ArtSake

She exhibits all over this tiny blue planet that rotates around the sun. Her work is collected by museums who have fancy shmancy cafe’s and bookstores. She writes and illustrates children’s books, wins awards, (75 and counting) and has seventeen honorary doctorates. And yes, she’s coming to Framingham. Faith Ringgold is in the house! She’s got a book signing on Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 3 pm at the Danforth Museum of Art and she’s also scheduled to give a lecture on Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 7 pm in the Dwight Performing Arts Center, Framingham State College. The Story Quilts are on view at the Danforth through March 1st as well as her original illustrations for her childrens book Aunt Harriets Underground Railway in the Sky.

Image Credit: from Danforth Museum’s Web site. Faith Ringgold’s Le Cafe des Artistes, (The French Collection, Part II: #11), 1994, acrylic on canvas with fabric boarders, 79 1/2 x 90 inches, Private Collection.
Front row, left to right: William H. Johnson, Archibald Motley, Willia Marie Simone, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Edmonia Lewis, Faith Ringgold. Middle row, left to right: Sargent Johnson, Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, Henry O. Tanner, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Vang Gogh, Augusta Savage, Back row, left to right: Ed Clark, Raymond Saunders, Jacob Lawrence, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Maurice Urtillo.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

This is one in a series of flash interviews with participants in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

So far, we’ve had three superb events in the Commonwealth Reading Series and 12 nano-interviews. And with two more readings to go, poet Caroline Klocksiem makes it lucky 13.

Caroline, who reads at Amherst Books on Tuesday, February 17, 8 PM, is a poet, literary journal editor, and the first artist to appear on this blog (to my knowledge) equally conversant in the criminal and the liminal (with training in forensics and poetry, respectively).

MCC: What are you working on these days?

Caroline: Pretty much what every writer’s working on… creating one manuscript while looking for a publisher for another. I’m also working on my push-up and bowling form.

MCC: What writer do you most admire but write nothing like?

Caroline: There’s probably a ton of correct answers, but right now I’m thinking Miklos Radnoti. He’s long been one of my favorites, but I don’t believe anyone would read my poems and then think, “ah, she’s read Clouded Sky a dozen times!” I’m amazed at his complicated relationship with language–as a means of witnessing and testament, survival, hope, re-making, escape… there’s this wonderful “nothing to lose” quality that makes his work such a privilege to read.

MCC: Whats the most embarrassing sentence/line of poetry youve ever written?

Caroline: I don’t know, but I suspect they are plentiful, and involve words like “cerulean” and “zephyr.”

MCC: Computer, longhand, or typewriter?

Caroline: Hybrid.

MCC: Do you secretly dream of being a) a pop icon, b) an algebra teacher, and/or c) a crime-solver/writer a la Jessica Fletcher?

Caroline: C! In college, I was the only poet in my forensics class.

MCC: Do you ever revise your work on the spot during live readings?

Caroline: Not on purpose.

Caroline joins Noy Holland, Elizabeth Porto, and Susie Patlove for an event at Amherst Books in Amherst on Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 8 PM.. Co-sponsored by jubilatand Juniper Initiative. Read about all of the events in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Caroline Klocksiem grew up in South Carolina, studied Creative Writing at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, and received an MFA from Arizona State University. In addition to a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship, she has received a Swarthout Award and a grant from the Arizona Arts and Letters Commission for her writing. She teaches college English and co-edits the online literary magazine 42opus. She thanks Drunken Boat, Spinning Jenny, Hotel Amerika, and Slurve Magazine for publishing her most recent work.

Read all of the nano-interviews.

Powered by Bookmarkify™