Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar 2

It’s okay if you’re not weird (or if you are, for that matter), but these prompts definitely lean to the weird side. The situations are a bit strange, the images are a bit wacky, but, hopefully, they’ll be more than a bit fun. Get ready to think about what might be and what could happen. If you’re the type to imagine mysterious notes left in odd places or things that (probably) shouldn’t be possible, this is the (free!) workshop for you. For writers age 13-18 ONLY.

Art urges us to look more closely at the world around us, and at ourselves. In and around Boston, there’s an ever-changing gallery of portraits and messages from local artists. In this free generative writing workshop, participants will choose an image to have a “conversation” with. Each writer will be given prompts and questions in order to interact with their image. After having this dialogue with art, writers can pick eight of their favorite lines and arrange them into a working draft of an ekphrastic poem, to share with each other and the community. For writers age 13-18 ONLY.

Have you ever found an old photograph at a flea market and wondered: who are these people, and what is their story? That’s how Ransom Riggs wrote Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, structuring the plotline entirely around found photographs. Using Miss Peregrine as our model, this course will be all about looking for inspiration for your writing in the objects that surround you, creating narratives out of things that already exist. We will look at an array of items––old photographs, video footage, antique maps, even junk and trash––and find the stories and poems hidden within. This course will also explore the relationship between images and words, looking at examples such as Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck and Tom Phillips’s A Humument. A great course for those who are visual artists in addition to writers. For writers age 13-18 ONLY.

Free event featuring Lowell writers & poets: Stephan Anstey, Diamond Asaneh, Suzanne Beebe, Douglas Bishop, MJ Bujold, Charles Gargiulo, Nancy Jasper, S.C. Thibodeau, and PJ Wamala. Their writings on the subject of “Shelter” were selected for inclusion in the community exhibit at the Arts League of Lowell, which this month (Feb 3rd-28th) is featuring an art show and sale with all proceeds to benefit the Lowell Transitional Living Center (LTLC). Hosted by Lowell poet Emily Ferrara, with special guest Alexis Ivy, homeless advocate and author of “Taking the Homeless Census.” Ivy will read poems from her book, followed by a Q&A on discussion topics on homeless advocacy, and what community members can do to better understand and make a positive impact for our fellow residents.

The featured poets and artist for the evening:

David Davis, who was the first Poet in Residence at Joppa Flats and the founder of this series.

Janet MacFadyen (poet) and Stephen Schmidt (photographer), who will present a collaborative reading:

ADRIFT IN THE HOUSE OF ROCKS
a praise song for the earth

Janet will read poetry from their book, set to a slideshow of Steve's photos. “Now more than ever we need to rediscover our roots in the physical earth, and our dependency on the natural world. Join us on a journey to the beautiful, and besieged, national parklands of the desert southwest.”


An open mic will follow the features. For more info contact Lainie Senechal, Poet in Residence at Joppa Flats: emsenechal@gmail.com.

Mass Audubon hosts The Arts and the Experience of Nature with poets Janet MacFadyen and David Davis, and photographer Stephen Schmidt. Slate Roof managing editor Janet MacFadyen and photographer Stephen Schmidt present Adrift in the House of Rock: a Praise Song for the Earth, a reading and slideshow set in the beautiful, besieged desert southwest. Their work is followed by a reading by former Poet-In-Residence at Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats, David Davis.

Bring your writing! The evening concludes with an open mic!

1 Plum Island Turnpike, Newburyport, MA

Janet MacFadyen is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Adrift in the House of Rocks (New Feral Press, 2019). Her work is forthcoming in Scientific American and has appeared in CALYX, Crannóg, Poetry, Q/A Poetry, and Terrain. Stephen Schmidt's photographs have won awards from Sierra and Earth magazines, and have appeared at the Merrill Lynch Corporate Gallery and The Arthur Griffin Center for Photographic Art. David Davis is the former Poet-In-Residence at Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center, and a member of the Powow River Poets. He is author of three poetry books, including The Joy Poems and Joppa Flats (Bard Brook Press, 2017/18).

An interactive literary cabaret series that fuses poetry, burly-q, live music, aerials, vaudeville, visual art, magic, mysticism, and private, one-on-one poetry experiences.

Welcome to a unique and immersive poetry event that takes poetry outside classrooms and lecture halls and places it in the lush interiors of a bordello. The Madame presents a rotating cast of poets, each operating within a carefully crafted character, who share their work in public readings, spontaneous eruptions of poetry, and most distinctly, as purveyors of private poetry readings on beds, chaise lounges and in private rooms. For a fee, all of the poets are available for these sequestered readings at any time during the event. Of course, any true bordello need a good cover; ours is an immersive cabaret featuring poetry, burly-q, live music, vaudeville, aerials, visual art, magic, and mysticism, with newly integrated themes, performances and installations at each event.

Doors open at 8pm, and the show begins promptly at 8:30. Masks, costumes, and extravagant dress are encouraged but not required. For more information, please visit thepoetrybrothel.com.