Readings, Lectures, and Events
West Egg Literati has planned the following events for spring
semester. Mark your calendars and plan on joining us!
We just saw signs that some ramps to and from I-35E are closed
during the weekends. Please make sure to have a couple of alternate
routes to Highland Park (1403 Montreal Avenue, Saint Paul, 55116)
in case your exit is closed.
West Egg will also be providing some protein for grilling. (Still
potluck, so bring whatever you'd like to share.)
Sunday, May 18
Final Reading Surrounded by Nature
Highland Park Picnic Pavilion
5 to 10 p.m.
Oh, the joy of survival! Come and celebrate your year with your fellow
West Eggers.
Come to:
- hang out
- bring a dish to share
- enter a drawing
- meet up with classmates new and old
- check out our cool t-shirts
- relax at the end of another hectic semester/year
- read for 3-5 minutes (10 if it’s from your thesis
[we
love you guys!])
- eat, drink, and party.
Bring your family; they’ll look great in WestEgg t-shirts
. . .
We’ll be providing soft drinks; you can bring whatever else
you’d like. There’s even a grill at our swanky
pavilion!
For directions, visit the Web
site, or use the following address: 1403 Montreal Ave., Saint
Paul, MN 55116.
FYI: The possession and consumption of non-intoxicating malt liquor
(containing not more than 3.2% alcohol by weight) is permitted
from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. within the designated picnic areas.
Glass beverage containers are not allowed.
Random Fun Times
Stay
tuned this summer if you’re in the Twin Cities
for monthly informal gatherings of a purely social nature in area
cafes and bars. Stop by to commiserate, gripe, unwind, or
just drink coffee, play pool, or talk to a West Egger you don’t
know. We think you’ll find it interesting and relaxing.
Sunday, February 17
Where's My Music?
Landmark Center
75 West 5th Street;
Saint Paul
1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Inspiration comes from everywhere. Let's find some together! Join
fellow West Eggers for an afternoon of writing around the rich
rooms of Landmark Center. With FIVE! gallery spaces showcasing
woodcraft, musical history, photography and more, there's sure
to be plenty of pen scratching. So if your muse is elusive or you
just want a heaping dose of what my grandma calls "culture," then
come find this interesting with us. Bring a notebook and your favorite
pen(cil).
For info about Landmark Center: www.landmarkcenter.org/museums.html
Sunday, March 2
Poets & Singers
Gary Schmidt and Phyllis Root
MPLS Center for Performing Arts (more
details to come)
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
A local shape-note singing group that was looking to do
a collaboration with local artists is teaming up with West Egg! The
creator of the event would really like poets to read throughout
the evening as a sort of continuing conversation between the poems
and the songs. While we hate to exclude prose writers in our program,
due to time constraints we'll probably have to insist that only
poems and short-short prose pieces be read.
What is shape-note singing?
Shape-note music is more democratic than a voting booth. Singers call the songs
they want to sing on a whim, and there's never any set order, which makes it
difficult to base a theme around the songs themselves. However, shape-note music
evolved, in part, from a tradition of making art with what you had, which usually
wasn't much on the surface. The shapes of the notes helped less formally trained
singers learn to read music and the lack of any instrumental accompaniment (like
piano) speaks to the fact that many early singers lived in rural areas without
access to a piano or knowledge of how to play one anyway. Above all, the tradition
is about community over "ability" and what our culture tends to think
of as solo performance, which has of course engendered thousands of able songs
and singers.
What are we looking for?
We'd do well to concentrate on that theme of community. If poets
want to create something new for the reading, we would suggest
writing about community or writing free verse or simply writing
with the idea that great art is not always solo performance-based.
While we will be reading our individual work aloud, the audience
will be listening in effort to hear what's being said rather
than who's saying it.
We’re looking for 5-10 poets. If you want to be one
of them, get in touch with us! (NOTE: Since this is a family
event, keep the language rated G.)
We’re also looking for audience members to come find this interesting
with us. It’s a unique collaboration and will be a treat
to hear as well as participate in.
Sunday, April
6
Craft Night Meet the Cornell Box
GLS House (tentative info, more details to come)
1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Do you want to get in touch with your inner Joseph
Cornell? Are there images you would like to exorcise
from your mind? Look in your junk drawers, excavate the
attic, and delve into the bottom of your sock drawers. Bring
in maps from trips you've never taken, the ballerina from your
9th birthday cake, and that key you haven't found the lock for
in the past decade. Combine them all in the artistic alchemy
that is the Cornell Box. Weekend afternoons may never be the
same again.
For more information, visit www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail.asp?id=264 or www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell.
Sunday,
May 18
Final Reading Surrounded by Nature
Location TBA
Oh, the joy of survival! Come and eat and read and mingle
with your fellow West Eggers at the conclusion of another successful
semester and year. There will be drawings, prizes, and time
to relax and talk and goof around. There may also be some
extended reading time for our graduates . . .
Random Fun
Times
Stay tuned for monthly informal gatherings of a purely
social nature in area cafes and bars. Stop by to commiserate,
gripe, unwind, or just drink coffee, play pool, or talk to a West
Egger you don’t know. We think you’ll find it
interesting and relaxing.
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