Opening Reception for Anthony Lewis at Harbison Theatre - Friday, March 1st

Anthony Lewis at Harbison Theatre Gallery

• Friday, March 1, 2024

• 6:30 PM 8:30 PM

• Harbison Theatre at Midlands Technical College7300 College Street

• Irmo, SC

Join The Jasper Project and Anthony Lewis as we celebrate the opening of his exhibition in the gallery space at Harbison Theatre. 
 
At 6:30 PM, Anthony will speak briefly and give you the opportunity to enjoy his work prior to the opening curtain for The String Queens. During intermission, you’re invited to revisit the art and speak with Anthony individually. His artwork will be available for purchase. Learn more about Anthony and his work below.

The exhibition is free and available for viewing from March through May 2024.

About Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis is a South Carolina based abstract figurative painter and photographer. Lewis studied at the School of Visual Art and Design where he graduated from the University of South Carolina with his Bachelor of Fine Arts, Studio Art with a concentration on painting.  

Anthony, a multi-disciplined visual artist, likes to explore the good the bad and the injustices around the black folks' experience in the United States such as, mass incarceration, black on black crime, police brutality, mental health, suicide, the beauty of being black and the everyday struggles of the black man, woman, and child dating back to the early 1900s throughout the great black migration, Harlem Renaissance and well up into the 70s.  He enjoys the concept of being able to travel back in time and capture the being of black folk. 

He likes the use of different techniques and mediums such as acrylic, oil, charcoal, mixed-media, assemblage, and black and white film photography. He merges small scale vintage black and white photographs and larger scale paintings of black people in his paintings to form a collage. He enjoys the exploration of the creative process so he can stretch the limits of his ingenuity, flexibility and mediums needed to be successful during the process. He admires the thought of not being confined in an innovative box.  

Artist Statement

As a visual artist, I like to explore the good the bad and the injustices around the black folks’ experiences, such as, mass incarceration, black on black crime, police brutality, mental health, suicide, and the beauty of being black and the everyday struggles of the black man, woman, and child. His African American men and women dating back the early 1900's, the Black Migration, and the Harlem Renaissance. 

I have always enjoyed thinking about what my life would have been like if I could time travel and live in a different time and place, how I would have existed, loved, struggled, and breathed in another climate, so I named this series, “Blk Beingz-Essence of Matter’ as a need to revisit the existence of black children from different times in the past, like the renaissance era, slavery, the early 1900s and the great migration. 

This series will introduce you to the work I have done over the course of my BFA program at the University of South Carolina. This body of work includes different techniques and mediums such as oil, graphite, mixed media, collage, assemblage, black and white photos. 

I enjoy the exploration of the creative process so I can stretch the limits of my ingenuity, flexibility and mediums needed to be successful during the process. I also admire the thought of not being confined to an innovative box. 

Some of Anthony’s influences are, but not limited to, Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Augusta Savage, Bisa Butler, Kara Walker, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Romare Bearden.

News from Columbia Repertory Dance Company - Riggs CreateAthon and DUMBO Dance Fest in Brooklyn

At Jasper, we have a special place in our hearts for Columbia Repertory Dance Company for many reasons. To start with, the company is working to change an unhealthy dance culture in Columbia that still supports dancers weighing in before they can dance and being suspended without pay when their weight comes in a bit high. We like the way they choreograph around dancers of all ages and sizes. And given the reality that the dance season in Columbia is rarely more than 6 months long — and professional dancers here tend to be forbidden to dance with other companies, even when they are off-contract — we like the way CRDC provides a dance home for professional dancers who rail against this unfair practice. On top of this, we’re particularly proud of this young company because the organization started out as a Jasper project before becoming a non-profit dance company in their own right. So we’re happy to share news from the CRDC with you. 

Columbia Repertory Dance Company is thrilled to announce that they are one of five groups chosen as clients for Riggs Partners 2024 CreateAthon. "Riggs Partners founded CreateAthon in 1998 as an innovative way to provide probono marketing services to nonprofits in South Carolina." Over a two day period in March, a team at the design firm will work to help supply CRDC with the marketing tools and direction they need to better fulfill their mission of broadening the patron experience and extending the dance season in Columbia.

In more news for CRDC, for the second year in a row, Cola Rep Dance Company has been invited to perform in Brooklyn, NY at the DUMBO Dance Festival. Happening June 27-30, this year the company's selected repertoire is Stephanie Wilkins's Ache, performed most recently in their 2023 concert, In Our Time. Last season, the company took seven dancers to perform the works Agitato and Forgiveness Part 2 at the same festival.

Auditions!!!

Columbia Repertory Dance Company still has some openings for dancers. They are seeking professional dancers with availability April through September on Monday and Friday mornings, weekends and the occasional evening.

Send headshot, resume, and work samples to Colarepdanceco@gmail.com

Poetry of the People Featuring TAMARA MILES

This week's Poet of the People is Tamara Miles. Tamara is a dynamo. She hosts workshops, readings, salons, and poetry walks in state parks. As the president of the Poetry Society of South Carolina. She is busy attempting to visit every corner and every county in South Carolina. 

Tamara Miles has been teaching English at the college level for over 25 years. Her poetry has been published in a variety of journals and anthologies, and she has a small event chapbook called Earth Gospel. She was the director of the Writing Studio at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College for five years. Spirit Plants Radio hosted her radio show called Where the Most Light Falls, which featured poetry and music. She attended the Sewanee Writers Conference in 2016, and a Rivendell Writers Retreat in 2017 as well as several other festivals and conferences. She has been a featured poet for many events, including at O’Bheal in Cork City, Ireland and at a festival in Devon, England.

Townsend’s Rocky Mountain Hare

(an ekphrastic poem)

Drawn on stone, the Audubon pair sit side

by side and stare, alert to the hawk, one’s long ears

hung back, his mate’s up like a question, one tail

harnessed flat to ground, one hooked to sky,

on the whole designed for speed, earnest

as a schoolboy’s raised hand to his teacher’s

hostile eye --- and after school, the mad dash home

in early summer heat --

jackrabbits, half helpless on the wormwood plain,

white throats thick, markings as signal red as a fawn

or a fresh bruise ---

only their feet fly to where they might hide out

in a hollow, but here they are held still as punctuation

marks that halt a rush of thoughts and hush wild words ---

years I spent in flight, the suspected hazard

unresolved on canvas. A harsh world for the ones

who wait, huddled, for their names to be called,

for the brief lifting upward, before silence.

 Tommy’s Dream

Tommy grew on rural land,

away from the city’s clatter.

At seventeen, bruised and battered,

stumbling home, he fell half alive

and could go no further.

He went to bones in a row

of blackberry bushes three miles

from his country door. Blackberry

vines covered his body until his skull

and twenty-five other bony pieces

of him were spotted by a neighbor

searching for dark fruit.

I read about in the newspaper.

I remembered the lake house

I rented, for a year in Heflin, Alabama,

where blackberries grew wild

around a spring, and snakes

that must have been there did not bother

me.

My small worries didn’t matter.

The blackberries grew so rich

and fine that year, boldly black,

and at homes all around the south, juicy-full,

our hands that picked them scratched

and bled in scorching heat to find

and claim them for cobbler served

warm with ice cream.

With these hands,

we made our pleasure. We tasted

what was left of Tommy’s dreams,

sadness spooned through the batter.

In a Dream, My Father

A city at night, a carnival

in neon green just across

the water,

welcoming

Ferris wheel, bridge,

a kind of train or sled

pulled by jackaloxes,

and next a cart of fruit

spilling toward me.

I caught a navel orange,

bruised at the top, studied

it and put it back.

A fancy hall, red-painted

walls; I pushed a man

in a wheelchair toward

a door,

and on the other

side people waited in line,

excited to see the show.

I can’t give you everything,

I said, but I can give you

this,

and in his childlike way

he stared, holding tight

to a stuffed animal

I’d won.

Kitty Hawk, 1903

As boys, the bike-shop brothers

flew their kites and clutched

at guiding strings.

They saw the gathering wind

had blind ambitions,

and witnessed, too, a band

of birds climb toward

culled clouds with ease

as if the sky had called

their names.

Then, in the dreams

that come to boys,

the names they heard above

were theirs – Wilbur wrote

of his obsession as disease.

Always, first, a dream is met

with some suspicion, both

within the self and out.

What crafted wings

could bear the two to clouds?

Their parents winked --

others must have laughed

out loud, offered nothing

but derision.

Now, in December,

to the Outer Banks

they came, past the seven

hundredth glide, and for twelve

seconds rose on powered wings

because they were more

brave than proud

and sought true freedom

more than fame.

REVIEW: USC'S A RAISIN IN THE SUN Offers "A Masterclass" by Turner and Sanders

A Raisin in the Sun is the story of the Youngers, a Black family, living in poverty in the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. It is the story of the “American Dream,” and the true ability, and the cost, of achieving that dream. Lena (Jocelyn Sanders), her son, Walter Lee, Jr. (De’On Turner) and his wife Ruth (Aaliyah Broadwater), her daughter Beneatha (Fiona Schreier), and Walter Lee and Ruth’s son Travis (Dorian Mitchell)  live together in the same run-down apartment Lena and Walter Lee Sr. moved into right after their wedding. There is a shared bath down the hallway.

The Senior Mr. Younger has recently died, and the family is waiting on the arrival of a life insurance check for $10,000.00. A life-changing sum. Each family member has a different dream for the money – Mama and Ruth dream of owning a home, Walter Lee wants to purchase a liquor store in order to become a successful businessman, and Beneatha dreams of going to medical school.

Walter Lee is employed as a chauffeur, and chafes at the restrictions imposed on him by his color and his demeaning position. He sees purchasing a liquor store as the way out and up. Lena, a God-fearing, church-going woman, is utterly opposed to both the sale and consumption of alcohol; it becomes very clear very early that the insurance money will never be used to achieve Walter Lee’s dream. Lena and Ruth, each domestic workers, yearn to move out of the dingy apartment and into a “real” home. The small determined potted plant in the kitchen window represents Lena’s wish for a garden of her own. College student Beneatha is trying to fight the stereotypes of Black women, the oppression of the Black community, and is questioning the religious beliefs with which she has been instilled from birth. Travis is an adorable ten-year old kid being spoiled into oblivion by his doting and over-indulgent grandmother. But wait! There’s more! Ruth is pregnant. Yes. Conflict and confrontation abound.

Lena finally has had enough of the bickering. She leaves the house and, on her return, advises the family that she has purchased a home. In Clybourne Park. A very white neighborhood. (Why buy a house in a white neighborhood? Because it was less expensive than a home in a Black neighborhood.)

“I do not use the term tour de force lightly… It is the only phrase I can use to describe De’ On Turner’s performance”

I do not use the term tour de force lightly. Or even ever. It is the only phrase I can use to describe De’ On Turner’s performance as Walter Lee Jr. His frustration of being a young, intelligent, able-bodied, poverty-stricken Black man is inextricably intertwined with his frustration with trying to achieve his dreams of success. The coiled-up energy inside is barely/rarely concealed. Turner paces the stage with the fluidity of a cat, and is by turns loving, seductive, impish, frustrated, angry, and desperate. He is explosive and, at times, both frightening and frightened. I have seen Mr. Turner onstage a number of times; he improves exponentially with each role.

Jocelyn Sanders is a gift to the stage, and it’s been too long since she’s been on one. Her many directorial outings are well-received, but it is a joy to watch her create one of the theatre’s most enduring characters. Her Lena is loving and tired and frustrated and hopeful. Her musings on her late husband are so vivid that he becomes an unseen yet very present member of the cast. Her heartbreak over the loss of her Walter Lee Sr. is palpable; the family’s chance at achieving the aforementioned “American Dream” exists at the cost of the life of the family patriarch.

Sanders and Turner together is a masterclass. To watch two consummate actors play off  each other is mesmerizing. I truly found myself on the edge of my seat. Columbia has always had a bountiful supply of amazing actors; this is your chance to watch two of the best in action.

“Jocelyn Sanders is a gift to the stage”

Aaliyah Broadwater was able to hold my attention simply by walking across stage. Her love for her husband and her family is ever present, as is her utter exhaustion – both physical and emotional. Fiona Schreier is a fierce Beneatha! On fire to change the world, refusing to marry her current wealth suitor, and learning and understanding more about her heritage from an African exchange student. (Sometimes you also want to smack her for being so self-centered, but … such is youth.)

Michaelmikkel Wright and John Ballard play George Murchison and Joseph Asagai, respectively. Beneatha’s beaus, they provide two entirely different points of view of the Black experience. The son from a wealthy family, George is good looking, shallow, and conceited. He takes no pride his African heritage and has no interest at all in Beneatha’s intellect. (Fortunately, he is only the proverbial “passing fancy.”) Joseph is the absolute opposite. A student from Nigeria, he takes great pride in his lineage and hopes to go back and make a difference in his village.

Mylea Pressley was an absolute hoot as the nosy neighbor, Mrs. Johnson. She barges into the Younger’s apartment, makes herself at home, and proceeds to advise them of the mistake they are making in moving to an all-white neighborhood. She “just happens” to have a newspaper article about the bombing of a home in that neighborhood. She will not be surprised if she sees the Youngers meet the same fate. Her commentary might be seen as jealousy, but it represents the fear of some people to make a change, especially a difficult one. Mrs. Johnson seems quite content with the status quo and doesn’t understand the need to change anything, particularly if it might be dangerous. Pressley’s timing is excellent. Her program bio states this is her first role in a straight play. I hope isn’t her last.

Rowland Marshall is Bobo, one of Walter Lee’s boon companions. He comes to Walter Lee to give him the bad news that the two of them have been had, and both of them have lost all of their money. Marshall’s stance and delivery was exactly that of someone who (along with WL) has made a truly idiotic decision and has to confess the failure. You really hope Bobo’s wife is kind when he tells her the news. Olan Domer plays Karl Lindner, the sole white character. Lindner represents the Clybourne Park “welcome committee.” He is exactly as you would expect him to be and Domer portrays him as smarmily as he is.

There was some “hesitation” from some of the characters early on, but as the play progressed each actor became less halting and more confident, and the lines flowed more smoothly. This was the cast’s first night in front of an audience. It does take a moment to find the rhythm of a show when you add audience responses.

The set, the sound, the costumes were all beautifully executed. (I love a working sink onstage!)  However… having something real to drink in those coffee cups would be excellent. I understand not having any liquid in the beer bottles, but please give the coffee drinkers something to sip.

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway in 1959, when she was a mere babe of 29. It was the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, the first Broadway play with a Black director (Lloyd Richards), and, with the exception of one character, the first Broadway play with a Black cast. In 1959. It took nearly two years to come up with funding to produce the play which went on to win 4 Tony awards, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle “Best Play” of 1959, and a Pulitzer prize.

Ms. Hansberry was born into a politically active family; her father established one of the first Black savings banks in Chicago and was a successful real estate businessman. Mr. Hansberry did purchase a home in a white neighborhood, having won the right to do so after he challenged a Supreme Court decision against integration.

Many thanks to Ron Himes for bringing this classic piece to life. Raisin addresses issues which were prevalent in the 1950s and which still exist today, albeit in a more insidious fashion.

Stephanie Milling, Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, PROMISED that the seats in Longstreet will be re-upholstered. From her lips to (insert the name of your chosen deity’s) ears.

A Raisin in the Sun runs through Friday, March 1st at Longstreet Theatre. Three acts with one intermission. Trust me, it does not feel like three acts. Parking is always at a premium around the University, so leave home early to get a space. This weekend there is also a show (“She Loves Me”) at Drayton Hall, a performance by the SC Philharmonic at the Koger Center, and there are women’s and men’s basketball games scheduled. Good luck with that.

A RAISIN IN THE SUN

University of South Carolina Department of

Theatre and Dance

Longstreet Theatre

February 23 – March 1

CALL FOR VOCALISTS to Sing the National Anthem for the Columbia Fireflies at Segra Park

Are you looking to join the ranks of the greatest performances of the National Anthem? A list that starts with Whitney Houston, encompasses Jimi Hendrix, Luther Vandross, Chris Stapleton, and more? Now’s your chance!

The Columbia Fireflies have opened auditions for 66 chances to sing the *Star Spangled Banner at their home games this season, but you must schedule an audition for that opportunity by calling or emailing John Oliver at 803-888-3007 or joliver@columbiafireflies.com.

Soloists, duets, and assembled vocalists in any group size are encouraged to step up, but singers under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

*Controversial ever since it was written in 1814 by the attorney and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, The Star Spangled Banner began as a poem that was set to the music of a popular British tune by John Stafford Smith, and adopted as the US National Anthem in 1931 under President Herbert Hoover. Thankfully, the third stanza of the poem, which references slavery, is rarely sung.

Infamous Lovers Photos -- Thanks for Coming Out and Supporting the Jasper Project!

For the second year in a row, the Jasper Project had a fabulous Valentine’s Day celebrating with some of the finest performers and sweetest guests in town at Infamous Lovers. An event conceptualized and implemented by Jasper’s own Bekah Rice, who also happens to be our new Managing Director as well as vocalist extraordinaire, we enjoyed an evening of dance, music, good food, good drink, and good friends.

If you were able to join us, thanks for coming out and supporting the Jasper Project, and thanks for choosing to spend your Valentine’s evening with us.

Thanks also to BIG LOVE, TINY COVEN DANCE, CHEF JOE TURKALY, KARI LEBBY, Bottle Artists THOMAS WASHINGTON, MICHAEL KRAJEWSKI, FRED TOWNSEND, REGINA LANGSTON, ADAM CORBETT, ED MADDEN, KEITH TOLEN, AND KIMBER CARPENTER, as well as to our generous sponsors PEAK DRIFT BREWING, SMOKED, WXRY, WAR MOUTH, NEW BROOKLAND TAVERN, HOUSE OF FABRICS, SHVAAS SPA, AND SOUND BITES EATERY, and thanks to writer and photographer KRISTINE HARTVIGSEN for capturing these images of the night!

Poetry of the People's Featured Poet - Libby Bernardin

This week's Poet of the People is Libby Bernardin. Libby is not only a gifted poet, she is a kind and gracious human being. Meeting her is a spring morning where you feel confident the world will go on and you belong in it. She makes you feel important and not the other way around. Reading her poetry is the warm air of a furnace at your feet while sipping tea at her dining room window while she tells you the history of every bush and flower in her yard.

Libby Bernardin is the author of House in Need of Mooring and Stones Ripe for Sowing, both published by Press 53. She has published two chapbooks and contributed to many journals. She has won poetry awards from the Poetry Society of SC and the NC Poetry Society, and is a member of both poetry societies. She is a lifetime member of the Board of Governors of the South Carolina Academy of Authors. She writes and shares new work with The River Poets, a group of women who are dedicated to poetry.

____

The Price for Long Lives is Sorrow

You could say a long and measured life walks with a dream,

mysteries clotheslined across the sky blowing like sheets—

Words keep unpinning     unfolding     letters spelling

out worn-out stories. What am I to do with Joseph

of the many-colored coat, an imprisoned Hebrew

with God-inspired dream talk. Pharaoh chose

him who stored the grain to save plague-torn Egypt.

And where are the Josephs among us?

The would-be king thank God is gone.  We have a new leader.

May he be among the long lived for we the people

who haven’t the courage of a sharecropper’s son

crossing the bridge—first to violence, last to peace,

always his aim. His caisson marches. Remember his

long life of sorrows, his scattered good-trouble seeds

like wildflowers—purple fringed     lily-leaved     sweet shrub

spicebush     bloodroot uproot into the world     blossom     blossom.

 (Included in House in Need of Mooring)

Again,                                                            

morning moon    Pink    among leaves  

drops into the West    

flirting I think    

with me

demure as a silken scarf

 plucked

            by a sly wind

to flutter out

the window

from a bed side table

the barest hint of liminal—

O Holy Space 

that winters where you bloom—

light another day

dreams now ebb 

into darkness as the croon

of a white crowned sparrow

lilting notes distinctive

as its pink bill     opens the day—

and    here      yet again     anew

 (Italicized line from David Havird’s poem, “Midnight Oil”, included in his book, Weathering)

~~~

 Litany                                                                                                                                                                                                  

 As the world holds beauty in the deep and lonely forests

                                    Conduct me in wonder

As the moon rises high enough for me to see from my bedroom window

                                    Conduct me in fascination

As the woodpecker pecks around the pecan tree burl

                                    Conduct me in pleasure

As the white camellia layers its petals, pinwheels of sighs

                                    Conduct me in love

As the iris blue flag flutters in a wind

                                    Conduct me in resilience

As the hatching from mother alligator swims confidently in briny water

                                    Conduct me in gentle laughter

As the snake sheds its skin, leaves it on the rim of my strawberry pot

                                    Conduct me in respect

As the red-winged black bird breeds in marshes and scrubby fields

                                    Conduct me in new life

As starling murmuration creates angular shapes of dark clouds over Norway

                                    Conduct me in astonishment

As I wonder about the god hiding, languishing in the star-filled sky

                                    Conduct me in faith

As I hold my hand over my heart about suffering in Ukrainian photos

                                    Conduct me in compassion, in mercy

As I cover my eyes in anguish over the murder of children in Uvalde

                                    Conduct me in mourning and right action

As there is any inequity in my hands, ire in my heart

                                    Conduct me in truth, the morally right, the just

As I have lived a long life of love complex as the moon’s pull of tides

the sight of the Southern Cross in Brazil, the birth, the birth, the birth

Conduct me in knowledge, grace, heart

~~~                            

Shreveport 1954, Before the Late Crowd                     

It was a barrel of a room. music a boom

from speakers, the sultry drumbeat

as though a queen arrived expecting voices

with hands full of dollar bills, me sitting

between my cousin and her husband—

and before me, a beauty with stars on her tits

and I guess a G-string—oh she was stacked

and shone like she could make it in LA.

So, what’s she doing in this raunchy beer-smelling

place with me feeling sorry for her, as we watched

those long stockinged legs—a garter for dollars—

wrap themselves around a pole, no moola

anywhere I could see—early patrons

just eatin’ peanuts over at the bar,

knocking down a few—then the MC

introduces a Miss Douget? here on her 18st

birthday give’er a hand, guys, c’on put ‘em together

for the Carolina girl, and me turning around to see her,

Miss Douget. Miss Douget? then my cousin elbowing

me and whispering, Stand up, stand up, take a bow

which I reckon I did, stunned—Did I hear a drum roll?
I awkwardly stood up, sat down red-faced—beauty

blowing me kisses, gingerly.No warily.

Later that night, I thought of her pole dancing

on my birthday, and I hoped she would make it to LA,

and I would find her on the cover

of Photoplay Magazine, far away from

that vacuous room, empty except

for a few beer-barrel guys with no money

in their hands for her garter.

After “Nashville After Dark” by Ada Limon

~~~

A Photograph, February 23, 1934                                                  

Forever in sepia on their wedding day—

Their lives unreel as moonflowers

open to the dark sky

Or early evening primroses uncurl at dusk

A light wind scatters leaves and twigs

I put down the photograph     

on my kitchen counter—

            begin to knead my dough     think of how

mother rolled her biscuits in the palm of her hand.

Once, after a hurricane snapped off tree crowns

from the tallest pines     felled a thick

                                    limb from the old oak

wrapping Spanish moss around and around

a twig, yet      not even in two hours green burst forth

light ladled on trees

in the longingly pure air—Father came

home     the day’s shift done

puts his hands on Mother’s

waist     pulls her slightly to him

plants a kiss in her hair

I am calm watching them    

I was always calm watching them

I look out my window

I think     how young they are     I could swoon

            at their fierce beauty    Did I come to soon

 crush of time already            

burdensome—remind me

how quickly storms shift from high winds to breezy jasmine scents

            love returns                 yearns for better times

~~~

About Yesterday…

It’s always behind us

holding on to what needs to go—my husband’s death,

your divorce—those days left us brooding

under a dappled bluesy sky

Today you and I alive with the sun’s

glint on the loquat tree, breakfast on the porch—frittata of onion

& mushrooms served with avocado

We watch the young flicker feed, furtive, wary

                        We take solace in our past

for me the farm, Grandfather and Grandmother in their kitchen—

he rolls his cigarette, watches her, hands in biscuit dough

their yesterday in growing crops, feeding field hands

You at play on the river,

fishing, your stories of Daddy Ben & how he taught you hunting

ethics—kill only what you will eat, waste nothing of your catch

be a good master to the pup I give you

So about yesterday, it’s behind us

flits of memory—lost loves we can’t catch, grief rendered

            useless, the choices we made, but look here—this poem

                        I wrote for you on the desk you made for me

Jasper's Sidewalk Gallery at the Meridian Building Featured Artist -- REGINA LANGSTON

Regina Langston

Gina’s paintings embody the goddess mystique, celebrating the curves and edges of the feminine form using intense colors and vividly bold compositions. While she often varies her subject matter, her work largely focuses on the female figure as well as on the myriad faces of the nonbinary human spirit.

At first glance, it is easy to see the influences of Picasso and Klimt in Gina’s paintings. However, she has a wide portfolio of inspiration, including the whimsical post-war modernist work of a lesser-known painter, the late Friedensreich Hundertwasser of Austria, whose wildly colorful work was punctuated with organic shapes and spirals.

Gina returned to the Palmetto State with her family in 2018 and currently resides in The Avenues of Cayce. Her work has been exhibited at numerous SC venues, including 701 Whaley, Tapp’s Arts Center, University of South Carolina at Beaufort, and – most         recently – as part of Jasper Magazine’s “Tiny Gallery” series. She was featured in The Limelight, A Compendium of Contemporary Columbia Artists, Volume II, published by Muddy Ford Press in 2015. She has a studio in downtown Columbia, where she creates her own works and accepts commissions

Jasper's Sidewalk Gallery at The Meridian Building Featured Artist - CAROLINE CLARK

Caroline Clark

My functional ceramic sculptures highlight a sense of joy and wonder in everyday items. I explore my own variations of the hidden symbiotic systems of coral reefs and mycelium networks: systems that seem simple and beautiful at first, but upon closer examination are wildly complicated and predicated on mutual care. These systems in which every part depends on the others, and in which every part is vital and precious, draw a parallel to our human communities and support systems and invite examination of our own interconnectedness, growth, and movement.

I believe in magic. Not the potions and poof! kind, not the creation of another more beautiful and mysterious world, but the deep and unshakable knowledge that this, our world, is more extraordinary, strange, and awe-inspiring than any I could imagine. My work highlights that magic, refines and amplifies it, revealing a secret world nestled into the fabric of our own.

JASPER PROJECT INTERN APPLICATIONS OPEN NOW

Jasper Project Intern Program

The Jasper Project invites college and postgraduate students who reside full-time in the Columbia, SC area to apply for unpaid intern positions with the organization.

Positions are available in the following areas:

·         Magazine Writer

·         Photographer

·         Social Media Management

·         Marketing and PR

Responsibilities

Magazine Writer – you’ll be writing an assigned online article weekly which will be published in Jasper Online as well as writing one or more articles for a print issue of Jasper Magazine.

Photographer – you’ll be creating weekly photo assignments or essays for Jasper Online and contributing to the photography of a print issue of Jasper Magazine.

Social Media Management – you will be the daily voice of the Jasper Project on X and Instagram and will assist in marketing Jasper events and promoting Jasper artists

Galleries Management – you’ll be assisting the Jasper Project galleries director with gallery installation and receptions (2 or more per month) and attending all or most gallery openings and receptions as a diplomat of the Jasper Project, greeting guests and introducing them to the featured artist(s)

Marketing and PR – in conjunction with the executive and operating directors, you’ll be writing press releases for all Jasper events and disseminating them to local and state-wide media outlets

All Jasper Project Interns

You’ll be attending all Jasper Project board and committee meetings (typically one per month) and will choose or be assigned to one or more Jasper Project Committees, as well as meeting weekly (by phone, Zoom, in person, or via chat) with a member of the Jasper Project executive committee or project director to discuss assignments and assess your needs and questions

Apply

Please send a letter of introduction to JasperProjectColumbia@gmail.com including the following information:

·         Name, year in school, major

·         Any experience you have in the position you are applying for

·         Non-academic examples of your writing, if applying to be a writer, and photos, if you are applying to be a photog

·         Do you have your own transportation?

·         A letter of intent telling us which post you are interested in and why you’d like to work with Jasper.

JASPER INTERNS TYPICALL SERVE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR INCLUDING SUMMER AND TWO OR MORE SEMESTERS. EXCEPTIONS CAN BE MADE AND WE ARE HAPPY TO COMPLETE ACADEMIC FORMS FOR COURSE COMPLETION CREDIT

About Jasper

Jasper has been publishing a Midlands-based all arts magazine since 2011 that we distribute freely throughout the area. The Jasper Project became a 5013c in 2016 and still operates on an all-volunteer basis with no paid employees. We now have many projects including a film festival, literary journal, and a theatre series in which we annually produce and publish an adjudicated local play. Our priorities are making the process of creating art more understandable, nurturing community and collaboration, bringing to light a more positive narrative of SC, and making a penny squeal

Jasper Welcomes Dogon Krigga to the Koger Center’s Nook for February’s Third Thursday

The Jasper Project is proud to present Dogon Krigga as our featured February artist in the Koger Center’s Nook Gallery. The opening reception is February 15, from 5:30 – 7 p.m. in the Grand Tier lobby of the Koger Center. The event is free and open to the public, and features DJ Nori Noir providing live music.

Dogon is known for their mixed media collages and murals printed on vinyl, paper, and other adhesive substrates. They draw inspiration from spiritual principles and esoteric concepts found across the African Diaspora to create surrealist artworks. The viewer can then view their artwork as a kind of portal that allows them to peer into other realms, providing perspectives of Queer and Black people, identities, and cultures in a type of alternate dimension. Dogon’s work aims to challenge the status quo and disrupt the conventions of what we know to be cisgendered, heteronormative, and patriarchal ideologies, while offering something beautiful and uplifting in its place. The featured collection of work in the Nook is a body of work completed from 2021 through 2023. These pieces have also shown at the Columbia Museum of Art, Mike Brown Contemporary Gallery, Tapp’s Outpost, the 1013 Co-Op, The Bakery ATL (Atlanta, GA), and The Space (Charleston, SC).

Even if you can’t make it to the reception, Dogon’s art will be available for viewers to stop by and admire until mid-March. The Koger Center is open from 9 am – 5 pm Monday-Friday, and an hour prior to any Koger Center performance.

Artist Bio: Dogon Krigga (they/them) is a Columbia based multidisciplinary artist. Their interests in journalism and music production brought them into the community with musicians for whom Dogon began creating commissioned works of digital collage. They received early creative mentorship and influence from Tom Feelings and Walter Rutledge.

Krigga evolved their practice from digital art to include hand-cut paper collage and assemblage with printed and cut vinyl on acrylic and metal as well as installations. Krigga is a graphic designer with experience in commercial print, signage design, and signage project management that includes wide-format printing, metal fabrication, and acrylic fabrication. Krigga has created murals, exterior and interior signage displays for the main branch of Richland Library, SC State University, the 1801 Extension of SCSU, and Urban Wok restaurants.

Their works have been shown in several solo and group exhibitions including Tapp's Fine Art Center, The Sumter County Gallery of Art, Columbia Museum of Art, and The Goodall Gallery. Krigga's work can be found in numerous public and private collections, including the IP Stanback Museum. In 2023, they were Artist-in-Residence for Richland Library in Columbia, SC, producing and hosting community-based art programming and an exhibition Time & Time Again: Exploring the Antique Blacks--A Rootworker's Tarot. Dogon's artistic ventures also include the Collaborative Cohort Residency with the Highlander Center in New Market, TN (2020). Krigga is a recipient of grants from the SC Arts Commission.

Publication features of their work include "The African American Dream" by De Volkskrant (Amsterdam, March 2018), Volume 25.1: Yemassee Journal (USC, 2018), and "Dogon Krigga and Afrofuturism" by Jasper Magazine (2017). Krigga has been commissioned to design artwork for the covers of "Black Quantum Futurism" by Rasheedah Philips, and "BloodFresh" by Ebony Stewart. Dogon served as the lead designer for Ingrid LaFleur's 2017 mayoral campaign for Detroit, MI. Krigga has designed album artwork for King Britt, Kyle Bent, Hieroglyphic Being, Monty Luke, and Vibes Records. Dogon currently serves as the Art Director for the Atlanta-based music festival, Camp N Trip.

REVIEW: TRUSTUS THEATRE'S STUPID FUCKING BIRD

Trustus Theatre opened Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird down on Lady Street on February 9th, under the direction of the theatre’s Executive Director, Jessica Francis Fichter. This play, which is advertised as “kinda based on” Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, is a 2.5-hour experience that is “kinda” a comedy that explores family, love, unfulfilled potential, freedom, destruction, and art (all present in the source material on which it was kinda based). Trustus’ production is a winning moment for the theatre with a talented ensemble, adventurous technical execution and a team that not only had a deep understanding of what they wanted to try to do, but the expertise to make it a reality.  

Chekhov’s play is not essential to the audience’s engagement with Bird. Academics (read: theatre nerds) will enjoy the fun game of compare-and-contrast that this work allows, but the non-historian will be plenty occupied with experiencing the characters’ journeys, interacting with the actors in an environment without a fourth wall, exploring a dialogue regarding the authentic self and inviting their brains to ask, “what is art, why do we make it and why is it vital…or is it?”   

Stupid Fucking Bird concerns a stormy front of romantic and emotional entanglements amongst a family and their friends gathered at a large beach house. Conrad (Patrick Dodds) loves Nina (Cassidy Spencer), but Nina pines for Trigorin (Laurens Wilson) who is dating Conrad’s mom, Emma Arakdina (Erin Wilson). But wait, there’s more! Conrad’s platonic pal Mash (Martha Hearn) languishes for Conrad, and Dev (Cameron Muccio) swoons for Mash. The term “love triangle” doesn't suffice to explain the plot. Perhaps the geometrists in the crowd can do the math.  

As with all Chekhov and related materials, there must be an estate. Enter Dr. Eugene Sorn (Hunter Boyle), for whose attention all of these lover-friends are wrestling. Sorn is the only character who doesn’t have a love interest and is quite often the only sensible person in the room. Sorn’s questioning of whether we are ever our authentic selves is a particularly salient moment in the play.  

While there is a lot of frustration in watching these characters chase their misguided obsessions, the rewarding part of the Stupid Fucking Bird is the opportunity to engage in a discussion about art. Trustus is no stranger to material that has asked Columbia audiences to engage in this conversation (i.e. Yasmina Reza’s Art and Stew’s Passing Strange), and this type of work starts the dialogue within the walls of the theatre that evolves into colorful debate once you’ve cozied up to a bar afterwards.  

Trustus’ Bird has an excellent cast - not a weak link on stage. These are talented actors tackling challenging material, and they are in complete ownership of the proceedings. Patrick Dodds’ has played a wide range of roles since his first appearance at the theatre in 2011, but his portrayal of Conrad has probably been one of the most demanding jobs he’s taken on - and he delivers. Dodds succeeds in making us believe in his journey from obsession to destruction. His monologue towards the end of the first act, combined with the tech that was used, is jarring in the best kind of way.  

Erin and Laurens Wilson, in the roles of Emma and Trig, are a grounding and necessary presence for this cast which otherwise portray forlorn nihilists who refuse to stop thwarting themselves. Cameron Musccio makes a welcome debut on the Thigpen Main Stage with his Dev being an incredibly endearing straight-man-who-gets-the-laughs. Cassidy Spencer and Martha Hearn, as Nina and Mash respectively, turn in anchored performances. Hunter Boyle as Dr. Sorn exhibits more control and firmness than we’ve seen in recent years, and it is a delightful change of pace that leaves us hoping to see Boyle explore more roles like this - because it’s really really good.  

The production team deserves high marks for a finely-tuned scenic,  lighting, media, and sound design package. From moons that seamlessly cross the entire stage, to the simplicity of scene titles - Matt Pound has used different media outputs to make something quite complicated seem seamless. Paired with Marc Hurst’s sizzling lighting and Teddy Palmer’s use of the space as an abstraction of frames - these elements truly make you feel like you’re watching a production that was tailored down to the last stitch. We would also like to note that there is even a Shen Yun poster hidden in the mix (which can lead to a tangential conversation about art after the show). 

Though some music levels could be increased to improve audience-immersion throughout and tattoos could be better covered-up (or not covered?) as to not distract, Stupid Fucking Bird is a tight vehicle for the actors, designers, and audience. This is probably due to the work of Director Jessica Francis Fichter. We are very glad her voice is more prominent in Columbia’s theatre scene these days and look forward to more.  

If you’re into light comedic fare that intends to entertain by way of jazz hands, this is no play for you. However, if you’re just the slightest bit adventurous, enjoy conflict and the promise of a post-show arts salon: trust Trustus with this play. This is the kind of work that the theatre’s co-founders intended the theatre to produce, and true to form - whether you actually like the play or not - this is the only place you can experience work like it in these parts. Stupid Fucking Bird runs through February 24th at Trustus (520 Lady St.), and you can get your tickets to make up your own mind about this production at www.trustus.org. 

(edited 2/11/24)

Hyatt Park Community Art Project with Artist Keith Tolen

Join visual artist Keith Tolen and his young guests and collaborators in the unveiling of the Hyatt Park Community Art Project Friday, February 15th at Hyatt Park.

Hyatt Park students have partnered with veteran artist and arts educator (and member of the Jasper Project board of directors, we’re proud to say!) in creating this beautiful piece of public art which will go on display in the city of Columbia.

Their collaborative sculpture will be unveiled at 4200 North Main Street. The event is free and open to the public.

Come out to celebrate public art, young art, and the collaboration of youth and experience!

Poetry of the People featuring Jane Zenger

This week's Poet of the People is the Bard of Cedar Creek, Jane Zenger.  Jane, is a legend from the Pee Dee to the Broad to infinity and beyond. She is a force of nature - an organizer, educator, environmentalist, small farmer, who also happens to be an excellent poet. A gifted storyteller, Jane will make you laugh and gasp in the same stanza. Buy her book, Night Bloomer, and know she is a life well-lived.

Jane Zenger lives in Blythewood, SC in an old forest on the edge of Cedar Creek . She has a BA in English literature and a Ph.D. in Reading and Literacy. Jane studied poetry at USC with the late James Dickey and her work is included in his book, From the Green Horseshoe.  ‌She‌ ‌was‌ ‌a‌ ‌feature‌ ‌writer‌ ‌and‌ ‌poetry‌ ‌editor‌ ‌for‌ ‌‌Auntie‌ ‌Bellum‌,‌ ‌a feminist‌ ‌magazine‌ ‌published‌ ‌in‌ ‌South‌ ‌Carolina.‌  ‌She‌ ‌also‌ ‌edited‌ ‌‌The‌ ‌Spotlight‌,‌ ‌a‌ journal‌ ‌dedicated‌ ‌to‌ ‌at‌ ‌risk‌ ‌youth,‌ ‌teen‌ ‌pregnancy‌, ‌and‌ ‌dropout‌ ‌prevention. She worked as an English/Reading teacher in both urban and rural South Carolina schools and was a USC instructor, researcher and director of federal Teacher Quality Enhancement programs. As an undergraduate she did archaeological research on an early man site through The University of Alaska. She also worked on a USC environmental impact study on the coast. Jane has worked in Texas, China and Zambia. She is a passionate advocate of the Spoken Word
movement in South Carolina and has recently completed Night Bloomer from Muddy Ford Press. This new book of poetry reflects love, heartbreak, travel adventures, comical events, and always- her close connection the woods and creeks where she lives.

____

The Unraveling

What is there to love in a world unraveling?

It’s unsafe to put such precious cargo as a heart

and soul in the broken box of my body.

I can’t stop thinking on this cold spring day,

watching the creek  overflow, what’s next?

There are the same old wars waging,

the same fires we extinguish over and over

sprouting up again, rising from a mystical phoenix.

The same old hate and anger boils over.

Wars I can’t smash, bury, ignore or accept.

The wrong people are making the same choices

over and over. When their choices bully me, I resist.

In the world that kind of ignorant selfishness

leads to loss and division, disease and death.

What century is this where the infantile, selfish,

and belligerent still retain power?

When is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius

that we were promised?

On this afternoon I flow through the meadow.

I wish I could punch the clouds full of acid rain.

I won’t punch the clean willowy ones after an April storm,

or the ones today glowing pink, orange and purple at sunset.

I drop to the ground face down to experience the

soil scent and the soft grass and clover. I sense another

world upside down, feel a mild wind, the old buck snorts,

I hear distant airplanes and at least five, no- six bird calls 

and something chirping. The crows acknowledge me and

buzzards form a wide circle. My cats gather round curious,

but not really caring why I am upside down. They wait,

preening and watching the birds so as not to waste time.

So fortunate in their blissful oblivion.  

Whip Lash in the Pandemic                                    

I can be blistered in the sun one day,

and frozen from the inside out the next,

losing my footing in the turbulence.

I feel like a kitten in her mother's mouth

being dragged and bumped, helpless.

But at least I am not left behind.

I have to find myself again every morning.

Find the humor in how I am going down.

It is a whip lash and I am serving time for all my sins.

Encourage me. Discourage me. Ignore me. Adore me.

It’s all the same. The tide is always running out.

The sky is winter pale, nothing on either horizon.

Baby birds are blown out of the nest,

trying to fly, only to be eaten by my feral cat

Other creatures waiting below.

My body is broken as well- from the day

I tried, stiff and weak, to fly after so much time

quarantined, sequestered, afraid.

This is the year  of one pandemic after another.

This sorrow bangs me like a limb on a window pane.

I am not shattered yet, stubborn as I am.

From my perch let's examine today,

the joy of being alive, of being loved helps.

I am mining memories. Someone is

reminding me to breathe...sing...cry…reach out.

Selfish choices placed me on this precipice,

tethered to the vows I made. That life is over.

I live for love and I long to live. Yes, you may come in.

It Only Takes a Moment to Die

When you took your last breath

It was so simple

So calm and unanticipated

So remarkably

Like any other day

Like a wisp of a cloud

On a clear sky

I knew the time was near

I knew the moment would be

yours only.

Unpredictable.

Controlling death as you did our life.

I slipped away for just a moment.

Stepped alone into the morning air.

You stepped alone into eternal peace.

For death, like life, is an unpredictable gift.

Jasper's Sidewalk Gallery at The Meridian Building Featured Artist - BOHUMILA AUGUSTINOVA

Bohumila Augustinova

Augustinova spent her childhood in Czechoslavakia, now known as the Czech Republic.  She recalls that her younger years were spent always making something and that she could “never keep her hands still.”

My mom and dad were very supportive, so even as a small child they taught me how to knit, crochet, sew, cook and use power tools.”  Augustinova remembers, “My mom and I used to make all the costumes for me and my brothers, and I was making my own clothes by the time I was 9.”

Augustinova used to experience and passion to pursue fashion design, which she received a degree in, but soon after, she desired a fresh artistic venture and has since worked with primarily wire art and pottery, being self-taught in both.

Augustinova notes that beyond being inspired to make art, the process of making is inspiring and therapeutic all on its own.  She insists that the mutable clay sliding under her hands and the constant hum of the wheel moving is meditative, and she often throws with her eyes closed.

“What I hope is that people will see my pottery as usable art.  Almost all of my pottery is fully glazed and food safe.  I love seeing flower arrangements in my vases, and I love people drinking out of my cups.”  Augustinova effuses.  “One of my favorite pottery moments was when a friend told me that he was visiting a friend and his tea was served in one of my mugs.”

The ART BAR Brings Back One of the Baddest-Assed, Pearl-Clutching Acts Around -- BERNIE LOVE'S TRIBUTE TO ELVIS

Don't miss this Tribute to ELVIS Sat March 2nd at the Art Bar!

Bernie Love featuring Patrick Baxley, Jay Matheson, Marty Fort, and Kevin Brewer delivers the goods.

Early 9 p.m. show, 21+ Comedian Mike Reed kicks things off.

Bernie Love only offers this show about twice a year, so come on out!

More at www.bernieloverocks.com

CALL FOR PUBLISHED LITERARY ARTISTS!

If you have had the joy of welcoming a new book to the world since January 1, 2023 and you live in the SC Midlands, Jasper would like to celebrate you in the next issue of Jasper Magazine, releasing in Spring 2024.

Please send a high resolution image of your book cover along with a 100 word or less description of your book and all your contact info (email, snail mail, website, and phone) to

jasperprojectcolumbia@gmail.com

no later than Monday, February 26th.

While your book may not be reviewed at this time, we will list your publication in a special section of the magazine with that of all the other local literary artists in the area.

And always remember, if you would like your new publications considered for review in Jasper Magazine or Jasper Online, please send review copies to

Jasper Editor

1009 Muddy Ford Road

Chapin, SC 29036

THANKS!

Book Launch and Celebration for DeLana Dameron's REDWOOD COURT

FEBRUARY 9TH 6:30 - 9 PM

MIKE BROWN CONTEMPORARY GALLERY

122 LINCOLN STREET - IN THE VISTA

From our friends at Mike Brown Contemporary …

A breathtaking debut about one unforgettable Southern Black family, seen through the eyes of its youngest daughter as she comes of age in the 1990s Columbia, SC.

"A beautiful exploration of a family . . . deeply moving." Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

“Mika, you sit at our feet all these hours and days, hearing us tell our tales. You have all these stories inside all the stories everyone in our family knows and all the stories everyone in our family tells. You write ’em in your books and show everyone who we are.”

So begins award-winning poet DéLana R. A. Dameron’s debut novel, Redwood Court . The baby of the family, Mika Tabor spends much of her time in the care of loved ones, listening to their stories and witnessing their struggles. On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika learns important lessons from the people who raise her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on the Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall.

With visceral clarity and powerful prose, Dameron reveals the devastation of being made to feel invisible and the transformative power of being seen. Redwood Court is a celebration of extraordinary, ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams.

Poetry of the People Featuring Ann-Chadwell Humphries

This week's Poet of the People is Ann-Chadwell Humphries. Ann declares that she is from the earth and belongs here. She is a force of nature - granite sparkling in the sun. Silica and alkali metal oxides stirred in the magma of life's challenges, congealed into the poet, Ann-Chadwell Humphries. I am honored to call her a friend.

Ann-Chadwell Humphries, a blind poet from Columbia, SC, was selected by Muddy Ford Press to publish her first collection, An Eclipse and A Butcher. She has twice been a finalist for the Carrie McCray Nickens and once for the Julia Mood Peterkin poetry contests. She won Syzygy’s Emerging Voice Award, sponsored by The Jasper Project, for “An Eclipse and A Butcher.” She is a speaker scholar for South Carolina Humanities and her papers are archived at USC Special Collections Library.

____

Thirteen Ways of Looking Through Darkness
~If it's darkness we're having, let it be extravagant — Jane Kenyon

I
At the fire-fringed margins of the universe,
Images of the origins of light stream
Through the eye of a gold-plated telescope.
II
I am fluent in Light and Dark.
The demise of my retina
Reveals infinite sentient worlds.
III
When illumined, darkness loses its dominion.
Technology renders the unseeable, seeable.
IV
Lightness and darkness
Are one.
As much in the mind as in space
They are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of resilience
Or the beauty of interdependence,
The odyssey into the unknown
Or the transcendence thereof.
VI
The freight of low expectations
Slow-grinds the human spirit.
The only way around is through.
VII
O voice of self-doubt and discouragement
Why do you shout?
Why do I listen?
Why dismiss the universe
Of riches there for the taking?
VIII
I have wandered outermost reaches
And territories of resistance,
And come to exalt
The company of Darkness.
IX
Infrared waves send images
Of unprecedented clarity
Through the lens of the deep space telescope.
X
Reticular spirals and arcs
Flower in the womb of morning.
Bots of importunity align.
XI
When I was diagnosed, doctors advised
That I not overthink; I could prepare.
Not chase cures in China nor Europe—
for They knew I would
Go to the ends of the universe.
XII
I have learned to see with my feet, my ears, my skin.
Import my imagination.
My heart is not blind.
XIII
Years of tests, classes, cursors, prisms
led me on an arduous journey
into the gravitational pull of blindness—
my new orbit—frisson from the cosmology of sight.

Wildflower Trail

Overgrazed ranch land proffers rare views
of blue hills that rumple and bunch until fracture
on the fault line into limestone cliffs, spring jeweled
water from chambered aquifers into creeks,
into rivers fringed with cypress tresses combed
by wind, siren temptress, intoxicant to tourists
and retirees. Overnight, bare-boned water and sewer lines
incise hillsides, weave asphalt webs of infrastructure
for tract housing between Austin and San Antonio.
My parents succumb, lured by open spaces, slower paces
and light-filled rooms of new construction, new appliances—
fresh start from hard work. My father plants cedar elm
for shade, Blue Italian Cyprus for windbreak—
this is Texas harsh—and as trees grow, so grows development:
Methodist church, elementary school off the bypass,
doctors’ office complex within walking distance.
In the undeveloped acreage behind, my father hangs
a blue gate shaped like the Alamo, drags a mower
through that gate to mow walking trails, shortcuts to church.
In March, the field flames in airy wildflowers which wave
fiesta-colored blooms to passersby on the farm-to-market road.
And in their yard, my father trims the bluebonnet patch
that spreads each year as if inviting flower kin. In that seasonal
profusion, my parents host a wildflower brunch for neighbors
and library friends for guests to wade waist-high amid bliss.

The Coffin Maker

An occasional call with plea and please for a coffin
tomorrow or day after for a friend’s stillborn granddaughter.
His motion slow and solemn, he sorts through his pile
of special wood favored to repurpose. Finds an orphaned
burled walnut he had forgotten, hardwood not too heavy
for something this small. He makes a pattern, his hands
fit the wood into a clamp, align with the saw an extension
of himself, reciting Keats as he makes a six-sided box, corners
interlocked like fingers, and with a tiny tip, traces
a thread of glue to bond all surfaces, taps nails as surety.
Shakes coffee cans for hinges; from a nail, pulls a rope
to knot for handles. He breathes blessings into the wood
as he cuts top from bottom like her little life cut from us.
Sands and oils for rich luster, its aura, a comfort for the family
to trace the grain, bend to kiss, the fragrance like her sweetness.
~
She will be lowered into black dirt free of rocks
dug by her grandfather and uncles. They will hold hands
at the family cemetery where she will lie with other infants
and ancestors. Word-of-mouth will spread that Grover made
the coffin. In time, a daughter will brave a call for a pine box
for her father handmade rather than ordered from Costco.
~
There in the corner stands his own box partially made
to remind him he has a place — chokes on his prayer,
“God forbid I survive my wife.”

If You Hear My Voice...
~2011

~1~
On a snow-fringed hillside overlooking the Pacific,
a black rotary dial nests inside a lone telephone booth.
~2~
There was only an eight to ten-minute warning.
~3~
A grandfather salvaged an old metal and glass structure
from thousands of abandoned ones in a field,
set it in his garden, a cenotaph for his family who drowned.
~4~
Eighty miles off northeastern Japan, a 9.0 earthquake
thrust from the ocean floor. Two years later,
the beaten hull of a fishing skiff reached California.
~5~
A frayed cord connects the receiver.
Black numbers spin on coins of white paint.
~6~
Snow fell the day of the disaster,
iced all roads out.
~7~
Hello, hello, are you there? Are you cold?
Be alive somewhere, anywhere,
words misted in sea spray.
~8~
Waves thirteen stories high crushed
thousands fleeing in cars.
~9~
Daily, he refreshed incense, rice, fruit
on his home altar trying to fill his hollowness.

~10~
Twenty thousand dead, six thousand injured,
three thousand missing, quarter million unhoused.
~11~
News spread of the phone booth. Early spring, cherry blossoms
whitened his garden. A woman in a puffy pink parka arrived,
full of loneliness swept from silent rooms.
She opened and closed the bifold door, sat for a moment.
As she dialed, she murmured their old number.
~12~
On a blue night meadowed with stars, a young man approached
in flip-flops and shorts. Speak to me, my son. Let me hear you say
I love you, Papa. I am so sorry I could not save you.
~13~
The Fukushima nuclear plant spewed radiation
into sea life for miles, for years.
~14~
The evening sun slides into its fire. Harvest over,
an old farmer stands before the door. Farmers hold their words,
for crops do not speak. Do you have enough to eat?
Don’t worry about me. You go on. I’ll find you.
~15~
Do you think Grandfather heard us?

Jasper's Sidewalk Gallery at The Meridian Building Featured Artist - ANNA HERRERA

I am a local artists originally from Charlotte NC, but I have lived in Columbia for 15 years. I work with acrylic paint mostly, sketch, and use charcoal in my free time. I enjoy the downtown area, going to art events and markets that support locals. I hope to one day have my own show at my mother’s restaurant, Sound Bites Eatery, which is located on Sumter street that regularly hosts art shows and events.

I take art lessons when I can at Painting with a Twist gallery located in the Harbison area, which I’ve been going to for years. I hope to learn more about painting and how to apply different techniques and materials to my work. Expanding my knowledge can benefit my work and allow me to further my potential as an artist as well as become better recognized for more future showing opportunities.