A book is born

The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope was officially launched in Santa Fe , New Mexico at the Lucky Bean Cafe on November 15th, 2011. It was a moving and successful evening thanks to all who attended. The book was also well-received at the Quivira Coalition's 10th annual conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, November 10th to 12th.

The festive Quebec City launching took place at the Librairie Pantoute on December 7th.

NEWS & EVENTS 2016

In the spring, at my new reading from The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope at Montreal's well-loved ARGO Bookshop, the response of those present was heartening. People are hungry for hope and knowledge. How satisfying and motivating it was to nourish that hope for the land and our relationship with it!

This has been a productive year with new writing and my bilingual poetry being published in two French publications here in Quebec: the well-respected Montreal literary journal Les Écrits #146, with a piece entitled « Something », in hommage to the wonderful sculptor Don Darby, and in the impressive anthology of 4 generations of women poets in Quebec, Femmes rapaillées. Of course, both publications led to performances with the fellow writers involved, at the Maison de la littérature in Quebec City, and at the Salon du livre international de Québec. (Quebec's International Book Fair). The jazz musician Michel Côté regaled us, the femmes rapaillées, and the public, with his amazing improvisations for each poem.

The International Quebec P.E.N. committee recently established a P.E.N. Women's Committee in Quebec City and Montreal. As a member of the Quebec committee this year, I was invited to give a writing workshop for Native and immigrant women. It was a thoroughly enjoyable privilege to support their process and impressive to see their fine work evolve.

Part of our work on the P.E.N. committee involved witnessing different women around the world who are detained, murdered or constantly harassed for their speaking out against injustice in their countries. For our two events witnessing them, again at the Maison de la literature and the Salon du livre, I supported Dina Meza in Honduras. The Wyandot singer Andrée Lévesque-Sioui accompanied us in both events with her finely wrought musical witness.

And last but not least, the pleasure of translating (into English) Valerie Forgue's poems for her participation in Germany's Roedermark's World-Poetry Festival.

NEWS & EVENTS 2015

Now it's Fall and after doing new writing in French for a couple publications, I'm enjoying time again in the Southwest. My focus this time is guiding tours with Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project. Do go to their site to see and enjoy the wonderful work they do. mesaprietapetroglyphs.org 

Voices, music, images, depth of rhythm and feeling all came together in Quebec! We loved doing the show PHARE-OUEST for our warm and enthusiastic public who have asked, and still ask, for more. Many people said they discovered a West they didn't know existed. We'll be happy to do the show again in 2016. Feel free to invite us!

PHARE–OUEST a new show! Some true West for Quebec City. We'll be going beyond stereotypes to share the deeper West we each know. Join us if you can!: Tuesday, March 31st at Studio P, 280 rue St. Joseph. Spoken Word artists Rae Marie Taylor and Jean Désy will offer an evening of beauty, emotion and humor around the theme of the American West, Rae's original home and Jean's recent passion. Frederic Dufour's guitars and images by videographer Isabelle Duval will accompany the duo.
Bilingual (French and English)

Rae and Michel Côté at Arts Alive! Photo credit Isabelle Moisan

In June as part of the weekend festival Arts Alive! at Morrin Center, I was delighted to perform in a Spoken Word event with the true blue jazz musician Michel Côté. New poems, new music and sunshine to start the summer!

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko Nevada, in its 31st year, was fabulous. Great music, great poetry and the gladness of being among ranchers and cowboys again! Listen to them on their site. www.westernfolklife.org

January 6th. For my creative and homing spirit, I celebrated the New Year at the Jemez Buffalo Dance where the joyful hospitality of my friends nourished body and soul, as did all the family who took time for me for along the way.

NEWS & EVENTS 2014

(Click here to view past news and events!)

My writing year ended with an enriching and lively workshop with Jimmy Santiago Baca in Taos, NM just before the Holiday festivities began. Jimmy is a life-force, and his support is still inspiring me. I did get a chance as well to enjoy the traditional 'farolitos' walk with friends, and later, for New Year's Day, the always enlivening Turtle Dance at Taos Pueblo.

A November Reading with Lapalabrava in Montreal was a real treat. Founded by Hugh Hazelton, Lapalabrava is a tri-lingual poetry series, so I was moved to be with Mexican writers and the beauty of the Spanish language as well as that of French, and of course my own mother tongue!

CIPA AWARD
Viva Colorado my first home! My book The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope has received its second award in one year! This time from Colorado Independent Publishers Association for the enhanced e-book version (text, audio and images) that I recorded last November with Brook Forest Voices in Evergreen. I am so encouraged and hope many of you will want to read and/or listen to it!
Here's the press release!

It can be ordered from the ibooks on itunes: Here's a link with a sample.

Spring is always a busy time and I was very happy to be invited again in March for La Nuit de la poésie during Le Printemps des poètes events, and for La Muse, evening of readings in and around town for the International Quebec Book Fair. I was especially glad to offer some new poems!

In May, there was a new delight; being invited to lead a storytelling and creativity workshop for children at the Morrin Center in Quebec City as one of their writers for their literary festival, ImagiNation.

And then came Ireland! I was invited to the Listowel Writers' Week by fellow poet there, John McGrath, and thoroughly enjoyed being among the Irish writers and their open-hearted good humored hospitality. Poet Linda Whittenberg from Santa Fe, who has researched her Irish roots, was also attending. The poetry community is a small and grand world!

EVENTS 2013

September
The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope has been named FINALIST for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards in two categories: Nature/Environment and First Book!

November
Billed with Isabelle Forêt and Michel Leclerc as 3 featured poets, on the 8th, I was moved by the public's enthusiastically warm reception of my poetry performance in French at the Tam Tam reading series in Quebec City.

SOON, AN AUDIO/E-BOOK! After having enjoyed being celebrated as a finalist at the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards banquet on November 15th, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I drove the beautiful drive up to Colorado where I spent a week recording The Land with Diana and Jaime Andrade of Brook Forest Voices in Evergreen, CO. We are doing an enhanced e-book, meaning an e-book with full audio recording as well as the text and images as they appear in the printed book. I thoroughly enjoyed being in the studio again with Brook Forest Voices (I enjoyed recording studios previously when I did my Spoken word CD BLACK GRACE).

The completed audio-e-book is planned for digital and other distribution in January. You can access Brook Forest Voices press release about our project here.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10979872.htm

All are welcome - in person or on the net - to my spring events with The Land in New Mexico.

April 19, 20, 21st. I'll simply be enjoying The Book Border Festival in Las Cruces, participating in the dialogue on the legacy of the land, then and now, in the Camino Real region (from Mexico City to Santa Fe, NM).

Monday April 22nd, 6pm: in Santa Fe, at Collected Works Bookstore, on an Earth Day panel organized by environmental scientist Steven Rudnick on how we and our work can help reduce the effects of climate change.

Saturday, May 4th, 2-3:30pm: a reading with myself and Jack Loeffler, aural historian and defender of Western watersheds, and our exchange with Taoseños in Taos at Moby Dickens Bookshop.

May 10,11, 12th. Southwest Book Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM. I'll be at booth #531 on Saturday.

Its been just over a year now that The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope has been making its way in the world (and into many of your homes!). I'm grateful for the wonderful responses many of you have given me and more than happy to know that the book offers people, hope, beauty and courage among today's many trials in the land.

Delightful and meaningful exchange continued during my January 2013 book tour in the Southwest. I was thrilled to be reading from The Land in my favorite home places, Denver, Taos and Santa Fe. Warm Thanks to each and all who attended! What was particularly satisfying for me with these readings was that each one was done in collaboration with others. This meets my deep desire to have the book be part of the wider on-going conversation on the land.

First was: Denver, (I was born here!) Colorado: Thursday, January 10th, at the Tattered Cover's LoDo store in collaboration with Jeff Lee and his Rocky Mountain Land Library (www.landlibrary.org). Then, Taos, New Mexico: Thursday, January 17th at the Harwood Museum in collaboration with SOMOS, "The literary heart of Taos and northern New Mexico." There I shared the stage with Nasario Garcia (nasariogarciaphe.com) and had the great pleasure of visiting with John Nichols (author of The Milagro Beanfield War and so many other writings).

At Border Book Festival with Denise Chavez and friend

Tattered Cover, Rae reading

Taos Valley

Collected Works, Rae M. Taylor, A. Kyce Bello, and Jack Loeffler

Collected Works, People for The Land

The third but not the least Santa Fe, New Mexico: Thursday January 24th at Collected WorkBookstore (collectedworksbookstore.com). For this reading I invited two other environmental authors who share the sense of the spiritual in the land to join me: Jack Loeffler, aural historian, and devoted chronicler and defender of Western watersheds (loreoftheland.org), and A. Kyce Bello, poet, mother, herbalist and editor of The Return of the River.

Please feel free to keep visiting visit this webpage for upcoming events as the year moves on!

Events 2012

October
Montreal celebrates the launching of
The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope
on Wednesday, October 10th, 2012 at 6pm.
All are welcome to join us at
Paragraphe Bookstore
2220 McGill College Ave.
Montreal, Quebec
phone: 514- 845-5811

July: The young, enthusiastic and delightful defender of the environment Mario Ridgley hosted me for an interview about "The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope" on his internet radio program, "Alive and Green," He has made a one-minute video reflecting our collaboration in the interview which he entitled "Let's Be One with Nature." Click here to enjoy the video: http://youtu.be/y75Jk9wJy3g

Or If you'd prefer to listen to the (50 minute) interview between Mario and I, click here:
www.voiceamerica.com/episode/63818/lets-be-one-with-nature

Summer Readings in New Mexico
In New Mexico this summer, I was joined by two "partners in hope" who I invited for a conversation with the public after each of my readings. Kyce Bello, writer and river activist, was with me at OpCit Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 8th and Tuda Libby Crews, active environmentalist and rancher, at Bookworks in Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 3rd. The Conversations were rich with people's experiences of thought and action in how they find hope for the land. I'm grateful to all!

June: Rae Marie performs in a solo bilingual performance with the musician Pierre Côté on June 16th in St. Vallier,QC at the beautiful Domaine de la Pointe-de-Saint-Vallier, on the shores of the St. Lawrence River. Her poetry as well as prose from The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope make up the script.

April: The author was hosted by La Maison anglaise for a book signing for The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope at The Salon international du livre de Quebec (Quebec Interantional Book Fair)

March: This month, Rae Marie performed with other Spoken Word poets from Montreal and Quebec City in the bilingual stage series Poésie du monde (World Poetry) within the month long festival of Printemps des poètes/Spring of the poets.

February: A launching for The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope was hosted by Les Éditions Kalli Barri.

Published excerpts from The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope

«Release» appears in the anthology The Return of the River, published by Sun Stone Press and edited by A. Kyce Bello. The Return of the River was launched at the New Mexico History Museum in May 2011.

« People, Land, Food, A Conversation » appears in Sustainable Santa Fe 2010, a Resource Guide Balancing Cultures, Economics and Ecology