‘’THE STORIES WE KEEP FINDING INSIDE…”

My mother, Dorothy Greenlaw Marquart, loved books and words. In 1984, I published Their Adventurous Will: Profiles of Memorable Louisiana Women, which includes a preface about my mother’s love of words: “Every month for years, Mother would take one of the three children in our family to Claitor’s Bookstore in Baton Rouge, Louisiana [where I lived for eight years of my childhood] to choose two books for our nightly reading session. She was the first family member to open the books, touching pictures with credulous delight. My mother began to fly in the heavens long before Mary Poppins opened her first umbrella to make her wonderful flights…”

When I was nine, a Methodist minister’s daughter accidentally knocked out most of one front tooth with a croquet mallet while I was visiting my grandparents in Franklinton, Louisiana, and my grandfather pacified me with $25 (a lot of money back in 1944). When I returned to Baton Rouge, my mother promptly took me to Claitor’s Bookstore where I spent the entire day and the entire $25 on books.

At that time, the old Claitor’s was located downtown, not far from the State Capitol, and was a general bookstore with shelves of colorful children’s books; the store didn’t specialize in books pertaining mostly to law, as it does today (in a different location). The day that I spent my $25, Mrs. Otto Claitor looked after me, fed me books she thought I might like, and even gave me lunch while I searched for books to enliven our family’s nighttime reading.

Saturday, while I was waiting to deliver a reading from my latest book of poetry, A Slow Moving Stream, in the Capitol View Room of the Louisiana State Library at the Louisiana Book Festival, not far from the old Claitor’s, that memory of the $25 book day flashed into my mind. It was followed by the wish that the first owners of Claitor’s and my mother were alive to participate in such a wonderful festival of books sponsored by the Louisiana Center for the Book. I also wished that my mother could witness me reading my poems aloud in a room that included four Louisiana poet laureates: Darrell Bourque, Julie Kane, Ava Haymon, and Peter Cooley.

The 2016 Louisiana Book Festival was commemorated by a special art piece created by Kelly Guidry that now hangs in the Louisiana State Library and a prose poem by Darrell Bourque, former Louisiana Poet Laureate, entitled “Words, A Poem” about the “transformative nature of books in culture…” The sculpt piece, made of cedar and mounted on a base metal framework, is an angel with outspread wings nicknamed “Libby,” which is a shortened version of “Librarian.” Darrell’s prose poem, a powerful tribute to words and language, is too long to record here, but I couldn’t resist publishing an excerpt from the end lines: “...how language is a flight from one word to another, how sentences are made of those kinds of flying words, how stories are filled with the hum of bees telling us who we are, how to get to China, how to get to Malaysia, how to get to how we got here in the first place in the stories we keep finding inside the words set down inside us before we ever knew we could fly with them and in them.”

In 2004 the American Library Association honored the Louisiana Book Festival with the John Cotton Dana Award, citing the Festival’s “community partnerships, exceptional programs, and extensive media coverage.” In 2006 the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress recognized the Louisiana Book Festival with a 2007 Boorstin Center for the Book award, and I know that more awards will be forthcoming for this 13-year old event. Through recent communications with Jim Davis, Director, Louisiana Center for the Book, I can see why this Festival has achieved the excellence for which it has been recognized.

A special treat for me was an informal afternoon conversation with Rebecca Wells, author of the famous Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood: A Novel, who was interviewed by my good friend, Dr. Mary Ann Wilson, English professor at ULL. Over 200 writers were featured at the Festival, and it was certainly a “Mary Poppins flying in the heavens” event for me.

As I said, I’m sorry my mother missed it… but perhaps she didn’t. After all, the event was immortalized with a literary angel and a transformative poem that fit on the angel’s wings! And one of the poems I read was about my mother changing forms to become a brilliant cardinal – she must have been aloft Saturday!

Photograph by Darrell Bourque

WHEN THE ROBOTS COME…

"Sweet Feet"

Saturday evening at a poetry reading honoring Julie Kane, the Poet Laureate of Louisiana here at A and E Gallery in New Iberia, I was privileged to read alongside Julie and Clare Martin, a Lafayette poet who read from her recent book, Eating the Heart First. It was a fun night, and each of us had our moment reading our own brand of wry verse. One of the poems I read was about the advent of the robotic era, and this morning, my friend, Dr. Victoria Sullivan, who writes speculative fiction, began telling me about a science fiction novel she’s reading entitled The Night Sessions (Ken Macleod) in which all the characters have personal robots that follow them around. The creatures are databases with telescoping legs so that they can get shorter or taller, and they talk, analyze, and evaluate what is going on around them, arguing if necessary (in this novel, to assist in solving a mystery).

As I told my audience Saturday, I have one robot I wrote about in an earlier blog – a round, flying saucer-shaped object that responds to my pushing a large button in the middle of her belly and whom I call “Sweet Feet” because she doesn't talk back when I ask her to clean floors. In fact, she’s busy at the moment, and her quiet industriousness inspired me to write about the virtues of robots this morning. She does have a voracious appetite, often swallowing the fringes on rugs in the house, but my immediate surgical extractions result in her being up and doing in remarkable recovery time, within moments.

Some of the more interesting robots are the personal care creatures that are being used for the care of autistic children. It seems that since the robots have no expression on their faces and are less intimidating than humans, the autistic children respond more rapidly to teachings about how to respond to humans. Also, the Japanese, who have a burgeoning elderly population, are doing extensive research on robotic creatures because of the growing need for personal care of old people.

In the field of mining, robots are being used to automate the most dangerous, costly, and difficult mining jobs, which results in higher efficiency and productivity in American operations. Robots allow the miners to negotiate hard-to-reach deposits and to extract the minerals more economically than existing extraction methods.

There are more entries online about robots than you can shake a stick at, including reviews of “The Robots,” a movie made in 2005 that features these mechanical creatures. The star of "The Robots" is a young inventor who creates a “Wonderbot” because he wants to make the world a better place for everyone and who tries to keep older robots from the Chop Shop where they’ll be shredded and melted down. The characters have mechanical names like “Ratchet,” “Gasket,” “Big Weld,” etc.

I really appreciate my no-talking-back creature, “Sweet Feet,” and like to read about the future of robotics, but, ultimately my sentiments are expressed in the poem I read Saturday, “When the Robots Come,” in which I acknowledge a Creator (who probably inspired the creation of the robots – we know so little about the “aha” moments of human creativity and from whence they come). In the poem, I refer to “…the unseen hand close behind/the hard sheets of water/now drowning the drought…in that time/when we sit at breakfast,/watching the benign showers,/we can bless a moving hand/forcing the rainfall/on our parched world,/a hand that is, perhaps,/a winsome vapor/but will not wind down/or need recharging,/and will understand our cosmic folly.”

FESTIVAL OF WORDS

Patrice Melnick

Yesterday, my blog highlighted a food festival held in New Iberia, Louisiana called The World Championship Gumbo Cook-Off, an event that emphasizes one of the favorite pastimes of denizens of Cajun country – eating. Shortly after publishing the blog, I communicated with Patrice Melnick, executive director of Festival of Words and co-owner of Casa Azul Gifts in Grand Coteau, Louisiana to talk about another Louisiana festival that focuses on a subject dear to my heart: poetry. The range from Cajun cuisine to soul nourishment reflects the richness of south Louisiana, even in remote rural areas like the small town of Grand Coteau, population 1,040, where the Festival of Words takes place.

The Festival of Words emphasizes that Poetry is For Everyone and features events that showcase this idea. It’s a literary festival that includes top level authors teaching hands-on creative writing workshops in schools and Drive by Poetry events which  feature youth performing in the streets, in cafes and gift shops.  The Festival features beginning writers reading along with professional authors and sponsors creative writing workshops in public schools and antique shops. The program has grown from 100 poetry/story lovers to a festival that attracts 750 people across south Louisiana and the south at large.

Festival of Words was launched by its present executive director, Patrice Melnick, who has been corresponding with me from the time I made a donation in support of this year’s annual festival, slated for Nov. 5-11, with activities at Grand Coteau and in St. Martin and St. Landry parishes. Louisiana Poet Laureate, Julie Kane, will read, as well as North Carolina author Randall Kenan (a familiar face at the Sewanee Writer’s Conference), spoken word artist Bonny McDonald (with whom I performed at a reading, along with Darrell Bourque, former Louisiana Poet Laureate, in New Iberia, a few years ago), and other noted writers. Of course, Patrice will also be performing.

I asked Patrice to fill me in on her background and education and to talk about the launching of this literary arts festival that began five years ago. She was up late last night answering my questions about an event that touts it “will do anything to convince people that poetry is for them.” Here are Patrice’s late night thoughts:

Moore: Where were you born and educated?

Melnick: I was born in Dallas, Texas. I earned my B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin. I received an MFA in Creative Writing (nonfiction) from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Moore: What attracted you to teaching at Xavier University at a time when it was an all-black college?

Melnick: Xavier is still a predominantly black college. At the time, I was looking for work and applied at several colleges in New Orleans, including Xavier. They offered me a job, so I took it. I liked Xavier’s efforts to educate students, many of whom were first generation college students. The attitude of the university is that those who are bright, but may have had poor preparation, still deserved access to higher education. While many of the students were well-qualified, those who lacked basics or study skills still had the opportunity to acquire them in special courses.

That Xavier was a black Catholic college was not an issue. I am at ease, generally, with people of different cultures, and patient with myself through any adjustment period needed. Also, I have always read literature and music of other cultures—black American, Latin American, middle eastern, African or Native American. I love to explore and learn from different perspectives.

Moore: What prompted you to initiate the Festival of Words program?

Melnick: When I opened a gift shop in Grand Coteau called Casa Azul in 2005, I could only afford enough merchandise to fill half of the building, so the empty back area was sectioned off. I also had trouble attracting customers so I started an open mic series in the back of the shop. As a writer, open mic was something I knew how to do. At the first open mic, maybe five people showed up, and most did not know what to do. I brought copies of poems and distributed them for people to take turns reading at the podium. Over time the open mic gained popularity, and the audience averaged 25 to 30 people. In 2008 I was encouraged by the community liaison of the Acadiana Center for the Arts to apply for a grant. We did, and received funding. This allowed us to pay artists, and invite a wider range of performers. As attention to the literary arts grew, a group of us decided to start a literary arts festival.

In 2010, we founded our own nonprofit organization, the Festival of Words Cultural Arts Collective.

We started the Festival of Words because there was a lack of literary arts in the area. We decided to emphasize outreach because otherwise our audience would have been very small! Most in the area had never attended a literary reading, and we were determined to get people involved from youth to senior citizens. I believe in the power of creative expression and the power of the written and spoken word. It is heartening to see someone read an original poem in front of an audience for the first time. You can see his face change as he realizes the power of his own words. As more youth become interested in writing, they will become more effective readers, writers and creative thinkers. This leads to higher achievement in academics, and more young people are likely to enter college.

Moore: Did you receive a grant as a jump start?

Melnick: This year, we received a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a Decentralized Arts Funding (DAF) grant and a grant from South Arts. We are grateful for all of these grants, but the DAF grant, which we depended upon in the past, equaled about 30% of the amount we had received in previous years.

Moore: Who are your students in the program – percentage of old and young folks?

Melnick: The Festival of Words emphasizes outreach to people who may have had little exposure to the arts.  At this annual festival, about 70% of those involved are youth, and 30% are adults. Ten percent of the adults are senior citizens.

Drive-by poets reading on location

We reach the youth in several ways. Featured authors teach creative writing workshops in the public school classrooms of St. Landry Parish. Many are meeting an author for the first time in their lives! Also, our “Drive-by Poetry,” director, Bruce Coen, teaches youth to perform poems by featured authors. Then they perform “drive-by poetry,” in grocery stores, fast-food restaurants, and other mundane locations. This is all coordinated with businesses in advance. The event brings poetry into everyday lives. Students look forward to it every year.

Moore: Who have been some of the featured authors and sponsors in the program?

Melnick: We have specific criteria for our authors: 1) they must be accomplished authors or performers 2) writings must be accessible to the general public 3) must be effective educators 4) must be interested in community and audience development. 5) must be nice—it makes it easier to attract residents.

We know that we will draw people who love literature. But that is not enough. In our desire to be inclusive, we attempt to engage people of all ages, folks who may have thought they did not like poetry. We think we can convince them otherwise.  

Darrell Bourque, former LA
Poet Laureate

One major participant has been Darrell Bourque, previously Poet Laureate of Louisiana. He has been connected to our events since we were just a small open mic series in the back of Casa Azul Gifts. He obviously cares deeply about poetry and people, and now he serves as president of our board of directors. He has used his notoriety to draw attention to the Festival of Words and our mission to inspire creative expression and higher levels of literacy. Another major participant has been spoken word poet Chancelier “Xero” Skidmore who is director of Forward Arts, a Baton Rouge arts education organization that teaches creative writing and performance. “Xero,” has advised us on our programming and has brought the Baton Rouge youth slam team to Casa Azul Gifts to perform several times. He and others in the Baton Rouge slam poetry community have donated many hours to perform and teach in Grand Coteau and the surrounding area. Other favorite visitors have included Tim Seibles, Cornelius Eady, Toi Derricotte and Kendra Hamilton. All were accomplished, yet with kind, generous personalities.

Moore: Where is your favorite space to hold the event?

Melnick: I likescheduling events at St. Charles Chapel, which used to be called Christ the King Church. The Chapel served as the black church in town, before desegregation, and the creole community revolved around this institution. At Christ the King church parishioners held fairs, had baptisms, weddings and other events. I knew residents had a lot of affection for this building and that it would be a comfortable place for them to attend an event. We always have a resident introduce the building before the program begins. This year, a tour of the chapel will be available on November 10 .

My 2^nd favorite location is the back area of Casa Azul because that is where it all began. The space is intimate and eclectic.

Moore: Do you ever appear in a program? And what comprises a typical performance?

Melnick: For the first time this year, I will be one of the featured authors. I have a new book out called Po-boy Contraband, a memoir.

Our programming includes poetry, fiction and nonfiction. We also include some music, especially on the community stage where we hold an all-day open mic on November 10. The festival includes art work created by area youth, which serves as a backdrop at the literary readings.

Oral history is also part of our programming. Each month we invite a Grand Coteau resident to share stories of growing up in the area. The presentation is filmed and preserved in the Cajun and Creole Archives at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. During this year’s annual festival, there will be a tour of the old St. Peter Claver High school and St. Charles Chapel. There will also be a story-sharing session in St. Charles Chapel, which will be recorded and archived.

The Festival of Words wants to elevate the written and spoken word which includes stories. Oral history is a natural fit for this literary arts program.

Moore: Is this your full-time job or do you have another occupation?

Melnick: The Festival of Words in not my full-time job. I also run Casa Azul Gifts and I am a writer.

Moore: How do you think the Festival affects literacy? Are there any measurable results from programs offered?

Melnick: Most of the progress we see is anecdotal—but notable. When we began the program, there were no writing groups or other open mics in the area. Since then, three participating schools have started their own poetry clubs and open mics. Three adult writing groups have also started in the community. In the last three years, more businesses and festivals are including the literary arts. The Festival of Words now has a poetry performance component. Teachers, art administrators, and individuals from as far as Lake Charles and Baton Rouge ask for advice on how to build a literary arts community.

Moore: Will you being doing fundraisers every year for the program or do you anticipate state funding at some later date?

Melnick: I anticipate we will be doing fundraisers every year for the foreseeable future. If state and national funding for the arts becomes more available, we might do less fundraising, however it is very important to have the support of the community in which we work. These donations indicate community approval of our programming.

Moore: In the book, Running and Being by George Sheehan, he emphasizes that enlightened people include poets, philosophers, and athletes.  What do you think of that statement?

Melnick: I don’t know how to comment on this statement—I think I would need a better sense of the context. But I feel that enlightenment can come from reflection, creative expression, and an interest in humanity. One could argue that all of these types of people may have this in common.

To pledge support link to Festival of Words, and click “Manage Your Pledge.” Patrice says they’re only a few hundred dollars short of the goal for this annual event. Pony up for poetry!

Photograph of Patrice Melnick by Philip Gould, noted Louisiana photographer; other photos supplied by Patrice Melnick