Poetry equals awesome.
Are you with me?
I think you are. Well, if you’re in Massachusetts or anywhere near it, have I got the weekend for you. THIS weekend. Right now. It’s the Massachusetts Poetry Festival.
Events launched yesterday in venues throughout the state, and continue through Sunday, October 18, primarily in Lowell. The festival features readings, workshops, discussions, interdisciplinary events, a small press fair, and all manners of celebration of poetry and art.
A number of the events feature past MCC Artist Fellows, including:
- Tonight (Friday, October 16) visual artist Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07) joins a poet and artists in other disciplines for the Urban Village Arts Series, giving short performances or talks about their work in downtown Lowell.
- On Saturday James Haug (Poetry Fellow ’98), Lisa Olstein (Poetry Fellow ’06), and Dara Wier (Poetry Fellow ’00) are among the poets participating in the Sequential Reading of Massachusetts Poets with New Books.
- Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08), Frannie Lindsay (Poetry Fellow ’06), Nancy K. Pearson, and Ellen Dore Watson (Poetry Fellow ’98) take part in Ugly Truths: A Poetry Craft Panel Discussion on Poems That Make Art from Shocking or Risky Material.
But that’s just a smidgen of what the festival has to offer.
MCC is a proud partner in the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Incidentally, our very own Charles Coe, Program Coordinator in the Cultural Investment Portfolio program, was instrumental in the festival’s creation last year, through his work with the Massachusetts Poetry Outreach Project. Check out a nifty Boston Globe editorial about last year’s festival, where Charles discusses its background.
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