Part of Artemis’s mission is to reach out to younger Writers and Artists
Teacher, Michele Evans’s class in Loudon Count was gifted Artemis Journals by donors John Keiling and Nina Schlossman
Student Eugene, John Keiling, Michele Evans, Nina Schlossman
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).
We are off to a busy start, all submissions are now in and our Editors are making selections for the next journal. Thank you to all who have made submissions and to our supporters. The Artemis 2023 will be released next summer with an official launch at the Roanoke Taubman Museum of Art in the Fall. Stay tuned for details.
In the meantime, our Podcast, Artemis Speaks is now in the 3rd season with 40 interviews of artists and writers from our library. A big thanks to my co-producer, Skip Brown of Final Track Studio, who makes the magic happen.
Skip Brown, Producer recording Jordan Harmen singing our Posdcast theme song “Slow Down”
2023 Podcast Interviews
https://www.artemisjournal.org/podcast
Susan Hankla, Poet
Susan Hankla Poet has s long history with Artemis. Back in 1977, as a young writer, Susan’s poetry appeared in the very first edition of Artemis Journal. VA. For many years she worked as a traveling poet-in-the-schools working with underserved communities in Virginia, through generous grants from The Virginia Commission on the Arts. This made her love of teaching creative writing grow into reaching out to the Richmond community offering adult writing classes at the VMFA Studio School, The Visual Arts Center, & The University of Richmond. Her debut collection of poems, Clinch River, was released in 2017 and her second poetry book was just released, titled I’m not Evelyn published by Groundhog Press.
Nikki Giovanni, Poet
1977 Artemis Journal cover image, Passages V by Sam Krisch
Regional culture kicked into a big gear on Friday at the Taubman Museum of Art. Our September launch featured our guest speaker, acclaimed poet, Nikki Giovanni. Our sold out crowd cheered our program which also had Southwest Virginia ballet Companie’s student dancer, alexis Potter performing along with Nikki giovanni’s reading of her poem, “Fall in Love, (for Artemis). Jordan Harmon, musican perfored music for the event.
The museum played host to two events in one. Roanoke’s annual Artemis Journal, devoted to Southwest Virginia artists and writers, had its launch party. “For the Love of a Book” is the theme for the 45-year-old publication’s latest iteration. The journal, developed from writing workshops for domestic violence victims in the region, this year features works that Nikki Giovanni inspired with her poem, “Fall in Love (For Artemis).”
The publication also features former U.S. Poet laureate Natasha Trethewey; Virginia poet laureates Ron Smith and Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda; and Virginia Poet Laureate Luisa Igloria. Artists and writers from Floyd County — Colleen Redman, Katherine Chantal, Starroot and Lisal Kayati — are in the pages, along with more creators from around the world, according to information that Artemis editor Jeri Rogers provided.
Join host Jeri Rogers as she speaks to Nikki Giovanni about jazz, Jane Goette about her newly published novel, & Italian Poet, Alessio Zanelli
The renowned poet, Nikki Giovanni has a new album “The Gospel According To Nikki Giovanni.”
In addition to publishing dozens of poetry works, Nikki Giovanni has recorded several spoken word albums over the course of 50 years. But this time, she’s doing something a little different.
The new album, a collaboration with saxophonist Javon Jackson, is a collection of gospel hymns and spirituals set to jazz. Growing up in the Baptist church, Giovanni says gospel music was instrumental to understanding herself as a poet.
“The spirituals had a message,” she says. “They weren’t just some people woke up one morning or came from working in the evening and said, ‘Oh, let’s sit down and sing.’ They were sharing information with each other.”
” The truth exists in the world and it is the job of the poet to pull the truth out of violentical air and place it with care upon the page to be casted from the mouth to the hearts of the people.”
– Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother, Irreversible Entanglements)
Nikki with Jovan recording at Final Track Studios with co-producer, Skip Brown
Jane Goette’s novel, A River Road Memoir is a journey through a young girl’s idyllic childhood in the rural South to her restless adolescence when the Civil Rights struggle becomes urgent and personal to her family. The unfolding story is told through the second daughter’s eyes. Jane is a serious child, the one her father calls, “a tree full of owls,” always thinking, observing, and wondering about meanings. Unresolved conflicts continue around the family table as the Civil Rights movement evolves, the Vietnam War begins, and chemical plants spring-like poison mushrooms along the river. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, the conflicts reflected in this book are hauntingly familiar to readers today as Americans continue to battle over the nation’s identity and values.
Alessio Zanelli is an Italian poet who writes in English, a language he has learned completely as an autodidact. His work has appeared in some 200 literary journals from 17 countries including, in the USA: Artemis, California Quarterly, Concho River Review, Italian Americana, The Lyric, North Dakota Quarterly, Philosophy And Literature, Potomac Review, Worcester Review, and World Literature Today, among about a hundred more. His fifth original collection, titled The Secret Of Archery, was published in 2019 by Greenwich Exchange (London). For more information please visit www.alessiozanelli.it.
To listen to the podcast, go to our podcast section
Artemis Journal is pleased to introduce a new artist to our community, Artist Steven Kenny, who makes nature his centerpiece in all his paintings. This connection to nature is good for us, and Steven reminds us of that vital connection.
According to Dr. Miles Richardson in Positive Psychology, “Knowing your place in nature brings meaning and joy.”
Living in our human-made world, we become disconnected, and emerging research is showing that a feeling of connection with nature is good for us.
There are many ways to expose yourself to nature, a simple walk in nature, the Japanese shinrin-yoku, forest bathing, or if you can’t get outside, you can immerse yourself in Steven Kenny’s art.
Steven was born in Peekskill, New York in 1962 and now resides in Check, VA. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design, receiving a BFA in 1984. After studying independently in Rome he gained notoriety as a freelance commercial illustrator, later devoting his full attention to fine art. His award-winning paintings are exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States and Europe.
“I believe future generations will look back on the period you and I now live in and will consider [Steven Kenny] one of the leading artists emblematic of contemporary painting in the first quarter and more of the 21st Century.”
– Paul Chimera, Dali historian with The Salvador Dali Society and author of the book, Dali & His Doctor: The Surreal Friendship Between Salvador Dali and Dr. Edmund Klein
LISTEN
The invention of the printing press circa 1440 was a significant milestone in the story of our civilization. It allowed the knowledge gained during the Age of Discovery to be spread faster and wider and promoted the subsequent flow of scientific and cultural exchange. The masses were enthralled. Scientists and artists were inspired. Letters and ideas were avidly exchanged, and societies were founded that still exist today.
Artemis Journal helps to build a stronger society by publishing our yearly journal. Our editors are in the final stages of layout for our next Artemis Journal 2022. By partnering with various arts organizations, we help to spread the word about the significant impact that the arts and written word make on our society.
For four decades, Artemis literary journal, published annually, has showcased compelling new voices with notable authors ranging from poet laureates to Pulitzer Prize and other major award winners and nominees. Over 1000 writers and artists have been featured contributors or have donated their time and expertise as board members for the all-volunteer operation. The rich history of creativity of Artemis has played an integral role in their success and perseverance of Artemis.
The theme for this year’s journal, “For the Love of a Book,” was inspired by Distinguished Poet Nikki Giovanni’s poem, “Fall in Love (For Artemis).” This theme expresses a core belief that implicitly drove the inception of our journal, and it can account for our compendium’s continuance into the present. According to Gustav Flaubert, “The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” We believe in the importance of art and literature in our lives and acknowledge its potential as a coping mechanism and its utility in helping us understand the realities of the world around us. Adopting this theme recognizes a community of people who feel the same and celebrate our journal.
Here is the poem by Nikki Giovanni that has inspired this year’s Artemis;
Fall in Love
(For Artemis)
If you have to fall
In love
And you do
It should be with a book
Not a novel
Nor a mystery
Certainly nothing scary
And always remember other life forms
Aren’t aliens but other life forms
Just as we are earthlings
Not people to be feared and killed
But life-forms inhabiting the same planet
Maybe ideally a recipe anthology
With great ideas of things to do with garlic
Or especially a mixology book to tell us how to relax
If we are careful
We all need to know how to taste beer
And how to judge wine
(the same way we do people–carefully)
And we definitely need a book that lets us
Laugh
And every now and then one
That lets us cry
We need a book and a dog
And a quilt
To tuck into
And love
And that will be faithful
And true
That’s what love is
A good book
Acknowledgments
Artemis, a charitable organization, would not be possible without the continued support of our donors. Our journal partners with many organizations, including The Light Bringer Project, Festival-in-the-Park, Taubman Museum of Art, and Final Track Studios, co-producer of our podcast Artemis Speaks.
We are grateful to the Roanoke Arts Commission for their continued support of our journal.
https://roanokearts.org/connect/
Celebrating International Women’s Month
Artemis Journal has been an advocate for social justice since 1977
Artemis supports the Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson bringing her one big step closer to becoming the first Black woman to sit on the nation’s top court.
The 21st century has been marked with understanding, open-mindedness, and compassion for more groups of people than possibly any other time in history. As women continue to be presented with new opportunities and empowered to speak their minds, change continues to occur.
As a bright bright star that began in a basement at the YWCA under the vision of Jeri Rogers, Artemis continues to pay tribute to those foundations today by advocating equal and fair treatment of all, strongly denouncing all forms of discrimination. Whether it is a fight against sexism or racism, Artemis works to elevate the voices of all genders and backgrounds and provide a pathway for their art.
Artemis Journal is grateful for the support of the Roanoke Arts Commission, The Roanoke Taubman Museum of Art, and our readers to help support this unique contribution to art and literature. Artemis is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. 10% of book sales are donated to a women’s shelter for abused women and their families.
New Podcast
Angla Dribben, Poet, Everygirl
Join the conversation with Jeri Rogers, Editor Artemis Journal, and Poet Angela Dribben as they discuss the role of gender in her debut collection, Everygirl, a finalist for the 2020 Broadkill Review Dogfish Head Prize.
Angela was a poetry contributor at Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, holds an MFA from Randolph College, and is the current VP of the West Region of Poetry Society of Virginia. Her most recent work can be found or is forthcoming in Los Angeles Review, Orion, Coffin Bell, Split Rock Review, Artemis Journal, and others.
Angela has recently joined the Editorial Board of Artemis as Poetry Liaison for the Virginia Poetry Society.
http://angeladribben.com
March 4-6, 2022
FREE | No registration required | Walk-ins encouraged!
*Bring the entire family out for discovery, learning, and fun!
Roanoke Arts POP!
A winter celebration of arts and culture in Virginia’s Blue Ridge.
30 organizations from the region will gather at the Taubman Museum of Art to share what makes them – and southwest Virginia – so culturally vibrant and fun.
Don’t miss out!
Co-sponsored by
Artemis Journal
Poetry Society of Virginia
Roanoke Taubman Art Museum
110 Salem Ave SE, Roanoke, VA 24011
Roanoke, VA
The Art of Writing
According to Gustav Flaubert, “The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” If you appreciate this art form, then you will appreciate meeting the team from Artemis Journal, who work tirelessly on discovering – and sharing – what they believe.
Members from their organization will be on hand to discuss their work, poet readings and provide you with a free notebook to create your own, plus raffles for free Artemis Journals and more!
From the performing and visual arts to science and technology, and from literature to our region’s rich history, come discover what makes Roanoke the cultural heart of Southwest Virginia.
And with activities like music-making, stilt walking, and more, there’s something for everyone to enjoy!
Poetry Reading Schedule
Friday Evening: March 4, 2022 (5-6 pm)
Kim Ports Erika Joyner
Saturday: March 5, 2022 (10am-1pm)
April J. Asbury
Angie Clevinger
Phoenix Keesee
Mel Kasting
Katherine Chantal
Colleen Redman
Sunday: March 6, 2022 (2-3pm)
Aidan Daniel
Ken Conklin
