During the Year 2015:

–I was one of three head jurors for the regional competition for the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards.

–I began writing reviews for the Washington Independent Review of Books. (My very first review, of Tesla, A Portrait with Masks, by Vladimir Pištalo, was one of the five most popular reviews for February 2015.)

–I read from my work in The Inner Loop reading series.

–I represented the Potomac Review, critiquing writers’ work in the “speed-dating” session of a writers conference held at JHU.

–For three weeks in June, I attended the New School’s Summer Writers’ Colony in New York.  (Colony helpful; New York wonderful–when there was time to do anything in it.  Colony activities went from noon to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday.  But feeling of living in the city, having a purpose other than touristing, was nice.)

–I read and critiqued a memoir for the Arts Club of Washington, D.C., for their Marfield Prize for Non-Fiction.

–I applied for an individual artist’s fellowship from the D.C. Commission of Arts and Humanities.  (Missed it by “that much.” It was awarded to 12; I was number 14.  Close, but no cigar.  Sigh.)

–Last but not least, I completed the final draft (I think) of my newest novel.

A lot of “I”s in this post.  But then, it is titled “MY” Literary year.

Note:  In December, I was quite busy, as is everybody, with the holidays and end of the year tasks.  For my birthday weekend, I met a friend up in New York.  We went to three musicals:  Kinky Boots; A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder; and The Book of Mormon.  Mini reviews:

Kinky Boots:  The plot summary sounds boring, but the musical is anything but.  Lively, funny, and carries a message of acceptance delivered in a way which rings true, not trite. Plus, Wayne Brady, who plays Lola/Simon is AMAZING.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder:  A cross between Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and Oscar Wilde’s plays, this musical is set in an earlier era and satirizes the British class system.  The writing, staging and performers are terrific. The two female leads’ voices are wonderfully strong, and their style of singing is more one of purity of voice than the “belting” it out one finds in pop music these days.

The Book of Mormon:  The cast performs ably, and it has its moments, but overall, this play was a disappointment.  The satire of the Mormon religion is gentle and could apply to the evangelical missionary aspect of any religion.  However, the portrayal of the Africans and their situation, though kindly, was steeped in stereotypes.  The jokes based in this made the audience laugh, and maybe that’s all these playwrites  cared about.  But if you’re doing satire, your jokes should be aimed at what you intend to say.  If they intended to promote stereotypes of black people, I don’t like it, but so be it.  On the other hand, cashing in on stereotype just to get a laugh is cheap.  Better to get the laugh playing against stereotype.

This ends my summary of my year, and brings this blog up to date on my December.

Next–2016………………..

July and August:

July is a blur.  I remember that friends visited, but other than that, I must have slept away most of that month–oh, and probably that’s when I read the novel Landfall, by Ellen Urbani, which I was assigned to review for Washington Independent Review of Books.

August was spent reorganizing my writing space, reminding myself of where I was in my various projects, and writing the review.  At this point,  My review has been turned in, edited, should be out soon.  Stay tuned.

The first time I headed down to Chinatown, I stepped into Henry Street Settlement Playhouse instead, and got to chat about the settlement house movement with David Garza, Henry Street’s Executive Director.

My father used to tell me about activities at Madison House–one of the settlement houses existing in New York in the early part of the last century. At the time, one could participate in the arts there–theater, dance, writing, painting, etc. (Now, combined with another settlement house to become Hamilton-Madison House, it tends more toward the provision of only basic social services.)  Hearing my father’s stories about the artistic stimulation provided for slum-dwellers in his days living on the Lower East side made me want to learn more about the settlement house movement with a view to how it might be adapted to today’s world.

I noticed Henry Street Settlement House on a map and set out to walk left on Grand street to visit it before heading east to Chinatown.  Fortunately, a native New Yorker directed me to the new Henry Street Settlement House–the playhouse–since the old one is now used as an administrative office and would have required a longer walk on a hot day to no purpose.

When I explained my interest to the two people I found inside, the man–Garza–said to the woman that he’d take care of what I was asking.  And he talked with me for at least 20 minutes, telling me about the current umbrella organization, United Neighborhood Houses, telling me that Hull House (in Chicago) has been closed, and explaining the difficulty of doing now what was done in my father’s day because gentrification has destroyed the cohesiveness that communities had back then.

I was very impressed by Mr. Garza.  Unlike many public faces of organizations, I strongly felt  his sincere concern was for what this movement is trying to do, not for the furtherance of his organization or himself.

I do hope to do research on this subject and write in greater depth about it (not necessarily on my blog).  This visit was meant to be a beginning.  Walking in off the street, I did not expect to get lucky enough to speak with someone at that level, and very much appreciate the time he took to do so.