Culture Shock

Ku Countdown

The deadline for the Alibi's 16th annual Haiku Contest is near. Submit your haiku via e-mail to amy@alibi.com or snail mail to Alibi's Haiku Contest, 2118 Central SE, PMB 151, Albuquerque, N.M. 87106. Get them in by Friday, Aug. 22, at 5 p.m. for your chance to win crazy cool prizes and see your haiku in print on Sept. 4. Each poet may submit two haiku per category, and each haiku must follow the 17-syllable format, broken into lines of 5-7-5. Here are the categories as a reminder; now get ku-ing:

Best Traditional Haiku

Best Haiku About "The Q"

Most Mysterious Haiku

Best Haiku About Caffeine

Best Haiku About Poo

Best Haiku About Burquewood

Best Haiku About Superpowers

Best Haiku About Rectangles

Best Haiku About How You Spent Your Stimulus Check

Best Miscellaneous Haiku

Koji Nakamura

Taiko in the City Different

Downtown Santa Fe's a-bustle with the annual Santa Fe Indian Market this weekend, Friday, Aug. 22, to Sunday, Aug. 24. More than 100,000 visitors pack the Plaza in search of Native art, native food and native folklore. If you're making the trip to Santa town, there are also a number of other events going on to keep locals and tourists busy. On Saturday, Aug. 23, Grammy-winning taiko drummer Koji Nakamura will play at the James A. Little Theatre (1060 Cerrillos) along with Yukiko Matsuyama, Madi Sato, Yangjin Lamu, Tom Berkes and Danny Wilding. Japanese taiko drumming is a high-energy, almost martial art style of percussion. The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $15 to $45. Call (505) 986-0362 for ticket and info, or visit bodyofsantafe.com.

Necessary Targets

Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, interviewed a number of women who survived the civil war in Yugoslavia before writing Necessary Targets. In the play, two American women travel to Bosnia to help female refugees overcome their war memories, which are farther-reaching then they could have ever imagined. Necessary Targets opens at the Desert Rose Playhouse (6921 Montgomery NE) on Friday, Aug. 22, at 8 p.m. and continues through Sept. 7 with performances every Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. Admission is $12. For reservations, call 881-0503.