Read more;
Hollins Magazine
https://www.hollins.edu/magazine/turning-misery-into-beauty/
Life without Nikki Giovanni
The Artemis community shares in the deep sorrow of losing our cherished poet, Nikki Giovanni. For ten years, she served as our Distinguished Poet on the Board, and her contributions were invaluable to the heart of our poetry journal. We feel this loss deeply and will carry her spirit and legacy with us as we move forward. She will always be missed, but her words and impact will live on in our hearts.
Nikki Giovanni at the showing of her award winning documentary By Sundance Film Festival “Going to Mars” with Jeri Rogers, Editor of Artemis.
Nikki Giovanni to join Artemis Editorial Board as our Honored Board Poet
Artemis is pleased to have acclaimed poet, Nikki Giovanni to join our publication. She has been awarded an unprecedented 7 NAACP Image Awards, nominated for a Grammy; has been a finalist for the National Book Award, authored 3 New York Times and Los Angeles Times Best Sellers, which is highly unusual for a poet. She is Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech.
Artemis has had a long journey with Nikki. She has been our featured guest poet for our journals in 2014 and 2017. In 2017 we dedicated our journal to her as someone who has served as a beacon to those of us who believe in the power of art. From the 1980’s until today, she has given generously of her time and talent to nurture and support the work of artists and writers in her adopted home here in Southwest Virginia. We welcome her as our Honored Board Poet.
How to keep creating in the time of darkness
Jeri Rogers, Editor Artemis Journal
Emerging from the pandemic, we are reinventing ourselves and our commitments to art. How do we keep creating in these challenging times? Our current theme for Artemis Journal 24 is “Illuminating the Darkness.” Our editors are currently laying out the journal, and I am always in awe of how artists and writers respond to our calls for submission. With over 350 submissions, we have reduced our selections to over 100 entries. The elimination process is challenging as there are so many worthy entries, and we cannot include everyone for obvious reasons.
In looking at how history dealt with challenging times, I found a poem that intersects the personal with history. A poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, wrote Enlightenment after going to Monticello, Virginia, with her poet father, Eric Trethewey, to learn more about our complicated and revered President Thomas Jefferson. The poem is featured in the upcoming Artemis Journal 2024, released September 6th, at the Roanoke Taubman Museum of Art. Stay tuned for exciting news regarding the Launch Celebration.
Enlightenment
In the portrait of Jefferson that hangs
at Monticello, he is rendered two-toned:
his forehead white with illumination —
To read the full poem go to;
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57697/enlightenment-56d23b7175cc0
Natasha Trethewey, “Enlightenment” from Thrall. Copyright © 2012 by Natasha Trethewey. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Many portraits were made of Thomas Jefferson. One of the most demanding and persistent artists was Gilbert Stuart, to whom Jefferson sat for three portraits.
In May of 1800, Stuart began his first portrait, and a fee of $100.00 had been paid before the painting received its finishing touches, a mistake that others had made before him. More than twenty years passed before Jefferson received an oil portrait by Stuart, and the result of the 1800 sitting had disappeared without a trace.
In the meantime, Jefferson assumed the presidency. He took up residence in the Washington President’s House where Stuart lived, and in the spring of 1805, Stuart informed Jefferson that he was “not satisfied” with the original 1800 portrait and “begged” the president to sit for him again. Stuart received another $100.00 from a grateful and generous Jefferson after producing the gouache and crayon “medallion” profile, and the second portrait was titled the “Edgehill.”
As the years passed, Stuart retained the portrait. He proceeded to forget the reason for its existence, assuming ownership of the painting until Jefferson enlisted intermediaries from Monticello to obtain ownership in 1821. This magnificent painting hangs in the parlor of Monticello. Virginia.
Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry, including Native Guard (2006)—for which she was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize—and, most recently, Monument: Poems New and Selected (2018); a book of non-fiction, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2010); and a memoir, Memorial Drive (2020) an instant New York Times Bestseller. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Beinecke Library at Yale, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Philosophical Society. In 2017 she received the Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities. A Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets since 2019, Trethewey was awarded the 2020 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Prize in Poetry for Lifetime Achievement from the Library of Congress.
‘Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project’
Nikki Giovanni & Jeri Rogers, Editor Artemis Journal
HBO has acquired the Documentary which won the Sundance Film Festivals best documentary of 2023
In the opening scene of Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s searching documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, the poet Nikki Giovanni shows her cards: “I don’t remember a lot of things,” she says as images of a glittering galaxy and archival footage of the poet as a child flash onscreen. “I remember what is important and I make up the rest. That’s what storytelling is all about.”
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project wants to let Giovanni choose how she is remembered without sacrificing an allegiance to linearity and mainstream appeal. So the documentary, anchored by the vivacious personality of its subject, blends its experimental inspirations (Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro) with the duty of a compositionally legible portrait (Timothy Greenfield Sanders’ Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am).
The Gospel according to Nikki Giovanni
Javon Jackson with Nikki Giovanni and Nnenna Freelon
Friday, November 3, 2023, 7:30 PM
Moss Center Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia
Street and Davis Performance Hall, Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre
“These songs are so important. They comforted people through times of slavery, and during recent years we needed them to comfort us again.”
— Nikki Giovanni
About The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni
Why would one of poetry’s most revered voices want to curate a jazz saxophonist’s album of gospel hymns and spirituals? “These songs are so important,” says Giovanni, one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 Living Legends and a Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2017. “They comforted people through times of slavery, and during recent years we needed them to comfort us again. But a lot of the students today do not know about the history of these songs, and they should. So I’m out here putting water on the flowers, because they need a drink.”
“The spirituals have been around so long,” says the renowned poet, activist, and educator, who came to prominence in the 1960s and ’70s as a foundational member of the Black Arts movement following the publication of such early works as 1968 book of poetry Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black Judgment and 1970’s Re:Creation.
“Some spirituals have been updated and stayed around and some have been lost over time,” Giovanni notes. “So for me, it’s just helping to keep something going. And I do it because there’s a need.”
Co-sponsored by the Black Cultural Center
A historic collaboration between renowned poet and Virginia Tech legend Nikki Giovanni and saxophonist-composer and former Jazz Messenger Javon Jackson has yielded The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni. For this intimate jazz performance, Jackson brings his bold-toned, Trane-inspired tenor lines to bear on a series of hymns, spirituals, and gospel numbers hand-picked by Giovanni. They are joined by celebrated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon.
For more information
https://artscenter.vt.edu/performances/jackson-giovanni-freelon.html
To hear her speak about the recording experience – Listen to an interview with Nikki on Artemis Speaks Podcast with Jeri Rogers
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1262438/10666985
Mural honors Buchanan poet, Artemis Literary Editor, Maurice Ferguson
A bird in flight guides viewers toward a dash of poetry on a mural decorating a Wasena convenience store.
All their creativity began
In fascination and error
Like mistaking a meadow stone
For a mockingbird.
Maurice Ferguson
Artemis in Pasadena for Litfest
By expanding our range of cultural and artistic events, Artemis collaborated with the Light Bringer Project in Los Angeles and Pasadena. “Artemis-women hold up half the sky” competition promoted a Sci-Fi feminist short story. This award recognizes a science fiction story that embraces feminist themes and has a strong female protagonist. Top entries will exemplify excellence in feminist storytelling, while capturing the complexities of their characters.
The winner received dual publication in Artemis Journal and on the Hollywood NOW website in addition to $100.00 USD cash from Hollywood NOW. The winner’s story was read on stage by a celebrity guest at LitFest Pasadena on May 19th and the winner Mindy Quigley was officially recognized at the event for her story “Equality Day.” Additional prizes include a print copy of the Artemis Journal with the winning story featured, special recognition in media releases, and more.
Jeri Rogers and Mindy Quigley traveled to California to participate in the Pasadena Lit Fest awards ceremony.
Nikki Giovanni To Be Guest Speaker At Artemis Launch
Nikki Giovanni To Be Guest Speaker At Artemis Launch
Artemis is pleased to announce our upcoming Artemis 2017 launch at the Taubman Museum of Art on May 5th featuring a reading by the acclaimed poet, Nikki Giovanni.
Friday, May 5th – 7:00 pm
Roanoke Taubman Museum of Art – 110 Salem Ave., Roanoke, Va.24011
Event is free and open to the public.
The 2017 Artemis Journals will be released at the event and available for purchase.
ARTEMIS celebrates “season of women”
THE ROANOKE TIMES
Rogers: Artemis still celebrates ‘season of women’
By Jeri Rogers
Rogers is editor and founder of Artemis Journal.
Our president has finally accomplished what he promised to do and has signed a law to trim federal aid to Planned Parenthood. This follows the historic Women’s March earlier this year. President Trump has chosen to ignore millions of women and men who stand for the freedom of choice of reproductive rights for women. This type of attack on Planned Parenthood puts women at risk, especially those that are under-served in rural communities by making it harder for women to have wellness and health services.
Yes, I marched in the Women’s March in my hometown of Floyd along with millions of other women and men around our country and the world. I marched because I believe our equality as women is an illusion and in grave peril of disappearing with our current president. It is time to open our eyes to the fact that we women are not equal.
In 1976 I was director of a Women’s Center at the Roanoke YWCA, which was co-sponsored by TAP (Total Action Against Poverty). Bristol Hardin, then the director of TAP, convinced me that my interest in art and social issues could be entwined. In order to entice me to take the job, TAP awarded a grant for me to do a photographic study of women along with opening the Women’s Center. It was an offer I could not refuse and I set out to photograph women while operating the center. After one year, the photographs resulted in a one-woman show titled “Season of Women.”
Celebrating our 40th anniversary this year, Artemis still carries the torch for equality giving a voice to the artists and writers who share in these ideals of equality. Artemis, namesake of our journal and goddess of light, had the divine duty of illuminating the darkness. Often she is depicted carrying a candle or torch, lighting the way for others and leading them through territories yet uncharted. Known as the chaste Greek goddess associated with the moon and hunt, her connection with the natural world symbolized her own un-tamed spirit. She became the patron saint of women, childbirth, protector of wild animals, virgins and the powerless. And she became the patron goddess for our journal Artemis.
In 1976, with my young idealism, I believed it was the “Season of Women” and never thought 40 years later I would be expressing my worries and concerns over our fragile rights as women. So our conversation continues as women come face to face with the real possibilities of losing their health insurance, their freedom of control over their bodies and work-balance issues. Our equality as women is an illusion and the threats to our status are very real. So for those who do not believe in these dangers, I will continue to march and be vigilant for them. Perhaps this year of 2017 will actually be the “Season of Women.”
The launch of Artemis 2017 will be held Friday at the Taubman Museum of Art featuring guest writer, Nikki Giovanni. For more information, see www.artemisjournal.org
Ron Smith, Virginia’s Poet Laureate. 2016 Guest writer
The Poet’s Poet
Virginia’s new poet laureate on the physicality of poetry, what drew him in – and his college life on the gridiron.
By Brent Baldwin