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Getting to Know Matthew E. Henry

Getting to Know Matthew E. Henry

When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? Like most kids, I was exposed to and asked to write poetry in elementary school. In middle school and high school we were forced to analyze the genre. For most of that time, I...

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Mass Poetry Teen Becomes Youth Poet Laureate of Boston

On January 27th, 2024, Parker-Vincent Alva was named Boston's next youth poet laureate. Parker-Vincent Alva is a SW@MP (Spoken Word at Mass Poetry) member and a 2023 GrubStreet Teen Fellow, as well as a student and writer from Boston, MA. He writes poetry and prose...

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Tamar Dor-Ner

Partner, Boston Office Head, Bain & Company Tamar Dane Dor-Ner is a partner in Bain & Company’s Boston office and a member of the Private Equity, Retail and Brand Strategy Practices.  She joined the firm in 1999 and, in addition to Boston, has worked in...

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April English

Chief Secretary to Governor Maura T. Healey April English serves as the Chief Secretary to Governor Maura T. Healey. As Chief Secretary, she oversees the administration's efforts to fill appointments on boards and commissions and throughout the administration. Prior...

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Jill Medvedow

Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art Jill Medvedow is the Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and is recognized as a national leader in the field of contemporary art and civic life. She dramatically...

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Imari Paris Jeffries

Executive Director of EMBRACE Boston Imari K. Paris Jeffries is CEO and President of Embrace Boston where he is leading a citywide racial equity movement through The Embrace memorial, the National Embrace Center, and arts and culture centered community organizing...

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Jeneé Osterheldt

Deputy managing editor of talent, culture and development at The Boston Globe/founder of A Beautiful Resistance she/her/hers Jeneé Osterheldt is a culture columnist who covers identity and social justice through the lens of culture and the arts. Her work centers Black...

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Getting to Know Mary Buchinger, Author of Virology

Getting to Know Mary Buchinger, Author of Virology

When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? My mother learned many poems by heart and still, at age 92, can recite poetry she learned when she was a child. I am only now realizing how much poetry was a part of my childhood...

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Getting to Know Erica Charis-Molling, Author of How We Burn

Getting to Know Erica Charis-Molling, Author of How We Burn

When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? I first discovered poetry in middle school. I was drawn to the delightful strangeness of e.e.cummings’ language, the quirky sage voice of Emily Dickenson, and the vivid, dramatic...

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Getting to Know Michael Ansara, Author of What Remains

Getting to Know Michael Ansara, Author of What Remains

When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems?  I fell in love with poetry in high school but as a reader, not a writer. Over the years I would read poetry, primarily what I think of as the “classics” for well-educated...

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Getting to Know Kevin Gallagher, Author of The Wild Goose

Getting to Know Kevin Gallagher, Author of The Wild Goose

When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? My earliest encounters with poetry were through the Bible. As a young person raised Catholic the poems and songs of that ritualistic life were my first major exposure to...

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Getting to Know Dianne C. Braley, Author of Unheard Whispers

Getting to Know Dianne C. Braley, Author of Unheard Whispers

“What excites me most about Unheard Whispers, my collection of poems on growing up in an alcoholic home, is that part of the proceeds is going to the Robert F. Kennedy Community Alliance here in Massachusetts and their division that helps children and families affected by addiction. In the disease of addiction, so much funding and support go to the addicts themselves. While this is needed, the children of addicts often are forgotten.” — Dianne C. Braley

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Getting to Know Jon D. Lee, Author of IN/DESIDERATO

Getting to Know Jon D. Lee, Author of IN/DESIDERATO

“IN/DESIDERATO is a book-length poem that, at its heart, is a meditation on the nature of the world we’re leaving behind, both in terms of our collective successes and our failures. The title is a Latinate mangling of my own that loosely translates to ‘un/desirable,’ meaning both the light and dark opposites of that phrasing, and the book is dedicated to and largely addressed to my children.” — Jon D. Lee

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A Cento by Erica Charis-Molling

A Cento by Erica Charis-Molling

“Dear child of the near future, / Here’s my permission. Take it. It’s alright to replace sirens / with the light shot through them. / All the old gray gods have fallen / in a field of decapitated corn stalks. / I’m trying to tell you that the world is beautiful.” — Erica Charis-Molling

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