On the evening of Saturday, March 25, I’ll be reading in tandem with Phoebe McAdams from our books about Los Angeles. Her poems are drawn from her daily experiences and contemplations of living in Los Angeles, while my poems tell the origin stories of the region’s dynamic landscape in which the land and the sea are the main characters. Poet Jimmy Vega will round out the reading with his insights into the riches and complications of our urban lives.
Event: West Hollywood’s Ladies of Courage Art Festival
Location: West Hollywood Park, 647 N. San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood CA
March 25 at 5:50, outdoors under the Sky Tree. Free.
I would love to share my work with you! Please join us!
Irrepressible spring bursts from the tree buds on my front yard maple and sycamore. Flowers swing into bloom from the dark muddy ground. We are carried into the new season as the equinox marks the lengthening days amidst a world vivid with beauty and unease.
And with the season comes a blooming of poetry readings.
I’m so pleased to join this program of excellent poets at the famous Sims Poetry Library on March 25 at 2 PM. 2702 W. Florence Ave, LA CA, I’ll read poems from my new manuscript-in-progress: The Undertakers. Yes, Earth Day Every Day!
Winter tempests swirl across the country even as my front yard trees line their branches with thickening buds, small cocoons where spring leaves slowly ripen. And, like them, we move into the year with our unease and our pleasures. And what a pleasure it is to read with two marvelous poets: Tom Laichas and Brendan Constantine!
This reading is going to be lively, textured, varied, informative, and fun! Please join us– live and in-person– at one of my all-time favorite\LA bookstores: Book Jewel in Westchester. Old school in the best sense, comfortable, and staffed by people who truly know books. I think you will love this shop as much as I do.
Join us!
Susan
Here’s the discount link to the Sacred Sites audiobook where you can hear about the era when the earth’s atmosphere held as much CO2 as it does now and other news from climate antics and momentous evolutions: sacred sites: https://shop.authors-direct.com/collections/suntree-sacred-sites-audiobook or search Suntree Findaway Voices.
Dear Friends, On Sunday, October 16, 2022, at 2 PM I’ll be reading from my recent book harvest at the Seven Stars Gallery, 210 Spring Street, Nevada City. Please join us! Refreshments! Signed books!
Good company brings literature to life!
I will accompany my reading of Dear Traveler on the dulcimer, joined by Tynowyn, Nevada County’s celebrated flute and dulcimer player. And I will play an excerpt from the audiobook of the new, revised paperback edition of, Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California, as well as read excepts about the ancient era when CO2 was at the level it is now. Though the past does not necessarily predict the future, it helps us understand the Earth’s ways of responding to dramatic changes. If time permits, I may read a few new poems apropos of this critical moment.
I’d love to share this celebration with you! Join us!
Susan
PS Your reviews really do help! If you shop on line, I recommend www.bookshop.org.
MORE GOOD NEWS!
Recently I was honored by being inducted into the Antelope Valley High School Hall of Fame. Our high desert high school, serving a community of only fifty thousand people at that time, has saluted such alumni artists as Frank Zappa and US Poet Laureate Kay (Pederson) Ryan. I am especially pleased to join my cohort of honorees who have made rich contributions to music (including a founder of Captain Beefheart and His Magic band), journalism, teaching, and coaching. I posted on my website (go to Posts) my short speech and a poem describing how I came to be a student there and how the school and my childhood in the desert became significant roots, nourishing my life path and work.
I’m happy to announce the following events celebrating the release of Dear Traveler and the multiple award-winning audio and paperback revised edition of Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California. I’ll also be readingnew work including chants from “The Undertakers.” Please join us!
Sunday June 12, 2:00-4:00 pm — Avenue 50 Gallery, 151 North Avenue 50, Highland Park 90042. I’ll be reading with Briana Muñoz, Tom Laichas, and A. K. Toney. The flier is attached.
Looking ahead: Tom Laichas and I are having our long-delayed publication party! Drinks and treats! I will be playing my dulcimer!
Friday July 15, 8:00-9:00 pm — Beyond Baroque, 681 North Venice Blvd., Venice 90291
Tickets will be available in a few weeks.
I look forward to seeing you!
Susan
The Intelligent Beast: A Literary Journal & Reading Series
Avenue 50 Gallery 131 No. Ave. 50, Highland Park, CA. 90042 (Free parking)
June 12, 2022, 2:00 – 4:00 Featured Poets:
Tom Laichas’s recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rupture, Disquieting Muses, Stand, Ambit, Moon & Sun and elsewhere. He is a winner of the Nancy Hargrove Poetry Prize from the Jabberwock Review and the author of Three Hundred Streets of Venice California (forthcoming from FutureCycle Press, 2023), Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War (3.1 Press, 2021), and Empire of Eden (The High Window Press, 2019).
Briana Muñoz is a writer from Southern California. Raised in San Diego, she spent a lot of her time at her mother’s Mexican folklore dance classes and at ranches where her father trained horses into the sunset. She is the author of Loose Lips (Prickly Pear Publishing 2019) and Everything is Returned to the Soil/Todo vuelve a la tierra (FlowerSong Press, 2021). Her work has been published in Dryland, the Bravura Literary Journal, LA BLOGA, and in the Oakland Arts Review, among others.
Susan Suntree is a poet and performer whose work investigates the dynamics of science, art, and spiritual philosophies as they engage contemporary life. She has presented her award-winning poetry and performances nationally and internationally, and has published books of poetry, biography, and creative nonfiction, as well as translations, essays, reviews, and book chapters. Awards include the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award for Nonfiction, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Poetic Narrative, and a Mellon Foundation Elemental Arts Award, and the audiobook of Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California was a finalist for a Society of Voice Arts and Sciences prize.
A. K. Toney is a poet, writer, educator, and performance artist. As a World Stage Performance Gallery alumnus, he had the honor to be mentored by jazz great, community leader and founder of the World Stage Billy Higgins. Toney’s skills as a performance artist have taken him across the nation and abroad. His experience as a performance artist and educator has allowed him and his organization, Reading Is Poetry, to teach workshops with LA Unified schools, NAMI, and the Natural History Museum. Toney is also a contributing writer to KCET.
From AudioFile Magazine:
“…don’t miss listening to this astoundingly creative exploration of the history of place… Gary Snyder’s introduction, read enthusiastically by Peter Coyote…The emotional nuances of Suntree and Queypo’s delivery will make your ears dance.”
Dear Friends, On July 15, at 8 PM, Tom Laichas and I will celebrate the release of our new books at the venerable literary center, Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Blvd, Venice, CA. New books come alive in good company!
Join us as we share the news that poetry sings to the heart.
I will accompany my reading from Dear Traveler with my dulcimer, and will read from the new, revised paperback edition of Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California, taking a look at the ancient era when CO2 was at the level it is now. Though the past does not predict the future, it helps us understand the Earth’s ways of responding to dramatic climate change. Additionally, I will read a few new poems apropos of this critical moment. Tom will show slides of the photographs that accompany his deeply moving collection.
Party outside on the newly spruced patio. Bring a mask to wear in the theatre. Free parking beside the building complex.
I’m happy to announce the following events celebrating the release of Dear Traveler and the multiple award-winning audio and paperback revised edition of Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California. I’ll also be readingnew work including chants from “The Undertakers.” Please join us!
Tom Laichas’s recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rupture, Disquieting Muses, Stand, Ambit, Moon & Sun and elsewhere. He is a winner of the Nancy Hargrove Poetry Prize from the Jabberwock Review and the author of Three Hundred Streets of Venice California (forthcoming from FutureCycle Press, 2023), Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War (3.1 Press, 2021), and Empire of Eden (The High Window Press, 2019).
Briana Muñoz is a writer from Southern California. Raised in San Diego, she spent a lot of her time at her mother’s Mexican folklore dance classes and at ranches where her father trained horses into the sunset. She is the author of Loose Lips (Prickly Pear Publishing 2019) and Everything is Returned to the Soil/Todo vuelve a la tierra (FlowerSong Press, 2021). Her work has been published in Dryland, the Bravura Literary Journal, LA BLOGA, and in the Oakland Arts Review, among others.
Susan Suntree is a poet and performer whose work investigates the dynamics of science, art, and spiritual philosophies as they engage contemporary life. She has presented her award-winning poetry and performances nationally and internationally, and has published books of poetry, biography, and creative nonfiction, as well as translations, essays, reviews, and book chapters. Awards include the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award for Nonfiction, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Poetic Narrative, and a Mellon Foundation Elemental Arts Award, and the audiobook of Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California was a finalist for a Society of Voice Arts and Sciences prize.
A. K. Toney is a poet, writer, educator, and performance artist. As a World Stage Performance Gallery alumnus, he had the honor to be mentored by jazz great, community leader and founder of the World Stage Billy Higgins. Toney’s skills as a performance artist have taken him across the nation and abroad. His experience as a performance artist and educator has allowed him and his organization, Reading Is Poetry, to teach workshops with LA Unified schools, NAMI, and the Natural History Museum. Toney is also a contributing writer to KCET
In a year of continuing challenges, we have very good news
to report: Phase one of our SacredSites audio theater production is
completed! I am thrilled to type these words!
We are so grateful for the support so many of you have
provided. Without you, we would not have come so far. After months of
preparation rehearsing, working with linguists and other consultants, and much
more, we have completed 22 hours of recording. The Media Staff studio, a supporter
of this project, has one of the best recording rooms in Los Angeles. The raw
material sounds excellent. In my next letter, I will share clips of the
recordings.
It is a pleasure to introduce to you Kalani Queypo
(Blackfoot, Hawaiian) who reads with me Book 2 and the Epilogue. He
is a founding member of the National American Indian Committee at SAG-AFTRA.
Among his many credits are Terrence Malick’s The New World, Jamestown, and Fear the Walking Dead.
I’ve included his headshot and bio plus studio shots at the end of this
letter.
Phase Two has begun: editing, music composition and licensing,
mastering, distribution, and publicity. Since we are an independent production,
we must do everything we can to get this timely and inspiring project out to the
public.
To do this, once again I need your assistance. Please reach
out to anyone you feel would love this work and would join our mighty team of
supporters — no amount is too small (or too large!).
Sacred Sites is a
story that weaves the world together. It inspires us to love this earth and,
thus to care for it in every way we can. It is essential that we understand
natural systems and learn the many ways we humans have and can, once again,
live in harmony with all life.
Or send a check made out to Sacred
Sites LLC to 41 No. Logan St., Denver CO 80203.
With deep appreciation,
Susan
Kalani Queypo (Blackfeet, Hawaiian) proudly serves on the Native Voices Advisory Council and is a founding member of the National American Indian Committee at SAG-AFTRA. He can be seen in the Oscar-nominated, Terrence Malick film, The New World, Steven Spielberg’s Emmy winning Into the West and Slow West (Sundance GRAND JURY PRIZE). Television credits include Jamestown (producers of Downton Abbey), Saints & Strangers, Fear the Walking Dead, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, Bones, and HawaiiFive-0. Queypo is currently filming the new CBC series, The Trickster.
Kalani and me at the end of his session.
Director Tom Keegan and engineer Anthony Alfaro
Me on my last day of recording (16 hours over four days!)
Jerry Mayfield, whose Media Staff studio was a wonderful place to work. He is famous for his sourdough bread which he served at every session with his homemade jam. What delight!
The winter heat, fires, and mudslides give way to short but mostly sweet March rains. Though they don’t dissolve the drought, they rinse the leaves that have been laden with ash and Santa Ana dust and we all breathe more deeply.
Good news on the literary front:
!. I am delighted to announce that Jerome Rothenberg, the iconic poet and anthologist famed for his influential poetry collections, especially Technicians of the Sacred recently released in a 50th Anniversary edition, has included commentary about Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California on his blog:
Technicians of the Sacred is one of my foundational texts, a book whose presentation of tribal poetry infused with shamanism from around the world, shaped my developing sense of the range, depths, necessity of poetry.
On Thursday, 22 March 2018, at 7:30, I’ll be reading new work at the E.P Foster Library in Ventura. This series is curated by Phil Taggart whose brilliant contribution to promoting poetry is widely praised. People LA to Santa Barbara attend his events in Ventura and Ojai. I’m honored to be included! Please join us! Tell your friends!
EP Foster Library in the Topping Room
Poetry every Thursday at 7:30pm
651 E. Main Street – Ventura
host: Phil Taggart
On Sunday, 6 May 2018,(NOTE: THIS DATE MAY CHANGE– I’ll keep you posted!) at 3:30 PM, I’ll be reading in the poetry series at Britt Marie, a marvelous restaurant in Albany that supports the arts! Please join us! Tell your Bay Area friends! Britt Marie Restaurant
1369 Solano Ave. Albany, CA
On the Historic 11th Street Bungalow Cluster Campaign:
We hope to be on the Landmarks Commission agenda for May 14 (DATE IS NOT SET FOR SURE AT THIS TIME) and are planning a rousing show! Please mark your calendars and join the fun in Council Chambers at Santa Monica City Hall! More information to follow about time and free parking.
I will also send information about emailing your notes of support closer to the meeting date. Stay tuned! And check our Historic 11th Street Facebook page where you can read the current edition of our Community Consultants Report on history of our block and the wonderful bungalows we intend to save.
Our vision is supported by all the Santa Monica neighborhood groups, the Santa Monica Conservancy, and important local organizations plus other conservancies like the Pasadena Heritage.
Additionally, I’m collecting a set of new work: The Traveler Poems and have begun another collection. Spring, with its burgeoning from winter ground lifts my spirits some. January brought the loss of a dear friend and others whom I admired. Not to speak of the harsh currents that challenge the very air and every aspect of what we have sometimes called civilization. But, from the mouth of chaos comes the call to action. May we respond!
With the burgeoning green grass and brave new leaves,
and have begun another collection. Spring, with its burgeoning from winter ground lifts my spirits some. January brought the loss of a dear friend and others whom I admired. Not to speak of the harsh currents that challenge the very air and every aspect of what we have sometimes called civilization. But, from the mouth of chaos comes the call to action. May we respond!
You must be logged in to post a comment.