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Solo/Duet
April 28 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
A poetry and music series at the Merriam-Gilbert Public Library
Free and open to all!
Please stop by or call the Library at
508-867-1410 to reserve your seat.
Each evening will feature poetry readings that will book-end a set of chamber jazz music. This program is made possible by the West Brookfield Cultural Council as supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, In celebration of National Poetry and National Jazz Month
APRIL 28th : solo bass recital: Jerry Wilfong Beth Sweeney and Stephen Campiglio read
It is difficult
To get the news from poems,
Yet men die miserably every day
For the lack
Of what is found there
~William Carlos Williams~
Jerry Wilfong is an active freelance bassist in the Boston area. He has performed with such jazz artists as Leni Stern, John Stowell, and Richie Cole, appears on several recordings and can be heard live anchoring two working trios – “Bring Back Pluto” and “The Conversation.” More can be learned about Jerry at jazzfong.com.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney is a Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities in the English Department, at the College of the Holy Cross. Beth grew up in Baltimore, graduated from Mount Holyoke College, and earned an MFA in poetry and a PhD in American literature from Brown University. Beth’s poems and translations have appeared in The Worcester Review, Friends Journal, Diner, Contour, The Journal of Irish Literature, and elsewhere. Recently she curated The Poem Next Door exhibit at the Museum of Worcester.
Stephen Campiglio works at CT State Community College (Manchester), where
he also directed the Mishi-maya-gat Spoken Word & Music Series for 12 years.
He recently won the inaugural Bill Tremblay Poetry Prize, co-edited Noh Place
Poetry Anthology (Lost Valley Press), and had a poem selected for the collection,
Remembering Wallace Stevens (Moonstone Arts Center). His book-length
translation, with Elena Borelli, of Giovanni Pascoli’s 1903 volume of poems,
Canti di Castelvecchio, will be published in May 2026 by Italica Press, and from
which he will be reading.