There are three milestones this year for the Salt Lake City Public Library system. The City Library main branch marks its 15th year in its award-winning building, the system celebrates its 120th anniversary and the Chapman branch in the Poplar Grove neighborhood on the city’s west side, one of the last Carnegie libraries in Utah, … Read more
While the bomb-throwers—both metaphorical and literal – invariably claim to speak for the locals, most of the locals I’ve met prefer to speak for themselves. They’re old-timers and newcomers, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. They’re scientists, tribal members, ranchers, and telecommuters, often more than one of the above. Some criticize the federal government, and … Read more
The ways we read, hear, absorb and consume literature continue to morph through a messy yet exhilarating chaos. The prior autocratic tendencies of the literary world are giving way to a formidable enlightenment in which new voices and forms have reinvigorated the essence and urgency of memorable story telling. This year’s Literary Arts program, the … Read more
There is a wonderful buoyancy in the work of poet Vogue Robinson that translates to her generous commitment to promoting the literary arts, especially in her new role as poet laureate for Clark County in Las Vegas. Indeed, the role has become an enviable case study in artistic entrepreneurship. Robinson’s appointment, a two-year term, follows … Read more
In a video of just under a minute and 15 seconds, Jeremy Lee Sanchez performs a visual vernacular of his favorite film, The Matrix (1999). It is impressive in its compact richness of conveying the film’s story line as a signed literary work that combines many elements of body movements, iconic signs, gestures and facial … Read more
The temporary miniature city of cosmopolitan art and culture that defines the Utah Arts Festival will open Thursday, June 22, with new stories and perspectives from artists of all stripes. The 41st annual festival will bring new faces and ideas from all venues. In the artist marketplace, 174 artists, including nine returning award winners, were … Read more
There were many fine moments this year for the Utah Enlightenment. In compiling the list of what I believe were the 10 best defining moments of Utah’s cultural awakening for 2016, the pool of choices was more than satisfying in breadth and depth. There has been a great deal of recent press, for example, about … Read more
In different ways, two recently published novels solidly critique the American West culture that simultaneously purports to elevate history while stubbornly clinging to the convenience of historical forgetfulness. In both novels – Inhabited by Charlie Quimby (Torrey House Press) and Man in the Mirror: A man finding himself as he loses himself to Alzheimer’s by … Read more
We were the land’s before we were. Or the land was ours before you were a land. Or this land was our land, it was not your land. We were the land before we were people, loamy roamers rising, so the stories go, or formed of clay, spit into with breath reeking soul— Heid Erdrich, … Read more
As a Ball State University student in Muncie, Matt Hart, then the frontman for a punk band, decided to take a poetry workshop, as he describes it, “on a lark.” The experience changed his life. “Up until then, my only experience with poetry was negative. I always had thought of poetry with its gaudy, flowery … Read more