Volunteers needed

The Festival is a huge undertaking and we need your help. We are currently looking for volunteers to help with a number of tasks.  Read about how you can help.

Stories about the festival

Announcing the Saturday night headliners

Read about three poets who are confirmed as headliners for Saturday night: Nikky Finney, Wesley McNair, and Joy Harjo.

 Taking shape: the fourth Massachusetts Poetry Festival

Student Day of Poetry — March 30

The Student Day of Poetry, sponsored by Mass Poetry, is separate this year from the Massachusetts Poetry Festival and will take place on the MIT campus on Friday, March 30. Register here for the coolest and most hands-on student field trip ever!

More on the Student Day of Poetry

Louder Than a Bomb

Louder Than a Bomb is a teen slam festival, a friendly poetry competition where judges hold up scores after each performance. This year’s festival will follow the Student Day of Poetry (Friday, March 30) and will run through the weekend with the final competition on April 13.

More on Louder Than a Bomb 

A local student day of poetry at a Lawrence school

Read about a day of poetry where “every single kid is engaged!”

  We’ve marked these blogs with a blue arrow. 

Blogs that are date specific — that is, they refer to upcoming events — are marked with a red arrow.

Notes on Contributors

Chapter And Verse Literary Reading Series

Jamaica Pond Poets

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 7:30 pm, Loring-Greenough House, 12 South Street, Jamaica Plain Centre. Featured Poets MARY BONINA , KEN TANGVIK, and GARY WHITED. More…

The House of Seven Gables: Bringing Cultural Awareness Across Borders of Time and Place

Rhina P. Espaillat

I’d like to mention another cultural organization whose aims go beyond the stewardship and preservation of a national landmark to include service to the community: The House of the Seven Gables, one of the historical and literary jewels of Salem. Having been there years ago, I remembered it as a repository of wonderful artifacts that help to render the early history of New England palpable to those lucky enough to have a tour of the place. It’s full of items that illuminate the way people lived in 18th and 19th century Salem: how they cooked, served and entertained; what they wore and read; all the daily minutiae of real life, including some priceless gossip. More…

SOUTH OF BOSTON POETRY TRAIL  VOL 2 NO   16
February  2012

Jack Scully

Find about upcoming poetry readings in your area, and opportunities to submit your poetry! More…

Spoken word — from child’s play to a permanent place in the mind

Jacquelyn Malone

Remember that childishly perverse jingle from elementary school: “I see London, I see France, I see so-and-so’s underpants”? That frivolous little chime started ringing in my head recently, perhaps because of two movements in our society. First is the campaign to stop bullying in the schools. I must admit that as a child I loved that chant and got a first grader’s excited giggle at being able to parrot it aloud with other children. I don’t think I meant anything malicious – though the poor victim might have thought otherwise. It was the pure joy a spontaneous recitation. More…

Judging a Book by Its Blurb

Michelle Gillett

Last year, several friends asked if I would write a blurb for their forthcoming books. Nothing delights me more than knowing a friend has succeeded in getting a book of poems published.  I enjoy sitting down and rereading poems I am often familiar with, have often critiqued and discussed. Now here they are—parts of a whole and the whole creates a different and richer meaning, one I must translate into clear, concise language. I must capture the essence of the collection and convince a potential buyer of the book to purchase and read it.  It is a challenge and a pleasure. More…

POETRY: THE ART OF WORDS/MIKE AMADO MEMORIAL SERIES

Jack Scully

The Plymouth Center for the Arts 11 North St, Plymouth, February 12, 2012. Poetry Features Charles Coe and Mignon Ariel King. Music Feature Nathan J. Notesworth. More…

Football

Carla Panciera

Ah, January.  Wind chill and dark nights, black ice and white outs, arctic air masses and snow days, ice melt and road salt.  What a season for evocative language– and as if all these aren’t poetry enough, consider this, gem of all January gems for those of us who love football:  postseason.  It’s a rich time of the year indeed, full of nose tackles and nickel backs, wide-outs and slot receivers, signal callers, pash rushers and those pesky wild cards.  It’s deep backs and H-backs, it’s cover 2’s and man, slant routes and bombs, long squibs and hang time, end-arounds and keepers, i-formations and safeties coming on a blitz.  The end zone, the red zone, the deep threat, the tuck rule.  It’s blindsides, bootlegs, bump and runs. It’s dime packages, double teams and safeties roaming free.  Shotguns, pump fakes, quick counts, stiff arms, sweeps, draws, and the option. More…

Discussions of African American Poetry

Lisa Olstein

One of the things I love most about poetry (find enlivening, necessary, joyous) is the way it creates habitats for associative movements of mind. Poems are exquisitely capable of progressing in ways underprivileged by our culture’s dominant (normative) modes of logic and narrative, ways that much more truly reflect how we think and feel as we sort, at lightning speed, through the various kinds of input—sensory/perceptual, emotional, intellectual—and multiple time zones—the present’s circumstances, the past’s memories (implicit and explicit), the future’s ideations—that make up the reality of any given moment.  More . . .

Calliope—poetry craft workshops in collaboration with West Falmouth Library

Alice Kociemba

Calliope – Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library is celebrating its fourth anniversary this January. Our series has grown by leaps and bounds and we are grateful to all the wonderful featured poets and open mike readers who have read thus far. This year, Calliope’s theme is “From First Draft to Feature” and is supporting the development of poetic craft through a series of three workshops. Plans are also in the works for a series on The Performance of Poetry, especially aimed for featured and open mike readers to develop their own, and effective style of relating to the audience. More . . .

Commentary on Hummer Essay

Rhina Espaillat

Hummer’s essay on Vachel Lindsay is very interesting.  These poems of his are a revelation of sorts, so different in tone–but not in manner–from the ones that everybody of my generation knows. He feels like a precursor of rap, because of his snappy meters and repetitions and swift flow; there’s something almost “smart-alecky” about his lines, oddly out of synch with the moral earnestness and naive good intentions that make him feel dated. Even the way he seems to turn against jazz and the saxophone in these poems, in favor of the romanticized Irish harp, suggests a kind of narrowness, an inability to love opposites, to hold two things in focus at the same time. But isn’t that particular faculty for creative ambivalence exactly what poetry is good at? More…

Human Error Publishing January Vachel Lindsay

Paul Richmond

The mystery of Vachel Lindsay
One of the most visible poets in America
Consider the father of the Beats
Nearly forgotten
I didn’t recognize the name
Vachel Lindsay   More . . .

POETRY: THE ART OF WORDS/MIKE AMADO MEMORIAL SERIES

Jack Scully

A line up of a Plymouth Center reading series. More . . .

MassPoetry blog — December 2011

MassPoetry blog — November 2011

Back by popular demand, Mass Poetry offers its second annual Common Threads group reading and discussion program for April, National Poetry Month.

The texts of the poems, videos of the poets reading their own work and poems from those no longer with us, plus a discussion guide, questions, and links will be available on our website in early March. So start planning your April discussion soon. We urge libraries, schools, churches, senior organizations, colleges, bookstores, book clubs and individuals to plan a reading and discussion of these poems.

Our 2012 selections:

• “The Author to Her Book” – Anne Bradstreet ( 2012 is the 400th anniversary of her birth)
• “The Fire of Drift-Wood”- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Poem 1129 – Emily Dickinson ( tell it slant)
• “For the Union Dead” – Robert Lowell
• “The Hardness Scale” – Joyce Peseroff
• “Horseface” - Sam Cornish
• “if see no end in is” – Frank Bidart
• “Out at Lanesville”- David Ferry
• “Baseball” – Gail Mazur

This rich and varied, yet interconnected collection of poets from our Commonwealth will lend themselves to great discussions and enjoyment. Though they are interconnected, they span very different forms.

Plan for potluck and poetry

Make sure you plan to organize a group discussion. For those of you not in organized groups, plan to have 10 friends over for a National Poetry Month potluck—with poetry as the main course.

As a highlight of the Mass Poetry Festival, the five Common Threads poets who are alive will read and discuss their works at a Saturday session.

If you are a poet, volunteer

If you are a word weaver, a dream maker, a storyteller,

A poetry enthusiast, literacy advocator, community builder…

If you’re a friend of Calliope, come join us

For we have a festival to create.

Come join!

Come join!

            The Mass Poetry Festival is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help plan and run the 2012 festival. As a nonprofit organization, volunteers are our backbone. Those who are interested in making the festival successful can start now!  A lot of work goes into the planning; from reaching out to local communities to soliciting ads for program books. We currently have about 20 volunteers who are helping us plan. We’re looking for 10-15 more volunteers to help with the initial preparing and organizing. The smoother the execution of the planning, the better the festival.

Mass Poetry is also looking for a plethora of volunteers for the festival itself. Last year’s festival had around 100 excellent people helping out. Beth Moore, one of many hardworking volunteers at Mass Poetry, said of the festival, “It’s an incredible opportunity to get involved in the state’s literary community in a very hands-on way, and to share your poetry with others. There’s a great sense of fulfillment that comes from putting together an event like this, and we want to share that with as many as possible!” Those who do sign up can participate in a wide array of tasks. These can include manning information booths, selling buttons, collecting money, and helping with event set-up. Some people may even oversee other volunteers within specified areas or supervise the checking in of volunteers.

No matter in what jobs,  volunteers will be actively engaged in the statewide poetry community this festival fosters. They will meet other people from all over who have a common appreciation for poetry. As Beth said, “All ages are welcome, as are all levels of experience. More than anything, we want enthusiasm.” So if you find yourself intrigued, don’t hesitate to sign up as a volunteer.

Brookline is joining a select group of cities in Massachusetts as it seeks to name a poet laureate. This month the town selectmen voted unanimously to assign the task of finding the first candidate to the Brookline Arts Commission.

The poet laureate, who must be a resident of Brookline, will serve a two-year term and will be charged with undertaking creative and innovative projects to energize residents in the spirit and power of the written word, including an outreach to schools and community centers.

The arts commission is accepting applications for the position through March 16. In addition to being a Brookline resident, applicants must have composed and published a substantial body of work and demonstrated commitment to the community.

Candidates must submit a letter of interest, a current CV, and a selection of representative poetry to the Arts Commission administrator Gillian Jackson at brooklinearts@gmail.com.

A selection committee, composed of commissioners and citizens, will review the applications in early April, make a selection, and submit it to the Board of Selectmen for approval. Bay State Federal Saving Charitable Foundation and Century Bank are sponsoring the program and will supply the $1000 stipend that goes with the position.

 2011 National Book Award Winner Nikky Finney

Nikky Finney was born in South Carolina, within listening distance of the sea. A child of activists, she came of age during the civil rights and Black Arts Movements. At Talladega College, nurtured by Hale Woodruff’s Amistad murals, Finney began to understand the powerful synergy between art and history. Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011); The World Is Round (2003); Rice (1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). Professor of English and creative writing at the University of Kentucky, Finney also authored Heartwood (1997), edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), and co-founded the Affrilachian Poets. Finney’s fourth book of poetry, Head Off & Split was awarded the National Book Award for poetry.

Wesley McNair: A Poet with the Voice of New England

Phillip Levine has called Wesley McNair “one of the great storytellers of contemporary poetry.” The author of six volumes of poetry, McNair’s latest book is Lovers of the Lost: New & Selected Poems. He has been awarded grants from the Fulbright and Guggenheim foundations, two Rockefeller Fellowships, an NEH Fellowship in literature, and two NEA fellowships. In 2006 he was selected for a United States Artists Fellowship of $50,000 as one of “America’s finest living artists.” Other honors include the Devins Award for Poetry, the Jane Kenyon Award, the Robert Frost Award, the Theodore Roethke Prize, the Eunice Tietjens Prize from Poetry magazine, an Emmy Award, and the Sarah Josepha Hale Medal. A guest editor in poetry for the 2010 Pushcart Prize anthology, McNair’s work has appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition and The Writer’s Almanac, with Garrison Keillor; two editions of The Best American Poetry; and more than sixty anthologies. He has served four times on the nominating committee for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, and has authored or edited 18 books, including poetry, nonfiction, and anthologies.

Joy Harjo and Shapeshifting

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival, in partnership with the Peabody Essex Museum, is proud to announce feature poet Joy Harjo for the 2012 festival. Harjo will be reading in conjunction with the exhibition “Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art.”  Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. Her seven books of poetry, which includes such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, and She Had Some Horses have garnered many awards. For A Girl Becoming, a young adult/coming of age book, was released in 2009 and is Harjo’s most recent publication. She has released four award-winning CD’s of original music and in 2009 won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year for Winding Through the Milky Way. Her most recent CD release is a traditional flute album: Red Dreams, A Trail Beyond Tears.

CHAPTER AND VERSE LITERARY READING SERIES

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Loring-Greenough House, 12 South Street, Jamaica Plain Centre (See parking note below)

Featuring:

MARY BONINA’S newest poetry collection is Clear Eye Tea (Cervena Barva Press). She is the author of two chapbooks, Living Proof and Lunch in Chinatown, poems inspired by the experience of teaching recent immigrants the English language in their workplaces. Her poetry has been featured in Salamander, Hanging Loose, English Journal, Gulf Stream, and other journals and anthologies. She has received an Honorable Mention for her memoir, My Father’s Eyes, from the University of New Orleans, and she was a finalist in the Teacher’s Voice competition.

KEN TANGVIK’S collection of urban short fiction titled Don’t Mess with Tanya: Stories Emerging from Boston’s Barrios was published in 2011 by Aberdeen Bay Publishers. Many of the stories in this book are based on experiences he had in working with young adults in Boston. Ken Tangvik is a professor at Roxbury Community College and is a specialist in multicultural fiction. He is also the co-founder of the Hyde Square Task Force, a Jamaica Plain-based award-winning nonprofit that engages at-risk teens in the arts, college prep, and community organizing.

GARY WHITED is a poet, philosopher, and psychotherapist. He grew up on the plains of eastern Montana, and a strong sense of place pervades his poetry, whether that place is the prairie, the city, or the inner spaces we inhabit. His poems have appeared in Salamander, Bellowing Ark, Red Owl Magazine, and Diamond Dust. He received an International  Merit Award from the Atlanta Review, and an Editor’s Prize from Plainsongs. Gary Whited has been a featured reader at many venues in eastern Massachusetts, and he is a member of the Jamaica Pond Poets.  

COME JOIN US FOR POETRY, FICTION, and REFRESHMENTS (of course!)

Chapter and Verse takes place in the historic Loring-Greenough House at 12 South Street in Jamaica Plain Centre, just across from the Monument.

Suggested donation $5.00 or whatever you can afford. (We mean this. We would rather have you than your money.) Free refreshments are served.

Parking Information: The Loring-Greenough House has a parking lot, but  several spaces are reserved for ZIP Cars. Please respect these spaces, and also please try not to park on the grass. There is ample unrestricted street parking and a large, free public parking lot off Centre Street, between Burroughs and Thomas Streets, just a block from the Loring-Greenough House.

There is also a parking lot off the right side of Burroughs Street, behind the stores on Centre Street.

For information check our website at http://jamaicapondpoets.com or email dorothy.derifield@gmail.com or call 617-325-8388.

The House of Seven Gables: Bringing Cultural Awareness Across Borders of Time and Place

I’d like to mention another cultural organization whose aims go beyond the stewardship and preservation of a national landmark to include service to the community: The House of the Seven Gables, one of the historical and literary jewels of Salem. Having been there years ago, I remembered it as a repository of wonderful artifacts that help to render the early history of New England palpable to those lucky enough to have a tour of the place. It’s full of items that illuminate the way people lived in 18th and 19th century Salem: how they cooked, served and entertained; what they wore and read; all the daily minutiae of real life, including some priceless gossip.

But during a recent visit I learned that the House now runs a series of Settlement Projects meant to reach, not just the community at large, but in particular the area’s growing population of immigrant young people from various cultures, who need all the help they can get to become part of their new country. The Settlement Projects reach out to children and teens through programs that feature music, dance, the visual arts, language and literacy training, as well as career and college preparation.

The newest program invites students to visit the House, use it as a resource for building familiarity with the period it represents, and goes on from there to explore how the past helps to create the present, and how it can teach us to shape the future. Those visits include a guided tour of the House, and an open-ended, informal Q & A session. Having once been cast as Mrs. Brewster in a play about the Puritans, at P. S. 94—not long after I had learned to speak English—I know how far such experiences can take the young mind toward empathy and a sense of belonging.

In addition, the House and its Settlement Programs sponsor a series of special events unrelated to the House itself, but intended to enlarge and build upon the growing cultural awareness of young people and foster their own creativity and desire to learn. For example, on February 21, at 7 p.m., the House is hosting a Melopoeia performance—a session of poems by various authors, including Federico Garcia Lorca—recited with a musical background. The performers—guitarist John Tavano, vocalist Ann Tucker, and two poets, Alfred Nicol and I—hope to interest the largely Spanish-speaking students in attendance, and their families, in music, in poetry, in the history behind the poems, and in the use of the arts to convey personal experience.

For details, those interested may contact Ana Nuncio, at   anuncio@7gables.org   or Alan Collacchico, at   acollachico@7gables.org    There is also a website for directions and hours and other information:    www.7gables.org .  Since the Feb. 21 event is a fundraiser, there is an admission charge: $5 for members, $10 for non-members. Also, seating is limited, so those interested in attending should call to reserve seating: 1-978-744-0991, ext. 104. The address of the House of the Seven Gables is 115 Derby St., Salem, MA 01970. There is plenty of parking.

Lately it seems that Lawrence has been in the news only to highlight the state’s designation of the Public School System’s “underperforming status” and announcement of its newly appointed receiver.  But on January 10, 2012, over 275 middle school students and teachers at the Emily G. Wetherbee School certainly defied the recent tag name and caught a break from all the talk of what to do to raise the test scores of a 22% English language learner population when they gathered in the school’s auditorium for a day of student poetry.  The event was hosted by Associate Dean of Students at Brandeis University and slam poet, Jamele Adams aka Harlym 125.

Students packed the theater in anticipation of the film, Louder Than A Bomb, a documentary that tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare to compete in the world’s largest youth slam.  After the 99 minute film, students’ eyes were glued to Harlym 125 as he made his way down the aisle while performing his own poetry.   He spit words of truth that students could understand – words in which they found identification, hope and most of all, inspiration.

He taught them about public speaking, the importance of holding one’s head up, and projecting voice.  When taking questions from the audience, he asked students to stand.  He came at them with questions of his own including, “What is 4 times 8? Now multiply that by 10.  And who was the sixteenth president?”  It was certainly an interdisciplinary lesson and the kids never saw it coming.  They just went with it.

The next forty minutes involved students writing on their own.   They were given an assignment to reflect on the previous five years and then to add a line for future advice which stated, “Because in the next ten years…”  Students scattered around the auditorium, on stage, in corners and into the foyer.  They sat on window sills and congregated in small groups, pairs, or chose to write independently.  School principal, Colleen Lennon looked around and was thrilled.  “Look at that group of 8^th grade boys writing. Every single kid is engaged,” she said.

Lou Bernieri of Phillips Academy and the Andover Teachers Breadloaf Network added, “Eighth grade boys writing passionately…that’s worth the price of admission.  Excuse me, where were the discipline problems in that room full of cheering youth?  I couldn’t find them.”  

The student sharing in the form of open mic was the most powerful part of the day.  The respect and love the kids showed each other, the enthusiasm and joy everyone shared and the prodigious amount of writing done in a short time were all unforgettable.  All of this came as a result of the four hour literacy event scheduled by veteran teacher, Lisa Stott.   What a long way it went in terms of enriching the lives and experiences of all who attended.    There was nothing scripted, no talk of standardized tests or how to maximize learning time.  It was, in the words of Harlym125, “a writing evolution.” And to think, it was led by students.