Category: From Martha’s Desk

  • Taking My Own Advice

    A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about becoming the media, in order to use the media. As often happens, I was sharing my thoughts as I work on promoting both my personal work (books, cd’s, appearances) and my community work which is Listen & Be Heard Network. So, since writing the article, I…

  • A Bulletin Board for Arts Professionals

    A bulletin board creates a central area for discussions to take place. The forums and topics will be determined by the participants. What follows should be constructive conversation that leads to actions which help us all to thrive as arts professionals.

  • Using What's Available

    Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing are what get the big guys use to get where they want to go, and what will get you where you want to go. You can even take some control over where you are going. But you may have to be more creative to accomplish the same things.

  • Using What’s Available

    Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing are what get the big guys use to get where they want to go, and what will get you where you want to go. You can even take some control over where you are going. But you may have to be more creative to accomplish the same things.

  • Media as Medium

    Whatever field of the arts that you may be participating in, a major challenge for all creators today is to make their activities viable. You may make a living, want to make a living, or not care about making a living in the arts. If you are serious about your craft, you want it to…

  • Laying the Groundwork of Listen & Be Heard Network

    Since closing the doors of Listen & Be Heard Poetry Cafe in downtown Vallejo, Ca for the last time at the end of March 2008, I have been working on setting up the Listen & Be Heard Network. It has required building several websites and mailing lists, all ultimately connected by my involvement in the…

  • Laying the Groundwork of Listen & Be Heard Network

    Since closing the doors of Listen & Be Heard Poetry Cafe in downtown Vallejo, Ca for the last time at the end of March 2008, I have been working on setting up the Listen & Be Heard Network. It has required building several websites and mailing lists, all ultimately connected by my involvement in the…

  • Creative Marketing

    In the past few years, I’ve had numerous people ask me for advice about what amounts to: how to succeed as a singer (dancer, playwright, poet, author, musician etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.) Yes, that is what I am thinking most of the time after the first sentence or two, because I actually get tired of hearing…

  • Staying True to Yourself

    The Arts and the Market co-exist. Artists of all kinds depend on the Market for subsistence of the body. But the creative spirit doesn’t depend on food.  The stuff of the Soul is what carries us through, even when we are hungry. The Soul finds its expression with creativity.

  • Your Book and Your Bank Account

    The average number of self-published print-on-demand books that get sold is about 100-150 copies. That’s according to a variety of facts and figures coming from the self-publishing industry’s leaders. The average person who self-publishes a book, then, is not serious about publishing. It may be for a variety of reasons. Many people these days are…

  • Own What's Yours

    Much of the world is idolized. Many people lose their sanity, and I’m sure some of them their families, for the chance to be in THE spotlight to sing (dance, whatever) to canned music and get taken advantage of by the entertainment industry worldwide. With stars in their eyes, mostly young and naive, they dream…

  • Freedom of Creation

    Last week I was talking about some of the obstacles we faced as publishers of Listen & Be Heard Weekly in print, and our eventual decision to publish exclusively on-line. I mentioned also, that during the time we were printing thousands of copies of the newspaper each week, my husband Tony and I opened Listen…

  • The Why of Switching from a Local to an International Point of View

    Last week I wrote about the beginnings of Listen & Be Heard in New York City in the 1990’s. What developed there was the roots of what Listen & Be Heard became in Vallejo, CA. For those of you who might now be searching for a mate, let me suggest that you host a weekly…

  • Listening and Being Heard in the 21rst Century

    One day, about fifteen years ago, I left the radio station where I hosted a weekly arts show, and started walking alone down 8th Avenue in New York City. I was thinking about a name for the new event I was going to produce and host at the  University of the Streets in the East…

  • Listen & Be Heard Network Phase One.

    These last few weeks have been all about learning and working with code and databases, for me anyway. I am deep into the restructuring of Listen & Be Heard Weekly and Listen & Be Heard Poetry Cafe into the Listen & Be Heard Network.