Poetry & the Environment

Festival Schedule Thurs (15th) Fri (16th) Sat (17th) Sun (18th) View all events

We continue our efforts to briefly highlight the amazing array of readings, workshops and performances that make up the 2009 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Here are some tastes of what is being offered in Lowell on Saturday. You may not have found these readings – but we can assure you, these are gems that you will want to know about.

Three chances at poetry of place and the environment:

What You Can Do Register to attend Volunteer Spread the Word [print this poster] Donate

1:00 PM:  Pioneer Valley Poets come to the Merrimack Valley

Amy Dryansky, Mary A. Koncel and Ellen Dore Watson look at how their work is (or isn’t) influenced by the rural landscape and small towns in which they now live, and how their current sense of place is (or isn’t) integrated with their more urban beginnings. Each poet brings a distinctly different style and approach to their work, each is also widely published, and together they bring experiences as author, teacher, translator, editor and proud raiser of domestic fowl. Join them as they take on the myths and realities of the wild, wild, west by reserving your seat today: http://wildwest.eventbrite.com/

2:00 PM: Poetry and Ecology with Colburn, Weaver, Funkhouser and Wilson

Nadia Herman Colburn will introduce a reading and discussion of the poets Afaa Michael Weaver (The Plum Flower Dance, U Pittsburgh Press, 2007), Erika Funkhouser (Earthly, Houghton Mifflin, 2008), and Emily Wilson (Micrographia, Kuhl House, 2009). These poets will read from their work and discuss the relationship between poetry and the ways in which we imagine our relationship with the natural world. Topics to be discussed include how these very different poets imagine the natural world in their poetry when faced with ecological devastation, species extinction, climate change and toxic waste. Reserve your seats today: http://poetryecology.eventbrite.com/

3:00 PM: Nature, Art & Poetry from Wild Apples Journal

Join the Editors of Wild Apples (visit them at http://www.wildapples.org ), a new journal of nature, art, and inquiry, for a multimedia poetry reading. Taking its title and mission from Thoreau’s 1862 essay, this colorful journal brings together poetry and prose with the work of visual artists and photographers connected by common threads of care for the environment, social concerns, and commitment to the arts.  Writer-editors Linda Hoffman, Susan Edwards Richmond, Kathryn Liebowitz, and Sophie Wadsworth will read poetry by Wild Apples authors Jane Hirshfield, Gary Metras, Red Pine and others, with a slide show of contributors’ artwork. Reserve your seats today: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/401684449

As always, we end with our two requests:

1. Please tell your friends about the festival – forward this email to them, or send them an email directing them to www.masspoetry.org We need your help to get out the word. You can even follow us on Twitter — and we’ve put together this poster you can download, print, share, post and distribute.
2. Please we have $3,200 left to raise to cover the costs of this years festival. We will raise it by each of you agreeing to donate whatever you can – so please make a donation today.

Thank you for everything you do for poetry.

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival Organizing Committee

PS: Every dollar counts — please donate today!