APP on the Radio

Click here to listen to the show: Alzheimers Speaks Radio, Blog Talk Radio

Performing a poem at the Memory Arts Cafe.

With Gary Glazner and project artists Zoe Bird; Fabu Carter; Rachel Moritz and Michelle Otero.

ONION

This poem was created by the poets of Barelas Share Your Care, in Albuquerque, New Mexico and poet Michelle Otero on February 6, 2012. 

The model poems Otero used were “Ode to the Onion” by Pablo Neruda and “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

As this is part of the APP Spanish language project she also used the Dicho: "Del dicho al hecho hay gran trecho." (From the word to the act, there’s quite a long path.) 

Otero writes about the session, "Participants raised and lowered their arms like waves as we read 'The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls.' They laughed when I introduced Neruda’s 'Ode to the Onion.' I shared with them the names of other Neruda Odes ('Ode to My Socks,' 'Ode to the Dictionary,' 'Ode to the Apple') and then passed around five large onions I had brought in as props. Many remembered growing onions in their gardens.

We passed an onion as a sort of talking stick when writing our onion poem. Many of the participants rubbed the skin between their fingers or smoothed their hands over the round surface. Having something to hold and respond to led to some creative lines of poetry and inspired one woman to sing a song she’d learned as a child, changing the lyrics to fit our poem ('Lonely little onion in a turnip patch…').

 

Onion

 

This onion feels like a hand.

It’s a nice onion, as big as a baseball.

We grew lots of onions in West Virginia,

lonely little onion in a turnip patch

Está bonita esta cebolla.

¿Quién sabe qué diría?

En Cuahtemoc tienen cebolla, melon.

It feels very thin, almost like from a tree.

If this onion could talk, it would say,

“I’m getting so hungry, I’m gonna eat myself.”

It’s pretty because it’s so round.

If this onion could talk, it would say,

“Don’t eat me!”

The onion feels hard, it smells real bad.

Onions have a sweet taste.

They enhance the flavor of other foods.

It’s good when it grows.

It goes to the children.

I was following my children.

I don’t what you’d call this onion, but it’s round and cold.

If this onion could talk, it would say,

“If you take my outer skin off, I’m gonna make you cry.”

This onion feels like eggplant, smooth, really smooth.

I knew the names of all the onions. I forgot.

This onion’s name is Smelling Good,

brings back memories of my mom cooking dinner,

chopping onions, a good bowl of onion soup.

It smells like vinegar. And they cut it. It makes you cry.

Onion heals a cold. Just cut it open,

chop it up, put some Caro syrup on it and eat it.

Yum!

Onions probably grow in the ground,

but that thing sticking out feels like a leaf

so maybe it’s a tree.

Alzheimer's Poetry Day- Albuquerque

Alzheimer’s Poetry Day Comes to Albuquerque

Alzheimer’s Poetry Day will take place 11am to 1pm, on Saturday, November 5th at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque.
Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Alzheimer’s Poetry Day is a celebration of the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project (APP). Readings will be in English and Spanish. Guest artist Jimmy Santiago Baca will give a reading of his original work. Gary Glazner, founder and Executive Director of the APP and APP Spanish Director and poet Michelle Otero will read classic, well-loved poems and poems written by those with Alzheimer’s.

They will also speak about the APP and the findings from the pilot program conducted in New Mexico, as well as provide tips on using poetry to connect with people living with dementia. A highlight of the event will be the creation of an original poem by the poets and the audience. This event is designed for everyone from activity directors to caregivers to persons living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia and their families.

Jimmy Santiago Baca collections include Selected Poems / Poemas Selectos (New Directions, 2009), C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans: Dream Boy's Story (Grove Press, 2002), Healing Earthquakes (2001), Set This Book on Fire (1999), In the Way of the Sun (1997), Black Mesa Poems (1995), Poems Taken from My Yard (1986), and What's Happening (1982). A self-styled "poet of the people," Baca conducts writing workshops with children and adults at countless elementary, junior high and high schools, colleges, universities, reservations, barrio community centers, white ghettos, housing projects, correctional facilities and prisons from coast to coast.
More info at jimmysantiagobaca.com

Michelle Otero A writer, performer, and teacher, Michelle Otero is the author of Malinche's Daughter, an essay collection based on her work with women survivors of sexual assault in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work has appeared in Artful Dodge, Brevity, and Puerto del Sol, and her awards include an Associated Writing Programs Intro Journal Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. She is member of the Macondo Writers' Workshop.

Together with visual artist Chrissie Orr, she teaches multigenerational art and storytelling workshops through El Otro Lado: The Stories that Connect Us. She holds a B.A. in History from Harvard University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. A tenth-generation New Mexican, she is Creative Director of Valle Encantado, an organization promoting sustainable development initiatives in the Atrisco historic core in Albuquerque, and co-founder of Connecting Community Voices, an Albuquerque-based organization building positive social change through creative community expression.

More info at michelleotero.wordpress.com

This event is partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association, New Mexico Chapter and New Mexico Literary Arts.