Kaaren Whitney: Turning Of The Year--And Turning A New Global Leaf

Tomorrow night's Open Mic speaker is Kaaren Whitney, a UK-based homeopath, who returns this month each year to the Connecticut from which she originally hails, sharing her most recent poetry and observations on the alternating tensions and acts of tenderness defining our associations with one another and the natural world.

Protected behind the furious media competition as to whether the terminal degradation of the biosphere will be irreversible in some twelve years, can be technologically remediated in thirty, is irreversible right now (or is even happening at all), lies a seemingly collective, half-conscious unwillingness to acknowledge the only fruitful responses that are as time-tested as they are unavoidable to any outcome—adaptation and reciprocity.

Kaaren's 2016 collaboration with photographer Jim Nind, The Turning Of the Year: A Book for 8 Seasons (Solstice-Equinox Press), marking the annual times honoring celestial shifts and ancient celebrations, is part of an ouvre which serenely, yet firmly draws attention to the interplay between these neglected perspectives and the dominant ones of obsessive appropriation and indifference.  

This weekend’s Typhoon Hagibis striking Japan is just the latest consequence of this current disregard for the wilderness beyond a collective solipsistic idea of a worthwhile reality, having struck Fukushima Prefecture--site of the world's largest ongoing nuclear disaster, which has been killing life in the Pacific for eight years.

Complementing her homeopathic practice in Suffolk, Kaaren has also constructed her own Labyrinth and walks this as a form of meditation, enhancing what she brings to several ritual groups.  In addition to taking part in three area poetry groups, Karen has appeared at the Halesworth Fringe Festival and has participated in poetry events as far as Australia. 

Catch up on some of her past appearances in Stamford here, here and here.

Hosted by Frank Chambers, Barnes & Noble Open Mic meets the second Monday, each month in the movie/music section on the main floor of the Stamford bookstore at 7:15 pm. For more information and directions, contact:

Barnes & Noble

100 Greyrock Place, Suite H009

Stamford, Ct 06901

 203-323-1248

The Returning And The Cherished

Opening with Kaaren Whitney reading tomorrow evening at 7:15 at Barnes & Noble's Open Mic program in the Stamford Town Center, this week features two consecutive events recognizing seasonal and foundational members of the local poetry community.

Following on two prior autumnal appearances to the area (click here and here), Kaaren, a UK resident originally from  Connecticut, practices homeopathy and is active in the English contemporary universalist community. She will be reading selections from The Turning Of the Year: A Book for 8 Seasons (Solstice-Equinox Press, 2016), a chapbook collaboration with Jim Nind of forty-four new pieces, accompanied by full-color photographs.

Among her credits as part of a body of work honoring the natural world, the environment and the urgency of our better stewardship of it, Kaaren has contributed to  Voicing Visions, a 2009 DVD/booklet release featuring assorted artists and poets, England's 2006 National Poetry Anthology and Moonwise Diary (2007 through 2009).

Kaaren has also appeared at the Halesworth Fringe Festival and open mic programs in England, the United States and Australia. Below is her reading from Aldeburgh Beach in UK’s Suffolk County of “The Coming of Light” by the late Mark Strand as part of the 2015 National Poetry Day:

Hosted by Frank Chambers, Barnes & Noble Open Mic meets the second Monday, each month in the cooking section on the main floor of the Stamford bookstore. For more information and directions, contact:

Barnes & Noble
100 Greyrock Place, Suite H009
Stamford, Ct 06901

203-323-1248

A retired professor of literature and peace activist at Nassau Community College, Ralph Nazareth has generously extended his academic chops as moderator/facilitator and creative nurturer to PoemAlley's eclectic assortment of poets and other artists for well over ten years, now, consistently introducing members to new expressive perspectives spanning art, foreign affairs, family, travel, illness and other topics through his energetic organizing of special public readings and frequent appearances of guest readers and performers at Curley's Diner.

In appreciation, the Tuesdays At Curley's group has decided to return the favor by asking Ralph to be this week's featured poet, reading work from his new collection Between Us The Long Road (Owlfeather Collective, 2017).

Ralph is managing editor of of Stamford-based Yuganta Press and president of Grace Works International, a charitable foundation involved in outreach in the developing world (proceeds from the sales of Between Us will be donated to GWI). Ralph has participated in poetry festivals in India, the Middle East, and in Latin America and has placed work in numerous books and magazines both in the United States and abroad, including Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry (University of Arkansas Press, 2010) and Multilingual Anthology: The Americas Poetry Festival of New York 2014. His collection Glass: Selected Poems, was published by El Quirófano Ediciones in Ecuador in 2015.

He uses the title poem from the latter to examine the multi-layered role of metaphor in this clip from a 2009 discussion for the Bent Pin (http://BentPin.net):

All are welcome to hear this patient, inquisitive and dedicated advocate for the importance of engaging in, and being engaged by,  the written and spoken word in upholding the human in human affairs.

Casting Out Satan From The Mills—And The Hypo

A resident of England since 1971, where she maintains a homeopathic practice and serves as guardian of a local labyrinth and Sacred Circle, Connecticut native Kaaren Whitney returns to Stamford Monday night, October 14. as featured poet at Barnes & Noble’s Open Mic.

Besides contributing work to Painting to Poem (2006), A Book of Graces (2009) and numerous anthologies, Kaaren has read at the Halesworth Fringe Festival and open mic events around the world. A commended winner of the Fakenham Poetry Competition in 2008, Karen maintains an active online presence in the UK, including a blog for Poetry Aloud and frequent contributions to the webzine Ink, Sweat and Tears. Kaaren is also a member of the Suffolk Poetry Society.

While much of her writing is known for its focus on nature (see past postings here and here),the full continuum of her work and activities as poet, healer/health freedom activist (see her Facebook link in support of vilified vaccine researcher Andrew Wakefield) and metaphoric observer show that no matter how much we might let ourselves be lulled by the abundant wares and ways of mass industrial production, the transition from mere existence to true thriving depends on embracing the link between our experience as individual human beings and the living environment in which humanity evolved.

In its multi-layered meditation of a man atop a ladder restoring the thatch roof of a simple dwelling and the Gaia-centric purpose to which he would put it, Kaaren’s 2011 poem “Balance” builds on the anthropologically-themed “And They Made Tools” (see below), a 2009 ekphrastic piece derived from a John Tuckett cyanotype (see above, left), toward a firm advocacy for a more compassionate proportion in future between what we can do for--as opposed to to--one another and the planet:

And They Made Tools

simple at first, a stick, a sharpened bone,
extensions of coarse fingers, rough ragged
from grubbing soil to get at starch tubers,
roots for the blood clan's sustenance, once mashed,
stone pounding fibre into flat pulp,
sweeter, easier to eat.

Walking the land, they learned by feel its skin,
discovered food from the earth-speak terrain.
They found river pebbles, half cracked, thonged them
stick fashion, granting more accurate aim.
Flaked flints, 'slicers', scraped clean small mammal hides,
destined to become medicine bags, clan
clothing for these nomadic gatherers
who captured prey in nettle woven nets,
traps sprung from tree limbs, from stick covered holes.

Survival their goal, uniformity
a surety, but new ways of doing,
living, becoming tool makers took hold.
They walked the land upright.
They lived in community.
They made tools.
And they survived.

Kaaren Whitney, 2009

Though the rebel do-it-yourself movement typified by the advent of 3D printing technology looks to recharge consumerism with a more personalized form of mass production, it is the current convention of hit marathon-length “slow TV” programming in Norway that makes for a better example of Kaaren’s themes in action. 

NRK broadcasting’s counter-intuitive utilization of video—the medium that’s done more to foment a culture of distraction and creative impatience than anything else in the last 70 years—is reacquainting stressed contemporary viewers with the frantic-less pace and dedication associated with traditionally absorbing pursuits, like knitting, fishing, fire stoking and even rail travel, all presented in real-time detail, much like the field-to-kitchen table experience evoked by Kaaren’s “Berries This Year”. 

Keep up with Kaaren and her work on Facebook here. 

Hosted by Frank Chambers and PoemAlley's Nick Miele, the Barnes & Noble's Open Mic Poetry program meets the second Monday of each month in the cookbook section on the main floor of the bookstore (located in the Stamford Down Center), beginning at 7:15 p.m.

  

For more information, contact:

Barnes & Noble

100 Greyrock Place Suite H009

Stamford, CT 06901

________

Additional Information:

 

The Case for Working with Your Hands, Or, Why Office Work Is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good
Matthew B. Crawford
Penguin Viking, 2011

Made by Hand: Looking for Meaning in a Throwaway World

Mark Frauenfelder

Portfolio, 2012

In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed

Carl Honore
HarperOne, 2005

The Global Heart Awakens: Humanity's Rite of Passage from the Love of Power to the Power of Love
Anodea Judith
Shift Books, 2013

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community
David C. Korten
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006

Toolmaker Koan (novel)
John C McLoughlin
Baen, 1987

The Craftsman
Richard Sennett
Yale University Press, 2009

Waging War on the Autistic Child: The Arizona 5 and the Legacy of Baron von Munchausen
Andrew J. Wakefield
Skyhorse, 2012

TheAndrew Wakefield Story: How Big Pharma and the UK Government Destroyed a Man to Save a Flawed Vaccine Program

David L. Lewis PhD

Skyhorse Publishing, 2014 (forthcoming)

Same Time This Year

 Following her previous guest appearance in the Stamford area at Curley's Diner last October, last night's Barnes & Noble Open Mic program shared the work of featured poet Kaaren Whitney, a former Connecticut resident and contemporary universalist, who has run a homeopathic practice in the UK for more than forty years.
 
Devoted to the promotion of the environment and a reawakening of humanity's spiritual ties to it, Kaaren serves as a guardian of a local labyrinth and Tree Circle in England. Much of her work inspired by these themes can be found in Painting to Poem (2006), Leaves of Hope (2006), A Book of Graces (2009), Shades of Light and Dark (also 2009), as well as several anthologies. You can find her latest work on the prose and poetry webzine Ink, Sweat and Tears, to which she is a frequent contributor. Click on Bill Buschel's video above from her 2011 PoemAlley reading to get the flavor of her material and presentation.

A commended winner of the Fakenham Poetry Competition in 2008, Kaaren has read at the Halesworth Fringe Festival and other open mic events in the United States, the UK and as removed as Australia. Kaaren's work often accentuates the Living Wheel of the Year, an English website celebrating Celtic festivals and different aspects of nature culture.   

Hosted by Frank Chambers and PoemAlley's Nick Miele, Barnes & Noble Open Mic meets the second Monday of each month in the cookbook section on the main floor of the bookstore (located in the Stamford Down Center), beginning at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, contact:

Barnes & Noble

100 Greyrock Place Suite H009

Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248

Two Back-To-Back Readings On Monday and Tuesday!

Spanning poetry, satire and essays, PoemAlley regular Richard Duffee's ouvre explicates the human-scale effects of systemic injustice, geopolitical machinations and social/class relations. As October 10's featured speaker of Barnes & Nobles' Open Mic Poetry program, Richard has lived in Chicago, Philadelphia, as well as South Asia, where he married into an Indian family. A legal advocate for the homeless, his work experience ranges from painter, bookseller and psychiatric aide, to plumber, editor and law professor. A two-time candidate for Congress with the CT Green Party, Richard is the author of The Slow News of Need (Yuganta Press, 2001), a 35-year compilation of impassioned observations on the universal (but under-acknowledged) struggle between the pathology of "making a killing" versus the need to eke out a living.

Open Mic Poetry gathers the second Monday of each month at 7p.m. in the cooking section adjacent to the cafe on the main floor of the Stamford Barnes & Noble (located in the Stamford Town Center).

For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009
Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248


For the "B" side, come by the following night just a couple of blocks over to hear Kaaren Whitney read as featured guest for the October 11 Tuesday at Curley's PoemAlley session. A former Connecticut resident, Kaaren has lived in England since 1971, where she works as a homeopath and serves as guardian of a labyrinth and Tree Circle. Among various credits, Kaaren has placed work in the UK's 2006 National Poetry Anthology and the Moonwise Diary (2007 through 2009), and was also a commended winner of the Fakenham Poetry Competition in 2008. Karen has contributed her nature-inspired writing to Painting to Poem (2006), Spring (2009), Shades of Light and Dark (2009), among other titles, as well as to 2009's Voicing Visions, a DVD/booklet collaboration between assorted artists and poets. She has read at Cotton's Yard Gallery, the Halesworth Fringe Festival and numerous open mic venues in England, the United States and Australia.

Find out what she's up to at her Ink, Sweat and Tears Webzine here; for a seasonal sampling of her Neo-Pagan poetry, see her frequent input across the pond on Living the Wheel of the Year, a UK-based online celebration of Celtic festivals and nature culture.