Creative Inspiration: Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame, Julia Seitz

Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame, Marquette musicians, UP holistic business, UP wellness publication

Halls of fame have etched the names of influential figures on their walls, placing notoriety and accomplishments on an eternal altar. There’s a hall of fame for football, the NCAA Hall of Champions, and even the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What about locally? In 2017, Marquette’s musical community saw a need to create a hall of fame for local entertainers and honor Marquette’s musical history. The Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame inducts Marquette musicians plus musical entities and promoters.

“I did it because if we didn’t get down some of those facts and history, they would be lost,” said Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame founder Cindy Engle. “Right now, if you ask somebody about a venue like The Diamond Club or The Brockton, they have no idea what you’re talking about because those buildings have become other things or are gone.”

The Marquette Music Scene (MMS) is under the umbrella of non-profit organization MÄTI, the Masonic Arts, Theatre, and Innovation Company, which promotes artistic innovation in Marquette. Currently, there are fifty-seven members in the Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame. Anyone can nominate an individual, group, ensemble, institute, event or venue. The Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame even inducts musical talents posthumously, making sure their legacy lives on.

A nomination form is available on the Marquette Music Scene website,marquettemusicscene.com. Qualified nominees must be born, raised, or founded in Marquette County, and may represent any music genre or be associated with a music-related vocation from Marquette County’s historical eras.

“It’s a great honor being picked for something like that because you’re chosen by your peers.

We feel strongly about our musical community. It means a lot,” said Dave Zeigner, a 2017 inductee. He plays Latin jazz and blues with the guitar, bass and piano for enjoyment and composing music. He has also played Latin jazz, Afro-Brazilian music, rock, and performed in a symphony.

Zeigner described the ceremony as similar to being at the Grammys or Oscars. There were many guests, people gave speeches, a couple of bands played, and a jam session ensued.

“A good amount of music is going on in our community, and shining a light on that and the people that created it is important,” said Zeigner. “[The Marquette Music Scene] puts in a lot of work to do it every year. My hat’s off to them….. They shine a light on our community and hopefully pique interest in our musical history founder—not just in the county, but the whole UP.”

Judging criteria is based on three categories: impact, influence, and reach.

The inductee must have had a remarkable effect on developing Marquette County’s musical heritage. The inductees are the backbone of music in Marquette through their musical art, teaching Marquette the technique and joy of music, or taking bands and musicians under their wings to promote their voice and manage their growth.

Inductees have a renowned artistic force, compelling their network of fellow musicians to be inspired by their voice or sound. Marquette music fanatics and connoisseurs, even the community at large, are moved by their work.

Also, the musician’s reach must go beyond the boundaries of Marquette’s county lines—their contributions to the music world must be recognized across regions, the nation, and even across the globe.

Cindy Engle is the sole judge for the Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame, but does have Andrew “Bear” Tyler, a business consultant and marketer, assist. A board of directors for the Marquette Music Hall of Fame is in the process of being established.

Engle conducts an intensive and thorough review of nominees’ applications.

She encourages including any letters of recommendation, awards, multi-media, compositions, discography, or other career highlight documentation. Nominees’ activities in the community, technical innovations, musical teaching experience, and much more are also considered.

Additional awards are gifted to approved nominees. For example, the Music Mafia is an annual award granted to a local business owner or venue operator that has helped the music in Marquette thrive the previous year.

“Renee Prusi at The Mining Journal does all sorts of local music write-ups and stories,” said Engle. “Most of the other Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame inductees have been bar owners that have kept playing music and promoting live music as much as possible.”

As the title suggests, the Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame awards Rising Stars to bands formed in the last five years who have heavily influenced the local music scene. The award tells the public and music community to keep an eye out for these rising musicians.

The Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame induction ceremony is held every year on Small Business Saturday in the Upper Peninsula Masonic Center’s Red Room.

The decision to hold the ceremony then ensures everyone can participate.

“It enables more band members to come and share [their music and time] with the new inductees,” said Engle. “I try not to be in competition with the other venues when they have big events because we all need each other. I don’t want to take away from someone going to see a band at a bar, so if I can pick a weekend when there are not too many places holding live music, that makes it better for everybody.”

Each inductee speaks to the audience about themselves and receives a trophy that acknowledges musical accomplishments. The Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame will also display inductees’ names on a wall with those of past nominees.

There are hopes to build a showcase where the Marquette Music Scene Hall of Fame can display memorabilia. The 2022 induction ceremony will be at 6:00 p.m. on November 26, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, in the Red Room of the Masonic Building in downtown Marquette. All are welcome to join and celebrate Marquette’s musical best.

Julia Seitz is a Northern Michigan University student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts. You’ll find her either writing creative fiction or researching a new fixation. She enjoys reading scary stories, but is too scared to watch horror movies.

Creative Inspiration: Limit-Busting Community Artist Mary Wright, Christine Saari

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L’Anse-raised Mary Wright was a homesteader, a teacher of health education, English, history, and art, a cancer survivor, and a feminist. Most people remember her, however, as a community art organizer.

Well over three-thousand blue and white hand-painted chairs brightened NMU’s campus during FinnFestUSA 1996 and 2005. 50 colorful fish shanties appeared at the Lower Harbor parking lot during the World Winter Cities Conference held in Marquette in 1997. Residents painted 400 book covers to represent their city block and raise money for their library. The history of pioneer settlers and families of today were recreated on one of the 500 Heritage Family Poles, set up to celebrate the Marquette Sesquicentennial in 1999. In 2007, 200 doors told the stories of grandmothers, past and current. Over the years, many thousands of people participated in these and other projects, and uncountable locals and tourists viewed them.

When Mary Wright dreamed up these community efforts, the sky was the limit.

No idea was too big or impossible to carry out. Her criteria for any of these undertakings were straightforward: The project had to involve fun, collaboration, and community spirit. Mary believed that every person has the capacity to be creative if provided the opportunity, and that working on joint art projects, reflecting the spirit of old-time barn-raising events, could create miracles.

This community aspect was essential. All participants, from elementary school child to grandmother to prisoner, were welcomed. The wilder the inspiration, the better! If you wanted to cover the wall of your fish shanty with left-over socks gathered at laundromats, or hang shoes of your relatives from your family tree, why not?

Mary Wright Doors Project, community arts, community artist, UP holistic publication, UP holistic business — Mary Wright’s Doors Project

To make these complicated events happen required multiple skills. Mary had a knack for roping people in, persuading them to help paint a mural, create a prototype, drive logs from Munising to Marquette, give money, or procure materials. She networked with local and state art organizations, city government departments, labor unions, and corporations, found donors and sponsors, and worked with the news media. She made countless presentations in schools, clubs, and to any group. And she did it all without a computer or the Internet! Her persuasive powers and persistence were legendary. Mary Wright did not take “no” for an answer.

Mary Wright had a special gift for finding the perfect expression of a particular event:

Blue and White Chairs, Finland’s national colors, were the perfect symbol for FinnFestUSA, an annual international festival held each year in a different city. They gave people of Finnish heritage a chance to honor their families and to define what being Finnish meant to them. They were an expression of hospitality, an invitation to sit down to strike up a conversation, to recycle old furniture, to create an heirloom. All fifteen UP counties participated. Chairs were set up by their painters’ regions, so visitors could find the chairs, benches, stools, and rockers they had decorated. A calendar was later created to provide a lasting souvenir of the event.

Mary felt Fish Shanties symbolized the spunk, spirit, and sisu of UP winter culture. Some grandparents used them to create playhouses for their grandkids. Book Covers were a natural for a library fundraiser. The project was organized around city blocks. This created special pride for residents and helped distribute the covers widely. Family Poles were perfect to portray the 150-year history of Marquette. The many different stories of individual families and organizations told through these poles formed a kaleidoscope of the community’s past and present.

Mary Wright learned how to draw the attention of the news media. Her flamboyant way of dressing in bright exotic costumes, colorful hats, and artful jewelry made her stand out. She managed to get herself on the Today Show in New York, at which she presented a bench decorated with portraits of the show’s luminaries. In the days before drones, she had an aerial photo taken from a helicopter to help advertise her book project. Family poles rode in the Fourth of July Parade. Outdoor working sessions gave visibility to a given project. There were interviews, photographs, and editorials in the newspaper.

Mary’s unique style is featured in Yoopera, a film documenting the production of the Rockland opera and the creation of Mary’s Storyline project in which thousands of white panels strung on wires fluttered in the wind like layered prayer flags from their spots around the Rosza Center and more Michigan Tech campus areas. Primarily made by schoolchildren, each panel had a photo transfer of someone’s image and the story of that person’s life told in the first person.

Mary Wright’s activities were not restricted to Marquette and Houghton.

She organized over thirty-five community projects, including in places like Alpena, Ypsilanti, and Port Huron, and also worked internationally in Toronto and Finland. Her themes were often based on ordinary objects such as shovels, stepladders, pillow cases, spring flowers, or winter mittens. In 1999, she received Michigan’s Governor’s Award for Arts and Culture.

Participating in one of these community projects has had a lasting impact on many. Often it was the first time someone had created an art object. Mary Wright supporter Doug Hagley said about Family Poles, “Some families were reunited after years of separation. Dialogues were fostered… Children honored their parents and grandparents…. The community and its visitors experienced the healing and community-building power of art.” School children became interested in their family history and realized that you could be an artist at any age. Poet Sandy Bonsall’s experience painting blue and white chairs with her students prompted her to write My Mother’s Story Is My Story. I myself was inspired to create a family pole to explore the Finnish background of my husband, and Grandma Doors led me to research the life of my Bavarian grandmother whom I had never met.

We lost Mary in November 2021. To honor her and her work, the Beaumier Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University will feature her in an exhibit in the spring of 2023. If you are willing to loan Mary Wright project object for the exhibit, please contact Dan Truckey at (906) 227-3212 or email heritage@nmu.edu.

Austrian writer and visual artist Christine Saari has lived in Marquette since 1971. She has published memoir Love and War at Stag Farm (2011) and poetry book Blossoms in the Dark of Winter (2018). Find her visual work at The Gallery and Wintergreen Hills Gallery.

Creative Inspiration: How to Have an Art-Full UP Summer

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Our precious summertime is here with a rich roster of arts events back in full swing! In fact, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP) is so chock-full of great summer art events, one could make a summer-long art-focused vacation a vocation! So let’s consider the possibilities!

You could start off June 11 & 12 with Pictured Rocks Days at Binsfeld Bayshore Park in Munising and enjoy free live music and arts & crafts, as well as food trucks, bounce houses;,a beer tent, petting zoo, Coastie the Safety Boat, and interpretive, demonstration and informational vendors.

Then head west June 16 – 19 to the Houghton/Hancock Bridgfest commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the Portage Lake Lift Bridge at its 35th annual downtown celebration. You’ll find fine arts and crafts, live music, food, helicopter rides, fireworks, a parade, classic car show, water activities and more fun! Visit http://www.bridgefestfun.com for the full schedule.

Discover the many joys of Art Week held throughout the city of Marquette from June 19-25, with exhibits, performances, receptions, studio tours, a bike tour, demonstrations, installations, street performers, and an Evening Art Stroll. For details, go to http://www.mqtcompass.com/artweek.

And be sure to take in a City Band concert at Escanaba’s Ludington Park on a Wednesday evening, mid-June to mid-August (www.escanaba.org/community/page/city-band), or Marquette’s Presque Isle Park on select Thursday evenings (marquettecityband.com), as well as great summer entertainment at Marquette’s Lake Superior Theatre (www.lakesuperiortheatre.com).

After enjoying in any of the many 4th of July celebrations held in UP towns large and small, you can head on over to Festival Ironwood July 13-16 for live music, exhibits, craft/artisan vendors, sports activities, food, and more at Historic Depot Park in Ironwood. Visit http://www.ironwoodchamber.org/festival-ironwood and Facebook for more info.

Tear yourself away from the festivities in Ironwood and you could kick up your heels at the annual Aura Jamboree July 15-16. The event features a lively variety of traditional acoustic music, with performers taking fifteen-minute turns on the indoor stage Friday afternoon and Saturday. Traditional dances are held in the evenings in the historic Aura Community Hall in L’Anse, while groups of musicians jam informally outside on the shaded grounds. For more info, see the Aura Hall Jamboree Facebook page.

You can continue your traditional music immersion July 22-24 with Hiawatha Music Festival’s bluegrass, Cajun, Celtic, old-time, acoustic blues and folk, including singer/songwriters, as well as dance at Tourist Park in the city of Marquette. Nationally known performers, regional and local favorites, musician-led workshops, open jams, and dance sessions continue are held, including activities and performances for children, tweens, and teens , with a special teen-only dance Saturday night. A children’s parade takes place late Sunday afternoon. Artists in the Round, a juried traditional arts show, is on Saturday and Sunday, and Young Artists Corner on Saturday afternoon. For more details and tickets, visit hiawathamusic.org.

The Marquette area fun continues with live music, arts and crafts, and all things blueberry at the July 29 Blueberry Festival from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in downtown Marquette on Washington and Front Streets. Enjoy everything from blueberry pizza to blueberry beer at downtown restaurants and “blue” specials at many downtown shops.

You can follow the festival up with your next art fix at the 62nd Annual Art on the Rocks at Marquette’s Mattson Lower Harbor Park on Lake Superior’s shore in downtown Marquette. You’ll find fine arts and crafts such as painting, photography, blacksmithing, jewelry, pottery, and more at this juried art show, 10 am-6 pm Saturday, July 30th, and 10 am-4 pm Sunday, July 31st.

Then head on up the hill to Outback Art Fair at Shiras Park, aka Picnic Rocks, running simultaneously with Art on the Rocks July 30 – 31 to check out even more creative output, including locally-made soaps, walking sticks, outdoor décor and kitchen gear in addition to fine arts, local books, and more.

Next up, you can drive south to enjoy Woodtick Music Festival’s live bluegrass, country, folk, blues, and rock on August 4-7 at County Park 388 in Hermansville. This year’s performers include Bad Axe Rodeo, Billy Shears Band, The Decendants, Chasin Steel, The Driftless Revelers, Runaway Train, 141 North, Gin Mill Hollow, Norton Chartier & Company, Peltier Brothers, River Valley Rangers,Paul Family Bluegrass Band,Willow Ridge Bluegrass Band, Heartland Express and Dee Dee Jayne. More details and tickets can be found at http://www.woodtickfestival.com.

Or, head northwest to the Keweenaw for Farmblock Music Festival, August 5-7. The festival raises funds for The Dan Schmitt Gift of Music and Education Fund, a non-profit providing free instruments and lessons to youth in the Keweenaw and also after school creative empowerment programming in Kalamazoo. The event is held at 2239 N Farmers Block Rd., Allouez. Weekend and day passes available in advance online at farmblock.com and at the gate with cash or check. Discounts for seniors, veterans, and Keweenaw County residents.

You can take a break from Farmblock’s festivities and soak in the very best in health, wellness and spiritual guidance just a town over at Keweenaw Summer Celebration on August 6th at beautiful Lions Park, Calumet. Plus check out the wares of artisans and crafters too! Held 10 am- 5 pm, with children’s Fairy Parade at 1 pm and public drumming circle at 3 pm. For more info, visit http://www.summercelebration.org.

Now head south and west to the Grand Marais Music & Crafts Festival, August 11-13, where you can take in more live music, and arts and crafts at the town’s ballfields. Thursday is free for all. Friday to Saturday is free to children 15 and under accompanied by parents holding tickets. Visit the festival’s Facebook page for the music lineup and more details.

You can zip back to the Keweenaw, or extend your stay there, to peruse the 61st Annual Eagle Harbor Art Show, August 13 -14. This juried art show features sixty to seventy artists. You can check out finely crafted jewelry, ceramics, paintings, woodcarvings, photography and more from 10 am – 5 pm on Saturday and noon –4 pm on Sunday.

Now follow this up with a visit to the UP State Fair, August 15-21. Enjoy “Pure Fun, Pure Goodness, and Pure Michigan” with arts & crafts, animals, food and music at the Escanaba fairgrounds. Go to http://www.upstatefair.net for events, schedule, and admission info.

You can continue your summer-long arts imbibing with a beeline back north to the Lake Effect Bar & Grill’s Lake Fanny Hooe-Down 2, August 26 & 27 at Lake Fanny Hooe Resort & Campground in Copper Harbor. This year’s headliners include Country Music Hall of Fame member, 15-time Grammy-winner, CMA Entertainer of the Year and Country Music/Bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, plus multi-Grammy nominated hit-maker Joe Nichols. Also featured are Shawn Lane, a three-time Grammy nominee and 28-time IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Award winner, plus super-talented eighteen year-old Carson Peters. Peters was a recent contestant on NBC’s hit series The Voice, has been a Tonight Show guest, and performed at the Grand Ole Opry and the CMA (Country Music Association) Awards. Regional music favorites Tom Katalin & Highway 41, Chad Borgen & The Collective, Keweenaw Brewgrass, and On the Spot Blues Band will also perform. A limited number of two-day passes are available at fannyhooe.com. Reserve campsite or hotel accommodations at 833-FANNYHOOE (833-326-6946) or email fannyhooe@gmail.com.

For a different take on the music scene, head farther west to the Porcupine Mountain Music Festival, August 26 & 27, at the Winter Sports Complex within Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. Several acres of mowed, open slope will be ready for your blankets and lawn chairs. Attendance is limited, so there’s plenty of room for distancing. Concessions are located in the ski chalet and open throughout the event. A Children’s Tent provides kids’ activities during the festival. Performances take place under a big top canopy, rain or shine, so be prepared for the weather and have your required Michigan Recreation Passport. For details and ticket purchases, visit porkiesfestival.org.

Or, opt for festivities at Marquette’s Harborfest August 26 & 27, where you can enjoy live music and food at Mattson Lower Harbor Park in downtown Marquette while helping to fund all the good work supported throughout the year by Marquette West Rotary.

You can complete your art-full summer at the Marquette Area Blues Fest Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 2-4, also at Mattson Lower Harbor Park in downtown Marquette. World class blues performers, artist workshops, a dance floor, several local food vendors and a beverage tent with fine Marquette-crafted brews will be on hand alongside a world-class view. Headliners include Biscuit Miller, Carolyn Wonderland, and Vanessa Collier. Friday night admission is free. For more info and ticket sales, visit marquetteareabluessociety.org.

Creative Inspiration: Overcoming Limbo with Courageous Creativity, Roslyn Elena McGrath

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As we move into U.P. spring, it’s hard to know just how gradual this movement may be, how long a gray, muddied limbo between snowy wonders and warm blossoming may go on, and how many restrictions, challenges, and losses we may need to weather through this time. These possibilities alone might nudge us to descend into the doldrums.

But we don’t have to feel diminished by any of this. We can choose to expand our world by exercising our innate creative capacities. In my years teaching visual art in public schools, I saw over and over again how by a certain age, most kids would decide they were good at an art or not. That inner critic can loom so large that many who did not see themselves as “the artist,” “the singer,” “the musician,” etc., might never participate willingly in such activities again.

Do you have to excel at fishing to go fish? At cross-country skiing to go ski? Creativity is part of human nature, and much-needed to come home to ourselves, reduce stress, and increase self-expression and novelty. And if anything is going to combat the stay-at-home same-old same-olds, it’s novelty!

So no matter how rusty, shoddy, or splendid you may believe your creative abilities are, you can take some time this season, even for a few minutes at a time, to juice up your life through your creativity.

If you feel at a complete loss as to where to begin, check out what kinds of guided creative experiences might be available to you locally or online, and pick one that sparks your curiosity.
If you already know of something creative you enjoyed doing as a kid, consider exploring a do-able version of it that excites you now.

If you create regularly but feel you’re in a bit of a slump, try a new art form.

It’s likely to take you in a new direction and/or spice up your old one.

If any of these suggestions make you nervous, that might just indicate you’re on the right track! As artist Henri Matisse once said, “Creativity takes courage.”

If an act is truly creative, it’s a step into the unknown, so there will be plenty of opportunities for your inner critic or inner curmudgeon to try to hold you back. But you can decide which part of you is in charge, and go for it anyway, if only for the pure daring of it!

So, here are some solid do’s and don’ts to help you along the way:

DO create a regular routine of creative time. Don’t wait for inspiration to descend from on high. While it‘s wonderful when that happens, research shows habitual creative time not only increases how much you create, but also helps you generate new creative ideas. So if you’re not creating regularly, put it in your calendar, repeatedly, even if for short bursts of time after prepping in advance.

DONT try to critique or refine your creation at the outset. There will time for that later. The beginning is the time for the rough sketch, the raw draft, the stumbling notes. It’s the time when a field full of possibilities is being explored. Newly-born humans don’t walk, and newly-started projects don’t usually seem like masterpieces. Nurture this tender stage. And if you choose to share this part of your process, only do so with those you can trust one-hundred percent to cheer you on.

DO open up to new experiences. They can trigger new creativity, even if seemingly unrelated.

DO your best to open up your senses more fully to what’s around you. Listen, look, smell, feel, sense with greater attention, and you may find new inspiration even in familiar surroundings, as well as feel more fully present and alive.

DO shake things up if you get stuck–create in a new or even unusual location, do a repetitive non-creative task, or go for a walk. In fact, the connection between walking and creativity has been confirmed by research. According to a 2014 Stanford University Study, a person’s creative output goes up an average of 60% when walking, whether indoors or out. (And a little personal confirmation—ideas for this article came to me while out on a walk.)

DON’T become overwhelmed by a big idea or project you may have come up with. Chunk it down into manageable steps, and even micro steps if needed.

DO remember that everything man-made once existed in imagination only, and honor that magical capacity within yourself and others.

DON’T listen to the naysayers in your head or your life. Be bold, and put your attention on your freedom to choose to create instead.

DO remember that creativity includes more than fine art. It can also be how you put together a meal, a gift, a room, a schedule, resolve a challenge….

DON’T use the truism above to justify shying away from a creative activity that intrigues you.

DO hang around with other creative people. Creativity can be contagious!

DON’T imagine what “others” might think or say about your creation. It’s none of your business anyway. Your job is to nourish your creative faculties.

DO get enough sleep. The brain requires adequate sleep to process ideas and to function well. And the rest of you needs sleep to be able to carry out your creative ideas effectively.

Roslyn Elena McGrath supports fulfilling your innate potential through soul and intuition-based sessions, classes, and products at EmpoweringLightworks.com, and publishing Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine.

Creative Inspiration: Urgent Gifts, Marty Achatz

creative inspiration, urgent gifts, U.P. holistic business, U.P. wellness publication, Upper Peninsula of MI holistic publication

U. S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo says, “If you do not answer the noise and urgency of your gifts, they will turn on you. Or drag you down with their immense sadness at being abandoned.”

Gifts are strange things. They come to us out of nowhere. Surprise and fill us with pleasure. There is power in unwrapping a gift. Beneath the bows and paper, in the darkness of the unopened box, anything could exist. A box of chocolates. Music box. Book. Tickets to Walt Disney World. Words.

Yes, words. Because I’m a poet, I have always believed words are gifts. Think of the word “cleave.” It can mean to “divide or split as if by a cutting blow.” But it can also mean to “adhere firmly and closely . . . unwaveringly.” In one word, there is both separation and connection, loss and love. That’s a remarkable gift.

Back in January of this year, I received an email about a grant program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts called the Big Read.

The NEA Big Read involves organizations creating programming centered around the themes and ideas of one book. Part of that programming involves giving away copies of the chosen book to community members. A gift of words.

One of the options for the 2021-2022 NEA Big Read cycle was U. S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s poetry collection “An American Sunrise.” Filled with cleaving (the removal history of Harjo’s people from their homelands) and cleaving (love poems for Harjo’s mother and husband and children), the book spoke to my artistic gifts.

So, I set about writing an NEA Big Read grant. I pulled together partnering organizations, contacted artists and writers, planned events—keynote addresses, poetry workshops, art exhibits, and a chapbook contest. I dreamed big. It was like writing a detailed, twenty-page letter to Santa Claus and dropping it in the mailbox.

The dream was simple in concept: to build bridges. I wanted to highlight the history, culture, and contributions of indigenous peoples. Through Joy Harjo’s words, I hoped to create a dialogue across the Upper Peninsula and bring people together. Using poetry as a vehicle, my NEA Big Read dream would hopefully be a catalyst for cultural understanding and change.

This dream was a gift to me.

A noisy, urgent gift, as Joy Harjo says. And I followed Harjo’s advice: I didn’t ignore that gift.

Several months after sending off my “letter to Santa,” I received an email one morning from Arts Midwest, the organization that administers the Big Read program for the National Endowment for the Arts. That email had one word in its subject line: “Congratulations.” I sat in my office for a few moments, feeling a lot like a kid on Christmas morning, knowing that my dream had become reality.

As I sit writing this article, I’m approaching the final weeks of programming for the NEA Big Read at Peter White Public Library. Over the past month, I’ve heard the Teal Lake Singers Drum Circle perform. Listened to poets and scholars and teachers of Anishinaabemowin. Soon, I will have the opportunity to speak personally with Joy Harjo, listen to her read her poetry, ask her questions.

However, the path to my NEA Big Read dream hasn’t been without its share of struggles, personal and professional. Sickness occurred. Scheduled speakers became unavailable. Loved ones passed. Events needed to be rescheduled or completely reinvented at the last minute. Big dreams are like that. They rearrange themselves like waves rearrange a shoreline.

But dreaming big is important.

Paying attention to your gifts (no matter what they are) isn’t just important. It’s necessary and life-sustaining. Sharing those gifts and dreams with others can be a powerful force for good in the world at large.

One of the events of the NEA Big Read was a three-day poetry chapbook writing competition. Participants were given a list of eighty writing prompts to spark their creativity. One of the writing prompts was this:
Make a list of things you want to do today. Let your imagination run wild with the list, accomplishing impossible things.

Try it right now. Make that list. Dream big. Dream impossible. Use your gifts. Make the world a better place.

Martin Achatz is a husband/father/teacher/poet/dreamer who lives in Ishpeming. He is a two-time U.P. Poet Laureate and teaches in NMU’s English Department. He also serves as the Adult Programming Coordinator for Peter White Public Library, where he recently organized and ran the NEA Big Read.

Creative Inspiration: A Secret Plan for Poets, Ronnie Ferguson

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“Everything is a boss… You must always have a secret plan!”

– from “Bad Deal/Secret Plan” by theillalogicalspoon (https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/bad-deal-secret-plan)

In many ways, poetry workshops during the pandemic have been like physical workouts with a group of friends. We all agree to meet in the Zoom “Fitness Center,” the one on the corner of Comfy Chair and Computer, around 7 pm. Over the course of two hours, we try out three different “machines” (writing prompts) that, if all goes well, get our hearts going and stretch us in new ways so our poetry muscles grow. After each exercise, we take turns flexing in our rectangles. We make each other laugh, and sometimes laugh at ourselves. We take risks. We virtual-hug. Most importantly—we feast, passing around encouragement like delicious sides to the main course, which is always We Hear You. Workshops can be a worthwhile discipline for poets, and often lead to joy and revelation.

But sometimes things don’t go as planned. We stare at the blank page and, even with a carefully crafted prompt, nothing comes. The ten-minute time limit ticks away. Maybe we pray. Maybe we panic. If we’re lucky, inspiration makes an appearance before the end, and we scribble until the last second (or after). No time for options. No time for second-guessing. Barely legible. Is it intelligible? Who knows? But at least we have something to share. This is a great strength of the timed prompt—it forces us to write something, anything.

Adding a wrinkle to the format can make the experience even better.

For many poets, getting started is half the battle. For some, it is the battle. It’s not uncommon for poets to collect kernels of inspiration throughout their life. These might be lines of poetry without a home, images, stories, snippets of dreams, random articles, overheard conversations, and more. Lists can get long; inspiration folders can get thick; and there’s always the danger of our kernels remaining, simply, “great ideas I once had but never used.” That is, unless these kernels find a home.

For this reason, in the poetry workshops I’ve been leading, I give participants a three-minute brainstorming prompt—a way of collecting kernels in real time—before they’re challenged with a poetry prompt. When I attend workshops led by other poets, I often bring a single page filled with unused kernels of inspiration. Sometimes the prompts are enough, but when nothing comes, sometimes my unused kernels pair with the prompt in surprising ways and get me started. This is a secret plan for poets: Come prepared to poetry workshops with your own ideas so that, whether or not a prompt inspires you, you’re never forced to stare at a blank page. Allowing yourself this flexibility, this pairing of creativity with creativity, can help you be a better steward of the potential-packed kernels you’ve collected throughout your life.

“An inspiration passes, having been inspired never passes.”
-Abraham Joshua Heschel

Three-Part Poetry Exercise – The People We Pass:

Gather some of your kernels of inspiration and jot them on a single page.
Set a timer for three minutes and, on the same page, brainstorm as many people who you see regularly, near or afar, but never speak with. In most cases you will not know their name, so find some way to identify them, such as “Guy Who Mows My Neighbor’s Lawn” or “Woman I Always See at the Laundromat.” Before moving on, note any interesting connections between your kernels and the people you’ve listed in your brainstorm.
Set a timer for ten minutes and, on a different page, write a poem that considers or imagines the experience of one of the people. You may choose to observe and reflect from afar, allow the poem’s speaker to interact with the person, or allow your poem to take on the voice of the person. Here’s a poem I wrote using this same exercise:

Joy to the World

six mornings a week for minimum wage
the woman with three fingers
serves the greasy eggs and bacon
biscuits
coffee and cream

to all the tough faces
the old hairy moles
the saggy scalps
the hard of hearing
and harder to please

with this hive of damn-near-dead complainers
it’s a mystery she’s usually smiling
but if i had to guess
God has blessed her
cuz she still paints her nails pink

*If you write a poem, please send it to me at rofergus@nmu.edu. I’d love to connect and read your work and tell you about upcoming poetry workshops. I hope to write and share with you soon!

Link to “Bad Deal/Secret Plan” by theillalogicalspoon:
https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/bad-deal-secret-plan

Ronnie Ferguson is an MFA candidate and an instructor in the English department at Northern Michigan University. A King Chavez Parks Fellow and President of the Graduate Writing Association, his creative work (often hybrid) spans the genres of poetry, music, film, theatre, fiction, and the visual arts.

Creative Inspiration: “UPportunities” Abound!

U.P. holistic business, creative opportunities in MI's Upper Peninsula

Though some of us have been inspired to express ourselves creatively to deal with pandemic challenges, others of us may wish we felt inspired. And regardless of the many outdoor recreation activities the Upper Peninsula affords, there are still those days when an abundance of rain, sun, black flies, or mosquitoes may drive us indoors, seeking other forms of fun. Or, there may be times we find our summer or other experiences so special that we want to commemorate them in some creative way.

If you’d like a creative head start—no worries! You’re in luck, as creative opportunities abound throughout the Upper Peninsula! Below is a taste of the many you can sample.

At the Bonifas Arts Center in Escanaba this summer, you can create a fairy house, paint your pet, create ceramics or stained glass, weave, watercolor with ink, and more! Visit bonifasarts.org to learn more and sign up.

The Copper Country Community Arts Center in Hancock is home to a photographic dark room, clay studio, and letterpress, and also hosts classes in other media. Check coppercountryarts.com for upcoming classes and programming info.

pottery making in Marquette, MI — HOTPlate Clayworks

You can also get your hands in clay and create bowls, vases, mugs, jewelry, signage, sculpture, and much more at HOTplate Clayworks in Marquette. Or, leave the three-dimensional creating to others, and pour your creativity into decorating ceramics at HOTplate Pottery, or at your place with their take-home kits. Visit hotplatepottery.com for details.

You may also be inspired by the multitude of talent represented in exhibits, receptions, studio tours, demonstrations, and street performers at Marquette Arts Week, June 21 – 27. Included is Poetic Reconnection Art Exhibition, hosted by the Peter White Public Library in the Lower Level Reception Gallery, where poetry broadsides from local poets focused on the theme of reconnection will be displayed. An outside opening reading/reception will be held Tuesday, June 22, at 7 p.m., with music by Troy Graham to follow.

Also as part of Marquette Arts Week, Life Lines & Notes, an event to reconnect heart and soul through words and music, will feature U. P. Poet Laureate M. Bartley Seigel and musician Ani on Saturday, June 26th, on the steps of the Peter White Public Library .

Two-time U.P. Poet Laureate Marty Achatz will be releasing his spoken word album Slow Dancing with Bigfoot, featuring music by Streaking in Tongues, in early summer. There will be a live performance as part of Art Week, plus other live and virtual performances throughout the summer. You’ll find Art Week details at mqtcompass.com.

Live music continues at Peter White Public Library with Concerts on the Steps this summer, featuring popular local musical acts. Visit pwpl.info or the Peter White Public Library Facebook Events page for more details.

The Peter White Public Library also hosts Authors Reading Virtually. At 7 pm on the second Wednesday of every month, local, state, and national authors read from their work and participate in a Q & A via Zoom. Past authors include: John Smolens, Dennis Hinrichsen, Natasha Trethewey, W. Todd Kaneko, and Megan Alpert, among others.

You can get into the writing act yourself with poetry workshops at creativity sanctuary Joy Center in Ishpeming. Marty Achatz will lead a special evening of Bigfoot prompts on June 20th, and also share new prompts every first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m., with a Zoom repeat on the first Sunday of every month at 7 p.m. Poet/musician/filmmaker Ron Ferguson will facilitate “Flying Kites: Discovering Your Electric Ideas in the Brainstorm and Beyond” by Zoom on June 24th for beginners and experienced writers alike. All you need is pen, paper, and imagination. Join in for some poetic inspiration.

creative sanctuary in MI's Upper Peninsula, U.P. holistic business — Joy Center

Joy Center will also host art-making workshops facilitated by Sarah Still this summer. Check the Joy Center Facebook page for details on these and more creative live and Zoom events, or join the snail mail list by contacting owner Helen Haskell Remien at helenhaskell@yahoo.com.

Regardless of your geographic location, you can stay posted for more writing opportunities, including monthly workshopping and open mike time via The Marquette Poets Circle. Contact intrepid organizer Janeen Rastall at janeenpergrin@gmail.com or check the Marquette Poets Circle Facebook page.

And our beloved art fairs are anticipated to make their return this year! You can soak in the creative achievements of local, regional, and even national artisans, and perhaps get some new ideas or energy for your own creative pursuits. In Iron Mountain, Art for All will be held June 26, from 10 am to 4pm in the City Park. Outback Art Fair and Art on the Rocks will be held in Marquette throughout the final weekend of July, the 24th and 25th. The Waterfront Arts Festival will take place Aug. 7th overlooking Lake Michigan in Escanaba’s Ludington Park. The Eagle Harbor Art Fair will be held in Mohawk on Aug. 14th and 15th. And while the focus of the Keweenaw Summer Celebration in Lion’s Park, Calumet is on health, wellness, and spiritual guidance, you’ll find talented artisans there as well.

The Age of Miracles, Martin Achatz

My daughter has reached that age
when her body unfurls
gospels of growth all night,
psalms filled with arm, leg, hair, sweat,
breath staled by the tilt
from girl to woman. She will soon
inherit gifts. Blood. Ovum. Creation.
Then she will be lost to me. Gone
on a long journey across desert, mountain,
to a distant Bethlehem.

This December, she tells my wife
she doesn’t believe in caribou
flying over glacier, tundra. Questions
things like seraphim choirs,
kingdoms at the North Pole,
donkeys that sing “Dona nobis pacem”
on the winter solstice. I know,
she says, nods as if she’s accomplice
to some divine conspiracy theory.
So I write her this poem
about last Friday, when twenty inches
of snow fell in Cairo, Alexandria,
Jerusalem. Brought the entire Middle East
a silence it hadn’t heard in 112 years.
Children in refugee camps danced
in the blizzard, made rosefinches
with ice bodies, palm frond wings.
No bombs. No bullets. Just white.
Everywhere. White upon white.
From the Mediterranean to the Mount of Olives.

Martin Achatz is a husband/father/teacher/musician/poet who lives in Ishpeming. His work has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, The Other Journal, and The Macguffin, among others. He’s currently serving his second term as Poet Laureate of the Upper Peninsula and teaches in NMU’s English Department.

Creative Inspiration: Midwife to the U.P.’s Arts Scene, Anita Meyland, Ann Hilton Fisher

arts in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Anita Meyland, U.P. holistic business, U.P. wellness publication

Have you noticed the vitality of the arts in the Upper Peninsula? As with any example of robust health, many factors have combined over time to create this success. One woman who played a key role in this by example, educating, and organizing, is Anita Meyland.

Anita was born on March 5, 1897, to an artistic Milwaukee family. Her father, Fredrick Elke, learned how to paint frescoes, painting on wet plaster, and his work decorated many area churches.

Anita graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1917 and became an art teacher in Milwaukee. Upon marrying English teacher Gunther Meyland in 1924, they moved to Marquette where he had been hired by the normal school, now Northern Michigan University.

Although others called Anita “the grande dame of culture” in Marquette, “patroness of the arts” and even “bohemian,” the words she most often used to describe herself were “teacher” and “dilettante.”

Anita loved to teach.

She taught art in the Marquette and Ishpeming schools. She brought a group of women painters together who met every week for eleven years, studying a new painter each week,and then learning to paint in that style. She created “The Paintbox,” a children’s program held on Saturday mornings for any child who wanted to attend. She taught adult education art classes within the school system and for the elderly residents of Pine Ridge. She’s best known for organizing and naming Marquette’s first “Art on the Rocks” show in 1950, showing the work of ten local artists, most of whom she had trained. Her work with the Lake Superior Art Association and the Art on the Rocks show earned her countless awards, including the naming of the gazebo at Presque Isle Park (the site of Art on the Rocks for many years) after her.

It’s more surprising that she would embrace the term “dilettante.” We’re now in an era that venerates specialization. The term “dilettante” suggests a dabbler—someone who never takes anything too seriously. Anita would vigorously disagree. She never stopped learning new things and never stopped sharing them.

So, in addition to her painting, Anita learned to weave, and organized an Upper Peninsula weavers group. She studied pottery, and 200 pots from her own collection formed the basis of a pottery exhibit at NMU in 1980. She learned, and then taught classes in scrimshaw, quilting, spinning, pewter, ironwork, beading, candle-making, and woodcarving.

Nor did Anita limit herself to the visual arts.

She was a charter member of the Marquette Community Concert Association, and active in the Saturday Music Club. She wrote a play for Marquette’s Centennial in 1949. A newspaper article from 1984 describes her eagerly preparing for the upcoming U.P. Young Authors conference, planning a theme based on cats—ranging from T.S. Eliott to Garfield.

What about Anita Meyland as “bohemian”? Scrapbooks from the early years of the Lake Superior Art Association include a 1963 invitation to “Vida’s Vignettes—An Evening with Vida Lautner, Artist.” The Tuesday evening event began with a reception at 8:30, followed by a talk at 9, “art and punch on the rocks” at 10:30, “the vernissage” (showing) at 11 p.m., and then at 3:00 a.m. “Comes the Dawn.”

There were people who thought the name “Art on the Rocks” was inappropriate because it suggested drinking. Anita was not inclined to change it. In a 1978 interview, she was described as “a little indignant” at the prospect of a return to provincialism in the arts, saying “I’m afraid we’re going back in that direction.”

Above all, Anita Meyland believed you should never stop learning, and never stop growing. Anita continued pursuing her multiple artistic interests right up until her death on March 7, 1995, just two days after her 98th birthday.

Ann Hilton Fisher grew up in Marquette and remembers Anita Meyland in her lovely home on Pine Street. After a career as a public interest attorney in Chicago, she and her husband have retired to Marquette where she volunteers with the Marquette Regional History Center. This article is adapted from a presentation given at the History Center’s 2019 cemetery tour.

Creative Inspiration: Challenges as Catalysts, Kim Nixon Hainstock

When change happens, many of us become uncomfortable, even if we recognize and accept that the one certainty in life is change. I have worked in the Adult Foster Care industry and managed a group home for those with cognitive and physical disabilities. When a new resident would arrive, they often did not fit the written description given by former caregivers. Often, having arrived at a place never seen before, without familiar faces present, a new resident would demonstrate skills no one thought they had, as if an alarm clock had gone off, and now he or she was awake.

I always suggested to staff we roll with it and see what else might surface. How exciting to do so rather than look at the negative side and blame the people who made those meager introduction notes. Once we were told a person would not walk without guidance and assistance, and one day the person did, standing up, walking across the room, and sitting on the floor in a spot of light coming through the window. I smiled and thought, “Oh, this new resident can self-soothe. The person saw a spot of warmth and moved to it like a cat.” Others in my employ looked on with pity that this person sat on the floor; how sad.

I recognize change can be so sudden and complete that we often feel loss, and just like a special needs individual with no compass to navigate the changes before them, it often comes down to what I need in this moment. Warmth, I need warmth. I will walk across the room and achieve that. Here I now sit in a spot of sun. Magical! Change can be a catalyst for magic, and for fresh new insights on living.

Perceptions of change, as well as our coping abilities, vary and we all have differing skill sets.

Often we do not know how to confront or meet what is happening. In such situations, I like to turn to my creative skills: journaling, vision boards or dream-mapping, or creating mandalas of natural items found on walks.

Let’s look at the process of creating a dream-map or vision-board. I like to gather images and items starting at the New Moon and put them into a cardboard box—clippings from the news, old photos, and items culled from old magazines, bits of scrapbook papers, letters, cards, poems.

Then on the Full Moon, I settle into a space created for the moment. I set the stage. Spread out a blanket upon the floor. Retrieve the box of gathered treasures, scissors, glue sticks, adhesive, scrapbook paper, with an artist pad or cardboard as a base. I set an intention, say a positive affirmation, and begin the sifting process on what is rising up through these items for me. Often I am surprised that something I had clung to or felt strongly about initially does not make it through the gathering phase for my full moon collage.

Displaying my new vision board is essential, as I do not always recognize the meaning or message in the artwork I created. I like to keep it present and allow for the true messages to come like whispers on the wind, allowing their guidance to become fully realized. I do not need to take action right away. Change is often slow. But having a catalyst to help with the sorting of meaning and story can be extremely enlightening.

Licensed Massage Therapist and Yoga instructor Kim Nixon Hainstock holds a B.S. in English from NMU, has led vision board classes at Ishpeming’s Joy Center, Essentials Massage and Yoga, and with at-risk youth, and is currently navigating change and finding ways to nurture her journey.