Birdie's New Mexico Time Machine

Not a small thing

Thanks for all the kind comments you left at my students' website, United World Radio. These kids are incredible. They read every comment out loud to the class, each one met with whoops and applause. They are working even harder because of your kindness. I can't begin to thank each of you enough. I am grateful.

Please stop by again when you get a chance and read the great update that my student, Ty, composed. Their shows will be live and online in just a few more days! We're down to the crunch! This weekend will be busy with a radio sleepover at my house and an all day editing party on Sunday. Their show is now listed at iTunes, so you can subscribe to their free podcast.

This is a small town, a poor town. Most of my students come from poor families, from difficult home lives. This radio show is the biggest thing they have ever done. I am so proud of their courage and determination.

The Colors of Peace

King David with Harp, lithograph, Marc Chagall

In the midst of dark, war-torn 1939, artist Marc Chagall feared his days were numbered. The Nazis marched toward Paris, toward the small enclave of artists and intellectuals housing the middle-aged Russian Jew. Chagall hid his works as best he could; he placed his etchings on Biblical themes - the beginnings of a series he started after a visit to Palestine - in a locked trunk and shipped them to a Swiss friend.

"These thoughts occurred to me many years ago when I first stepped on biblical ground preparing to create etchings for the Bible," Chagall mused, many years later. "And they emboldened me to bring my modest gift to the Jewish people which always dreamed of biblical love, of friendship and peace among all peoples."

Chagall was saved by an American journalist, in one of the most extraordinary sagas of World War II. Varian Fry, a classical scholar and writer, met with Eleanor Roosevelt with a plan to find many of the century's most famous artists and intellectuals and helping them escape from Nazi-occupied France. He arrived in the French port city of Marseilles armed with only three thousand dollars and a list of two hundred names. Fry set to work, manufacturing sets of false identification, and setting up a careful escape route through the patrolled countryside.

In a rescue operation unprecedented in modern times, Fry managed to save a virtual roll call of twentieth-century genius. Among the lucky, including Chagall, were the artists Marcel Duchamp, Andre Masson, and Max Ernst; writers Franz Werfel and Heinrich Mann; Nobel Prize winner Otto Meyerhof; and musicians Erich Itor-Kahn and Wanda Landowska. Alma Mahler also escaped, bringing with her original scores composed by her first husband, Gustav Mahler, and manuscript symphonies by Georg Bruckner.

Chagall's works were forever changed by Fry's bravery. He retrieved his unfinished works and began to paint, adding bold splashes of color that spoke of joy, of a deep inner belief in peace.

"Will God or someone give me the power to breathe my sigh into my canvases, the sigh of prayer and sadness, the prayer of salvation, of rebirth?" Chagall mused after his escape.

Chagall finished his Bible series, a set of color lithographs, in 1956, and continued to paint for thirty-nine more years until his death in 1985 at the age of 97. The Ray Drew Gallery at NMHU is showing an exhibition of these lithographs through December 18.

Chagall's work shows great sensitivity to his subjects. King David's face turns to one side, captured in muted pinks, a gesture of submission to a higher force. Angels are seemingly sketched with pen somehow above paper, the delicate lines giving flight to invisible wings.

Chagall never denied his religious faith, and the ways it inspired his work. "Ever since my earliest youth I have been fascinated by the Bible. I have always believed that it is the greatest source of poetry of all time," said Chagall. "The Bible is an echo of nature, and this I have endeavoured to transmit. In art everything is possible, so long as it is based on love."

The Bible, lithographs by Marc Chagall, exhibit at the Ray Drew Gallery, Las Vegas, New Mexico. The Ray Drew Gallery is on the first floor of the Donnelly Library on the NMHU campus, and is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This article first appeared in the Las Vegas Optic.

Don't Shoot! I'm Just the Avon Lady! Is Now Available! In Hardcover!

Ramses waits impatiently for his copy to arrive!

My memoir, Don't Shoot! I'm Just the Avon Lady! is now available to order! Thank you to my publisher, Menendez Publishing!

From inside the front book jacket:

For Birdie Jaworski, life as an Avon Lady was a bittersweet mix of embarking on gossip-worthy adventures, searching for Mr. Right, and making emergency lotion requests in the middle of the night... while managing as a single parent. This collection of short stories—including “Mullet Madness,” “Fat Ass Evidence,” and “Wherein I Test a Product on an Animal”—captures Jaworski’s complicated relationship with the cosmetics giant (and her customers) and reveals a surprising and touching account of her personal life.

You can take a look at the book and order your copy here.

If you would like a signed copy, please order your book, and when it arrives, you can send it to me with return postage enclosed, and I will write a beautiful, personal inscription to you inside the front cover and enclose a hand-made bookmark... AND an Avon sample! Ya can't beat that! Just drop me an email and I will tell you my home address.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Caption the Turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving to One and All! We're staying home today. The boys caught one of the bugs flying around town, so we're taking it easy and slow. We were going to meet up with my dear friend John Bell and his sweet family, but we didn't want to spread the illness. Rats! My boys invented a unique and extremely fun game that they built for John's son and daughter. I will take photos and write about it when I get a chance.

This morning, I'm baking homemade cinnamon buns and making spiced cider. The day after Thanksgiving, I support Buy Nothing Day. I will take a walk into the woods to collect shaggy mane mushrooms for dinner, I will work on a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle with my boys, but I won't set foot into a store. 

If you live in northeast New Mexico, please attend this Sunday's raptor presentation. See my little news article below. I attended last Spring, and it was incredible.

Oh! In good news! We have a beautiful new camera! Yay for Uncle R., who sent us his fancy, professional, expensive camera with the huge lens when he heard my camera died. Expect some great shots once the boys are up and around... and I figure out how to use the dang thing!

Raptors Descend on Las Vegas, New Mexico

Laura Swartz stretches the wing of a red-tailed hawk

Laura Swartz lifted her arm parallel to floor. A red-tailed hawk dug into her long-sleeved shirt. The steady arch of his beak feigned nonchalance, but his eyes captured every tiny motion in the room. Swartz wore a heavy canvas glove for protection. Her movements were sure, rehearsed. She spread the hawk's right wing. An audience of forty Las Vegas residents leaned forward to examine the raptor's plumage.

"Look at his gorgeous feathers. They're considered sacred by some Native American tribes, and are used in religious ceremonies," lectured Swartz. "These feathers are designed for conservation of energy during flight. Red-tailed hawks will hover and ride the thermals as much as they can. Their active flight is slow and ponderous, but even so they typically travel 20 to 40 miles per hour."

Swartz paused to relax the hawk's wing. He lunged, one leg rising from her arm, talons ready to slash in defensive reflex. The afternoon spring sun cast feathered shadows against the full conference room, making the hawk appear six times his already large size. The audience gasped.

"He's a fiesty one," laughed Swartz. "It's hard to believe he was brought into the Center half alive after being hit by a car."

Swartz is an educator and wildlife specialist at The Santa Fe Raptor Center, a non-profit organization which assists in the rehabilitation, release and preservation of New Mexico's native wild birds. The Raptor Center's special focus is on the treatment of injured and orphaned birds of prey. Last year, 201 wild songbirds were cared for by the Center's trained rehabbers. Of these, 110 were released into appropriate environments. Nineteen raptors - injured or orphaned - were taken in, and eleven of them were released back into the wild.

"We can't release every raptor we save," explained Swartz. "We do our best. Some birds come to us with catastrophic injuries that take months of care and rehab to cure. It's ultimately not our decision which birds can be released; it's up to the bird himself as well as the New Mexico Game and Fish Department. It's illegal for any person or group to keep a raptor without a special reason and permit. This is one of the reasons why this program is so special."

This Sunday, the Friends of the Las Vegas Wildlife Refuge will host The Santa Fe Raptor Center in a live raptor presentation at the refuge headquarters. Laura and Blair Swartz of Los Alamos along with Lori Paras of Eldorado will show a red-tailed hawk, a tiny flammulated owl, as well as several "surprise" birds.

"This is the third time we've hosted The Santa Fe Raptor Center," said Jan Arrott, the Friends' President.  "They put on an excellent program. The community is invited to attend, but please be aware that seating is limited to forty individuals. This is an incredible show for children as well as adults. You won't get the chance to see these gorgeous birds so close in any other setting."

During the last Las Vegas program, Blair Swartz held a flammulated owl in one hand. The bird twisted his head in the strange 180-degree curve only owls know. Swartz scratched the owl between the twin tufts of feathers on his head.

"That owl was so cute!" exclaimed Jacob Denkins, age 11, after the program. "I thought this would be boring, but I'm glad I came. I learned about all kinds of raptors and how to take care of one if I find one hurt on the road. I'm definitely coming back."

Santa Fe Raptor Center program at the Las Vegas New Mexico National Wildlife Refuge, Sunday Nov. 25, noon and 1:30 p.m. Seating is limited to 40; please come early! Free!

Please give my students some encouragement

My students have been working hard on United World Radio, their new internet radio show where they will highlight Cultivators of Hope from around the world.

They put together a short (9-minute) preview based on the immersion trip through northern New Mexico they took a few months back. The show has teaser interviews with a scientist who was locked in Biosphere 2 for two years, an activist in Santa Fe who works with teens and art, and an original Hippie from The Hog Farm.

You can listen to their show at United World Radio.

Please give them an encouraging comment!

They did EVERYTHING - from designing their site and logo to recording to scripting to editing to composing and singing the theme song! I am so proud of them! Their production values are steadily increasing, so the next shows they post will be even better. I think this is a great start.

Sixth Grade Sounds of Hope

First published in the Las Vegas Optic, November 15:

Si Khan with the Rio Gallinas 6th Grade class.

Billie Mathews’ sixth grade class listened attentively as Si Khan addressed the Rio Gallinas School student assembly.

“Each of us has a voice. What we do with that voice is up to each one of us. Will you use your voice for good? To make a difference in the world? Only you can answer that question.” Khan arched his left fingers in a minor chord before launching into the next song. “My heart tells me you will all use your voices for good.”

Khan, the author of several textbooks on community organizing, is a long time folk musician and labor and community organizer. Based in North Carolina, he is visiting New Mexico to lay the groundwork for a statewide campaign to address disproportionate spending on prisons, jails, and detention centers. His songs have been covered by over one hundred artists across the world.

“I use my music to help spread my message,” explains Khan. “I would rather see money being spent on schools and alternatives to incarceration. I can sing about the way life is, and I can sing about the way life might be if we all worked together.”

Mathews,  an accomplished flutist, knew her sixteen students would carefully consider Khan’s message and music. Christina Litherland grinned as she described her semester-wide class project.

“We’re studying the New Mexico tradition of corridos, folks songs that tell a good story about brave people who make a difference. Si Khan is one of those people. We’re writing a corrido about him.”

Mathews’ class calls their project the Sounds of Hope. Students have learned to read and compose music as well as play recorders. They researched songwriters of hope, like Khan, including Roberto Mondragon, Rena, Robert Mirabal, and John Trudell. As their studies progressed, students participated in face-to-face interview meetings with their chosen songwriters, and learned what passions drive their work.

Zachary Lujan laughed when asked about his Si Khan corrido. “I am working with two other students. We have to agree on lyrics and melody. The most important thing is for our song to have a message, just like Si Khan’s songs. Anyone can write a song. But we want to write something that makes a difference,” he said.

The sixth-graders plan to perform their original corridos from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on December 6 at the UWC Kluge Auditiorium. Mathews summed up the class’ anticipation after attending Khan’s concert.

“These students are doing amazing work. They can read and write their own music. When we play music together, I can tell how good they feel about what they’re learning. They’ve learned that they can carry on an important local tradition and take it into the future.”

Las Vegas, New Mexico is the Real Star of No Country for Old Men

The Serf Theatre fills for the No Country for Old Men premier

Las Vegas the Real Star of No Country for Old Men
by Birdie Jaworski

A man carrying a hunting rifle squints. He stands on the rim of a bowl-shaped depression, his mustache dripping with sweat. Heat rises from sparse desert scrub, from the splay of dust-splattered pick-up trucks belching bloodied flesh. His boots barely sink into ground as he gingerly makes his way down the canyon side; there is no water, no comfort, nothing to absorb the fury of maggot and sun.

Las Vegas residents held their breath Wednesday night as Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin, hit boot against rock in the New Mexican premiere of “No Country for Old Men.” Adapted by Ethan and Joel Coen from the novel of the same name, the film closely follows Cormac McCarthy’s meditation on violence scene-by-scene with a judicious sprinkle of the directors’ trademark black wit. Tommy Lee Jones is good Texas sheriff Ed Tom Bell on an endless hunt for deadpan sociopath Anton Chigurh, played with understated intensity by Javier Bardem, but the real star of the film is Las Vegas whose historic buildings, tree-lined plaza, and residents whisk the viewer to small-town Texas thirty-years ago.

Twin spotlights bled into the crisp night air as hundreds of aspiring movie goers descended on Douglas Avenue. Lines formed on both sides of the Serf Theatre. Trinity Chenard drove from Denver to attend the premiere. She wrapped her soft pink scarf tightly around her head and neck to repel the quickly dropping temperature.

“I can’t wait to see this,” Chenard said. “I have been a Coen brothers fanatic since “Blood Simple.” I’m glad they’re going back to their roots. I don’t know much about Las Vegas, so I spent an hour driving around town this afternoon so I could recognize the scenes in the film.”

Chenard didn’t hold a ticket, but she was one of the few lucky hopefuls to find an empty seat inside the mural-lined room.  The Serf quickly filled to capacity, and the disappointed and cold ticketless were told they could attend a special second screening the following night. Local filmmaker Marine Dominguez took the stage of the Serf, microphone in hand, and thanked a long list of community services and businesses, politicians, and volunteers for making “No Country for Old Men” and the evening’s premiere a success.

“We have folks here from all over,” Dominguez informed the crowd. “We have people who participated in the filmmaking process both locally and in Los Angeles. We even have someone here from the New York Times.”  The crowd erupted in cheers at the mention of each name and city.

Betsy Rogers, a photographer and writer who lives in both Santa Fe and New York stood in her aisle and snapped pictures with an elaborate camera. “I’ve been fascinated with Las Vegas for many years,” Rogers explained. I’ve been working on a photo journal essay for quite some time.  I’ve gotten to know some of the families who have called Las Vegas home for twelve generations. This is a big moment for the city.”

The lights dimmed, and a nervous hush fell over the theatre. Giggles and small cheers broke the tension when local residents and landmarks filled the screen. The biggest whoops were reserved for the Mexico border crossing and a night-time pan down Douglas Ave. The Serf, marquee lit against the muted blues, blacks and grays that give the film its signature desolate look, made viewers feel as if they were inside the scene itself, a film within a film.

The Coens stole the darkness from Las Vegas, captured its most forgotten spaces, its bleakest tones, cobbled them together to create a border town on the edge of death, a place tired, drugged, achingly sincere in its place on the edge of the desert. Though the town plays the character of West Texas poverty, the homes and businesses that fly by still hold incredible charm, still retain some warmth the Coens couldn’t hide.

The Hotel Plaza - called the Eagle’s Pass in the film - hosts a chase scene.  Moss waits on the edge of his rented bed, shotgun in hand, a valise filled with cash in the other. He figures out how Chigurh tracked him, knows that this hotel marks life or death. The Coens deftly capture the tension of justice. The stairs creak with deliberation. Moss watches the hallway darken as the killer approaches. The film is bleak, frightening, tightrope taut, brilliant.

Viewers murmured as they filed out the theatre. The film punches you in the gut, leaves you watching over your shoulder, aware. Las Vegas resident Zane Burden, age 12, shook his head as he described his most haunting scene, a car accident.

“It was right in front of my house. I’ll never look at my street the same way again.”

Next week! And Movie Trivia.

This is the isbn number for my book! And it will be out NEXT WEEK!

Anyone seen No Country for Old Men yet? Yup. I made it in the film. Can you find me? Kinda like Where's Waldo. (No, I'm not the weird hotel lady with the bouffant!!)

The gift you should buy for every Avon Lady you know

Don't know what to get your Avon Lady for Christmas? I have just the thing! You can order your copy here, SOON!

I have much more to say about my memoir, about my journey to write and publish it, and will tell all in a fun story soon. Many thanks to Didi Menendez of Mipoesias for believing in my work.