Arts Alive San Antonio

By now, everyone knows that most non-essential businesses have been asked to close and that includes theaters, concert venues, museums, galleries, libraries and other arts and cultural institutions.

But there’s some good news!

The City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture has teamed up with the Luminaria Artist Foundation to launch the Corona Arts Relief Program, which will provide technical assistance and professional development support for individual artists affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. Due to cancellations of just about all artistic events, many artists are losing expected income. The relief program, which will be administered by the Luminaria Artist Foundation, will grant artists who reside in Bexar County, up to $600 to cover the loses they had in the period from March 13 through April 19.

In case of professional development training and arts education (excluding college tuition) the period is defined as lasting from April1 to December 31. Professional training/development may take various forms, from in-person or distance education to attending a professional conference.

Unfortunately, so many people rushed to apply that the fund is already running out of money. Officials have promised, however, that there will be another round of grants, so keep checking. To apply go to AnyArtist.org. If you are reading this and would like to donate to the fund, visit www.luminaria.org

Difficult times are also times of ingenuity, so we are seeing a lot of online activity, from broadcasts of full-length concerts to poetry readings.

April is National Poetry Month, and the calendar is usually packed with readings, performances, music & poetry events, poetry competitions, etc. This year most of that will move online.

A big event coming up is URBAN-15’s Mega Corazon 2020 online broadcast on Monday, April 6. A youth focused event will be broadcast 10 a.m.- 1 p.m., and the adult version is scheduled for 6-10 p.m. For lovers of contemporary poetry this should be a must-see. Participating poets include three San Antonio poets laureate- the first, Carmen Tafolla, the immediate past laureate Octavio Quintanilla, and the new one, Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson.

But there will be many other talented poets: John Phillip Santos, Amalia Ortiz, Anthony “The Poet” Flores, Gregg Barrios, Eddie Vega, Eduardo Garza, Rohn Bayes, Jacinto Cardona, Marisol Cortez, Genesis Linares, Jessica Tilton Zertuche, Natalia Trevino, Frances Trevino Santos, and Poetry Month founder/organizer and beloved community leader Jim La Villa-Havelin. WOW! So much talent!

As part of URBAB-15’s Hidden Histories series, Mega Corazon 2020 will also air a special-themed episode on the history of the Young Pegasus Poetry Competition, a San Antonio literary tradition since 1927. This program will feature interviews with past winners, including San Antonio’s best-known poet Naomi Shihab Nye, former mayor Henry Cisneros, and visual artist Alice Canestaro-Garcia, all of whom had entered their poems into the competition when they were students. It will air at 7 p.m. Monday.

To enjoy this enormous literary bounty go to https://urban15.org/live-stream or to https://www.youtube.com/user/TheUrban15Group

It’s free but donations will be gratefully accepted.

Staying with literary news, here’s a workshop that writers and aspiring writers may not want to miss:  “A Map of the World” taught by the wonderful poet and former Gemini Ink leader, Sheila Black. “In this generative class we’ll use maps and lists to locate and explore significant spaces in our lives and generate poems that touch on keystone experiences…” says Gemini Ink in its announcement of the workshop. The class takes place online from April 6 to May 4, with 24/7 access. Costs: $75 (student); $125 (Gemini Ink members); $150 (non-members). www.geminiink.org

And believe it or not, the enterprising folks at the Public Theater of San Antonio have found a way to bring live theater to you via Zoom this weekend. One show already took place Thursday but there’s another one tonight in the Encore Lounge featuring “Songs From Home” with Megan Hicks DeYoungand special guest Sophie DeYoung. Both have appeared in a number of main-stage shows at the Public.

There will be two more short-and-light shows in the Encore Lounge on Saturday – “Ginger’s Island” featuringGinger Gamble Martel,and “A Sunday Romance,” performed by Anthony Castro and Brie Hopkins.

All start at 7:30 p.m. To register go to: https://bit.ly/3aGwDw1 ; https://bit.ly/2w3xIPi; https://bit.ly/39xRjEW, respectively.