October 20, 2016: Poetry Café Bellas Artes

Ditkoff, Donnelly, and Kalmar to Headline Poetry Café

By Maia Williams

Poetry Café Bellas Artes will feature three multifaceted poets on Thursday, October 20th: Mitch Ditkoff, Martha Donnelly, and George Kalmar.

Mitch Ditkoff is an award winning author (Storytelling at Work, Awake at the Wheel) storyteller, innovation consultant, and poet (Full Moon at Sunrise) who divides his time between San Miguel and Woodstock, NY. In addition to being the Co-Founder and President of Idea Champions, an organizational consulting company, Mitch co-facilitates Hero’s Journey Retreats in San Miguel with Dr. Beverly Nelson, the Co-Founder of SMA’s LifePath Center.

Martha Donnelly escaped from Washington D.C. to San Miguel six years ago. In Washington she had a landscape architecture firm for 30+ years and happily has continued to work here on a limited basis. She designed a master plan for Parque Guadiana that is partially completed, and is in the very beginning stages of a design for the Bellas Artes courtyard. Writing has always been an avocation and, when wrestling with life’s challenges through therapy in the 1990s, she began to write poetry in order to give form to her thoughts and feelings.

George Kalmar was born in Slovakia and immigrated to the U.S. as a child with his family in 1965. He completed his undergraduate work at Temple University in Philadelphia and his graduate work in Creative Writing at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Starting with his work on the Scriblerian Magazine as a college freshman, he has pursued writing as one of his main life interests along with many years of sculpting. He has had readings and exhibits in Philadelphia, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Los Angeles where he has spent the last 32 years.

His most recent poetic works and publications have come through Beyond Baroque, an important literary center in Venice, California where he has received honoraria and had several solo and tandem readings with nationally known poets. He has read at a number of venues in California including Valley Poets and Studio 50. Kalmar now makes his home in San Miguel.

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Poetry Café Bellas Artes meets monthly, September through April, to feature 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. Depending on the season, a cold or hot beverage will be served.