It’s a busy year ahead for KiMo

The KiMo Theatre will keep the birthday candles burning all year to help New Mexico celebrate its 100th anniversary with four separate series — films, speakers, Chautauqua-style performances and a school-day series.

The four elements of the KiMo Centennial Series, all of which have some connection to the state, are free.

Two events this month initiate the KiMo celebration:

♦ Rich Friedman, a Farmington archaeologist, speaks on “The Mysteries of Chaco Canyon” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11.

Friedman said he will talk after the short Anna Sofaer film “The Mystery of Chaco,” which argues that Chaco’s major buildings were designed and oriented in relationship to the sun and moon.

“From there I’ll go into some of the other mysteries or enigmas of Chaco,” he said, referring to the use of its large buildings, its agriculture and its extensive road system.

The general belief, Friedman said, is that the Anasazi people, ancestors of the Pueblo people, occupied Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico roughly between A.D. 600 and 1250.

Mayor Richard J. Berry said in a news release that he’s wanted to bring a lecture series to the KiMo, so creating a series for the centennial seemed like a natural fit.

♦ The other January event at the KiMo will be the 7 p.m. Jan. 18 screening of the 1969 film “Easy Rider” starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as two bikers traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of personal freedom. The road film shows some of northern New Mexico’s 1960s’ counter-culture.

Films in this program were shot entirely or in part in New Mexico, Berry said.

“The films we selected highlight New Mexico’s long-standing tradition as an exceptional place to make movies — a tradition that goes back 100 years,” he said.

♦ The first event in the KiMo’s School Day Series will have Zuni artist-author Kenneth Seowtewa talking on “The Zuni Nation and the Seven Cities of Gold” at 10 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. Feb. 16.

♦ The initial event in the Living History, or Chautauqua, series will be at 7 p.m. March 14, when singer/actor Rosalia de Aragon performs “Ghostly Folklore — La Llorona.”

“One of the very cool things about these programs is that we have a lot of good partners,” said KiMo manager Larry Parker.

“For example, the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities helped us find all the Living History performers and they have been helpful in fine-tuning the topics. We got input from Ann Lerner of the Albuquerque Film Office on the film series.”

These are other upcoming events in the series:

♦ The 1930 King Vidor film “Billy the Kid” will be screened Feb. 15. It stars Johnny Mack Brown as the Kid and Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett. The 1936 Vidor movie “The Texas Rangers” with Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie will be shown March 21. The 1940 John Ford film “The Grapes of Wrath” starring Henry Fonda and John Carradine will be screened on April 18.

♦ Enrique Lamadrid, a University of New Mexico professor, folklorist and author, talks on “Nuevo Méjic — The Spanish Colony” at 7 p.m. Feb. 18. It is in the Speaker Series.

♦ VanAnn Moore performs “Doña Tules — Gambling Queen of Santa Fe” on April 11 and historian Fred Hampton performs “Buffalo Soldiers — Black Cavalry in New Mexico” on May 9. Both are part of the Living History Series.

♦ Allan Wheeler, a research historian and actor, performs “William Becknell and the Santa Fe Trail” on March 9 as part of the School Day Series. Hampton will also present “Buffalo Soldiers” on April 19 for this series.

For more information on the KiMo Centennial Series programs visit www.kimoabq.org.