First Friday Reading Series Presents D.B. Grady

The Arts & Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana will present a free fiction reading by Louisiana author D.B. Grady on Friday, March 2^nd, 2012, at 7 p.m. at the Porch Coffee House & Café in Lake Charles. The reading is part of the First Friday Reading Series which is co-sponsored by the Council and the Porch, and it offers another reading platform for area writers and poets, both published and unpublished.

D.B. Grady, a former U.S. Army paratrooper and a veteran of Afghanistan, is a freelance writer and novelist. His debut novel, Red Planet Noir, won the 2010 Indie Book Award for Science Fiction, and his newest book The Command: Deep Inside the President’s Secret Army (co-authored by Marc Ambinder), which is now available on eBook and will be released in print in October, examines the role of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command in foreign policy and the war on terror. Grady is a correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for American Thinker, National Journal, and Real Clear World, among other periodicals and journals.

The Porch is located at 4710 Common Street in Lake Charles, and the reading will be followed by live music. For more information on D.B. Grady, visit his website at www.dbgrady.com, and for details on the First Friday Reading Series, call the Arts Council at 439-2787 or visit www.artsandhumanitiesswla.org.

Calcasieu Cinema International Screening

“The Hell of ’63,” a 2009 Dutch film generously provided by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, will be presented free at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, in the auditorium of the Central School Arts and Humanities Center.  Calcasieu Cinema International, a branch of the Council for International Concerns, will present the film in partnership with McNeese State University’s Banners Cultural Series and Office of Diversity, Lake Area Psychiatry, The Arts and Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana, Common Ground/Culture Fest Louisiana, and CocaCola. 

The film, produced by Klaas and Steven de Jong, centers on the Netherland’s famed skating marathon – the Elfstedentocht – and the historical event in 1963 when unusually severe conditions resulted in unprecedented injuries  and other upsets.  This film explores the race’s impact on the lives of a few of the racers and their loved ones, as well as the after effects.  According to producer/director Steven de Jong, “This is a classic Dutch film, in which a number of things which symbolize our culture come together.”  The agony of the race and the euphoria of the few who finish the course:  “The Hell of ’63” is an action-packed “disaster” movie with a Dutch twist!

Charlotte McCallum will host a discussion afterward, and free drinks and popcorn will be served. For more information, call Corliss Badeaux, secretary of the Council for International Concerns, at 475-5310.

The Little Mermaid Comes to Central School Theatre

The Children's Theatre Company presents a one-weekend only production of The Little Mermaid at Central School Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The Children's Theatre Company offers classes and programs for children ages 5-18, and these classes engage the children in all aspects of the theatre experience from costumes and makeup to lighting and scenery. With regular productions held at Central School, the Children's Theatre Company gives children the confidence and experience to pursue opportunities in acting and theatre production later in their lives.

According to the Artistic Director, Kerry A. Onxley, "This season we are thrilled to have CTC alumnus Taylor Simon as our guest director." Simon, a graduate of New York's American Musical and Dramatic Academy, has worked in off-Broadway productions such as "The Revival of Early to Bed." Simon was often seen in lead roles on the CTC stage during his high school years.

In regards to their production of The Little Mermaid, Onxley states, "This is truly a student-generated show. The students are involved in all aspects from set painting to costumes designs to publicity. It is a total learning experience for the children."

To purchase tickets or to find out more information, visit www.childrenstheatre.cc or call (337) 433-7323.

Imogene Dewey Offers Children's Art Classes

Imogene Dewey

Imogene Dewey Fine Arts will begin holding eight week-long children's art classes beginning February 11th, 2012. Classes will be held every Saturday morning from 10 am to 11:30 a.m. at Studio 347 at Central School Arts & Humanities Center. Imogene Dewey is returning to teaching children's art after seeing the need for regular art classes for talented children in the local area. She will be assisted by her daughter, Theresa Dewey. The classes will cover basic drawing techniques, introduction to watercolor painting, composition, and design of art in a fun, active way for children ages 6-12. Cost is $80 plus some material costs.


Dewey will also begin a six week series of adult watercolor classes in February for beginning and intermediate students. The adult classes will cover everything from introduction to materials to the design and execution of several paintings. Two class times will be offered, Tuesday evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Thursday afternoon from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Adult classes are $60 each six week session.


Class sizes are limited. Call 337-477-0124 for registration information and availability.

Louisiana's Bicentennial Continues

Southwest Louisiana is steeped in folklore, pirate myths, Cajun and Creole cultures, history, and heritage, and the Arts Council and the Imperial Calcasieu Museum are working to preserve this legendary past within the verse of our Louisiana Poet Laureate, Julie Kane, in honor of the state's bicentennial. The Lake Charles Convention & Visitors Bureau is coordinating with the Museum to commission Kane to write a series of poems specifically about our own identity and its relationship to the state's expansive history.

Kane's acclaimed poetry spans across seven collections, and her work has become the voice of Louisiana through its celebratory imagery of both the raw and rapturous, the beautiful and the obscene within Louisiana herself. Her work, which appears in several prominent poetry anthologies, examines the contrast between her childhood spent up north (she was born in Massachusetts) and her later years in the South. Kane's poetry reflects an influence of the Confessional Poets as she was a student of Anne Sexton at Boston University during the time of Sexton's suicide. With her poems existing at the intersection of landscape and identity, Kane's understanding and perspective of the Louisiana heritage resides at the core of her work, and Lake Charles is proud to become the inspiration for this new series of poems.

On Saturday, May 12th, at 4 p.m., Julie Kane will give a reading of her work, including the commissioned poetry series, underneath the arms of the 375 year-old historic Sallier Oak, which was the site of the winter home of Charles Sallier -- the city's namesake. For details, visit www.artsandhumanitiesswla.org or www.visitlakecharles.org.

Poetry Out Loud!

For four years now, the Arts Council has partnered with the Louisiana Division of the Arts to present Poetry Out Loud in Southwest Louisiana. This innovative program began in 2005 when the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation came together to yield a program that has revolutionized the role of poetry in high schools. Poetry Out Loud challenges high school students to study and memorize poetry in a competitive setting while building public speaking skills, confidence, and character. Last year, the Louisiana State Champion, David Douglas, came from Washington-Marion High School in Lake Charles, and he will serve as a special guest judge at Regionals.

On Friday, February 17th, at 6 p.m., high school students representing several schools in the Lake Area will compete at the Central School Theater as part of Poetry Out Loud’s Southwest Louisiana Regional Competition. The students who compete at the Regional level have already made it through the first round of competition at their schools or local library. Poetry Out Loud challenges high school students to memorize and recite poetry on stage in a competitive setting.

From left: Justine Chiappetta of the Poetry Foundation;
David Douglas, State Champion; Dana LaFonta of
Louisiana Division of the Arts

Our judges include: Sherry Perkins, president of the Bayou Writers Group; J. Bruce Fuller, widely published poet; Jason Martinez of IberiaBank; Mindy Schwarzauer of O'Carroll Group; and David Douglas, Poetry Out Loud's 2011 Louisiana State Champion.

During this difficult budgetary time for the arts and education in Louisiana, it is important to continue supporting innovative programs such as Poetry Out Loud that produce concrete and beneficial results for both students and education. Matt Young, Executive Director of the Arts Council, stated, “The Arts Council’s camaraderie with the Louisiana Division of the Arts elevates the goals of education by giving students a solid foundation with regional and state organizations that strive to provide area residents with a strong climate for creative thinking.”

The top three students at the Regional Competition will not only win prizes but will also go on to compete with students from across Louisiana at the State Competition in Baton Rouge, and the state winner will receive a cash prize and a stipend for his or her school for the purchase of poetry books. The National Competition will be held in Washington D.C. and will award over $50,000 in prizes and stipends, including a $20,000 cash prize for the National Champion.

A Weekend of Readings

Throughout Louisiana there are pockets of literary communities that act as gravitational forces for poets and writers from across the country -- Grand Coteau, New Orleans, and Lake Charles to name a few. Our literary community isn't anything new; McNeese boasts one of the top fifty creative writing MFA programs in the country which draws great literary talent and has produced a constant stream of skilled poets and writers since 1981.

This past year, Lake Charles became home to at least four reading series all running simultaneously with one another and each covering a specific reading platform. McNeese holds readings year round that invite widely published poets and writers from across the nation to come hold individual conferences with MFA students as well as public readings. Stellar Beans also holds a regular open mic night that incorporates slam and performance poetry into the mix.

Back in January 2011, the Arts Council partnered with the Porch Coffee House & Cafe to co-sponsor a monthly reading series that focuses on both unpublished and published writers in the area, and the First Friday Reading Series has become one of our favorite events to look forward to each month. In the past year we've featured both poetry and fiction readings by MFA students, PhD candidates at ULL, Darrell Bourque, our previous Louisiana Poet Laureate, the Bayou Writers Group, and local writers.

Tonight our First Friday Reading Series continues with a fiction reading by J.D. Hibbitts and Scott Thomason at the Porch. The reading is free and begins at 7 pm. Both Hibbitts and Thomason are in their final semester at McNeese's MFA program. Also this weekend, McNeese is hosting a poetry reading by Arkansas poet Greg Brownderville on Saturday at 7:30 pm in the LaJeunesse Room in the Old Ranch on campus. In order to create a supply of readings, the community must show a demand, so get out this weekend to support your literary scene!