Happy Halloween!

What are some of your favorite spooky stories?

Spooky Poetry Made Easy

If you're inspired to wax rhapsodic about this dark and dying season but don't know where to start, try the Goth-O-Matic Poetry Generator ™! Using drop-down menus, you can easily craft verse with themes such as The Supernatural Violence & Horror Darkly Gothic Poem or the Black Abyss of Righteous Hatred Darkly Gothic Poem. In fact, there are so many choices, that you could probably keep yourself busy "writing" bad gothic poetry until next All Hallows Eve!

So fire up your laptop, fire up your black candles, and create images that would make Anne Rice shiver...

...like this one:



Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go warm my chilly soul...

El Día de Los Muertos Procession

Giant Puppets! Music! Fun! Costumed Characters! Outdoor Community Altar dedicated to Air, Water, Food and Energy! Bring Families and Friends!

Create something artful and political (in the spirit of the season) to carry in the Procession, dealing with the Serious Issues of Air, Water, Food and Energy: (like) The Tar Sands (and Pipeline)! Fracking! Nuclear Power! Genetic Engineering! Coal! Corporate Control of Air, Water, Food, Energy and Everything! You Know What The Issues Are! Think in images or poetry. Come in costume — wear your best calavera (skeleton) gear.

Can't think of anything to make? Don't want to wear a costume? No problem! Just come on out and join the procession!

Bring a candle to carry (protected in some way from wind, etc) and water from your home to place on the altar (label it with where it is from). You may also bring offerings : food that a loved one who has passed on was fond of, a poem, an image — please do not bring anything valuable, as this altar will be outdoors.

The Procession will start at the old Borders parking lot at Sanbusco (look for the big puppets). Please arrive by 5:45PM. The Procession starts at 6PM.

We will wind through the Railyard and end up at El Museo Cultural at the site of the community altar (taking about 30 minutes).

Questions? Need more information? Call Bobbe at 505-988-9244

Spooky Stories

Autumn has arrived and for those of us who work with the under 18-years-old crowd, October is all about Halloween and having scary, candy-obsessed fun. At the Southside Library every Thursday afternoon there is a Teen program from 4:30-5:30 pm. The first Thursday of the month is the Teen Book Club.

In honor of scary fun, the teens spent most of the meeting creating their own short horror story. The teens’ read a few examples from the short story collection Half Minute Horrors, edited by Susan Rich, to jump start their creative thinking. The stories in this collection are a maximum of two pages long. The story, “An Easy Gig” by M.T. Anderson received the highest gross out rating but I’m not certain if that is due to the horrendous nature of the crime or the fact that the guilty parents framed an innocent teen for said crime.

Jon Klassen’s “The Legend of Alexandra & Rose” was the most influential story for our group. This story is a single image with a legend describing the locations of events. Through these legend descriptions a terrible crime and petty motivation are elegantly revealed. Klassen’s story inspired many of our participants to draw their own tale of murder and mayhem. Enjoy the original art created by one of our Southside teen participants. While you can’t read an entire story in this image, it does convey the malicious glee of a successful “trick”.



by AB @SS