Saturday, August 14th 2010 * Mission Plaza * 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

This year marks the 36th year of Day with Creative Women, sponsored by the Women’s Community Center of San Luis Obispo County and joined this year, by the SLO County Commission on the Status of Women. Applications for a vendor booth are now available and space is filling up fast!

A native New Yorker, Patti has a BA from American University and an MA from Johns Hopkins University. She pursued her artistic studies at the Atlanta College of Art. Patti’s work has been shown in prestigious exhibits around the country including: Noho Gallery LA, The Salmagundi Art Club, NYC, Monterey Museum of Art, The Haggin Museum, The Alexandria Museum of Art, Belskie Museum of Art, The Karpeles Library Museum, and Red Dot Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe.

Echoing the revolutionary 60’s anti-war gatherings that happened in the panhandle of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the West Fest: 40th Anniversary of Woodstock was a celebration of exciting artists with new ideals and a psychedelic nostalgia of the past.

By Jean Gerard
It takes a dream to stir the heart
of woman’s love and longing.
It takes the night to wake her shades
of dulling memory and regret.
Next come the words to shine
a light on terms, mixed assignations:
mother daughter sister crone
goldilocks grandmother wolf
before the beautiful parade
files past, attenuated on life’s tilted
runways, dropping lace perfume
petals buttons snaps and ruffles
twirling back on youth and games
and dances and the wild rush
of marriage in-laws births
feeding bathing nurturing.
Then daughter’s teen-age bloom,
her eager risk and asking if and when
and how, and what am I? Are you?
Mixed signals, click of …

At the rally in Washington DC held to protest the inclusion of restrictive language against abortion in the health care reform bill, busloads of women were present through the organizing efforts of SisterSong. I had heard only vaguely of the group before and knew it was a feminist activist organization, but I really didn’t know much more.

By Sonia Paz Baron-Vine
Driving in the rain
at night..
blurred colorful lights pass me by
holiday leftover
from diehard neighbors….
It is winter in Central California
and I am cold, I also cry easily
lately… because my son is sick…
It is hard to keep a cheerful face
when inside of me I have
this heavy heart…
You my oldest son,
once bright, witty, strong
now sad, sarcastic, weak
the cancer hurting you,
the chemo poisoning you,
And me…
praying to all the goddesses
in the middle of the park
away from everyone
crying under the rain
screaming to the winter’s
wind to ask mother earth
to heal you…
My tears are salty
they fall …

I was seven years old when my instinct to write gave birth. I had just seen one of those deeply patriotic World War II movies, the kind that ripped your heart out and inspired everyone in the theater audience to commit themselves to doing something at least as “heroic” as those who were fighting and dying for us.

By Kalila Volkov
Tonight in bed
I stretched, then slid my toes alongside my calf
and felt a new bump.
They’ll keep sprouting up like little warts, the doctor said.
Age bumps and age spots
how pretty
and here I am, only fifty.
These small changes are signs of my fall into decline
past the half-way mark already;
but wait, I’m still that young girl inside
who wished on stars
and pretended tree stumps and roots were houses with happy twig people in them.
I need plenty of more time
as I barely know whom I am becoming yet.
Even though time slowly seems to …

I am looking at a picture of a sumptuous painting portraying an episode of the biblical story of Esther. The Feast of Esther, painted c. 1625, has always been attributed to Rembrandt in art texts, and was last sold in 1952 as a Rembrandt. It is just one of many works that have now been discovered to have been painted by Jan Lievens.

Book lovers from around the county are eagerly awaiting this year’s Central Coast Book & Author Festival, which takes place October 4th in San Luis Obispo’s Mission Plaza.