Poet Deborah Priestly returns to the Out of the Blue Gallery in Somerville!

Article by Off the Shelf Correspondent Parma

On March 24, 2025 from 6pm to 9pm EST, Co-Founder of Out of the Blue Community Arts, Deborah Priestly, will host the first of several poetry nights at the Out of the Blue Art Gallery in studio performance space B6 on the Basement Floor of the Armory at 191 Highland Ave,
Somerville, MA 02143. All are welcome to attend, with a $10 suggested donation, but no one will be turned away due to lack of funds. Light snacks and non-alcoholic beverages will be available to all that attend.




During the nights of her poetry series, she will have a couple of her artworks on show which have graced the Gallery for several decades. She will be MCing the night, and call poets up to the stage in the order that they sign up. Please note that we do have a couple of hours for this memorable event, and if time is needed, we can go all the way to 10pm. The gathering is poetry-centered, although light un-amped music is welcome. There is a guitar as well as acoustic hand drums at the Gallery for everyone's use, as has always been customary at the Gallery through its nearly 40 years in the Camberville area. Folks are welcome to bring copies of their poems to distribute to the audience.




Deborah Priestly has a memorable footprint in the Camberville arts scene. She is the author of 
"The Woman Has a Voice" (Ibbetson Street Press) and worked alongside Timothy Gager to produce "Out of the Blue Writers Unite," a collection of short stories and poetry from Boston-based writers. The Out of the Blue Art Gallery hosted Stone Soup Poetry for many years at its former locations in Cambridge, while several of these poets have attended literary events at our newer Somerville location. It hosted literary nights featuring Jack Powers, Brother Blue, and his wife Reverend Blue. It has also worked alongside BARCC, On the Rise, and the Women's Center to develop inclusivity across all demographics.




Deborah Priestly graduated from Emerson College in creative writing and dance. She also worked at Boston University as an office manager, was deemed an "Art Angel" in Harvard Square, giving proceeds of her art sales to the disabled and homeless. She helped found the Gallery in the early 1990s, and since then curated the Open Bark Poetry series for 25 years. For the last 5 1/2 years, and since the Gallery moved from its 2nd location in Allston to its current one in Somerville, she has spent some time working on herself and budding into her future projects! Welcome Deborah Priestly on the 24th, bring your poetry game, and thanks for celebrating the history of Out of the Blue!

Artist Barbara Marder Brings Intense and Bold Color to the Bloc Cafe in Union Square, Somerville

I have been a patron of the Bloc 11 Cafe since its inception. And over the years, the paintings and photographs on the walls have attracted my interest. While munching on my everything bagel and updating a syllabus for classes I teach at Endicott College, I noticed a number of vibrant watercolors of scenes from Boston and just beyond. Well, I was on it like the proverbial hornet--and I decided to ask the artist for an interview....

How has Somerville been for you as an artist?


Somerville was an amazing place to teach public school art and also to have a studio on Tyler Street at the former Artisans Asylum location. Somerville is an art -minded community, and expression of the arts was everywhere outside the confines of the school building. At one point in my career (1999) the city council addressed the graffiti on the wall at Dickerman playground on Craigie Street by enlisting me to bring my 6th graders to paint a mural at that location. That was a triumph for community pride.


The former Ames Paper company donated boxes of paper items appropriate for many art projects. They offered mounting board for student paintings. One year they printed a set of colorful note cards representing the artwork of my students at the John F. Kennedy School. The Davis Square Artbeat event offered me a window to display student art. A group of eighth graders met me there to arrange the display in July even though school was on summer break. A former bank in Davis Square granted my 6th grade a bus and free admission to a special Monet exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In return the entire sixth grade painted a 17 foot mural of waterlilies for the bank. I was always an ARTIST teacher, not simply an art teacher. The Somerville Museum hosted exhibits featuring the work Somerville art educators. The above events demonstrate some of my community involvement in Somerville. During my 24 years of teaching in Somerville, I was actively involved in my own art -making and expanded my repertoire of materials and media.

You have two canvases you work with—one on copper, and one on paper. How is your jewelry connected to your painting?


I was always a painter! I have an MFA degree in art education and painting from Boston University. Before that I was a painting major at Skidmore College. I entered the enameling world as a painter. I self taught enameling in 1980 in a high school teaching position. The instructor who oversaw the kilns was on sabbatical. I was awed by the colors of glass! Color was always my primary focus in art making.

I had no metalsmithing skills. Folks admired my enameled pieces and suggested that I make wearable jewelry. This idea intrigued me. During my tenure in Somerville Public Schools, I took silversmithing classes from colleges that had student interns doing a practicum with me. The remuneration was a free class. I had many college interns at the John F. Kennedy School in Somerville. Today I oversee the enamel studio at ArtisansAsylum.com now located in Allston.



You have written that observing children at play is an inspiration for some of your work. Explain.



My 24 years teaching K-8 in Somerville were truly inspirational for me regarding my own creative work. I was observing children fearlessly and spontaneously trying different approaches to color, dabbling, exploring outcomes, and combining disparate media in their creative expression. In turn I experimented with my own work. I was fortunate to create my own instructional units. Many days after school, I would engage in my own “creative play” trying new approaches with the goal of developing ideas for lesson planning. This exploration impacted my own growth as a creative artist.



Your paintings of scenes from Boston on display at the Bloc Cafe in Union Square are mainly vibrant watercolors of scenes in Boston, and just beyond. How do you choose what you paint? The paintings are realistic, do you ever dabble in the abstract?




My current body of work is an expansion of my membership in a group called Urban Sketchers Boston. Urban Sketchers is an international Facebook group. There are no membership fees and anybody can show up for a two hour informal sketching session at a designated location. Frankly, I was inexperienced painting architecture, and I was primarily a landscape painter. I think landscapes have many abstract elements in organic forms and color relationships. For the last few years I have worked hard to study buildings and how they relate to the urban landscape. Viewers might recognize the locations but my work remains expressionistic with my bold usage of intense color. Choosing a subject to paint is the artist’s first creative decision. I spend a lot of time exploring a location, and I create thumbnail sketches before deciding on the composition I want to paint. I get a lot of satisfaction from folks who share with me their own connections to locations of my paintings



Why should we view your work?


I think all artists hope for an audience.


Creating the work is a sole activity, but once I frame and display my art, I am wishful for an audience to view it. I want to share what I saw and where I was. I am hopeful others will view and appreciate it. This exhibit, PLACES AROUND BOSTON, will be on display until the first week of March, 2025.

 

Poets Michael Todd Steffen, Mary Bodwell, and George Kalogeris to read May 2

(Click on to enlarge)

 

Somerville, Massachusetts Poet Laureate Lloyd Schwartz wins The Academy of American Poets Fellowship

For some years I was advocating for a Somerville Poet Laureate. Finally Harris Gardner, Greg Jenkins  (Somerville Arts Council), and myself came to an agreement at the Sherman Cafe in Union Square. Soon, with the approval of Mayor Curatone,  a poet laureate committee was formed.  Presently our chairwoman is Linda Haviland Conte. Also on board is Hillary Sallick. We are pleased to have selected great poet laureates, including Nicole Terez Dutton, and Gloria Mindock. Now Lloyd Schwartz has brought this honor to Somerville--which will only enrich our arts community...

New York, NY (June 3, 2021)— The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce its 2021 Poets Laureate Fellows. These 23 individuals serve as Poets Laureate of states and cities across the U. S. and will be leading public poetry programs in their respective communities in the year ahead. The Fellows will each receive $50,000 (or $25,000 each in the case of the shared Poet Laureate position in Montana) for a combined total of $1.1 million. In addition, the Academy will provide $100,000+ total to 14 local 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations that have agreed to support the Fellows’ proposed projects.

Here is an interview I conducted with Lloyd several years ago...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPWXMQ3wDE

Somerville, MA. Poet Laureate Gloria Mindock wraps up her two years at the post

( Gloria Mindock in back)

 Below is a link to a short conversation I had with Mindock at the Cervena Barva Press studio at the Arts Armory in Somerville.



https://archive.org/details/ibbetsonpress_msn_GM

Zach Baum and others bring a vibrant public market to Union Square, Somerville

article by Doug Holder

Nestled behind the P.A's .Lounge off of Somerville Ave., 1 Bow Market Way, to be exact—is a new public market--the Bow Market-- brought to you by Zach Baum and his other co-conspirators. Baum-- a graduate of Tufts University-- who has a background in high tech and real estate development, told me he was influenced by the Agora-style markets in ancient Greece-- public open spaces used for assemblies and markets. Baum-- a man with curly mop of red-brownish hair and an affable manner told me, “We really wanted to create a vibrant place—with affordable spaces for artists, food markets, and a host of small vendors who might have been forced out of the market because of high rents. Here they would all share the same facilities, like the courtyard, bathrooms, etc... and many of the places are a 1,000 month to rent or less.”

I sat outside with Baum in the courtyard in front of the Remnant Brewery—an inviting space—with a gleaming metal brewery-and undoubtedly producing tasty craft beer. I saw a space for a macaroon shop, and Baum told me there is going to be (or currently there is) a fishmonger, spaces for immigrant food shops, caterers, art galleries, a chocolatier  and yes--The Comedy Studio. This was the very venue for upcoming comedians and their loyal audiences that was priced out of the Hong Kong Restaurant in Harvard Square. Baum also told me there will be spaces for vintage clothes, stationary shops, shoe retailers, and more.

Interestingly enough, according to Baum—60% of the vendors will be women and over 45% will be people of color. He feels the low rents will provide opportunities for this population.

Baum told me at the end of the summer there will be a grand opening. I plan to be there-- hoisting a craft beer and basking under the late summer sun.

For more information go to: http://www.bowmarketsomerville. com

Portrait of a Market and a State of Mind: Market Basket, Somerville, Ma.

Portrait of a Market and a State of Mind: Market Basket, Somerville, Ma.

By Doug Holder

When I walk through the door, I see a line of seniors sitting on chairs...a Greek Chorus of sorts--- crooning commentary on the flash of patrons who continually come through the store. There is the heavily accented cacophony, “ Paper or plastic?” There are the coupon men and women who confusingly rifle through their list of bargains, as the people who stand on line have the zombie-like-- sort of posture that would make the filmmaker George Romero proud. The deli counter is a symphony of shouts-- a friendly argument or conversation with the customers-- “ What's it gonna be, hon,?” “ Do you want the Provolone thick or thin?,” “ Not an ounce of fat on it, chief—God be my witness.” The fish mongers come out from the back, hearty, red-faced from the freezers—staring down the poker -faced fish eyes of the Red Snapper, admiring the sleek texture of an upscale piece of swordfish, even giving the lowly chowder fish its due.

There is an art to maneuver your cart here. Like any busy city street—you have to be a skilled driver. You swing and swerve, your hips swivel like a modern dancer, you make a lightning turn for those Melba Toasts-another for the treasure chest of frozen vegetables—you snap your fingers at the snap peas.

The roast chickens—pleasingly plump—their breasts straining against the plastic wrap—like, well...this is a family newspaper.

Like a deviant you clandestinely feel up an avocado, the mounds of melons, the peach with its adolescent peach fuzz.

Down the aisle— while studying a can of chili, you see a long-lost friend—that you haven't seen in 20 years. You debate whether to start a conversation—to revisit what was long put to bed-- but you just leave instead.

You eye the purchases of the person in front of you on line. You are judgmental. “ How could they eat those slabs of fatty pork,” you say to yourself. You always snicker at the folks who read the National Enquirer—but you find yourself rifling through it yourself. You feel self-righteous because you brought your own canvas bag—you gallantly turn down the plastic.

Outside the parking lot is full. The cars, like produce are crammed in their  pre-ordained spots. You get in your car and drive—because it really gets busy at five.

Ibbetson Street 41 has been released!

Ibbetson Street--a Somerville, Ma. based literary magazine was founded by Doug Holder, Dianne Robitaille and Richard Wilhelm in 1998. Ibbetson Street is affiliated with Endicott College.

 TO ORDER GO TO:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/doug-holder/ibbetson-street-41/paperback/product-23210808.html

Or send a check for $12 ( includes postage and handling) to Ibbetson Street Press  25 School St. Somerville, Ma. 02143

Podcast : Doug Holder interviews poet Joyce Peseroff

 

Doug Holder/Joyce Peseroff

https://archive.org/details/Z0000085 ( Click on)

Here is a podcast I conducted with noted poet Joyce Peseroff-- Peseroff was one of the original members of the Alice James Collective in Cambridge, the first director of the MFA program at U/Mass Boston, friend to Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon, and many other things in her long and accomplished career. We also discussed her new collection "Know Thyself." —

Podcast: Doug Holder Interviews Joelle Renstrom

Doug Holder interviews Joelle Renstrom author of  Closing the Book: Travels in Life, Loss and Literature. Renstrom's book explores the intersection of literature and life with personal essays about traveling, teaching and dying. Renstrom teaches writing at Boston University. The interview was conducted at the Somerville Community Access TV studios. Holder hosts the program   Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.

To listen to the podcast go to   https://archive.org/details/Z0000083_201610

The Chintz Age: Tales of Love and Loss for a New New York by Ed Hamilton

Ed Hamilton

A friend of mine, Ed Hamilton has finished a new collection of fictional stories that deal with the gentrification of New York City but can easily apply to what is happening right here in Somerville, Mass. and other cities across the nation. In fact, the collection is published by another friend, Gloria Mindock of the Cervena Barva Press of Somerville, Mass. I have read the Chintz Age... and I think Hamilton has hit it on the head with these heart-wrenching stories of artists, writers, eccentrics, and other people of limited means being forced out of neighborhoods they called home for many years.  Hamilton has walked the walk and is acquainted with the night—the night these people face as real estate interests and corporations destroy Jane Jacob’s ideal of an urban village. Hamilton is still a resident of the Chelsea Hotel in New York City—a long time residence for painters, writers, poets, composers, etc... He has seen the hotel gutted, the eviction of tenants, as it slowly becomes yet another boutique hotel. The hotel and the neighborhood of Chelsea are changing drastically, and the diversity, the quirkiness that made New York City unique is being replaced by high-toned  shops, and skyscrapers, changing the face of the city. On a smaller scale this is happening in Union Square in Somerville, as it has in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and countless other areas where people once could afford the rent, partake in the community, and live modestly. Ed will be reading from his book at the Arts Armory on Highland Ave., in Somerville on Oct 30, 2015 at 7P.M.  Check out:   http://artsatthearmory.org/events/ for directions and more information.

--Doug Holder

The Chintz Age: Tales of Love and Loss for a New New York

by Ed Hamilton

Ed Hamilton resident of New York’s storied Chelsea Hotel, featured in New York Times, Village Voice, and Vanity Fair pens debut collection of stories of artists in gentrifying times.

Somerville MASS, Oct. 1, 2015 –Gentrification has been going on for a long time, maybe for as long as there have been cities. In the past, gentrification was almost an organic phenomenon, with creative/alternative lifestyle types moving into poor neighborhoods for the cheap rent; then, when the creatives had “improved” the neighborhoods to a certain degree, they, in their turn, were replaced by more affluent homeowners. But it was a process that took decades. These days, with government programs designed to benefit developers and real estate speculators whole neighborhoods are changing character in a matter of a year or two. Outside of millionaires, we’re all at risk these days. And it’s not only happening in New York, either; this is a world-wide phenomenon. So, how are these creatives choosing to make their last stand? This is the story told by The Chintz Age.

In seven stories and a novella, Ed Hamilton takes on this clash of cultures between the old and the new, as his characters are forced to confront their own obsolescence in the face of a rapidly surging capitalist juggernaut. Ranging over the whole panorama of New York neighborhoods—from the East Village to Hell’s Kitchen, and from the Bowery to Washington Heights—Hamilton weaves a spellbinding web of urban mythology. Punks, hippies, beatniks, squatters, junkies, derelicts, and anarchists—the entire pantheon of urban demigods—gambol through a grungy subterranean Elysium of dive bars, cheap diners, flophouses, and shooting galleries, searching for meaning and a place to make their stand.

 “Greg had started his shop, the aptly named Fat Hippie Books, in the mid-eighties on a burned-out block of New York’s East Village. The shop was around the corner from the famous punk venue CBGB and the former office of the Yipster Times. When he moved in, the store was right across the street from a rubble-strewn lot where junkies shot up. Now, in 2004, there was a brand new condo building there. The neighborhood had gentrified, but the bookstore remained the same: aged tomes spilling off the sagging wooden shelves onto unstable piles rising up from the creaking floor. And when the door popped open with a clatter of bells, plate glass, old boards and rusty hinges, a gust of wind might set the dust to swirling, some of the same dust maybe as back in the eighties, and patrons would catch a whiff of that unmistakable used bookstore smell. And these patrons, each of that furtive, clandestine race who frequent such places, would feel that familiar tingle of recognition deep in their brain stems that told them instinctively what this place was about: the preservation of knowledge, the suspension of time.” -- From The Chintz Age

Ed Hamilton is also the author of “Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca” (DaCapo 2007) which is now in its eighth printing. As of this writing Hamilton is still living in the famed Chelsea Hotel. www.edhamilton.nyc

978-0-9861111-9-8 | $18.00 | Trade Paperback | 6 X 9, 287 pages| Červená  Barva Press | Small Press Distribution | On Sale: Nov 2, 2015

Červená Barva, a small press operating out of Somerville, Mass., which has to date published 160 titles (70 books and 90 chapbooks), celebrated its ten-year anniversary in April of this year. http://www.cervenabarvapress.com

Somerville, Mass Independent Press Ibbetson Street Forms Partnership with Endicott College in Beverly, Mass.

A New Literary Partnership: Endicott College and the Ibbetson Street Press





(Beverly, Mass)



Endicott College of Beverly, Mass. and the Ibbetson Street Press of Somerville, Mass. have announced a literary partnership the other day. The two organizations have agreed to establish an affiliation between the 12-year-old well-regarded independent literary press and the college. Doug Holder, publisher of the Ibbetson Street Press said in regards to his plans for this new partnership: “I hope to bring a number of prominent poets and writers to take part in a reading series we are going to launch. The first Poet Laureate of Boston Sam Cornish will lead off the proceedings, other features will be Gary Metras of the Adastra Press, Gloria Mindock of the Cervena Barva Press, Luke Salisbury, the author of “The Answer is Baseball,” poet Miriam Levin, Bert Stern and others. “I also want to play a mentor role to aspiring poets and writers.” Holder continued: “I want the literary community and the community at large to know about the vital literary and arts programming at Endicott." Holder has published a number of Endicott faculty members including the poetry collection “Bicycles, Canoes and Drums,” by English Professor Dan Sklar, as well as the poetry of Margaret Young, an instructor on the English faculty of the College. Holder also expects to have his brother Donald Holder, a two-time TONY AWARD winner (“Lion King,” South Pacific”), and Paul Stone, Creative Director of W.B. Mason and novelist to be guest speakers at the college.



This initiative will be on a trial basis for the Academic 2010 to 2011 school year. The school has a solid reputation for its business program, nursing, human services, and education, and the college wants to make sure the public knows Endicott as a destination to study the arts and literature. The student who graduates from Endicott College will be literate, well-informed and well-rounded, as well as being highly sought after. This affiliation will be just one component of the mission at Endicott. Doug Holder, who is an adjunct faculty member at Endicott and also the Arts Editor for The Somerville News as well as the Director of the Poetry Series at the Newton Free Library, said “This is a wonderful opportunity to be aligned with a rising academic institution. And with their new Arts Center and their commitment to the arts in general, I am hoping to be involved in the creation of the Hub for the Arts on the North Shore.”