Monthly Archives: February 2013

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

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WordSpace and their producing sponsor Half Price Books have three special events this spring at three of Dallas’s best venues for theater, music, and the arts.

Dagoberto Gilb

Dagoberto Gilb

FEBRUARY 28:  Author Dagoberto Gilb with special musical guest The Felix Flores Band. This evening of music and literature, introduced by Dallas City Councilwoman Delia Jasso and hosted by artist Celia Alvarez Munoz, starts at 8:00 at the Bishop Arts Theater, 215 South Tyler Street, Dallas 75208.

 

MARCH 28: Andrei Codescru at the Kessler Theater. This popular novelist, essayist, and raconteur will read, tell stories, and engage the audience in a Q & A led by Jeff Whittington, executive producer of the KERA program Think. When WordSpace was still a newacodrescu-ea65aba16ca0051097484182ccf329a91c76e4dc-s3 organization, well over ten years ago, Andrei was one of the first literary personalities we brought to Dallas. We are delighted to have him back for this event. The Kessler will open at 7:00 pm to serve drinks and food. The program begins at 8:00.

 

 

APRIL 17: Playwright Octavio Solis now lives in San Francisco, but he started his writing octaviosolis200career here in Dallas. HIs twenty plays have seen over sixty productions across the United States. His appearance for WordSpace at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary. takes place as The Kitchen Dog Theater prepares a production of his new play Se Llama Cristina to open May 24th.

Buy tickets now to support the literary arts in Dallas.

Tickets for all these events are available through links to Prekindle on the WordSpace homepage.

WE’RE MAKING AN EVENING OF IT — THE FELIX FLORES BAND OPENS FOR DAGOBERTO GILB

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We aim to entertain.

For the  Dagoberto Gilb reading on February 28 at the Bishop Arts Theater, we have as an

Felix Flores

Felix Flores

opening act The Felix Flores Band.

Ticket info is on the WordSpace website

Felix has been making the rounds of local clubs and events. He and the band were a hit at the recent Latino Arts Festival, where, by the way, WordSpace was also a sponsor.

If  you haven’t heard the band before, you can listen to four of their songs here

Or check out this video from a 2011 performance

 

 

WHO IS DAGOBERTO GILB? WHAT DO YOU MEAN — WHO IS DAGOBERTO GILB?

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On February 28, WordSpace presents Dagoberto Gilb at the Bishop Arts Theater. And we are all excited about this. But when I mention it to friends I get a lot of —

“Who is that?” or “I’ve heard that name. Isn’t he a writer or something?”

Well, of course he’s a writer. We are WordSpace and we present writers. And Gilb is

Dagoberto Gilb

Dagoberto Gilb

a writer we are not only excited but honored to present. Name recognition is a funny thing, especially among writers who are not currently appearing on talk shows and have nothing going for them but the overall excellence of their work, the respect of the literary community, and a long list of awards. Gilb, by the way, has all those things.

He has even been in the news some recently. In Arizona he was among the authors removed from public school libraries when it was decided that “ethnic” literary studies were divisive. Here’s one of the many articles on the response that particular piece of idiocy set off. He also maintains that rarities of rarities, a Facebook page worth following.

An evening with Dagoberto Gilb will be entertaining, invigorating, and memorable. We even have an opening act: The Felix Flores Band. Celia Alvarez Munoz, a Dallas-based and internationally exhibited artist, will host the evening.

For full details and tickets, visit the WordSpace website.

OFF WORLD STEPS A BIT FURTHER OUT WHERE THINGS GET A BIT MORE OFF

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After spending several sessions on the works of Neal Stephenson, Off World, the science

PKD loved cats, jazz, classical music, short brunettes with really nice breasts, and amphetmines

PKD loved cats, jazz, classical music, short brunettes with really nice breasts, and amphetmines

fiction discussion group sponsored by WordSpace, has decided to take the plunge into the paranoid and weirdly wonderful world of Philip K. Dick.

If you are not familiar with Dick beyond having seen Blade Runner or any of the other much less successful films of his work, here is a quick sampling of the predicaments PKD’s characters are likely to face.

1) The Allies lost WW II and Japan rules the western United States while Germany rules the Eastern seaboard. The Midwest remains a free zone. Make that, a relatively free zone.

2) The newest psychedelic drug on the market turns out to cause actual time travel, and you find yourself stuck in the past before the fuel that powers your flying taxi has been invented.

3) Perhaps dogs barking at garbage trucks are all that stand between earth and alien invasion.

4) As part of your undercover work for the Drug Enforcement Agency you have been asked to spy on yourself.

5) You must play a life-or-death game of bluffing with beings from Titan, all of whom can read your mind.

This list could go on and on. Dick wrote around 30 novels and 100 short stories. In a two year period in the mid 1960, he turned out 11 novels. Yes, drugs were a factor, and some of the novels were not very good.

OffWorld plans two sessions on PKD. On Wednesday, February 13, we will share what we know about Dick’s life and writings, and the high points and low points of each. We have filmed interviews with PKD — filmed rants would be more to the point. If you know a little or a lot or nothing at all about PKD, feel free to join in. Pizza will be served. Visit the WordSpace events calendars for location.


three stigmataOffWorld sessions in March and April will involve special author readings and panel discussions. More on that later. But for the May event we do have a reading assignment. (OffWorld is, after all, a kind of book club.) The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch may not be PKD’s most famous book but it has a lot to recommend it. It is supremely weird, very funny, relatively comprehensible, and short. And available free online.

To really get you in the mood for Wednesday, Feb 13, take this fun true and false test on PKD’s life, based on Divine Invasions, A Life of Philip K. Dick by Lawrence Sutin.

Fun true and false test here.

All Hail The Emperor of Ice Cream

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OK, so Critic’s Circle may not be the sexiest title WordSpace has come up with for any

Wallace Stevens -- insurance man by day, one of America's greatest poets by night

Wallace Stevens — insurance man by day, one of America’s greatest poets by night

of our events. But these discussions have been lively, entertaining, and  your learn something. At least I have.

So far we have had experts in their fields talk to us about W.B. Yeats, William Blake, and murder in the plays of William Shakespeare. Up next is Martha Heimberg and Brian Nowlin on Wallace Stevens in  a program called Tootings at the Wedding of the Soul Night. I have no idea what that means, but I look forward to finding out.

Martha Heimberg is assistant professor of English at Northwood University in Cedar Hill, Texas, creative writing instructor at Richland College and arts critic for Turtle Creek News and Theater Jones. A scholar and poet, Brian Nowlin is a doctoral candidate at the University of Dallas, where he is completing a dissertation on the late poetry of Wallace Stevens.

The event is February 7 at 7:00 pm. Please go the events page at the WordSpace website for more information.