Monday, April 12, 2010

April is National Poetry Month




In 1996, The Academy of American Poets introduced National Poetry Month, a nationwide month long celebration of poetry to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry all month long every April.  

New York, The East Coast and Western New York can lay claim to poets such as: Billy Collins, Muriel Ruckeyserl, Louise Gluck, Tupac Amaru Shakur, June Jordan, John Ashbery, Frank O"Hara, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Allen Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas, W.H.Auden, Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, and Langston Hughes. 

Celebrations in Western New York include readings at:  Just Buffalo Literary Center, The Screening Room, The Center for Inquiry, The Rooftop Poetry Club, EM Tea Coffee Cup, Talking Leaves, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Crane Library, Albright Knox Art Gallery,  Rust Belt Books, Empire State College and many more.  

On April 21st, 2010 at 7:30 pm, The Screening Room will feature two Buffalo poets, Gunilla Theander Kester (The Empty Chair: Love and Loss in the Wake of Flight 3407) and Professor Anthony Hughes (Ph.D. Associate Professor of English, Hilbert College.) 

The Screening Room has open slots available for everyone.  Arrive 7:15 pm to check in, $2 admission for an evening of outstanding poetry.  For more information:  The Screening Room Northtown Plaza Business Center 3131 Sheridan Drive, Amherst NY 14226 and online:  www.screeningroom.net/.  Whatever you plan to do make it to The Screening Room to listen, read, relax, eat, drink and celebrate the written and spoken word. 

"Stop this day and night with me 
and you shall possess the origin of all poems, 
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun,
there are millions of suns left.  
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand 
nor look through the eyes of the dead, 
nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself."
- © Walt Whitman "Song of Myself II" (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892.) 
 
 

© Susan Marie

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