SantaFe.com

The neat blue and white sign was stuck into the ground at the busy corner of Armenta Street and Old Pecos Trail. It advertised a garage sale at the E. J. Martinez Elementary School on an upcoming Saturday, 8 to 2, “Lots of Good Stuff.” What caught my eye was the fourth line:

“Proceeds to Help Pay for P.E. Teacher”

Help pay for WHAT? A teacher? Isn’t the school system supposed to do that?

Sadly, no, not when it comes to full-time physical education teachers in Santa Fe’s 20 elementary schools. “It’s pathetic,” says one Martinez teacher (who didn’t ask for anonymity, but probably needs...

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
by Richard B. Stolley • SantaFe.com

What would a July 4th be without Pancakes on the Plaza? This July 4th tradition brings the community to the table and raises money to support progressive initiatives for lasting change. This year The United Way of Santa Fe teams up with the Santa Fe New Mexican and Rotary Club of Santa Fe.

Besides a delicious pancake breakfast, the event features an arts and crafts fair, live music, a vintage car show, and a children’s Firecracker Pajama Parade.

Pancakes on the Plaza increases awareness of Santa Fe County’s chronic conditions and pools resources to fund direct, effective solutions for...

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Dolna Smithback is 4’10” and 85 pounds and she attacks life the same way she approaches the trapeze: head forward, upside down and inside out.

It wasn’t enough for Smithback to learn how to use a trapeze: She figured out how to make one and rig it, too. So it was only natural that when Smithback, at 13, found herself awed by public radio host Amy Goodman’s anti-war speech at the Kirtland Air Force Base gates in Albuquerque, she set out on a path to understand and embrace her new passion for communications.

Come August, the rewards of that perseverance will pay off: Smithback, now 18, will...

Monday, June 23, 2008
by Polly Summar • Journal Santa Fe

At the time Michelle Madrid-Branch’s American family brought their little half-English, half-Spanish daughter home in the 1970s, adoption wasn’t talked about very much. If it was discussed, it was done quietly, almost as if it were something slightly shameful. However, Michelle’s parents, Lee and Rose Boles, were different.

“Other kids always had questions or made insinuations. My parents armed me with the knowledge that ‘adoption means love.’ That’s what they told me, and what I told my classmates. My parents taught me that a true family has very little to do with whether everyone looks...

Monday, June 23, 2008
by Kate McGraw • Journal Santa Fe

Sarah Hoffman missed three weeks of classes during her senior year at the Bosque School in Albuquerque to participate in the Sustainable Global Leadership Alliance’s program in India last year.

She went to a leper colony and observed the unique social structure inside the community. Her hair got braided over and over again during a visit to an orphanage. One of the highlights of the trip was coming into contact with Buddhist monks from Tibet who make their home in Dharamsala.

“It was an incredible experience,” she said by phone from New York. “I loved it. I want to go back forever.”

Monday, June 16, 2008
by Emily Van Cleve • Journal Santa Fe

On Saturday, July 26, 2008, the courtyard at the Palace of the Governors will be transformed into an eighteenth-century Spanish Colonial village. From 10 AM until 3 PM families can travel back in time to a quieter world—one without cars, televisions, or cell phones. Children will be given a “colonial” name and invited to join activities as they witness life at a turning point in New Mexico's history and culture. Spanish Colonial Days is a free event.

Take a break from the hustle and bustle of Spanish Market and step through the museum’s blue gate into the Palace Courtyard where you will...

Thursday, June 12, 2008
by Carlotta Boettcher (Photographer) • SantaFe.com

LA PUEBLA — The workshop started with a poem the girls had never heard before: “We have come to be danced Not the pretty dance Not the pretty pretty pick me dance But the claw our way back into the belly Of the sacred, sensual animal dance …” And as the workshop leaders hoped, the poem struck some new notes and chords for the girls. Part of a Hip Hop Poetry Workshop at the Hands Across Cultures Teen Center here, the five- day program is a collaboration between the Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails Inc. and New Mexico CultureNet.

“What would a ‘pretty pretty pick me dance’ look like?”...

Tuesday, June 10, 2008
by Polly Summar • Journal Santa Fe

Get out the fly rods. Maybe the nets, spears and crossbows, too.

The state Department of Game and Fish is suspending the usual fishing rules on the Santa Fe River in an attempt to keep recently stocked trout from withering away as less and less water is released into the river.

Starting today, anglers will be able to catch, and keep, an unlimited number of fish.

The emergency salvage order will remain in effect through Monday, allowing children and adults with a valid fishing license five full days to catch fish using virtually any means necessary.

“This one was planned all along,” said Dan...

Thursday, June 5, 2008
by Dan Boyd • Journal Santa Fe

Theaterwork and Magical Realism:  Nilo Cruz’s A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

From June 13-June 22, 2008, Theaterwork will present Nilo Cruz’s adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (AVOM) at the James A. Little Theater (1060 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe on the campus of the New Mexico School for the Deaf). 

Written in the 1950s ( Leaf Storm and Other Stories, 1955), AVOM is an exemplar of Garcia Marquez’s magical realism, a style in which the irrational and inexplicable are accepted as casually as is ordinary experience. Such an approach...

Monday, June 2, 2008
by Jeffrey Laing • SantaFe.com

( *) suitable for children under six

Rocks
Delve into the science of rocks and how they came into being.
Santa Fe Children’s Museum, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, 989-8359.

Artist Demonstrations
By Russian icon painters and New Mexican retablo painters.
Museum of International Folk Art, 706 Camino Lejo, 476-1200.

Echoes of the Night
Featuring a selection of Native American stories.
Adults $5; preteens and seniors $3; free for SFCC students, employees and planetarium members.
Planetarium at Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Avenue, 428-1677.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008
courtesy of Tumbleweeds