A POET'S WALK

Last October... as autumn ebbed away with slight invasions of winter... as a Saturday sun defined a golden afternoon, I meandered through Poet's Walk overlooking the Hudson River where Washington Irving once walked and is said to have been inspired by the distant Catskills to write Rip Van Winkle. It was a perfect autumnal evening with the waning sun settling in the west. Below, the Hudson detailed itself in elegant silence, and clouds interpreted the sky with glowing gestures of drifting calm.

Now in the waning hours of 2017, I walk along the beautiful vistas of Jeju Island, which erupted into being eons ago in the Yellow Sea. Looking north, I know the morning calm of mountains of Korea are somewhere beyond the horizon. To my right, Japan silently waits for my attention, and to my left the vast mystery of China calls me with a voice I remember when I was a child discovering that continent in my father's library.

In some way that I cannot understand, this island has emerged as the center of the universe and my mind leaps light years in all directions. What began as a poet's walk along the Hudson has become a greater walk among the stars. Perhaps the most elegant aspect of the island is the magnificent changing skies providing a panorama of changing cloud-formed constellations. I see the sun painting such bold, and sometimes delicate, streaks of light, igniting a spectrum of colors, never repeating and endlessly changing. At night, dwarfed by the surrounding oceans, the island glows in the moonlight and silence is the music of darkness. And in the silence I hear the music of myself.

AN ERA

Time has a way of continuing to unfold. It is the most compelling dimension we encounter. It is the consequence of of a moment of revelation in awareness ignited with a sense of IS-NESS. We have been trying to understand ourselves in relationship to Being and Time, Time and Being, (as Heidegger framed the dilemma twice in his life).

In eight decades, the procession of events has been defined somewhat angular on what I sensed as an upward trajectory. This metaphor is probably common to us all. Does the trajectory now tail off and curve back toward the earth, or does it continue and escape gravity, spiraling toward unknown destinies?

That is where I am today, as I look to know where Wyzard Ways now wanders, for I sense it more as a wandering than a zooming.  Free of the gravity of my past life, I now float freely toward some unknown destiny. The all sounds much too grand for what emerges as a quiet, more reflective drifting to new ways of BEING and MEANING. 

I look to being in a place where I can comprehend where I have been and what that may actually represent as experience, as a sense of reality. Language begins to fall short of discovery. 

ACKER AWARDS AT THEATRE 80 ST MARKS CELEBRATES THE AVANT GARDE

With noted Avantgarde-artist Clayton Patterson serving as Presenter, the 2017 Acker Awards Ceremony was warmly acclaimed by a packed audience of fellow artists and arts enthusiasts. It was more of a happening than a ceremony.  Initiated on the West Coast, and named after novelist Kathy Acker, the East Coast Acker Awards in 2013 was founded by Clayton as a means of documenting the extraordinary artistic activities in the lower east side of New York. Clayton champions and celebrates the leading edge of artistic development that has long been identified with the East Village.



As described on HOWL ARTS: (updated slightly)

The ACKER Awards were created by Alan Kaufman in San Francisco and Clayton Patterson in New York. Patterson and friends pay tribute to members of the avant-garde arts community who have made outstanding contributions in their discipline in defiance of convention, and to those who have served their fellow writers and artists in outstanding ways. The Acker Awards are named after novelist Kathy Acker, who in her life and work exemplified the risk-taking and uncompromising dedication that identifies the true avant-garde artist.

Each recipient receives a commemorative box that contains original art works and mementos created by some of the 40 winners. Each year the box,includes booklets, bios and  original works of art and ephemera. Previous boxes have contained a signed and numbered papier- mâche potato by Hapi Phace, a sculpture by Tom Otterness, a handmade book by Edgar Oliver, and other specially-created art works.

Flanking Clayton Patterson's stage presentation was the celebrated Phoebe Legere,  musician and multiform artist, serving as MC of this event that had elements of spontaneous combustion. The energy of the artists and the audience was palpable, immediate and free spirited.

The evening was laced with impromptu performances, witty and insightful comments from Phoebe and Clayton, with an air of celebration in understanding that this event helps create and maintain community among a wide range of arts and generations from young and aspiring to venerate veterans who have established identities and domains through many struggles and challenges.

Many in the audience were former winners of the Acker Awards, suggesting that Clayton Patterson's vision of establishing a strong sense of community through the awards has become manifest,  It is a monumental achievement to put together these awards, prepare the  commemorative boxes,  hire a hall, advertise and stage the event. Kudos to Clayton Patterson.

Even more impressive of this community of village artists is the diversity of practices, preferences, and artistic collaborations/creations spanning almost seven decades of explosive creativity. At one point when Lincoln Anderson and his work with The Villager was announced, Clayton took a moment to remind us that the Villager is on-line, and that its presence on the Internet makes it equal to all other publications in visibility. He noted that this publication is a record of the work of the community, urging that everyone add to the record by commenting on articles and postings.

This was an awards evening worth noting for the city, for the artists represented by these awards are carving out new terrain that resonates with change and the creation of new work.

ACKER RECIPIENTS 2017

COUNTESS ALEX ZAPAK, "POLITICAL NOTICE"
NANCY WOLFE  &  ETHAN MINSKER, "2016 VIDEO OF CEREMONY"
NATANIA NUNUBIZNEZ,  "CARTOON ILLUSTRATOR"
SARAH SCHULMAN, "ACTIVIST PLAYWRIGHT"
CARLITO CASTILLO, "ART & SCIENCE OF BOXING"
FRIDAY JONES, "TATTOOING"
MICHELLE MYLES, "TATTOOING"
MARI-CLAIRE CHARBA, "THEATER ACTOR"
MARILYN ROBERTS, "THEATER ACTOR"
BARBARA KAHN, "THEATER ACTOR"
LOIS KAGAN MINGUS, "THEATER ACTOR"
CHARLES SCHICK, "ART"
REGINA BARTKOFF, "ART"
FELICE ROSSER, "MUSIC"
CHERYL PYLE, "MUSIC"
EDEN BROWER & JOHN HENEGHAN, "MUSIC"
LINCOLN ANDERSON, "COMMUNITY MEDIA"
LUCKY LAWLER, "COMMUNITY MEDIA/ART"
CHARLES MINGUS 3RD, "ART"
THERESA BYRNES, "ART"
LESLIE LOWE, "ART"
VICTORIA ALEXANDER, "ART"
AGATHE SNOW, "ART"
ANTONY ZITO, "ART"
JANE DICKERSON, "ART"
ISTVAN KANTOR, "ART"
JENNIFER BLOWDRYER, "WRITER"
SHELLEY MARLOW, "WRITER"
MAGIE DOMINIC, "WRITER"
VERONICA VERA, "SEXUAL EVOLUTIONARY"
CANDIDA ROYALLE, "FEMNIST PORN GENRE"
TOYO TSUCHIYA, "PHOTOGRAPHY"
JACKIE RUDIN, "PHOTOGRAPHY"
MARY CAMPBELL & VIV VASSAR, "PERFORMANCE ART COLLECTIVE ORGANIZER"
WENDY SCRIPPS, "COMMUNITY SUPPORT"
CARTER EMMART, "SCIENCE"
COUNTESS ALEX, "TRANS MEDIA STORY TELLER"
ANNE HANAVAN, "VIDEO"
KEITH PATCHEL, "COMPOSER, PRODUCER"

YET ANOTHER RENAISSANCE...

Just when I thought that for me at eighty there were no more rebirths of imagination... no bursts of creativity, I am awaking to a new world and noticing the beautiful sounds, the beautiful moments that need to be stamped with the permanence of celebration by turning Time into an ally of preservation. We have the capacity to capture Time in the bottle of creation, transforming the moment into an enduring presence.