My guest on Riehlife today is Junot Diaz whom I was lucky enough to hear speak at my local library branch in the Central West End in St. Louis before he went to Rome for a year to write. I found him funny, refreshing, and frank. Here are some of his thoughts on his work,…
I first met Rene Dimanche Jr. through his visual art at the Urban League Black Fine Art Exhibit. Later I learned he is a fine actor as well. I saw him perform the role of George Wilcox in the First Run Theatre August production “The Seamstress of St. Francis Street” written by Mario Farwell and…
Will bloggers form a professional association? This was one of the intriguing ideas set forth at the James C. Millstone Memorial Lecture hosted by William F. Woo’s wife Martha Shirk, a charming lady with girl-next-door good looks, and led by the editor of “Letters to the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life,” Phillip Meyer, whom,…
Tonight I just came back from a presentation at my local library; I caught the tail end, and that may have been one of the juicer parts, who can say? The audience was primarily African-American and they were firing questions at the speaker in a hunger to know more about the continent the African part…
I love open mics that celebrate literature more than the funny little egos who produce it. The Loud Mouth open mic at The Mac in South St. Louis last night sponsored by the St. Louis Writers Guild was of the first sort as we gathered to celebrate Kerouac’s “On the Road” as it turns 50…living…
I first met Rochleigh Wholfe at Freida L. Wheaton Salon 53 grand opening “Home is where the art is” in early September which you can still read about in the Riehlife archives. Rochleigh’s website features a gallery of her paintings which we can only hint at in our post today. Click here to go to…
A shortened introduction for Roberta Smith from the St. Louis Art Museum events calendar: “Smith is an acclaimed art critic and popular lecturer on contemporary art. She was the art critic for the Village Voice and a senior editor at Art in America before moving to the New York Times in 1986.” ___________________________ Roberta wowed…
“Moon in the Water,” by Elizabeth Grayson I was lucky enough to savor a long lunch this week with the woman behind the Elizabeth Grayson books, who, like me, is a member of Women Writing the West. She enjoys her anonymity, so I’ll just say this: she’s one heck of a woman and in reading…
You read about the current Portfolio Gallery show “Visual Language” earlier on Riehlife. Today you’ll meet the man who founded Portfolio Gallery and Education Center 18 years ago in 1989: Robert Powell. I first met Robert Powell at the Urban League’s Black Fine Art show. I walked into his booth and felt swept-up in his…
In this photo Robert Powell is hard at work, carving in the open air. I found his work moving and intelligent. Here are two pieces from his collection. “One is the Magic Number,” is made out of walnut and owned by Arnold Donald. “Before the Mayflower” is made of mahogany and has won awards. It…