughout Brooklyn. He said to the NY Times last year, "I want to work with young people in marginalized communities. I donžt want to do receptions and I donžt want to do public relations poetry." Fall 1997 resident Rick Meier taught in these same workshops in Brooklyn.
Amazon Journal: Dispatches From a Vanishing Frontier by Geoff O'Connor (Dutton) was listed in the NY Times Book Review Notable Books of 1997. The book is a followup to his Academy Award-nominated1993 documentary on the Yanomami Indians.
Janie Paul was been working on "The River," a portfolio of silicone intaglio prints with text by Thoreau from A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. She showed it and other new work at the Blue Mountain Gallery in NYC.
Thanks to Richard Peabody for sending us a copy of Gargoyle 41, which came out in July. His (very) independent book store, Atticus Books, has a web page worth checking out: www.atticusbooks.com.
Lia Purpura writes that her book of poetry The Brighter the Veil, which was published in 1996 by Orchises Press, just won the Towson Prize in Literature. And that her newer poems recently won the 1998 Randall Jarrell Competition.
Nora Roberts' novella Slickers will be published in 1999 by Soft Scull Press.
"Language of the Land," Stuart Romežs photo exhibit that includes his Blue Mountain images, was shown in Philadelphia.
The works of K.C. Rosenberg were at the Patricia Sweetow Gallery in San Francisco last year. K.C. is now on the faculty of California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.
Mel Rosenthal's photographic documentary Refuge: "The Newest New Yorkers" will be at the NY Historical Society from April - July, 1999. He has work in the group show "Urban Mythologies: How Artists have Seen the Bronx" starting April, 1999 at the Bronx Museum.
The art of AE Ryan was at the Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville, MA through October in the group show "Women in Art '98."
The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom by Barbara Smith is out from Rutgers University Press. Barbara was also one of the editors of The Reader's Companion to U.S. Womenžs History.
Sue Standing collaborated with Katherine Kadish to create The Cape Split Cycle last winter at the Dayton Visual Arts Center. Sue wrote the poetry.
"TicÄTacÄToe," an exhibition of drawings of children by May Stevens was at the LewAllen gallery in Santa Fe.
Sculptor Martha Tabor recently showed her work at the Maryland Hall in Annapolis, MD.
"An uncensored explorer of the secret territories of the soul" says Laura Cunningham about Nadja Tesich. Brook Line Books just published Nadjažs novel Native Land, "a luminous journey home to the authoržs birthplace, Yugoslavia."
Laura Von Rosk's paintings were recently on display in Ticonderoga, NY, and she was also the featured artist of the Adirondack Artist Association in Essex, NY.
John Pitman Weber had a solo exhibit at Chicago State University. He was also in two group shows at the Rhona Hoffman and Gallery 400, both in Chicago. He co-led a large mural "Urban World at the Crossroads," presented in Tlaxcala, Mexico.
Block prints by Letitia Wetterauer were shown in February in Iowa City at the Eve Dolch Gallery.
Anita Wetzel's "Circles in the Dirt" show of painting, drawing and clay was recently at the Muroff Kotler gallery in Stone Ridge, NY.
Congratulations to Al Winn. Several of his self-portrait photographs have been acquired by the Library of Congress. He also had work in "Selections/Contemporary Photography" at the Jewish Museum, NYC. His work hangs proudly in the BMC office.
Gary Whitehead's poem "Hanging Peppers to Dry" was published in the Fall1998 issue of DoubleTake magazine.
Welcome to Lauren Cordelia Siegel, born to Mr. and Mrs. Bob Siegel this year.
Melissa "Dot" Zexter curated the photography show Anonymous at the Work Space in NYC.
1998 Staff Update:
We welcome Judy LaPrairie to the Housekeeping Staff. We are delighted to have Tina Pine and Lindsay Butters back in the kitchen part-time. Lindsay also worked as a summer intern here, along with Lizzy Kirkham of Maine, now in her senior year at Milton Academy.
Berry Ferrington recently took the position of Arts and Outreach Coordinator for the Stevens Neighborhood Association in Minneapolis, MN.
Jessica Shadoian was the editor of The Southwestern Review, the annual publication of the English Department at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.
David Senior took a break from his job at Chicago's Newberry Library to attend an Ivan Illich conference at Penn State, where he met Jerry Brown.
Asha Kinney is studying art and puppetmaking at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Congratulations to Michelle Markeley who is now a geology professor at Mount Holyoke College.
Harriet Barlow has a new granddaughter, Sarah Eliot Barlow-Ochschorn. Sheila Kinney and Ben Strader are still with Blue Mountain Center and look forward to hearing from residents far and wide.
Please keep sending all letters, photos, and miscellaney to Blue Mountain Center, P.O. Box 109, Blue Mountain Lake, NY, 12812.
Every year we ponder this question, as do our admissions panelists, who pore over applications with a mix of dread and excitement.
But it is the readers of Blue Notes who really decide who comes to BMC.
Former Residents and friends of BMC are our primary outreach activists. You have spread the good word about BMC Residencies to talented and dedicated writers, activists, and artists. And we are grateful.
The strong sense of community which now pervades BMC is due to the loyalty which previous residents and friends demonstrate. It is the Residents who define us and who will, over time, sustain the spirit and purpose of the Center.
If you know any artists and writers (and we know you do) whose work and lives embody the Blue Mountain Center's idea of fine work and commitment to social change, please encourage them to apply.
If you are considering applying to come back to BMC we hope you will remember our policy of allowing only two Residencies over a four year span.
The yearly deadline is February 1If you know someone who should apply and may not be able to make the deadline, call BMC at (518) 392 - 7391, January 31.
The Blue Mountain Center is pleased to announce that the Richard J. Margolis Award includes a spring or fall residency at BMC, depending on the winner's choice.
The award was established to honor the memory of Richard J. Margolis, a journalist, essayist, and poet who wrote widely about the rural poor, migrant farm workers, the elderly, Native Americans, and others whose voices are seldom heard. He was also the author of a number of books for children. The Margolis Award is given each year to an essayist whose work recalls Richard Margolis's warmth, humor, and concern for social issues.
1997 also marked an increase in the honorarium accompanying the award from $1,000 to $2,000.
Nominations and applications for the 1998 award should be sent to:
The Richard J. Margolis Award of the Blue Mountain Center, c/o ElderLaw Services, 294 Washington St., Suit 610, Boston, MA 02108. The deadline for nominations is July 1, 1998.
This Compost In this white enamel bucket I carry our first fires' ashes from the woodstove. Late October. Embers like small pumpkins glow in a bed of ashes fine as dust. I toss them atop the pile, where they mingle with old fires, those crackled marigolds we uprooted late last twilight. Stalks. Ashes. Embers. Blooms. Yesterday's flames burn to compost beneath this blue leaf of sky, torn from the sapphire tree of Autumn. By Candice Stover
Jessica Dunne recommends Sacred Country, by Rose Tremain. "A transsexual coming-of-age story....You kind of have to stop to admire the sentences but better too many good ones than too many lousy ones."
Ann Keniston recommends Brenda Hillman's Loose Sugar. "Difficult, philosophical, and evasive, these poems deal with questions of time and space, and also the most mundane things - the phrase "no problem," for example, or what it's like to talk to someone in a different time zone on the phone."
For now, here are some great web sites from creative organizations working for social change:
Adbusters -- a magazine on a cutting and very funny crusade against commercialism --- www.adbusters.org
Libraries for the Future -- a smooth and clear site directs you to the variety of issues in the fight to protect the great democratic bargain - public libraries --- www.lff.org
From Global to Local --- View the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy Sustainability Centers for truly interactive information on Agriculture, Trade, and the Environment. --- www.iatp.org/iatp
Institute for Local Self-Reliance -- keep up with David Morris, Neil Seldman and their dedicated group of of visionaries. --- www.ilsr.org
Mother Jones -- "Mojowire" is a groundbreaking transformation of a magazine into a hellraising web page. Full of information and muckraking --- www.mojones.com
Noise Pollution Clearinghouse -- Check out this information-packed web site to find out how NPC is taking this insidious threat to our communities and our planet. --- www.nonoise.org
Applications should be postmarked no later than February 1. Admissions Committee decisions will be made by March 31 and applicants will be notified immediately thereafter. There is no application form. To apply, send the following
Admissions Committee
Blue Mountain Center
Blue Mountain Lake, NY 12812-0109
518-352-7391.
Residencies are for four weeks, usually between June 15 and October 31. Fourteen residents are chosen for each session. There is no cost other than transportation. Guests are asked to contribute to a studio construction fund, but such contributions are entirely voluntary. The Center is a turn-of-the-century Adirondack lodge in a pristine and peaceful setting of woods, lakes and mountains. Life at Blue Mountain Center is organized to maintain privacy and quiet. The atmosphere is informal. Writers are lodged in individual bedroom/studies; visual artists and composers have separate studios. Breakfast and dinner are served in the dining room. Linens and laundry facilities are provided. The amenities of the Center, including a tennis court, lakes, boats and hiking trails, promise even the most diligent worker needed diversion and relaxation. There is a pay phone for guests' use. The telephone is considered something of an outsider at the Center. Messages will be taken in the office during the day.
The Blue Mountain Center hosts conferences for up to 25 people during the spring and fall months. The purpose of the meetings is to bring together those working on pressing social problems such as civil liberties, environmental health and safety, peace, and economic justice. Conferences are planned six months in advance; most are initiated by the Center - the facilities are not "for rent" by the public - but the Director welcomes suggestions regarding the program.
A foundation grant enables the Center to make its facilities available at no cost to conferees. (Voluntary contributions are always welcome, of course.) Accomodations are simple but comfortable, including bedrooms with linens and towels, shared bathrooms, and 3 hearty meals a day. Alcohol is permitted but not provided. Swimming, boating, hiking, tennis and other recreation activities are available. The Center is a turn-of-the-century Adirondack lodge in a pristine and peaceful setting of woods, lakes and mountains. The large living room is suitable for meetings, stocked with easel pads, blackboard, slide projector, grand piano, coffee maker and VCR. In keeping with our function and philosophy of offering a retreat from the hectic outside world, there is only one pay phone and no fax; we can make photocopies in very small number only.
Conference participants provide their own transportation. The nearest airport is Albany, a 2 hour drive from the Center. Cars and vans can be rented there from the major companies. Amtrak trains from NYC (Penn Station) go to Albany-Resselaer, where Thrifty Car Rental will make arrangements (518-465-7315). For more information, write or call:
Harriet Barlow, Director
Blue Mountain Center
Blue Mountain Lake, NY 12812-0109
518-352-7391