Van Buren: Arizona’s Sunset Strip

Have you ever believed in a street? That’s right, a real belief in what a street stands for in the midst of a bustling city. Many recall the heyday of Van Buren Street, linking Arizona, California and New Mexico, the only highway known in the early 1900’s. Neon lights, bright, colorful lodges, hotels and motels, proud to advertise swimming pools! Over the years, Van Buren has offered everything imaginable, including an insane asylum, where Winnie Ruth Judd, the trunk murderess, spent much of her time. Tovrea Castle, (the Wedding Cake) is still there. The Little Shop of Horrors, Legend City, and Bill Johnson’s Big Apple were all there. Get ready to share your Van Buren memories!

Stella Pope Duarte is described by Jacquelyn Mitchard as a “magical weaver with a sure hand and a pure heart,” and praised by Ursula K. Leguin as an author who “will enlarge humanity.” Writing Through Revelations, Visions and Dreams: The memoir of a writer’s soul, is her most current work. Duarte has won honors and awards nationwide, including a 2009 American Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize nomination, the Southwest Book of the Year Award, and a nomination to Oprah’s Book Sense list. Inspired to write by a prophetic dream of her father, she believes that writing, like love, begins within, or it doesn’t start at all.