We have updated our Action Plan after continued reflection.  You can read about our plans at this link.

April 19, 2021: In response to an ill-considered, offensive, and disrespectful public engagement on social media by a member of our board on April 16, 2021, the Worcester County Poetry Association is embarking on a strategic pause in programs and activities to begin our crucial work in developing a diversity, equity, and inclusion action plan. We can, and must, do better in engaging, including, promoting, and amplifying the voices of all members of our diverse community, particularly BIPOC, as creatives, collaborators, and audiences.

The WCPA Board has voted to immediately pause our programming for a minimum of three months so that we can reevaluate our practices, policies, and programs in a sustained and meaningful way. The WCPA intends to embark on a path of exploration to identify how to build the core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all our activities, as well as how to model those values as we advance our mission. We will be engaging in a professional evaluation by a third-party consultant experienced in assessing and facilitating diversity, equity, and inclusion plans to better engage diverse creatives in our programming, membership, and leadership.

We look forward to engaging in further discussions about combating inequity and building community through poetry. Please stay tuned for more information about concrete steps we will take in this effort, which will be ongoing and extend beyond this pause. We will communicate actions for which we will be transparent and accountable as an organization as they are developed during our evaluation process. Thank you again for your passion for poetry, your past service to the WCPA, and your commitment to making Worcester an inclusive and welcoming space for all.

If you missed Tuesday’s Gather in Poems,  a virtual reading organized and hosted by Eve Rifkah you can watch a recording of it on Facebook Live.

Visit https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=231825038688007.

Etheridge Knight, who we honor each year with The Ethridge Knight Performance Prize as part of our annual College Poetry Contest, died on this day in 1991 of lung cancer.

Born in 1931 in Mississippi, he saw active duty in the Korean War. While serving an eight-year prison term in the Indiana State Prison, Knight wrote poetry. In 1968 Knight saw his first book published, Poems from Prison (Broadside Press). Knight entered into a successful period during the early 1970s, enjoying Popularity and recognition. He led Free People’s Poetry Workshops, gave numerous readings, and was a poet in residence at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Hartford, and Lincoln University. His critical acclaim included a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (1972) and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation (1974). In 1980, Knight published Born of a Woman and received a second National Endowment for the Arts grant. In 1986 he published The Essential Etheridge Knight.

After making Fran Quinn’s acquaintance at the Great Mother Conference, he began giving readings in Worcester regularly and eventually moved to Worcester. While Knight lived in Worcester, he continued the Free People’s Poetry Workshop in area bars. Knight explained that if someone reads poetry and can stop a drunk man with a bladder full of beer on his way to the bathroom, you know it is a good poem.

Join us (virtually) on Saturday, April 10, 2021, for our annual College Contest Reading. Details can be found on the event listing.

Sonia Sanchez is an American poet, writer, and professor. She was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement and has authored over a dozen books of poetry. The Black Arts Movement was an African American-led art movement, active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, it created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride.

Join us tonight for A virtual Thirsty Lab with Beth Sweeney.  Beth will be joined by composter Matthew Jaskot, with whom she is collaborating on a sequence that includes eight poems she wrote for musical adaption.

Just a reminder that you need to register using the link in the event in order to join the virtual reading on Zoom.

Corrine Bostic served on the Worcester County Poetry Association’s founding executive committee at its creation in 1971. She served as its vice president from 1972 to 1973, on The Worcester Review editorial board, and as a board member until she died in 1981.

A poet and playwright, Corrine contributed to Worcester’s culture through her books, teaching, public appearances, and readings. In her book of poetry, Requiem for Bluesville, she states her obligation as a Black poet to “pour out / The lamentations of my people.”

She also edited an anthology of work by local writers, Messages in Black, which contained what are considered two of her best poems, “These Riotous Days” and “Ballad for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..” Additional publications include The Horns of Freedom, Other Places, Other Faces, and Go Onward and Upward.

Corrine was born on March 28, 1927, in Providence and had seven siblings. She served in the Army Medical Corps during the Korean War. In 1953 Bostic moved to Worcester to attend Worcester Junior College. She later graduated from Clark University. The Corrine Bostic Memorial Scholarship from Worcester State University is awarded annually in her honor.

Join us this Sunday, February 14, 2021, at 3:00 pm for our next Zoom into Poetry virtual reading. This month we welcome western Massachusetts poet Dane Kuttler. Dane Kuttler has been writing heretical prayers since 2016. She gives a darn good reading and loves zoom.

This is a free event, however, registration is required. You can register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUkd-ygrT8rG9ZrObGi1q1TCwTJLdTg5Wev

Please join us.

The WCPA has added a new video to our YouTube channel.  Today we share an edited recording of “Celebrating Pat Fargnoli”, a virtual poetry reading that took place on Sunday, January 24, 2021.

As with all WCPA activities we rely upon volunteers to create our content. We couldn’t share these videos, have updates to our website, or continue to hold virtual poetry readings without dedicated individuals. If you have a talent you would like to share with the WCPA or poetry lovers of central Massachusetts please e-mail wcpaboard@yahoo.com.

The WCPA serves as the fiscal agent for the Worcester Clemente Course in the Humanities, an award-winning college-level seminar for highly motivated low-income adults seeking to build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. Last summer, in the midst of the chaos created by COVID-19, Clemente pivoted to an online writing program.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette recently published an article on an anthology that came out of the experience for Clemente Worcester, and other Clemente courses in Massachusetts. Give the article a read and consider picking up a copy of the anthology (you can get it through the Harvard Book Store.)

You can read the article at https://www.telegram.com/story/lifestyle/2021/01/24/clemente-students-offer-vision-nation-we-too-america/4159514001/.

A Special edition of “The Issue,” WCPA’s semi-regular poetry anthology series returns with the boys of summer, as we celebrate not only our 50th anniversary year but National Poetry Month and the opening day of the WooSox at Polar Park!

Submission of your best baseball poetry is now open until the day after Valentine’s Day, 2021. Submit your poems in the body of an email, along with a brief bio and a head shot, to c.reilley@usa.com.

A week from tonight (Tuesday, January 26, 2021) the WCPA will support A virtual Thirsty Lab with Jennifer Freed at 7:00 pm. Registration is required; click here to be taken to the Zoom registration page.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvc-isqTMoHNVEdqYuxmFsu6GNCHX8TM5Y

Jennifer L. Freed (she/her) has poems appearing in various print and on-line journals including Atlanta Review, Comstock Review, Connecticut River Review, Naugatuck River Review, The Worcester Review, and Zone 3, as well as in various anthologies, such as Forgotten Women, a Tribute in Poetry. ​ Her chapbook, These Hands Still Holding, was selected as a finalist in the 2013 New Women’s Voices Competition (Finishing Line Press). She was awarded the 2020 Samuel Washington Allen Prize for a long poem or poem-sequence (New England Poetry Club) and has been a finalist for the Frank O’Hara prize multiple times.

At our January 4, 2021 meeting the WCPA the board voted to move our future meetings to the second Tuesday of each month. This move will provide more time to complete financial reports.

The WPCA board meeting monthly from September through June, taking a break from official meetings in July and August each year. If you want to join us for a future board meeting the dates through June 2021 include February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, and June 9.

Today Mass Cultural Council launched a second round of its COVID-19 Relief Fund for Individuals. Grants of $1,500 are available to Massachusetts individual artists and independent teaching artists/humanists/scientists who have lost income derived from their work as a direct result of COVID-19 related cancellations and closures.

Submissions for the WCPA’s Annual Poetry Contest: The Frank O’Hara Prize are now open. For 2021 our contest judge is Pam Bernard, an adjunct professor of writing at Franklin Pierce University.

Contest rules and submission details can be found on the 2021 Annual Contest Submission Guidelines page. New for 2021 – the submission deadline will end on Friday, April 30, 2021. It seemed to make sense to extend submissions through National Poetry Month.

Online submissions are powered by Submittable.

January 10th we continue our monthly virtual poetry feature series with Zoom into Poetry with D. Keali’i MacKenzie. Born in western Massachusetts, he is a past member of the Worcester Poetry Slam Team which represented the Poets’ Asylum at the National Poetry Slam.

Join us at 3:00 pm (Eastern) on Sunday, January 10, 2021. Registration is needed to join the event. Visit the Zoom registration link and fill in the form. A meeting link will be e-mailed to you.

2020 Stanley Kunitz Medal recipient, Susan Roney-O’Brien, is leading two more Poetry Writing 101 workshops with Worcester Public Library​.

Sign-up for this Saturday’s class, Poetry Writing 101 with Susan Roney-O’Brien: Sound, Resound​. It’s taking place on January 2, 2021. Or you can sign up for Poetry Writing 101 with Susan Roney-O’Brien: In Form, Conform, Reform​ on Saturday, February 6, 2021.  Registration links can be found in the event listings linked above.

Both workshops take place between 11 a.m. and noon.

Tonight, Tuesday, December 29, 2020, poet and humorist Joe Fusco Jr​ has the honor of being the final feature of 2020 for the Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading series. You can find the registration link in our event listing – A virtual Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading with Joe Fusco Jr.​

You can read a sample of his work in Worcester Magazine​.

Elizabeth Bacon, WCPA board member and Coordinator for Clemente Worcester, shared this update with Clemente Worcester supporters as the end of 2020 approaches.

Dear Clemente Worcester Supporters,

Graduation 2020 gifts

We HOPE this finds you well during these last, dark days of this difficult, still unfolding year.
2020 Worcester Clemente Graduation Program

We wanted to let you know that we paused our in-person program in March. With the ardent support of Mass Humanities, we provided all our 2020 students with Chromebooks and Hot Spots to finish on-line in October. All 20 students graduated, and faculty and staff delivered graduation gifts to each person’s home in mid-October. I have attached photos, a copy of this year’s graduation program, this year’s Graduation Speech, and a Welcome from Worcester County Poetry Association President Rodger Martin. All will bring you JOY and HOPE.

This summer, Professor Lucia Knoles taught an online course for alumni on Op-Ed Writing funded through a Mellon Foundation Grant in partnership with Mass Humanities and four other Clemente sites across the state. The result was a beautiful publication called, We, too, Are America. 2020 Worcester graduate Mallory Shelly’s writing was featured in the Clemente National newsletter on December 8th. Please explore her work and that of others through the link below. Our graduates bring us HOPE:

https://www.blog.clementecourse.org/post/for-mallory-shelly-everything-offers-a-chance-to-learn

Lorenza Villatoro

Starting in February, Clemente Worcester faculty will offer a three-credit, on-line course to Clemente Worcester graduates and newly accepted students to the Class of 2021-22, and Clemente students from across the state will be invited to join a new writing class led by Mass Humanities and funded by the Mellon Foundation.

By September, we HOPE to be back in person at The Worcester Art Museum and Trinity Lutheran Church – resuming the life-giving connection to scholarship and community that has become Clemente Worcester’s hallmark. YOU are an important part of that Community, and we HOPE to see you back with us then.

Until then, THANK YOU for joining us in making this amazing opportunity possible for so many and for bringing HOPE in this time of isolation and challenge.

In solidarity – on behalf of all of us,

Elizabeth

PS: If you would like to make a gift this year, please go to:

www.worcestercountypoetry.org

Joe Fusco Jr. at Worcester’s MegaSlam.

Ethna McKiernan

The WCPA has helped a few area poetry reading hold virtual space for poetry during this long year. Among them are the Deep Thoughts Open Mic from Bedlam Book Cafe, the long-running artists collaborative known as the Free People’s Workshop, and the Thirsty Lab Poetry Series. At least two more readings are happening in 2020.

Next Tuesday, December 22, join A virtual Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading with Ethna McKiernan, and on December 29, join A virtual Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading with Joe Fusco Jr.

Both readings require registration to receive a Zoom online meeting link. Details can be found on the Facebook events. We hope you’ll come through and enjoy some wonderful poetry as the year crawls to a close.

Rush Frazier, a past president of the WCPA and all-around poetry tour de force, has organized a virtual reunion for the long-departed Poets’ Asylum for Sunday, December 20, 2020.  For more than 20 years, it was the local poetry hangout for performance poets and drew in features from Patricia Smith to Mighty Mike McGee to Dennis Brutus.  From Eleni’s Midnight Cafe through the Java Hut and finally, to the front room at WCUW, you could find a cup of coffee, a supportive community, and some damn fine poetry.

On December 20th, there will be an invitational open mic with voices from across the ether.  You can register via their Zoom link or view it on via a live stream on Facebook.  Further details can be found on the Facebook invite.

A group photo from the Wormtown Region Slam in 2002.

A quick reminder that Zoom into Poetry with Julie Danho is happening next Sunday (12/13).  Visit this link, register, and Zoom will send you the details for the WCPA’s last “Zoom into Poetry” virtual poetry reading of 2020.

More virtual readings in the series are in the works for 2021 with poets David Keali’i MacKenzie, Jeff Walt, and Dane Kuttler.  Plus we have a tribute to Langston Hughes in the works.

Kate McIntyre, Managing Editor of The Worcester Review, shared last night at the WCPA December 2020 board meeting that Robert Steele delivered the 2020 volume to the post office that morning. Members and contributors in central Massachusetts should start to receive their copies with a week.

Volume XLI features selected poems and fiction alongside a feature section highlighting South African poet and activist Dennis Brutus. Worcester State University holds an extensive archive of Brutus’s letters, poetic drafts, and printed materials. This volume also includes poems from the 2020 Frank O’Hara Prize winners Lynn Frederiksen, Patrick Nolan, and Paul Szlosek and contest judge Doug Holder.

The cover art, and a selection of interior images, are by Tanzanian-American artist Abu Mwenye. Mwenye lives in Worcester. Find him online at visionaryafrica.com.

The Worcester Review celebrates the rich literary history of Central Massachusetts, enhances it with work from beyond the region, and serves as a conduit to promote that richness to a national audience. First published in 1972 by the WCPA, a volunteer staff of editors supports its annual publication. We thank all those involved for another incredible volume of literature to help us through the coming days.

Worcester Poet Laureate Juan Matos shared in a Facebook post earlier this week the news the Plough Publishing is honoring poet and translated Rhina Espaillat.  In summer 2021, Plough will announce the winners of its first annual Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award. The winning poet will receive a two thousand dollar award and the winning poem will be published in Plough Quarterly. In addition, two finalists will receive two hundred and fifty dollars as well as publication in Plough.

The WCPA was honored to support a virtual reading by Juan Matos and Rhina Espaillat earlier this year.  That reading was organized by Bedlam Book Cafe.

For additional information on the Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award please visit plough.com.