POETRY EVENT/NEWS - AMHERST, MA

August 7-9: Emily Dickinson International Society annual meeting Join us also on Thursday, August 6, for EDIS-inspired  Amherst Art Walk with poet and Paris Press founder Jan Freeman and Open Me Carefully co-editor Ellen Hart  D'Youville College English Professor Marta Werner (left), seen here during a critical institute at last year's annual meeting, will be presenting the talk "The Weather (of) Documents" on Friday, August 7. AMHERST, MASS. -- Emily Dickinson scholars and enthusiasts from around the world will be visiting Amherst August 7 to 9 for the annual meeting of the Emily Dickinson International Society.  Held in collaboration with the Emily Dickinson Museum, this year's meeting has a theme of "Dickinson in Her Elements." The programs, said EDIS President Martha Nell Smith, are inspired by the poet's engagements with air, earth, fire, and water, and the general public is encouraged to attend and participate. "There's a delightful variety of offerings, from critical institutes, lectures, and musical performances to poetry workshops and tours of Emily Dickinson's gardens and Amherst College's Wilder Observatory," said Smith, who noted that after the success of last year's annual meeting in Amherst, she's excited to be back in Dickinson's home town again. "People are excited to be returning to Amherst. They do love being in Dickinson's element." View the program and register at the EDIS website here. Among the many offerings are: A critical institute in which participants share and critique essays on Dickinson's life and work.   Lectures by D'Youville College English Professor Marta Werner on "The Weather (of) Documents," University of Georgia English Professor Cody Marrs on "Dickinson in the Winds of War," and Tulane University English Professor Michelle Kohler's "Prompter than a Star: Dickinson's Clockwork."   Performances by The Red Skies Music Ensemble of "Emily Dickinson in her Element: Accomplished Musician, Emerging Poet" and jazz pianist Tomoko Ozawa performing works inspired by Dickinson's poetry on Martha Dickinson Bianchi's Steinway in the Evergreens. The Red Skies Music Ensemble performance will be held Friday, August 7, at 8 pm at Amherst College's Keefe Campus Center. Tickets are $20 at the door. There is limited, first come, first served, seating. Combining the music Emily Dickinson played and loved with an illustrated narrative and theatrical presentation of her own wit and commentaries from correspondence and poetry, the Red Skies Music Ensemble delivers an entertaining and vivid portrayal of Dickinson in her elements of music, nature, Amherst and New England. The event is co-sponsored by the Emily Dickinson International Society, Jones Library Special Collections, and the Emily Dickinson Museum.   Presentations by authors Nuala O'Connor (Miss Emily) and Susan Snively (The Heart Has Many Doors).   Poetry workshops and discussions, a hike on the Emily Dickinson Trail, visits to the Amherst College Wilder Observatory, and a program on Dickinson's gardens. The Emily Dickinson International Society was founded in 1988 to promote, perpetuate, and enhance the study and appreciation of Emily Dickinson throughout the world. Learn more about becoming a member and their many programs here.     Thursday, August 6: Amherst Art Walk with poet and Paris Press executive director Jan Freeman and Open Me Carefully co-editor Ellen Hart Join us at the Emily Dickinson Museum on Thursday, August 6 from 5 to 8 pm for our monthly Amherst Art Walkpoetry night and open house. This month, Poet and Paris Press Executive Director Jan Freeman and Ellen Hart, co-editor (along with EDIS President Martha Nell Smith) of the Paris Press publication Open Me Carefully, will be the featured presenters starting at 7 pm in the Homestead parlor. Freeman will share the history of Paris Press and read from her own poetry, while she and Hart will discuss the publication of Open Me Carefully and read from and comment on the book.   Open Me Carefully features selections from Emily Dickinson's nearly 40-year correspondence to her sister-in-law and neighbor in The Evergreens next door, Susan Huntington Dickinson. Open Me Carefully invites a dramatic new understanding of Emily Dickinson's life and work, overcoming a century of censorship and misinterpretation. The correspondence brings to light Susan Huntington Dickinson as a central source of the poet's passion and inspiration, and as her primary reader and literary companion.  From 5 to 7 pm, tours of The Evergreens will be offered for $5. The focus of this special tour will be on the relationship between Emily and Susan, their correspondence, and the important literary history that centers around the historic house.     About the Emily Dickinson Museum The Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens is dedicated to educating diverse audiences about the poet's life, family, creative work, times, and enduring relevance, and to preserving and interpreting the Homestead and The Evergreens as historical resources for public and academic enrichment.   The Emily Dickinson Museum is owned by the Trustees of Amherst College and overseen by a separate Board of Governors. The Museum is responsible for raising its own operating and capital funds. The Emily Dickinson Museum is a member of Museums10, a collaboration of ten museums linked to the Five Colleges in the Pioneer Valley--Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

A POEM FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

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American Life in Poetry: Column 525

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

 

Here’s a fine poem about two generations of husbands, by Pauletta Hansel of Ohio. Husbands  My mother likes a man who works. She likes my husband’s muddy knees, grass stains on the cuffs. She loved my father, though when weekends came he’d sleep till nine and would not lift his eyes up from the page to move the feet she’d vacuum under. On Saturdays my husband digs the holes for her new roses, softening the clay with peat and compost. He changes bulbs she can no longer reach and understands the inside of her toaster. My father’s feet would carry him from chair to bookshelf, back again till Monday came. My mother likes to tell my husband sit down in this chair and put your feet up.

POETRY EVENTS - CHICAGO

ILLINOIS STATE POETRY SOCIETY

Southwest Suburban Chapter Meeting

Sunday, August 2, 1:00 PM
Lisle Public Library
777 Front Street
Lisle, IL
Please register by contacting Barbara Eaton at eatonb1016@aol.com

GREEN MILL

Uptown Poetry Slam

Sunday, August 2, 7:00 PM
Green Mill Jazz Club
4802 North Broadway Avenue
$7.00 admission

UNCHARTED BOOKS

Poetry and Fiction Reading featuring Julia Cohen, Laura Goldstein, & Seth Landman

Sunday, August 2, 7:00 PM
Uncharted Books
2620 North Milwaukee Avenue
Free admission

CHICAGO SLAM WORKS

LitMash

Monday, August 3, 7:30 PM
Haymarket Pub & Brewery
737 West Randolph Street
$8.00 admission

TUESDAY FUNK

Featuring Henri Harps, Robert McDonald, & more

Tuesday, August 4, 7:30 PM
Hopleaf
5148 North Clark Street
Free admission

HOMOLATTE

Featuring J.L. Deher-Lesaint & Pleasure Centers

Tuesday, August 4, 7:30 PM
Big Chicks
5024 North Sheridan Road
Free admission

POETRY FOUNDATION

Wednesday Poemtime

Wednesday, August 5, 10:00 AM
Poetry Foundation
61 West Superior Street
Free admission

THE CHICAGO POETRY MEETUP GROUP

Workshop, critique, & discussion

Wednesday, August 5, 6:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Café at DePaul Center
1 East Jackson Avenue
Free admission

POETRY CENTER OF CHICAGO

Six Points Reading Series featuring Fred Sasaki & Dolly Lemke

Thursday, August 6, 6:00 PM
Chicago Cultural Center, Garland Room
78 East Washington Street
Free admission

ILLINOIS STATE POETRY SOCIETY

Central Chapter Meeting

Saturday, August 8, 1:00 PM
Pontiac Public Library
211 East Madison Street
Pontiac, IL 
Please register by contacting David LaRue Alexander at pontiacpoetry@aol.com

GREEN MILL

Uptown Poetry Slam

Sunday, August 9, 7:00 PM
Green Mill Jazz Club
4802 North Broadway Avenue
$7.00 admission

P

POETRY NEWS - NYC

Poets Forum: October 8-10   Join us at this year’s Poets Forum for a reading by recent New York State Poet Laureate Marie Howe and “Ancestors: a Mapping of Indigenous Poetry and Poets,” a lecture on contemporary poetry by Joy Harjo. In this, our annual Blaney Lecture, Harjo will give an overview of the current field of young indigenous poets and their ancestral strands of relatives.

Carolyn Forché to Judge the Whitman Award   We’re thrilled to announce thatCarolyn Forché will judge the 2016Walt Whitman Award, the nation’s most valuable first-book prize for poetry. The winner of the Whitman Award receives $5,000 and book publication by Graywolf Press in 2017. Submissions will be accepted online only from September 1 through November 1.

FOR MORE INFO LOG ON TO

poets.org

POETRY EVENTS - COMPLETE SUMMER SCHEDULE - CHICAGO

Tuesday, July 28, 3:00PM

Chris Green at the Jean-Luc Mylayne Chapel

Chris Green is the author of three books of poetry: The Sky Over Walgreens (2007), Epiphany School (2009), and Résumé (2014). His poems have appeared in such publications as Poetryand The New York Times....

READING

Wednesday, July 29, 10:00AM

Wednesday Poemtime

The Poetry Foundation Library welcomes children ages two to five to a storytime event that introduces poetry through fun, interactive readings and crafts.

Sign...

READING

Wednesday, July 29, 12:00PM

Pop-up Poetry: Jamila Woods

A series of short performance/talks by Chicago poets explore communal creativity and artistic collaboration, inspired by Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions. 

Jamila Woods is a poet and vocalist, a member...

PERFORMANCE

Saturday, August 1, 6:00PM

(In)visible

Featuring new work from Fatimah Asghar, Jasmine Barber, Britteney Kapri, Reginald Eldridge Jr., Dianna Harris, Tim Henderson, and Jamila Woods, (In)visible is the culminating reading and performance for the...

READING

Wednesday, August 5, 10:00AM

Wednesday Poemtime

The Poetry Foundation Library welcomes children ages two to five to a storytime event that introduces poetry through fun, interactive readings and crafts.

Sign...

EXHIBITION EVENT

Monday, August 10, 6:00PM–8:00PM

Just Yell/Poetry as Self Defense: The physical embodiment of language

In the second of three performances in Cheryl Pope’s Just Yell : From Within exhibition, Pope leads a team of young poets through a performance of self defense training and poetry practice. Poets will...

READING

Wednesday, August 12, 10:00AM

Wednesday Poemtime

The Poetry Foundation Library welcomes children ages two to five to a storytime event that introduces poetry through fun, interactive readings and crafts.

Sign...

READING

Wednesday, August 12, 12:00PM

Pop-Up Poetry: Jacob Saenz

A series of short performance/talks by Chicago poets explore communal creativity and artistic collaboration, inspired by Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions.
Poet and editor Jacob Saenz was born in...

READING

Wednesday, August 19, 10:00AM

Wednesday Poemtime

The Poetry Foundation Library welcomes children ages two to five to a storytime event that introduces poetry through fun, interactive readings and crafts.

Sign...

EXHIBITION EVENT

Thursday, August 20, 6:00PM–9:00PM

Just Yell/Poetry as Self Defense: Poetry Fashion DanceMusic

In the final live performance in Cheryl Pope’s Just Yell : From Within exhibition, young Chicago artists, fashion designers, and poets blur the lines between their disciplines with an immersive performance...

EVENT

Friday, August 21, 12:30PM–1:30PM

Library Book Club: James Tate

All experience levels are welcome to a monthly book group moderated by library staff. In August, we will discuss James Tate’s Selected Poems (1991), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos...

EXTENDED HOURS

Saturday, August 22, 10:00AM–3:00PM

Poetry Foundation Library: Special Saturday Hours

The Poetry Foundation Library is open to the public on select Saturdays. Young children and their parents/guardians are also invited to join us for Saturday Poemtime at 10:30 AM.

Experience the current...

WORKSHOP

Saturday, August 22, 12:00PM–2:00PM

Forms and Features: Persona

All experience levels are welcome to a discussion and creative workshop moderated by library staff. In August, Forms and Features focuses on persona, a dramatic, mask-like character the poet creates,...

READING

Wednesday, August 26, 10:00AM

Wednesday Poemtime

The Poetry Foundation Library welcomes children ages two to five to a storytime event that introduces poetry through fun, interactive readings and crafts.

Sign...

READING

Wednesday, August 26, 12:00PM

Pop-up Poetry: Parneshia Jones

A series of short performance/talks by Chicago poets explore communal creativity and artistic collaboration, inspired by Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions.
The recipient of a Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry...

EVENT

Friday, September 18, 12:30PM–1:30PM

Library Book Club: Cecilia Vicuña

All experience levels are welcome to a monthly book group moderated by library staff. In September, we will discuss SABORAMI (2011) by poet and multidisciplinary artist Cecilia Vicuña. Space is limited to...

BIRTH OF A POET

EMMA LAZARUS was born on July 22, 1849 in NEW YORK CITY.

Her poem "THE NEW COLOSSUS," written in 1883, appears on a bronze plaque which was placed in the pedestal of the STATUE OF LIBERTY in 1903.

Emma Lazarus died in 1887.

GOOGLE her name to read a bio and sample her poetry

READ THIS POEM OUT LOUD

In a Whispering Gallery   Thomas Hardy

That whisper takes the voice Of a Spirit, speaking to me, Close, but invisible, And throws me under a spell At the kindling vision it brings; And for a moment I rejoice, And believe in transcendent things That would make of this muddy earth A spot for the splendid birth Of everlasting lives, Whereto no night arrives; And this gaunt gray gallery A tabernacle of worth On this drab-aired afternoon, When you can barely see Across its hazed lacune If opposite aught there be Of fleshed humanity Wherewith I may commune; Or if the voice so near Be a soul’s voice floating here.