February 25, 2021 | Special Event

And the Subject is Love

by Cynthia Simmons

After last year’s tribute to Pulitzer Prize winning author, Toni Morrison, I’d planned to feature authors from the Harlem Renaissance—a period between the 1910s to the mid-30s which is considered a golden age in African American culture. Of course I was assuming we’d be doing this live. As months passed and it because clear that we would be Zooming it, I decided to make this year’s reading thematic and chose something that we’ve had to experience at a distance, love. We will celebrate love and read prose, poetry and essays by Black authors from the 1800s on.

Paulette Quann and April McGee will join me again. Harold James, who read with us the first year and subsequently left San Miguel, will join us from California.

April, a native of Montclair New Jersey, took early retirement from high tech engineering in 2015 after moving to San Miguel de Allende with her husband Russ.  Living in Mexico, and being immersed in its complex richness, has been a magnificent gift, including delving into new waters: arts: theater, photography and reading poetry to her heart’s content. Since moving to Pátzcuaro, April has joined a ukulele circle and is ever-grateful for Zoom meet-ups, as well as the healing experience of daily yoga and rooftop gardening. #whatsnext

Harold is the founder and director of We Three Productions. He created a reading series of poets and prose writers in New York City that lasted 22 years, and has also written, directed and co-produced ten plays in New York and one in San Miguel. He taught poetry in New York and in Pennsylvania public schools and was the owner of The Beer Company in San Miguel. Harold, who currently lives in California, will read poetry from his book “Transformation.”

Paulette was raised in New York City, and has lived in Woodstock NY, Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania and Formentera, Spain. She and her husband moved to San Miguel 14 years ago. Professionally, she has worked as a clothing designer, fiber artist, and writer. An avid reader, she has been a steadfast member of various writers and book groups for nearly five decades. She is currently writing a memoir titled, “Cloning Snow White.”

After a brief stint in New Orleans and thirty years in Harlem, Cynthia moved to San Miguel sixteen years ago. She combined her acting and writing skills when she wrote “Sally of Monticello,” a play that she performed internationally for 25 years. She was also a writer-in-residence for Teachers and Writers, worked in book production for Simon & Schuster, was road manager for jazz artist Cassandra Wilson and Director of Development for HarlemLive.

Maia Williams, founder of San Miguel’s Poetry & Prose Cafés and Wild Muse: Show Up & Write! workshops will host the event and moderate the live Q&A, time permitting.

Pre-registration is required and is free of charge, although donations are welcome.

Please log in a few minutes early the day of the event by clicking on the link you’ll receive at the time of registration. No password is required.