The CAC Fellowship will support my ongoing creative art practice by giving me time to develop more writing and to publish a backlog of work. I have several book-length poetry manuscripts, and material from ongoing projects including travel journals and memoir—including meeting with poets and artists in the USSR, and Latin America when I traveled with mentor poet/translator, John Oliver Simon.
I am also a photographer with a large archive of photos of notable poets and writers that spans 40 years. I’m in the process of scanning thousands of negatives that I plan to make available with my writing via print and web before I die. I‘m 71. COVID taught me that time is finite. Some of my B&W photography is online here My historic photos of poets and notable people have recently appeared in The Weed Museum traveling exhibit, and the soon-to-be-released Julia Vinograd documentary, Between Spirit & Stone.
During COVID isolation, I joined several Zoom writing groups which led my writing in new directions. One writing group I belong to has generated enough new material for several full length books, one of which I've submitted to Gunpowder Press.
In the previous narrative boxes, I've discussed my teaching career—and about passing on the baton. I discovered it's important to train other artists in order to facilitate change through the poetic process. Then there is the next generation of students to carry on the tradition. Teaching has been at the epicenter of my creative process, and inspiring others also informs my own work. I discovered I do not work in a vacuum, I need interaction with community, whether it's protesting against the government or social injustice, or reflecting upon the environment. But now it's time to pull back, and make my own work available to larger audiences.
I’ve worked 4 decades in Bay Area schools, teaching poetry & art to historically underserved students in both rural and inner city schools, including East Oakland & Hunters’s Point, developing culturally relevant arts programming. I’ve administered/taught in CAC multi-artist residencies including Poetry Flash (current), PBS/KQED Artist-in-Residency grant, & two Oakland Cultural Arts Council grants. I’ve had 7 individual CAC/Artist-in-Residency grants in Sonoma & Napa counties; plus Montana Arts Council grants.
I've led arts workshops in the Western US & Florida, Bahamas, Netherlands & former USSR. I’ve worked with all demographics, including inmates at Napa State Hospital, elders, preschoolers. I’ve mentored/ trained artists, writers and teachers via arts organizations including California Poets in the Schools, Young Audiences, and Rural Arts Services. In 1978, I volunteered for The Child in Changing Times conference—which led to writing poetry with Michael Dow. He recruited me for California Poets in the Schools where, by working with children, I facilitate dialogue and change within the socio-political environment. This community work juices my own writing.
I received several CAC/Artist-in-Residency grants to teach history, poetry & art in Sonoma County schools. During the Chernobyl crisis, a student blurted, we oughta nuke those Commies—we had a discussion on peace, environment and facilitating change—and created a poetry & art exchange with the USSR. I visited Russia 4 times, carrying poetry & art from students & adults—reciprocated by Soviet artists. A Kostior article founded a penpal poetry exchange with Soviets across the USSR (which led to marriage proposals). I also taught workshops with John Oliver Simon’s Poetry Across Frontiers project at the Museo de Antropología in Mexico City. Both these programs led to large poetry translation projects/publications/readings. For 20 years I've produced readings, workshops, and poetry festivals showcasing local and national writers. Community work is essential, and feeds my own creativity.
The CAC Fellowship will support my ongoing creative art practice by giving me time to develop more writing and to publish a backlog of work. I have several book-length poetry manuscripts, and material from ongoing projects including travel journals—meeting with poets and artists in the USSR, and Latin America when I worked with mentor poet/translator John Oliver Simon.
I am a documentary photographer with a large archive of photos of notable poets and writers that spans 40 years. I’m in the process of scanning thousands of negatives that I plan to make available via print and web before I die. I‘m 71. COVID taught me that time really is finite. If not now, when? Some of my photography is online at https://maureenhurleyphotos.blogspot.com. My historic photos of poets and notable people have recently appeared in The Weed Museum traveling exhibit, and the soon-to-be-released Julia Vinograd documentary, Between Spirit & Stone.
During COVID isolation, I joined several Zoom writing groups which led my writing in new directions. One CAlPoets writing group I belong to has generated enough new material for a full length book, which I've submitted to Gunpowder Press.
In the previous narrative boxes, I've discussed my CPITS teaching career—and about passing on the baton, its important to train other artists in order to facilitate change through the poetic process. Teaching has been at the epicenter of my creative processes, and inspiring others also inspires my own work. I discovered I can't work in a vacuum, I need interaction with community, whether it's protesting against the government or social injustice or reflecting upon the environment to inform and inspire my own work. But now it's time to pull back, and focus on my own work, make it available to larger audiences.
Visual artist and poet, Maureen Hurley is a West Marin native who flourished on Coast Miwok lands. She teaches poetry and art residencies in Bay Area schools. She is recipient of numerous CAC/AIS, and other arts grants and awards including nominations for the Golden Bell Award, & the Kawasaki Award. She’s taught arts programming to students of all ages throughout California and beyond—including Montana, Bahamas, Mexico, Netherlands, and the former USSR. Maureen Hurley is a photographer and poet whose work is widely published in print and in electronic anthologies. She’s won awards for her writing, and received several Pushcart nominations. She was nominated as the first Sonoma County Poet Laureate, Her photos are featured in an upcoming documentary on Berkeley street poet, Julia Vinograd: Between Spirit & Stone. Her recent poems have appeared in Spectrum; Fly Like the Clouds of Time; The Freedom of New Beginnings: Poems of Witness and Vision from Sonoma County, California; Memories of Southern California; California Fire and Water; Our Lady of the Avenue; and the US Air Force Literature and the Arts. She has poems forthcoming in Catching the Last Light, a CPITS teaching anthology, and has a book-length manuscript submitted to Gunpowder Press.
LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION FOR MAUREEN HURLEY
To Whom it May Concern:
Forty years ago, Maureen Hurley taught an after-school poetry class at my high school under the auspices of California Poets in the Schools. She really got me hooked on the stuff. What more can you ask of a teacher than that they inspire a student to travel new paths and try out new ways of thinking?
I have followed Mo’s career over the years — her continued work with CPITS as a teacher, editor, organizer, her poems as they have appeared in literary magazines like SFSU’s Fourteen Hills and as she has performed them at Bay Area venues like the Petaluma Poetry Walk, as well as the other projects she’s helped bring to fruition, like a Berkeley’s annual Watershed festival which highlights the interconnectedness of our urban lives and the waters that run through them using poetry, science, and spirit. I have been impressed by the range of Mo’s activity as well as by the good intentions behind it and the clear quality of the results.
Besides her writing, Mo is also an excellent visual artist. Her photography and painting show an eye for striking images, and a practical sense for how to frame such pictures to best effect.
As the coordinator of poetry programs at the Claremont Branch of the Berkeley Public Library it was my honor to invite Maureen Hurley to take part in Clearly Meant, a reading and interview series. More than just a reading, at Clearly Meant we go a bit deeper in the direction of community and the uses of poetry beyond the page, subjects of which I know Mo is especially qualified to speak. She will be our guest poet on a Saturday in February, 2024.
yours sincerely,
Glenn Ingersoll
Library Specialist II
Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch
2940 Benvenue Ave
Berkeley CA 94705
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