Copper Mountain College is hosting Mojave Month, from Saturday, September 14, through Sunday, October 13, 2024. Mojave Month is a month-long celebration of the desert ecology, history, culture, music, film, literature – and more – of our Mojave Desert home. All events are open to the public, most are free to attend.
Mojave Month begins with a day packed full of fun and activities. During the day on Saturday, September 14, CMC will be celebrating the written and spoken word with the HOWLin’ at the Mountain literary presentations and open mic in the Greenleaf Library, 2 – 4 p.m.
This is a CMC/Mojave Sage Writers literary event. Local authors who will be reading include: Greg Gilbert, Ruth Nolan, Heather Heyns (aka Jayce Carter), John Sierpinski, and James DaSilva. Author lineup subject to change.
This will be followed by Howlin’ at the Mountain 2 – a night of great live music under desert stars (and moon. Howlin’ at the Mountain 2 begins at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, September 14, with live music from Hunter & the Wick’d, followed by Orquesta Mamboson, a six-piece Latin band, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Come for live music, dancing on the grass, great Mexican food from Jorge’s Café Fiesta Feast, and margaritas from the CMC Foundation’s Margarita Garden – all under the desert stars at Copper Mountain College in Joshua Tree. The evening’s entertainment is free, and the public is welcome. Bring blankets or folding chairs to sit on the grass, and no outside food or drink please.
Following Howlin’ at the Mountain 2, Mojave Mondays will feature Murder, Mayhem & the Mojave: A Night on the Old Spanish Trail. This presentation on Monday, September 16 at 6 p.m., is for Hispanic Heritage Month, and is a Paul and Jane Smith Desert History Lecture.
Mojave Mondays continues on September 23 at 7 p.m. with the screening: Of Bombs & Men, a rare public screening of a special cut of the award-winning project that began as “Scrapper,” a 2011 documentary about the scrapper community around Niland on the east side of the Salton Sea where residents make their living through gathering “scrap” from the bombing range in the Chocolate Mountains. The screening features an introduction and Q&A with the film’s writer and co-producer, Michael DiGregorio, desert journalist and former editor of Hustler magazine.
On Friday, September 27, CMC is proud to host An Evening with California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick. Join California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick for a reading and conversation with poet Ruth Nolan, and book signing. Herrick is the author of four books of poems: In Praise of Late Wonder: New and Selected Poems (Gunpowder Press, September 2024); Scar and Flower, finalist for the 2020 Northern California Book Award; Gardening Secrets of the Dead; and This Many Miles from Desire.
He is co-editor of The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (Orison Books 2020) and Afterlives: An AGNI Portfolio of Asian Adoptee Diaspora Writing. His poems appear widely, in The Poetry Foundation, Academy of American Poets, The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed, Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice with a foreword by Common, HERE: Poems for the Planet, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, and Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy, among others. Herrick serves on the advisory board of Terrain.org and Sixteen Rivers Press. He co-founded LitHop in Fresno. He has taught in Qingdao, China, and for Kundiman.
Mojave Mondays continues with a screening of the feature film Mojave Phone Booth. Thanks to director John Putch, Mojave Month at CMC is hosting a special screening of his 2006 film, Mojave Phone Booth. His feature film has a storyline that revolves around the legendary phone booth in the Mojave Desert that was eventually removed by National Park Service personnel at the Mojave National Preserve. The phone booth, originally erected for those working the cinder mines nearby, became an internet sensation, with people calling the booth from around the world hoping to speak with whomever happened to be out in the desert accepting calls.
On October 2, Mojave Month continues with Hump Day History: The History of Hi Jolly and the Great Camel Experiment in the Southwest, a Paul and Jane Smith Desert History Lecture.
On Thursday, October 10, at 5:30 p.m., the CMC President’s Circle will feature a reception for the Paul & Jane Smith Desert Studies Collection donation to Greenleaf Library. Featuring a screening of The Real Desert (Southwest Stories) television episode filmed at the 29 Palms Inn, including interviews with Jane Smith, Pat Flanagan, and Vickie Waite, the evening offers an opportunity for the public to meet Copper Mountain College Superintendent/President Daren Otten and supporters of CMC.
Mojave Month wraps up with the Mojave Resource Fair and Mojave Makers Market, at the 300 Quad on the CMC campus in Joshua Tree.
The Mojave Resource Fair features nonprofit and community organizations sharing information about their services and work with the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nearby, arts and crafts vendors will be open for the same hours in the Mojave Makers Market. Jorge’s Café will be open for casual dining and guests may take a self-guided tour of art installations on the CMC campus.
Organizations wishing to reserve a spot at the Mojave Resource Fair, should please email stevebrown@cmccd.edu. To reserve a vendor space at the Mojave Makers Market, or for more information, please contact Sandy Smith at ssmith@cmccd.edu.
The Mojave Resource Fair and Mojave Makers Market will be followed by a special screening of Tommy Paul: Portrait of an Artist, a touching film portrayal of musician and beloved former Beatnik Café owner, Tommy Paul, featuring live music and Q&A with Jay Paul, Tommy’s brother and live music from hi-desert musicians who knew Tommy Paul – singer/songwriter Shawn Mafia, and Bradley Trafton, on Saturday, October 12, 7 p.m.
Additional events are being added to the lineup. Please see www.cmccd.edu/mojave-month for additional information, event locations on campus, and more.
