LISTEN UP
Self-conversation starters Santa Fe poet and workshop leader Janna Lopez uses a self-taught method to get the best out of herself and those she seeks to inspire: self-conversation. She describes it as “thinking and unlearning what you know about writing. It’s about connecting to that place within you where your deepest reflections, expressions, memories, observations, and beliefs have a chance to gift back to you and reflect to you those parts of yourself that you’re needing to connect with at this moment.” Lopez laughingly acknowledges that her descriptions might sound “a bit woo-woo,” but the Santa Fe poet laureate ambassador — she’s filling the laureate role until February 1 — embraces spiritual and intellectual exploration. People interested in doing the same via poetry are invited to participate in the first two sessions of the free Writing Generation Series, offered via a partnership between the creative writing programs at Santa Fe Community College and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Subsequent sessions featuring yet-to-benamed writers are planned, with a culminating reading May 1 involving all participants. On Wednesday, January 24, Lopez is set to share work from her latest poetry collection, such is.
PHOTO DANIEL ULIBARRI
OUT THERE On January 31, she’ll share her creative method with attendees, who will be invited to use it to write their own poems, then share with others — if they want to. Lopez prefers the term “writing invitations” to the more traditional “writing prompts.” “The reason is because prompts imply you have to do something,” she says. “You cannot beat creativity into submission through the expectation of your mind. You might get a couple of hundred words done, but I’ll bet you don’t come back to those words. ‘Invitation’ means you can write or not write; you can respond or not respond. Just knowing that you have that option opens up possibilities.” Lopez leads workshops periodically; the most recent was Possibility Through Poetry on December 30 at the Santa Fe Library. She also plans to do some work with youths at the Santa Fe Teen Center. “What’s interesting is the people who have stayed with me, this method takes some time to unlayer,” she says of self-conversation. “It takes some time to really understand and integrate and even when you think you know, something will happen. You’re like, ‘Oh, I get it now. That’s what you meant.’ And so the self-awareness unfolds.” Lopez says she’s passionate about poetry in part because people have failed to understand it for so long. “It’s been socially and culturally and educationally placed as if it belongs on a separate, unrelated pedestal,” she says. “Once I’m able to connect with people and open up these pathways and doorways, helping them relearn and re-engage and reimagine poetry, the lightbulb goes off and suddenly everything is possible. There is no form of art that I can think of that connects people at such a deep and profound level once they remove the barriers of perception that they’ve long held.” — B.S. Writing Generation Series initial sessions 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 24 (reading by Lopez); 6 p.m. January 31 (creative session led by Lopez) Online 505-428-1506 Poet Janna Lopez will lead an online writing course in which she will teach her method of self-conversation as a tool to spark creativity.
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PASATIEMPO I January 19-25, 2024
Free; register at surveymonkey.com/r/ WritingGenSpring24.
AWARDS SEASON
R hymes and beats Hip-hop is celebrating its golden anniversary, and the New Mexico scene is entering a golden era. The second annual New Mexico Hip-Hop Awards will be held at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on Saturday, January 20, and it will aim to celebrate the craft of a growing community. Chris Soveranez, the executive director of the New Mexico Hip-Hop Awards and a performer who works under the name of Sove C.R., says around 700 people attended last year’s Hip-Hop Awards and that he hopes the event will build an audience over time. “What we’re trying to do is help shape Above: Artist Lil’ Renzo the scene,” Soveranez says. “We have walks the red carpet at some very talented artists, and I definitely the 2023 New Mexico believe there’s a fanbase to hold that up. Hip-Hop Awards. We have acts that have a real coherent sound, but what’s typically heard around New Mexico is an old school sound, like a sound from the 1990s to the early 2000s. We’re trying to change that.” The awards are voted on by a cross-section of judges who live across the state, and more than 700 submissions were sent in for this year’s group of candidates. Soveranez says the artists come from all over New Mexico, but they are heavily centered in Albuquerque. “A lot of them come from Albuquerque, because that’s where the scene is,” he says. “But we did have people from all over the state; we had people from Alamagordo and Las Cruces. I don’t know about further up north, but there are a lot of Santa Fe artists.” This year’s Female Artist of the Year candidates include C. Nest, Envee The Queen, Emariposaa, and Nitalia V; Male Artist of the Year candidates are Alexx Cloud, Def-I, Geoffrodamus, and Jawny Badluck. There’s one artist, Dremon, who may be turning heads outside the state. The Albuquerque-based rapper’s song “Shiftin’” was included in the nationwide release of the computer and video game NBA 2K24 and is nominated for New Mexico’s Hip-Hop Song of the Year. “That’s a big deal; that song is making a lot of waves,” says Soveranez. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a New Mexico artist getting on NBA 2K.” — S.F. 5 p.m. Saturday, January 24 Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W. San Francisco Street $15-$35 505-988-1234; lensic.org