CHRIS ARVIDSON

words and art
 

A new year is upon us and lots of things have changed around my world this past month. I spent yesterday morning taking down my display wall at Queen City Arts (Charlotte Art League), so for the first time in several years I will not have a studio or display space there. I have missed having my own studio, but have struggled to overcome the moves in the space and having just a wall and no place to work on the regular, just made it feel like I needed to take a step back and do some thinking. Of course it started raining just as I was moving artwork to my car, but I got it all down (except for my name which will need a ladder and some help) and back to my house. Much of it I took apart and stored. Some of it is going to be unexpected presents for friends -- things I know they liked. And some has found new homes in our house somewhere. Some of it I like. Some of it I don't like anymore. My opinions of my own artwork change, just as my taste in my own writing writhes around. But really, it's the DOING of these things matters and if I can recall how I felt when I was creating them, then I call it good. 

I plan to do that thinking around making art and writing as the new year begins. I'll enter local shows and continue to volunteer with Queen City Art and Guild of Charlotte Artists. It's really fun to hang shows and I enjoy getting those previews to what people are doing with their work. And I'm doing some serious assessment work on the poetry I've been writing this past year, since the publication of my collection (Nobody Cares What You Think) in January. We'll see what I think that adds up to, what deficits might be there, if it makes a collective sense of itself, or if I just need to keep writing and see what happens. 

I've lost some people this past year, some really important people. And the illnesses both here at home, with family, and with friends, particularly in the last month, have been challenging. Surreal, actually. I expect that thinking all of this through will mean yet more changes are afoot. I ain't skeered though. Change IS good. Wave to me while it's all going down, would you?

Click on the image to get to the bid list of wonderful services and fun meetings from Charlotte Lit faculty. I'm on there and I'll come to your book club (or any gathering you'd like really). I'll read, answer questions, and bring 10 books as gifts. You'll be helping Charlotte Lit reach our goal for the upfit of the new office and working space -- we're almost there!

And be ready to come to the Grand Opening of Charlotte Lit's new writing hub on Friday, October 3. I'll keep you updated on all the activities that evening as we get closer. 

You guys, this is a great Festival. I'm really honored to have been selected. Maybe I'll even go next year if they like me again?  I mean check out this video (click on the 2025 Festival highlights)  -- is this not what poetry and baseball and writing and humanities is all about?  https://baseballpoetryfest.org/videos/

Spent the week in Michigan, doing art, hanging out, the basic stuff. But damn, it was supposed to be cooler there, that's the rule and a lot of the attraction of going up in August. WRONG. It was hotter there than Charlotte during my visit. Not very fair, but still, sitting in Lake Michigan is definitely cooler than NC. 

Finished up my last reading for the book at Malaprops just before I went, and that was of course of real honor and a treat. Next writing fun up - Tablerock Writers at Wildacres in a couple weeks. Did you know that you can get the weather predictions two weeks out on weather.com? Of course it can change, but so far it looks like low 70s/high 50s for my time there. PLEASE!

After Georgann Eubanks' wonderful book launch on Zoom (Rural Astronomy is the book), I rejiggered myself for the reading/signing at Main Street Books in Davidson. Instead of just launching into the poetry after the introduction, I said a few words, just a handful of sentences, about where or how or what the heck the poem I was reading came from.  As best I remember of course. I think it made for a better program, and some of my "regulars" who were there that night agreed. One of the things it did was open up the discussion later about ekphrastic writing, and the ways that seeing and smelling things can be powerful poetry prompts. 

The next, and last, reading/signing I'm doing this summer is at the grandaddy of bookstores in North Carolina, Malaprops. I'll be part of their Poetrio Sunday program on August 3 at 4:30 p.m. I don't know yet who the other poets are on the bill, but I will post it as soon as I know. Malaprops is in Asheville, and is an institution in book land around here. I am thrilled to be able to read there. Makes me feel like a REAL poet. 

So much fun at The Belmont Bookshop... it's a really welcoming place, with great places to sit and read and a kids' room upstairs I know I'll have to bring the grands. Super nice owners and Marlo the Poet ran a compelling open mic after my reading. Good words. Good. people. Everything you want in a bookstore. If I lived there, I'd live there. :)

Come listen to a short program from me from the new book "Nobody Cares What You Think" and bring your own new stuff to share. Or, just come listen!