August 10 - August 16, 1995
Thursday 10
POETRY FESTIVAL. Hundreds of "poetry slammers, latter-day
Beats, academicians, writers and other language lovers" are
steadily migrating south for the annual Bisbee Poetry Festival,
which will host five days of readings and workshops by nationally
recognized poets like Dick Bakken, Lisa Buscani, Jules Dinechdeal,
Lewis MacAdams, Miriam Patchen, Margaret Randall and Larry Smith.
Other highlights include a street dance and a "near-feral
poetry performance contest." Since its revival in 1990, the
festival has continued the wild, diverse tradition that brought
poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Gerald Stern and Diane Wakoski together
in recent years.
The festival, Drink it Black--Poetry As an Act of Social and
Political Engagement, opens at 6:30 p.m. with a free dance-poetry
performance in Bisbee City Park by the African-Haitian Dance and
Drum Troupe. Enjoy readings by featured poets at 7 p.m. Friday
and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Bisbee Convention Center's
Café Maxi, on Main Street in Old Bisbee. Tickets for individual
readings are $7 at the door. The performance art contest, not
only free of charge but typically the festival's most outrageous
event, begins at 7 p.m. Sunday, August 13. Call (520) 432-5063
for complete event information.
Friday 11
PLAY BALL. If you've been planning on heading out to Hi
Corbett Field to see the Tucson Toros, this is your last chance.
The Toros begin their last 12-game homestand of the season tonight
against the Calgary Cannons. This is what baseball is supposed
to be all about: a tight pennant race, cheap eats and drinks,
plenty of freebies and the always-adorable Tuffy Toro. Despite
a string of injuries and changes in the line-up, the Toros are
atop the Pacific Coast League's southern division. If the Toros
can hold onto their lead, we'll have a chance to see them again
in September, when they'll battle the Colorado Springs Skysox
in the first round of the PCL championships. The Toros will battle
the Cannons tonight through Monday and take on the Las Vegas Stars
Tuesday through Friday, August 18. The first 2,000 fans at tonight's
game get free Toros ballcaps. All games begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets
are $3 to $6. For more information call 325-2621.
Saturday 12
WAILA WORKSHOP. Get ready for the upcoming Fiesta de San
Augustín street dance with tonight's Waila workshop, hosted
by TFTM and the Arizona Historical Society. "It's your basic
step-together-step," says workshop coordinator Deborah Beaumont
encouragingly. The workshop, which last year drew more than 150
shuffling pairs of feet, provides an easy, entertaining introduction
to the cumbia, chote, waila and mazurka--the dances comprising
Waila, Tohono O'odham social dance. In fact, describing them seems
far more difficult than learning the steps. "They're derived
from European dances, adapted to mostly norteño rhythms,"
Beaumont summarizes after waltzing through an explanation of how
the waila is to polka what the chote is to the Schottische waltz,
which means "Scottish" in German. And so on.
Lessons run from 8 to 8:30 p.m., with an open dance continuing
until 11 p.m. to live music by the Joaquin Brothers, Pablo Francisco,
Southern Scratch, Tohono O'odham Veterans and Santa Rosa Band,
at the Arizona Historical Society, 949 E. Second St. Tickets are
$5 at the door. Call 318-0810 for information.
Sunday 13
MUSICAL CHAIRS. Sleep in late, go out for brunch, and
then head over to the air-conditioned Southwest Center for Music,
2175 N. Sixth Ave., for the final concert in the festival Chamber
Music from Echo Glen, featuring musical artists from the Southwest
String Quartet, The Marelle Trio, Cremona Collage and the Wharton
Duo. Program includes quartets and quintets from Brahms, Taneyev,
Haydn, Respighi and Shubert, with featured artist Andor Toth,
who has performed with the Oberlin Quartet (first chair violin),
the New Hungarian Quartet, the Stanford Quartet and the Alma Trio,
closing the concert. With the exception of the TSO Quartet, players
have been split up and rematched to form unique ensembles you
won't hear anywhere else this year. This is a definite must for
chamber afficionados.
Performance begins at 2:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $9, $5 for
seniors and students. Tickets are $10 at the door. Call 745-5830
for reservations and information.
Monday 14
CLASSICAL EDGE. Classical guitar and studio art mingle
tonight in the downtown Stillwell Twiggs House, 134 S. Fifth Ave.,
as internationally renown musician William Matthews highlights
an rare exhibition of student and master works by The Drawing
Studio, an independent association of studio artists and art students.
Surrounding Matthews' "centerpiece" performance of contemporary
American and traditional classics, will be a collection of paintings,
pastels and mixed-media works depicting still life, downtown scenes,
self-portraits and landscapes, which student-artist Jeff Schwartz
describes as "not trying to impress anybody."
"You won't find any Monets or Van Goghs in this show, but
we're a fairly studious group, with a strong foundation in art
(history)." He hopes the show will appeal to "people
who are themselves interested in becoming artists, who would like
to be attached to a smaller group."
The exhibition, including recent works by Andrew Rush, will be
open from 6 to 9 p.m. with refreshments. Music begins at 7 p.m.
A $10 donation is suggested, with proceeds benefiting the Drawing
Studio Scholarship Fund. Call 620-0947 for information.
Tuesday 15
THE PEOPLE'S LAST STAND. We keep telling you to go see
these guys, and you keep telling yourself you're going to go see
them; but if you haven't yet had the pleasure, procrastinate no
more! The People's illustrious leader Derek Iverson makes his
final depraved appearance in one hour of sketch comedy ingloriously
titled Derek's Last Show. Iverson packs in his +props?trademark?
eye-patch and leaves his People for a new home high in the mountains
of Flagstaff (what is it with leaders and mountaintops, anyway?).
To avoid mass panic and hysteria, current player Robert Topping
has come forward to lead the People on to greater heights of absurdity,
prompting these final words from Iverson: "It is important
to note that the People Who Do That will continue to do...That."
The People perform at 8 p.m. at Laffs Comedy Caffé, 2900
E. Broadway. Tickets are $3 at the door. Call 32-FUNNY for information.
Friday 16
TRUE ADVENTURES. The New York Times boasts, "Finally!
A lesbian love story for the whole family!" Truly, The
Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls In Love is one of the
best romantic comedies to hit theaters in a long time, with a
full cast of interesting, enigmatic characters woven into a wacky,
heartwarming tale of first love. Unlike many films that delve
into material from outside the mainstream, Two Girls In Love
maintains a light-hearted tone focused on the fear and excitement
of falling in love--an experience all audiences will relate to.
The film centers around two high school seniors: Randy Dean (Laurel
Holloman), who lives in "just your typical lesbo household"
with her aunt, her aunt's girlfriend and her aunt's ex-girlfriend;
and Evie Roy (Nicole Parker), a sheltered, upper-class only-child
living with her single-mom. This hysterical, off-center glimpse
at growing up is a definite must-see.
Two Girls In Love is now playing at The Loft cinema, 3233
E. Speedway. See Film Times or call 795-7777 for information.
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August 10 - August 16, 1995
