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!!
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"
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
Title: "Books & Business & Reality: No magic bullet"
Title: "Southern Living with True Grit"
These words need no explanation. They are like weeds
in a garden, and they often appear in our writing and must be weeded out. I am
always adding words to the list, so I appreciate suggestions.:)
