ANTHOLOGY GALLERY

NEW ISSUE!
SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS
ANTHOLOGY - VOL 2, ISSUE 1:



Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Anthology Vol. 2, #1 (June 2011) includes 60 artists -- including Anthology Featured Artist Tracy Witt -- in a perfectly bound 150-page edition, "Packing A Punch" with poems, prose, articles and art from the popular traveling poetry series!


SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS ANTHOLOGIES:
In conjunction with the Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts poetry event series, there are also SWBG Anthologies representing the voices of the spoken word community that have shared their talents at the events. This has been an effective way of documenting the history of SWBG and creating an ongoing magazine that showcases the words of the artists. These Anthologies are now part of the permanent poetry archive special collection at the Bancroft Library at the University of California Berkeley. The curator will also add all future editions of the SWBG Anthologies to the collection -- which means all contributors to the anthology have the opportunity to be part of history in "one of the most important literary collections in the world, including a treasure trove of materials related to the Berkeley and San Francisco Renaissances and the Beat Generation" according to the City Lights publication The Beat Generation In San Francisco. Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts supports the written word as well as the spoken word.

To order the latest edition  of the SWBG Anthology (Vol 2, #1),
mail a check for $20.00 (plus $4.00 postage) to:

Daniel Yaryan
220 Dimond Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Please make out payment to: "Daniel Yaryan" on checks.

You can also send payment via PayPal to dyaryan@gmail.com




BACK ISSUES:

If  you want back issues of the SWBG Anthology, contact Daniel Yaryan by e-mail at dyaryan@gmail.com to check availability.



Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Anthology #5 (October 2010) includes 33 poets and featured artist Melissa West in a spectacular 52-page edition!






Poet Keith Savage performing at Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts: Round VI @ Viracocha on 4/24/10. Photo by Daniel Yaryan.  


Poet, music aficionado, visual artist and community activist Keith Savage has not only contributed his spoken word artistry to the Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts poetry series but also created original artwork specifically for the anthologies. If that weren't enough, Savage went much further -- he actually saved the vital Anthology project from extinction. The importance of the anthology/magazine is to properly document the envolvement of the artists who have featured in the SWBG live spoken word series and capture the essence of the project as a whole. Savage believed in this vision and raised funds to help it weather the storm and to soar off the tarmac.

Savage is a San Francisco performance poet and an active figure from the Hotel Utah and Collaborative Arts Insurgency groups. He founded the traveling poetry group Black Poets in Queens, New York. His poetry is also showcased in Anthologies #3, 4 and 5. 

Keith Savage recommends that everyone check out the music schedule at The Hotel Utah.

Click The Hotel Utah logo for more info:  




 

ANTHOLOGY 4  (JULY, 2010) WITH COVER ART BY JERRY KAMSTRA (SHEM)...

Daniel Yaryan ? East Bay Poetry Express from Evan Karp on Vimeo.

Video by Charles Kruger of Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Anthology
Editor/Publisher Daniel Yaryan promoting the Anthology and reading
his poems during his feature at PRIYA in Berkeley on 7/12/10.




ANTHOLOGY 3  (FEBRUARY, 2010) WITH COVER ART BY LYNN ROGERS...












ANTHOLOGY 2  (AUGUST, 2009) WITH COVER ART BY VINCE STORTI...










ANTHOLOGY 1  (APRIL, 2009)
WITH COVER ART BY CHARLES CURTIS BLACKWELL...










FEATURED ARTISTS:
SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS ANTHOLOGY



Jazz poet, playright, performance and visual artist Charles Curtis Blackwell  (shown above performing at Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts: Round II @ The Beat Museum on 4/22/09) has shared his spoken word talents with audiences at three of the Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts events (Round II, III and VI).  He also provided all of the artwork, including the front cover art, for Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Anthology 1. Blackwell is the author of many books and plays, including "The Fiery Response to Love's Calling," "Is th Color of Mississippi Mud," Respectfully Yours Loud Henry" and "If a Pigeon Can't Fly," to name just a few of his publications. His jazz paintings have been shown in various exhibitions from coast to coast. He has recently released three spoken word CD's in collaboration with jazz drummer, Billy Toliver, and is affiliated with both Hospitality House and Faithful Fools programs in San Francisco's Tenderloin District.
In photo (L-R): Blackwell, Rachel W on the French horn and event host/co-producer Bob Booker.
Photo by Steve Wilson.







Author and artist Jerry Kamstra (Shem)
supplied a bounty of breathtaking artwork as Featured Artist of the Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Anthology III. The above photo was shot by Daniel Yaryan at Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Round V In Downtown Santa Cruz in the Felix Kulpa Gallery. 

Jerry Kamstra is the well-known author of the top-selling books Weed: Adventures Of A Dope Smuggler and The Frisco Kid, among many other literary achievements as a poet, community organizer, editor and publisher. He is a designer, artist, lecturer and educator. Kamstra lives in Santa Cruz, CA.

Upon its release, the San Francisco Chronicle described The Frisco Kid as "The San Francisco novel of the year...A savvy and steet-wise book about a time well before the flower children arrived."





Outsider artist Lynn Rogers  M.A., had her talents showcased in Anthology III, including the center poster in which she combined creative forces with Jerry Kamstra (with his prose piece entitled "The Buzz From The Bees"). Rogers is also a post-Beat independent author of illustrated books, including Born in Berkeley -- http://www.inklingpress.com/. Intuitive and spontaneous, she starts with graphite, adds watercolor, xerography or blown out 60s digital splash. She demonstates mosaic recycle art, was a Mixed Media Finalist at the Triton in 07 and has won awards in juried shows. Regarding her illustrated south by mystery, A Valley Of Ashes, metro suggested: "her experience with blighted areas and marginal people in society borders on the spiritual."

Rogers' "art epochs" include: Berkeley era pen and inks, 70s visionary, 80s icons, 90s illustrations, millennial mixed media and lately coming-full-circle quick sketches from nude modeling sessions offered at Stone Griffin Gallery in Campbell, where her work is displayed.
She currently serves as Vice President of Golden Hills Art Association in Milpitas, teaches Creative Writing (and illustrating) for MetroEd and Creative Memoir Writing for Los Gatos Saratoga Recreation.

"Lynn Rogers' lovely nudes are fresh examples of her fertile imagination. She is not only an accomplished writer of several novels, but also has exquisite drawings through which the Goddess shines in both an earthy and airy elegance." -- Bea Garth





                                  
                                  Storti reading at Round 12. Photo: Charles Kruger

VINCE STORTI -- at last report, is living somewhere on a palm-tree studded island, surrounded by Victorian houses and rumors of a revolution against all forms of sailboats.  He is a current recipient of a first prize for poetry by Bay Area Poets Coalition.  He is the author of two chapbooks and is the editor and publisher of North Coast Literary Review.  He thinks you should all have a nice time beyond the world's end in 2012.  He closes his closet door nightly, just so the beatnik ghosts won't get him.  He works to create visual and literary pieces which investigate conscious and unconscious realms.  He believes in what we all believe in.

 

Santa Cruz artist and printmaker
Melissa West  loves painting because of the loose expressiveness of paint and loves printmaking because of the workman-like process of carving and printing blocks. You will often find her out on the hiking trails, sketchbook in hand. West designed the Triple Spar logo for Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts in addition to being the featured artist for Anthology #5 (October, 2010).

 

Artist's Statement:

“People are sometimes struck by the apparent disparity of subject between my abstract work and my landscapes. To my mind, they are not so very far apart.

 

My abstract work begins with a movement: a circle, a spiral, a sweep of the arm. I believe that certain shapes resonate with us because we recognize at some deep and primitive level that they were made by a human hand. We recognize and even feel that span of arm, that circle of hand and wrist. The line created by hand speaks to us, and says 'human'. It reaffirms that we exist, and that we are not alone in the world. It is a powerful form of magic.

 

Similarly, certain landscapes strike me, and I feel compelled to paint them. The curious thing is that 'landscape' is also a human creation. The land is quite simply the land; landscape is our projection of feelings onto what we see. Again, we think magically, and own the world in which we travel.

 

Over time I'm finding that my landscapes and abstract paintings draw closer together in style. Perhaps some day they will fuse. In either case, the act of painting is a journey and exploration, both of my inner and outer worlds.”

For samples of West's work and updates on her exhibits, go to www.mswest.com

 

 

 

 

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