Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Patrice Melnick: Louisiana Poet, Festival Muse


Patrice Melnick: Louisiana Poet, Festival Muse
by
 Natalie Parker-Lawrence
      Guest blogger for Rebecca Elswick

            Grand Coteau, Lousiana, is a town where the sidewalks are flat even with the streets, no need for curb cuts, no need for curbs.  And somehow, without cement barriers, the houses, the churches, the shops, and the farms, welcome lost strangers with haphazard directions, inquisitive visitors from far away, residents from the coast fleeing hurricanes, and those who seek serenity here on religious pilgrimages.  Writers ease their cars into the town, their tires crunching little rocks as they roll up to savor the next place of inspiration. 

             Patrice Melnick lives and writes in this little town, across the highway from Sunset, down Interstate 49, at Exit 11, between Lafayette and Opelousas.  She grows flowers and throws birdseed for creatures outside her breakfast room window.  Her cat and her husband, Olan, complement her steps. 

            Her friends, including famous writers (Darrell Bourque, Leslie D!, Tony Daspit, Clare L. Martin, Forrest Roth, Xero Skidmore, Christopher Shipman, Murray Shugars, Lana Wiggins, Reggie Scott Young, Desiree Dallagiacomo, Toi Derricotte, Barb Johnson, Latasha Witherspoon, Timothy Seibles) and former students like me, wish we could spend one month a year in the writer’s house behind her house (we would get so much accomplished!).

            Patrice, a muse to many even though they have only known her through computer connections, invites writers come to bask in the tranquility of Grand Coteau. Artists in the inspiring gallery, forum, theatre, all under the roof of her shop, relish the opportunities to learn to read aloud, to love the sound of their voices, and to share the gifts of their talents with aspiring writers.  She organizes the musicians, the authors in the schools, the community writing workshops, the book signings, the drive-by poetry performances, the book fair, the independent films, the open mic nights, meme en francais!

            Recently, Patrice encouraged others from her community to recite stories from their pasts.  The natives and residents of Grand Coteau recollected narratives, filmed for posterity, about school, family life, and work in stories that are “funny or sad; angry or joyful.”  Some might involve the yearly 7-mile Yard Sale during the annual Festival of Words, this year from October 30 to November 3.

            The Executive Director of the Festival of Words (Cultural Arts Collective) since 2010, Patrice also works on projects for her community as well as personal ones as the proprietor of Casa Azul Gifts, the Community Arts Education Program Director for Frederick L’Ecole Des Arts, adjunct professor of English for the University of New Orleans, associate professor of English for Xavier University, and writer in poetry and nonfiction.  She spent from 1985 to 1987 in the Central African Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer where she taught English as a Foreign Language. She earned her MFA from the University of Alaska in 1990.

             Her first book, Turning Up the Volume (Xavier Review Press), was published in 2005.  Her essays have been published in many journals.  Here is the end of an excerpt of one of her essays from her Peace Corps days, “Water,” published in Drunken Boat:

            As we walked, I wondered where we would find water again.  Whose water
            would we ask for, cool water, drawn up from a hundred meters through the
            ground.  Would it again be from people who distrusted us, but gave out of
            obligation, for no one in the desert is refused water. Perhaps water would be
            given by a woman who had carried it on her head.  We would have to accept
            water again.  What could we give?  A song? I felt the sun burn like a pair of
            copper eyes.

            As a woman, Patrice desires the comfort of friends and freedom from chronic illness.  She has two publications forthcoming, Contraband Poboy: From Diagnosis Back to Life (Catalyst Book Press, June 2012) and The Spirit of Grand Coteau (ULL Press, November, 2012). She writes:

            We were all women in this office and we often discussed our personal lives. 
            I thought about paraplegics, parents of terminally ill children, individuals
            trailed with a history of abuse as children, families with a suicidal family
            member.  I would be hard-pressed to say that I would exchange my HIV
            diagnosis for someone else’s problems.  I can’t imagine anyone exchanging
            her problems for HIV. People adjust to their situations: Louisianans live
            with hurricane threats and Californians expect earthquakes.  We own pain
            like emotional real estate and it contributes to our identities.  Would you
            exchange your problems for mine?  People live most comfortably with the
            burdens they know best and fear the unfamiliar ones. 

            As a writer and teacher, Patrice wishes for people to remember their best, though fearful, stories as well as their ordinary ones because that recounting on paper and into the air documents the vulnerability, the struggles, the pain, the release, and the peace that all of us seek.    

            As a neighbor, she wants to record the historical memories of the people of St. Landry’s parish in southern Louisiana.

            As a friend, Patrice does not ask for more than this.  And yet, she celebrates the abundant richness of all the stories of all the people who wander into her small town, offering to share their gift of words with a beautiful writer who lives to receive them.

             
           

Don't forget this is a blog tour, so be sure to visit the upcoming blogs. Here's the schedule!

Tour Date: Wed. June 27 - Check Out Today's Featured Blogs!!
Blog Name: http://charitywrites.blogspot.com 
Title: Charity's Writing Journey "Hospitality, Welcome to the South"
Title: "Evolution AND Creationism: The Birth of a Southern Novel"
Tour Date: Th. June 28
Title: "Patrice Melnick: Louisiana Poet, Festival Muse"
Title: "Pictures and Words"
Tour Date: Fri. June 29
Title: "The Flavors of My Childhood"
Title: "Not Your Storybook Southern Belle"
Tour Date: Sat. June 30
Title: "Changing The Past, Inventing The Future"
Title: "Southern Gentlemen"
Tour Date: Sun. July 1
Title: "New Orleans Caulbearers"
Blog Name: A Penny and Change
Title: "Change...as the moon goes on shining"
Tour Date: Mon. July 2
Title: "Texas Tornadoes and Other Memories"
Title: "A (Southern) Life in Poems"
Tour Date: Tue. July 3
Blog Name: A Penny's Worth
Title: "Books & Business & Reality: No magic bullet"
Blog Name: The Novelette
Title: "Southern Living with True Grit"
           
   

Announcing "She Writes Southern Writers Blog Tour"

During the week leading up to the 4th of July, two blogs will be featured every day sharing their interpretation of the "She Writes Southern Writers 4th of July Countdown Blog Tour" theme: “Southern Living.”

People who leave insightful comments on the blog post(s) during the tour will be entered into a random drawing to receive a special Southern Living-themed prize (worth $50) donated by Zetta Brown and JimandZetta.com Author/Publisher Services. The more blogs you visit and the more comments you make throughout the tour, the more chances you get!

Here's the schedule!

Notice that I will be hosting a guest blogger tomorrow, June 28! I am excited to host Natalie Parker Lawrence!

 

Tour Date: Wed. June 27 - Check Out Today's Featured Blogs!!
Blog Name: http://charitywrites.blogspot.com 
Title: Charity's Writing Journey "Hospitality, Welcome to the South"
Title: "Evolution AND Creationism: The Birth of a Southern Novel"
Tour Date: Th. June 28
Title: "Patrice Melnick: Louisiana Poet, Festival Muse"
Title: "Pictures and Words"
Tour Date: Fri. June 29
Title: "The Flavors of My Childhood"
Title: "Not Your Storybook Southern Belle"
Tour Date: Sat. June 30
Title: "Changing The Past, Inventing The Future"
Title: "Southern Gentlemen"
Tour Date: Sun. July 1
Title: "New Orleans Caulbearers"
Blog Name: A Penny and Change
Title: "Change...as the moon goes on shining"
Tour Date: Mon. July 2
Title: "Texas Tornadoes and Other Memories"
Title: "A (Southern) Life in Poems"
Tour Date: Tue. July 3
Blog Name: A Penny's Worth
Title: "Books & Business & Reality: No magic bullet"
Blog Name: The Novelette
Title: "Southern Living with True Grit"

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Just how Southern are Y'all?

I saw this on Facebook and had to share it with y'all. At first I smiled, then nodded in agreement, and then laughed out loud!


Women throughout the South have "blessed the hearts" of many people while extolling their short comings such as, "Louise sure has put the weight on, bless her heart." Because you see, adding "bless her heart" cancels out the fact that you are trashing Louise or "talking that trash." In fact, by adding "bless her heart" you are showing how much you care about poor Louise and her weight problem.

 

And yes, I do know where yonder is and I even know the distance of a "fer piece, a ways off, and off." "Off" is how we southerners explain where someone who is not from the south lives, as in "He's from off."

 

In the South we eat baloney, not bologna, and we "drank" sweet tea. We even fry that baloney and add our sugar to the whole jug of tea when it's fresh made. We'd never think of handing a visitor a glass of tea and a sugar bowl! We also like lots of ice in our tea. None of that lukewarm stuff for Southerners.

 

I must also admit to piddling around. Yes, I am guilty, but I get it honest from my mama who got it from her mama.  My mama can open a drawer looking for a particular item, and an hour later the entire contents of the drawer are spread out on the bed and she's completely forgotten what she was looking for in the first place. I suffer from this same disease, and often go upstairs to get something only to come back downstairs an hour later empty handed, but by crackies I dusted the bedroom!

 

At the grocery store I do indeed put my items in a buggy. I may insist the bag boy put my frozen foods in a paper poke, and if I forget the sugar, I make my son go fetch it while I stand in line at the check-out. In my buggy you might find some chicken, squash, potatoes, and meal to make cornbread with, and every one of those items is going to be fried! And of course, we'll have ice-cold sweet tea to drank!

 


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Movies That Always Make Me Cry


What movie makes you cry every time you watch it? I mean, it doesn’t matter how many times you see it, it never fails to make you weepy. 

I was sifting through the $5.00 DVD bin at Wal-Mart the other day, when I unearthed one of my all-time favorite happy tear-jerkers – You’ve Got Mail. I actually screamed so loud that everyone turned around and stared at me. I held the movie up and shrugged with a “sorry” smile on my face. 

I love this movie! It never fails to make me cry and laugh. You see, it’s one thing when a movie makes you cry, but to make you cry and laugh – ah that’s a movie! The 1998 production starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan is actually based on a play Parfumerie by Miklós László.  You’ve got mail isn’t the first movie adapted from the play. The Shop Around the Corner, a 1940 film by Ernst Lubitsch and also a 1949 musical remake, In the Good Old Summertime by Robert Z. Leonard starring Judy Garland were first. The 1998 version updates the story with the use of email between the main characters.



Next on my list is The Waitress. This movie stars Keri Russell as Jenna, an unhappy waitress married to an abusive husband, Earl, played by Jeremy Sisto.  Jenna finds herself pregnant while working at Joe’s Pie Diner where she uses her incredible talent for inventing new kinds of pie. Her dream is to leave Earl and win a national pie contest.  Along the way she has an affair with her doctor, Jim Pomatter, played by Nathan Fillion. Her only friends are coworkers Becky and Dawn (Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelly), and Joe (Andy Griffith), the curmudgeonly owner of the diner and several other local businesses, who encourages her to begin a new life elsewhere. 

One of the saddest things about this movie is that Adrienne Shelly, who wrote, directed and had a small part in the movie, was murdered in 2006 before her movie was released in 2007. Initially, thought to be a suicide, Shelly was found hanging from a bed sheet tied to a shower rod in the New York apartment she used as an office. A construction worker in the apartment under her office confessed to killing her after she complained about the noise he was making. 


Having traveled to Ireland last October, I was thrilled and perplexed when I saw Leap Year, (2010) starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode. The movie has breathtaking scenes of Ireland that unfortunately, are not geographically correct. No matter, this is one of my favorite laugh/cry movies. Adams character, Anna Brady, travels to Ireland where her fiancé is attending a medical conference in Dublin. She plans to use the Irish tradition of Leap Day (Feb. 29) when a man receives a proposal on Leap Day, he must accept it. Through many trials and tribulations, Anna tries to make it to Dublin with the unwilling help of Declan O’Calloghan. And yes, you guessed it; Anna discovers the love she was looking for is the maddening Irishman, Declan.



I must include The Upside of Anger (2005) on my list of movies that never fail to make me cry. 

I fell in love with this movie, even though I’m not a big Costner fan, but the chemistry between Kevin Costner, who plays Denny, a retired baseball player turned radio announcer and Joan Allen, Terry, a woman who believes her husband abandoned his family, is undeniable. The movies reveals through a flashback why Terry and her daughters are grieving for a man they though had run away with his secretary. It isn’t until Denny enters the picture, that Terry is able to come to terms with the choices her daughters, played by Keri Russell, Alicia Witt, and Erica Christensen, have made. Denny also is responsible for discovering what happened to her husband.


I cannot end this teary-movie fest without The Notebook, based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. This movies never fails to appear in the journals of teenage girls when I ask my students to write about their favorite movie.

The story begins in a nursing home with an 80-year-old man, Duke, played by James Garner, reading to an elderly woman, played by Genna Rowlands. The story Duke is reading serves as the narrative for their life, played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. The sadness that hangs over the entire story is that Allie (Rowlands and McAdams) has Alzheimer’s disease and cannot remember that Duke is her husband Noah (Garner and Gosling). The bittersweet moment does occur, however fleeting, when an elderly Allie remembers Noah. 

These five movies are certainly not the only ones who make me cry or laugh for that matter. They are ones. I must say, I never tire of watching when I'm in one of those "moods." 

What movie makes you a bit weepy?