memorial for a brilliant woman

Sunday, February 28, 2010

me and the RTD

“I never stop talking,” Shann Palmer said as she stood on the ragged wooden floor of art6, a gallery on East Broad Street. Palmer is passionate about so many things—the gallery, downtown Richmond, poetry, music, life in general—that her passion spills out in words.

Often, in fact, the words are written. Palmer is a poet known around Richmond for giving readings, organizing readings, volunteering at readings and encouraging other poets to read. She’s also a church organist and choir director.

Palmer is curator of “Women and Words,” an exhibit and series of readings that is art6’s contribution to
Minds Wide Open. She expects the exhibit will be “90 percent by women,” but she will include a few
works by men that pay tribute to women or are collaborations with a woman.

“It’s a marriage between spoken word and art,” she said. The visual art for the exhibit must include text
in some way, whether it’s a collage made from pages torn out of a book or words painted on the wall or even “a poem put in a frame and hung on the wall.”

Although art6 has had women-focused exhibits and literary events numerous times before, Minds Wide
Open is another opportunity for women to show their work and receive promotional assistance from
the statewide initiative.

“I’m certain there will be work created new for this exhibit,” Palmer said. “Some of us have trouble not
doing something new.”

“Women and Words” will run during April in honor of National Poetry Month.
beginning April 2 check www.art6.org for updates.



photo by Alexa Wekch Edlund for the RTD
article by Angela Lehman-Rios

1 comment:

Donna W. Guthrie said...

“PAWS FOR POETRY” CONTEST INSPIRES KIDS TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH BY WRITING ODES TO THEIR FAVORITE FOUR-LEGGED FRIENDS
April is National Poetry Month. The 3rd Annual “Paws for Poetry” Contest Challenges Kids to Write Sonnets to Spaniels, Prose for Persian Cats

April marks the 14th anniversary of National Poetry Month.
To help celebrate, budding Emily Dickinsons and Edgar Allan Poes are encouraged to participate in the 3rd annual “Paws for Poetry” Contest (PawsforPoetry.org). To enter, children ages 5-12 are to write a poem to, and provide a photo of, their favorite animal friend. The contest is co-sponsored by kids’ virtual field trip Web site Meet Me at the Corner (MeetMeAtTheCorner.org) and Flash Light Press (FlashLightPress.com ).

Original poems of any length may be submitted in one of two categories: Group One (ages 5-9) and Group Two (ages 10-12). One grand prize winner in each category will receive a prize package worth $50.00. Two runners-up in each category will receive a $25.00 gift package. Children’s author, poet, and Iraqi war veteran Thad Krasnesky, writer of the upcoming “That Cat Can’t Stay” (Flashlight Press, 2010) is the contest judge.

In addition to the prize packages, winning poems and pet photos will be highlighted in an upcoming Meet Me at the Corner video pod cast. The pod cast will be videotaped at New York’s Angellicle Cat Rescue Center. Local students will present the winning poems.

All submissions should be mailed to “Paws for Poetry” Contest, c/o Meet Me at the Corner, 20 West Del Norte, Colorado Springs, CO, 80908. The contest deadline is April 15, 2010.

For more information, rules and submission guidelines, visit PawsforPoetry.org.