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Poetry and Poetry Month events
April 27th 2007 Creative Sustenance - The annual Creative Sustenance fundraising event for the FISH Food Pantry and the Torrington Community Soup Kitchen was held at UConn Torrington campus. Monetary donations or canned and non-perishable food items are welcome all year round . There was an Open Mic poetry session from 4.00 – 5.00pm, followed by poetry readings from invited poets from 5:00 – 8:00pm. There was be a reception and book signing from 8:00 – 9:00pm.
April 10th 2007 Taylor Mali - performance poet Taylor Mali appeared in honor of Poetry Month.
Taylor
was a teacher for nine years and is the most successful poetry slam strategist of all time. He is a passionate advocate of teaching and his mission is to, “…reform education in
America
from top to bottom.”
Creative Sustenance
April 24, 2006, Monday 7:00PM-8:00PM
On Monday, April 24th at 7PM The University of Connecticut’s Litchfield County Writers Project, the Community Outreach Committee at the Torrington Campus and the Creative Writing Program at the Storrs campus will co-sponsor Creative Sustenance, a poetry reading to benefit the Community Soup Kitchen of Torrington and FISH, the local food pantry. The reading will feature eleven members of the “The Monday Poets”, a group of fifteen women initiated by Helen Trubeck Glenn and Lynn Ray Hoopes. The poets have been writing together for the last seventeen years. The members who will be reading include: Julia Bolus, Sharon Charde, Cheryl Della Pelle, Sandra Bishop Ebner, Victoria Givotovsky, Lynn Ray Hoopes, Arlene Jones, Susannah Lawrence
Marie Prentice, Davyne Verstandig, Sallie Wright. A book sale, signing and reception will follow.
Canned and non-perishable food items or monetary donations may be brought to the reading. All donations will go directly to the FISH Food Pantry and the Community Soup Kitchen of Torrington. Donations are tax deductible.
The Soup Kitchen has been in operation since l983. An average of over 2,000 meals a month is served, over 24,000 meals yearly, presently 80-100 meals a day. One of their expenses is $1,000 a month rent in addition to insurance. The Soup Kitchen is supported solely by public donations and grants. Volunteers assist daily with food preparation, serving, cleanup and provide weekend coverage. Their mission states: We are committed to providing a nutritious meal to ANY INDIVIDUAL who, for whatever reason, is unable to provide a proper meal for him/herself.
FISH opened its doors in 1972, originally to provide transportation and neighborly assistance to people in the community. Today their operation consists of a food pantry, a 35 bed homeless shelter including 10 beds for veterans, a Beyond Shelter program and an energy assistance program. The agency’s mission is:
- To meet the most basic of human needs in the community
- To nurture individual and community hope through donations and volunteerism
- To promote individual and community development
Dag Sundby, Norwegian Poet with translations by Joan Kunsch
Norwegian poet and author Dag Sundby will read from his works, letting listeners absorb the captivating sounds of the Norwegian language in all the richness of their music. Immediately following each poem, Joan Kunsch will read the English translation, giving the audience a second type of experience with the same poem as its meaning is revealed. The poems explore human attachments, international locales and memorable incidents in a poetic style that is taut, spare and nuanced in a way that heightens the intensity of his expression.
Taylor Mali, Performance Poet
April 3, 2006, Monday 12:45 – 1:45PM
Performance poet Taylor Mali is the most successful poetry slam strategist of all time, having lead six of his seven national poetry slam teams to the finals stage and winning the championship itself a record four times before anyone had even tied him at three. He spent nine years teaching and now performs and lectures for teachers all over the world. His show about poetry, teaching, and math called “Teacher! Teacher!” won the jury prize for best one-man show at the 2001 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. He is a vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching. His mission is to “…reform education in American from top to bottom.”
"Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop: Distant Soulmates" , reading performance by Susan Kinsolving and Jack Gilpin in celebration of National Poetry Month, April 27, 7 pm.
For more images from the event, click here.
Ms. Kinsolving's most recent book of poems is The White Eyelash, (Grove Press, 2003) which won the Friends of Literature Award. Her previous book, Dailies & Rushes, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award.
Jack Gilpin has appeared in over 25 films including Compromising Positions, Heartburn and the Broadway revival of The Elephant Man. His many television credits include Law and Order, The Cosby Show and two years in the role of Roger on Kate & Allie.
Poetry Reading by Sharon Charde
Nov. 14, 2005
Sharon Charde read from her newly published chapbook Bad Girl At The Altar Rail, which won first prize in the Flume Press (California State University) competition.
In February 2002 she edited and published a chapbook anthology of the girls' poetry from Touchstone, a residential treatment facility for female juvenile offenders in Litchfield, Ct.,called I Am Not A Juvenile Delinquent, and in 2004, a full length second edition of that anthology.
That anthology has won the 2005 Literature PASS Award (Prevention For A Safer Society) given by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency in California.
Ms. Charde was presented with the Inge Morath Award in September 2005 in recognition of the significant social impact she has made to the arts in Litchfield County through her work as Director of the Creative Writing Program at Touchstone.
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