Once upon a time, before we knew the meaning of the term “COVID-19,” seniors at La Quinta High School, in La Quinta, California, who had taken a two-year college level literature course as part of our International Baccalaureate (IB) program, celebrated their studies with a Grand Finale called Literature Live. We used to call this kind of performance “street theater,” or “a happening.” Imagine a garden of statues but these figures didn’t come from the far shores of human history, no tributes to ancient generals, presidents, rebels or martyrs here. Instead, they came from our imaginations and from the printed page, from the minds of Shakespeare, Sophocles, Chekhov, Faulkner; from Jorges Luis Borges or from Jane Austen or Toni Morrison, our novelists, our poets, our playwrights. Students, costumed as characters from these works, posed in miniature sets of their own design, stood still as stone, until our visitors triggered them by giving our statue Hamlets a sword, or by saying hello to Lady Macbeth. And then the statues spoke -- about their lives, their sorrows, their triumphs. The statues brought literature to life as our high school seniors shared their literary learning with the community.
This year, La Quinta High School’s IB English seniors have reenvisioned this end of year event, and here we offer the Grande Finale of 2020, when anything “live”-- including audience members strolling in a statue garden - could not take place safely. We give you our new alternative, our unique contribution to this La Quinta High School tradition,
Literature Live Anyway! A Website Home for This Year’s Cast of Characters
This year, instead of walking among statues, just click on a square, and watch a scene from a novel, short story or play unfold. Find some of your own literary favorites: Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude, or the family of King Lear, updated for the Era of the Zoom Meeting, just for starters. We have also expanded this year’s celebration to include some La Quinta High school poets -- finalists and the winner of this year’s Poet Laureate Contest. Finally, see also on display in our virtual art gallery the art work of many La Quinta High School’s fine visual artists.
We have discovered again that the best of creation is collaborative, and this website would not exist without the tireless efforts of our IB English senior, Co-producer Sammy Merabet and the technical assistance of Mr. Alex Jackson. All of our contributors thank both of you, sirs, gentlemen and scholars for the ages.
And last, to the authors, poets and playwrights who gave us this literature, to our school that gave us a place to study and share our knowledge and to the love of learning, we dedicate this page.
Read on!
Respectfully submitted, Laura Bickford
Every year, LQHS hosts a poetry competition in which students send in their best works of short poetry for judging. We weren't able to recognize the poet laureates quite as much as we wanted to this year, so we invited them to share the stage and present their poetry here!
In past years, Literature Live has been accompanied by the works and exhibits of our LQHS artists. We wanted to still include all of our artists in this year's event, so we've compiled all of their art for you to view here.
The works featured on this site were intended to be submitted to the Palm Springs Art Museum as part of a competition the museum was holding. Students were encouraged to create something under the theme of "Hidden Worlds," and their works were to be exhibited at the museum. While the museum still plans on displaying their work on their own website, we think that it's only fair to offer these talented and diligent artists wherever we can during these hectic times.
Each work also comes with a statement by the artist, and some works have additional photos of different perspectives, so we encourage you to click through 'em!