HAIKU NORTH AMERICA

Haiku North America is pleased to welcome Deborah P Kolodji as a new director of the organization, a nonprofit corporation currently led by Garry Gay, Paul Miller, and Michael Dylan Welch. Debbie co-organized the 2013 HNA conference aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. She has been active in haiku circles for many years, and her poems are widely published. She currently coordinates the California region for the Haiku Society of America and moderates the Southern California Haiku Study Group. Read more about Debbie at the HNA Directors page. She brings a wealth of poetic and organizational experience to HNA, and will be particularly involved in our website. Welcome, Debbie!

Here are the official group photos - a serious one and a fun one.   Thanks to Garry Gay for arranging and taking the photo on the steps of the Nott Memorial at Union College.

Haiku North America - Autumn Term - 2015

HNA 2015 haiku poets - "You make me want to shout!"

  About three weeks ago, anticipating the hearty crowd of haijin that would be collecting at The Desmond and Union College for HNA 2015, I posted the plea "we need a collective noun", and asked for help finding "a good collective noun for a very large group of haiku poets." If you click the above link, you'll see that the posting evoked some interesting and inspired suggestions, but no conclusions were drawn. 

  Today, as HNA 2015 closes, and especially after opening my trusty old American Heritage College Dictionary (3rd Edition, 1993) to the section starting with the verb and noun "troll" and going to "Anthony Trollope", I'd like to nominate the collective noun "trolley": to wit, "a trolley of haiku poets." 

As sleepy as I am this evening in my cozy Schenectady apartment on Cucumber Alley, I am quite pleased that I don't have to explain things to the bright and insightful haijin who commuted back and forth from The Desmond to Union College for Haiku North America 2015. Naturally, our Comment section is open for your reactions (pro or con), and for haiku, senryu, tanka, renku, rengay, or haibun incorporating the word "trolley."

Saturday, October 17, brought more beauty and haikai inspiration to end the Union College portion of our Autumn Term.  Union College and Schenectady might be a tough act to follow for Sante Fe, NM, the location of HNA 2017.

This Gallery presents photos taken throughout the Union College "classroom [and lunch]" portion of Day Four (by David Giacalone). Like Days 1 through 3, there was plenty of intellectual and visual stimulation, along with haijin camaraderie and conviviality. 

The following Slideshow presents images captured inside the Nott Memorial, especially the "Colors of Japan" concert presented by The Union College Japanese Drumming Ensemble, Zakuro-Daiko, directed by Professor Jennifer Milioto Matsue. A few ending outdoor scenes are included, paying tribute to the beauty of the Union College campus in autumn.

Click this link for an article in the Albany Times Union, "Haiku fans flock to Union College in Schenectady," with a slideshow of 11 photos.  The pictures are more fun than the text.

 Wow. What a beautiful day. What a lovely campus. What a great bunch of presenters and attendees. I hope Day 2 of Haiku North America 2015 pleased all of our registrants as much as it pleased me. I still can't decide which collective nouns might best capture our collective presence. It certainly did seem like a Season and Resonance of haiku poets, and a bountiful Harvesting of Haijin. 

I could not be in as many places as I might have hoped, but here are some of my photo memories of October 15, 2015 at Union College

And, here are arbitrary moments from other venues at HNA 2015, day two.

My day started here, at my backyard on the Mohawk River in the Stockade, and got better. 

Thanks to everyone who came on our journey yesterday down Rt. 2 to the Clark Art Institute. It was a lovely and enjoyable way to kick off our celebration of haijin and haikai. As expected, seeing old friends and getting to know new ones made the beautiful vistas and art even more inspiring.  I'm sure a lot of my fellow travelers took better photos than I, but here's a slideshow from my digital record of the Foliage and Art Tour. s/David
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Whether you are en route or already at The Desmond, your Local Organizing Committee wants to send each Conference attendee a warm welcome, and hopefully soon give you all a smile and a hug in person. Even if we look a little harried as we put on our first conference ever, we are all smiling on the inside and glad to see October 14 and all our haiku friends finally arrive. Please let us know how we can make your Conference an enjoyable and inspiring success. Your Conference Program is filled with helpful information, so you will want to keep it with you. The Schedule is also online here. [Photo: The Route 9 Haiku Group [L to R]: Tom Clausen, John Stevenson, Hilary Tann & Yu Chang]

 If you're still packing, you might want to know that the expected highs for Schenectady and Albany the next few days are upper 50s and low 60s (with lows near 40º), but by Saturday and Sunday the highs may be about 50º, with lows around 30º [click for Weather.com forecast] We will help keep you cozy, and expect the sun and clouds to be engaged in a playful dance. Of course, the Union Campus (and the Schenectady Stockade) look lovely and fashionable in gray, too. 

  Also, as you can see by the map detail to the left, the venues for the Conference are huddled comfortably around a yard/lawn with Nott Memorial at its center. 

If you have room for a foldable umbrella, packing it might be prudent, and make you popular with haijin friends.

​STOCKADE GINKO - Rain or Shine update: At this point, Friday seems to be the only day when the weather might disrupt outdoor activity. However, should the weather be too inclement for a leisurely stroll through the Historic Stockade at the end of the afternoon on Friday, we're pleased to say that the Union Trolley will take us for a slow, riding-ginko tour of the Stockade, with commentary by me, David Giacalone, that may be occasionally senryu-inducing.

Learn more about the Stockade, with lots of fall photos, here. And click here to see its Riverside Park (along the Mohawk River) in autumn.