When the bees swarm
around the lavender
you gently shush them
as you carefully part
the branches to free
the dried stalks, still
fragrant when their day
is done.
By Petit Monstre
Odyssey of the artist, a blank canvas is where you started
picked up a pen and the begin was actually the end of the old you,
dearly departed.
Now we have gathered here today not to lay rest to the soul but to set it free, strap on your seatbelt, things might get a lil unsettling.
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By Dustin Howard
Reno has been my adopted home for six years now, and in those six years, I’ve developed a true love for the beauty of the untamed West and the drama of the natural landscapes around us. The history of our state, and indeed, our country, is a brutal one. We are born from war–even Nevada’s state motto, “Battle Born,” acknowledges this provenance.
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By Courtney Cliften
The smell of wet dirt and onions from the Perry Farm
constricts the entire town with undistributed wealth,
masks the crystal, chemical-mixture stink
from tiny apartments chalked throughout the streets.
Children ride bikes down Main street
to buried jars of coins saved for hot summer days…
By Donald M. Scott
In April MGM+/Amazon Studio will begin filming a mini-series version of George R. Stewart’s ecological novel, Earth Abides—a milestone in the rediscovery of the pioneering ecological author who was inspired by Nevada.
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By Sally Denton
A year ago, I returned home to Nevada after many years in New Mexico. I came to Reno seeking answers to a serious health issue, and I found the medical specialists who helped save my life. I am a third-generation Nevadan born in Elko, raised in Boulder City, and educated at the University of Nevada, Reno.
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By Ann M. Wolfe
My colleague Pamela Chadwick and I were approaching Middlegate, headed east on Highway 50 to visit an artist in eastern Nevada. For at least a few years at this point, we had been immersed in research for the exhibition that would become Sagebrush and Solitude: Maynard Dixon in Nevada. Suddenly, Pam yelled, “Stop!” There it was, just north of the highway: Fairview Peak. The mountain was immediately recognizable as the one in Dixon’s 1935 painting, Elements of Nevada.
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By Hue Chen
Back in 2022, I got to meet Richard and Astrid, members of the Esmeralda High Desert Institute (EHDI) in Goldfield, Nevada. Astrid and I met online when I blurted out on a Nevada Arts Council discussion panel about how it’s important to just start making the community spaces you want to exist here in Nevada, even if you don’t know what you’re doing.
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By Candace Garlock
Dear Friend,
I feel like I can call you my friend since you are reading this short letter that is now in your computer. As my friend, you will connect to my story of living in that “other” land, that space of illness that we all venture into during our lives; some for a short time, but for many it’s a permanent address.
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By Jeannie Hua
When you google “Lunar New Year,” you would see that for 2024, it’s February 10, when the first new moon of the lunar calendar year reveals itself to us. This is the Year of the Dragon based on the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.
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Por Genevy Machuca
Hola a todos, mi nombre es Genevy Machuca y estoy encantada de compartirles el emocionante inicio de mi viaje de pasantía con Nevada Humanities. Como estudiante de primer año en la Universidad de Nevada, Reno, estudiando dos carreras, una en periodismo televisivo y la otra en español, mi camino hacia esta increíble oportunidad comenzó con una pasión por la poesía y hablar en público.
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By Emilee Wirshing
you may have noticed something missing,
an inventory of your guest rooms will tell you
someone kept a souvenir
and while your kind,
no-questions-asked policy
of covering the shipping
on the bronze stamped diamond tags
is often an invitation to return them…
my grandfather had no intention
of giving back your keys;
By JM Huck
Ekphrasis is creative writing inspired by artwork. There are many entry points to this type of writing; I wrote about a few of them in a recent Ekphrastic Writing Challenge. It took three visits before I could write this ekphrastic poem on one of the artworks at the Rita Deanin Abbey Art Museum in Las Vegas.
By Shaun T. Griffin
Floating the Yangtze Shallows, Still as Rice—
one oar tipping the water to shore,
and Wang Wei lays a reed across the bow
like the heron, quiet overhead.
No thing can stop such flight—the poet
in his boat—a single tremor
on the water. This is how the smoke
By Morgan Jerkins
When I got the email that my second book, Wandering in Strange Lands, was a read for the Nevada Humanities’ Nevada Reads program, I was delighted. I hadn’t been to Nevada in over five years since The Believer Festival in 2018 ,and I’d been thinking of this special desert ever since.
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By Melanie Perish
Over the Virginia Range In Reno we listen, see the news where
the sun slips up the wide sky buildings dangle stoves
humbled by last night’s pink moon and Russian soldiers
By Christina Barr
When the members of the Nevada Humanities Board of Trustees and our staff gather together we often begin our meetings with a round robin of people sharing their most recent humanities moments. Everyone talks about humanities programs they have attended; books, movies, holidays, and celebrations laden with cultural significance; journeys they have taken to explore new cultures; family history projects; and much more.
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Wishing you peace, blessings, and joy this holiday season.
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By Rossitza Todorova
Between Earth & Sky: Exploring the Great Basin Through the Eyes of Northern Nevada Artists is a vibrant group exhibition celebrating the unique high desert of Nevada’s Great Basin. Thirteen artists, including Galen Brown, Grace Davis, Gerald Lee Franzen, Ahren Hertel, Scott Hinton, Asa Kennedy, Kirsten Mashinter, Melissa Melero-Moose, Elaine Parks, Austin Pratt, Gail Rappa, Rachel Stiff, and Sidne Teske, employ diverse mediums such as painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media to capture the landscape's expanse, fragmentation, and distinct vantage points.
By Mckenzie Papa
“If you think we panicked, if you think the event was canceled, if you think we didn’t have fun, if you think we were unprepared, if you think we struggled, not only might it show that you don’t fully understand Burning Man, but it may also mean that you're not ready for it. While friends and family were understandably worried due to the media spreading misinformation, we proved to each other how much we can strive when we stick together.”