By C.S. Gilbert

 

CULTURE VULTURE / How Lucky Are We? Redux

 

OMG, I mean really, how lucky are we to live in Key West?

I fully intended to put this column to bed after the last edition, which wished everyone Happy Holidays etc. etc., and wake it up in the new year. But these past few days were a gift that cried for sharing.

First, chronologically, was another wonderful Thursday Walk on White, most specifically the now regular treat of HiPso Facto mini-concerts at the Coffee Mill Dance Studio. Penny Leto and her crew of colleagues and students have never failed to delight, and this week featured the youngest members of the company. There is real potential magic in the Coffee Mill Junior Dance Collective, which performed classic ballet to “Nutcracker Suite” – to say nothing of the fun of an even younger troupe of rap dancers called Coffee Mill Crew, in addition to Judith Cisneros’ always culturally educational Turkish Gypsy dance.

The knock-your-socks-off moment, however, belongs to The Studios of Key West resident poet Denise Kumani Gantt, who offered a reading that immediately brought to mind a young Maya Angelou. Kumani Gantt, however, is more intense, biting, out there and feminist than Angelou, embracing the difficult theme of our society’s tendency still to accept the male objectification of the female. It was sort of love at first verse. She leaves Key West this week for residencies in Oregon and elsewhere . . . but we can only hope she gets sand in her shoes and returns, perhaps to stay, one day.

Finally, there was Gingerbread Square Gallery’s 40th anniversary opening show, a sophisticated and understated evening of champagne and sweets hosted by Jeff Birn with the presence of legendary local artist Sal Salinero.

If I’d had the energy I could’ve caught the Love Lane Gang at McConnell’s, and there is no doubt at all that they are the happening local band for 2013-14. They are lively, eclectic, original, energetic, happy, delightful and (as the old saw has it) just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

How lucky are we? We have entertaining theater, dance, fine art and poetry (the Key West Poetry Guild meets the first Sunday of each month, thus January 5, 7 p.m. upstairs at Blue Heaven; just come and listen, if you prefer) to say nothing of temperate weather and great bars with music. The prospects for 2014 are very bright.

Catch you in the new year!

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