New Jersey

Thursday, October 6, 2005, 7 p.m.
Myhelan Cultural Arts Center, Long Valley, New Jersey

Poetry Reading:
Penny Harter, Ellen Bihler, and Brenda D'Angelo

followed by Open Reading

Hackettstown's Ellen Bihler and Brenda D'Angelo from Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains joined Penny in a reading that is planned to inaugurate a new series at the Myhelan Cultural Arts Center, a recipient of the Outstanding Arts Organization Award from the Arts Council of the Morris Area. The house was filled, and they were looking for places to put more folding chairs as Bill kicked off the event—he was the emcee. All three poets were well received.

Sunday, October 23, 2005, 3 p.m.
The Patricia M. Kuran Cultural Arts Center,
Fanwood, New Jersey

Art Show and Reading: "We Are Transported"
Featuring Art by Maria Mijares

Penny and Bill joined poets Adele Kenny, John McDermott, Tom Plante, Joe Weil, and others reading poems about trains and busses, celebrating the striking artwork of painter Maria Mijares. The show featured the four large-scale original acrylic-on-linen paintings that form the basis of Mijares's upcoming installation at the NJ Transit Bergenline Avenue Station Plaza in Union City, New Jersey, the culmination of a four-year art-in-public-places project. This art will inspire and intrigue riders and passers-by for coming generations, but here was a rare chance to see the original paintings, rather than the monumental porcelain reproductions that will be installed in the station. (The mural project is commissioned by NJ Transit, with funding from the Federal Transit Administration. The Transit Arts Committee consists of representatives of NJ Transit, NJ State Council on the Arts, and Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc.)

The Patricia M Kuran
Cultural Arts Center
"The Carriage House"
Click on the photo for more on the Kuran Cultural Arts Center.

Thursday, December 1, 2005, 8 p.m.
The Patricia M. Kuran Cultural Arts Center,
Fanwood, New Jersey

D. M. Dutcher and Fanny Wood Poetry Award Winners Edwin Romond, Susan Rothbard, Therése Halscheid, Anna Evans, Penny Harter, Madeline Tiger, and others

D. M. Dutcher was the featured reader at this event, followed by the winners of the 2005 Fanny Wood Poetry Awards, Penny among them.

Sachiyo Ito. Click on the photo to go to her Dance Japan web site.

Sunday—October 16, 2005, 3 p.m.
Tenri Culture Center, 43A 13th Street, New York City

"Renku and Dance" with Dancer Sachiyo Ito, Poets Terry Ann Carter, John Stevenson, Penny Harter, and William J. Higginson, and Musicians Yumi Kurosawa, James Nyoraku Schlefer, and Yukio Tsuji

What an afternoon! Terry Ann Carter came to visit us from Toronto, to be here for this event. She, John Stevenson, and the two of us occupied the left side of the perfomance area in the main gallery at Tenri, while the musicians and their instruments took over the opposite area, while the middle was clear for Sachiyo's dancing.

Sachiyo and the musicians started us off with her choreographed piece, "Moon Child"—with Yumi on koto, James on shakuhachi, and Yukio on percussion. Having supplied the "moon verse" with her dance, Sachiyo froze in position while Terry recited the opening verse of the spoken portion of the program, followed by a dance Sachiyo improvised from it, followed by an improvised verse by John working off Terry's verse and Sachiyo's dance, then another improvised dance by Sachiyo, and improvised verse by Penny, and so on. All these improvs were linked to one another in the fashion typical of Japanese traditional linked poems, so we each had to stay sharply focused on what the others were doing.

After completing a renku of eight verses and nine dance-and-music sequences, members of the audience (a capacity crowd of more than 70 in this intimate space) were invited to submit haiku, of which the performing poets selected three. Then Terry and John recited the haiku, one at a time, and Sachiyo and the musicians improvised dance and music to each one.

Bill is working on a web page including the verses from this event, so check back here again.

The Pacific Northwest

Wednesday – Sunday, September 21 – 26, 2005
Centrum, Fort Worden, Port Townsend, Washington

Haiku North America 2005 Conference

Penny and Bill were featured readers, speakers, workshop leaders, and panelists at the 13th biennial Haiku North America conference, where scores of haiku poets come together to celebrate this ancient Japanese poetry that has become naturalized in English, French, Spanish, and many other languages worldwide. Go to the Haiku North America web site for descriptions of the many events involved in the 2005 conference, the premiere haiku event in North America. Check out photos of this and previous Haiku North America conferences, find program details and biographies of presenters, and get a sense of the idyllic setting for HNA 2005 at Centrum, Fort Worden, Port Townsend, Washington. Click on the photo at left to see an album of Bill's photos taken on the way to and coming back from the conference site.