Student poetry mag needs donations to continue winning tradition
By Ginny Masullo
TFW Contributing Writer
April is National Poetry Month. Ozark Poets and Writers Collective celebrates this event by honoring the up and coming writers of Fayetteville High School’s literary and art magazine — Connotations — at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 26 at Nightbird Books on Dickson Street in Fayetteville.
Connotations, which is in its 28th year, works each year from a theme chosen by the Connotations staff. This year, the dream cycle is the underlying thread throughout the magazine. Banah Ghadbian, who is the poetry editor, finds the dream theme a perfect and fecund match for the making of an art and literary magazine.
In an email interview, she elaborated on the use of the dream cycle for developing the journal.
“The first stage is falling asleep with the short, hypnagogic hallucinations that are hard to distinguish from reality. The bulk of the magazine is REM and non-REM. REM is considered the memory consolidation process in the sleep cycle. We clump together episodic memories and weed out the un-important ones. That stage is where we have placed the meat of our prose and poetry. From what I understand, non-REM comes next and is a little more concrete, less ‘vivid.’ In this stage of the magazine, we have positioned the more concrete images and nonfiction type pieces. The magazine ends with the last stage, the ‘waking up’ similar to the first stage in its short, abstract pieces.”
Visual art is central to the publication. Ghadbian relates that the quality of art from Fayetteville High School artists is astonishing and works to elevate the excellence of their publication. Connotations has won numerous prizes for its work in past years. This mag promises to be a likely candidate for more such awards.
It takes a lot to fund such a stellar magazine, and the student staff usually begins the process with a huge debt. This year they were $8,000 in arrears. Says Ghadbian, “We can use all the contributions we get.”
While the OPWC reading is free, a hat is passed, and the proceeds will go to Connotations. What better way to celebrate the art of poetry and the young artists of our town than to listen to their work and contribute your spare change to their endeavor?
The usual OPWC open mic, with a four-minute time limit for each participant, and Brick House Kafe’s offerings of delicious snacks and libations guarantee a satisfying close to National Poetry Month.
Come on. Take those poems out of your drawers, out of your computers and let them into the April light.
