Collaboration.

After countless hours of early morning photo taking, late night poem crafting and all throughout the day gallery preparing, Matt and I (Kate) successfully installed our collaborative work this past weekend in the Xnihilo Gallery at 2115 Taft St. One wall hosts a series of images of the public art installations Matt has placed in our First Ward neighborhood during the past 10 months. The opposite wall is a display of photo and text vignettes highlighting 9 different women and their lives in the neighborhood as captured by myself in informal interview format throughout the year. The third and most interactive wall is a combination of my photos and Matt’s poems in three distinct yet interrelated sections, each relating individual story with overarching issues influencing neighborhood dynamics. The gallery will remain on display until July 30.

Transparent

 

 

The discovery of a luxury loft next an vacant lot with sunflowers and an old house was to good to pass up. The text is three stanzas from a previous poem, the site is Silver St. near the corner of Edwards St. I had a second window installation, with a new poem, but unfortunately it was taken within 24 hours. Se la vie.

(Also, apologies to Becky Harlan to stealing your window idea.)

 

 

Translated [Pt. 2]

 

 

 

 

 

A couple weeks ago I set up my translation the first stanza of raulrsalinas’ “La Loma” (the poem on my first sign project).

This is an empty lot on Crockett St. near the intersection of Silver St.

 

 

Translated

My Spanish translation of “Having Heard of Rivers,” under the freeway along the Heights Bike Trail just a couple hundred feet from the White Oak Bayou.

Zach’s Inner City EP

Throughout the year, Zach has been writing songs about many of the experiences he’s had and people he’s come to know in Houston. He decided to then record these songs and release an album to both tell these stories, and to raise funds for Mission Year. Have a listen.

You can download the tracks for $7 (or more if you feel led) by clicking here, or you can purchase the cd by sending a payment of $10 in the mail (cash or check payable to Mission Year) to Zach at 1201 Spring Street, Houston, TX, 77007. (The extra $3 is for shipping and handling).

Having Heard of Rivers (After Langston)

This is my favorite thus far.

Having Heard of Rivers

After Langston

The Tire Dump, Redeemed

The tires, as I had mentioned, were removed in less than 24 hours. I was disheartened, and had counted it as the third project (of six so far) to have been removed.

But then, on my walk to Gano Mission Center on Wednesday morning, I saw them in huge pile the adjacent field (behind the vine-covered fence you can see in the photos). And all the people of the land rejoiced. The next day I decided to just roll with the punches, and rearrange them in their new location.

Vacancies: The Tire Dump

Aka the one that lasted less than 24 hours. . .  When I returned the next day, they were already removed, making this the third piece that has had a short life-span. They were gone before I could get any quality photos as well.

Seeing numerous piles of tires dumped in vacant lots or roadsides, I decided to play around with language, putting creative language where commercial language typically resides. (Unfortunately, it was still trash to someone.) I wrote this short poem specifically for the tires.

This is more commentary than I normally make alongside a poem, but I feel like giving some background to what brought the piece about. The 1st Ward was once the site of a Civil War mass grave — over which Jefferson Davis Hospital (now Elder Street Artist Lofts) was built — and I saw a connection between these acts of mass disposing of “expendables.” Two improper burials, with wider social implications. The subnarrative–the underlying connection–is the mass pushing out of people of color–having first dumped them into the ghetto then pushing them out again now that this land is desirable.

Dump us

in mass

graves, like

confederate

dead, like

runaway slaves

caught

between

breath and noose.

Sacrament of the Ordinary: Aging.

“None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months or a few years to change all the tenor of our lives.” — Kathleen Norris

Portrait: Mamita Rivas, 100 years old
Location: First Ward, Houston, TX
Photographer: Kate Ambrose
Date: March 2011 

Wait…that’s not a for sale sign… (New Vacancies Installation)

This week my last sign piece finally saw installation. Digging into Houston’s rocky soil was a huge barrier, but I finally settled on an abandoned lot on Spring Street, a block and a half from our house. The spot is next to Mallalieu Methodist Church and in view of two luxury loft clusters.

(click for larger image)

The Vacancies project started with observation (seeing the landscape, listening to stories) and with play (writing and painting, putting poetry where it “doesn’t belong,” ie, a for sale sign). This poem underwent an interesting transformation from three stanzas about undeveloped land in my hometown (Rancho Cucamonga, California) to a six-stanza meditation on the vacant, abandoned lots in the First Ward, and the wave of new construction, where new lofts are being built for and purchased by young, wealthy urban professionals. After this piece, the next few move away from the real estate sign mimicry — although I may return to it. New directions are coming. Stay tuned.