Making Your Desk & Dancing A Tango

We wanted to say farewell to a fantastic year of events with something rather special, and on Sunday afternoon we were able to do just that, thanks to two wonderful visitors: Mong-Lan and Abe Louise Young (below, left and right).

Mong Lan and Abe Louise Young

Our first reader was Abe Louise, who immediately won us over by referring to our stage as “a little wooden cabin.” I love that image—what better place for creative endeavors than a little wooden cabin? Abe Louise shared a beautiful poem by Lucille Clifton, and then read some of her own extraordinary work, including “Forget Making Your Bed,” a poetic shot in the arm for all of us epic procrastinators. It begins:

Forget making your bed. Make your desk instead.
Let your bed sheets lie rumpled on the floor
with pillows underneath them
like elephants in the bellies of snakes.

If you’re a writer who tidies when you should be typing, you need to listen to this poem!

Next up, we welcomed the multi-talented Mong-Lan, an artist whose areas of interest and expertise require a daunting number of slashes: poet / writer / painter / singer / musician / photographer / dancer / tango teacher! She read from two of her eight books (including the bilingual English/Spanish collection Tango, Tangueando: Poemas y Dibujo), and shared some exquisite poetry, including a love poem to tofu and a tribute to the late, great Marcel Marceau.

And finally, Mong-Lan and her dance partner Stephen Shortnacy treated us to a rousing demonstration of the Argentine tango… check out the footage below, and I guarantee you’ll be swaying a little in your seat! Our heartiest thanks to Mong-Lan and Abe Louise, and to everyone who stopped by to help make our final ’14 event such a fun and festive occasion. Here’s to many more to come in 2015…