I have neglected this blog for a full two years (minus a few days). I hold on to it, though. Perhaps I'll tidy it up, redirect it a little, combine it with other ventures. For now, I am just going to update as I see fit and contemplate what my web presence is becoming.

What is going on with me: slightly different career. From Head Start to after school programs as either a performance art instructor, or fitness instructor. Also, learning to teach medical students how to properly give an exam to a patient.

I went on a 6-week tour over the summer with the Baltimore Annex Theater. I am creating new performance pieces, writing songs, lining up solo shows, and then preparing to put a band together after the holidays. I am organizing a salon-style holiday market. I'm not only making things for it, but I am going to be Santa for it. Ha!

Lots of other things. But these are the basics. Not even sure if I have shared so much on this site, but thought it might be of interest. Or not. Whatever.

More some other time. Perhaps some writing. Perhaps this will just be another way to promote myself, perhaps it will be more in depth about my creative ventures and my career development. Who knows? Not me. Yet.

chasing tumbleweeds

so tour happened and was amazing. then there was a play. then there was decompression from both of these things. and some illness. but, I am writing finally after performing so much, and doing others' work (and some of my own)... I've been cleaning a lot and working on more physical creativity.

BUT. everything is coming together into something that I think I know what it is, but it still is revealing itself to me. I feel that my work is modular, in the sense that the pieces are stand-alone, but can be configured to be more thematic and a part of something larger. I'm developing the something larger. it feels amazing.

to prepare, I'm lining up smaller performances to test things out. eventually, I'll piece them together. sometime in the summer. I'm going on tour, methinks, with mainly my own work.

but, more immediately, I have a performance lined up for January 11th, which I will divulge more about very soon!

Los Tenedores

it's trite, but I am experiencing a writing dilemma. surprising to many that are close to me, I am a creature of habit. I make up rules for the most inane things and stick with them... unless I change my mind for a specific reason. I think how this neurosis manifests itself in my writing is through my decisions regarding capitalization. for blogging or personal emails with people I know, I tend to not capitalize the beginning of my sentences. proper nouns and "I" do get the big letter, unless for some reason the name is stylized to be lower case (for instance, frē.)... actually, to be completely nitpicky, these are the rules I have for typing. for handwriting, it really depends on what I feel like looking at while I'm in the act. yes, I think about it pretty much every time I write. not a whole thought, it's just a part of the process.

there is a point.

lately, I've been writing a lot of emails to people I do not know, and I generally follow standard written English rules in those, minus some of the most overt formalities. I capitalize where I should, complete my thoughts as sentences, etc. as I've been doing this, I've wondering if I might switch to doing it all the time, except maybe in poems. the lack of big letters is an extension of my identification as a poet, I think... and I think in those terms a lot, even in my daily bits of typed communication.

I'll try not to over-analyze such things, and obviously I haven't made a switch yet. I guess it could be a situational decision. sooo... moving right along...



I've been gone for a bit, lost in the adult world of instructing little humans. I have since written a play, and had a music benefit show for a New Orleans reconstruction trip... I leave Saturday morning! I'll be missing most, if not all, of Artscape; I'm rather grouchy about this as I really had hoped to see all of my friends' installations, and I had so many opportunities to perform that I simply could not take.

no fear, I'm touring dear!

Perform some, tour some, foursome! Los Tenedores are troubadours of the modern age, present to commit individual and collaborative acts of passion. A pronged quartet, these escape-from-Baltimore artists alternate reality by being fully participatory... through divergent paths they seek truth, joy and reflection with each other, and you! All this born from the urgent nature of life and art -- language, performance and social. A conscious action decision, they create an abstractly tangible experience, designed to bring water forth from stone, transform overgrown souls into manicured infants, break down misery into revelry, and turn aurora borealis into crystal heaven; anything can happen and the senses are hyper-real. Through divergent paths, Theresa Columbus, Andy Herschberger, Freda Mohr and Elisa Urtiaga converge to comprise Los Tenedores. Los agarradores, Los Tenedores, agarran de la presente. The graspers, The Forks (The Possessors), take hold of (grasp) the present. "It was a passionate moment we were groping for..."

venues and other details are still being arranged, but it's looking awesome. this is our itinerary:

Friday, August 22 - Baltimore
Saturday, August 23 - NY
Sunday, August 24 - Providence
Monday, August 25 - Boston
Tuesday, August 26 - NY
Wednesday, August 27 - Baltimore? (we're focusing on getting a send-off, but it would be so nice to have B'more bookends, no?)

then, we do Philly Fringe, Saturday and Sunday, September 6 & 7 (booked! A Space, and The Walking Fish Theatre, respectively)

there will be more to this schedule that isn't particular to the tour... I will have so much performance come fall... and more plans in the works.

if you glance to the right, there is a link to the sparse for now blog for Los Tenedores. I'll keep it safe there.

play on words poem

the best way I can describe what I've written over the past several days is a play, on words - uh, poem. or a poem that is a play that experiments with language. maybe a poetry musical/opera? who knows. it's fucking weird. good thing there are weirdos here in B'more that are into it, because I already know it's not for everyone.

probably coming from my love of repetitive sounds, steady rhythm, and tribal sensibilities, this play is designed to emulate that feeling you get when you over-think something and it's not about the thoughts anymore, it's about the feeling you get when the thoughts just become noise in your brain... a subconscious thing, really. haha. I'm brainwashing you. that sort of thing. don't worry, I'm only up to no good.

so yeah. I guess I really did want to write a play.

also, I went to another lovely jazz brunch at 2640, and put some of my other schemes into motion. namely, of the music making sort.

does anyone else have the spring/summer bug? I get up early all the time, and even though I'm wide awake right now, I really don't feel like going to work. I just want to go outside and relax with my new lappy and type weird shit. oh well. kid songs aren't all that horrible, either.

I'm not in hiding

I'm barely home! if you know me, you might've seen me, or not. mainly my preschool students have been seeing me. I didn't get around to posting that I was going to be in a play (that already happened, it was an absolute thrill).

I am going to be reprising my role in Hopeful Softness, one of the plays that I was just in. it's a short experimental piece written by Theresa Columbus. oh how I love her, that wacky goddess. hopefully I will still make it to Playa del Fuego, but I'm willing to miss it in order to perform this awesomeness at the Creative Alliance, no less! what a great space. I've only had the pleasure to be on that stage once before, on the first of this year, and I am determined to be on it as much as I can.

I will update very soon about that, giving particulars and what not.

other exciting news is that I am forming an experiment of a band, under the name Which In? I already have a gig for it, even though I don't even have a full band together yet. yep. that's how I roll. wanna see me wing the music thing? (you might've seen me do impromptu performances, or caught the Pope Dragons, now defunct, I believe, at 2640 eons ago...) don't really, but could be persuaded with actual good music?

then come to the Whole on June 6th, at 8pm, for a music show to benefit a volunteer reconstruction expedition to New Orleans, featuring the Good Guise, Mr. Moccasin, the Bow-Legged Gorilla, and Which In? $10, gas is expensive, yo.

things I'm also working on:

- some letters for the Wormwood folks. (check out the sidebar for the link) I'm pissed off about a few things, and want to write about it.

- a play. secret aspiration is to have Theresa be in it.

- a poet cover show... area poets covering each other's work.

- face painting... huh? yeah!

- other super secret things.

also, in case I don't update in time... Smartish Pace is having their issue release party here at the Whole on May 31st.

I am so excited! about everything!

so yeah, not hiding, just supercrazyhappybusy.

April performances

tomorrow! the Baltimore Ethical Society, here's the "official" info that went out in emails -

First Saturday Coffeehouse Night

Date: April 5th TIme: 7pm

At the Baltimore Ethical Society 306 W. Franklin St.

Featuring Two great poets: Freda Mohr and Suzy.

Also Art by Matt Muirhead.

Matt Muirhead, emigrated from England to the United States with his family in 1983. Matt started painting in 1993. He has exhibited work in; Manchester, Tokyo, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and now Baltimore. His latest series, titled "Symmetry" began 3 years ago as an experiment using watercolor paper. It has since evolved.

Freda has been running amok in B'more for a while now, and likes to leave her mark; her latest stain, "Dali's Ex-Llama Wife," is available for exchange now.

Suzy is a member of the Red Emma's Collective and Zelda's Inferno Poetry collective.

She is a social worker,a poet, and a vegan.




and then on April 19, in the Edgar Allen Poe room on the second floor of the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library (whew! mouthful, that.), from 12:15 - 1:15pm there will be a presentation about poetry/spoken word venues in B'more. I'll be representing the Whole Gallery.

corrections for "dali's ex-llama wife"

okay. so I'm glad that I put out a zine, and I have been giving it away mostly. what I don't like is that there are a bunch of discrepancies and errors. the most glaring ones:

spell bound - previous version; I like the one in the zine better.

bend to my breeze - the lines on the bottom of the first two pages of this poem were cut off, and I've changed the line "as I beamed at you" to "as I blew through you" since making the zine.

freedom isn't free - this one isn't on here. the bottom was cut off on the first page of this poem for most of the copies. the last two lines are "how does the "enemy" have the same guns/ as our daughters and sons?"

moebius, cast, expanded - misplaced "sometimes I can't decide if humanity should be saved" in the zine. the online version is how it's meant to be.

it's possible that I will do a second edition with corrections. right now, however I am working on some other things. more about them later.