Archives for November 2020

Remembering Mary Pat True

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It is with sadness that we must note the passing of Mary Pat True on Thanksgiving morning in Minneapolis. She was with her daughter.   Mary Pat was a long-time supporter of the WCPA, the artful hostess at 4 Westland Street for poets from around the world, and spouse of Mike True (the initial Stanley Kunitz Medal winner).   Mary Pat was a member of the critically acclaimed Denise Levertov workshop at Assumption College.   Her series of art photography featuring Worcester doorways showed her willingness to transcend borders and differences in the community.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to Mary Pat and Mike’s children and grandchildren.

Two figure seated in a garden setting. Mary Pat True (left) and Mike True (right)

Mary Pat (left) and Mike True (right) at the 2015 Kunitz Medal ceremony.

#508Fridays – ArtsWorcester

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This week for #508Fridays, we are talking about ArtsWorcester. With their new(ish) gallery on Portland Street in Worcester, ArtsWorcester engages artists and the public to advance and celebrate contemporary art. They produce solo, small group, and member exhibitions and work with regional museums to offer artists opportunities.

ArtsWorcester has two exhibits opening on December 3, 2020, that will be viewable in-person or online.  In the West Gallery, celebrate the artists who nurture the next generation of creatives in our city in State of Being: Works by Worcester Public Schools Visual Arts Faculty. Cross the corridor into the East Gallery and immerse yourself in the provocative and whimsical Along the Wrack Line, a solo show featuring new works by Present Tense Prize winner Rebecca McGee Tuck.

#508Fridays #508culture

Write Better Poems [.com]

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A man wearing a suit coat and blue button-down shirt gestures with his left hand in front of a microphone and black music stand

Photo courtesy of Robert Steele

Brian Evans-Jones, who took read the British poems from our A Tale of Two Cities – Worcester UK & US program from 2018, has a new website for people writing and learning about poetry. It’s called The Poetry Place and it has free articles on Form and Techniques, Creativity, and the Drafting Process to help intermediate or beginning poets learn more about the art. While there you can download his new teaching ebook, 8 Steps to Better Poems.

All the resources on the site, including the ebook, are available for free. You can find it at writebetterpoems.com.

Poetry Writing 101 with Susan Roney-O’Brien: Metaphors Be with You

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a website banner with a winter-scape background The Worcester Public Library is sponsoring a new poetry writing workshop with WCPA board member Susan Roney-O’Brien.  The virtual workshop will take place on Saturday, December 5 between 11 am and noon.  Here’s the workshop description:

Metaphors Be with You – And they are. You say, S/he’s a bear in the morning, not a literal statement, but figurative, a comparison that brings the image to life. Metaphors, similes, personification, apostrophe, irony…all these handy tools build fresh images through the use of our senses. Beginning with definitions and readings of poems, we’ll create our own tapestries of words, combine figurative language and literal experiences to forge “the best words in the best order.”

Registration link: https://mywpl.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/poetry-writing-101-with-susan-roney-o-brien-metaphors-be-with-you/

Two other poetry writing workshops will be held on January 2 and February 6, 2021. More information, along with registration links, once they are available.

Introducing #508Fridays

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While poetry is our passion at the WCPA Worcester is filled with many wonderful arts organizations. This week we are starting a new Friday series called #508Fridays. We’ll be sharing info about other small and mid-size arts groups who call the 508 area code home.

For our first post in the series, we’re staying ridiculously close to home and featuring the Solos: artists on a mission gallery show at the Sprinkler Factory. In 2017 the WCPA moved our offices into a studio at the Sprinkler Factory. The Sprinkler Factory had an ambitious exhibit schedule for 2020 that was knocked aside by COVID-19. They regrouped and have opened this limited admission, socially distanced, safety precaution heavy, free show.

You can view the work of 29 artists by reserving a free time slot via this EventBrite link.  The exhibit is open on Saturdays through December 5, 2020, and slots are available on November 21, November 28, and December 5.

 

TWR Managing Editor Kate McIntyre Honored

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Congratulations to Kate McIntyre, managing editor of The Worcester Review, on winning the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. The Worcester Review is our annual print literary/art journal.  The Worcester Review is our annual print literary/art journal.  The 2020 volume should be mailed to members within several weeks.

WPI Creative Writing Professor Honored with the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction 2020, Book Publication

a group stuffs envelopes with a journal

Kate McIntyre (middle) works with volunteers to assemble the 2019 mailing of “The Worcester Review”.

November Board Meeting this Wednesday

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The WCPA’s next (virtual) board meeting is tomorrow night, Wednesday, November 4, 2020. Are you interested in what the board is doing in these weird times we live in, or do you have an idea for a poetry reading, event, workshop, shindig that we want to pitch?

Visit the November 2020 Board meeting event, follow the Zoom registration link, and join us for 90 minutes for poetic sausage making.

Phillis Wheatley Peters

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The American Antiquarian Society is hosting a free, online event on Thursday, November 5, 2020, titled “Phillis Wheatley Peters and African Lineage and Kinship in The Age of Phillis”. Poet, writer and essayist Honorée Fanonne Jeffers will be presenting.

Born in West Africa, Phillis Wheatley Peters (c. 1753 – December 5, 1784) was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston. The publication in London of her “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” in September 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Figures such as George Washington praised her work.

You can find details at the American Antiquarian Society website.