Lecture details how close N.M. came in 1850

Tim Kimball of Corrales initiates a monthly lecture series celebrating New Mexico statehood at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Special Collections Library, 423 E. Central. Kimball’s subject is “Asking for the Inestimable Right: New Mexico’s State Government of 1850.”

“During the spring and summer of 1850,” Kimball wrote in an email, “New Mexicans organized a state government on their own behalf … at the urging of President Zachary Taylor and (U.S.) Sen. Thomas Hart Benton. Like California, New Mexico drafted a constitution, held and passed a referendum, and called on the U.S. Senate for admission.

“Native New Mexicans — citizens since May 30, 1848 — embraced this 1850 statehood effort together with many resident Americans. They hoped to rein in taxation and summary control by the unelected military government and return to democracy. … The struggle went beyond the ballot box (where statehood won 6,771 to 39) to election violence.” Hope evaporated, Kimball wrote, when Taylor died. Congress quickly passed a law making New Mexico a territory.

The talks in the library-sponsored series are free.

AT BOOKWORKS: The North Valley bookstore at 4022 Rio Grande NW hosts these author events. Albuquerque author-attorney Jonathan Miller gives a writing workshop at 3 p.m. today. Miller, whose latest New Mexico-based mystery is “Lawyer Geisha Pink,” discusses how he researches, outlines, structures and writes his books. … Howard Waitzkin will discuss his new book, “Medicine and Public Health at the End of Empire,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17. Waitzin, a Taos resident, is a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of New Mexico and a primary-care physician in northern New Mexico. … The first in a series of open-mike nights for poets begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19. Each poet will have five minutes, and there will be an open discussion at the end of all the readings. … Rick Carver of Santa Fe discusses, signs the book “A Year or So in the Life of New Mexico: An Uncensored Look at Life in the Land of Enchantment” at 3 p.m. Saturday. In 2009, Carver wanted to create a book of photos depicting the state in ways that aren’t seen in official guides. He and Stacy Pearl, who wrote much of the text, organized the book.

AT ALAMOSA BOOKS: Kenneth P. Gurney reads from his newest book of poetry, “This Is Not Black & White,” and Joe Montoya reads from his award-winning chapbook “Children of the Desert Mountains” at 2 p.m. today at Alamosa Books, 8810 Holly NE. Gurney is the editor/publisher of the poetry journal Adobe Walls. Montoya was reared on Santa Ana and San Felipe pueblos.

AT ACEQUIA BOOKSELLERS: Poets Tom Grissom and Stewart Warren, both of Albuquerque, read from their work at 3 p.m. today. The bookstore is at 4019 Fourth NW.

Grissom is an emeritus professor at Evergreen State College, where he taught literature, philosophy, physics and mathematics. He had been a research physicist and department manager at Sandia National Laboratories. He resigned his Sandia post in 1985 as a matter of conscience. Stewart had traveled through North America, catching rides at truck stops, small plane terminals and along farm-to-market roads. In recent decades he’s roamed southern Colorado and northern New Mexico following a path of self-discovery and camaraderie.

IN SANTA FE: Greg Sagemiller and Mark Raney read from their books at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, at Collected Works, 202 Galisteo St. Sagemiller wrote “Walking Earth” and Raney’s book is “Secrets of the Pueblo Universe.”