PoemCity 2024 closed for poetry submissions on February 7, 2024. We are happy to have hundreds of Vermont poets represented this year. Click the button below to see a list of PoemCity 2024 poems and locations, listed alphabetically by author's last name. Poems go up in storefront windows on Aprill 1, 2024 and stay up for the entire month. A copy of each poem is available for the poet at the front desk of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library from April - June.

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As we prepare to paper downtown Montpelier with poems for National Poetry Month, the library would like to extend its thanks to the many partners that make PoemCity possible. Oraganizations and businesses generously share their window space and we couldn't be PoemCity without them. A special thanks to Patrick Malone Properties, the Vermont Center for Independent Living, the Vermont League of Cities & Towns, Walgreen's, the Cheshire Cat and Woodbury Mountain Toys, who are offering large window spaces for displays of children's poetry (nearly 200 poems by students this year!).

 

Community College of Vermont, the Center for Arts & Learning, Hunger Mountain Coop, Lost Nation Theater, Montpelier Senior Activity Center, The Front, T.W. Wood Gallery, North Branch Nature Center, Unitarian Church of Montpelier, North Branch Cafe, and the Adamant Community Club all serve as venues for poetry programming in addition to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. We have a vibrant and engaged community that supports poetry and we are so grateful.

 

PoemCity is underwritten by Vermont Humanities, who has been supporting PoemCity for all of its 15 years, the Hunger Mountain Coop, and Rootstock Publishing who generously publishes an anthology of all the PoemCity poems. Our deepest thanks to these partners.

 

A final thanks to the library staff, skilled team, volunteers, community members, and POETS who make it all happen. Happy 15th Anniversary PoemCity!

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“This is poetry for the people...”  –George Longenecker, The Montpelier Bridge

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To preorder this year's anthology go to PoemCity Anthology 2024 - Rootstock Publishing. 

 

The Anthology’s cover is a digital illustration by college student Fiona Perez Razzaque (Rah-Zaak) entitles “Slow Wade” inspired by the poem “Afternoon at Sea” submitted to PoemCity, for the first time, by her mother, Deidra Razzaque (Rah-Zaak), from Brattleboro

 

“After all the ways that Covid and flooding have impacted our state,

I’m looking forward to seeing Montpelier filled with poetry and people connecting with

words and one another.” -Deidra Razzaque, Brattleboro

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PoemCity 2024 Events: Youth 

 

KHL Children’s Library

 

Magnetic Poetry: Explore word play with extra-large magnets, all of April

Community Poetry Weaving Project: Add a line to our ever-growing community poem, all of April

 

Weekly Poetry Take-Home Activities: 

April 1–5 Concrete Poems

April 8–12 Rhyming Couplets

April 15–19 Book Spine Poetry

April 22–26 Word Collage Poetry

 

April 6

Youth Poetry Open Mic

2–4 p.m.

Rabble-Rouser Chocolate & Craft 

64 Main Street, Montpelier

Rabble-Rouser and the U-32 Poetry Collective are proud to create an opportunity to amplify the voices of youth poets and spoken word performers. Contact Meg, mallison@u32.org.

 

April 15

Homeschool All Ages Poetry Reading

1:30 p.m.

KHL, Hayes Room

Homeschoolers of all ages (grown-ups, too!) gather to read or recite poetry. Read in groups or solo, original or published material. Optional finger food snack potluck. Contact Autumn, abissonnette@kellogghubbard.org.

 

April 26

Poetry for Neanderthals

2–3 p.m.

KHL Children’s Library

A fun board game where players can only speak in single syllables. Contact Autumn, abissonnette@kellogghubbard.org.

 

April 26

All Ages Anything Goes Poetry Slam

7 p.m.

Lost Nation Theater

39 Main Street, Montpelier

Geof Hewitt hosts this All Ages Anything Goes Slam, where poets, acoustic musicians, jugglers, and anyone else is invited to take three minutes onstage to wow the judges. Sign up at the door. Contact Geof, geofhewitt@gmail.com.

 

 

 

PoemCity 2024 Events: All

 

All programs are free of charge and open to the public

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Programs that will be livestreamed or recorded by ORCA Media are noted

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The elevator at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library is under construction and the

Hayes Room is not handicap accessible during this time.

Contact Michelle Singer at msinger@kellogghubbard.org for assistance.

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April 1, 2024

PoemCity 2024 Opening Reception

6-8 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library

PoemCity 2024 kicks off with this opening reception and open mic. Join us for dessert, a poetry book swap, and the opportunity to read your poem. All are welcome. Contact Michelle Singer at msinger@gmail.com for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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April 2, 2024

Poetry of Art and Community

7:00 PM

T.W. Wood Art Gallery

46 Barre Street, Montpelier 

A reading with poets Scudder Parker and George Longenecker and musician Jim Thompson. Scudder Parker is the author of Safe as Lightning. George Longenecker is the author of Star Route. Jim Thompson, aka Piano Jim, is a long-time Vermont artist, entertainer and educator and the creator of the musical “Halfway There.” Visit www.pianojim.com/index.html or contact George Longenecker at georgelongenecker17@gmail.com for more information.

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April 3, 2024 - CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER

Voices of Women Poets

6:30 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

Three Vermont poets, Cindy Hill, Samantha Kolber, and Tricia Knoll, will read their original poems pertaining to women’s history and women’s experiences to tie March's Women's History Month to April's National Poetry Month. Tricia will read poems from her new chapbook The Unknown Daughter. Free and open to the public. Contact Tricia at triciaknoll@gmail.com for more information.

 

Tricia Knoll is the author of nine books of poetry and has had poems published in numerous anthologies and literary journals. She has degrees in literature from Stanford University (BA) and Yale University (MAT) and is a Contributing Editor to Verse Virtual. She lives in Vermont with five acres of woods and is working daily to remove invasive buckthorn. Her new chapbook The Unknown Daughter releases from Finishing Line Press on March 1st.

 

Cindy Ellen Hill is a writer, musician and obsessed gardener in Middlebury, Vermont. She has written extensively for Vermont Woman, Vermont Outdoors, VTDigger, and magazines, winning NENPA awards. She is the author of two sonnet chapbooks, Wild Earth (Antrim Press 2021) and Elegy for the Trees (Kelsay Books 2022), and has had poems published in Vermont Magazine, Vermont Life, Measure, The Lyric, and on National Public Radio.

 

Samantha Kolber is a poet, publisher, and mother in Montpelier, Vermont. She is the author of the award-winning chapbook Birth of a Daughter (Kelsay Books 2020) and has had poems published in Rattle, Hunger Mountain, and other journals and anthologies. She is the owner and publisher of Rootstock Publishing, a small, curated hybrid & traditional press publishing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction books by authors from Vermont and beyond.

 

 

April 4, 2024 - RESCHEDULED (See APRIL 12)

Embraceable Multitudes

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April 5, 2024

ArtWalk: Ashley Strobridge of Astrobridge Artistry

3:30-7 PM

Montpelier Senior Activity Center

58 Barre Street, Montpelier

In a combined PoemCity & Art Walk event, Ashley Strobridge will share her poetry and art, both new works and old favorites, at the Montpelier Senior Activity Center, sharing the location with Vermont's beloved Bread & Puppet theater troupe and press. Ashley will share her works in readings & through being on hand with her poetry & art available to purchase and browse in greeting cards, bookmarks, prints, and other exciting new formats! Ashley also has a painting in the CYCLES exhibit that will be displayed at the State House during the month of April, just in time for the Eclipse! And she will have prints of this painting available in cards, canvas prints, and possibly more! Ashley also hopes to have an eclipse related piece ready by April 5th! Come experience and enjoy new works and old, as well as some exciting new announcements! Contact Ashley Anne Strobridge at astro.greenlady@gmail.com or visit www.astrobridge-artistry.com for more information.

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April 5, 2024

ArtWalk: Voice & Vision

4-8 PM

Center for Arts & Learning (CAL)

46 Barre Street, Montpelier

Voice & Vision features art by Art Resource Association artists paired with original poetry. Curated by Linda Hogan. This show will be featured during ArtWalk and also displayed for the month of April at the Center for Arts & Learning. Contact Phayvanh Luekhamhan at director@cal-vt.org for more information.

 

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April 5, 2024

Piano & Poetry Take Flight

LIVESTREAMED BY ORCA MEDIA

7-8:30 PM

Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Sanctuary

130 Main Street

This event will feature pianist Aaron Marcus and poet Sam Sanders. Enjoy a night of original musical compositions set to spoken word poetry. Sam and Aaron have been setting the words of many of our local poets to music since Aaron's award-winning release of Men Don't Cry in 2018. They found the emotional embodied power of poetry-music compositions on that album to be so moving that Aaron and Sam focused entirely on the intermingling of poetry and music for Garden Dreams in 2021.  

 

In these compositions, Aaron says, "...the poetry takes us on journeys, and the partly improvised music is the vehicle of receiving the poetry that can allow us to feel through our whole bodies." Sam will be reading original poetry as well as poems of Vermont authors. Contact Aaron at 617-721-6743 for more information.

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April 6, 2024 & April 20, 2024

The Climate Emergency and the Poetic Response

12:30-2 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

This two-part workshop will center on an exploration of the emotional fields that climate change is increasingly evoking, and how to transform these emotions into poetic form. The creative act of writing poetry and the “voicing” of the emergent moment intersects as a therapeutic process. The first session will introduce concepts being brought to light by Climate Psychology and will include time for free-writing and sharing. The second session will be a more formal workshop in which participants bring a draft(s) that will be shared and workshopped. Please bring your own writing materials. Contact Susan Atwood at atwood.stone@gmail.com for more information.

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Workshop Leaders:

Susan Atwood (she/her), is a climate-aware psychotherapist practicing in Montpelier and a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America. Susan is also a wilderness guide affiliated with Vermont Wilderness Rites, and a former teacher of writing. She has had a long affiliation with a poetry writing group in Central Vermont and has been a past contributor and presenter for PoemCity in Montpelier, VT.

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Jesse LoVasco (she/her), is a poet, visual artist and herbalist residing in unceded land of both Anishnabe in Michigan and Abenaki in Vermont. She studied poetry at Vermont College. Her book Native was published in 2020. She was a participating fellow of Nature Culture’s Writing the Land Project, with poems in the anthology, Windblown l, and in the anthology, Migration and Home, as well as a yearly contributor and facilitator for PoemCity in Montpelier, VT.

 

 

April 6, 2024

Youth Poetry Open Mic

2-4 PM

Rabble-Rouser Cafe 

64 Main Street, Montpelier

Rabble-Rouser and the U-32 Poetry Collective are proud to create an opportunity to amplify the voices of youth poets and spoken word performers, and interested audience members. This will be a space for youth poets to share their work, and the work of those they admire. Enjoy a beverage and sweet treat from the cafe and tuck into a cozy space for this special afternoon. Contact Meg Allison & Elias Francis at mallison@u32.org.

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April 7, 2024

Seen and Unseen: Poets in Conversation

LIVESTREAMED BY ORCA MEDIA

3 PM

Unitarian Church, Vestry Hall

130 Main Street, Montpelier

Join award-winning poets Karin Gottshall (The River Won’t Hold You), Elizabeth Powell (Atomizer), Alison Prine (Steel), Bianca Stone (What Is Otherwise Infinite), and Diana Whitney (Dark Beds) on the eve of the total eclipse of the sun. In poems and conversation, they’ll delve into themes of light and shadow, seen and unseen, presence and absence, exploring how poetry can reveal what is hidden and offer us insight and illumination. Contact Diana Whitney at dianawhitneypoet@gmail.com for more information.

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KARIN GOTSHALL is the author of two full-length books of poems and assorted chapbooks, broadsides, and other indie press artifacts. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Four Way Review, and many other publications. She is currently at work on a new poetry collection and a nonfiction book about lullabies. Gottshall lives with her dogs in Middlebury, Vermont, and teaches at Middlebury College.

 

ELIZABETH A.I. POWELL is the author of three books of poems, most recently “Atomizer” (LSU Press). Her second book of poems, “Willy Loman’s Reckless Daughter: Living Truthfully Under Imaginary Circumstances” was a “Books We Love 2016” by The New Yorker.  The Boston Globe has called her recent work “wry and fervent” and “awash in synesthesiastic revelation.” Her novel, “Concerning the Holy Ghost's Interpretation of JCrew Catalogues” was published in 2019 in the U.K.  Recent poems appear in The New Republic, American Poetry Review, Women’s Review of Books, Colorado Review, Seneca Review among others. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Northern Vermont University. She also serves on the faculty of the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. 

 

ALISON PRINE’s latest collection of poems, LOSS AND ITS ANTONYM (Headmistress Press, 2024), won the 2023 Sappho’s Prize in Poetry and will come out later this year. Her debut poetry collection, STEEL (Cider Press Review, 2016), was named a finalist for the 2017 Vermont Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Five Points, Harvard Review, Prairie Schooner, and others. She lives and works in Burlington, Vermont. Visit her at alisonprine.com.

 

BIANCA STONE is the author of the poetry collections What is Otherwise Infinite (Tin House, 2022) winner of the 2022 Vermont Book Award; The Möbius Strip Club of Grief (Tin House, 2018), Someone Else’s Wedding Vows (Octopus Books and Tin House, 2014) and collaborated with Anne Carson on the illuminated version of Antigonick (New Directions, 2012). Her work has appeared in many magazines, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The Nation. She teaches classes on poetry and poetic study at the Ruth Stone House (501c3) where she is host of Ode & Psyche Podcast. 

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DIANA WHITNEY writes across genres with a focus on feminism, motherhood and sexuality. She is the editor of the bestselling anthology, You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves, winner of the 2022 Claudia Lewis Award, and the author of two poetry collections, most recently Dark Beds (June Road Press, 2023). Her essays, poems and criticism have appeared in the New York Times, the Kenyon Review, Glamour, Green Mountains Review, Electric Literature, and many more. She lives in Brattleboro with her family and works as an editor and writing coach. Find out more: www.diana-whitney.com

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April 8, 2024

LGBTQ Poetry Reading

LIVESTREAMED BY ORCA MEDIA

6-8 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

A panel of LGBTQ poets, including Linda Quinlan, Kim Ward, Samn Stockwell, and Toussaint St. Negritude, will read in person in the Hayes Room. Contact Linda Quinlan at bellinghambell2003@yahoo.com for more information. 

 

Linda Quinlan’s book Chelsea Creek was published by Brickhouse Press and was awarded The Wicked Womens Poetry Award.  Her work has been published in many literary journals some of which include Sinister Wisdom, The New Orleans Literary Review and The North Carolina Litaerary Review.  She was Poet of the Year in Wisconsin and presently has an lgbtq news show called All Things LGBTQ.  

 

Kim Ward is a poet, and playwright, and a visual, and theater artist. She is the founder of The Vermont Playwrights Circle and received her MFA in Performance Poetry from Goddard College in 1998. Her play, “Angel in the Fire” received the 1999 Playwrights Showcase Award by the Vermont Actors and Theater Artists Association and was also accepted into the New Frontiers Conference in 2000. She has lived in Montpelier for over twenty years and teaches English at Norwich University.

 

Samn Stockwell has published in Agni, North American Review, and the New Yorker, among others. Her new book, Musical Figures, is published by Thirty West Publishing House. Her two previous books, Theater of Animals and Recital, won the National Poetry Series (USA) and the Editor’s Prize at Elixir, respectively. She won the Massachusetts Poetry Festival First Poem prize, was selected as the editor’s choice at Panoply, and was the editor’s choice for Brain Mill Press. Recent poems are in Ploughshares and others. You can find out more about her at: https://www.samnstockwell.org/

Former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine, and 2024 nominee for the Poet Laureateship of Vermont, poet, bass clarinetist, and composer Toussaint St. Negritude conjures whole liberations in full tempo. US Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks described his work as "full of sweet sounds and surprises." Originally from San Francisco, Toussaint has lived and broadly thrived across the African Diaspora, from the sacred mountains of Haiti,  to the Coltrane District of North Philadelphia. He, along with bassist Gahlord Dewald, is the leader of the band Jaguar Stereo!, a free-form ensemble of his own poetry and improvisational jazz, and his works have been widely published and recorded for over 40 years. On an alpine sanctuary facing east, Toussaint St. Negritude continues to thrive in the farthest elevations of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

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April 10, 2024

Waka: Zen Buddhist Poetry Awakening

6:30-8 PM

The Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

In this introduction to the form, history, and practice of writing waka (5-7-5-7-7), the precursor of haiku (5-7-5) as conveyors of spiritual awakening in Zen Buddhism, transmitted Zen Buddhist teachers, Seiso Paul Cooper and Kagayaki Karen Morris, both award-winning poets and authors, will present the waka of 12thc Japanese Buddhist poet Saigyo (1118-1190) and others from the golden age of Japan’s enlightenment poetry. An introduction to the practice of Zazen (Zen meditation), as the core practice and foundational teaching of the Zen Buddhist tradition will be given, followed by a brief practice period. The Zazen experience will serve as the jumping off point for writing our own waka, noting the function of the form to awaken the poet to the connectedness of internal insight and aesthetic experiences of the surrounding world. As well as the joys of sharing our poems, should we choose. Contact Karen Morris at klmplex108@gmail.com for more information.

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Karen Morris is the author of Nothing Happened Last Night (2024, Finishing Line Press). She received The Gradiva Award for Poetry (NAAP, 2015) for her full-length collection CATACLYSM and Other Arrangements (Three Stones Press, PA). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including, Women’s Quarterly Journal, New York Quarterly, Chiron Review, SWWIM Every Day, Writers Resist, and Paterson Literary Review. She is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Montpelier, and cofounder, lay transmitted teacher for Two Rivers Zen Community, an online practice community. www.tworiverszen.org

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Seiso Chugai Paul Cooper: Formally transmitted teacher in the Soto Zen lineage of Dainin Katagiri, Roshi; He is a full member of the American Zen Teachers Association; Co-founder, Founder, Realizational Practice Studies Group, Montpelier, Member Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies; Award-winning author: Solitary Moon: New Waka, and Still Standing: Three Stones Haiku. He has taught both haiku and waka extensively. He currently organizes, facilitates, and leads silent retreats in the formal Soto Zen style at retreat centers and online. 

 

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April 11, 2024

Poetry Society of Vermont at The Front

6:30-8 PM

The Front Gallery

6 Barre Street, Montpelier

An intimate evening of poetry with members of the Poetry Society of Vermont at The Front Gallery in Montpelier. Presented by rabbit&wolf. Contact Robyn Joy at robynjoy@gmail.com or visit https://rabbitwolf-adventures.mailchimpsites.com/ for more information.

 

April 12, 2024

Bag Lunch with Bards and Songs

12-1 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

Poets of all ages and persuasions are invited to bring a bag lunch & a poem by another poet, a song by another singer, or rhymes, ditties, from childhood. There will be sign-up sheet and each reader/singer will get 5 minutes and rotate to the next person. Contact David Hartnett at davidhartnett@mac.com for more information. 

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April 12, 2024

Embraceable Multitudes

7-9 PM

Bethany Church Chapel

115 Main Street, Montpelier

Poets Rick Agran and LN Bethea will read from their work. LN and Rick love the big tent of the humanities and literary arts because they tell the human story. The multitudes embraceable under the big top are limitless. Come be the third ring at their circus. Contact Rick at RadioBonMot@gmail.com for more information.

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Poets LN Bethea and Rick Agran met in an art gallery as fine arts ambassadors. Their work brings together people in small rural places. Art appreciation, literacy, and poetry experiences are their forte. Their ambassadorship spans a collective half century. LN is cofounder of Poetry People, a poet in schools and libraries, and a principal force in the Cambridge Arts Council. Rick works as a teacher, kid's book author, poet in the schools, and poetry radio producer and documentarian.

 

For LN, joyful Spoken Word poetry provides her the good fortune of being in the right place, time, and state of being. Words give themselves over to her and, in turn, she gives herself over. Speaking becomes a terrifying, electrifying thrill, a free-fall borne of trusting words and audience. For her, the ultimate joy of Spoken Word hangs in the air between the speaking and the listening in the moment where connections bloom.

 

Rick grew up around six languages, the grandson of immigrants from Belarus and London (via

Montreal). His mom was a 1960s Civil Rights worker in Boston and he shares her love of languages, nature, and image-making, poetic and photographic. His immediate and extended families are multicolored and multicultural through marriage, adoptions, and love.

 

April 13, 2024

Rootstock Poets: Amy Allen, Mary Elder Jacobsen, and Kim Ward

LIVESTREAMED BY ORCA MEDIA

12:30-2 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

Three Vermont poets will read from their debut books, all published by Rootstock Publishing this April 2024! Amy Allen of Shelburne with Mountain Offerings; Mary Elder Jacobsen of Calais with Stonechat; and Kim Ward of Montpelier with Fire on a Circle. Books for sale and available for autographs. Contact Samantha Kolber at samantha@rootstockpublishing.com for more information.

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Mountain Offerings

Through interactions with and the examination of the natural world, poems in Mountain Offerings explore a coming-of-age in partnership, parenthood, loss, and the development of independence. The simplicity and peace of the outdoors provide an ideal vehicle through which Amy Allen explores complex emotions.  “Some specific poems delineate my brief experience as the parent of a gravely ill child, and the corresponding emotional toll that takes on one’s psyche and sense of security, while other poems explore the self in transition and in relationship to people, animals, and nature,” says Allen.

 

Allen studied English literature and creative writing at Skidmore College and at Drew University. Her poetry has been published in a variety of journals, including West Trade Review, The Write Launch, The Mountain Troubadour, and Atlanta Review. She lives in Shelburne with her husband, children, and dogs, and was recently named the town’s new Poet Laureate.

 

Stonechat
In Stonechat, Mary Elder Jacobsen explores, sometimes in form and sometimes in invented form, the songful expressions of mourning, solace, delight, and play, spanning themes of grief, parent/child selves, and discovery.

“I write out of experiences and observations that inspire me to know them further through the crafting of poems—ranging from the elegiac (in response to lost loved ones) to the mirror (a fascination with reflection) to the persona poem (imagining being pondweed or a caddisfly) and more,” says Jacobsen. 

 

A graduate of Goucher College, Jacobsen holds an MA from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her award-winning poems have appeared in various literary journals and have been selected for anthologies, radio, Poetry Daily, and other distinctions. A recipient of a Vermont Studio Center residency, she lives in North Calais. 

 

Fire on a Circle 

Hopeful, passionate, and full of sharp discoveries about the dangers of the world, Fire on a Circle is an exploration of the fires we traverse to become our true selves. Grounded in years of poetic and runic studies, Kim Ward weaves thoughts of the mothers of her family, struggles against addiction, and pagan practice.  “I have a deep interest in Runes,” says Ward. “The center of my work is attempting to reclaim the purer, more spiritual practices around those symbols while utilizing motherhood, survival under the brutal boot of health conditions, addiction, and the rural Vermont landscape as agents for that reclamation.”

 

Ward is a poet, playwright, visual, and theater artist. She is the founder of The Vermont Playwrights Circle and received her MFA in Performance Poetry from Goddard College. Her poems have been published in Birchgrove, Green Mountains Review, Circumference, and Vermont Times.

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April 14, 2024

Sunday Zoomies: rabbit&wolf poetry open mic (virtual)

2-4 PM

Zoom

rabbit&wolf spaces are created to be safe and nurturing. If you are an established reader or just poetry-curious you are invited to stop by and share or just listen. If you’ve never read your poetry out loud before, a virtual open mic is a good place to find your bravery (we’ll all be there to help)! Content is open to anything except hate speech, that is a big Nope. RSVP for guaranteed mic time: robynjoy76@gmail.com

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87965324975?pwd=VVNNaENJNm9aMWdXK3JnMTZ0ajh0QT09 Meeting ID: 879 6532 4975 Passcode: 643713

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April 15, 2024

Homeschool All Ages Poetry Reading

1:30 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

Homeschoolers of all ages (grown ups too!) gather to read or recite poetry. The pieces can be written by yourself or by published poets. Read (up to three poems) in groups or solo using the podium and microphone in the Hayes Room. Optional finger food snack potluck. Contact Autumn at abissonnette@kellogghubbard.org for more information.

 

April 15, 2024

WisdomVerse: a Poetry Workshop

6:30-8 PM

Zoom

This 90-minute zoom workshop, "WisdomVerse: a Poetry Workshop," hosted by The Paper Poet, poetic medicine healer, Bianca Amira Zanella, is for anyone seeking an opportunity to play with poetry as a tool for wellness and wisdom in community. No poetry expertise necessary. Contact Bianca Amira Zanella at thepoetbianca@gmail.com or visit

https://www.thepaperpoet.com/ for more information.

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April 17, 2024

Release Your Inner Poet

1-2:30 PM

Community College of Vermont, Montpelier 

660 Elm Street

This 1.5-hour workshop will offer participants opportunities to practice interpreting poems and then penning some of their own. No prior experience writing poetry needed! Our goals are to make poetry feel more accessible to the average person, to release some of the inhibitions people have about writing poems themselves, and to relax and have fun being creative with words and images. Some initial guidance from the facilitator will be paired with hands-on work, both in small groups and on one’s own. We will use of a variety of writing prompts and exercises to help us relax and enjoy writing. Bring notepaper and something to write with. Contact Katherine at Katherine.Maynard@ccv.edu for more information.

 

This workshop is facilitated by Katherine (Kate) Maynard who grew up in Chapel Hill, NC, and resides now in South Burlington, VT. Her poetry has appeared in Sojourners, St. Katherine’s Review, Kodon, Kakalak, Whale Road Review, His Magazine, Welcome Home, North Carolina Bards, Poem City 2023, and the online anthology Lament for the Dead. The relationship between imagination, nature, art and divine encounter shapes her literary sensibilities. She teaches Humanities and Communication courses part-time at the Community College of Vermont. 

 

April 17, 2024 (Hybrid)

An Evening with Poet Porsha Olayiwola

LIVESTREAMED BY ORCA MEDIA

7-8 PM

Unitarian Church of Montpelier

130 Main Street, Montpelier

Join Black writer, performer, and futurist Porsha Olayiwola for this special Poetry Month presentation. Olayiwola is the author of the poetry collection i shimmer sometimes too. Sponsored by Vermont Humanities, this reading will be in-person as well as livestreamed. Visit vermonthumanities.org to register for this event.

 

Porsha Olayiwola is a native of Chicago who writes, lives, and loves in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the founder of the Roxbury Poetry Festival. Olayiwola is Brown University’s 2019 Heimark Artist-in-Residence as well as the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a 2020 poet laureate fellow with the Academy of American poets. Olayiwola earned her MFA in poetry from Emerson College and is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too. Olayiwola is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston. Her work can be found in or forthcoming from with TriQuarterly Magazine, Black Warrior Review, The Boston Globe, Essence Magazine, Redivider, The Academy of American Poets, Netflix, Wildness Press, The Museum of Fine Arts and elsewhere.

 

April 19, 2024

Natural Selections II:  An Evening of Celebration and Reflection about Wild and Human Nature

LIVESTREAMED BY ORCA MEDIA

7-9 PM

North Branch Nature Center

713 Elm Street

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This will be a new edition of last year’s immensely popular event, featuring Scudder Parker, author of Safe as Lightning, reading new and selected poems, and Marjorie Ryerson, author of The Views from Mount Hunger (published in 2023), sharing some of her poems from that book; more stunning essays and images by Bryan Pfeiffer, author of Chasing Nature (a Substack Journal); and music by D. Davis and Ruth Einstein, gifted local musicians.

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It will be an evening of ideas, poetry, prose, and music that will be both a celebration of Nature and Community and a fundraiser for North Branch Nature Center. North Branch is a small preserve on a grand mission to connect more of us to nature and its many glories and rewards. Suggested Donation: $15 - $30. Presented by North Branch Nature Center and the Kellogg-Hubbard Library as part of Poem City. Register at North Branch Nature Center (neoncrm.com). Contact Scudder Parker at scudderparker16@gmail.com for more information.

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April 20, 2024

Sacred Traditions: Poems and Writing on Food and Family

11-12:30 PM

North Branch Cafe

41 State Street, Montpelier

Join Jesse LoVasco and Lisa Mase invite you to write about rituals, family, and food traditions. We will offer readings and prompts to inspire you. Contact Lisa Mase at lisamase@gmail.com or visit https://www.harmonized-living.com/poetry for more information.

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April 21, 2024

Astrobridge Artistry: A Virtual Earth Day Celebration

10:30-11:30 AM

Zoom

Join Ashley Anne Strobridge of Astrobridge Artistry over zoom as she shares her collection of poetry and Nature photography in her soon to be published book, "Do YOU Believe in Fairies? Compositions of Truth & Nature in Art & Poetry." Included in the reading will be new additions to the book, not recited for an audience previously, & new, topical poetry not included in the above collection. There will also be exciting announcements, plus updates about where to find her art and poetry around the state, and new writing and artistic projects on the horizon! Contact Ashley Anne Strobridge at astro.greenlady@gmail.com or visit www.astrobridge-artistry.com/events for more information.

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88483691048?pwd=mUSiDbkDoTaCvrq0DIrZXhLU4iAzGv.1

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April 22, 2024

TIDAL_WAVE 3

LIVESTREAMED BY ORCA MEDIA 

6:30-8 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

A reading of the Sticks & Stones Art/Writing Group, part of the Learning Collaborative of Washington County Mental Health, a diverse and powerful group of artists and writers with disabilities sharing stories of identity, inspiration, and their place in the world. Free copies of the Sticks and Stones zine will be offered. Contact Walt Ward at Incloudhidden@gmail.com for more information.

 

April 24, 2024

Poetry of Loss, Grief and Companionship

LIVESTREAMED BY ORCA MEDIA

7 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

Poets Nadell Fishman, Tom Schmidt, and Scudder Parker read from recent collections. Nadell Fishman's most recent collection of poems is Traveling, Traveling, which was published by Finishing Line Press in 2022. After years of scholarly work in ivory towers, Tom Schmidt retired to a bee-loud glade in East Montpelier and turned to poetry. Since 2018 he has had more than fifty poems appear in various journals, and has published two chapbooks: Enough to Drink or Drown, and Like, A Metaphor. Scudder Parker’s book of poetry Safe as Lightning, was published by Rootstock in 2020. He is currently working on a second volume. Contact Scudder Parker scudderparker16@gmail.com for more information.

 

 

April 26, 2024

Poetry for Neanderthals

2-3 PM

Children’s Library, KHL

A fun board game where players can only speak in single syllables. Contact Autumn: abissonnette@kellogghubbard.org

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April 26, 2024

All Ages Anything Goes Poetry Slam

7 PM

Lost Nation Theater

39 Main Street, Montpelier

Vermont Poetry Slam Champion Geof Hewitt hosts this Anything Goes Slam, where poets, acoustic musicians, jugglers, and anyone else with special talents is invited to take three minutes (or less) onstage in an attempt to wow the judges (and the audience) for enormous glory and a very modest prize. Sign up at the door. Contact Geof at geofhewitt@gmail.com for more information.

 

April 28, 2024

Sonnet Circle

2 PM

Adamant Community Club

1161 Martin Road, Adamant

Make your way to the postcard-perfect Adamant Community Club, an 1895 one-room schoolhouse, where Mary Elder Jacobsen will read her poetry, including sonnets and sonnet-inspired poems. Bring a favorite sonnet, written by anyone and, following her reading, join Mary in a sonnet circle, a collective reading where we’ll take turns reading sonnets. Contact Mary Elder Jacobson at 802-456-0099 for more information.

 

April 29, 2024

PoemCity 2024 Anthology Book Launch

6:30 PM

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Hayes Room

For the second year, PoemCity is publishing the featured poems of 2024 into a book through Rootstock Publishing. PoemCity Anthology 2024 will be available in late April and everyone is invited to celebrate its publication and participate in an open mic. Light refreshments served and books will be available for purchase through a sliding scale. Pre-order your copy (at full price, $20) now at https://www.rootstockpublishing.com/rootstock-books/poemcity-2024

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