Poet Cyrus Cassells who overlapped briefly with David Bethuel Jamieson in Provincetown

  "Proincetown Poet"
by David Bethuel Jamieson
1986

Peter Stebbins of the Studio House at Walbridge in Washington, DC, posted an announcement on facebook that poet Cyrus Cassells had just won a Simon Guggehheim Fellowship. He noted with pride that his partner David Bethuel Jamieson (1963-1992) had painted his portrait many years ago, when they overlapped in Provincetown.  

I'm not sure if the seriousness of this portrait represents the poet or the artist, but the intersection of these two is what the Studio House at Walbridge was proud to share.  They were both young men when they met in Provincetown. I don't know how close they were, but what gay poet or artists could claim any authenticity without making a pilgrimmage to that special place?

Cyrus Cassells? Never heard of him.I messaged my poet friend and master English teacher Alice Jacobs Twombly in New Jersey to see if she had ever heard of him. She knows all the poets. She didn't know Cassells. I decided to look him up. She was going to as well. 

A more recent photo. 

What an interesting poet we've been missing. It's like discovering the art of David Jamieson and Earle Montrose Pilgrim in some ways. In general, throughout history, the poetry and writings of people of color and women, like their art and also their music, have been hidden from public view.  It has taken a lot of hard work over time to overcome the cultural hegemony of the Western canon.

Elizabeth Eckfort trying to enter Central
High School in Little Rock, 1957. She was
one of the Little Rock Nine who changed
history.  What courage it took to confront
such hate (shown in the face of that
 white woman),&  all too familiar today.

Cyrus Cassells, as Alice and I learned, was born in Dover Delaware in 1957. He grew up in the Mojave desert near Los Angeles, CA and got a BA from Stanford, where he started writing in earnest and never stopped. Cassells, who knows many languages and also works as a translator, film critic, and actor, teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University-San Marcos.  He lives in Austin.

He's won lots of awards.  A National Poetry Series Award for The Mud Actor (1982); a Pulitzer nomination for Soul Make a Path through Shouting,1994; winner of the William Carlos William award and a Lambda Literary Award for Beautiful Signor (1997); a Balcones Poetry Award for The Crossed-Out Swastika in 2012. His latest work, The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, rooted in Gullah culture, is a finalist for the 2019 NAACP Image Award in Poetry and the Texas Institute of Letters Helen C. Smith Poetry Award. 

According to the Poetry Foundation, Cassells' poetry, which embraces a wide range of subjects and themes,"examines personal encounters with history, love and eroticism, suffering and violence." Dan Shewan, a reviewer of Crossed-Out Swastika, said that  “Cassells approaches his subject with diligence, often choosing to craft poems inspired by the struggles and experiences of real people....The sense of pace is beautifully sustained throughout the collection, alternating between frantic moments of panic to somber reflections on the nature of suffering.” 

I started reading some of these poems and found them fascinating. The range of subjects reveals a Renaissance man of diverse interests, a discoverer and adventurer in the realm of thought. I was fascinated that Cassells wrote about Auschwitz and the horrors of World War II, as well as the struggle for civil rights here at home. According to Shewan, Cassells shows us in Crossed-Out Swastika, that "even in its darkest hour, the will and tenacity of the human spirit endures."  

Auschwitz, All Hallows  by Cyrus Cassells 

Look, we have made

a counterpoint 

of white chrysanthemums,

a dauntless path of death-will-not-part-us petals

and revering light; 

even here,

even here 

before the once-wolfish ovens,

the desecrating wall 

where you were shot,

the shrike-stern cells 

where you were bruised

and emptied of your time-bound beauty— 

you of the confiscated shoes

and swift-shorn hair, 

you who left,

as sobering testament, the scuffed 

luggage of utter hope

and harrowing deception.

Come back, teach us.

From these fearsome barracks 

and inglorious fields

flecked with human ash, 

in the russet-billowing hours

of All Hallows, 

let the pianissimo

of your truest whispering 

(vivid as the crunched frost

of a forced march) 

become a slowly blossoming,

ever-voluble hearth 

revealing to us

(the baffled, the irresolute, 

the war torn, the living)

more of the fire 

and attar of what it means

to be human.

Cyrus Cassells, "Auschwitz, All Hallows" from The Crossed-Out Swastika.  Copyright © 2012 by Cyrus Cassells.  Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyon 

NOTE: Cassells spreads out the lines of his poetry in couplets, sometimes 2, 3 and more  spaces between lines. I found them easier to read when I brought the lines together. 

Cassells most recent book, The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, fascinates me because it explores the culture of the Gullah people of Charleston and the South Carolina Sea Islands. According to review, it celebrates the rice-and indigo-working slaves and their descendants, who have forged a unique Africa-inspired language and culture.  I'm going to the Library to look for it. 

Sources: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/cyrus-cassells

https://therumpus.net/2012/10/the-crossed-out-swastika-by-cyrus-cassells/

Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957, by Cyrus Cassells

Thick at the schoolgate are the ones
Rage has twisted
Into minotaurs, harpies
Relentlessly swift;
So you must walk past the pincers,
The swaying horns,
Sister, sister,
Straight through the gusts
Of fear and fury,
Straight through;
Where are you going?

I’m just going to school.

Here we go to meet
The hydra-headed day,
Here we go to meet
The maelstrom –

Can my voice be an angel-on-the-spot,
An Amen corner?
Can my voice take you there,
Gallant girl with a notebook,
Up, up from the shadows of gallows trees
To the other shore:
A globe bathed in light,
A chalkboard blooming with equations –

I have never seen the likes of you,
Pioneer in dark glasses:
You won’t show the mob your eyes,
But I know your gaze,
Steady-on-the-North-Star, burning –

With their jerry-rigged faith,
Their spear of the American flag,
How could they dare to believe
You’re someone sacred?:
Nigger, burr-headed girl,
Where are you going?

I’m just going to school.

From Soul Make a Path through Shouting

Into the Light: African-American Artist David Bethuel Jamieson and The Studio House at Walbridge

 David Bethuel Jamieson (1963-1992)

"Broadly, we have more institutions recognizing gaps in their collections due to the decisions made to exclude women and people of color by past directors, and they are designating funds to collect from these marginalized groups. They’re hiring curators of color to further these actions. This is progress. There is still plenty more to do, but considering the way things were, I’m excited for this direction, and I cannot wait for more change." Karen Jenkins-Johnson, Art historian 

"The biggest story in the art market for 2018, perhaps the biggest story in the broader art world, was the breakthrough of African-American artists."  Chadd Scott, Forbes, 1/10/2019

 “What is wonderful about today’s art market is that African-American artists are being given the long overdue recognition for their contributions to the art historical canon. These highly talented, visionary, and authentic artists are now being showcased in the marketplace alongside their peers from America and around the world.” Arnold Lehman, director emeritus, Brooklyn Museum of Art 

The growing contemporary attention to and recognition of the art of African Americans, like that of women and people of color, honors a hidden global legacy of enormous creativity. It's about time this legacy was brought to light. It has taken years of groundbreaking work to make it happen. 

"There's been major momentum gaining ground for African-American artist over the past 25 years through many important museum exhibitions... as well as through the commitment of thoughtful collectors and galleries," noted Arnold Lehman, director emeritus at the Brooklyn Museum.

“The activity we saw in 2018 was the result of change that started to happen little by little, year by year, over the last several decades.” (Chadd Scott, Forbes magazine) 

Among these pioneers is Peter Stebbins, curator of the Studio House at Walbridge in Washington, D.C. Peter is conserving, cataloguing and bringing to public view the works of his late partner, David Bethuel Jamieson (1963-1992). Peter has also recently taken on the fabulous ouevre of Earle Montrose Pilgrim (1923-1976). My guess is that few people recognize these creative geniuses now but they will soon.

The changes necessary to recognize and bring African-American art to public view starts with dedicated and thoughtful curators, cultural historians, and art lovers who recognize their value and are moved to care for them, little by little, year by year. 

These pioneers are the catalysts for the discovery of contemporary artists of color, as well as art that's long existed but has been hidden, not included in art museums, works left out of the historical Western canon that most of us grew up with.  My discovery of these works of art, which started when I lived in DC, has enriched my life. That's why I'm so grateful for conservers like Peter.

Efforts to bring this "hidden legacy of enormous creativity" to light has to be intentional, deliberate, persistent. It has to change minds and hearts.  It has to open consciousness of what art is, who makes art, who decides. 

That is what the Studio House at Walbridge is all about. It was the last art studio of David Bethuel Jamieson (1963-1992). Since David's untimely death, at the height of his creative power, Peter has worked to ensure his art is cared for, curated, and appreciated. He is bringing it out of the shadows and into the light. 

David Bethual Jamieson  

Peter says “part of my work curating this private studio-based collection, made possible by a private trust, involves identifying and developing community connections to the artist and his oeuvre, documenting significant events and relationships in the artist’s lifetime, compiling a catalogue raisonee, and overseeing the public placement of his art." 

It is such important work. One day, thanks to Peter, David's art may be exhibited in a variety of museums like the National Museum of Art or the Chicago Art Museum or the Toledo Museum of Art, or a museum near you. It might fetch thousands of dollars at sales and art auctions like that held at Sotheby's in November 2018, where a Jacob Lawrence painting,"The Businessmen" (1947), sold for $5.2 million.

“It's great to see undervalued and underappreciated artists really hit the international scene,” Morgan Long of Southby's said after the auction. He was thrilled to note that it was one of the most avid and lively bidding Southby's has seen in a long time.  

Increasingly, museums around the world are adding these artists' works, both historic and modern, to their collections for all the world to see. Enlightened directors and board members are paying attention. As art historian Karen Jenkins-Johnson noted, more institutions are "recognizing gaps in their collections due to the decisions made to exclude women and people of color by past directors, and they are designating funds to collect from these marginalized groups." 

The Toledo Museum of Art is starting to embrace this trend. It recently exhibited Kehinde's Wiley's "New Republic," a travelling exhibit curated by the bold and pioneering Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit, and others like it, are bringing larger and more diverse audiences to our museum. It's a beginning. The TMA also needs to add African-American artists to its collection, now dominated by works from the Western canon like most art museums here and elsewhere. It's a commitment. It's a slow process.

Peter has recently taken on another critical project, one that hits close to home. He is conserving, authenticating, and promoting the art of African-American artist Earle Montrose Pilgrim (1933-1976).  Earle was the husband of my DC friend Lily Pilgrim. How well I remember Lily's apartment on N Street, NW, the walls covered with Earle's art, stunning, breathtaking. It felt like a secret archive of a fantastic artist.  Every time I viewed those paintings I would ask her, in awe, "What will you do with Earle's paintings?" She'd answer, "I don't know but I'm thinking about it."   

She was thinking about it when I left DC for Florida in 1999. Thankfully, soon after that, Lily became friends with Peter, who also became her caretaker for several years until her death in 2018. It was a perfect match up. Both Peter and Lily had partners who were talented artists whose works needed curating and attention. Both Earle and David had spent time in Provincetown, Earle in the 50s, where he had a small gallery, and David in the 1980s. Provincetown was known for it's fabulous art and culture scene, an incubator for new art, and as a haven for gay and lesbian artists of all colors and backgrounds.  There were so many ties-that-bind uniting Peter and Lily. Out of their friendship came the Lily and Earle M. Pilgrim Foundation, a start-up private trust that Peter is nurturing through many challenges and untold potential.  

It's a huge responsibility, having the legacies of two artists in your hands. But Peter is the right caretaker. I'm almost certain that David and Earle are painting to their heart's content wherever they now reside, and that they are happy their earthly creations are in such good hands.   

Sources: http://davidbethueljamieson.com/?page_id=8&fbclid=IwAR1C-fzzBzJOUWhTkI0MMUE4PrmwbT7PtKwoSzK6_zCPpWwYg8TFYc1lfBc. This catalogue was put together by Anne Rothwell, artist friend of Peter Stebbins. Wonderful to have it. David is working on expanding it.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/african-american-artists-sweep-sotheby-s-contemporary-evening-sale-in-new-york --"At its contemporary art evening sale in New York last night, 14 November, Sotheby’s rebounded after a patchy Impressionist and Modern sale earlier in the week when several top lots went unsold. Boasting a 97% sell-through rate and a total of $362.6m (with fees)...the sale yielded several unexpectedly strong prices for artists who have been relative market underdogs until now. Of the night's four records, all were achieved by women or artists of colour." 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chaddscott/2019/01/10/phillips-capitalizing-on-surging-african-american-art-market-with-latest-selling-exhibition/#70c1c02a2f7b  -- "The biggest story in the art market for 2018, perhaps the biggest story in the broader art world, was the breakthrough of African-American artists. A quarter of all the money spent at auction for black artists in the past 10 years was spent in the first six months of 2018 according to Artnet. That total was fueled by Sean “Diddy” Combs’ $21.1 million purchase of Kerry James Marshall’s Past Times in May."

https://www.culturetype.com/2017/11/01/culture-talk-arnold-lehman-on-curating-american-african-american-a-selling-exhibition-at-phillips-london/ Interesting talk on collecting and exhibiting African-American art with Arnold Lehman, former director of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

https://www.toledomuseum.org/about/news/kehinde-wiley-new-republic%E2%80%94toledo-museum-art-examines-work-contemporary-artist

https://rhinohornartists.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/pioneers-from-provincetown-the-roots-of-figurative-expressionism/  "German born Wolf Kahn was a close friend of Müller, Brodie, and Johnson, and was Hofmann’s studio assistant in Provincetown. He exhibited with John Grillo (b.1917) at the Pilgrim Gallery, a tiny 25 x 16 foot space on Commercial Street (run by artist and jeweler Earle Montrose Pilgrim) that would later become the innovative Sun Gallery (see below). Kahn’s unique pairing of figuration and abstract Color Field painting set him apart from many of his contemporaries of the New York and Provincetown schools."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earle_M._Pilgrim "Earle Montrose Pilgrim (1933–1976)  was an African American artist whose work is within the stylistic milieu of Abstract Expressionism and Figurative Expressionism. Working in the early 1950s until the mid 1970s, Pilgrim's style is characterized by figuration informed by abstraction. The artist fluctuated between epic, large-scale compositions and intimate canvases and worked with a variety of media from painting to experimental film. Pilgrim's oeuvre reflects the artist's various interests from avant-garde portraiture to the notion of the occult, which were all figured through a Modernist interest in coloration, abstraction, and expression."

http://provincetownartistregistry.com/history/SunGallery.html  This is a fabulous interview with Yvonne Anderson. "From 1955 to 1959 the artist Yvonne Anderson and her late husband, the poet Dominic Falcone, operated the legendary Sun Gallery in Provincetown. ....They displayed works by about 100 artists, a selection of whom formed the nucleus of the figurative expressionist movement. This summer the Provincetown Art Association and Museum will focus on these artists in Pioneers of Provincetown curated by Adam Zucker. (link to Provincetown Art Association here...) The Sun Gallery took over a small space that had previously been the gallery and jewelry shop of Earle Pilgrim. In a previous PAAM show I included him in Kind of Blue: Four African American Artists in Provincetown; Benny Andrews, Emilio Cruz, Earle Pilgrim and Bob Thompson."

http://www.newnownext.com/a-home-at-the-end-of-the-world-provincetown-and-the-aids-crisis/04/2019/ This is a heartwarming story.  

The Mueller Report Has Been Weaponized

"This is not a presidency. This is a crime spree by a con artist who is repaying his Russian debts and lining his own pockets." Ryan Knight, reporter, on twitter

"Mueller's report is predicated on caring about facts. Our world is about who can claim victory the quickest." Dahlia Lithwack, Slate magazine, March 26, 2019

The tRump/McConnell GOP, via AG Barr's partisan interpretation in four pages, co-signed revealingly by Rod Rosenstein, has weaponized the Mueller Report.

It doesn't matter that no one but a few folks at the Department of Justice (DOJ) have seen it in its entirety.  It doesn't matter that media pundits are talking incessantly about what they haven't read and don't know. It's weaponized. 

Robert Mueller's extreme caution (I guess you can call it that) in not coming to "conclusions" in his long-awaited Report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, even on the blatant obstruction in plain view, has plunged America into further chaos and despair. Putin has achieved his goal. Russia is celebrating. 

The weaponized Mueller Report has emboldened those with the most to gain and the least respect for the Rule of Law.  

Did Mueller underestimate the depth and extent of the GOP tyranny that has taken over our government?   

Is he unaware that Mitch McConnell and his far-right Republican oligarchs have corrupted the three branches of government on which our democracy depends? 

Did Mueller think he could play by the old rules of the game, like a gentleman scholar of the days of yore? That the DOJ would surely make the report public?

Did he think he could just kick the ball to Congress, like a good citizen? 

Did he think facts mattered, when we are bombarded daily with "alternative facts" that some people believe as if they were gospel. Is he aware that tRump has lied over 8,000 times since he was elected? 

Isn't he aware that those supranational oligarchy networks he investigated when he was head of the FBI are thriving and growing expoentially? Surely he knows that tRump, McConnell, Graham, other billionaires like Eric Prince and the Mercers, those in the Russia interference orbit, are part of these networks, get lots of money from Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, and engage in quid pro quos like lifting sanctions against Russia. 

Does Mueller understand that because of this we now have only one half of one branch of our government functioning in accordance with the US Constitution?  One half of one branch. And even in this one-half, we have the likes of Nunes, Gym Jordan,the Freedom Caucus running roughshod over facts, spewing forth propaganda to beat the band, making things up, lying, especially about the Russia investigation.   

Does Mueller have a clue about how hard we had to fight to preserve this last nugget of democracy? The grassroot work it took in every state to overcome the almost insurmountable obstacles of gross partisan gerrymandering and rampant voter suppression, the most undemocratic tactics of all? 

It feels like the noose of corruption and tyranny is tightening around our necks. It is painful to watch what's left of our government fighting so hard to gain some leverage. It's painful to see how easy it has been to disrupt our government, to "deconstruct" it, and how powerless it seems to combat it.    

Yes, the weaponized Mueller Report has emboldened the tRump/McConnell GOP tyranny,  the Barrs, McConnells, Nunes, Pences, to go "full animal," as Steve Bannon put it. 

They are jumping on every opportunity to twist the knife. 

They are attacking the media with more disdain than ever, making a list of critics they want dumped. 

They have taken over the DOJ, a coup d'etat orchestrated by Mitch McConnell. He made sure his Senate Republicans confirmed Barr in spite of, or actually because of, the 19-page letter he wrote to tRUmp to get the job, which outlined his real views about Executive privilege and Mueller's investigation. Many of us thought that was the case during those hearings, as did most Senate Dems. Barr lied like a rug, over and over. He obstructed justice in plain view. It didn't matter.

Overnight, the tRump regime launched a new attack on ACA (Obamacare). This was right after a district judge ruled that it was "unconstitutional." The Justice Department agrees that the whole law should be thrown out. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post).

McConnell and his Republicans blocked the Dems' effort to make the Mueller Report public. They are going full steam ahead in abusing their power. They have even called for Adam Schiff to be removed from the House Intelligence Committee!That's amazing isn't it? 

They are gleefully vengeful.  

They have taken the wind out of our sails. The truth will be revealed, in time. But meanwhile our nation is bleeding.  We are reeling in chaos and uncertainty, exactly what Putin wanted. We are suffering.

It doesn't feel good. I'm feeling like a Ukrainian, in survival mode, trying to be stoic, aiming to accept that "this is the way it is."  My Peace Corps days in far-eastern Ukraine (2009-11) keep popping into my mind. Since Russia's illegal invasion in 2014, they have been going through hell in the Donbas and in Crimea, where I served. They are also facing another presidential election, and they are conflicted. They were conflicted during the 2010 election campaign, too, when pro-Russian Yanukovich, with Paul Manafort's help, beat Yuliya Tymoshenko. I remember the "Lock her up" slogan against Tymoshenko, and the constant propaganda, the cyber warfare disinformation campaigns. The results landed like a thud.  Yanukovich didn't last long, either. And we know what's happened to Manafort. 

But what can you do, my friends asked rhetorically?  That's when they seemed to have more dinners together, waking me at 9 pm to come join them. That's when they biked to the Aydar river for sunbathing and picnics, and pulled me along with them. They tended their gardens, worked for hours preserving the bounty for the coming winter, even after long days at work. They enjoyed each day as it came. I was caught up in it. It's not that they didn't give a damn; they cared deeply. But life, afterall, goes on. 

As I was thinking about these experiences, along came a Ukrainian-American citizen, Max Yemets, who  expressed these same views much better than I could. His letter was posted by a fellow resister on my Indivisible link. It hit home.

Hi, fellow friends of justice. I am a naturalized US citizen, originally from Ukraine. As someone who went from bread lines and potato farming to a nice suburban middle-class American lifestyle, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts about the recent political developments in the US.

1. The United States is now closer than ever to a full-blown oligarchy similar to the newly-independent states that formed after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The Kochs, Adelson, Schwarzman, and other big-name GOP donors are clones of the dudes who muscled in on revenue-producing assets in the 90s post-Soviet space and never let go. Putin has absorbed several oligarchs in Russia. Ukraine is ruled by a sugar/confections oligarch with a banking oligarch about to install his puppet as president. Belarus is ruled by a dictator oligarch. The US is now ruled by whoever can leverage Citizens United the most. These guys don't pay taxes, treat the electorate as those human batteries from The Matrix, and have no regard for anything unless it generates more power for them.

2. Since 2014, I feel like I've lived the same timeline twice -- the first time in Ukraine, where many of my family members still live, and the second time in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected. The tactics, the propaganda, and most importantly, the reaction of my fellow citizens were shockingly similar in both the Trump and the Yanukovich elections. From misinformation campaigns to social media targeting to middle-American Joe Sixpacks yelling about libtards, it's literally all the same. Although it seems like all roads lead to Putin, my [bet] is on a transnational cohort of neo-feudals who busted up the planet into fiefdoms.

3. What can we do about it? Well, the Ukrainians hit the streets in such numbers that the sitting president literally fled the country. Can you imagine the organization and resources that would be required to pull something like that off in the US? It's literally impossible, especially considering the size of the country and how split we are on even the basic facts. The only ways left to fight are the same ways we always had: organize, raise hell about bullshit, and make like 90s gangsta rappers and stack them bills for our candidates. The GOP gutted the unions, passed unlimited campaign contributions, took over corporate interests, infected the religious message, and made huge inroads with the workers, the cops, the military. However, we have grass roots, ethnic minorities, women, coalition-builders, and most importantly, the message -- we actually believe in liberty, justice, and the Enlightenment ideals. This is why no one reading this is too poor to kick in $1-20 a month for your favorite ActBlue candidate. If we're supposed to be more tech-savvy, more educated, more critical, we need to at the bare minimum match the unlimited corporate contributions, no matter how daunting that sounds.

4. Lastly, while all this is happening, let's not forget to live our lives. There was a period in my life where the mere thought of a Russian asset (Trump) running my new country the same way a Russian asset (Yanukovich) was running my old home was driving me insane on the daily basis. Allocate the time in your day to be politically and socially active, but don't forget that we're just some hominids from the great apes family running around on what's left of this planet for 30-40 years and then returning to dust from whence we came. The best fighters aren't emotional, but methodical. They don't miss training, make excuses, or give up. In the end, I think justice will prevail, but it will prevail in a world very different from what it is today.  PS. If you have any Soviet or post-Soviet-related questions, hit me up."

Maybe this message from a warrior can help us get through these dark days. Maybe one half of one branch can keep hope alive and the Resistance can keep going until 2020, when we will have our say. 

Some sources:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/25/18281788/doj-obamacare-unconstitutional-trump

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/mueller-report-barr-summary-obstruction-conspiracy-close-reading.html?fbclid=IwAR3xzNKMB9LHKOhlLH-SVgfLq145GY5HhOYxCifAOzJ5rvAxnxTWwSFEWNI

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-call-rep-adam-schiff-231635991.html

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/25/1844911/-Source-With-Knowledge-of-The-Probe-Mueller-was-making-a-case-to-Congress??detail=emaildkre

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/mueller-report-trump-mcconnell-facts-dont-matter.html

Serendipity in San Miguel de Allende 2019

Me and famous Mexican artist and muralist
David Leonardo. 

The Jacaranda trees, a gift from Japan to Mexico, are blooming among the bouganvilla in San Miguel and surrounding mountains, a lovely purple world infusing our soul and spirit. 

It was serendipity, for which San Miguel de Allende is famous, among the thousand other delights  that make this beautiful World Heritage city in the Mexican mountains such a treasure, so beloved.
When you're in San Miguel the soul and spirit of the place envelops you. You bump into happy circumstances and people, make discoveries that you weren't looking for but welcome, unexpected surprises that delight. A form of good Karma.

We were walking back to our hotel Ruisenor, Sophie, Linda and I, after a fabulous birthday (felicidades) dinner, which included a luscious dessert with one bright candle courtesy of the 13 Cielos restaurant. We strolled past shop after shop brimming with arts and crafts hecho en Mexico, wonderful cafes and restaurants bustling with activity and happy people, and through the Jardin, the central square, the heart of the town. The iconic Parroquia stood in awesome splendor, lighting up the night. 

The Parroquia.

"Let's sit a minute."  We went around the Mariarchi band, dressed in azul splendor, trumpets and violins in full voice, loud and joyous, to a nearby bench. We breathed in the spirit. Sophie poked me, nodding her head to the right. "Isn't that David Leonardo?"  I looked. Wasn't sure. It's been many years.  I walked up to him (brazenly, maybe because I had just turned 79), and asked.  "Are you David Leonardo, the fabulous artist?"

He had been playing the violin, the sound drowned out by the Mariarchi. He looked up, and smiled. "Yes, I am." 

Oh good heavens! The famous artist and muralist David Leonardo right next to us in real time. I told him I had bought one of his paintings, long ago, during his romantic Conquistador period, and that it still brings me great joy after all these years.  He was pleased. Genuinely pleased. That beautiful sexy smile. "It's nice to hear from people who have bought my paintings and still like them." Born in Mexico City, he speaks perfect English, and he was happy to talk with us.

Brunch at a lovely courtyard
cafe.

I introduced Sophie and Linda. "Sophie moved from California to San Miguel, 10 years ago. She made this beautiful necklace," I said, fingering the jewelry around my neck. "I was friends with her mom Zuzu, an expat from New York, an artist, my San Miguel connection of the heart for many years, along with our old friend Estelle."  David thought he recognized Zuzu's name. "And this is Linda Furney, pioneer Ohio politician, Ohio State Senator, happily retired, my Toledo friend and fellow traveler."  "Toledo?"  "Not Spain, Toledo, Ohio!"

He was enchanted, and enchanting. It felt like we were floating on a lavender Jacaranda cloud.  We embraced the night this way.  Sang and danced and laughed. "I have to play music. The harmonica, and the violin...also the piano...other instruments. It inspires me."   "Do  you still paint?" "Of course, they go together. I have to do both."

The powerful artist, impelled from within to create. "Fran, Fran!" he sang, between the notes of his harmonica.  "Linda, Linda, Linda!"   "Sophie, Sophie, dance. Dance!" Such exuberance. Such joy. Serendipty. In San Miguel. On my birthday.

My David Leonardo, the romantic Conquistador, and next to it a Vermillion, "Tango," over my fireplace.
A Mexican mirror, painted frames, Talivera, arts and crafts I've collected over the years, are on the mantel.
After this period, David went full throttle into his powerful murals of the indigenous Mexican people conquering 
the Spanish and reclaiming their land. The murals are at the Biblioteca and the Instituto. 

 My birthday dessert.  

SMA street on a typical blue sky day.

This is how I spent a fantastico eight days in San Miguel with Linda Furney. The start of it might have daunted other travellers, but not us.  Turns out the Airbnb I had chosen was on top of one of the steepest hills in town, high up on cobblestoned Garita street. In fact it was a such steep climb that after one attempt down it, slowly, carefully, and a cab ride up (I laughed), Linda made reservations at a Hotel Ruisenor, and there we went. We spent the rest of our days in this nice little place on Mesones street, near Relox, just a few blocks from the Jardin, near everything wonderful about San Miguel. 

We had lots of little adventures, like you do in San Miguel, like bumping into David Leonardo. Serendipitous adventures. One sunny, blue-sky day, after a few hours imbibing the beauty of the Bellas Artes Cultural Center, I happened by chance to walk past the studio of artist Vermillion on Canal street. I had forgotten it was there. Wow. Something must have pulled me there. I had bought paintings from Vermillion as well. I went in and there he was. I told him I had some of his paintings and loved them still. We chatted for almost an hour, philosophizing about how time goes by, how he has become interested in theatre, how we learn and grow.

Colorful Talavera ceramics at the Mercado de Artesanias.
Linda saw lots of it on a trip to Delores Hildago, bought
some beautiful tiles.

When Linda and I compared notes at the end of the day, it turns out that while I was chatting with Henry Vermillion, she had gone into the Instituto, the historic, iconc art school, and guess who was there? David Leonardo! They shared more time and conversation, to Linda's delight. I think this was Linda's first real San Migueleno serenditous experience!

On another afternoon we went to a popular corner cafe on the Jardin, one my sister and I love, me for a marguerita, Linda for tea and shared quacamole. Shoot, no place to sit. Two women at one of the tables motioned to us and said we could sit at their table, no problem. And we did, and this is how we made new best friends with two wonderful southern California women.  Linda (yes, another Linda) is originally from Ashtabula, Ohio, and Pittsburg, we learned, and Ilya, originally from Panama, bilingual. We were meant to connect. California Linda and I share an Italian heritage and an Ohio sense of place. Ilya has a long-planned business trip to, of all places, Toledo, Ohio! She'll stay with me when she gets here.

This is the way to spend late afternoons in San Miguel, enjoying the setting sun, toasting to happiness, enjoying the moment, making new friends. We bumped into them again a few days later, on our last day there. Hugged and kissed.Talked up a storm. It was their last day too. We ended up having a farewell dinner together at an Argentine restaurant, good food, great service, great fun. We said goodbye, adios, hasta luego. See you in California one day soon, Linda, and see you in Toledo, Ilya!

Serendipity. The joys of San Miguel. The "fun side of the wall," where the people are kind and caring, the culture is vibrant and welcoming of all visitors, the atmosphere authentic, down-to-earth, honest. The soul and spirit of Mexico. It was hard going home.

David Leonardo murals, Biblioteca, San Miguel de Allende