The WCPA is happy to help the Thirsty Lab poetry reading go virtual for their 5th Tuesday reading. Please join a virtual Thirsty Lab on Tuesday, September 29, 2020, at 7:00 pm. Heather Macpherson will be the feature.
Register for the reading and Zoom will send you an e-mail with the meeting details and link.
Heather J. Macpherson is an essayist, educator, and PhD student at the University of Rhode Island. Her focus in Literature includes Creative Nonfiction, Essaying, and Human-Animal Relationships in Memoir and Autobiography. Her essays and poems have appeared in the Bennington Review, Doctor T.J. Eckleberg Review, 580 Split, and other fine places. Besides writing, teaching, and studying, Heather enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family, especially her son.
We’ve added a new video to our YouTube channel. This one features Richard Fox from his August 25, 2020 feature at the virtual Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading.
Give it a view when you have a hankering for some amazing poetry from a Worcester favorite. While you are there please consider subscribing to our channel. If we get to 100 subscribers we can give our YouTube channel a name instead of the incredibly not useful “UCZw3ZotKcZtnSUGKk_F___A” it has now.
Etheridge Knight, photo credit: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press
Behind the Beat Look is a Sweet
Tongue and a Boogie Foot
(for those who see me as a tragic figure)
There is glee in my teeth, and mirth in my mouth.
My birth under the Mississippi sun so a boast,
A toast to my Black Daddy, Gandy-dancer, Master of the
Buck and Wing. The Skin and Grin.
But what you see might not be what you get.
Etheridge Knight, The Worcester Review, XIX, 1998, p. 131
A brief biography of Etheridge Knight (1931-1991), including his ties to Worcester, was written and published by David Shaw as part of an interactive student project. The biography is available here.
A more comprehensive look at Etheridge Knight is featured in The Worcester Review, Vol XIX 1&2 (1998) including his years in Worcester. The introduction by Editor Rodger Martin also lays out how his military record can not answer the question of Korean War service one way or another because a Vietnam War protest fire set at the Army Record Center in St. Louis destroyed significant portions of Knight’s military record.
In September 2018, the WCPA honored Knight by renaming the performance portion of the WCPA’s Annual College Poetry Contest. The “Etheridge Knight Performance Prize” is awarded to a single individual each year and includes a cash prize. College and universities in central Massachusetts chose a participant to represent the school at the event. Craig Blais of Anna Maria College is chairing the contest again this year.
Visit the Poetry Foundation page for Etheridge Knight
Worcester Telegram article regarding a local reading of Knight’s work.
Kundiman creates an affirming and rigorous space where Asian American writers can explore, through art, the unique challenges that face the new and ever-changing diaspora. They see the arts as a tool of empowerment, of education and liberation, of addressing proactively what legacy is left for future generations as individuals and as a community.
Kundiman offers a variety of educational programs and readings which have become virtual events. We’re looking forward to A Reading & Conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatathil & Ross Gay, moderated by Cathy Linh Che & Malcolm Tariq on Wednesday, September 30th. That reading will start at 6:00 pm EST and advanced registration is needed.
Visit their Facebook event for more details including a link to register.
The WCPA is happy to help the Thirsty Lab poetry reading go virtual for their 4th Tuesday reading. Please join a virtual Thirsty Lab tomorrow night (Tuesday, September 22, 2020) at 7:00 pm. Elizabeth McKim will be the feature.
Register for the reading and Zoom will send you an e-mail with the meeting details and link.
Elizabeth Gordon McKim is a poet, spoken word performance artist, editor, and teacher of poetry for people of all ages. She is the author of eight collections of poetry, and one teaching guide Beyond Words co-authored with Judith Steinbergh poet laureate of Brookline. Her poems and essays have appeared in many magazines, reviews, and journals including Ploughshares, Poetry and Drum Voices. She is the Poetry Editor of the international journal POIESIS published in Toronto Canada. Her book of poetry The Red Thread was published by Leapfrog Press edited by Marge Piercy and published by Ira Wood.
With increasing sorrow, the WCPA has decided not to hold in-person events this fall. This includes the Winners’ Reading for the Frank O’Hara Prize, the Gregory Stockmal Reading, and the rescheduled Bishop/Knight College Poetry Contest reading.
We are scheduling additional virtual poetry events during the next several months and will share them via our website when finalized.
We hope the COVID-19 situation will be better in 2021.
We’ve made another recording from the virtual Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading series available on our YouTube channel. Please enjoy S.M. Stevens reading from her work from the July 28, 2020, reading.
While you are there please consider subscribing to our channel. If we get to 100 subscribers we can give our YouTube channel a name instead of the incredibly not useful “UCZw3ZotKcZtnSUGKk_F___A” it has now.