Cheap Thrills

Three days in the aisles. Poetry, puppies and performances.

Bookman's employees will have to be on their toes the next few days as a flurry of events should pack the store on Speedway.

On Thursday, POEM (Poetry Open Event Monthly) hosts its monthly open poetry reading from 7 to 9 p.m. Read your own poems, poetry you admire by others or just come in and listen.

On Friday, again from 7 to 9 p.m., lend an ear to Alborada South American Music. Comprised of students and faculty of Rincon and University high schools, the group plays a variety of music from the Andes and South America.

Several events are planned for Saturday.

From noon to 4 p.m., members of the Animal Rescue Foundation will be at the store for the group's monthly pet adoption. Volunteers will be on hand to help you through the adoption process and answer questions about responsible pet care.

The Rockin' Kids Show Choir is from 1 to 2 p.m. Youngsters in grades three through high school will perform Sing the 20th Century, a musical review spanning the last 100 years.

Finally, Saturday evening from 7 to 9 p.m., The Sonoran Consort will perform music that is at once improvisational, groovy, classical and worldly.

All events take place at Bookman's on Speedway in Monterey Village, 6230 E. Speedway Blvd. For more information, call 514-6025, ext.104 or email speedwayevents@bookmans.com.

Mirror, mirror. The song may have ended but tune goes on.

Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Arizona Theatre Company's last play of the season, closed May 4. But an invitational art show inspired by the themes raised in Work Song continues.

The exhibit features local artists whose works explore the embodied metaphors of self. More than 20 artists were encouraged to reveal the associative configurations that are so often realized in the idea of a self-portrait.

Work Song is about the outrageous ego, wild passion, revolutionary ideas and artistic gift that made the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright such a controversial figure.

Alternately revered and scorned during his lifetime, Wright's life is still imbued with a blend of fact and fantasy. Within the matrix of fact and fantasy, exhibiting artists will present the blend of their many selves in the exhibition.

Self Portraits by Tucson Artists runs through May 31 at Temple Gallery, 330 S. Scott Ave., in the Temple of Music and Art. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 624-7370.

Free and easy. A free concert tonight features the music of Damaris with guest performers LaLa and Bill Lackey, who will take the stage in a friendly, acoustic, non-smoking setting.

The Songwriter Showcase Concert Series concert begins at 7:30 p.m. today at the Hazy Dayz Lounge Cafe, 187 N. Park (at Ninth and Park). For more information, call 749-1880.

Art without limits. The folks at the Muscular Dystrophy Association have an important message to share: Physical disability is no barrier to creativity.

This inspiring truth is the theme of their art collection on permanent display at the Tucson headquarters. The collection, now in its 10th year, includes more than 270 pieces from artists ranging in age from 2 to 82. Selections from the collection have been exhibited in major museums and galleries throughout the country.

Although the artwork ranges from watercolors to oil paintings, photographs to computer graphics and sketches to sculptures, the artists all have one thing in common: Each is affected by a neuromuscular disease. Versatility abounds in the collection, as some artists used wheelchair wheels and feet as artistic tools. Indeed, there are no barriers when one wishes to create.

For more information or to schedule a visit to the MDA Art Collection (at 3300 E. Sunrise Drive) call 529-5349. To see images from the collection visit www.mdausa.org/commprog/art.