Photo by Dave Wade
20/20 and The Cacophony of Rapture were created during my artist’s residency at L’Alba in Charleroi, Belgium.
L’Alba was in mid-birth under the warm and steady hand of Mélanie De Biasio as she transformed the long-abandoned Italian Embassy into The House of Shared Talents.
To Mélanie and her vision, I dedicate this verse, lyric and stanza.
Gil Helmick graduated with Honors and Distinction from the California State University in 1976.
He traveled throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Shetland Islands, Europe, Czechoslovakia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
His experiences ranged from Park Avenue hotels to Brazilian truck stops, the intimacies of the high jungles to drinking wine with derelicts on the winter sidewalks of San Francisco. “My beds have been made over marble floored villas and six weeks of homeless mats.”
Gil completed two novels, The Accomplice and Wounded Angels.
His poem, “The Evolution of Apocalypse” was composed into a movement of a jazz opera performed at The Lyceum in Brooklyn, New York, in 2008.
Gil’s poetry has been published in numerous anthologies in California, New Orleans, and New England.
Collections: Wounded by Zen (ISBN: 978-0-615-20910-4)
Unpublished collections:
Gil was instrumental in launching the recording of Martin Steingesser’s CD “The Thinking Heart.”
Gil was the executive producer of the two CD set of singer songwriter, classical, jazz, and spoken word collection: “HEAT!”
Gil has produced and performed in shows with various artists including Charles Neville, John Sinclair, Patricia Smith, and Joy Harjo.
Gil, with partner Mike Langworthy, produced the pilot for a radio show, “Club 86.”
Gil is a founding member of snowmonks. The snowmonk album “Crimes Against Inhumanity” was released during summer of 2009.
Gil and cellist Ben Noyes, “The Part-Time Buddhas,” collaborated refined poetic / musical narratives producing albums “Conspiring against Good and Evil” and “Standed in the Eternal.”
Gil has collaborated with Belgian artist Mélanie De Biasio on three albums, ”No Deal,” “Blackened Cities,” and “Lilies.” ”Blackened Cities” was awarded “Best Track of 2016” by Gilles Peterson, BBC radio.
The cover art is by José Lafitte.