How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Arts & Life
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center invites the public to its final Restore printmaking class featuring drypoint etching and monotype with artist Nicholas Hay, assisted by Darina Simeonova.
The class will take place this Saturday, May 4, from 1 to 5 p.m.
Adults and children age 11 and up of all levels of art making experience, from newbies to professionals, can attend this fun and inspiring class for just $5.
“We’ll be working with both drypoint and monotype this time,” explained Hay. “For drypoint, we’ll draw into a plastic plate with a metal etching pen. Participants can make changes and refinements to their image and run their plate through the press several times during class. We‘ll also flip the plate to work in free hand monotype with the same image, or with a new image on a separate plate. In monotype one draws with printing ink directly onto the plate, then runs the plate through the press, which lends itself more easily to working with color! The process of printmaking is quite magical, and anyone who likes to draw can create compelling images.”
Please register in advance for all Restore classes at http://www.middletownartcenter.org/restore, email
Work from printmaking and writing classes will contribute to MAC’s second chapbook of writings and images, as well as Restore exhibitions.
The final writers’ workshop with Georgina Marie and Casey Carney will be held May 11 from 1 to 5 p.m. MAC’s first chapbook, Resilience – a community reframes disaster through art, is available for purchase at MAC or on the MAC Web site. You can preview the book at www.middletownartcenter.org/chapbook .
Installation of Vertical Pathways on Rabbit Hill, a collaborative art work by Restore sculpture workshop participants, begins Sunday, May 5, at 10 a.m. Folks wishing be a part the project by assisting with installation can meet at MAC at 10 a.m. or stop by Rabbit Hill to help between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
A festive opening reception in partnership with the Lake County Land Trust, stewards of Rabbit Hill, will take place May 17, from 5 to 7 p.m. Call the art center to learn more at 707-809-8118.
The Restore project was made possible with support from the California Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from the Lake County Land Trust and other local organizations, businesses, and individuals.
Visit www.arts.ca.gov to learn more about the California Arts Council’s work in communities and schools throughout California. Learn more about the Lake County Land Trust at www.lakecountylandtrust.org.
Be a part of the growing arts and cultural scene in South Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by participating in Restore classes, or by attending one of the many events or classes at MAC.
Be sure to catch the first First Fridays Art Walk of the season this Friday, May 3, from 6 to 9 p.m. featuring a fashion show by Lake County makers.
The MAC Gallery currently features “Living Color,” a vibrant exhibit open to the public Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or “Like” Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up-to-date.
- Details
- Written by: Middletown Art Center
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1951 musical, “Show Boat,” starring Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel and Ava Gardner, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, May 14, at 1 and 6 p.m.
Entry to the film is by donation.
Based on an Edna Ferber novel, with score by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, “Show Boat” abounds with wonderful songs that are staples of musical theater including “Make Believe,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” “Why Do I Love You?” and, best of all, “Ol’ Man River.”
Musicals made in Hollywood before “Show Boat” were frilly, simple boy-meets-girl scenarios with a string of unrelated songs, but “Show Boat” changed all that, adding drama and complexity by giving audiences a cohesive story, songs that are linked to the plot, and a theme that touches on serious subjects such as slavery and intermarriage.
The movie is sponsored by Arlene Hanson. Not rated. Run time is 1 hour and 48 minutes.
The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
UKIAH, Calif. – Every spring, for the past 16 years, the Mendocino College Spring Dance Festival has provided entertainment for the entire family.
This year is no exception.
Mendocino College dancers and local guest performers will take to the Mendocino College Center Theatre stage on Thursday, May 2, Friday, May 3, and Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 5 at 2 p.m. to share what they have to say, through movement.
Dance styles such as hip-hop, jazz, contemporary, ballet, and Middle Eastern dance will be performed.
Illuminating the stage with their passions, concerns, and ideas, Mendocino College student chorographers Jasmine Byerley, Clara Carstensen, Yves Charles, Rickie Emilie Farah, Traci Hunt, Oscar Montelongo Medina, Carolina Torres, Ari Sunbeam, and Megan Youell will share their original works.
Jasmine Byerley speaks about her riveting duet Solitude, which she performs with Oscar Montelongo Medina: “Anxiety, failure, pride, fear – what if we did not have to face our demons alone? This piece contemplates the isolation that comes from the fear of admitting the need for help.”
Choreographer Carolina Torres explores the subtle struggles of living with a mother who suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in a power solo titled, Part of Me.
In contrast, Clara Carstensen’s dance 21, 13, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1 melds her love of life with her interest in science.
“The name of the dance comes from the Fibonacci sequence, which is shown in the dancers’ steps and which represents the processes of how people accomplish their goals in life,” Carstensen said.
Rickie Farah, who will be graduating with an AA from Mendocino College this spring and attending school in Southern California to complete her BFA in Theater, debuts her first piece of choreography this spring, “Aferrándonos.”
Farah’s title reflects the passion she puts into her work: “Afferrándos means to hang on or hold on to each other,” she says, “and in this case, it is about the struggles of holding on to one another in a world full of diversions pulling one in different directions.”
First time choreographer Megan Youell brings her creative imagination to a group of nine dancers in her dynamic work When We Break. Youell said, “When We Break imagines people made of glass, who break under the stress brought on by anxiety.”
Veteran choreographers Traci Hunt, Yves Charles, Ari Sunbeam, and Oscar Montelongo Medina will also present new works that explore themes such as magnetism, the surrealism of scrawling text, the humor behind swimming with sharks, and what happens when someone continually asks you, “how are you doing?”
Dances choreographed by college dance instructors Rachel Young and Eryn Schon-Brunner will also be presented, with special appearances by Middle-Eastern dancer Juliana Castillo and Mendocino Ballet Co.
Mendocino Ballet will share original works by Trudy McCreaner and Piper Faulk, as well as a restaging of Ivanov and Petipa’s Swan Lake Pas de Deux, with Yves Charles (Mendocino College Dance) and Hannah Woolfenden (Mendocino Ballet Co.).
Mendocino College singers and musicians will share the stage with the dancers, and the Mendocino College Art Gallery, featuring student art works, will be open before the show and during intermission. It will be a multimedia event.
Additionally, Dance Club scholarships will be awarded during the evening to Traci Hunt and Jasmine Byerley, and the Kayla Grace Chesser Scholarship Awards will be presented to Rickie Farah and Margarita Diaz.
The Spring Dance Festival is a family-friendly event. Tickets are $10 for everyone and can be purchased at the door or in advance at the Mendocino College Bookstore, the Mendocino Book Company, in Ukiah or online.
Tickets may also be ordered over the phone by calling 707-468-3079. The Mendocino College Center Theatre is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
There's nothing that can't be a good subject for a poem. The hard part is to capture something in such a way that it becomes engaging and meaningful.
Here's a poem from the Summer 2018 issue of Rattle, by Peg Duthie of Tennessee, in which two very different experiences are pushed up side by side. Her most recent book of poetry is “Measured Extravagance” (Upper Rubber Boot, 2012).
Decorating a Cake While Listening to Tennis
The commentator's rabbiting on and on
about how it's so easy for Roger, resentment
thick as butter still in a box. Yet word
from those who've done their homework
is how the man loves to train––how much
he relishes putting in the hours
just as magicians shuffle card after card,
countless to mere humans
but carefully all accounted for.
At hearing "luck" again, I stop
until my hands relax their clutch
on the cone from which a dozen more
peonies are to materialize. I make it look easy
to grow a garden on top of a sheet
of fondant, and that's how it should appear:
as natural and as meant-to-be
as the spin of a ball from the sweetest spot
of a racquet whisked through the air like a wand.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Peg Duthie, "Decorating a Cake While Listening to Tennis," from Rattle, (Vol. 24, No. 2, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Peg Duthie and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
- Details
- Written by: Ted Kooser
