Never underestimate the power of your dreams, or the power of printed words that can transform them into their own realities.

Hemlocks

–Donna Reis

21 November 2009 4 pm – ?

Baby Grand Books
7 West St
Warwick, NY

The Black Dirt Storytelling Group has been running Tellabration events for ten years and invite you to join them this Saturday 21 November at 2 pm in the Florida Public Library and participate (that is, listen and/or tell your story).

Bring the gift of stories to your family this Thanksgiving -

Black Dirt Storytelling Group
Florida Public Library
4 Cohen Circle
Florida, NY

Open mic and a fun night of poetry at the vineyards, over 21 only by all measure.

First up, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby.  Bauby was the French editor of Elle magazine.  In 1995, he suffered a stroke that lead him to be paralyzed except for a little movement in his head and eyes.  He transcribed the entire book through a series of eye blinks, over 200,000 communicated over 10 months to a scribe. Bauby’s essays are remarkable simply because they exist. His observations are amazingly full of humor, generosity, and devoid of much self-pity.  More amazing, he died just two days after the publication of his work.

His story was turned into a movie directed by American Julian Schnabel.

Chris Godwin, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Orange will lead the discussion.  The story is fascinating, but does the movie hold up to the book?  Join the discussion

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
7:00pm-9:00pm
Film will be shown the following week. Sept. 29 at 7:00 PM.

Middletown Thrall Library
11-19 Depot St
Middletown, NY

Here’s the trailer to the movie:

Lynn will be reading her work Sunday, 13 September 2009 at 3 pm

Pacem in Terris
96 Covered Bridge Rd
Warwick NY

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is one of the best resources for artists in New York State.  Established back in 1971 by NYSCA as an independent organization, NFA has one of the most highly organized operations, roviding information to artists through their NYFA Source database (which is free and online, and you really should use), to offering Fellowships and grants to artists.

The NFA Artists’ Fellowships are $7,000 cash awards made to individual originating artists living and working in the state of New York for unrestricted use. Grants are awarded in 16 artistic disciplines, with applications accepted in eight categories each year. Since the awards began in 1985, NYFA has awarded over $22 million to over 3,688 artists. In 2009, NYFA awarded 131 Fellowships to 134 artists, with six of them working in a collaboration.

This year’s categories for review are: Architecture/Environment Structures, Choreography, Fiction, Music/Sound, Painting, Photography, Playwriting/Screenwriting, and Video

The deadlines for NYFA’s 2009-2010 Artists’ Fellowships will be:

November 2, 2009
Fiction
Playwriting/Screenwriting
Photography

November 3, 2009
Painting
Music/Sound

November 4, 2009
Architecture/Environmental Structures
Choreography
Video

This is a fantastic grant opportunity for individual artists that should not be missed.  They are highly competitive, but the application process is one of the best out there.

To get an insight into their process and see how their panels work, NFA is holding a number of workshops around the state for applicants.  The closest workshop to us is in Woodstock on 21 September – noon – 4 p.  More information on the workshop itself can be found here.

Monday, September 21, 12:00pm-4:00pm
Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild
Theater at Byrdcliffe Colony
3 Upper Byrdcliffe Way
Woodstock, NY
Carla Smith (845) 679-2079
rsvp to http://woodstockbyrdcliffe.eventbrite.com

Check them out and good luck!

Bring your favorite story on our theme ~ Tips, Tricks & Techniques ~ along with any hints and advice you’d like to swap. We will welcome special guests from Rye Storytellers and The Peekskill Spellbinders. The Florida Public Library is located at 4 Cohen Circle behind Village Hall in Florida, NY. Please call the library at 651-7659 or contact Madelyn Folino at mfolino@rcls.org for information or directions.

Thursday, August 13 at 7:30 p

Florida Public Library
4 Cohen Circle
Florida NY

On Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 3 PM, historian Peter Osborne will present Stephen Crane Remembered, a slide show which looks at the life of Stephen Crane in the context of the Tri-State region, where he lived a significant part of his life. This will be held at Port Java, 19 Front St., Port Jervis, NY. This is a free event, presented by the Port Jervis Council for the Arts, Port Java, and the Pienpack Company.

Marbrook’s book of poetry Far from Algiers (Kent State University Press, 2008) was winner of the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. His poems have been recently accepted or published by American Poetry Review, Oberon, The Same, Reed, The Ledge, Istanbul Literary Review, Arabesques Literary and Cultural Review, Damazine, Perpetuum Mobile, Attic, and Chronogram.

Edward Hirsch praised Far from Algiers as a “splendid first book, which brings together the energy of a young poet with the wisdom of long experience.”

Marbrook started writing poems in Manhattan when he was fourteen. In his thirties he abandoned poetry after publishing a few poems in small journals, but he never stopped reading and studying poetry. Then at age sixty-seven, appalled by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the poet within awakened. Stuffing sky-blue notebooks in his pockets, Marbrook began walking around Manhattan determined to affirm his beloved home in the wake of the nihilistic attacks. Far from Algiers emerged from hundreds of poems he has composed in the years since.

He is also a fiction writer whose work has been published by Prima Materia (Woodstock, NY), Breakfast All Day (UK and France), Online Originals (London), Potomac Review (Washington, DC), and The Country and Abroad (Pine Plains, NY). An excerpt from his unpublished novel Crowds of One won the Literal Latt fiction prize in 2008 under the title “Artists’ Hill.”

He worked for many years as a reporter and editor with Providence Journal, Elmira Star-Gazette, Baltimore Sun, Winston-Salem Journal, Washington Star, and other newspapers. Though born in Algiers, he grew up in New York.

4 pm, Saturday 1 August

Baby Grand Books
7 West Street
Warwick