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Got poetry? April
is the month to get it. And there will be plenty
of opportunities to hear, write and recite poetry.
April is National
Poetry Month, and Schoodic Arts for All in Winter
Harbor is bringing in some of the state’s more notable poets for three
presentations at Hammond Hall.
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Maine Poet Laureate Baron
Wormser of Hallowell (above) and
Bangor’s Annaliese Jakimides (below)will
host poetry discussions at Hammond Hall
this month. Poet Bud Kenny also will
speak.
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On Saturday, April
3, at 7 p.m., Maine’s Poet Laureate Baron Wormser
will host “Poets of the Peninsula: A Celebration
of National Poetry Month.”
Admission is $2
for adults; children under 12 get in free.
Donations will be welcome.
In 2000, members
of the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Library
Commission named Wormser the state’s top poet. He
was recommended for the position by the editor or
Beloit Poetry Journal, Marion K. Stocking. “He
really is a national figure,” she said. “We’re
just lucky that he lives in Maine.”
Since 1983 Wormser
has had six books of poems published by Houghton
Mifflin, Paris Review Editions and Sarabande
Books. His latest collection, “Subject Matters,”
was released in February.
When Wormser, 56,
was named Poet Laureate he said he wanted to use
his position to promote poetry in schools.
“Kids want poetry.
They want to read it. They want to write it. The
whole intensity of poetry appeals to kids,”
Wormser said at the time.
His poetry has
garnered fellowships from the National Endowment
for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation.
Currently, he is a
teacher in the Master of Fine Arts program at the
University of
Southern Maine. He lives in
Hallowell.
On April 10 at 7
p.m. at Hammond Hall, Bangor poet and essayist
Annaliese Jakimides will host the poetry
celebration.
Originally from
Boston, she moved to Maine in the 1980s.
“I was 24 and most
definitely a city girl who suddenly found herself
living in the middle of the woods raising three
children,” she said of her experience living near
Baxter State Park. “It was both a cultural shock and tremendous learning experience.”
It was while she
was living in northern Maine that she started
writing.
“I’ve always
enjoyed writing, but with three kids I couldn’t
justify taking the time to do it unless I could
earn some money doing it,” she said. That was when
she proposed the a newspaper column. Years later
she moved to Bangor, where she is a freelance copy
editor for several publications.
From 1998-2000,
Jakimides won first-place awards from Maine Media
Women for her work in print and radio. Her works
have been broadcast more than a dozen times on
Maine Public Radio, and her column, Literary
Weather, appeared regularly in the Houlton Pioneer
Times.
Her essay “Choice”
was included in a collection titled, “Room to
Grow,” published by St. Martin’s Press in 1999.
Bud Kenny will
close out the Schoodic Arts for All series on
April 24 at 7 p.m.
In June 2001, with
his wife, Patricia, and mule, Della, Kenny left
Hot Springs, Ark., to embark on a 20-year
worldwide tour on foot. Along the way, they
produce poetry shows from the back of Della’s pack
cart, which generates electricity from the
rotation of the wheel and a solar panel. They
walked into
Prospect Harbor in October 2003,
where they plan to live until next spring while
Kenny finishes a book about the first leg of their
journey.
Kenny is known as
a performance poet, and has been featured in
several states. He also has been invited to
perform in national poetry slams and performs on
several radio programs. Kenny, who majored in
drama and English at Central
Oklahoma University, said he
started writing poetry in the 1970s, while on
another walking journey.
Following each of
the 45-minute presentations, the microphone will
be open to all poets.
Anyone wishing to
participate in the open mike portion of the
program is urged to sign up by 6:45 p.m. on the
night of the presentations. Doors will open at 6
p.m.
For more
information, call 963-2630 or log on to
www.schoodicarts.org.
Meanwhile, in
Bangor, more than 30 well-known and emerging
poets, musicians and translators, along with
students and community members from middle
Eastern, Latin American and Asian descent will
join voices April 21 at the Bangor Public Library
for Poets/Speak! — an evening of poetry readings.
At that event,
Wormser will introduce high school poets, as well
as read from his own work.
Along with Wormser,
poets Jennifer Fosetti and Leon Raikes will be
reading and signing their new books.
The event begins
at 5:30 p.m. The poetry readings are scheduled to
begin at 6 p.m. The library closes at 9 p.m.
The event is open
to the public, and attendees are encouraged to
bring a poem to share during an open mike portion
of the evening.
Information:
947-8336, ext. 139. |
