Our friends at the Rensselaerville Library are holding their 11th annual celebration of National Poetry Month with some great events planned featuring a huge list of poets including Dennis Sullivan, Howard Kogan, Dan Wilcox, Tim Verhaegen, Bob Sharkey, Philomena Moriarty, Nancy Dyer, Mark W. Ó Brien, Barbara Vink, Charlie Rossiter, Mike Burke, Pam Clements, Mimi Moriarty, Alan Casline, Karen Schoemer, Dawn Marar, Therese Broderick, Edie Abrams, and Ann Lapinski.
Here is a look at the events that are lined up:
LET YOUR YOGA & POET DANCE AT CONKLING HALL: APRIL 9: (10:30-12:00pm)
Yoga dance is joy-filled power dance combining yoga, the breath, and user-friendly dance with fabulous music from all around the world that focuses on the body chakras. It is a funky, sacred, inspirational dance of the multi-dimensional self, bringing tons of fun and healing to body, mind, and spirit. Let Your Yoga Dance® is for every single body and wonderful for all ages.
The poetry portion of the program will focus on the body chakras.
Instructor Ann Lapinski has training in Let your Yoga Dance from the Kripalu Yoga Center in Lenox Mass. Ann is currently teaching Yoga Dance at the Guilderland continuing Education program and has taught several Yoga Dance workshops in the capital district. She has been writing poetry for about 8 years and has participated in several poetry groups and workshops. Inspiration for this program developed from Tom Corrado’s poetry group.
Students should come in loose fitting clothing with comfortable shoes and a yoga mat. Registration fee is $10, payable at the door.
VISUAL POETRY: ASEMIC WRITING WORKSHOP AT RENSSELAERVILLE LIBRARY: APRIL 16 (10:30am – 12:30pm)
This year the visual poetry workshop will focus on asemic writing, wordless writing that appears in a context that suggests meaning. Asemic writing has been called “a sort of drawing that imitates a ‘communication format’” and comes out of the tradition of overlapping poetry and art. Practiced by artists Wassily Kandinsky and Cy Twombly, among many others, it is related to concrete poetry and Apollinaire’s Calligrammes. Participants will invent their own writing and create broadsides of their work. The workshop will be facilitated by artist Nancy DeNicolo www.nancydenicolo.com/ and poet Katrinka Moore www.katrinkamoore.weebly.com/. Open to beginning and experienced writers and artists. Please register by April 8, 2016 so we can plan accordingly. Limit 15 participants. Please register with the Library at 797-3949. There is a $5.00 registration fee, payable at the door.
COWBOY POETRY AT CONKLING HALL: APRIL 16 (3:00-5:00pm)
We are happy to have Janet Botaish back for an afternoon of Cowboy Poetry…this year we very excited to have special guests Mark Munzert and Kimmy Hudson-Munzert. Mark Munzert considers himself a “green-horn” to the range of writn’ and recitin’ and says he’s as big a fan and promoter as writer and performer. He has been featured in many publications and has performed at venues as distant as Benson, Arizona. “I enjoy relating experiences that shaped me and I truly enjoy making folks smile, chuckle, tear-up and think. I consider it an honor to promote the positive values of cowboy life in doing so.” Mark is the current Western Music Association Western Wordsmith’s Secretary and also administrates a ‘Cowboy Poetry’ Facebook page which stands over 7,000 members. “My saddle is pretty dusty and my trails are usually paved” working as a territory director for an equine nutritional and care products manufacturer. Mark, and wife, western singer, Kimmy (Hudson), live and perform in the Northeast and travel westward for larger Cowboy Gatherings with plans for a westward move in the future.
WILD MINDS: NATURE POETRY AT THE HUYCK PRESERVE: APRIL 23 (3:00-5:00 pm)
In Writers and the War Against Nature, Gary Snyder describes the wild side of the human mind as large, deep, complex…The explorers of the wild mind are often writers and artists.”
We humans are part of the natural world, but it can be easy to lose sight of that as we move along our daily rounds. Nature poetry can help us remember our connection to our environment. Many nature poets celebrate natural beauty or describe personal responses to experiences in nature. Others confront environmental devastation and injustice. Possibly the most important reason to read, write or listen to nature poems is that they remind us to pay attention to our world. They call on us to use all our senses to discover aspects of wildness inside ourselves.
Featured Poets: Barbara Ungar, Stuart Bartow, Alan Casline, Tom Corrado, John Couturier, Dawn Marar, Anita Marrone, Linda Miller, Robert Miller, Katrinka Moore, Philomena Moriarty, Claire North, Susan Oringel, Michael Peters, Joan Lauri Poole, Elizabeth Poreba, Dianne Sefcik, Lee Slonimsky, and Emileigh Tanner.
The Research Station on Lincoln Pond (284 Pond Hill Rd., Rensselaerville) at the Huyck Preserve is a logical setting for an afternoon of readings of original work by regional poets, as well as readings of well-known poets by guest readers. It is a peaceful place where readers and audience members can respond to poetic explorations of the natural world.
SINGING IN THE DARK: POETRY OF COURAGE / POETRY OF WITNESS AT THE CAREY CENTER FOR GLOBAL GOOD: APRIL 30 (3:00-5:00 pm)
The turbulent issues of the 21st Century (including those related to refugees, terrorism, racism, nationalism, gender, age, free speech, climate and war) have resulted in a particularly fertile time for poetry as well as for other forms of artistic expression. Poetry speaks to our deepest fears as well as hopes. Around the world, poets are not only writing in reaction to the issues of the day, but they are also confronting these new times with new poetic forms such as documentary poetry, ecopoetry, spoken word/slam poetry, multi-genre expression, etc. .
The Singing in the Dark event seeks to pack into two-hours an introduction to poets who use both traditional and new forms to address the challenges of living in these uncertain times, as well as to poets who have addressed historical events with similar urgency. You will hear poems by regional poets as well as readings (by guest readers) of poems by well-known poets. The diverse voices of those moved to engage these issues, including the often unfamiliar poetry of indigenous peoples, will be represented in both this event and the Huyck Preserve event.
Featured Poets: Jamaluddin Aram, Nancy Klepsch, Leland Kinsey, Victorio Reyes, Daniel Summerhill, Dan Wilcox, Thomas Bonville, Charlie Burgess, Tom Corrado, Curtis Flach, Christian Matthew Harris, Ian Macks, Cheryl MacNeil, Dawn Marar, Anita Marrone, Marilyn McCabe, Linda Miller, Philomena Moriarty, Robert Nied, Claire North, Marianne Rahn-Erickson, Dianne Sefcik, Bob Sharkey, and Lynda Wisdo.
Save the Date
RENSSELAERVILLE: REMINISCENCES AND RHYMES AT THE GRIST MILL: MAY 28 (1:00PM)
Rensselaerville Historical Society will offer Readings from Rensselaerville: Reminiscences and Rhymes. Books will be available for purchase.
Poetry Month Events were planned by the Poetry Month Committee of the Rensselaerville Library, consisting of poets Tom Corrado, Dawn Marar, Linda Miller, Katrinka Moore, Claire North, and Dianne Sefcik, with the assistance of Kim Graff, and input from poet Charlie Burgess, Dawn O’Neal at the Huyck Preserve, and Sue Shufelt at the Carey Center. Poets Katrinka Moore and Dawn Marar co-chaired the Huyck and Carey Center events with poet Linda Miller, and poet Tom Corrado was the “one man show” who put together the Poem-a-Day on the library’s website. We hope you can join us at one or more of the events throughout the month.
