Here at the Saint Paul Almanac, we clearly value the written word, but there’s definitely a time when it’s good to walk all over it, scuff it, and jump around on top of it! For the fourth year running, the City of Saint Paul and Public Art Saint Paul have announced the St. Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest.
Event curator, Tou SaiKo Lee believes in building an influential movement within the Hmong community through the arts. He is a spoken word artist, mentor and hip hop activist. A mentor for youth at schools and community centers across the country, he speaks about issues that include human rights, diversity, racism, gang violence and arts for social change. Tou SaiKo Lee is the co-founder of “The H Project” a compilation music CD inspired by the human right violations of Hmong people in the jungles of Laos. Spoken word performers at the Feb 21st Lowertown Reading Jam include Ed Bok Lee, Juliana Pegues, Bao Phi, Saymoukda Vongsay, Kevin Yang, Chanmany Sysengchanh, David Vulocity, Chilli Lor, Laurine Chang and Gaoiaong Vang.
At the beginning of February, the online magazine The Line wrote a story on the Saint Paul Almanac, which offers a fantastic overview of the community vision we Almanacians have for our beloved Saint Paul. Editor Kimberly Nightingale sees the book as a model for nothing less than a revolution in American publishing. And her fusion of multiethnic, history-and-culture-rich, hyperlocal storytelling is resonating in places like Los Angeles, Portland, and Pittsburgh; people in a dozen cities across the country have asked her for help in creating their own versions of the Almanac. Finally, we have new writing from Barbara Cox on night light hockey at Groveland, Michael Maupin tags us with 25 random things about Saint Paul and himself, and read an extract from David Haynes’ book about the great cookie wars!
This February 14th, the Saint Paul Almanac welcomes Dr. Goddess to Saint Paul at 6:30 p.m. at Arnellia’s at 1183 University Avenue West, Saint Paul. Dr. Goddess (Kimberly C. Ellis) will star in a 15 character, one-woman show about a young urban woman’s journey into academia. A comedy, grounded in engaging social commentary, this witty show uses dramatic monologues, poetry, music, and African, jazz, Hip Hop dance and sketch comedy. If her uncle, August Wilson, were in the audience, he’d be as proud as the Saint Paul Almanac to sponsor this community-building event.
The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. The January presentation of the eclectic series, curated by May Lee-Yang, offers an intimate look at works in progress by multidisciplinary artists. The Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, January 10, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul.
The process of creating a new Saint Paul Almanac each year is an epic community journey that begins with a simple call like this one—to writers and aspiring writers everywhere—to submit essays, poems, reviews, recipes, and short stories about Minnesota’s capital city, Saint Paul. Each year, the call is heard by literary giants, everyday residents, kids, grandparents, journalists, new Americans, lovers of Saint Paul who now live in other corners of the world…and the submissions start pouring in. As pens dart across paper and fingers clatter on keyboards in corner cafes here and around the world, the Almanac gets to work with a team of 21 community editors of diverse backgrounds that include 4 professional editors/writers. Seven of the 21 community editors are high school students.
Welcome to the tenth edition of the Saint Paul Almanac‘s blog, the Pig’s Eye Post! This will be our last blog post for 2010. We’ll keep this Pig’s Eye Post short so you can get on with darting to the kitchen to baste your Christmas Turkey or Kwanzaa Ham! If you’re in-between working out how to get the rubber part of the baster sealed better around the plastic nozzle so it actually works properly, do check out our holiday-themed new Almanac writing and browse our Calendar for ideas of things to do during the holiday season!
THIS WEEKEND! For the third year running, the streets of Lowertown will be overrun by a mob of costumed Santas, elves, reindeer, and other colorful holiday-related characters and objects. Saint Paul’s answer to Minneapolis’ popular zombie-themed bar hops, SantaCon is part spectacle and part mobile party. Led by Foxy Tann, who heads the Twin Cities only African American burlesque troop, and accompanied by the most mischievous Minnesotan marching band, The Brass Messengers, the 2010 Lowertown SantaCon is a jolly jaunt around the seven bars/restaurants that make up the Lowertown Entertainment District.
Hear the best in spoken word by members of the Saint Paul Soap Boxing Slam team — two time winners of the National Poetry Slam (“the Olympics of Slam Poetry”). The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. The December presentation of the eclectic series, curated by Matthew Rucker, will be presented on Monday, December 13, 2010 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. The Jams will continue on the second Monday of each month through July 2011.
It’s the last weekend to see the Klingon Christmas Carol in Saint Paul! Scrooge has no honor, nor any courage. Can three ghosts help him to become the true warrior he ought to be in time to save Tiny Tim from a horrible fate? Performed in the Original Klingon with English Supertitles, and narrative analysis from The Vulcan Institute of Cultural Anthropology. The Dickens classic tale of ghosts and redemption adapted to reflect the Warrior Code of Honor and then translated into tlhIngan Hol (That’s the Klingon Language). At the Landmark Center.
FINAL “CELEBRATION THROUGH STORIES” READING ON SAT DEC 4TH! That’s right, it’s the last one! This event series featured contributors to the Saint Paul Almanac reading their pieces from the 2011 edition. Come, listen to the final reading in this year’s series on Saturday! Writers who will read at the final event include Karen Karsten, Leslie Walters, Bob Deck, Alexander Theoharides, Virginia Dippel, Steve Trimble, Jeanne Souldern Pinette, and Judith Niemi.
The Almanac extends a giant “Youbetcha we thank you” to all those who generously donated during last Tuesday’s “Give to the Max Day” charitable event. You helped us raise over $1,200 in individual donations plus matching grant funds from board members of the Saint Paul Almanac for a total of $2,426 in just 24 hours!
Help us to SAVE OUR STORIES by supporting Saint Paul Almanac’s literary and visual artists, and filmmakers.
We need your contributions so we may continue our work. Thank you!