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PALESTINIAN POET SPEAKS... Palestinian-American poet NAOMI SHIHAB NYE, who specializes in helping young poets find their voices, will read from her works FRIDAY AT 8PM at the SANTA CATALINA SCHOOL Performing Arts Center in Monterey. A recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award, Nye has published more than 20 volumes of poetry and prose, was a Guggenheim Fellow, has appeared on The Prairie Home Companion and The Writer''s Almanac, and has spent more than 28 years visiting schools across the country.

Nye''s personal biography reflects the conflict-resolution role she attributes to the arts. She was born in 1952 in St. Louis to an American mother and Palestinian father, and lived for a year in the 1970s in JERUSALEM. Her experience as an ARAB-AMERICAN living in that war-torn city informs her poetry, although she also touches on the challenges faced by all cross-cultural families. But her poetry is not didactic. Rather, it deals with the prosaic-the details of everyday life that illuminate transcendent values and personal heritage. "For me the primary source of poetry has always been local life, random characters met on the streets, our own ancestry sifting down to us through small essential daily tasks," she says. Nye''s talk is free, but reservations are required: call 655-9310 between 8:30am and 4:30pm.

MUSEUM WINS VIDEO AWARD...The MONTEREY MUSEUM OF ART just picked up a CINE GOLDEN EAGLE AWARD for the documentary Roots of California Photography: The Monterey Legacy, a video about the photographic heritage of the Monterey Peninsula. Roots was narrated by the late Jack Lemmon, and features the work of Edward Weston, Morley Baer, John Sexton and others. Kudos to writer STEVEN HAUK and to MAC AND AVA MOTION PICTURES, who directed and produced the film for the museum. Roots will be aired regionally JAN. 20 on public TV station KTEH AT 10PM.

VOTE FOR OUR STATE QUARTER...Last chance to get your 25 cents in on deciding what the CALIFORNIA COMMEMORATIVE QUARTER will look like. More than 8,000 designs were submitted for consideration last fall, and the 20 finalists are displayed on Gov. Gray Davis''s homepage where we, the People, can vote for our favorites. Log in now (www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_homepage), cast your vote for posterity, and don''t be influenced by the fact that I strongly prefer quarter design #2. By the way, Davis doesn''t promise to heed the people''s decision-but why would that make this issue any different?

-Sue Fishkoff