My brother and I had been living in a car with my mom and her boyfriend for about a week, not the first time being homeless in the hands of our single mom’s lifestyle, when her boyfriend suggested we stay with these two old people who lived on a goat farm. I was about eight when I started living with an old woman who demanded I brush my hair out of my eyes before school and made me go to bed much earlier than I ever had before in my life. She’d pile in an armful of ratty dogs that slept by our toes under the sheets and which kept me scratching at my knees from their mighty bitey fleas. And then, living with an old man who let me creep out of bed onto the couch where I could watch late night westerns or grand old musicals as he sharpened his handmade knives that would be praised at “Guns and Knives Shows” around the world. He would sneak me ant-filled fudge, and I didn’t care because what I couldn’t see in the blue light of the television didn’t matter. It was fudge Gloria made and had been saving for Christmas homemade candy-plate presents. Rusty and Gloria was knighted by my brother and I as our true and official grandparents we never had. And so, we became their grandchildren they never had because they never had children. It was and has been a bond that will survive forever. This bloodless love is thicker than any bloodless relation I’ve ever had and I celebrate it everyday when I see my morning glory vine bloom, hear a small town dialect, drive by a yard sale, taste goat cheese with fresh rosemary, see an advertisement for gun shows on billboards, watch the MGM’s lion roar, see a windmill blade turn in the distance, smell the earthy smell of lavender goat milk soap, pet the soft ear of a Nubian and when my eyes fall into her mysteriously sad eyes.
Gloria’s Got Goat is a fictional short story, first story in a series, that brings forth the traditions of an old small town and the melancholy for a childhood that has become etherial. It casts shadows about such social issues of gun control, accepting outsiders, culture assimilation, vigil ante behavior, environmental challenges handed down to the next generation and unconditional love.
This short story will be told in a live on-air radio style with a couple of foley artists. I have teamed up with a talented group, see bios below. This event could not exist without the phenomenal support and collaboration with Poetry Center San Jose and their invite with Well-RED Series, we all present to you a fun filled night at Works gallery in San Jose (Works/San Jose, 365 South Market Street, edge of San Jose Convention Center) on Tuesday, May 14th at 7pm.
KMart (Kimy Martinez) has a MFA degree in Poetry and Screenwriting at San Jose State University. She has received her BA in Theatre Performance at the University of Portland, Oregon. She has founded the event Poets N Film with Cinequest Film Festival. She is Co-Founder of Stabbydoll Media, a film company. She has multiple awards including the 2018 Virginia de Araujo Academy of American Poets Prize award for her poem “Big Brother.” Kimy converted one of her epic poems into a short screenplay and then created a short film. It played at 2016 Cinequest Film Festival. She has developed this short screenplay into a full feature screenplay which is now being reviewed for production.
Kimy has been a script reader for Cinequest Film Festival and now for Taliesin Nexus Screenwriting Competition for the John Milius Screenwriting Award. She has written several full features, shorts, and a pilot. Her work dives into the subject matters of addiction, poverty, identity-crisis, simulacrum, and outsider identity conflicting in a conformed society.
She has been published in Caesura as well as REED Magazine 150th Issue and had served as their lead poetry editor in 2016-2017. She had been the art editor of the online e-zine, LitNImage. Kimy has published her art work in Experienced: Rock Music Tales of Fact & Fiction Edited by Roland Goity and John Ottey and 7 Powers of Creating by Halfdan Hussey.
You will find her videos and blog at kmartist.com and her film production work at stabbydoll.com
Chris Knight is the co-founder of Stabbydoll Media, an amateur cinematographer and photographer, and a noise maker.
Anthony Bellon is an aspiring writer, filmmaker, actor, and humorist. A native to the SF Bay Area, he graduated with a Film and Television production degree from DeAnza college and has been involved with both stage and film productions. Anthony was recently published as an author by the Sherezade Press. He is currently developing several short subject stories and screenplays as well as a series of sci-fi novels.
Kristina Robertson is a confessional poet who writes with authenticity and brazen honesty. She was a member of the 2009 and 2010 San Jose Poetry Slam Team and Co-Hosted Word Village Open Mic and Golden State Slam in Oakland from 2009-2013. She has currently been sharing her poetry at numerous open mics and events in San Jose including exhibits presented by "Chopsticks Alley” which promotes Southeast Asian cultural heritage through the creative, shared expression of art.
G.Willikers is a singer, songwriter, poet and musician currently fronting the multi-genred San Jose based band the Rebelskamp. Also working on a number of musical projects such as Billy Sheen (electro synth indie pop trio) as well as a Solo psychedelic acoustic project.
Alicia Parke lives in San Jose, and works as a private chef in the area. She is involved in performing/acting and is a patron of the poetry/art scene in San Jose. She is an active board member at Stabbydoll Media.
James Pollard started acting at the age of thirteen in his first lead roll of the prime minister in “The Emporer’s New Clothes”, and the villain, “Dr. Sedjwick” in “Superman”. He has also been in two short films recently with Stabbydoll Media productions. For James, the time in front of a live audience or the camera is a magical time in which the observer is transported into an intentional artificial environment where the unexpected is quite plausible. James paints on canvas, and writes poems and short stories in his spare time. He has been in Subzero Festival in 2010,2013, 2014, and 2015 as well as donating work to the Works Gallery for auctions.