Duende Reading Series, Sun Jan 10

The sixth year of the Duende Poetry Series of Placitas will begin with a reading on Sunday, January10, at the Anasazi Fields Winery (3PM), the third year the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry of Santa Fe has supported this reading series. Featured readers for this event include Santa Fe poet Donald Levering and upstate New York poet Janine Pommy Vega, who will be accompanied by the Albuquerque jazz band J'Zamm, an accomplished musical group that includes Judy Green (keyboards), Phil Green (bass), Bonnie Schmador (flute) and Bill Pommy (drums), the poet's brother. Pommy Vega published her first book of poetry in 1968 and has issued fourteen more since then, plus four prose works and a few CDs. One of her prose works, Island of the Sun (1991) conveys her experiences of living for a year on an island in Lake Titicaca (Bolivia) with Aymara Indians. Her latest book of poetry, The Green Piano (Black Sparrow/Godine, 2005), is a major work following on her extensive Mad Dogs of Trieste: New and Selected Poems (2000). Since 1987, she has been involved with prison poetry workshops with the Bard College Prison Initiative and founded the Harvest Moon Collective for poetry at a Connecticut state prison, where she teaches. A world traveler, Pommy has given readings in both English and Spanish and translated poetry from Italian. Donald Levering, currently a Human Services administrator, also has a varied background: groundskeeper, computer operator, free lance journalist, teacher on the Navajo Reservation. The recipient of a fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he has published widely in literary journals. His books include: The Jack of Spring, Carpool, Mister Ubiquity, The Fast of Thoth, the Kingdom of Ignorance, Outcroppings from Navajoland, Horsetail and Whose Body, his latest. He earned an MFA degree from Bowling Green State University where he studied with well known poet Howard McCord. For all Duende Poetry Series readings, wine, free snacks, and non-alcoholic drinks are available to the audiences. Although the event is free, we encourage donations for the poets. For more information about the event, contact Jim Fish at the winery (867-3062) or online at anasazifieldswinery@att.net. The next reading will be on Sunday, March 14 (3PM), program to be announced.  More about the Duende series, "In idyllic Placitas, the poetry flows freely: Purveyors and lovers of verse to gather at winery for readings," article by Aurelio Sanchez Albuquerque Journal, Sept 13, 2009 To get to the winery, turn onto Camino de los Pueblitos from Highway 165, across from the Presbyterian Church, go two stop signs and then turn left into the parking lot for the winery. From outside Placitas, take I-25 to exit 242, drive six miles to the Old Village, turn left just before the Presbyterian Church and follow Camino de los Pueblitos through two stop signs to the winery.