The Poem a Day Challenge Group Reading:
The Roe Jan Library’s celebration of National Poetry month concludes on Friday, May 4, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a group reading by all who took part in the “Poem a Day Challenge” during the month of April. The event is free of charge and open to all.
The “challenge” was to write a poem each day on a theme, word or idea suggested in daily emails from poet Jan Hutchinson. Dozens of poets participated, both new and established, from as far away as Montana and Washington state, and all have been invited to read.
Ms. Hutchinson says that “from the poems people have shown me, I know the offerings will be fun and varied as well as deep and meaningful.” And, she says, “if you can’t be there in person, feel free to send me one or two of your poems and we will have them read for you.”
See more event details below this poster.
Sunday, April 1, 2 to 3 PM
Shakespeare Sonnets
The Taconic Hills Drama Club will read several of William Shakespeare’s best known sonnets which will then be sung by baritone, Keith Spencer with accompaniment by pianist Mark Jones.
Friday, April 13, 7 to 9 PM
Peter Bergmann, Reading of his poems, followed by Open Mike
Poet, playwright and now novelist (Small Ironies), Peter Bergmann, will read new work. Following Bergmann’s reading, the mike will be open to audience members wanting to read their poetry. Bergmann is Executive Director of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society. Millay, as it turns out, is one of Bergmann’s earliest literary inspirations.
Sunday, April 15, 3 to 4 PM
LOVE POETRY: From the Ancient Egyptians to Cole Porter-
Some Serious, Some Funny
With James Kraft and Wendy Power Spielmann
Come join us for some of the best and funniest love poems from the ancient Egyptian to the present, with a focus upon English and American poems and the love lyrics of Cole Porter.
Wendy Power Spielmann is a native of Wales, England. She majored in Russian at Columbia University, traveled the world as a PanAm purser, and then pursued a second career teaching Russian, French and Spanish. She was an interpreter at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games and has been a frequent performer in various community theaters in our area.
James Kraft is a teacher of American and English Literature at several adult education centers in the Berkshires, Connecticut, and New York City. He has taught at Andover Academy, the University of Virginia, Université Laval in Québec City, and at Wesleyan University. He has also served as assistant director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan.
Saturday, April 21, 10 to 1 PM
Getting Poems Started, Keeping Them Going
Mark Wunderlich
In this three hour workshop, students will follow a series of writing assignments and prompts created to get language onto the page and shaped into lines, phrases, images, stanzas and poems. Through a series of linked exercises, we will build poems that are richly descriptive and complex. In the class, you will also be offered tools and advice for getting poems going despite the demands of time and concentration placed on us every day. We will look at many examples of poems that experiment with various forms, and which I hope will help you imagine your own poems in new and surprising ways. This class is appropriate for writers of all levels of experience.
Mark Wunderlich is the author of The Anchorage, which received the Lambda Literary Award, Voluntary Servitude (Graywolf, 2004) and The Earth Avails, forthcoming from Graywolf. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Wallace Stegner Program at Stanford, as well as two fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center. He has taught in the graduate writing programs at Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, San Francisco State and Ohio University, and currently teaches writing and literature at Bennington College. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Sunday, April 22, 3 PM
Local poet, Peter Kane Dufault will be reading some of his poetry on April 22, 2012 at 3pm. Mr. Dufault, born in 1923, has been writing poetry for almost sixty years. His poems have appeared in many magazines and journals including the New Yorker, London Magazine and Poetry. Mr.Default’s readings have been described as “legendary”. Like Emerson and Whitman, his work describes nature as a teacher for spiritual growth while using strong metaphors.
Monday, April 23, noon to l PM
Birthday Party for Shakespeare Bring your favorite passage to read aloud and a sandwich.
Sunday, April 29, 3 PM
Rebecca Wolff, poet and novelist, will read from her own poetry and discuss small press publishing. Ms. Wolff is the founder, editor, and publisher of Fence, a literary journal, and is the author of three collections of poems: The King, Figment, and Manderley. Her novel, The Beginners, was released in 2011. She is a fellow of The New York State Writers Institute.
