From Martha’s Desk

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…

Since closing the doors of Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café, I have given much thought to the Listen & Be Heard website. The site has been serving several functions, including serving the arts community by publishing announcements,…

We are at a crossroads here in Vallejo. While our city council deliberates whether to declare bankruptcy, or not, I can tell you one thing for certain, the state of the arts remains in the hands of the…

The day after Super Tuesday plenty of people are talking but no one actually knows anything definitive about much of anything, and to be honest I wasn’t clear, going into Super Tuesday about the hard facts behind the…

Listen & Be Heard has been a presence in Vallejo for more than five years now. First just as an open mic that took place weekly at the now defunct Rafael’s, then in our own spot at Listen…

If you pay attention to these things you will have noticed that Listen & Be Heard Weekly is now into Volume 5. That’s five years of publishing weekly arts news. We started out as a weekly e-mail newsletter,…

Everything is fast these days. You want to call a friend, chances are you can reach your friend with a text message or phone call right away. You’re hungry? Pop something in the microwave, it’ll be ready in…

I remember when I was a kid, my mother spent major time getting around to the department stores to shop for Christmas. She usually came home exhausted, but still planning the next trip to get the things she…

Unfortunately less than 10% of Vallejo’s population voted in the recent local elections. Now I know that Listen & Be Heard readers take their freedom seriously and most of you voted. Right? I’m glad I did, because this…

Answering the question of what art is, and whose it is, will take you on a direct route to the heart of a community. Who makes the choices about what cultural activities will take place? Which artists are…

If you’ve taken notice of the campaign signs around town, you’ve probably noticed the www.vallejoisburning.com signs as well. The site claims to be “The Voice of the Unsilent Majority.” While real fires rage in southern California, consuming homes…

What’s Art Got to Do With It?” forum sponsored by Listen & Be Heard, October 4, 2007 at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. Photos by S.N. Jacobson. Listen & Be Heard wants to thank Jim Kern at…

What’s art got to do with it? Imagine your life without art. No songs, no pictures, no freedom of movement, no plays, not even television (if you call it art.) What you are imagining is life without Soul.…

Tony’s not quite finished hanging all the framed prints, and in fact there is not even room for them all, but it’s enough already to feel a not-so-subtle change of energy here at Listen & Be Heard Poetry…

It’s a human tendency to become complacent when we’re reasonably comfortable. In the minutes that we have between one task and the next, when we pause to have a conversation with another person living, working or otherwise investing…

Coming up on September 29 here at Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café is a special event that I hope all of you from around these parts will make an effort to attend. We already feature the varied…

I was not able to experience the big picture of the First Annual Listen & Be Heard Marin Street Summer Arts Festival on Saturday August 18, 2007, because I was quite busy most of the day and night…

All of the pictures in the montage above were taken from the stage of Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café of performing artists who have appeared there to share their poetry, stories, comedy and music with those who…

The word has been spreading and people are joining in the plans even as I write this column, about our First Annual L&BH Summer Arts Festival. Since writing about the event last week and inviting artists to join…

Jumping on a moving wagon. Going with the flow. Joining a growing trend. In politics, when a candidate gains a threshold of popularity he becomes even more popular based on his popularity. In the Arts, when the underground…

Here at Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café we are preparing for our First Annual Summer Arts Festival on Saturday August 18, 2007. We will be having free entertainment most of the day inside the café. We will…

I have heard discussions, offered some ideas, sometimes argued, probably been too opinionated (a family trait) mused about and imagined the future in downtown Vallejo. It’s a popular subject, because the Now is a place we’re all ready…

On May 23rd my letter from the editor was about the beginning concept of our first annual summer arts festival on Saturday, August 18, 2007. The main idea is to attract people to Marin Street in Downtown Vallejo…

When I met my future husband, Tony Mims, he used to ask me if I “knew who I was talking to.” As time went on, it became apparent to me that there was much more to the man…

Tony and I, the creators of Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café, decided after some deliberation, that now is the time to start an annual Listen & Be Heard Summer Arts Festival. We designated Saturday, August 18 for…

We all make crucial decisions that, whether or not we know it at the time, alter the course of our lives and determine how much money we will make and the company we will keep, among other things.…

This week we have launched a re-design of Listen & Be Heard Weekly. You may not notice that much difference graphically, but thanks in large part to the help given us by Allison Pilapil, we now have most…

The expression Time Will Tell holds a great lesson. If you’re wondering about the veracity of a particular point of view, you can always apply the time test in retrospect and come up with an answer, instead of…

Dear Readers, Listeners and Others, Here at Listen & Be Heard Weekly we are in a transitional phase between this website you are visiting now, and the transformed one you will be visiting as soon as Allison Pilapil…

Back in the nineties I had an opportunity to sit at a computer that was loaded with Macromedia Director. I spent a few hours learning how to use the software, and trying to wrap my head around the…

can be very brief when she has come to her deadline and actually passed it made some changes and didn?t make others she didn?t have time to make didn?t have time to take so let it be what…

can be very brief when she has come to her deadline and actually passed it made some changes and didn?t make others she didn?t have time to make didn?t have time to take so let it be what…

Back before I started vocalising my poetry, I was telling stories. I used to host a Sunday afternoon storytelling series in New York City at a little french caf? in Soho called Le Po?me. Maybe that was a…

Having just passed our third year anniversary of Listen & Be Heard Weekly, Tony and I, your publishers, have made some major decisions about how to continue into the future. Those of you who have followed our publication…

If you are entertained by any of the stories I have shared with you in the last couple of weeks, I hope that you will consider reading one aloud, or better yet retelling it with your own embellishments.…

I?ve been covering the afternoon shift on Saturdays for the last year at the caf?. It has tended to be a slow time when I have been there with my kids, making paper airplanes, dancing to music, making…