#littleglobe

Celebrating Women’s History Month

VALERIE MARTINEZ

This past week, the UWM Creative Writing Program hosted visiting author, poet, librettist, editor, translator, and educator, Valerie Martínez, for a craft talk and reading from her second book-length poem, Count, published in 2021 by the University of Arizona Press. During the event, the author signed a copy of Count for the UWM Golda Meir Library, where it is now preserved in Special Collections along with two of her other publications with signed presentations to the library. The cover art for Count is titled “River Oats Volume One” by Basia Irland. 

The other books in the collection are Martínez’s first two poetry collections: World to World, also published by the University of Arizona Press in 2004, and Absence, Luminescent, published by Four Way Books in 1999. Her first poetry collection, Absence, Luminescence, was the recipient of the Larry Levis Prize, selected by Jean Valentine, and Martínez was subsequently awarded a Greenwall Grant from the Academy of American Poets. Her second collection, World to World, explores similar themes to that of her first, early trauma and the self in relation to the world, through a more mature and confident lens. World to World, as well as her most recent publication, Count, were both published as a part of the Camino del Sol Latinx Literary Series, edited by fellow author and educator, Rigoberto González. The award-winning and critically acclaimed series of poetry, fiction, and essays has been publishing emerging and established voices in Latinx literature since its founding in 1994 by writer and poet, Ray González.

Chris Jonas, of LittleGlobe, and I were given a tremendous opportunity to be a mirror to the magic that is happening at the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers Joint Conference 2017 (@ Santa Ana Pueblo, USA). In this “Pop Up Conference Residency” (as my creative partner C.J. called it), we are serving as resident artist for a “deep listening” exercise at the two-day conference, collecting video footage and conversations about philanthropy that will be reflected back to the participants at the end of their time together in a multimedia, poetic performance. We’ll let you know how it goes...

View the video of the plenary performance of the Conference Poem here. (Text below)

Follow us on Twitter & Instagram at #CollabNM and #wdygwyg

and on Facebook at the conference event page here.

Listen to audio of me reading The Care Economy here https://hakimbe.bandcamp.com/track/the-care-economy

The Care Economy for New Mexico Association of Grantmakers

by hakim bellamy

“Every great moral and spiritual tradition points to the truth that in the giving of self lies the discovery of a deeper self. When the happiness, security and well-being of others become real to us, we come into our own. Creativity, meaning, resilience, health and even longevity can be enhanced as a surprising byproduct of contributing to the lives of others. This is perennial wisdom, and science now says it is so.” - Dr. Stephen Post (Author of Why Good Things Happen To Good People)

“The Journal of Economic Psychology, found that donating to charity may actually improve a giver’s physical and emotional well being. The study also suggested a link between increases in charitable tax subsidies, which have been found to spur giving, and improvements in people’s perceptions of their own health. (Perception of health tends to be a good indicator of future health-care use and mortality rates.) - Wall Street Journal on the research of Baris K. Yörük, an associate professor of economics at the University at Albany-SUNY

For generations we’ve been trying to fill the holes inside of us and our society with money.

To tender the chasm between the haves and the have nots.

To balance the injustice teetering on the backs of our history..

To reach that ever so elusive number that will one day make everyone, won.

If equity had a price tag we would have paid it all ready, plus tip. If humanity was currency there is more than enough capital in this room to cover the spread.

We give for a living, to people, places and things for whom opportunity might as well be a foreign language.

Philanthropy has been referred to by theologians and academicians alike as the moral likeness of G_d.

And I’m the wrong person to ask about all that, but I do know that there is a higher something that don’t speak in burning bushes no more but instead uses people to do its bidding and its blessing.

To make miracles of each other.

Cashed in our fortune for feathers so we can be someone's angel investor when they’re at their most desperate.

And even though we give and give and give in a world that seems to only measure our “commitment” in dollars and cents The size of our hearts gift wrapped in year-end reports and 990s

When our theory of change is evidence- based, upon the number of smiles on the faces of the most vulnerable members of our most vulnerable families…

We measure success By the diameter of hugs, handshakes and high fives By the volume of laughter per capita By the distance to our dreams and by our honest assessment of each and every human in our care’s ability to reach them.

Because intergenerational prosperity is a “thing” too.

The measure of a society is how we care … and who we care for.

And who we don’t care for tells us a lot about ourselves. But remember that one time…? We made a promise to stop caring so much about currency and made care our currency. made service our gold standard because the ups and downs of our community deserve our attention more so than how much the market can bear the bull.

Where our accountability to each other matches or exceeds our accountability to shareholders so much so, that even the accountants count’em.

Where friend-raising is just as strategic as fundraising for the fight.

Where “Phil” Is short for Phillip, philanthropy and “fill our cups.”

Where “w.ealth” and “h.ealth” are nothing more than an initial                                                  or letter of inquiry apart.

Where the highway to heaven, Is more of a staircase to prosperity, hewn by wingless angels just trying to make a halo out of fifteen cents.*

Where we are no longer just looking at the need but looking, for the cause.

Where we may give a fraction of our possessions, but we unequivocally give all of ourselves.

Where the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word “compensation” is Ralph Waldo Emerson.**

When we wake up every morning to make a living, for someone else, someone who doesn’t share our home, language, religion, gender, skin color, sexual orientation, age, ability, nationality, opposable thumb, or last name ...

Where we actually make a life, for one another … because the only life worth living is one worth sharing.

Or as George Eliot said best... “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”

© Hakim Bellamy April 26th, 2017

* “Every charitable act is a stepping stone towards heaven.” - Henry Ward Beecher ** “It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Talented Woodworker Sean Raybun putting the finishing touches on five Dreaming Water Houses . These Water Houses, each sponsored by a local Santa Fean family, will be posted alongside the river during the Santa Fe River walk on May the 17th. Sponsor families wanted: 150$ cost to sponsor a Water House. Contact [email protected] for additional info.