Greetings, One & All~
I’m grateful for the golden glow of October in the Sonoran Desert as the early morning air grows cool, the midday sky turns pure azure, and the midnight stars become glittering gemstones set in obsidian. After a long, hot summer and a drier-than-average monsoon season, I’m also grateful for the unusually abundant early autumn rain we’ve received as two Pacific storms have passed through The Old Pueblo. And as always, I’m grateful to have good news to share with you in this October issue of your A 440 Newsletter. Enjoy!
Being Heard
The R. Carlos Nakai Trio will be heard from 6-9 PM on Friday October 4th at the world-renowned Heard Museum in Phoenix AZ, providing inspired musical atmosphere for the Heard’s monthly First Fridays event, in conjunction with our equally world-renowned record label Canyon Records.
more info at
https://heard.org/events/category/first-friday/
photo courtesy Robert Doyle Photography / Canyon Records
Live Aloha
The R. Carlos Nakai Quartet will bring its global native fusion sound to Hawaii for a four-island tour presented by Global Media Productions on October 13th-19th. We’re re-imagining ourselves for these intimate concerts with a dynamic new acoustic approach to our repertoire, featuring material from our most recent album What Lies Beyond.
info & tickets at
http://globalmediaproductions.com/events/
Living River
R. Carlos Nakai & Will Clipman will perform a benefit concert for the Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center at Casa de San Pedro in Hereford AZ on Friday November 1st from 3-5 PM as the kick-off for a weekend-long event in support of efforts to protect and preserve the San Pedro, Southeastern Arizona’s last free-flowing river.
more info at
https://mailchi.mp/4cb538bdf1ce/wingbeat
photo courtesy Pamela Hyde / A’toka Arts Management
Graceful Space
The new Heart Dance Records album The Space Between Breaths by Sherry Finzer & Will Clipman dropped on September 20th and is already garnering rave reviews from listeners. This elemental trance groove soundscape is perfect for yoga, massage, meditation, dance, chant or simply the pleasure of deep listening to exquisite music. The CD debuted at #5 on Amazon Hot New Releases and continues to rank in the Top 50.
sample, download or order at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/music/36#1
Vets Flutes
On Friday November 8th at 7 PM the R. Carlos Nakai Trio will perform a benefit concert for Flutes for Vets at Grace St. Paul’s Church in Tucson AZ.
info & tickets at
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/flutes-for-vets-2nd-annual-benefit-concert-featuring-r-c-nakai-tickets-72758433433
photo courtesy Robert Doyle Photography / Canyon Records
SunDog Twins
It’s entirely apropos that a Southwestern duo known as The SunDog Twins will play an exclusive Arizona show at Tucson’s iconic downtown music-and-art venue Solar Culture on Thursday November 21st at 8 PM, when Leon Littlebird & Will Clipman blend Native American flutes and acoustic guitars with world percussion in an enchanting evening of original songs and storytelling.
more info at
https://business.facebook.com/events/693802604365509/
photo courtesy Joe Stone Photography
Woodside Wonders
Early December will find yours truly at the new Canyon Ranch Wellness Retreat in Woodside CA for a wonderful weekend of transformational experiences. The kick-off event is an intimate concert with Native American flute master R. Carlos Nakai at 7 PM on Thursday December 5th, followed by my Myths & Masks creative self-realization workshop on Friday-Sunday December 6-8.
workshop information & registration:
https://www.canyonranch.com/woodside/retreats/featured-retreats/myths-masks/
photo courtesy Robert Doyle Photography / Canyon Records
photo courtesy ICU Imagery
Magical Possibilities
Noted Arizona activist, educator, journalist and arts advocate Shea Stanfield has published a comprehensive yet up-to-the-minute article on the life and times of yours truly in The Foothills Focus, Arizona’s fastest-growing weekly newspaper.
Extra, extra, read all about it at
https://thefoothillsfocus.com/?p=4553
Photo of the Month
Harriet & Harry: The Look, photo courtesy Shery Christopher Photography
Poem of the Month
Exit Zero
There’s a big red heart
glowing in the sky above Exit Zero
at the New Mexico-Texas state line,
and just past the Love’s Travel Center
a billboard proclaims Jesus is alive
beyond any reasonable doubt
but I think forgive me, I doubt.
These and INDOOR SKYDIVING
in ten-foot-tall electric-blue all-caps
are a few of the possible impossibilities
I pass by as I pass through El Paso
plunging headlong into wave after wave
of palpable sorrow, the fist-sized muscle
in my chest growing suddenly heavy
at the exit for Piedras Street, as if
even stones have souls and can hurt.
The exit for Patriot Freeway leads south
to the river, across which wave after wave
of those fleeing mayhem and murder
only to find more mayhem and murder
have waded north against the current.
In the reeds along the bank a young father
and baby daughter bob like ghastly buoys
marking a threshold no one dare cross.
A dark magus of ego is eating the world.
Wrapped in tinfoil on cold concrete
a child whispers I can’t feel my heart.
But for a dreamer even the death
of the dream is not the end of the story.
There’s no getting off this road now
for love or hate or any other reason,
no way forward but forgiveness
on this desolate stretch of I-10
where the limit is infinity plus zero:
nothing to do but what must be done,
nothing to be but the change that must come.
© Will Clipman 2019
~May your October be blessed with peace and prosperity~
Speak your truth and live your dream.
~Guillaume Henri
Will Clipman
poet ~ percussionist ~ maskmaker ~ storyteller ~ performing artist ~ educator
www.willclipman.com
williamclipman@aol.com
facebook.com/willclipman
520.591.0776
