Rain Poets on the Radio!

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Up next, another 33 and a 1/3rd Drop

The Drop offers a platform for sharing short segments of up to three minutes, 33 seconds or less on any secular and non-partisan topic of your choice. Your story, poem, or info tip can reach a wide audience. Drops are made available to on-air programmers to feature at their choosing. Join us in creating impactful mini-podcasts!

Why label these modules/mini-podcasts(?) “Up next, another 33 and a 3rd Drop?”

The title recognizes some key elements of playing recorded music from the not-so-distant past, the LP spinning at 33 and a 3rd, a 45 single coming in near 3 minutes 33 seconds and lastly, to play a LP you must “drop” the needle in the groove, “Up next, another 33 and a 3rd Drop” just works for setting the segment apart.

The Drops are made available to the programmer to use or not. They can be a helpful tool for the programmer who is trying to shift gears in a program. The shorter the segment, the more likely it’ll be featured. Each segment will be archived on WCUW with your accompanying info sheet that can be easily accessed by all on-air programmers.

Creators of Drops are encouraged to be members of WCUW and if needed, our studios are available for creating your Drops. Only secular and non-politically oriented Drops will be considered. The Drops must be FCC compliant.

Applications to Dodge Foundation Poetry Festival are now open!

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The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) are accepting submissions from poets interested in participating in the 20th Dodge Poetry Festival to be held Oct 17 – 19, 2024, at NJPAC in Newark, NJ.

This nationally-recognized opportunity is open to all poets who use their work to challenge and reframe existing narratives and norms including artists who practice spoken word, slam, performance and avant-garde poetry. The deadline to apply is April 15. To apply click here.

If an ADA application accommodation is required please reach out to DodgePoetry@njpac.org.

All submissions will be reviewed by a panel looking for poets who demonstrate a connection with the festival’s themes and communities; an ability to deeply engage audiences and strengthen the meaning of their poetry through live performance and/or reading aloud; and work that takes leaps and asks courageous questions.

Those selected to participate will have the opportunity to join other poets and artists in the festival’s momentous meeting of ideas and have their voices amplified to new audiences. All poets involved will have their books included at the Dodge Poetry festival book fair and will receive an honorarium of $350 per day and coverage of travel expenses.

Updates or changes are unable to be made once an application is submitted. All applicants will be notified of decisions by June 30, 2024. Please note: we are unable to accept print and hard copy materials. By submitting electronically, applicants are confirming that all submitted works are original and that they are the sole author.

The Dodge Poetry festival is designed to build a community of poets and citizens mobilizing for racial and social justice, repair and healing. This marks the first year of an expanded partnership between the Dodge Foundation, a private foundation that supports organizations working towards a just and equitable New Jersey, and NJPAC, Newark and New Jersey’s anchor cultural institution that enhances lives through world-class performances, education programs and community engagement. Dodge Poetry is moving beyond its biennial poetry festival to include poetry programs in Newark throughout the year.

We can’t wait to hear from you and read your work!

Elizabeth Bishop Graveside Reading: Valentines

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At our annual birthday bash at Elizabeth Bishop’s grave in Hope Cemetery, local poets will read aloud her sardonic valentines and tender, poignant love poems, mostly unpublished during her lifetime. Readers include Elizabeth Bacon, Clair Degutis, Judith Ferrara, Claire Mowbray Golding, Kate Gregoire, John Hodgen, Irena Kaçi, Evan Plante, Eve Rifkah, Susan Rooney-O’Brien, Susan Elizabeth Sweeney — and Bishop herself! Refreshments will include birthday cake.

To get there, enter the cemetery’s main gate and continue on Curtis Avenue. Take your fourth left onto Beech Street (after Elm, Larch, and Bush), proceed for one block, and park. Bishop’s grave is behind the nearest tree on the left side of the road.

This event is sponsored by Mapping Worcester in Poetry. If you have any questions or wish to read a poem, please contact Kate or Beth. Until then, join us in pondering the “conundrum Love propounds” (Bishop, “Three Valentines”).

February 7th 10am

E.Bishop Grave at Hope Cemetery 119 Webster St.
Worcester, MA 01603

Announcing the 2023 Dan Lewis Fellow: Laura DiCaronimo

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Extra Extra: READ ALL ABOUT IT

Judges have selected Hubbardston, Massachusetts, resident Laura DiCaronimo as the first recipient of the annual Dan Lewis Poetry Fellowship.

DiCaronimo, a Fitchburg State alum, runs The Openest Mic as a way to bring poets together in community. She said, “I am personally proud that ten of the sixty-five participants have never publicly read before; the energy in those rooms is just that good.”

DiCaronimo, whose poetry has been featured in the Rain Poetry project on Worcester sidewalks noted, “I’ve been creating connections:  Poets are collaborating on rap tracks! Politicians running for office have written beautiful poems about their home cities and city councilors have used ‘The Openest’ part of the Openest Mic to perform spoken word pieces about the closing of a local hospital.”

DiCaronimo, who is also licensed optician, said she plans to use much of the $2,500 fellowship to further that commitment to creating a poetry community.

The fellowship was created in memory of poet Dan Lewis to support the poetry aspirations of a poet residing in Worcester County when there may be limited other opportunities for support of those endeavors. DiCaronimo will receive the award at the annual meeting of the Worcester County Poetry Association. On Sunday, March 3rd from 2-4pm at The Salisbury House Ball Room, 61 Harvard Street, Worcester, MA. The public is welcome to attend.

Her selection was a unanimous decision by judges Kyle Potvin, Exeter, N.H., poet; Tony Brown, Uxbridge, Mass., poet; and Rodney Obien, archivist, The Monadnock Special Poetry Collection, Keene State College, Keene, N.H.

More information about the fellowship and the Worcester County Poetry Association, Inc., a 503-C charitable corporation, can be found at On Our WEBSITE

 

Kunitz Medal Nominations are OPEN!

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2024 Stanley Kunitz Medal Award

 

 

On behalf of the Stanley Kunitz bequest to the Worcester County Poetry Association, the Medal committee is pleased to announce the opening of nominations for the 2024 Stanley Kunitz Medal, the tenth to be awarded since 2015.

The medal is presented annually to a person with a strong Worcester County (Massachusetts) connection who best exemplifies Stanley Kunitz’s lifelong commitment to poetry and poets. The award recognizes an individual’s commitment to poetry as Kunitz lived it: teaching poetry, mentoring poets, speaking poetry, publishing poetry, and supporting organizations that nurture poetry.

Letters of nomination should provide detailed support explaining how the nominee nurtured poetry as defined above. Because the yearly award is singular and cannot honor all worthy applicants, past nominations may be reactivated for 2024 once nominators notify the committee chair Judy Ferrara  (J.Ferrara.artist.writer@gmail.com)  to keep the nomination active.

Nominations should be mailed to:

The Stanley Kunitz Medal, c/o Worcester County Poetry Association,
P.O. Box 804, Worcester, MA 01613

 

between December 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, or email your nomination and Word documents to the committee chair. The award announcement will be made in the spring of 2024, followed by a splendid ceremony at the Worcester Historical Museum, coinciding with Kunitz’s birthday in the last week of July. Please visit www.worcestercountypoetry.org Programs/Stanley Kunitz Medal for more details.

 

The 2024 Stanley Kunitz Medal committee wishes to recognize and thank the following volunteers who have served to bestow this honor in the past: Rodger Martin, chair (2013-2021), Kent Ljungquist (2017-2021), Karen Sharpe (2019-2021), Robert Steele (2015-2016), and E. Robert Cronin (2015-2018).

Walk In The Woo: 2023 Winners & Reading

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PO Box 804, Worcester, MA

01613

worcestercountypoetry.org

wcpaboard@yahoo.com 

508-797-4770

Announcing the WCPA Rain Poems: “A Walk in the Woo 2023”

 

The Worcester County Poetry Association is pleased to announce that the thirteen poems selected from their 2023 Call for Poems: “A Walk in the Woo” have been successfully painted around the city of Worcester. A team of volunteers and many of the poets themselves came together September 30th and October 1st, 2023 to prepare stencils and paint the poems around the city. A map of the poems’ locations and the poems themselves can be read at worcestercountypoetry.org/a-walk-in-the-woo/. Be sure to check out these poems whenever it rains and please save the date for our Rain Poems 2023 poetry reading open to the public on Sunday, February 26th at the JMAC PopUp at 20 Franklin St. from 2-4pm. 

 

2023 Rain Poets, in no particular order

Evan Plante with “Staying Power”

Gertrude Malesi with “[Hatua za Wwenyeji]” (Swahili for “A gait that belongs”)

Jan Davini with “[The city beats in my heart]” 

Aidan Brueckner with “Phantom Limb Syndrome”

Mark Wagner with “Flying Out of Worcester”

Laura DiCaronimo with “Hot Drops”

Chloe Mascitelli with “[The world feels lightest in Worcester]”

John Zywar with “Indian Lake”

Daniel Gregoire with “Worcester Time”

Lisa Knight with “Rain Magic”

Paul Szlosek with “[When Worcester was Worchester]”

David Ginsburg with “Forever Worcester”

Emily Haley with “History”

 

2023 Rain Poetry Honorable Mentions

John Zywar with “Interlude”

David Ginsburg with “Footsteps”

 

This years’ judges included Oliver de la Paz, Poet Laureate, City of Worcester; Vanessa Gonzalez-Oyola, Clemente Alumnus; Natalia Botero, Clark Student, and Katherine Gregoire, WCPA Board Member.

 

The poems were painted using Rainworks invisible spray, a paint that is only visible when wet. Keep an eye on the weather forecast and check out these poems when the rain begins to fall. The paint will begin to fade in a few months. This is the third year of the WCPA’s Rain Poetry Project. 

About the Worcester County Poetry Association 

The Worcester County Poetry Association (WCPA) was founded in 1971 with a threefold mission: celebrate the  rich literary history and creative energy of Central Massachusetts through public readings, workshops, festivals,  scholarly conferences, and other programs; support the publication of the literary journal, The Worcester  Review; and collaborate with libraries, bookstores, colleges and universities, museums, churches, schools,  community centers, businesses and a variety of cultural organizations to promote poetry events. The WCPA is  an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 

Not for Publication: 

For more information, contact Kate Gregoire, contest chairperson, katheanderson@gmail.com 

 

 

Sponsored by:

 

 

DAN LEWIS FELLOWSHIP LAUNCHING TODAY

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The WCPA is proud to announce  THE Dan Lewis FELLOWSHIP

 

Manifesto
by Dan Lewis
This is exactly what I mean. In the middle
of the half-acre dump, piled with broken bricks, old tires,
and the street sweeper’s waste, two bright sunflowers
stand beatified in the slant light of morning.
We must over and over again bear witness
to the wonder of this world. After the bone-rich
ash is shoveled from the ovens, after the scarred witnesses
have told their terrible tales, after the weapons have been gathered
and burned, someone must still have voice to sing. This
is the only ground we have to stand on, this
scorched and defiled garden. It is here we must raise
the cry until our throats tear with the fierce hymn of praise.

Many #bluemoons ago when I was a college first-year I attended a poetry reading at the Java Hut on Main Street. Amongst the many locals who read, an older man read this poem and it connected with me in a way that felt singular. When I joined the #WCPA a couple of years ago, I assumed I’d never met the great Dan Lewis, co-founder and poet about town. Then I came across this poem of his, a poem that I carried with me both figuratively and literally, on a sheaf of paper that I pasted on the walls of my many college dorms and post college rooms. This connection makes me especially proud to announce the official launching of our Dan Lewis fellowship to help local writers accomplish their dreams. Stay tuned for our next post for details.

To Learn More Please Click Here