THE ARTIST GAIA MAKES A SPECTACULAR GIFT TO THE POE HOUSE
24 June 2011 | Posted by Admin
As many followers of the Poe House and Museum in Baltimore know, The Poe House, long funded by the City of Baltimore, must become self-sufficient or close its doors in 2012.
The artist Gaia, a rising star in the art world, has generously stepped forward after learning about this situation, and has created a special edition of 100 signed prints of his work THE RAVEN (FOREVERMORE), 2011, offered for sale to benefit the Poe House and Museum! All proceeds from this sale will go directly to the Poe House and Museum in Baltimore.
THE RAVEN (FOREVERMORE), 2011 by Gaia. Block print on Mulberry paper, 66x91 cm.
ABOUT THE ARTIST. GAIA
Gaia grew up in New York City and is currently a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. His studio work and gallery projects have been exhibited in Brooklyn, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Gaia lives and works in Baltimore, MD, and Brooklyn, NY.
Drawing on his new and evolving body of imagery depicting human and animal figures, Gaia’s work reflects on the ancient themes of animal and human sympathies, but now in the context of the city and the human built environment. Working with myth and symbolic animal figures, Gaia’s street murals are like the works of an urban shaman drawing on a positive force from animal protectors.
Gaia employs recognizable animal figures to remind us of lost human connections to nature and the environment. He constructs an image of a reversal of the “natural order” where animals intervene as protectors and avatars for a new awareness of the human condition in the natural world. He is known world-wide for street murals placed in areas to elicit surprise and reflection by passers-by who encounter the symbolism and fragile narratives of his work. –Martin Irvine.
HOW TO PURCHASE A PRINT AND SUPPORT THE POE HOUSE:
The print is offered at $400 unframed or $600 framed to the artist’s specifications.
Please send your check, made out to DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, to:
The Poe House and Museum in Baltimore
Jeff Jerome, Director/Curator
Department of Planning
417 East Fayette Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Please annotate check “Poe House/Gaia Print” and please specify framed or unframed.
We will be adding a PayPal feature soon to the website, to make this transaction easier and more convenient for you!
VINCENT PRICE VISITS POE'S GRAVE!
28 May 2011 | Posted by Admin
Baltimore Poe House Museum curator Jeff Jerome recently came across some photos of Vincent Price visiting Poe's grave at Westminster Hall in Baltimore, MD back in 1977!
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY VINCENT PRICE!
27 May 2011 | Posted by Admin
The Poe House and Museum in Baltimore's Tribute to Vincent Price
Written by Max Berring. Edited by Sean Paul Murphy. Narrated by Mark Redfield.
This video was created to honor the Centennial of Mr. Price's birth, and was shown at the 2011 Birthday event in January, at Westminster Hall.
3RD ANNUAL THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO WINE TASTING AMONG THE BONES
March 5, 2011 | Posted by Admin
Join us on Saturday, March 12, 2011 from noon to 4PM at Westminster Hall in Baltimore of our 3rd Annual CASK OF AMONTILLADO WINE TASTING AMOUNG THE BONES!
CONTINUOUS ENTERTAINMENT through-out the day while you sample great wines from WOODHALL WINE CELLARS! Also returning this year is Baltimore’s popular RAVEN BEER!
LEARN ABOUT THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WINES! The ever-popular LAURIE FORSTER, THE WINE COACH returns to give a spirited talk on wines, and Poe House favorites DAVID KELTZ and TONY TSENDEAS will be LIVE performing selections from Poe’s poems and stories!
THE DROP THREE COMEDY IMPROV TROUPE will be presented for the first time at this event, performing multiple times through-out the day. DROP THREE plucks THE RAVEN, drains A KEG OF ARMADILLOES, and patently parodies Poe with love and laughter!
BRING YOUR CAMERA and have your picture taken with POE, or with your host MONTRESSOR, with YOU dressed as FORTUNATO, or BOTH!
MARK REDFIELD will be showing new POE-INSPIRED ART with new drawings, cartoons and painting for sale! And rounding out the festival atmosphere will be a return engagement of SADIRA, brought back by popular demand because YOU asked for her, with her exciting display of ORIENTAL DANSI—it’s educational AND entertaining! SADIRA will also offering fortune-telling sessions, along with THE MYSTERIOUS MYKITA, who see’s all and tells all!
DATE AND TICKET INFO: Saturday, March 12th, Noon to 4PM. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for “designated drivers”, at the door. Cash and checks accepted. Sorry we CANNOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS. Admission includes 3 wine samples and all entertainment. Additional wine samples may be purchased. Children under 12 not admitted.
Come for the wine and the friends! Stay all day for the entertainment!
MAT JOHNSON PENS NEW NOVEL ‘PYM’, AFTER POE
March 5, 2011 | Posted by Admin
In PYM (On Sale March 1, 2011), recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes is obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe’s strange and only novel,The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. When Jaynes discovers an old manuscript of a memoir that seems to confirm the reality of Poe’s fiction, he conspires to get to Antarctica, the setting for Poe's book, in hopes of discovering Tsalal, the remote and mythic land of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes with horror. Jaynes imagines it to be the last untouched bastion of the African Diaspora and the key to his personal salvation.
For his expedition, Jaynes convenes an all-black crew – some members are going to the South Pole in search of adventure, some for natural resources to exploit, and, for Jaynes at least, the mythical world of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. But soon, he and his fellow adventurers find themselves unable to make contact with the rest of the world and enslaved by the giant white ice creatures that also appear in Poe's Narrative. With little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes, Jaynes embarks on an expedition under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature’s great mysteries.
A riveting adventure novel and a cutting, insightful meditation on race, literature, and obsession, PYM is sure to be one of the most inventive and engaging novels of 2011.
“Social criticism rubs shoulders with cutting satire in this high-concept adventure…[Pym] is caustically hilarious as it offers a memorable take on America's ‘racial pathology’ and ‘the whole ugly story of our world.’” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An acutely humorous, very original story that will delight lovers of literature and fantasy alike.”—Kirkus, starred review
“[A] romp that surprises on every page. Funny, insightful, racially important, Pym is a death-defying adventure and a probing examination of notions of race, even at the farthest ends of the earth.” – Booklist
“You can trust the veracity of this account: Pym is a spectacularly sly and nimble-footed send-up of this world, the next world, and all points in between. A satire with heart, as courageous as it is cunning.” —Colson Whitehead, author of Sag Harbor
“Johnson's new novel is nothing short of fantastic, in every sense. I fell in love with the voice, the tone and the world of Pym. This is an adventure novel, a work of historical and social commentary, a rumination on identity. The only problem I could find with this novel is that I didn't write it. It's a beautiful piece of work.” —Percival Everett, author of I Am Not Sidney Poitier
“Johnson has come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and he's all out of bubble gum. Pym is an adventure, a satire, and a bracing political debate all rolled into one brilliant novel. Edgar Allen Poe has inspired many authors but Mat Johnson has the inspired audacity to both honor and discredit the man, often in the same sentence. I imagine Poe choking on half the things Johnson writes in this novel, and tipping his tiny hat in admiration to the rest.” —Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine
“Johnson writes with all the probing intelligence of James Baldwin, the scalding satire of Dany Laferriere and the technique of a master craftsman, all of which make him one of the most exciting, important and gifted writers of his generation. Pym is a moving and accomplished novel.” —Chris Abani, author of GraceLand and the Virgin of Flames
“Pym reframes far more than Poe – it reframes everything American,from the whiteness of Ahab’s whale to Detroit bus drivers; from DNA testing to tenure review; from the Gatsbyesque dream of romantic love to the dream of Utopia; from our fear of life to our love of death. No one today writes inside the brilliant black mind better.” —Alice Randall, author of The Wind Done Gone and Rebel Yell
‘POE’ DETECTIVE SERIES COMING TO TV?
March 5, 2011 | Posted by Admin
The Raven, a new thriller starring John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe, recently wrapped shooting in Europe.
Jumping on the Poe-as-detective bandwagon, ABC recently announce that they’re developing a TV pilot called Poe, a fictional crime procedural set in Boston that follows Eddie as he takes a bite out of crime and brings the wicked to justice. It seems that period mystery and adventure is all the rage, with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows with Robert Downey, Jr. coming to theaters next year, and the small screen developing a new series about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini doing the detective thing, and CBS looking to re-launch The Wild, Wild, West.
Ryan Phillippe is being courted to star in ABC-TV’s proposed Poe pilot.
SAVE THE POE HOUSE IN BALTIMORE
February 4, 2011 | Posted by Mark Redfield
Dear Friend of Poe and The Poe House,
On Monday, February 7, 2011, we will have a PETITION that we ask that you sign and pass along to your friends who care about keeping The Poe House and Museum open in Baltimore.
More news coming! Watch this website for updated, accurate information regarding the closing of the Poe House by Baltimore City.
-Mark Redfield
ASSOCIATED PRESS: CLOSING THE POE HOUSE IN BALTIMORE
February 4, 2011 | Posted by Admin
The Associated Press has a story today on the closing of the Poe House, written by Ben Nuckols.
BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore cut funding for the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, one of the strongest links between the literary icon and the city that claims him as its own.
The Poe House must become self-sustaining by the middle of next year or it will close, curator Jeff Jerome and city officials said Friday.
You can read the rest of the story at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-poe-house-funding,0,2353983.story
BALTIMORE SUN: POE HOUSE COULD CLOSE WITHOUT FUNDING
February 4, 2011 | Posted by ADMIN
Today, The Baltimore Sun reported on the closing of the Poe House, written by Chris Kaltenbach.
For Baltimore's Edgar Allan Poe House to remain open, officials there have 17 months to find a way to operate the museum without city money. But its long-time curator said yesterday that he's not confident that deadline can be met.
You can read the article at http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-ae-poe-funding-20110204,0,5892553.story
