-- Download 10 reasons why you should love poetry as PDF --

From coffee house slams to sidewalk chalk, poetry is booming –  especially in Tucson. In celebration of National Poetry Month and the 32^nd Tucson Poetry Festival, we give you ten reasons to love it. By Gillian Drummond.

Photo courtesy of Words on the Avenue

Ask Tucson poet and DJ Logan Phillips why this city is so poetry-rich and he tells you it’s to do with the desert itself, our other-worldly landscape. It lends itself to introspection, says Logan, and in turn, to words. “It has something about it that causes people to stop and think and look at the sky and question what we are doing here and why things are how they are. There is a lot of silence and a lot of sky.”

There is also a lot of noise, literally and figuratively. “It’s so, so vibrant,” says poet Elizabeth Salper of Tucson’s poetry and literary scene. “Everyone is a collaborator and there’s a real feeling of creating and doing new things.”

Elizabeth does her part by delivering poems to her neighbors’ sidewalks, riding around her midtown neighborhood on a bicycle with a basket full of chalk. Logan does his through spoken word poetry programs that reach into Tucson’s schools and coffee houses. Both are examples of why poetry matters in Tucson, and why Tucson matters in poetry. Here are some more:

Top and above: the UA Poetry Center is impressive for its architecture as well as its poetry collections. Photos by Robert Reck

1. The University of Arizona Poetry Center.  Since opening in 1960 (with a dedication by Robert Frost), the University of Arizona Poetry Center has built a collection of 70,000 items and brings poetry to more than 8,000 Arizona school students every year. It helps teachers with lesson plans and adults with community workshops. Plus, it’s a gorgeous place to visit. The current building, designed by Les Wallach and Line and Space, has won several architectural awards for its use of light, inside/outside spaces and for the overall design,  based on the ‘progression towards solitude’ as it moves from busy public spaces to quiet areas of contemplation.

Logan Phillips, poet and DJ. Photo courtesy of Logan Phillips.

2. It’s hip (and hop). Hip hop has changed the landscape for poetry. The overlap between rap and spoken poetry, and poetry and music, is wide. In Tucson alone there are Ezra Letra, Queens-born and UA-educated poet and rapper, as well as Logan Phillips, who when he’s not writing poetry is DJ-ing as DJ Dirty Verbs. Poetry came first for Logan, whose new poetry book Sonoran Strange came out in January. The DJ-ing came about as a way for Logan and fellow poets to provide entertainment after readings and performances. Logan says being a poet has made him a better DJ, and that the two sometimes combine. “I think I do use the mike more than most DJ’s and try to be conscious of how I’m playing and what I’m playing, just like in a poem.”

3. The Tucson Poetry Festival. This year’s festival is spread over three days at Hotel Congress and will include poets Claudia Rankine and Bob Holman among the speakers. But don’t be shy if you don’t consider yourself a huge poetry fan. Writer, artist and the festival’s executive director Teré Fowler-Chapman says one of her aims is to make the festival accessible to all.  “And hopefully someone will leave a big fan.” More at tucsonpoetryfestival.org

Cafe Passe Words on the Avenue

4. It’s enticing the young folks. And let’s face it, when Tumblr and Snapchat are the competition, holding the attention of our youth is no mean feat. Somehow, though, poetry is doing it. Teens are revitalizing the spoken word through poetry youth slams – where they share their poems, often addressing injustice and politics, through stand-up competitions. Here in Tucson, the favorite venue for poetry slams is Bentley’s House of Coffee and Tea, where members of the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam meet monthly between Fall and Spring. The rules: they must be under 19 and their poem must be no more than three minutes long. (The 5th Annual Tucson Youth Poetry Slam Championship takes place Saturday April 18th).

Why all the interest in poetry among the younger generation? “They want to be heard as an adult and as a people. Poetry gives [them] a good way to do that,” says Tere who, with Logan Phillips, teaches creative writing at Eastpointe High School in Tucson. “The biggest thing young people [want] is to be heard and respected for thoughts. If you can share it through a poem it’s received differently.”

5. It connects us. Logan is also a co-director with Sarah Gonzales of Spoken Futures, Inc., whose after school program Liberation Lyrics uses spoken-word poetry to address social justice issues. He says: “The promise of connections through technology was a false promise in a lot of ways. Technology can connect us to people. The question is, what is the quality of that connection? People are seeking a more genuine human interaction and that is storytelling that has been around for as long as we have been.”

Elizabeth Salper , above and below, with one of her poetry chalkings in a midtown neighborhood of Tucson. Photo by Gillian Drummond

Photo by Gillian Drummond

6. It’s a happy thing. Elizabeth Salper, a Tucson librarian who grew up in a poetry-rich household in Los Angeles (her father Donald has the blog Living with Language), knows how happy poetry makes her feel, how much it can change her mood. “I think sometimes poetry taps into a moment that might change someone’s day. Something alters. That’s what poetry can do, it can alter and lift you up.” That’s why she began her email newsletter The Wednesday Poem, which sends a poem to subscribers each Wednesday for free. And it’s why she recently started chalking poetry in Broadmoor, a Tucson midtown neighborhood. She carries chalk in the basket of her bicycle and print-outs of short poems she finds online – many of them Tweetable lengths. “It’s fun [for neighbors] to chance upon them. It’s unexpected. Everything is so lined up these days that I love the surprise of this,” she says.

7. There’s a Tucson poet laureate. Who knew? Her name is Rebecca Seiferle and she teaches college, as well as holds workshops for middle- and high-school students. Rebecca, who has published her own award-winning poetry, was appointed by the Mayor’s office. Which explains a lot, since…

Tucson’s Mayor Jonathan Rothschild is a poet. Photo by Cybele Knowles

8. … Tucson’s Mayor is a poet. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild is a member of the American Academy of Poets and the Poetry Society of America, and author of The Last Clubhouse Eulogy poetry collection. His love of poetry began with his mother reading to him from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. He still reads poetry (although has little time to write it these days), and has read his own at Hotel Congress as part of the Tucson Poetry Festival.

Words on the Avenue is like an open mic night for poets and writers. Photo courtesy of Words on the Avenue

Words on the Avenue takes place at Tucson’s Cafe Passe. Photo courtesy of Words on the Avenue

9. Words on the Avenue. Comedians have open mic night, but what about poets? Thanks to Tere Fowler-Chapman, Words on the Avenue,  gatherings at Café Passé on Tucson’s 4^th Avenue, lets writers share their work. “I’ve seen so many people inspired by it,” says Teré of her project. Further down 4th Avenue, Casa Libre en la Solana also provides a venue for writers to read, as well as a place for workshops, meetings and residencies.

10. It’s portable. Part of National Poetry Month is the Poem in your Pocket Day, which this year happens April 30^th. Launched in New York City, the project is now national and encourages people to carry a favorite poem in their pocket and share it with people. In New York, staff at Poets House hand out pocket-sized poems on the streets to passers-by. For information and print-out poetry designs, visit poets.org.

* Find out more about the Tucson Poetry Festival at tucsonpoetryfestival.org

* Visit the 5th Annual Tucson Youth Poetry Slam Championship at Tucson’s Gallaher Theatre Saturday April 18th.

* Sign up for Elizabeth Salper’s Wednesday Poem here.

More Tucson poetry connections:

* Barbara Kingsolver, author and poet, began her writing career in Tucson, where she lived for two decades.

* Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of four books on poetry, two anthologies and four non-fiction books, lives in Tucson and teaches at the University of Arizona.

* Poet Richard Siken lives in Tucson, where he helps to run Spork Press. His first poetry collection, Crush, wowed critics and won awards. His second, and long-awaited, War of the Foxes, is imminent.

* The Writers Studio, founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Schultz, has a location in Tucson, as well as San Francisco, New York and Amsterdam. It encourages poets and writers to “try on voices” until they find theirs. As well as face-to-face and online classes, The Writers Studio is getting ready to branch into middle  schools and high schools.

-- Download Tucson tea party as PDF --

From peddling chai tea at a farmer’s market to a brand new manufacturing plant, Manish Shah and his Maya Tea Company have barely stood still. And with a stake in a new tea shop chain, there’s more to come. By Gillian Drummond. Cover photo courtesy of Maya Tea Company

Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Company

An Indian man selling tea in the Arizona desert. Manish Shah smiles at the incongruity of it.

But even though Maya Tea Company has its roots in Tucson, and even though its products are a familiar sight in the city’s restaurants and coffee shops, today Tucson serves as a base for something much bigger. The Maya Tea blends and concentrates are transported to around 40 states and more than 1000 restaurants.

Manish Shah. Photo by Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp

Demand is so high that the company just opened an 8,000 sq ft manufacturing and packing plant on the west side of Tucson – an expansion of an old warehouse building and a place that smells more delicious than possibly any business warehouse in existence. There’s plenty of empty space in the plant, and that’s deliberate. Manish has high hopes. He says he overbuilt because he’s anticipating even more demand.

One of his major clients is Tea2Go, a chain of restaurants he supplies with private-label loose leaf tea. The Lubbock, Texas based firm is growing mainly through franchises, with 13 stores open, 24 under construction and plans to be in 58 cities. A Tempe location will open this week, marking the company’s first move into Arizona. A Phoenix location opens in May and two Tucson locations in June (a third will follow on the University of Arizona campus in September).

Manish will have a stake in the first of the Tea2Go locations in Tucson, which will be corporate-owned rather than franchises. And with Maya Tea Company close by, the Tucson locations will be test beds for new products, says Tea2Go president Jeff Hunt. “We plan to try out our new Christmas line first, also some summer teas, like pomegranate,” says Jeff.

If the idea of Texans and Arizonans championing a cup of tea seems odd, Jeff points out that his company’s biggest seller is not hot tea but iced. “Iced tea in Texas is a huge deal.”

Photo by Gillian Drummond

It’s a huge deal in and around Tucson too, where temperatures are above 80 degrees seven months of the year, and hover around 100 degrees for three of them. Maya Tea Company’s second biggest seller is traditional black iced tea, which is big in restaurants. Its best seller, though, is the Maya Chai concentrate that helped launch him on his journey.

For a guy who began by peddling a loose-leaf chai tea blend at the Oro Valley Farmers’ Market  just north of Tucson, the growth of Maya Tea Company is impressive. So what’s Manish’s secret? “I think we do a good job of crafting teas that are real approachable. We use good ingredients. I think we’re just nice to deal with. We do business the right way.” Maya Tea’s slogan is “Serious tea for not-so-serious people”. He scoffs a little at how seriously other tea companies treat the product. “It’s just tea, chill out,” he says.

A collection of ingredients at Maya Tea’s new manufacturing plant. Photo by Gillian Drummond

That’s not to say Manish is chilled out, however. At the Tucson headquarters of Maya Tea, a blink-and-you-miss-it converted house on the city’s north side, he is polite, amenable and frank. He’s also busy. He may be sitting still behind a desk, but you can practically see the wheels turning in that entrepreneurial head. Much as he loves tea, Manish admits it’s business that he really loves. “I always thought I’d be in business in general. I would do this if it was something else [other than tea],” says the man who is also co-executive director of Heirloom Farmers Markets in Tucson.  Apparently it runs in the family. He shares his office with his father and brother, both investors. Next door is the bright blue retro motel that is Paul’s Hide-A-Way Lodge, formerly owned by Manish’s father and the place where Manish and his family grew up.

Mixing an apricot blend at Maya Tea’s new plant. Photo by Gillian Drummond

Three miles to the north of Maya Tea is Tucson Mall and the Dillards department store where Manish used to sell Ralph Lauren polo shirts and, during his down times, daydream about possible business launches and do a lot of sums on his calculator. He was still employed by Dillards when he began selling his tea at that first farmer’s market. The year was 1996 and chai tea was coming into vogue in the USA. Making a  good pot of chai was second nature to this child of Indian parents. During his childhood in Manhattan, he was preparing tea at an early age for a family who would consume three or four pots a day. Then came the family’s move to Tucson, a degree in psychology for Manish, a flirtation with coffee, then a renewed love affair with tea. He now favors oolong, which he makes simply by boiling a pot of water on a stove.

Matcha green tea powder. Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Co.

When Manish put together his first blend of chai – using ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, cardamom and black pepper – it wasn’t great at all, he says. “But people loved it. The second [batch] I fixed and improved, and by the third batch I got to where it was really good.” People at the farmer’s market began asking for more, and he added other blends.

Meanwhile, his day job wasn’t going well. “It was was 2001. We had 9/11. Business tanked. I was a little mouthy. I said a few things I shouldn’t have [at Dillards].” A financial gift from his family helped him pay off his mortgage and give him some breathing room to grow his company. For a while, he had another company manufacturing and packing his tea, but with the new facility in Tucson he’s bringing production back home.

Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Co.

Another successful blend for Maya Tea Co. is Prickly Pear, despite Manish’s initial opposition. He held firm on going the fruity tea route for a long time but his staff wore him down. “I thought it was gross. I don’t like my teas prettied up,” he says. He was also conscious about not getting too cliched: a southwest company providing a typically southwestern-style tea. Prickly pear is now one of their most popular products.

Maya Tea has been approached by another major tea shop chain to be a supplier. This one is in India. If it happens and Manish finds himself taking his tea product back to his home country, he’ll have even more to smile about.

* For more about Maya Tea Company, including recipes, products and accessories, visit mayatea.com

As we head into spring, find more ways to enjoy your tea with these recipes.

Chai Frappé – for day

Maya Tea Company shot glass, mayatea.com. Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Co.

1 oz  Maya or Devi Chai Concentrate

11 oz coconut milk, regular milk, soy milk, half and half
(or any combination of the above)

Blend with ice in a blender until smooth.

 and for night . . .

Chaitini 

2 oz Maya Chai or Devi Chai Concentrate

1 oz Baileys

1/2 oz Frangelico

Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Co.

1/2 oz Kahlua

1/2 oz vanilla vodka

1 oz half & half

Combine in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with cinnamon ground or stick, vanilla bean or chocolate shavings.

(Source for Chaitini recipe: mayachai.com)