HOW TO SNIPE HUNT

Common snipe captured by night vision camera

OBJECT

To lead a snipe hunt, a form of wild-goose chase or practical joke that involves experienced people making fun of credulous newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task. Inexperienced campers are told about a bird called the snipe as well as a usually preposterous method of catching it.

In the Boy Scouts of America, new scouts are often sent to go on a snipe hunt, ask other camps for some elbow grease, a bacon stretcher, find an inflatable dartboard, or borrow a “cup” of propane.

Around the Campfire: Setting up the Catchers

PLAYERS

• Snipe Flushers, practical jokesters
• Snipe Catchers, unsuspecting newcomers

EQUIPMENT

• Catching Bags
• Flashlights

GAME PLAY

During a camping trip, preferably at night while around the campfire, experienced campers encourage newcomers to join their snipe hunt, a rite of passage that involves catching an imaginary bird.

SET UP

Snipe Flushers (experienced hunters duped in previous snipe hunts) tell Snipe Catchers (unsuspecting newcomers) about the snipe, a family of shorebirds which are difficult to catch, so much so that the word “sniper” is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.

Catchers are told that the snipe is a nocturnal, flightless bird who lives in bushes, and can be flushed out by simple methods, which can include banging rocks together, making strange noises or imitating Fran Drescher of The Nanny. Catchers are encouraged to practice the snipe call again and again.

THE CALL

Players set out on their journey through a dark wood, preferably on a moonless night, armed with flashlights and bags for Catchers. Players hike to a previously chosen snipe hunting ground—a hilly area with bushes is best. It is important to be quiet, so as not to ‘scare’ the snipe away or alert them to your presence.

FLUSHING & CATCHING

Catcher assumes the snipe hunting position

Flushers climb to the top of the hill with the intent to ‘flush’ the snipe out of the bushes while unsuspecting Catchers wait eagerly at the bottom of the hill to catch the snipe, posed in awkward, embarrassing positions, such as with their rears in the air and bags between their legs.

Catchers repeat the snipe bird call again and again until Flushers charge the bushes, to ‘flush’ the imaginary snipe into the Catchers’ waiting bags.

Excited Catcher with bag in hand

WINNING THE GAME

Flushers should yell that they have seen the snipe, pointing into bushes and trees, until the Catchers, not wanting to be the only one who can’t see the imaginary snipe, will also claim that they too have seen them and run around searching for the birds.

THE RESULT

Flushers return to camp victorious, and although Catchers return empty-handed, they are wiser, and more confident as newly initiated Flushers for future snipe hunts.

Please note: This is only one derivative version of snipe hunting. Experienced Snipe Hunters are encouraged to use their imaginations when contriving new, more embarrassing methods for catching snipe, including  new positions and calls for Catchers. In some versions, Winning the Game can include ditching the Catchers and running off so that they can find their own ways back to the campsite.

Wed, Jul 6 | 7pm – 9pm | $10 – $15
Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts and AMATE: Women Painting Stories
 present
The 8th Annual Interdisciplinary Writers Lab 2011 Literary Reading & Online Anthology Launch

Chicken Skin & Impossible Trees

Featuring IWL Participants and Instructors

Tickets: http://iwl-2011.eventbrite.com

IWL Participants:
Indira Allegra
Maria T. Allocco
Dylan Casama
Elwin Cotman
Erika Céspedes-Kent
Sarah Dayley
Lisa Hsia
Jen Palmares Meadows
Nayomi Munaweera
Ron Ragin
Jenny Strauss

IWL instructors:
Jaime Cortez
Cheryl Dunye
Leticia Hernandez
Brenda Wong Aoki

Location:

Intersection for the Arts
925 Mission Street Suite 109
San Francisco, CA 94103
More Information

www.theintersection.org
rebeka@theintersection.org, (415) 626-2787 x109

A second release party will be held the following evening on July 7th at Intersection for the Arts in correlation with Litquake. Visit Intersection for tickets and more information.

In March, I attended a Filipino American Writers Workshop at SFSU  and was lucky enough to work with both Barbara Jane Reyes (poetry) and Janet Stickmon (memoir). They are reading at Hercules Library on April 9th in a series of Conversations with Filipino/Filipino American Authors, which is geared to promote the first-ever Filipino American International Book Festival, which will gather authors of Filipino heritage based in the U.S. and abroad, Philippine and U.S. publishers, librarians, book dealers, academics and artists. The following is the press release.

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PRESS RELEASE

HERCULES LIBRARY TO HOST TWO FILIPINO AMERICAN WOMEN AUTHORS

Two Filipino American women — poet Barbara Jane Reyes and memoirist Janet Mendoza Stickmon – will read from their books and talk about Living and Growing Up in America at the Hercules Library, 109 Civic Drive, Hercules, California, on Saturday, April 9 at 2 pm.

Sponsored by the Contra Costa County Library and the Literacy Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF), lead organizer of the forthcoming Filipino American International Book Festival (FilBookFest), Living and Growing Up in America will feature Reyes and Stickmon in conversation with Edwin Lozada, president of the Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA). Hercules Vice Mayor Myrna de Vera will also be present.The public is invited, admission is free.

Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Diwata, a striking collection of poems woven between The Book of Genesis and Philippine Tagalog creation myth. Diwata is a moving narrative of split heritage and in-between traditions. Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish Press, 2005), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets.

Janet Stickmon is the author of Crushing Soft Rubies, a memoir that writes of struggle, independence, racial identity and self-acceptance. “From her childhood home being burned to the ground, to the joys and conflicts with her Filipino family, to seeking a connection to her African-American heritage, and then to the beautiful moment of her marriage, Janet navigates the rough waters of love, spirit, identity, and survival, maintaining a life filled with faith and wonder.” Stickmon is a teacher, a wife and mother, and a Spoken Word artist.

Living and Growing Up in America is part of the series of Conversations with Filipino/Filipino American Authors that will be held in various libraries, universities and other public venues in the Bay Area. Conversations is geared to promote the first-ever Filipino American International Book Festival, which will gather authors of Filipino heritage based in the U.S. and abroad, Philippine and U.S. publishers, librarians, book dealers, academics and artists.

FilBookFest will be held at the San Francisco Public Library on October 1-2, 2011 and is sponsored by the Literacy Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF) in cooperation with the Philippine Consulate of San Francisco and the Filipino American Center of the San Francisco Public Library.

For more information about the festival, visit its website at www.filbookfest.info or at http://filbookfest.wordpress.com.

For more information on how to be part of FilBookFest as an author, exhibitor, sponsor, donor or volunteer, email the Steering Committee at filbookfest@yahoo.com.

Contact Persons: Tim Madigan (510) 245-2420
Estela Manila (510) 234-4523

March 25th at 6-8PM
Crema Coffee Roasting Company
950 The Alameda
San Jose, CA

Featuring…

• DIANA MONTAÑO
• NIKI ESCOBAR
• JACQULYN WHANG
• JANICE SAPIGAO
• SUSIE HUERTA

& Special Featured Performer: GEMMA NEMENZO

Writer Bios

Diana Montaño is a native of Mexico City and a product of divorce, microwave dinners and immigrant dreams. She is a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and now spends her time teaching video to high school kids and producing a news program for Spanish language public radio. Diana believes that even though storytelling is our greatest weapon, it’s still a good idea to keep a bat under the bed.

Niki Escobar graduated in 2009 from the Creative Writing program at San Francisco State University. She is a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation fellow, a recipient of the Frances Jaffer Prize in Poetry, and her first collection of work was a finalist in the Meritage Press Tabios contest. She will be entering two masters programs in the fall. Niki hopes to develop accessible health programs that integrate wellness with creative arts for low-income families.

Jacqulyn Whang is a cali baby, born and raised in Southern California, and raised again in the Bay Area. She is a member of Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland, as well as Eun Sung Church in Rowland Heights. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and eating. She looks forward to graduating this semester from University of San Francisco with a BA in Literature, and a minor in Asian American Studies. And after college, she hopes to be a high school teacher. She has performed in HBO’s Brave New Voices ’08, LA’s Kollaberation Acoustic ’10, Lyricist Lounge at P4CM, local churches and schools, and now, here.

Janice Sapigao is a Pinay poet living in San Jose, CA and working with high school students in East Palo Alto, CA. She graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. in Ethnic Studies and a minor in Urban Studies & Planning. She enjoys writing, reading, playing with stuffed animals and meeting other artists who are passionate about social justice and arts education. She hopes to earn her M.F.A. in Creative Writing one day soon.

Susana de Jesus Huerta is a composition writing instructor with poetic tendencies. She dedicates most of her energies to the California community college system and its inspiring student body. A Bay Area native, Susana was born of apricot dreams on Del Monte Cannery conveyer belts and raised in the thick of picket lines and union meetings among the dying orchards of San Jose. She is proud to call herself a VONA alum, and her work has appeared on La Bloga, El Coraje and Poets Responding to SB1070.

Gemma Nemenzo is the author of “Heart in Two Places: An Immigrant’s Journey.” She was the Managing Editor and columnist of Filipinas, the only monthly glossy magazine for the Filipino American community circulated in all fifty U.S. states. Before she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with her three children in 1988, she was a freelance journalist writing for various publications in Manila. She was also part of the pioneering team that conceptualized and created Batibot, the acclaimed children’s educational TV show. A journalism graduate of the University of the Philippines, Gemma has had extensive experience writing for both television and print. In the U.S., she worked for more than ten years as an abstractor/editor for a major electronic database publisher.

Join the Filipino American International Book Festival at our first Youth Events program! Come and celebrate Women’s Herstory Month with the Women Writers of Color that will share their work with us. More info soon!

filbookfest.info
filbookfest.wordpress.com
twitter: @filbookfest

Drive to Walnut Creek. BART to Daly City. 28 transfer to SFSU. Closed J. Paul Leonard Library. Cezar Chaves Student Union. Registration for PAWA, PACE Filipino American Writers Workshop. Penelope Flores. Ed Lozada. Artist Readings: Barbara Jane Reyes, Janet Stickmon, Anthem Salgado, Robert Mann. Workshop 1: Memoir with Janet Stickmon. Lunch with James Bautista. Workshop 2: Short Story with Tony Robles. Workshop 3: Poetry with Barbara Jane Reyes. Borders. Squat & Gobble. Bird & Beckett Books. BART. Sleep. Wake. Write. Write. Write. Scrabble.

Highlights: Penelope Flores. Meeting Tony Robles. Meeting new writers. Bird & Beckett wandering. Discovering We Still Like, a lit journal out of Oakland. Grabbing a used copy of John Gardner’s On Becoming a Novelist. Chatting with friends, new and old. Leaving the city with the desire and inspiration to write.

WORKSHOP NOTES

Janet Stickmon reading at SFSU

Workshop #1 Memoir with Janet Stickmon
Honor Your Being-Own Your Story Power Point presentation: breath, self love, committing ideas to the page, structure

Writing Exercise #1:

• What qualities do I value most in myself?
• What qualities do I value most in people?
• Who have been anchors in your life?
• List pivotal moments in your life.

Writing Exercise #2: Choose one.

• Select an anchor or safety net. Show your reader who s/he is and what influence s/he has had on your life. OR
• Select a pivotal event. Show your reader this pivotal event. Show how/why it was life transforming.

Workshop #2 Short Story with Tony Robles

Short Story Handouts

• The Woman Who Makes Swell Donuts, by Toshio Mori in Yokohama, California
• Scent of Apples, Bienvenido N. Santos

Recommended reading

• Yokohoma, California. Toshio Omori.
• Oscar Penrand The Prize
• Mirror of the Roses. Marianne Villanueva
• Fires by Raymond Carver
• Principles of a Story. Raymond Carver

• You can’t have short story without poetry. It is the mortar between the bricks.
• Write with humility.

Quotes from Writers Handout

• “Writing is a struggle against silence.” –Carlos Fuentes
• “The role of the writer is to not say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.” –Anais Nin
• “How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live.” –Henry David Thoreau
• “Our struggle is the best part of our poetry. Our poetry is the best part of our struggle.” –Al Robles
• “We could only pick up fragments of our lives and handle them fearfully as though the years had made us afraid to know ourselves…I knew that our decadence was imposed by a society alien to our character and inclination, alien to our heritage and history.” –Carlos Bulosan
• “You’re going to ruin your life with thinking. I want you to make your life with feeling.” –Ray Bradbury
• “Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” –Gene Fowler

Workshop #3 Poetry with Barbara Jane Reyes

• The Book of Genesis According to St. Miguelito. Miguel Pinero. Outlaw: The Collected Works of Miguel Pinero
• Puerto Rican obituary. Pedro Pietri.

Writing Exercise

• What is political poetry?
• Write  a creation story or an elegy.

If you haven’t read for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, I encourage you to. For colored girls is a choreopoem, poetry set to choreographed stage. I’m not a playwright, and I don’t consider myself necessarily a poet, but I was ensnared immediately by the language, the images, the sheer presence of the characters. I knew immediately that Ntozake Shange was someone I wanted to meet–or at least see from across the room.

The reading was held at Freeborn Hall–I’d been there once in 2001 when I was doing my undergrad work at San Francisco State University and had to attend a local symphony performance for my Music Appreciation class. The following is the program:

An Evening with Ntozake Shange

Opening Remarks – Leha A. Hawkins
For Colored Girls Dance Tribute – Hailey Caperella, Lauren King & Melissa Mugar
Poetry Selection – Ifamodupe Edington
Introduction – Halifu Osumare
Selected Readings & Personal Conversation – Ms. Shange
Closing Remarks – Lori J. Fuller

Hot dog! Ntozake Shange did not disappoint. During a brief Q&A, when Shange was asked, “When you begin a piece, what is it you are trying to accomplish?” she replied succinctly, “To finish it.” Both Aschala and I laughed. How true.

Following the reading, I got my copy of for colored girls signed by Ntozake Shange, though did not chat. Afterward, Aschala and I went to Hoppy’s for a late night snack and even got to enjoy some trivia. While there, we talked about writers and what makes writers like Ntozake Shange so amazing. I surmised that, if one wants to be an amazing writer, one has to be an amazing person. I’ve listened to many writers speak and read. Lots. But the ones that stay with me, the ones that are amazing, stay with me because I am not only moved by their craft, I am moved by their person. Ray Bradbury. Bill Vollmann. Dave Eggers. Carole Maso. Ntozake Shange. These writers are amazing. They are magnetic, enthralling, inspiring. They are bigger than the stages they stand on. So, the question is: Am I amazing enough to be an amazing writer?

After reading for colored girls, I’ve been daydreaming about seeing my own longish poem, a modern day Waste Land set to trash heaps in the Philippines, on stage. It’s more a prose poem with character and setting, so I’m certain it’s possible, but I have NO experience in stage work. Well, I’ll think on it for a bit, work on the piece and see what happens…
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Leslie Campbell Legacy Speaker Series to Host Ntozake Shange
Presented by UC Davis Campus Unions & African Continuum

Critically acclaimed playwright and author of for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem, Ntozake Shange will speak on the UC Davis campus. An Evening with Ntozake Shange will occur on February 22, 2011, at Freeborn Hall. She will speak on her most recent work, Some Sing, Some Cry. In addition, Ms. Shange will discuss the recent blockbuster release of Tyler Perry’s film For Colored Girls which was adapted from her original work and how both works depict the experiences of women of color; as well as relationships among black men and women. 

As a part of UC Davis’ commemoration of Black History Month and The Leslie Campbell Legacy Speaker Series, Ntozake Shange’s presentation will inspire students and community members alike. As a substantial contributor to history herself, over the years Ms. Shange’s work has transformed the lives of women and girls of color by providing inspiring visions of themselves moving beyond harrowing circumstances. This event will allow guests to continue to explore the timeless issues that challenge women of today just as they did 30 years ago when the original work was written. Advance tickets for this event are $12 students/ $20 non-students and $15 and $25 on the day of the event. Tickets can be purchased at the UC Davis Freeborn Hall ticket office, or at Tickets.com.

The Leslie Campbell Legacy Speaker Series was established to honor Ms. Campbell’s contribution to the University of California, Davis and the community. Throughout Leslie’s 30-year career on the Davis campus, she was a champion of educational opportunities, touching the lives of many people. Her dedicated service left an indelible mark on the campus community and the Sacramento region. Leslie retired from the University in 2004, and she passed away a year later after a long valiant battle with cancer.

The last time I visited The Book Collector had been the first and only time several years ago, when I first moved to the Sacramento area. I’d walked around the bookstore, aimlessly seeking. I always stumble into the Sci-Fi Fantasy Section to find a hardcover Ray Bradbury that I don’t already own. The Book Collector was much the same–I don’t imagine bookstores change much over the years, though chairs were set up and a small podium. All the seats were already taken, so after grabbing one of Trina’s broadsides (free and published by Rattlesnake/Book Collector) I took a seat right by the front door. Trina read briefly from her broadside, Cormorant In The Desert (Rattlesnake Press), followed by Jeanine Stevens, who read from her chapbook Caught In Clouds (Finishing Line Press).

I’ve been trying to attend more readings lately, particularly around Sacramento. Trina, editor of Sacramento Poetry Center‘s Poetry Now, is always posting literary events in or around the Sacramento area.

After the readings, Sandy Thomas introduced me to a number of writers, all very friendly and supportive of an unknown writer (me). I was humbled by their easy acceptance.

Before leaving, I nabbed a few chapbooks, WTF! (writing from Luna’s Cafe) and Rattlesnake broadside Ultrasound, by Brad Buchannan, a professor of mine back at CSU Sacramento. I left The Book Collector with a veritable literary loot.

Gallery hours are noon-4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Friday. Poor will give a talk at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, and a reception will be held 5-8 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 2, with Rice reading an excerpt from his Between Appear and Disappear at 5:30. Both events are in the gallery and are free.

Poor’s photography is conceptual, objective, with an absurdist edge, lifting mundane items to the level of art, says Professor Elaine O’Brien, the exhibit curator. Rice’s work, which combines photos and text, is deeply subjective and poetic, O’Brien says.

The exhibit is supported by Associated Students Inc.

For more information, call the Art Department at (916) 278-6166. For media assistance, call Sacramento State’s Public Affairs office at (916) 278-6156.

Read about my experience:
Writing the Memoir: Part 1
Writing the Memoir: Part 2

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Applications are being accepted for CSU Summer Arts 2011 classes, including a class on Poetic Prose/Flash Fiction (description below). The class takes place June 27, 2011 to July 7, 2011 on the campus of CSU Fresno.

Contact Doug Rice (drice@csus.edu) and/or check out the website

The class transfers as 3 undergraduate or graduate credits. There is financial aid and scholarship money available. If you have already graduated, this is an incredible experience and you are still eligible for financial aid and scholarship money.

Students will learn the craft of writing poetic prose and flash fiction. They will gain analytical tools for revising their prose in terms of the aesthetics of imaginative writing. Students will deepen their understanding of narrative voice, of creating scenes, of describing settings, of developing characters, of further exploring plot and themes, of writing dialogue, of experimenting with point of view and so on. Students will play with the sound and shape of
sentences. Students will explore the brevity of flash fiction, of shaping a whole narrative form in the briefest of moments. Students will be required to write short assignments as given by the visiting artists and they will submit these for workshops as well as submit these to me. By the end of the two weeks, students will have written 15 pages of poetic prose/flash fiction in addition to these short assignments. Students will also be given a short assignment to complete prior to the beginning of the workshop. There will also be short assigned readings.

Guest artists this year are:

Renee Gladman is the author of one collection of poetry, A Picture-Feeling (Roof Books, 2005), and four works of prose, Juice (Kelsey St. Press, 2000), The Activist (Krupskaya, 2003), Newcomer Can’t Swim (2007), and most recently Toaf (Atelos, 2008). She is the publisher of Leon Works, a press for experimental prose and other thought projects based in the sentence, and teaches at Brown University.

Anna Joy Springer is the author of The Vicious Red Relic, Love: A Fabulist Memoir and The Birdwisher. Her work has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including ArtXX: Women in Art, Working Sex: Sex Workers Write About A Changing Industry, Chills,
Pills, Thrills, and Heartache: Adventures In The First Person, Suspect Thoughts: A Journal of Subversive Writing She teaches and writes graphic texts (including sculptural poetry, intermedia installations, digital literatures, and comics), punk rock, feminist ethics,
non-traditional literary structures, and radical literary arts pedagogies at UC San Diego.

Sharon Doubiago is the author of My Father’s Love/Portrait of the Poet as a Young Girl, Volume One, November 2009, Wild Ocean Press, was a finalist in the Northern California Book Awards in Creative Non Fiction, 2010. Volume Two is forthcoming. Love on the Streets, Selected and New Poems, was published by the University of Pittsburgh, November 2008, and received the Glenna Luschei Distinguished Poet Award, and was a finalist in the Paterson NJ Poetry Prize, Feb 2010. She has written two dozen books of  poetry and prose, most notably the epic poem Hard Country (West End Press), the booklength poem South America Mi Hija (University of Pittsburgh) which was nominated twice for the National Book Award, and the story collections, El Niño (Lost Roads Press), and The Book of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes (Graywolf Press) which was selected to the Oregon Culture Heritage list:  Literary Oregon, 100 Books, 1800-2000. She holds three Pushcart Prizes for poetry and fiction and the Oregon Book Award for Poetry for Psyche Drives the Coast and a California Arts Council Award.

Peter Grandbois is the author of the novel The Gravedigger, a Barnes and Noble “Discover Great New Writers” and Borders’ “Original Voices” selection, The Arsenic Lobster: A Hybrid Memoir, chosen as one of the top five memoirs of 2009 by the Sacramento News and Review, and the
forthcoming novel, Nahoonkara (Etruscan Press 2011), as well as the PEN nominated translator of San Juan: Memoir of a City. His short stories have appeared in many journals, including: Boulevard, The Mississippi Review, Post Road, New Orleans Review, The Denver Quarterly, and Gargoyle. He is a professor of creative writing and contemporary literature at Denison University in Ohio.