October 19, 2017: Poetry Café Bellas Artes

Poetry Lives in San Miguel de Allende

By Maia Williams

The second reading of the 2017–2018 season of Poetry Café Bellas Artes will be held on Thursday, October 19, at 5:00 PM when three extraordinarily talented and multi-faceted women will share their work.

Patricia Campuzano Volpe grew up in Northern Mexico, but spent most of her life in Oregon. She discovered San Miguel de Allende in 2006 when she traveled here with a photographer friend from Portland. Their hotel was situated in Colonia Allende, and Patricia remembers it took them four hours to walk to the Jardin that first morning — there was so much to see!

She moved to San Miguel in 2008 and worked at LifePath for four years. She left in 2012 but only to come back, except this time retired. After practicing Chinese Medicine for more than thirty years, Patricia now enjoys the free time to write and to take long walks to admire and take in the beauty of San Miguel. The topics of her poems range from Nature, to Love, to The End of the World.

Susan Rushton was born in England and grew up in New Zealand, As a child she sang with a children’s radio choir and acted on Auckland stages. As a young adult she recorded and performed as a popular folk singer on NZ radio and television. After moving to the US she worked as a TV producer in Seattle for the live weekly public affairs program “Town Meeting.”

Susan holds degrees in English Literature, Philosophy, Ancient Greek and Broadcast Journalism, but here in San Miguel de Allende she pursues her abiding love of theater and poetry. She directs and performs in Santa Ana productions and acts and directs for Playreaders.

The Dawn Chorus published in 2015 is her first book of poetry.

Helenmarie Corcoran has been in San Miguel de Allende for three years after living the majority of her years in Illinois and Washington, DC. Like many others here she is in a new phase of life, exploring her creative side after years as an executive in financial services and arts management.

She serves as the President of the International Music Festival, which brings the highest quality music and music education to San Miguel each August with concerts and master classes and throughout the year with Music under the Trees at Bellas Artes. The Festival is celebrating its 40 th anniversary in 2018.

You may have heard Helenmarie performing authentic personal stories in each of the past three Storytelling Festivals and at local venues. She is currently working on family stories through poetry and short sketches accompanied by photographs and art. It is this work that she will share at the Poetry Café.

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Founded in January of 2016, Poetry Café Bellas Artes meets monthly, September through April. This all-volunteer community organization features local and visiting poets (established and emerging) sharing original work in a casual setting.

Please arrive a few minutes early. Seating is first come, first seated.