Event Type
Poetry communities exist everywhere--in community centers, coffee shops, bars, libraries, prisons, hospitals, on digital platforms, and in the open air. The four panelists discuss their work in building, maintaining, and documenting the lives of various American poetry communities. Jennifer Browne, poet and director of the Frostburg Center for Literary Arts, will discuss recent public poetry installations in an Appalachian county, to illustrate how, even with lean budgets, individuals and organizations can bring poetry into public spaces in their communities. George Guida, poet, critic, and author of the forthcoming book Virtue at the Coffeehouse: Poetry and Community in Contemporary America, will discuss the roles poetry and the social and cultural milieux it creates play in the lives of communities and individuals, many of whom are most subject to social, political and economic inequality, or most concerned with the effects of such inequality, whose most viable platform in a world dominated by corporate media is the local or virtual poetry venue. Gerry LaFemina, poet, critic, and literary arts activist, will discuss the ways in which a subculture of community groups that come together in workshops, open readings, writers' groups, and community/regional journals sustain and foster poetic growth and engagement, through an underground network of programming. Gregg Wilhelm, poet, professor, publisher, and Executive Director of Poetry Daily will discuss Poetry Daily's creation of a program delivered in the Fairfax County Juvenile Detention Center, which operates a high school in conjunction with the Fairfax County Public Schools so that the youth there can pursue their education. Started by Nicole Tong as part of her community project as the inaugural Fairfax Poet Laureate, the program has been transformative for the youth and the MFA students who share poetry as a key to learning.