Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar 2

Martín Espada has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His latest collection of poems from Norton is called Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016). He is the editor of What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age Trump (2019). His many honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Creeley Award, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, an American Book Award, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His book of poems, The Republic of Poetry, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A former tenant lawyer in Greater Boston’s Latinx community, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Worcester poets Judy Ferrara and Curt Curtin will read their work.

Join us for an evening of poetry with two local Worcester poets, Curt Curtin and Judith Ferrara.

Curt Curtin will be reading from his newly published book "For Art's Sake." Curt Curtin is a lifelong poet with three self-produced chapbooks and many individual poems appearing in journals and other publications. In 2005 he was the recipient of the Jacob Knight Poetry Award and in 2010 received the Frank O’Hara award for poetry. In 2019 he won second place in the annual contest of the Connecticut Poetry Society, and two other poems were selected for publication in an Irish anthology, Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets, released in October 2019 by Dedalus Press. Curt has been a featured reader in many poetry venues in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and once in Limerick, Ireland. He also taught college English and creative writing at Westfield State University for 20 years. For Art’s Sake is his first full-length collection.

Writer and visual artist Judith Ferrara lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 2003, she received
a Creative Arts Fellowship from the Worcester Cultural Commission/Massachusetts Cultural
Council to work on her artist’s book, RECIPROCITY: POEMS AND PAINTINGS. Her poetry and
essays have been published in three collections: GESTURES OF TREES (2000), A BRUSH WITH
WORDS (2013) and THE LITTLE O, THE EARTH: TRAVEL JOURNALS, ART & POEMS (2015), and in journals such as the black fly review, The Comstock Review, The Portland Review Literary
Journal, GSU Review and The Worcester Review. In 2009, she began a study of poet Stanley
Kunitz and continues to do research on his life and poems. In 2018, Ferrara received the Stanley
Kunitz Medal for her lifelong contributions to poetry. Since 1998, Ferrara’s art has been shown
in group and solo exhibitions. Please visit www.PaletteAndPen.com to see more of her artwork
and read the complete collection of Judy’s Journals, a monthly blog about the creative process,
which she has written since 2004.

Dr. Adam Falkner is a poet, educator and arts & culture strategist. He is the author of Adoption (winner of the 2017 Diode Editions Chapbook Award) and The Willies (Button Poetry, 2020), and his work has appeared in a range of print and media spaces including on programming for HBO, NBC, NPR, BET, in the New York Times, and elsewhere. A former high school English teacher in New York City’s public schools, Adam is the Founder and Executive Director of the pioneering diversity consulting initiative, the Dialogue Arts Project, in which capacity he develops and facilitates trainings for schools, companies and cultural institutions across the nation. Adam has toured the United States as a guest artist, lecturer and consultant for thousands of students, educators and corporate employees, and was the featured performer at President Obama’s Grassroots Ball at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. He holds a Ph.D. in English and Education from Columbia University.

An open poetry slam is scheduled for the late-night portion of this show, following the feature. The slam will be speed slam format: eight open sign-ups will be available starting at door time, and poets will slam head-to-head in up to three rounds with time limits of 3, 2, and 1 minute. Winner and runner-up qualify for the 2020 Team Selection series. To volunteer to judge in exchange for free admission to the show, or to ask questions about the slam, email the slam curator at slamseries@bostonpoetryslam.com.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00, with the poetry slam to follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

A reading from spoKe six including David Rich reading from his essay on Gerrit Lansing, James Cook reading from his essay on Sam Cornish, poems by John Mulrooney, Jim Dunn and Amanda Cook. Hosted by Karina Van Berkum and Kevin Gallagher.

David Rich worked as the poet Gerrit Lansing’s archivist from 2017 to 2018, and as archivist for Lansing’s estate from 2018 to 2019. He co-edited and wrote the postscript for Arcana: A Stephen Jonas Reader (City Lights, 2019) and edited Charles Olson: Letters Home, 1949 – 1969 (Cape Ann Museum, 2010). He studied archaeology at Boston University and theology at Harvard Divinity School. Rich’s poems and essays have appeared in literary magazines such as The Doris, Kadar Koli, Let the Bucket Down, No Infinite, Rain Taxi and Polis.


Amanda Cook lives in Gloucester with her husband, James, and children Abigail and Samuel. She sees writing as an integral part of life. She knits, spins yarn, plays fiddle, feeds people and dances when she pleases. She teaches and works at the Gloucester Writers Center. Her book, Ironstone Whirlygig, was published by Bootstrap Press in 2017.


James Cook signifies and represents in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He fathers-forth but presents change. He husbands. He has worked in high school education for more than twenty years. He has been the co-editor of the literary magazine Polis, and his work has appeared in Wards of the Wards, Let the Bucket Down, Jacket2, Process, Gaff, and Underutilized Species


Jim Dunn is a poet and author of Soft Launch (Bootstrap, 2008), Convenient Hole (Pressed Wafer, 2004), and Insects In Sex (Falling Angel Press, 1995). His work has appeared in several publications, including spoKe, Polis, Bright Pink Mosquito, The Process, eoagh, Gerry Mulligan, Cafe Review, and The Battersea Review. He edited the poet John Wieners’ journal, A New Book From Rome, with Derek Fenner and Ryan Gallagher of Bootstrap Press.


John Mulrooney is a poet, filmmaker and musician living in Cambridge, MA. He is author of If You See Something, Say Something from the Anchorite Press and co-producer of the documentary The Peacemaker, from Central Square Films. He serves as poetry editor for Boog City. He records and performs regularly with a number of musical groups in the greater Boston area. He is Associate Professor in the English department at Bridgewater State University. His work has appeared in Fulcrum, Pressed Wafer fold’em zine, Solstice, the Battersea Review, Poetry Northeast, spoKe, Let the Bucket Down and others.
 

The poets Fatimah Asghar and Franny Choi will read from their work and talk about poetry on Wednesday, March 11th, at 8 p.m. at Amherst Books (8 Main Street). The event, sponsored by the Amherst College Creative Writing Center, is free and open to the public and will be followed by refreshments. 

Asghar is poet, filmmaker, educator and performer, as well as the creator of the Emmy-nominated Web series Brown Girls. She is the author of the poetry collection If They Come For Us and the co-editor of Halal If You Hear Me, an anthology celebrating Muslim writers who are also women, queer, gender nonconforming and/or trans. Choi is the author of two poetry collections, Soft Science, which Monica Youn called “raw and radiant” and Floating, Brilliant, Gone. She edits for Hyphen Magazine and co-hosts the podcast VS alongside fellow Dark Noise Collective member Danez Smith.