Photo Credits: Robert Steele
O’Hara Prize Reading Brings Poetry to Downtown
Elizabeth Bishop Graveside: Reading in the Rain
Photo Credit: Evan Plante
DAN LEWIS FELLOWSHIP LAUNCHING TODAY
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
Rain Poetry 2023 Contest Winners
The Worcester County Poetry Association is pleased to announce the 2023 Rain Poets and their poems!
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”
The selected poems will be painted around the City of Worcester in September 2023 on the sidewalks, primarily at bus stops distributed equitably throughout the city’s districts. The poems will be painted using Rainworks invisible spray, a paint that is only visible when the sidewalks are wet. This year’s locations will be posted on our website, on Facebook, and our Instagram account, so please consult these resources when organizing your rainy-day scavenger hunt to try to visit all thirteen before the sun dries the pavement.
We encouraged submissions from poets of all ages, walks of life, and in any language, that spoke to the poets’ experience of Worcester. The poems were selected in blind readings by a panel of judges that included Worcester Poet Laureate Oliver de la Paz, WCPA Board Member Katherine Gregoire, Clemente Graduate Vanessa Gonzalez-Oyola, 2021 Rain Poet Brett Iarrobino, and Clark Student Nati Botero. The 2023 Rain Poets will be invited to read their poems at a ceremony open to the public later in the fall.
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.
For more information, contact Kate Gregoire, contest chairperson
MassHumanities Staff Recovery Grant Extends WCPA’s reach into the Community
Thanks to Mass Humanities’ Funding, the WCPA now boasts a part-time employee ready to expand our programming and outreach. After a meet-and-greet event in beautiful Cummington, MA, the WCPA is in a position to plan some exciting new initiatives in the fall. Stay tuned!
Poet Laureate Oliver de la Paz Reimagines Rain Poetry
Oliver de la Paz, Worcester Poet Laureate
Civic Project Proposal: The Rain Poetry Project Project
Summary
The Rain Poetry project was started by the Worcester County Poetry Association in 2021.It brought thirteen poems, written by diverse poets of Worcester, to bus stops throughout the city.
Poems were painted on the concrete using stencils and Rain Works’ Rain Paint, a paint that is only visible when wet. The poems lasted for 2-4 months in their locations. The selected poets were then brought together for a community reading with friends and family.
This coming year will be the third year the project has been in place. While I am not affiliated directly with the Worcester County Poetry Association, I hope, as Poet Laureate, to assist them in broadening the appeal of poetry throughout Worcester County in conjunction with efforts through the City of Worcester’s Culture Office.
My goals for the project are threefold: 1) to use my platform as Worcester Poet Laureate to increase the participation of the schools and the community in this project, 2) to create more civic participation in this project, making it a legacy event, and pairing the creation and revelation of the Rain Poems in an annual public ceremony that is open to the public with the support of local organizations and businesses, 3) finally, to create an archive of this project through photographs and videos of the creation and display of the works that will be available via the web and social media, but also as a print anthology for participants.
Timeline:
- August 2023: Begin promotion of Rain Poetry to Schedule Poet Laureate readings in the schools and direct solicitation of works from teachers.
- Contact the press and begin community outreach to garner excitement for the next cycle of Rain Poetry and launch the application of the 2023 Rain Poetry poems
- November-December 2023: Selection of Rain Poems to be Judged by Poets Laureate—former PL Juan Matos and Youth Poet Laureate Adael Mejia as well as members of the Worcester County Poetry Association and a member of the Worcester Cultural Coalition
- January 2024: Announcement of Winners to Promote winners via local media sources
- February 2024: Materials Preparation to Create stencils, scout locations, prepare paint to Hire Photographer and Videographer to archive the event
- Late March 2024: Installation to Paint the stenciled poems at the chosen locations via community participation
- April 2024: Public Celebration of the Poems to Celebrate the installation of the poems at their paint sites
- Begin construction of the print anthology for the poets
- May 2024: Final Recognition of Selected Poets at the JMAC to Public community event & recognition at Jean McDonough Arts Center to Include an edited video of the activity to provide each selected poet with a copy of a print anthology
WCPA would like to feature YOUR poems & artwork on our Instagram
Are you a local artist or poet? We want to hear from you! The WCPA is growing and looking to feature exceptional talent in and around our fair city. If you have a poem or a work of visual art that you’d like featured on our Instagram @worcestercountypoetry, please let us know. You can fill out the form below, and our new program manager, Irena, will contact you with the details. We cannot wait to celebrate the good, creative work of Worcester County.
Mapping Worcester in Poetry Making a Splash in the Community
Beth Sweeney’s ‘Mapping Worcester in Poetry’ is getting some well-deserved media coverage. The first story is by Margaret Smith of the T&G:
“The next time you’re out and about in Worcester, you may well be following in the footsteps of Stanley Kunitz, Elizabeth Bishop, or Frank O’Hara. A new project aims to capture the places poets have trodden and take residents and visitors alike with them, with self-guided walking and driving tours of locations important in the lives of poets who have left their mark.
The project also includes a poetry competition, seeking poems about places in the city, both past and present, and a series of tours highlighting locations in the lives of poets born in or spent significant time in the city.” Continue reading
The second story is Holy Cross Magazine Spring Edition Volume 57 Issue 2 on Page 24. As soon as a digital copy is available, we will update our website with a link, but paper copies can be found on Holy Cross Campus.
Richard Fox, local poet, local legend.
Richard Fox is a local poet who has been active in Worcester County for many years. The WCPA is having a tribute Zoom reading for Fox on Tuesday, June 13th, at 7 p.m.
Worcester Magazine recently published its own wonderful tribute to Fox HERE
