I had another satisfying meal at Olde Madrid restaurant in downtown Racine on Saturday night. But this time I dined at a long table with a dozen strangers & a few acquaintances, including young poets, potent musicians & performing-arts enthusiasts. We had all just experienced a mind-bending installment of Bonk! at the Eco-Justice Center (EJC) in Caledonia, Wisconsin (USA).
Bonk! is a lively cultural series sponsored by the Racine Public Library & the Racine Arts Council, and made feasible thanks to private-sector support. Started in 2008, Bonk! is now curated & emceed by the long-haired & kind-hearted poet-librarian Nick Demske. Like all true creative gifts, Bonk! is free & open to the public. The solar-paneled barn at EJC's renovated farm, which serves as a hands-on sustainability education facility, turned out to be a charming venue for the 6:00 p.m. show on August 23rd.
The scene that muggy (but not buggy) evening, was weird yet welcoming. It reminded me of a vegetarian meal & reincarnation lesson that I chewed on at the crowded Hare Krishna house in New Orleans circa 1988. Mercifully, there was no chanting or confounding metaphysics at the EJC's Bonk! event. Apart, that is, from what the featured artists (a pair of poets & a guitar-slinging troubadour) suggested with their lyrics.
Despite the pungent setting, that fertile night's gathering of Bonk! participants seemed magical. I may be a geocentric ex-Catholic agnostic, yet I still harbor residual affection for Dominican nuns. Members of that enlightened religious order taught me at St. Edward's Grade School as well as St. Catherine's High School (Go, Angels!) in Racine, from 1966 to 1978. Given my background, I feel spiritually uplifted at the Eco-Justice Center.
On Earth Day (early April) 2009 I volunteered at the EJC. A burly man handed over a chainsaw & told me to convert a mess of windstorm-felled trees to useful cordwood. I tried to act nonchalant & manly, suppressing a well-founded fear of maiming myself by accident. I reckoned that my skinny arms might be no match for the heavy, dangerous & distressingly loud power tool. But I survived, stacking chunks of wood as ordered - until a timely rainshower cut short my lumberjack act.
And I'm happy to report that no animals, human or otherwise, were harmed in the course of Saturday's pastoral Bonk! either. In fact, we attendees were so quiet in that open barn that other creatures serenaded us. EJC's Critter Chorus included clucking ducks, some curious turkeys, diverse territorial geese, some cooped-up contented hens & a few lucky roaming roosters. Meanwhile, the Soul Sisters' small herd of brown & beige alpacas grazed in an enclosure near Michna Road, looking comfortable in their wooly skin despite the heat.
Following a flurry of announcements & Nick's flattering introduction, Racine native AM Ringwalt approached the microphone. A precocious 19-year-old student at Emerson College, Ringwalt recited her verse with poise & purpose. Suddenly a small black barn cat named Vader climbed the stairs & hopped onto the stage. While listening to Ringwalt, an attractive blonde in a stylish neo-beatnik outfit (black skirt, black blouse & black ankle-boots), I heard Howlin' Wolf growling the blues in my over-imaginative brain:
Well, I ain't superstitious / But a black cat just crossed my path . . .
The gracious Ringwalt (alias Anne Malin, an aspiring folk musician) told me later that she hadn't even noticed the feline interloper - a fortunate oversight, since she's allergic to cats. Ringwalt is a compelling literary newcomer, celebrating the recent publication of her first chapbook, Like Cleopatra. The cover features a mirror-image photo of bob-coiffed country-pop singer Skeeter Davis. Born Mary Frances Penick, Davis had a melodramatic crossover hit in 1963, as referenced in section XII of Like Cleopatra:
The second time I got in a car crash I was listening to "The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis.
Next came the soft-spoken mustachioed Joe Hall, taking the stage in slacker gear (powder-blue t-shirt, plain pants & sneakers). In between reading texts from his published chapbooks, including Devotional Poems, Hall discussed his interest in the redemption of so-called human trash. A Maryland native, Hall is now a Ph.D. candidate & creative-writing teacher who endured a decade of bohemian poverty & odd jobs. He finds inspiration in quotidian objects as well as remote subjects. For example, he once mined the absurd life of a Spanish conquistador for a series of poems.
Hall had driven to Racine from faraway Buffalo via Ontario (Canada) & Chicago in a BMW. After distributing homemade scratch & sniff styrofoam squares for a "smell my trash" bit, Hall was upstaged by a pair of turkeys. Those bold birds pranced into the barn, undeterred by the presence of an energetic dog. One turkey nibbled at a hay-bale while the other checked out the seated audience. Apparently we entertained them as much as they amused us. Joining the gentle audience for a while struck me as an intelligent - albeit bird-brained - response.
Last up was singer-songwriter Naomi Marie, a colorfully tattooed Twin Cities transplant to the Belle City. She performed with a mesmerizing intensity that served her musical material well. No barnyard animals dared intrude during her 20-minute set. Perhaps the amplification & audible emotion kept them at bay. To paraphrase the old Broadway tune: How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they have seen Bonk! free? As usual, a Q & A session completed the festivities.
To my regret, I met just one nun at this performance. A pragmatic elder, Sister Rosemary interrupted our conversation in order to tell another guy named Joe (from Kenosha) that smoking is banned at the EJC. It reminded me of a funny photo-calendar I had circa 2005 called Nuns Having Fun. Among its black & white prints, one depicted a nun sneaking a cigarette while dressed in a burka-like traditional habit. The mere prospect of cancer didn't deter that God-fearing sister.
Later that night at Olde Madrid (a Bonk! underwriter) the co-owner & manager Natalie Salinas & her husband Manny Salinas (chef & co-owner) fed the performers gratis. My meal - tapas of fried shrimp with cilantro sauce, cup of gazpacho, flan custard & a glass of red sangria - was also on the house, Natalie said. I was surprised & delighted. I'd simply given their place an honest newspaper review that drew extra diners from metro Milwaukee.
The generosity & gratitude that I witnessed last weekend - at Olde Madrid, the Eco-Justice Center & the Bonk! show - give me hope. That can be a lifeline for a semi-cynical loner. Joe Hall offered me a taste of his seafood gumbo: it was creamy, unlike any gumbo I’d ever tried. So I passed him my plate of flan (custard). It was a sweet fore-taste of heaven, to borrow a poetic metaphor.
[© 2014 by J.C. Mrazek]
Links:
(1) Info about the Bonk! series: http://bonkperformanceseries.wordpress.com/
(2) Info about the Eco-Justice Center & its upcoming annual Fall Festival: http://www.racinedominicans.org/eco-j.cfm
(3) A recent article about Anne Malin & her music: http://www.berkeleybeacon.com/arts/2014/4/16/the-eerie-music-of-anne-malin
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