Thank you and Goodbye!

The first picture was taken Wednesday at the Performing Arts Center advertising for our reading. We handed out flyers and candy and talked to many people about ArtWorks and our reading.

The second picture was taken after our reading on Thursday evening at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop on Downer! Two of the apprentices, Demetrius Cooper and Lawrence Frater, were not able to attend because of family vacation plans, but we had a very appreciative audience and everyone did a fantastic job! Books were signed, gifts given and received, refreshments shared, and promises given to stay in touch!

Thank you all for a wonderful eight weeks and keep us all posted as to your writing! Above all, keep writing!

Please Note:

Our book, Through the Eyes of Our Mirror, is available through ArtWorks for Milwaukee. Please contact Meghan Koven (donate@artworksformilwaukee) to have a copy sent to you. They are $10. In early September, these books should also be available at Schwartz Bookshop on Downer and at Woodland Pattern Book Center.

savanna pryor

Hi everyone this is Savanna again this is our last week and it has been fun so I just want say bye and I hope you like what you see on our blog

week 8 for Lawrence Frater

This week has been the last week at "ArtWorksforMilwaukee." Everyone has been leaving and I might miss annoying everyone. NAHHH. They are all going to miss me more than I'm going to miss them because I always have family (ArtWorks WAS my family) so thus I conclude the last chapter of the "Lawrence Frater Story" and I hope to meet my new family at MHSA soon.


Final Good-bye from King of the Mil

hello goodbye

Goodbye to all my viewers.This blog has been the most fun I've had on a computer in a while.
However to my dismay it has to come to an end. So to whoever is out there looking at this site our actual reading will take place Thursday the 28. 6:30@Schwartz Bookshop on Downer



yours truly,
mike b the kid

Poet Te

Hello, to all

I can't belive that IT'S OVER. But it was fun and I learned so many things. I would like to thank Artworks and to my coworks keep writing that poetry.

Clara Forrest

This is our last week at Artworks. I had a great time and I'm gonna miss everyone here, I love you guys. Our poetry reading is tomorrow and we're gonna be practicing it today. Please come to the reading tomorrow, Thursday August 28 at Schwartz Bookshop on Downer. I hope to see you all there. This is Clara, in and out.

SAVANNA

Will this week has been fun and I learned so many other things I didn't know at first about poetry and I met different people that do poetry.

what it is from the kid

It's me and I'm back again/check out the blog and go tell a friend /
I fuel on poetry so my words give me strength/
pops was right when he said i was born to win/
I deep rooted in my ways so don't try to make me bend/
Because living my life without the freedom of expression is like living in sin/
This is the end of week seven/
We're getting ready for the reading and it feels like lyrical heaven/

That's just a quick little something from within.

week 7 Lawrence

This week has been nice. Next week will be our last week and I hope to enjoy myself and say my final good-byes to everyone. Hope to see you all at the reading.

Clara Forrest

This week is the seventh week and I can't believe it's almost over already, it seems like we just started this job. We're getting ready for the poetry reading on August 28. I'm still kinda nervous but I'll cope. I'm gonna miss everybody here, we have all gotten pretty close in the last seven weeks. People from our group are slowely leaving and it seems like we are all getting separated.

week seven for the group, last week for me

This is my final week at ArtWorks I start school next week, but will be at the final reading. It has been a true blessing to be honored with the privilege to be inspired by my peers.

one love,
Danielle Moore-Sanders

from demetrius

This is my last week but this program has helped me increase my writing skills,
also my speaking skills when I am reading one of my poems. I really hope Artworks continues doing more programs like this.

from demetrius

Week Seven

We have had a productive week proofing the book and putting finishing touches on it and our flyer for the reading.

We have hosted several visiting poets this week: Jeff Poniewaz, Marilyn Taylor, Susan Firer (current Poet Laureate of Milwaukee), and Michael Payne of themeccalounge.com.

They have all shared with us some of their poetry, as well as tips on the many ways of publishing and how to read poems aloud. We've talked about the differences between page and spoken-word poetry and how to read both. The consensus seems to be that the best poetry works well both on the page and "performed."

Michael Payne has reserved space for us on his Internet radio program next Sunday night, August 24, from 7:30-9:30. Please go to themeccalounge.com and click on the link for the audio/radio program to hear us!

Our time together is drawing to a close. Some of our interns have already had to return to school this week; however, we are still looking forward to our reading at Schwartz Bookshop on Downer in just a week: August 21, 6:30. We hope to see you there!

Kathleen Dale
Lead Artist

Poet T

Hello to all,
This week we have been working on what we would like the book to look like and we are half way finished. We will be done soon. Only two more weeks to go and the book will be published.

week6

Wow the program is almost over and I'm thinking about how I don't want to go to school. I love summer, but this year it went by faster than that one dude from the Olympics. AMERICA!!! The book is almost finished it just needs to go to Clark Graphics.



-Lawrence Frater

Savanna pryor

This week has been fun and I really got over my fear which is speaking in front of people

Clara Forrest

Yesterday we went to the Miramar Theater to read one of our pieces that are going into the book. I was really nervous and I know that I read too fast but all was ok at the end of the day. We are now done with editing and we're soon going to get the book printed and I'm really excited about that. Tomorrow we will be doing another poetry reading at Woodland Pattern for their open mic. I'm still nervous but I'll have to do it anyway. Wish me luck!

a big what's up from the kid

This week a lot has happened for the kid;I was exposed to the spotlight once again.The book's coming together just fine.Check out the blog for a sample of my reading.

a poem entitled Bitter/Sweet

A thin line between love and hate
I'm there
I'm HERE.
where the river flows
my pain exposed
my tears the down pour

from Demetrius Cooper

This week we got to go the Miramar to hear a poetry reading. They had really good poets there to read that night. I also read one of my poems there and I got back some really good feedback.

Week Six

Below you can view video clips of our interns reading a poem they like as well as one of their own.

Robert Pinsky began the "My Favorite Program" project as former Poet Laureate of the United States, videotaping hundreds of people reading their favorite poems. To see some of them, go to:

http://www.favoritepoem.org/videos.html

This week interns have been very busy reading at two poetry reading open mics (Soul Fire at the Miramar Theater and Redletter open mic at Woodland Pattern Book Center) and receiving feedback from the audiences.

We have also developed a flyer for our reading on August 28, and have written a collaborative letter to the Milwaukee School Board and Aldermen/women, as well as to the Journal/Sentinel arguing for the reinstatement of arts in the schools. We believe we have an original argument!

We have also had guest speakers from Woodland Pattern and our own director, Meghan Koven, on the "brass tacks" of non-profit business in the arts. We also received valuable tips on marketing from these sources.

It has been a very productive week! Enjoy the videos!

Kathleen Dale
Lead Artist

Michael Baker

Lawrence Frater

Demetrius Cooper

Tiara Cannon

Clara Forrest

Mikael Luter

Savanna Pryor

Danielle Moore Sanders

Our Interns (see next post for the rest)

Clara Forrest, Mikael Luter, and Lawrence Frater.

These beautiful people will be reading for you at Schwartz Book Shop on Downer on Thursday, Aug. 28, 6:30-8!

Five More

Here are five of our interns: Michael Baker, Demetrius Cooper, Savanna Pryor, Danielle Moore Sanders, and Tiara Cannon.

These photos will appear in the chapbook, "Through the Eyes of our Mirror."

It's almost ready to go to press!

august 4-7[Danielle Sanders]

This week went by extremely fast; we had half day Monday because of the poetry slam we attended, a trip to Clark Graphics, and we designed the cover for the chapbook.

OVER CAME FEAR

Hi it's Savanna again. The thing I overcame at this job is speaking out loud and speaking in front of people. I am so happy that I overcame this fear I had.

Week Five

Here we are at Clark Graphics and the Miramar theater (only a block from each other) and at the bus stop waiting to go back. Molly Carey of Clark Graphics helped us figure out what kind of book we could put together within our budget. Luckily, we can have almost everything we wanted.

Interns have also been busy this week posing for head shots for the book (previews later!) and getting the book organized the way they want it. They have also been practicing, practicing, practicing reading/performing their poems aloud for the poetry reading.

Doug James of Schwartz BookShop on Downer has agreed, after seeing the interns' poems and our blog, to let us use the bookstore for our reading on Thursday, Aug. 28. It is exciting to see everything start to come together!

alive in week 5

We had a blast as week 5 passed,

All we're doing now is making the last decisions and setting everything in concrete.The journey thus far has been amazing. By next week I'll have all the facts on the events.

Clara Forrest

I'm so happy we've started on the book. We figured out what the cover will be and I really like it. We're getting ready for a poetry reading that we will do at the end of the program and it's been alot of work but I'm really excited about the book! I hope that everyone will enjoy it because I know we all worked very hard the last couple of weeks.

Week 5

This is week five and this week we went to Clark Graphics. There we saw what could be done for the chapbook. There were some nice things that could be done and we started to talk about what would work for the cover of the chapbook. Then we decided what type of cover that we wanted(I designed it). I like all the poems that are going to be inside of the chapbook so YOU yes YOU should buy it, and check out the poems from Lawrence Frater.Thank you and I'll type to you next week.


-Lawrence Frater
King of tha MIL