It is midday and the radio is playing next door. Leaves fall from the trees.
Squirrels nibble away on the telephone line. It’s a mild day. I sit outside on our porch which looks down upon New York Harbor and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Barbara makes a cup of spiced chai for me and a cup of coffee for herself.
At home, Barbara and I nurture a community of rescued pets -- three cats, a flock of cockatiels, a dog, a rabbit, two chinchillas and two turtles.
For eleven years we lived together in a Greenwich Village artists’ loft, resembling a ship’s hull with portholes and crossbeams, where a cat, Xanadu, made friends with a cockatiel, Gawain. Barbara doted on a little bb parrot who perched on her shoulder. She was also known to care for broken wings; so Bird Jungle, gave us two cockatiels, Jack and Jill. They had been returned by their reluctant owners. The couple multiplied until a flock flew about our nine foot tall bookcases. A homing pigeon, mourning dove, rabbit, guinea pig, box turtle, dog and three cats walked along the red and yellow tiled concrete floor. Finches, love birds, nightingales, parakeets, and a canary sang in cages.
Barbara fed the birds with salads she made fresh each morning. A few of the baby cockatiels were given away to teachers and students with whom we worked. She brought birds to our vet, Doctor Adams, who took them home to Warwick and shared them with his wife, a school teacher.
A green market farmer from Long Island brought us the mate for our turtle. Thomas brought home the rabbit, Nosey, from summer camp. Nosey fell in love with Pigolino, a guinea pig we were boarding.
Twenty three years ago, we packed our menagerie in cages and carriers. Loaded them into a small rented truck; and moved the community to a hundred year old house on Staten Island. Our Miss Brooks, a little blonde dog, sat in the truck beside us as we drove over the Manhattan Bridge, through the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and along the Gowanus to the Verrazano Bridge.
The house was big enough to provide separate rooms for the animals. Most of the cockatiels fly freely about an aviary upstairs. The parrots lived on the first floor. Albird, a Blue Crown Amazon, and Snooka, a Spectacled Amazon, became a couple hanging out on top of a cage we bought originally for a rescued neurotic African Grey, Toby. Parakeets and a few cockatiels along with a rabbit share another room on the first floor. The chinchillas and turtles are in a third room on the first floor studio with a sink which helps Barbara with the daily cleaning.
After Miss Brooks died, we drove out to North Shore in Port Washington and rescued Cassie. As Cassie grew older, her maternal instinct called out for a puppy. She was spayed and could not bear a pup herself. Five years ago, we returned to Port Washington where Barbara found ten week old Chewie, who was adopted by Cassie in her old age.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Picture Books V
Ten Penny Players first used color xerography in 1978, when Barbara designed and printed Little Poems for the Greenwich Village elementary school PS 41.
Little Poems
Since 1980, Barbara has done all of our printing on leased Minolta copiers, which produced high resolution black and white images. In 1989 she experimented with a two-color copier.
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 10 No 1
Our picture book curriculum, as we developed it with teaching artist, Molly Barker, grew out of Ten Penny Players’ chapbook series, In Search of a Song. We combined visual art with expressive writing, literary magazines and chapbooks. It became a part of our work with New York City’s Alternative High Schools and Programs; especially with NYC Vocational Training Center, which produced many individual picture books for example, “One Last Time” by Ghnea George, a student in Paul Rotondo’s VTC class at Maimonides Hospital.
In 2004-5, Barbara, Thomas and I began implementing our picture book curriculum at Staten Island elementary schools. In conjunction with PS 53 and the Richmondtown Branch of the New York Public Library we held a book party and exhibit, First Editions, at the end of the year.
By 2008-9, we had leased a color printer and brought picture books to local after school programs, like the Staten Island Children’s Aid Society at Goodhue.
Anthology of Acrostics and More: Fun with the Sounds of Words and Other Things
Picture books bridge the gap between communities of race, language, class, ability, and disability. Creating poetry chapbooks and picture books helps students in the inclusive classroom bridge new bonds of friendship through sharing their published expressions.
Little Poems
Since 1980, Barbara has done all of our printing on leased Minolta copiers, which produced high resolution black and white images. In 1989 she experimented with a two-color copier.
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 10 No 1
Our picture book curriculum, as we developed it with teaching artist, Molly Barker, grew out of Ten Penny Players’ chapbook series, In Search of a Song. We combined visual art with expressive writing, literary magazines and chapbooks. It became a part of our work with New York City’s Alternative High Schools and Programs; especially with NYC Vocational Training Center, which produced many individual picture books for example, “One Last Time” by Ghnea George, a student in Paul Rotondo’s VTC class at Maimonides Hospital.
In 2004-5, Barbara, Thomas and I began implementing our picture book curriculum at Staten Island elementary schools. In conjunction with PS 53 and the Richmondtown Branch of the New York Public Library we held a book party and exhibit, First Editions, at the end of the year.
By 2008-9, we had leased a color printer and brought picture books to local after school programs, like the Staten Island Children’s Aid Society at Goodhue.
Anthology of Acrostics and More: Fun with the Sounds of Words and Other Things
Picture books bridge the gap between communities of race, language, class, ability, and disability. Creating poetry chapbooks and picture books helps students in the inclusive classroom bridge new bonds of friendship through sharing their published expressions.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Picture Books IV
During the school years 2002-4, eight Island Academy teachers adapted our curriculum to their own particular teaching style. They gathered In weekly meetings to discuss what they were doing and share student publications.
The teachers brought forth the poems and pictures that lay hidden in their students. It was hard time consuming work, but the teachers looked forward to the excitement on their students’ faces when they received their own publications. At the weekly teacher gatherings teachers took pride in their students’ work. There was story after story of specific students who showed interest in schoolwork after weeks of apathy.
As the first set of books were published, teachers reported that students suddenly came to life, showing off their published books to their classmates. The students were eager to show them to their family and friends.
When students joined the discussion, they spoke about how their teachers encouraged them and how they felt seeing their art and words in print with their names on it. They told of renewed self-esteem, encouragement from teachers, praise from fellow students, and expressed a desire to continue writing and creating art. Some wrote of hoping to study journalism, creative writing or art in college.
The Civil Rights Movement
The teachers brought forth the poems and pictures that lay hidden in their students. It was hard time consuming work, but the teachers looked forward to the excitement on their students’ faces when they received their own publications. At the weekly teacher gatherings teachers took pride in their students’ work. There was story after story of specific students who showed interest in schoolwork after weeks of apathy.
As the first set of books were published, teachers reported that students suddenly came to life, showing off their published books to their classmates. The students were eager to show them to their family and friends.
When students joined the discussion, they spoke about how their teachers encouraged them and how they felt seeing their art and words in print with their names on it. They told of renewed self-esteem, encouragement from teachers, praise from fellow students, and expressed a desire to continue writing and creating art. Some wrote of hoping to study journalism, creative writing or art in college.
The Civil Rights Movement
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Picture Books III
In 1998, Ten Penny Players, as a result of two grants, was able to hire artists to work for us as consultants. Among the visual artists who worked with us were Magie Dominic, Jonathan Sharpe, Desirae Foston, and Molly Barker. Molly Barker was employed by the Waterways Project of Ten Penny Players to teach our students how to make picture books.
We met Molly at the annual Indie Book Fair at the Mercantile Library in Midtown, Manhattan. Molly's display of her limited edition art books was on a table next to Ten Penny Players’ display of Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, BardPress poetry chapbooks, Ten Penny Players' children's books, Streams, and curricula.
The picture book project evolved from Waterways’ poetry chapbook series, In Search of a Song, which had also evolved into a district wide program. Making picture books gave students new ways of thinking and approaching a subject, which helped them become better writers.
That school year Molly worked with 16-21 year old students from Frederick Douglass Literacy Center and New York City Vocational Training Center (VTC). Each class was a self-contained unit taught by one teacher. Each student produced a book, which was published in a limited edition. Some of the picture books were selected for publication in Streams.
Motherhood
Debt
We shared the picture book curriculum at the New York State Council on the Arts' Empire State Partnership’s summer seminars which enabled networking and constituency building among arts groups throughout the state. The picture book curriculum developed by Molly Barker and Ten Penny Players entered the NYS Academy of Teaching and Learning in 2000 after it underwent peer review in Albany.
We met Molly at the annual Indie Book Fair at the Mercantile Library in Midtown, Manhattan. Molly's display of her limited edition art books was on a table next to Ten Penny Players’ display of Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, BardPress poetry chapbooks, Ten Penny Players' children's books, Streams, and curricula.
The picture book project evolved from Waterways’ poetry chapbook series, In Search of a Song, which had also evolved into a district wide program. Making picture books gave students new ways of thinking and approaching a subject, which helped them become better writers.
That school year Molly worked with 16-21 year old students from Frederick Douglass Literacy Center and New York City Vocational Training Center (VTC). Each class was a self-contained unit taught by one teacher. Each student produced a book, which was published in a limited edition. Some of the picture books were selected for publication in Streams.
Motherhood
Debt
We shared the picture book curriculum at the New York State Council on the Arts' Empire State Partnership’s summer seminars which enabled networking and constituency building among arts groups throughout the state. The picture book curriculum developed by Molly Barker and Ten Penny Players entered the NYS Academy of Teaching and Learning in 2000 after it underwent peer review in Albany.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Picture Books II
When I first met Barbara, Thomas was in the fourth grade at PS 41. For three years he had been home schooled. After the passage of PL 94-142, children with disabilities could no longer be turned away from the schools, and he was admitted to the local Greenwich Village elementary school.
Little Poems
Barbara designed a federally funded nutrition curriculum for the school. She wrote and illustrated little books for the classroom: Jolly Molly Molar,
Jolly Molly Molar
and Harmony Hurricane Muldoon, a little girl on a raft in the digestive system.
Harmony Hurricane Muldoon
When we began presenting book fairs on the New York City waterfront, Barbara designed the pages for the early NYS Waterways Project magazines, which were documents of the poetry reading at each event. She used Dover’s copyright free art, old prints from our bookshelves, and her own illustrations. The August 19, 1979 issue contained 19th Century illustrations that accompanied verses for children.
NYS Waterways Project - 1979 5
Barbara helped me mat my drawings, but none were exhibited. My friend, PJ, and I believed that art was priceless. Why attach a value? In London I had asked people to pay what they wanted for my chapbook Chrylust. At an early block fair, on Twelfth Street I asked people to pay what they wanted for my drawings. One local artist argued that artists need to expect a reward for their work. I insisted my art was non-conceptual. PJ had coined the term which he also referred to as noncon art.
Tally - Abstracting an Abstract
Each issue of Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream opened with a title page that contained an illustration and the theme for the month. In January ’87 the theme was “For what is the present after all,/but a growth out of the past?” The title page was illustrated with drawing of a chick developing within and then hatching from an egg. On the contents page was a silhouette of Father Time. He was chasing a dandy in top hat and riding boots. The third page of each issue of Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstreams was traditionally left for an illustration. For 1987, Barbara chose a 19th Century illustration of Father Time, a clock, scythe, old years passing away, a mummy, and a child representing the new year of 1889. Barbara's photographs from the Gansevoort Street Green Market and drawings she reduced on the photocopier illustrated the poems.
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 8 No 1
For the 1996 themes, we did away with words altogether and used pictographs from the Walam Olum (An epic of the Lenni Lenape):
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 17 No 1
Little Poems
Barbara designed a federally funded nutrition curriculum for the school. She wrote and illustrated little books for the classroom: Jolly Molly Molar,
Jolly Molly Molar
and Harmony Hurricane Muldoon, a little girl on a raft in the digestive system.
Harmony Hurricane Muldoon
When we began presenting book fairs on the New York City waterfront, Barbara designed the pages for the early NYS Waterways Project magazines, which were documents of the poetry reading at each event. She used Dover’s copyright free art, old prints from our bookshelves, and her own illustrations. The August 19, 1979 issue contained 19th Century illustrations that accompanied verses for children.
NYS Waterways Project - 1979 5
Barbara helped me mat my drawings, but none were exhibited. My friend, PJ, and I believed that art was priceless. Why attach a value? In London I had asked people to pay what they wanted for my chapbook Chrylust. At an early block fair, on Twelfth Street I asked people to pay what they wanted for my drawings. One local artist argued that artists need to expect a reward for their work. I insisted my art was non-conceptual. PJ had coined the term which he also referred to as noncon art.
Tally - Abstracting an Abstract
Each issue of Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream opened with a title page that contained an illustration and the theme for the month. In January ’87 the theme was “For what is the present after all,/but a growth out of the past?” The title page was illustrated with drawing of a chick developing within and then hatching from an egg. On the contents page was a silhouette of Father Time. He was chasing a dandy in top hat and riding boots. The third page of each issue of Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstreams was traditionally left for an illustration. For 1987, Barbara chose a 19th Century illustration of Father Time, a clock, scythe, old years passing away, a mummy, and a child representing the new year of 1889. Barbara's photographs from the Gansevoort Street Green Market and drawings she reduced on the photocopier illustrated the poems.
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 8 No 1
For the 1996 themes, we did away with words altogether and used pictographs from the Walam Olum (An epic of the Lenni Lenape):
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 17 No 1
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Picture Books I
For 32 years, my wife, Barbara Fisher, has worked with me to realize Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream. She’s read through the many submissions by students, unrecognized writers and accomplished poets. She hand printed covers and inserts on her Kelsey letter press and our leased photocopiers. She has chosen art and created collages that have accompanied the poems on the pages. She has done “the scud work as well as the more interesting stuff.” And jokes that she won’t wear nail polish because her “fingertips are engrained with black printer’s ink.”
In the second issue of the NYS Waterways Project (7/21/79), Barbara used two 19th century drawings as fillers: "floating his tricycle" and "the speaker's free platform."
NYS Waterways Project - 1979 2
A year later (7/26/80),
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 1 No 3
she presented readers with a collage from her children’s book, “Link Ups".
By July, 1984, we’d settled into what has become Waterways consistent format (7x4.25),
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol. 5 No. 7
Barbara was still printing the cover by hand on her letterpress, typesetting the issue on an IBM Selectric typewriter, adding illustrations to the title page, and accompanying the poems with relevent pictures. By July of 1987, we were using a two tone printer and Barbara was putting illustrations on almost every page.
In the second issue of the NYS Waterways Project (7/21/79), Barbara used two 19th century drawings as fillers: "floating his tricycle" and "the speaker's free platform."
NYS Waterways Project - 1979 2
A year later (7/26/80),
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 1 No 3
she presented readers with a collage from her children’s book, “Link Ups".
By July, 1984, we’d settled into what has become Waterways consistent format (7x4.25),
Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol. 5 No. 7
Barbara was still printing the cover by hand on her letterpress, typesetting the issue on an IBM Selectric typewriter, adding illustrations to the title page, and accompanying the poems with relevent pictures. By July of 1987, we were using a two tone printer and Barbara was putting illustrations on almost every page.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Chapbooks IV
A symbol places the intangible vision of the individual into the material reality of the public realm. The writer evokes experience in names that are symbols; while the publisher takes the writers’ work and goes beyond the naming of things. Publishing brings out the work in print and on line.
For more than thirty years, while printing books of student writing and curriculum for NYC schools and programs, Ten Penny Players continued to publish Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, a monthly poetry magazine, and the BardPress poetry chapbooks. Among the poets we published both in the magazine and in their own chapbooks were Ida Fasel, Joanne Seltzer, Joy Hewitt Mann, and Albert Huffstickler.
Though we're uncomfortable with the fact that Scribd.com carries advertising, the site gives us an opportunity to bring our poetry archive to a larger audience. At this writing there have been more than 230,000 reads of Ten Penny Players’ publications on Scribd.com.
Once their chapbooks were published, students could walk away, write another book, or stay to consider the effects of their published words upon other writers and other communities: How did the rhythm of the author’s voice echo in the reader’s response? What ideas or phrases were repeated? How did it shape contemporary consciousness among other students?
Ten Penny Players online archive of chapbooks provided data to describe reading trends that shifted like the wind. Clouds of chapbooks (the textual embodiments of student voices) passed across cyber-sky.
Poems exist in the consciousness streaming between authors and readers. Ancient poets sought inspiration in the words of the muse carried by whispering mists rising up through fissures in the earth.
To publish poetry is to make manifest a pattern of human communication that asks the reader to respond. The influence that moves poets to make poems leads publishers to put in print books that animate the blood and bones of every day existence.
For more than thirty years, while printing books of student writing and curriculum for NYC schools and programs, Ten Penny Players continued to publish Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, a monthly poetry magazine, and the BardPress poetry chapbooks. Among the poets we published both in the magazine and in their own chapbooks were Ida Fasel, Joanne Seltzer, Joy Hewitt Mann, and Albert Huffstickler.
Though we're uncomfortable with the fact that Scribd.com carries advertising, the site gives us an opportunity to bring our poetry archive to a larger audience. At this writing there have been more than 230,000 reads of Ten Penny Players’ publications on Scribd.com.
Once their chapbooks were published, students could walk away, write another book, or stay to consider the effects of their published words upon other writers and other communities: How did the rhythm of the author’s voice echo in the reader’s response? What ideas or phrases were repeated? How did it shape contemporary consciousness among other students?
Ten Penny Players online archive of chapbooks provided data to describe reading trends that shifted like the wind. Clouds of chapbooks (the textual embodiments of student voices) passed across cyber-sky.
Poems exist in the consciousness streaming between authors and readers. Ancient poets sought inspiration in the words of the muse carried by whispering mists rising up through fissures in the earth.
To publish poetry is to make manifest a pattern of human communication that asks the reader to respond. The influence that moves poets to make poems leads publishers to put in print books that animate the blood and bones of every day existence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)