The petaluma arts council and
El DÍa de los Muertos Petaluma 2009 Present:
"Flames of the Heart/Llamas del
Corazón"
October 17 - November 2, 2009
Contact Margie
Helm: helmatkin@earthlink.net or 778-9922
Oprima aquí para la versión en español de esta página.
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Schedule of Events
Art & Altar Walk
Exhibitions and Artist’s Receptions
Day of the Dead Traditional Recipes
Pre-Event Festivities | Song & Dance | Family Workshops | Poetry
Celebrated on November 1st and 2nd in Latin America and South America, El Día de los Muertos is a ritual time to honor loved ones who have died and to acknowledge death as a part of life. In Petaluma, as in many communities, El Día de los Muertos has grown into cross-cultural sharing that offers a unique partnership between and among cultures.
El Día de los Muertos, Petaluma 2009 highlights the arts and culture of Latin and South America with community events that occur between October 17 and November 2. Elements of El Día de los Muertos have become meaningful to people from many cultural backgrounds. The observance of El Día de los Muertos provides a multicultural perspective on life and death. Death is portrayed with affection and humor by artists and crafts workers. El Día de los Muertos is a joyful, colorful and whimsical celebration.
We hope that you join us for these festive events. We hope that you enjoy this opportunity to experience a celebration of Latino culture and to share in our common humanity. All events are free and open to the public. Donations to support the events are appreciated.
PRE-EVENT FESTIVITIES: ArtsLive!
A Staged Reading of Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez - A special weekend of ArtsLive! at the Petaluma Art Center (230 Lakeville St.) kicks off our 2 week celebration of El Día de los Muertos Petaluma, 2009. Join us for a staged reading of the heart-warming play, Real Women Have Curves, directed by Petaluma actor Joe Peer, Thursday, Oct. 8-Saturday, Oct. 10. Returning to Petaluma by popular demand, this beloved play by Josefina Lopez presents a microcosm of the Latina immigrant experience. It celebrates real women’s bodies, the power of women and the incredible bond that happens when women work together.
Performances will begin Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7pm with an Open Dress Rehearsal and continue Friday, Oct. 9 and Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7:30pm. Ticket prices are $5 for the Open Dress Rehearsal and $15 for Friday and Saturday evenings. Beverages and snacks will be available for purchase. The Director and cast are graciously donating these performances to benefit El Día de los Muertos Petaluma, 2009. The cast will be available for conversation after the Friday and Saturday performances.
Reservations are recommended as seating is limited. Reservations can only be made online through Brown Paper Tickets: click here Tickets will also be available at the door, one half-hour before each show. For other inquiries, please call the Arts Center at 707-762-5600.
Altar Making Workshop/Lecture Demonstration by Leoncio and Emilia Quintas - Altars or ofrendas (Spanish for "offering"), decorated for the Day of the Dead celebration to honor and please the returning souls, are the heart of the celebration of El Día de los Muertos wherever it occurs. In Petaluma over 70 venues will exhibit these remembrances honoring loved ones who have died.
ArtsLive! continues on Sunday, Oct. 11 as the Petaluma Arts Center hosts an Altar Making Workshop by the Quintas Family from 4-6pm. The Quintas family from Oaxaca have been creating traditional altars for our celebration since the very beginning. Come and learn the symbolism of the elements that create an altar and talk with the altar makers as they create their altar for the Art Center.
Also shown will be the film La Ofrenda, The Days of the Dead. Made by San Francisco film maker Lourdes Portillo, this classic depicts the traditions of El Día de los Muertos in Oaxaca and how those have translated into celebrations in California.
This event is free of charge. Refreshments and folk art will be available for sale. For reservations call 769-1647.
SONG & DANCE
Music and Mexican food will be on hand for the opening celebration, Sunday, Oct. 18, 1-4pm at St. Vincent de Paul Church Square. We will be welcomed by the St. Vincent de Paul Aztec Dance Group performing traditional rituals and blessings from the pre-Hispanic era. The danzas are blessings and prayer for the event as well as for the Latino community, in whom the group hopes to foster cultural pride. This is their fourth year performing for the El Día de los Muertos, Petaluma celebration.We will be entertained by the Santa Rosa Folkloric group Ballet Sonatlan under the directorship of Carol Delgado. With thorough research of costumes, choreography and music, this group performs authentic Mexican and Indigenous folk dance from several states in Mexico.
Also performing at the Opening Event is the very lively Windsor Bloco, a drum and dance corps from Windsor Middle School. Windsor Bloco is a teen-driven organization comprised of 10-19 year olds who learn the art of drumming and dancing in the Brazilian style. Bloco's are organizations in the Brazilian Carnaval tradition that are dedicated to enlivening the life of the community through music, dance, and education. Windsor Bloco also instills a sense of cultural pride. This program is open to all youth: both boys and girls of all ethnic backgrounds and economic status are welcome.
Our Ninth Annual Opening Event will also include a Bi-National Health Fair as a part of Health Week of the Americas.
On Friday, October 30 at 6:00 p.m., Mariachi Santa Rosa, Grupo Coyolxauqui, Ballet Folkloric Paquiyollotzin and Windsor Bloco will lead our traditional candle-lit procession with giant puppets through Petaluma arriving at the Petaluma Art Center, 230 Lakeville Street at Washington Ave for performances and a mercado. Food, beverages and folk art will be available for sale.
A performance at 7:30 p.m. follows the Procession.
The Closing Event will also include a performance of La Llorona by Petaluma author and actor Hilary Moore and Jennifer March, actor, directed by Nancy Long. The presentation of this classic Mexican folktale will be through spoken word and music in Spanish and English.
On Saturday, Oct. 31st from 3-5pm, Chaskinakuy (cha-ski-NOCK-wee) presents the Music of the Andes Family Program and a panpipes workshop in the style of Andean village ensembles.
Musicians and teaching artists Edmond Badoux and Francy Vidal of Chaskinakuy
commemorate El Día de Los Muertos in the Andean tradition with a special program of mountain music from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, followed by a panpipes workshop* in the playing style of ensembles from the Lake Titicaca region.
Petaluma Library, 100 Fairgrounds Drive
*Panpipes workshop limited to 18 players; pre-registration required.
Contact: info@chaskinakuy.com / (707) 571-1377
Sponsored by The Friends of the Petaluma Library.
In addition, on Friday, Oct. 23, 7-9pm the gift of Sacred Circle Dancing will come to Petaluma. Sacred Circle Dancing has been done as long as people have walked this earth, as a way of marking the many events significant to human experience. Honoring our ancestors, marking the passage of a human soul and celebrating the continuity of life are such occasions. It calls for dancing, as it always has. Join us for an evening of dances both meditative and joyful, haunting and plaintive, to glorious music from all over the world. The steps are simple and each dance is taught before we do it. No prior experience necessary. This workshop is offered by Joan Rawles-Davis of Santa Cruz.
Elim Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall 220 Stanley at Baker Street Enter through parking lot.
FAMILY WORKSHOPS
We have expanded our Family Workshops for El Día de los Muertos, Petaluma 2009.
On Saturday, Oct. 17 from 1-5pm, Colors of Spanish invites you to attend an Introduction to El Día de los Muertos. This family-oriented event will introduce you to a multi-cultural celebration which is gaining such popularity here within our own communities! Explore beyond the familiar images of this commemorative event as you and your family learn about the history and some of the interesting traditions celebrated in many parts of Latin America. Colors of Spanish, 55 Maria Drive.
Saturday, Oct. 24, 2-5pm, Making Traditional Sugar Skulls will be presented by Abraham Solar, Latino Pastoral Director for St. Vincent de Paul Church at the Farmer’s Market. The time from October 31 to November 2 in Latin American cultures is the time to remember departed loved ones. It is a joyous and playful time when death is mocked while loved ones are honored. Everyone is invited learn how to make sugar skulls at the Farmer’s Market. Also featured will be flower making and other traditional activities for the whole family.
Petaluma Farmer’s Market Walnut Park on the Corner of Petaluma Blvd. South & D St. A Storytime for Preschoolers in Spanish and in English will be presented by Children's Librarian Carmel Olson. Lively stories, songs and poetry for ages 2-5 yrs. and their caregivers are invited to be a part of this time on Saturday, Oct. 31, 11am at the Petaluma Library, 100 Fairgrounds Drive.
POETRY
Las Poemas del Recuerdo (Poems of Remembrance) is an evening of Bilingual Poetry hosted by poets Beatriz Lagos and Terry Ehret with featured readers Jabez Churchill and Geri Digiorno at the Petaluma Art Center on Friday, Oct. 24, 5:30-9pm. Also featured will be an Open Mike community reading and a potluck dinner. This year’s event will also include a reading of children’s poems, a tribute to former Sonoma County Poets Laureate Don Emblen and David Bromige, and performances by members of the Pacific Empire Chorus and the Cinnabar Choral Ensemble.
Terry Ehret is a poet, teacher, and founder of the innovative publishing collective, Sixteen Rivers Press. As Sonoma County poet laureate 2004-2006, she visited classrooms, writing groups, classes, and senior residences all across the county. She has organized the poetry program at the annual Sonoma County Book Festival, the Favorite Poems Community Reading at SRJC, and the Poetry for Tolerance Project for Sonoma County Youth. She has also hosted bilingual workshops and readings, including the Poetry on the Bus project and launched "The Sonoma County Writers" Guide, an on-line community bulletin board for local writers. She has four collections of poetry, Suspensions, Lost Body, Translations from the Human Language, and Lucky Break. Terry has hosted the Poems of Remembrance for El Día de los Muertos, Petaluma for six years.
Geri Digiorno, Sonoma county’s current Poet Laureate, is a visual artist as well as the founder and director of the Petaluma Poetry Walk, an annual literary event celebrating its 12th anniversary this year. Her most recent book of poems is White Lipstick (Red Hen Press, 2005). Other publishing credits include Tap Dancing, a chapbook from Norton Coker Press, Cyanonis,and poems in North Coast Review, Tomcat. Tight, Women's Voices, Paterson Review, The Noe Valley Voice, and the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal. Geri Digiorno has taught poetry and collage classes at Paterson NJ at Passaic County Community College, Sebastopol Center for the Arts,and COTS, a homeless shelter in Petaluma. A recent chapbook, Roseta Mary, was published in 2007 by Dpress. Appointed to be Sonoma County’s Poet Laureate in 2005, Geri worked tirelessly to bring poetry to the people.
Beatriz Lagos is one of the most important bilingual poets actually writing in California. Born in Argentina she is now an American citizen living in Petaluma since 1976. She is a Professor of Spanish Literature and Argentine Literature and History, graduated in Buenos Aires. She is also a graduate of Sonoma State University and UC Berkeley and holds diplomas from Cambridge University. She is now retired after teaching and lecturing in Santa Rosa JC, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and Sonoma State University. As a bilingual poet she has read at innumerable universities and literary academies in California and Europe since 1977. She was invited and attended literary and linguistic congresses in Europe. As a poet she was invited by The World Congress of Poets and attended the congresses in San Francisco, Madrid, Florence, and Greece with Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, and Mary Rudge. She has been recognized by the critics as a historical novelist and three of her medieval novels were published in Spain. Her memoirs were published in 2002. Her six books of poems were published in Spain and Mexico. Her two collections in English, “The Great Petaluma Mill” and "Love and Wine Poems," are sold out.
Jabez Churchill was born in California and educated in Argentina and the U.S. He has worked as a mariner and charter skipper, a teacher of Spanish at Santa Rosa Junior College and a creative writing teacher with the California Poets in the Schools. He's been writing poetry since 1975 and has published four books: "Songs of Seasons" and "Controlled Burn", and most recently "Sleeping With Ghosts" /"Durmiendo con Fantasmas" and "The Veil" by Kulupi Press. Jabez's poem "Adonde Vas" was selected for the bilingual Poetry on the Bus project, along with those of three of his students. These appear on County Transit buses.
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You are also invited to join us to help prepare for and be a part of the celebration.
Give us a call or email us to discuss opportunities for involvement:
Marjorie Helm at 778-9922 or email: helmatkin@earthlink.net
Abraham Solar at 293-6811 or email: abrelia@sbcglobal.net
Israel Escudero at 322-0834 or email: igaleana@hotmail.com
Please feel free to send this alert and our web address
www.PetalumaArtsCouncil.org to your lists.