Moonrise Press: Bolton Hall Museum

Showing posts with label Bolton Hall Museum. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Ella Czajkowska presents Alchemy of Words at Monthly Reading of Village Poets in Tujunga

On June 22, 2025, Ella Czajkowska presented "Alchemy of Words" at Monthly Reading of Village Poets at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. In her introduction of the featured poet, Maja Trochimczyk cited the following about the poet and the book.

"Her love of creative writing was born in high school, where she started writing poetry and short stories. In 2015, Ella started to write poetry in both Polish and English, and from 2017 she writes only in English. Her book of Polish language poetry, entitled “Tam, gdzie umierają marzenia”, was published in Rzeszów by Sowello in 2019. Her English-language poems appeared in the California Quarterly and the Crystal Fire anthology (Moonrise Press, 2022). She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2022 by the California State Poetry Society for her poem The Calling.”

"Ella worked for many years as Public Relations (PR) Manager for the EWELINEB brand. She has produced music and PR materials for fashion shows at the Fashion Week in New York, London, and Amsterdam, among others. Ella’s other great passion and inspiration in life is music. Surrounded by it her whole life, with both her father and mother having graduated from prestigious music schools, there was always a great respect for art and culture in her family home. All throughout her childhood she would be taken to theaters and opera houses, where her love for opera, ballet, and classical music ever grew. A graduate of two music schools, Ella learned to play piano, clarinet, and percussion—piano remains her favorite instrument to this day. A true Renaissance person with a wide range of interests, talents, and knowledge, she was born in Warsaw, Poland and lives in Los Angeles, California."

Roza Yoder, Beata Czajkowska, E. Czajkowska, Maja Trochimczyk, June 22, 2025

The Alchemy of Words is the first English-language poetry book of Ella Czajkowska who previously published a book of poems in Polish. These 70 poems deal with themes of nature, divinity, human emotions, existential contemplation and the complexities of life. The poems explore the beauty and terror of natural world, the fleeting nature of joy, the struggles of existence, and the interplay of love and hate. Through vivid imagery and entrancing verse, the poems evoke a sense of wonder and introspection. They invite readers to an adventure of exploring human experience, reflecting upon the intricacies of life and the power of language and art.

"Elzbieta's poems electrify, like touching a spark to gunpowder, seeing a starless sky explode in a blaze of colors. Exciting. Original. Thought provoking. Inspiring." ~ Marek Probosz, actor, director, and writer. "Ella Czajkowska ushers a voice of sublime sincerity into our increasingly outlandish human realm." ~ Piotr D. Siemion, Ph.D., Author and Essayist.

The Sublime Senses

Until the heart stops it desires.

Until the mind stills it aspires;

Until the senses take

their leave they deceive—

such dreams they weave...

The Calling

Take my hand, we shall drink golden starlight

from the brass chalice of curiosity,

adorn our hair with stars’ glittering light.

We shall clothe ourselves in silver moonlight

and blush our faces with sunlight’s kiss,

and dance through the dust of time unmeasured,

whirl till we are dizzy with awe

and drunk on the songs of the universe.

I have not truly known freedom until

I have shaken off the chains of attachments

to this world, this low-land

—of biological, mechanical, electric—

of static, of moving, till I felt the seductive

beckoning of the ephemeral,

the limitless melody of cosmos.

I measure myself in dawns and twilights,

in inhales and exhales, breathless moments,

in dreams and daydreams and nightmares

as I unravel into blooming.

I am a flower floating eternally,

a soundless drifting in space on waves

of the darkly enchanting oceans,

nebulae of purples and pinks.

And I dare you to not heed my calling,

and I dare you to resist the pulling,

the fire, the resonance in the bones

which leaves the traitorous flesh a-trembling.

And I hail to you: Come! We shall walk down,

down to the center, down to the core,

down to the end of all, down till it’s up,

until it becomes the beginning.

Joe DeCenzo, Ella Czajkowska, Susan Dobay, Maja Trochimczyk, Bory Thach at reading from "Crystal Fire" anthology at Scenic Drive Gallery, Monrovia, 2022.

All You

Breathe in, breathe out. Let it go, let it flow.

Let it seep out like water through fingers,

Like sand—drop after drop, grain after grain.

Empty out all the filth, discard the trash—

There is no use for useless and no worth to worthless,

No sense in senseless, no purpose to purposeless.

There is a song to be found in silence,

Peace—in motionlessness wrapped in chaos.

Seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting

The moment—a breathless wealth of endlessness

Hidden in a second, an age of blissful now.

Freedom is found in a mind unburdened from want,

From expectations, desires and needs, and thus from fear—

Of losing, of needing more, and not receiving enough.

You are the grain of sand in a desert dune—

A drop of water in infinite ocean—

You are the breath, the design, the universe.

Not everything is about you— Everything is about you—

‘I create myself’

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Two Moonrise Press Authors at Village Poets Reading at Bolton Hall, August 27 and September 24

Two of Moonrise Press authors will be featured at upcoming Village Poets Monthly Readings held on Sundays at 4:30 pm at at Bolton Hall Museum, located at 10110 Commerce Ave, Tujunga, Los Angeles, CA 91042-2313. Beverly M. Collins will read her work on Sunday, August 27, 2023, at 4:30pm. Suggested donation $5 per person for the cost of refreshments and to donate to the Little Landers Society that manages the Bolton Hall Museum, a Los Angeles Historical Landmark built in 1913.

Beverly M. Collins is one of 3 Winners in the Wilda Morris June 2021 Poetry Challenge (Chicago), a 2019 Naji Naaman Literary Prize in Creativity (Lebanon). Collins is also a prize winner for the California State Poetry Society, twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize and short listed for the Pangolin Review Poetry Prize (Mauritius). Her photography can be found on the cover of Peeking Cat 40 (UK), displayed online by The Academy of the Heart and Mind, printed on Fine Art America products, iStock/Getty Images, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Spectrum, and others. Website: https://beverlym-collins.pixels.com www.facebook.com/bevelymcollinsnow Instagram@beverlymcollinsartist

Her book Mud in Magic was published in July 2015:

ISBN 978-0-9963981-0-7 (paperback), $15.00, 96 pages.

ISBN 978-0-9963981-1-4 (e-book, E-Pub format), $8.00

Beverly M. Collins’s "Mud in Magic" is her second poetry book, filled with the wisdom of experience, Her skillful and often aphoristic or narrative poems portray a scene or a character that we could encounter on our streets, in our cafes. The poems are organized into three parts: Thought Bistro (Part I), Tinder Flames (Part II), and Elixir Café (Part III). The beauty and wonder of daily life fill these pages and delight the readers.

Marlene Hitt's second full-size poetry volume, Yellow Tree Alone. Selected Poems will be featured during the Village Poets reading on Sunday, 24 September 2023 at 4:30 pm. Written between 1998 and 2022, these 129 poems bring together the fruit of a lifetime of wisdom and creativity. The title is borrowed from the last poem in the book, a description of a bright yellow tree, lonely in a vast empty field - a symbol of the loneliness of the poet, often misunderstood by those around her. It is a universal condition of every poet, every creative and inspired soul that reaches beyond the mundane, beyond their immediate surroundings, transmuting the chaff of experience into the gold of words. Marlene Hitt's poetry perfectly exemplifies this alchemy of creative craft.

182 pages (xviii pp. prefatory matter, and 164 pp.); 6 in x 9 in.

ISBN 978-1-945938-34-4, paperback, $22.00 plus S & H

ISBN 978-1-945938-35-1, ebook, ePub format, $10.00

Cover photo by Karen Winters, cover design by Maja Trochimczyk

Yellow Tree Alone

Yellow tree

Stands glowing

In sideways light

Regal and glorious

Her beauty

Her message

For life’s meaning

Wasted

With no one

To see that golden

Radiance

She sings

To no one

Who’d hear her

But the Sun, Ra

The Giver of Gold

ABOUT MARLENE HITT

Marlene Hitt was the first Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (1999- 2001). She has been a member of the Chupa Rosa Writers of Sunland- Tujunga and the Foothills since its inception in 1985. Her critically-acclaimed first poetry collection Clocks and Water Drops was published by Moonrise Press in 2015. In addition to publishing numerous poetry chapbooks, she has authored a non- fiction book Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City. Her poems appeared in Psychopoetica (UK), Chupa Rosa Diaries of the Chupa Rosa Writers, Sunland (2001-2003), Glendale College’s Eclipse anthologies, CSPS California Quarterly and Poetry Letter; three Moonrise Press anthologies (Chopin with Cherries, 2010; Meditations on Divine Names, 2012; and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology that she co-edited in 2020 with Maja Trochimczyk).

Most recently she was one of 12 poets invited to contribute to Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy and Wisdom (2022). Her work appears in Sometimes in the Open, a collection of verse by California Poets Laureate, and The Coiled Serpent, anthology of Los Angeles poets, edited by Luis Rodriguez (2016). She served at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and docent for many years. Ms. Hitt was the history writer for the Foothill Leader, Glendale News Press, North Valley Reporter, and Voice of the Village newspapers. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club, Woman of the Year by the U.S. Congress, and many congratulatory scrolls by the City and County of Los Angeles, and the State of California. In 2019, Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga presented to Marlene and her husband Lloyd, a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing their support of poetry in the Foothills.

Monday, October 19, 2020

We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology Zoom Reading, October 25, 2020 at 4:30 pm

WE ARE HERE: VILLAGE POETS ANTHOLOGY

ZOOM READING FOR THE VILLAGE POETS MONTHLY READING

Topic: WE ARE HERE: VILLAGE POETS ANTHOLOGY

Time: Oct 25, 2020 04:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

HOW TO BUY THIS BOOK

The anthology is available to poets at a discounted price of $15 with mailing (please include your mailing address in the message) or $12 for in person pickup, from Maja Trochimczyk, publisher of Moonrise Press. Send your checks to Maja Trochimczyk, PO Box 4288 Sunland CA 91040 or use paypal, maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com.

For all others, the books can be ordered online from the distributor, click on the ISBN number to go to the site and place your order:

ISBN 978-1-945938-39-9 (paperback) , $22 plus $3.99 shipping and handling

ISBN 978-1-945938-40-5 (eBook, ePub), $10

Maja Trochimczyk with Cile Borman

Edited by Marlene Hitt and Maja Trochimczyk, and entitled We Are Here: Village Poetry Anthology, this collection presents 80 poets featured during the monthly readings at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga, CA as well as the group of current and former Poets Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga who organize the readings. In addition to its home base at the Bolton Hall Museum, the Village Poets have also had occasional visits to the McGroarty Arts Center, the former home of the California Poet-Laureate in 1933-1944, John Steven McGroarty. His Poet-Laureate title inspired the local Poet-Laureate program, established in 1999. The anthology's editors are both former Poets-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga: Marlene Hitt was the First, in 1999-2001 and Dr. Maja Trochimczyk served as the Sixth in 2010-2012 when the readings were initiated.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

"The busy poetry circles of mountain communities cohabiting the threatened southern rim of our forests, has produced a series, celebrated in this gorgeous anthology which artfully embraces power of place. These are the precious words of lyrical poets from everywhere, who joined the Valley Poets inside the halls of the pioneer settlers of Tujunga, joining in a decades-long tribute to and embodiment of the democratic community practices of the founding ancestors, gathered within the walls of monumental Bolton Hall."

~ Ed Rosenthal, author of Salvation Canyon and The Desert Hat, survivor www.poetbroker.com

"This anthology is a treasure and I'm honored to be part of it! Over the last ten years, the Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga, along with the faithful support of the Little Landers Historical Society and the McGroarty Arts Center, provided a place, not only for local poets to gather, but for poets from well beyond our town to come together as a community and enjoy conversation and share their work. This anthology is a wonderful tribute to all who participated over the years."

~ Dorothy Skiles, Seventh Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga

"This is a lovely anthology, my fellow Americans! We are all Village Poets, in one way or another. And we are all Little Landers, also called “los terrenitos,” the utopian colony of collective agriculture established in and around Bolton Hall Museum in the early 20th century. Let us cultivate our poetic land!"

~ Margaret Saine, author of Lit Angels and Gardens of the World (Moonrise Press)

MORE DETAILS

The volume includes work by: 15 Poets Laureate from California; 20 Pushcart Prize nominees – Accardi, Askew, Byrne, Canyon, Collins, Dobreer, Dove, Ford, Fancher, Luza, Leland-St. John, O’Brien, Jones, Pero, Reyna, Rinne, Rogers, Rummel, Skiles, and Terzi; 12 current and former college professors – Campbell, Kirby, Dove, Lipkin, Lummis, Peterson, Rummel, Rizk, Talwar, Trochimczyk, Saine, and Zaro; and eight poets with doctoral degrees – Dove, Lipkin, Mataric, Meyer (honorary), Peterson, Reyna, Saine, and Trochimczyk. Poets from the states of California, Illinois, New York, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington are represented along with those who have roots in 18 different countries: Argentina, Armenia, Chile, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, the U.K., the U.S. and Vietnam.

The colorful cover, designed by Maja Trochimczyk, features artwork by Polish American poet and painter, Andrew Kolo, who appeared at the readings to present both his art and his poetry. The painting, entitled “Landscape with the Palm Tree” (oil on canvas), is a mosaic of vivid, saturated colors, contrasting, yet somehow in harmony with each other. This is a great metaphor for a poetry reading filled with numerous, distinct poetic voices. The book consists of two parts: Guests and Featured Poets, represented by 1-3 poems each; and Poets-Laureate, with 10 local poets, represented by 6-8 poems each. A list of Village Poets Readings, a brief history of the program, and biographies of the poets are included as well. The 290-page anthology is published in two versions, as a paperback and an e-book in ePub format. moonrisepress.com/village-poets-anthology.html

Beverly M. Collins

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface – vii, Table of Contents - viii, Poetry in the Foothills – A Look Back - x, Listing of Featured Poets and Artists – xii. PART 1. Featured and Guest Poets - 1: Lida Abramian - 3; Millicent Borges Accardi – 5; Sharon Alexander – 8; Eliécer Almaguer – 10; Christopher Askew – 12; Beth Baird – 14; Judy Barrat – 16; Cile Borman – 18; Madeleine Swift Butcher – 20; Elena Karina Byrne – 22; Don Kingfisher Campbell – 23; Ross Canton – 25; Gloriana Casey – 27; Jackie Chou – 29; Teresa Mei Chuc – 31; Jeanette Clough – 33; Beverly M. Collins – 35; Brendan Constantine – 37; Bill Cushing – 39; Marsha De La O – 41; Peggy Dobreer – 42; Linda Dove – 44; Alexis Rhone Fancher – 45; Mary Fitzpatrick – 47; Michael C. Ford – 49; Joyce Futa – 50; William Scott Galasso – 52; Jerry Garcia – 54; John Guzlowski – 55; Charles Harmon – 57; Lloyd Hitt – 59; Lois P. Jones – 62; Georgia Jones-Davis – 63; C.E. Jordan – 65; Mandy Kahn – 67; Mina Kirby – 69; Andrew Kolo – 72; Deborah P Kolodji – 74; Mariko Kitakubo – 76; Sharmagne Leland-St. John – 78; James Levin – 80; Wayne Allen LeVine – 81; Stephen Lindsteadt – 83; Elline Lipkin – 84; B.D. Love – 86; Rick Lupert – 87; Radomir Vojtech Luza – 89; Suzanne Lummis – 91; Shahe Mankerian – 96; Mirjana N. Radovanov Matarić – 97; Maria Elena Mahler – 99; Gabriel Meyer – 100; Naia – 102; Toti O’Brien – 104; Cece Peri – 106; A.R. Peterson – 108; Thelma T. Reyna – 110; Cindy Rinne – 112; Susan Rogers – 114; Sharon Rizk – 116; Ed Rosenthal – 118; Mary Kay Rummel – 120; Sonya Sabanac – 122; Margaret Saine – 124; Shaymaa – 126; Param Sharma – 128; Rick Smith – 130; Kathi Stafford – 131; Julia Stein – 133; Melissa Studdard – 134; Konrad Tademar Wilk – 136; Ambika Talwar - 138; Judith Terzi – 140; Bory Thach – 142; G. Murray Thomas – 144; Mary Torregrossa – 145; Yun Wang – 147; Mari Werner – 149; Kath Abela Wilson – 152; Mariano Zaro – 155. PART 2. Poets Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga - 157: John Steven McGroarty –159; Marlene Hitt – 161; Katerina Canyon – 170; Joe DeCenzo – 179; Damien Stednitz –188; Ursula T. Gibson – 197; Maja Trochimczyk – 204; Dorothy Skiles - 212; Elsa Samkow-Frausto – 219; Pamela Shea – 225; Alice Pero - 233. Biographical Notes – 239.

MARLENE HITT was the first Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (1999-2001). She has been a member of the Chupa Rosa Writers of Sunland-Tujunga and the Foothills since its inception in 1985. In addition to publishing numerous poetry chapbooks, she has authored a non-fiction book Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City. Her poems appeared in Psychopoetica (UK), Chupa Rosa Diaries of the Chupa Rosa Writers, Sunland (2001-2003), Glendale College’s Eclipse anthologies, two Moonrise Press anthologies, Sometimes in the Open, a collection of verse by California Poets Laureate, and The Coiled Serpent, anthology of Los Angeles poets, edited by Luis Rodriguez (2016). She served at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and docent for many years. Ms. Hitt was the history writer for the Foothill Leader, Glendale News Press, North Valley Reporter, and Voice of the Village newspapers. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club, and Woman of the Year by the U.S. Congress. Her critically-acclaimed poetry collection Clocks and Water Drops was published in 2015. In 2019, after retiring from active participation in Village Poets Readings, Marlene was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, shared with her husband, Lloyd.

DR. MAJA TROCHIMCZYK, the sixth Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (2010-2012), is a poet, music historian, photographer, and non-profit director born in Poland and living in California (www.trochimczyk.net). She selects and invites poets to feature at the Village Poets series. She published seven books on music, five volumes of poetry, and three other anthologies (Chopin with Cherries, Meditations on Divine Names and Grateful Conversations). The venues for her poetry included: Altadena Poetry Review, Loch Raven Review, Epiphany Magazine, Lily Review, Ekphrasis Journal, Quill and Parchment, Magnapoets, The Cosmopolitan Review, The Scream Online, The Original Van Gogh’s Ear Anthology, Lummox Journal, Phantom Seed, Spectrum, Poezja Dzisiaj, OccuPoetry, Pisarze.pl, as well as anthologies by Poets on Site, Southern California Haiku Study Group, and others. Trochimczyk presented papers at over 90 national and international conferences in Poland, France, Germany, Hungary, U.K., Canada, and the U.S. She received awards and fellowships from ACLS, SSHRCC, USC, McGill University, MPE Fraternity, Polish American Historical Association, City and County of Los Angeles, and Poland’s Ministry of Culture. The Senior Director of Planning and Development at Phoenix Houses of California, she serves as the President of the California State Poetry Society and the President of Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club.

PHOTOS FROM FLINTRIDGE BOOKSTORE ZOOM READING