Tax deductible donations may be sent to:
Alzheimer’s Poetry Project Staff and Poets
Medical Consultant, Kristen H. Sorocco, Ph.D.
Dr. Sorocco is an Assistant Professor of Research in the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Dr. Sorocco overseas the gathering of data and gives guidance on the research component of the APP. She leads the conversion of the research to publication of the data and disseminates the research on using poetry with dementia to the medical community.
McIver has been published in The Albuquerque Alibi as well as many literary journals including The Harwood Review and Conceptions Southwest. He is the host/producer of KUNM radio Spoken Word Hour and co-produced The Poetry of Vietnam, recognized by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters as a Program of Special Merit. New Mexico currently serves 26 facilities in 15 cities.
Click here to hear a sample of McGiver's hour-long radio special: Remembering Poetry: The Alzheimer's Poetry Project on Public Radio Exchange. The piece has aired on a number of public radio stations around the country. Including: KSJD, WEKU, Yellowstone Public Radio, WSKG, KSFR and KUNM.
Kathleen Cook writes about the piece, "This program is thought-provoking in that it brings forth the idea of using poetry as a form of therapy and enrichment in thelive of people with Alzheimers. It puts poetry in the same usefullness as music and other forms of art. The audio clips of the people in the nursing homes is touching and engaging. It also gives hope to those who have had to cope with a love one suffering from Alzheimers disease. I found it inspiring."
Don McIver reading in Albuquerque
Spanish Language Program Director, Editor-Spanish Anthology, Anacelie Verde Claro
Verde Claro became a fluent Spanish speaker and dreamer in San Jose, Costa Rica. She uses her dual-language skills to translate the work of her favorite Spanish and Latin American authors, as well as to create her own writing style. Her work has appeared in The Bellingham Review, The Bloomsbury Review, The Blue Mesa Review, and The American Literary Review. She works as a freelance editor and translator in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She can be contacted at anacelie@verde-claro.com.
Alzpoetry-
(Alzpoetry is the German Branch of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project)
Alzpoetry, German Director, Lars Rupple
Rupple is a nationally recognized poet and workshop leader. He is the author of three books of poetry published by Lektora Verlag Paderborn. He is the organizer and producer of the Hessen Slam and a member of the band Smaat. More info on Rupple at http://larsruppel.de/
Lars Rupple leads an intergenerational workshop at Wollenbergschule, Wetter, Germany
Alzpoetry Poet, Wolf Hogekamp, Berlin
Wolf Hogekamp lives as an a/v editor and poet in Berlin. Since 1994 Wolf Hogekamp is reading and performing poetry and organizes regularly Poetry Slams in Berlin He is a pioneer of the German Poerty Slam scene. Since 2000 Hogekamp is the mentor of the Bastard Slam in Berlin, one of the most important and biggest Poetry Slams of the german spokenword scene. He was the founder of the first national of german speaking poetry slam in 1997, also he managed the 10th in 2007 in Berlin. More than 400 appearances with Poetry-Slams and readings on all important German-speaking stages.
Arizona
Arizona Director/ Poet Christopher Lane
Lane is the director and founder of the Arizona chapter of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, sponsored by Northern Arizona Poets, (NORAZ Poets) began in 2003, under Lane's direction and became an official 501(c)(3) organization in 2005. Arizona currently serves 19 facilities in 8 cities.
Among Lane's awards are: the 2010 Bill Desmond Writing Award; Arizona Commission on the Arts, the 2009, Mayor's Arts Award; City of Sedona Individual Category, the 2009: Artist Project Grant; City of Sedona Arts and Culture Commission, the 2008, Gardens for Humanity; Visionary Grant and a 2006, Emerging Artist Grant; City of Sedona Arts and Culture Commission. He has been a featured reader at Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference at Arizona State University and the Tucson Poetry Festival. Lane is the author of "who is your god now?" published by Woodley & Watts. Lane is currently at work on a book on caregiving. For more info For more info on the Arizona Chapter
Christopher Lane reading in Sedona
California
Poet, California, Rachel Kann
Kann has performed at the California Plaza, Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, The Palace of Fine Arts and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Kann has published 4 books of poetry and appears in various book anthologies and compilation CDs. She produces poetry / hip-hop / music / performance painting extravaganza, "co-lab:ORATION" in Santa Monica, CA.
Connecticut, Florida
Poet, Connecticut, Florida, Elizabeth Thomas
Thomas designs/teaches writing programs and workshops for schools and organizations throughout the U.S. These programs promote literacy and the power of the written and spoken word for all ages. Thomas is the founder of UpWords Poetry, an organization dedicated to creative arts programming, particularly for young writers.
Illinois
Poets, Chicago
The Speak'Easy Performance Poets- Joel Chamara, Molly Meacham, Tim Stafford, Dan Sullivan, Mary Fons, and Robbie Q, under the direction of poetry slam founder Marc Smith. They have been featured at the City of Chicago's "Stirring Things Up Food Festival" produced by the Chicago Arts Commission, as well as the Green Mill.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island
Skip Shea, Co-Founder Center for Peaceful LivingSkip Shea is an artist, actor, performer, poet and writer and founder of the Center for Peaceful Living, Inc. His multi-media one man show Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads) chronicles his life as a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, the death of his daughter, his road to wellness and the search for personal peace. The show opened in December 5, 2005 at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. An accompanying book of his poetry from the show of the same title was published in 2006.
As an actor, Skip has appeared in a number of feature films and now writes and directs his own short films including Video Diary: Last Entry and They Serve Breakfast Here All Day Long. He also adapted and directed Bertolt Brecht's The Jewish Wife for the anniversary of Human Right's Day, a presentation by the Center for Peaceful Living, Inc., a seminal event for the Center and Skip's mission to raise awareness of the potential of personal and lasting peace for all.
As an artist, his works have been on exhibit in venues such as the As220 in Providence, The Warwick Museum of Art, The Center for Peaceful Living, Inc. and chezTGN in Brooklyn, NY.
Anna Chinappi, Co-Founder Center for Peaceful Living
Anna Chinappi is president of The Center for Peaceful Living, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded by her husband Skip Shea, with the mission of supporting artists, healers and social creatives whose work forwards personal peace and a non-violent society. With more than 30 years of experience in media, government communications and public education and engagement, her area of personal focus is on raising awareness of the potential of peace and healing through the creative expression and the healing arts.
As Director of Communications and Community Engagement at the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, she works on issues surrounding stigma and discrimination, civic engagement, advocacy and public service.
New Mexico
Poet, New Mexico Zoe Bird
Zoe Bird, professional writer/editor and director of Pegleg Press, has been APP's New Mexico Poet-in-Residence for three years. She is relocating to Oregon in the summer of 2010 and plans to start an APP program there.
Bird is an award-winning documentarian and poet whose work has appeared in art installations, and publications including Runes, The Harwood Anthology, Santa Fe Poetry Broadside, Curbside Review, and Central Avenue Poetry Magazine. She co-hosted Santa Fe's monthly Poets for Peace readings for seven years and Open Poetry readings for five, taught creative writing in the Documentary Studies Certificate Program at the College of Santa Fe, was a staff member of the Center for Contemporary Arts, served on the board of PEN New Mexico and as art director for Not Drowning, Waving, a literary and art magazine. Bird has published three chapbooks, The Buried Flower (2002), Shedding Lions (2007) and Victrola (2009), and is at work on Poultice for a Wooden Leg, a full-length poetry collection.
Poet, New Mexico, Anne Applegarth
As poet Applegarth holds readings sessions in Roswell. Applegarth was awarded an Academy of American Poets prize at the University of New Mexico in 1980, and her work has appeared in publications. She has taught poetry to children and adults, and has volunteered in hospitals and care centers in Texas, Oregon, and New Mexico.
Together with visual artist Chrissie Orr, she teaches multigenerational art and storytelling workshops through El Otro Lado: The Stories that Connect Us. She holds a B.A. in History from Harvard University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. A tenth-generation New Mexican, she is Creative Director of Valle Encantado, an organization promoting sustainable development initiatives in the Atrisco historic core in Albuquerque, and co-founder of Connecting Community Voices, an Albuquerque-based organization building positive social change through creative community expression.
Michelle Otero
Photo credit: Henry Rael, Arts of Aztlan
New York
Poet, New York, Spanish Language Programming, Fabian SaucedoSaucedo is a poet/emcee/educator hailing from El Paso, Texas. He is currently teaching Poetry, Performance, & Hip-Hop Activism at New Design High School and Facing History School, in New York. As well, as the Director of Education and Outreach for the Bowery Poetry Club (www.bowerypoetry.com), he develops programming to bridge the gap between education and the arts, specifically poetry and literacy.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin Director, Poet, Lisa Marie Brodsky AuterLisa Marie Brodsky Auter received her B.A. in English/Creative Writing from Loyola University of Chicago and her M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of WisconsinMadison. Parallel Press published her poetry chapbook, "We Nod Our Dark Heads," and in 2012 Salmon Publishing will be publishing, "The Sum of Our Burning." Her poetry has appeared in The North American Review, The Southern Ocean Review, and The Evergreen Review, among others. Her poem, "Cleave," won 1st place in Circle Magazine's poetry contest and her poem, "The Offering" won 3rd place in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poetry's Muse Prize. Brodsky Auter has performed in many theatre productions and is active in the Verona Area Community Theatre.
Wisconsin Poetry Consultant- Rusty Russell
Rusty Russell is the coordinator of the Cheap At Any Price Poets' collective in Madison. He was a member of the Madison Poetry Slam Team, which competed in the 1992-1994 National Poetry Slams. Russell teaches workshops on how to write poetry and how to present poetry effectively out loud. Russell has won a Wisconsin Arts Board grant for literature, and his poetry and short fiction have been published in dozens of literary journals. He is experienced teaching high school and college-age students, and has performed and taught throughout the U.S. and Mexico.
Featured on NBC’s Today Show…