April 2021

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

View this email in your browser Inspire. Promote. Collaborate.                                                                    April 2021 Hello April! When I think of April, I think of spring showers, festivals, bluebonnets, and poetry. During this second April of COVID, we once again have to forego our in-person readings at La Porte Library and other library branches. The La Porte Library has been a good partner with WiVLA. Although I have not been able to attend the in-person readings in the past, several members have raved about their interaction with the library. This year, we were able to partner with the library again, albeit virtually. They graciously offered us the opportunity to provide them with a YouTube link that they would host on their Facebook page for three weeks during April. Although we might be getting weary of our many online encounters, I’ve grown to appreciate them. I enjoy attending tours, talks, and meetings in real-time but love having the option to view them again or at my leisure. When we put out the call for poetry readings, I envisioned recording each member and then incorporating the recordings into a single video. I was pleasantly surprised when Patricia Pagan, who was in Korea, and Margo Toombs, who had a couple of outstanding recordings with visuals and music, asked if I could incorporate their recordings. The other poets, Beatrice Stewart, Kathleen Davis, and Gladys Mae Bullock, allowed me to record them in Zoom sessions. When I volunteered to record the poetry readings, I had no idea what a joy it would be for me to work with three such talented women, two of whom I had not met before their sessions. You can find our poetry readings at the following link and on our YouTube channel in the Literary Readings playlist. https://youtu.be/ZK180rzBSfo As someone who breaks out in a nervous sweat at the prospect of having to write a haiku, I never cease to be impressed by the talented writers in WiVLA. I would love to see more literary compilations that we can share online. If you have suggestions for other types of literary events, please contact literary@wivla.org. Happy Poetry Month, y’all!  - Melody -    La Porte Library's Facebook page can be accessed by clicking here.   ECO Fund Scholarship Winners, 2019 Maggie Baldwin, Deborah Blumberg, Gladys Mae Bullock, Melody Locke April 20th 6:00pm - 7:50pm Left to Right WiVLA's 2019 Eco Fund Grant Winners: Maggie Baldwin (Visual), Deborah Blumberg (Literary), Gladys Mae-Bullock (Literary), Melody Locke (Visual).  Join us on Tuesday, April 21st, for our annual ECO Fund Grants program. During this monthly member meeting, we will hear from the four 2019 recipients: Gladys Mae Bullock and Deborah Blumberg, our two literary award winners, and Maggie Baldwin and Melody Locke, our two visual awards winners. In addition to past grant participants' presentations, we will also announce the winners for the 2021 awards. There will be one literary and one visual artist drawn from our pool of applicants. To learn more about WiVLA's ECO Fund grant, please visit www.wivla.org. Meeting Schedule 6:00 - 6:15 pm: Social Gathering. 6:15 - 6:30 pm: WiVLA Updates/News from the board. 6:30 - 7:30 pm: ECO Fund Winners 2019: Gladys Mae Bullock, Deborah Blumberg, Maggie Baldwin, and Melody Locke. 7:30 - 7:50 pm: Question & Comments. Member Show & Share. Time permitting.  Zoom Meeting Information Due to Zoom's security suggestions, we will send out another email with the Zoom meeting information one day before the meeting. Be certain to look for it. If you need the meeting code, please send an email to newsletter@wivla.org to get the meeting code no later than 5:00 pm the day of the meeting.  If you need information on how to use Zoom before the meeting date, please use the links below: If you need to download Zoom, it's free: https://zoom.us/download.  Here is the link to a video on how to join a meeting: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting    WiVLA will award two $1,000 Educational and Cultural Fund grants for 2021, one for a literary and one for a visual artist. The purpose of the awards is to provide support for specific projects that will enhance the recipients' creative development. The recipients will be selected on April 21, 2021, during our monthly membership meeting.  To learn more about qualifying and how to apply, please visit www.wivla.org or click here. The Deadline to apply is Tuesday, April 6, 2021. Calling all WiVLA Visual Artists!   Our May/June Virtual Gallery exhibit is seeking one visual artist to participate. The deadline to submit all images is Thursday, April 15th! If you would like to have your work highlighted to a wider audience, this is a great opportunity to exhibit. If you have any questions, please contact Marie Casamayor-Harvey and Gladys Jones, WiVLA's current Visual Arts Chairs, at visual@wivla.org. Deadline: Monday, April 19th. To apply, click here.   Marie Casamayor-Harvey April Visual Member Highlight audere est facere   Marie is an artist based in Houston, Texas, with roots in Cuba and Colombia. She earned a B.A. from the University of Houston with a major in Art History, minoring in Studio Arts and Architecture. She studied Painting with Derek Boshier, Chuck Dugan, and Sharon Kopriva and Drawing and Sculpture with James Surls. She also earned a Master in Education and Supervision from the University of St. Thomas, Houston.        Marie is an abstract artist who creates paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages, and mixed media works. Her work reflects intense curiosity, wild imagination, and enchantment with symbolism, expressionism, surrealism, and metaphysical imagery.  She experiments with different media, combining many materials and techniques. She incorporates strong boundaries and borders with bright, bold colors and muted tones. Marie is interested in exploring musical, spiritual, and emotional experiences through her art. She strives to both ignite and excite people’s souls! Marie’s work has been the subject of 4 solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibits. Her work can be found in private collections in the U.S., Canada, Colombia, Cuba, and Sweden. She currently has works on view at Winter Street Studios tenants’ exhibit (1st floor) and Renewal at Winter Street Studios (2nd floor). Two of her recent paintings have been selected for the exhibit Withstand – Latinx Art in Times of Conflict, which opens April 30th at The Holocaust Museum Houston. Beyond her studio practice, she has also curated exhibits and has taught art in after-school programs at the elementary and junior high school levels. Marie currently serves on the WiVLA Board of Directors as a visual co-chair. ©2021, Marie E. Casamayor-Harvey, Houston, TX. Compelling Narrative, 14"x11" Paper Collage. ©2021, Marie E. Casamayor-Harvey, Houston, TX. Escape, 36"x24" Acrylic and Oil Pastel on Canvas. ©2021, Marie E. Casamayor-Harvey, Houston, TX. Marche au supplice, 48"x36", Acrylic, Charcoal, and Pencil on Canvas.   ©2021, Marie E. Casamayor-Harvey, Houston, TX. Window to the Soul, 14"x11", Mixed Media on Paper. To learn more about Marie and her art you may find her at the following links: Website, www.casamayor-art.com. Instagram, casamayorart. Twitter, @CasamayorArt. Facebook, Casamayor Art. Our March meeting was an insightful conversation with Ulrika Moats, General Manager of Houston's Brazos Bookstore. Ulrika discussed how the store, staff, and community have come together during the Covid-19 pandemic to continue sharing a love of literature. With the many challenges small businesses have faced, Brazos has seemed to make the necessary alterations to its services whilst many other cities have seen their independent bookstores shutter. If you missed the meeting, please take a moment to watch the recording on WiVLA's YouTube channel.    Patricia Flaherty Pagan's literary flash fiction "Disarming Laughter" was recently featured in Issue 5.1 of the Ocotillo Review from Kallisto Gaia Press. Her horror stories "Beast of The Mountain" and "Young Souls Are Mine" will be featured in the spring edition of online horror magazine The Sirens Call, coming 3/31.  Rona Lesser has a painting title, "Urban Retreat," and another plein aire painting on the Willow Waterhole Facebook page and also in their e-newsletter.  Willow Waterhole is a park developed for flood retention in S.W. Houston off of Chimney Rock Rd.  Rona also wanted to note that her studio, Silos #313 is now open again for Second Sat. and any other Sawyer Yards art events. She hopes to see you there! Denise Bossarte's book, "Return, Beginnings, and Readings" was given a 4-Star review by the 2020 The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. These three short stories are prequels to her award-winning dark urban fantasy/thriller 'Glamorous.' This title is available in the following formats: kindle ebook and paperback. To learn more, please visit Amazon, click here. Denise also shared that her poetry book, "Poems of Darkness and Light," is a 2020 The Wishing Shelf Book Awards Red Ribbon Winner! This title is available as Kindle ebook, paperback, and audiobook (read by Denise!) To learn more about this title, please visit the link here. Kathleen Davis will be spotlighted in the UHCL alumni newsletter for April with her new book, Outcry Response: What Educators Need to Know About Sexual Abuse by Kathleen Davis BSN-RN, LPC, LCDC, NBCC. kathleen-davis.com. She also writes to inform us all that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM).  Ellen Seaton has a piece, "Journey Into the Fantastical", that is being published with Inklings Press.    Local Events: Join Visual Arts Alliance Saturday, April 10, at 11:00 a.m. for a live discussion with Claire Rosen, “Threads of an Artist Approach,” facilitated by author Catherine Anspon. This program will be live-streamed on VAA’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/visual.arts.alliance/ live/.   The Blaffer Art Museum is offering virtual tours for groups of 10 or more persons. The current tours are of Simon Fujiwara's Hope House, Stephanie Syjuco"s Visible, Invisible, and Carriers; this is the exhibit from Houston artists that just closed. You may contact Rona or the Director of Education, Katherine Veneman, for more information. You can be an organization or a private group to schedule a tour.    Open Call for Visual Artists:  The Dallas Center for Photography, Light: Juried Competition and Exhibition. Deadline, April 27. To learn more, please visit https://dallascenterforphotography.org or click here.       Open call for writers:   Find new writing opportunities        Ploughshares is currently accepting submissions to its 2021 Emerging Writer's Contest. The deadline is May 15. For further information, please visit https://www.pshares.org or click here.    Hindsight is seeking submissions for a book about 2020. They are soliciting true stories from people around the world that capture the lives we lived last year. Stories of grief, pain, isolation, empowerment, and — if you could find it — hope. Hindsight’s content will be available in two forms: Most stories will be shared on our website; the very best submissions will be compiled into a print anthology, which will be published in 2021. Ready to get started? See the Requirements for details. Still, have questions? Check out the FAQs for answers.   New Southern Voices Poetry Prize, Hub City Press, Deadline April 15. The New Southern Voices Poetry Book Prize is open to all Southern poets with no more than one previously published full-length collection. Submitters must currently reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, or West Virginia and must have resided there for a minimum of 24 consecutive months. The New Southern Voices Poetry Book Prize is open to all Southern poets with no more than one previously published full-length collection. The winner will receive $1000 and publication by Hub City Press. To learn more, please visit https://www.hubcity.org/.     Support WiVLA by shopping with Amazon Smile! 1. Visit smile.amazon.com. 2. Sign in with your Amazon.com credentials. 3. Search for Women in the Literary and Visual Arts. 4. Click on the Select button. 4. Start shopping! on smile.amazon.com! 5. Add a bookmark for smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile. For more information, please visit Amazon Smile. We'd love to celebrate your good news. If you are interested in sharing, please send your items to newsletter@wivla.org. There is no deadline for this content. Thank you. Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*