Poetry Salons
The JHPF poetry salons and panel discussions are open to all ages, interests and skill levels, including beginners and non-poetry writing observers. Participation in workshops is not required to attend the panel discussions.
Theme:Making Art from Experience: A Literary Salon with Mario Susko
Date: June 26, 2011
Moderator: Richard Jeffrey Newman (bio)
Guest Panelist: Mario Susko (bio)
There is no poetry without experience, yet the experience that motivates a poem can never, in itself, be communicated. Rather, it is the job of the poet to recreate the experience in language. Does this mean that poetry--and, by extension, all art--is merely an imitation of reality? Or is it something more? Award winning poet Mario Susko will lead us in a workshop designed to focus our attention on this question in our own poems. Afterwards, all are invited to join in a reading/discussion of Professor Susko's work moderated by Richard Jeffrey Newman.
Theme:Poetry and the Body: A Literary Salon with January Gil O'Neil
Date: January 23, 2011
Moderator: Richard Jeffrey Newman (bio)
Guest Panelist: January Gil O'Neil (bio)
Poems about the body are never about the body. They are about history, intimacy, transformation, difference, vulnerability, suffering, strength, sensuality, and more. What does the body represent in a poetic context? What story does the body tell? This workshop and reading will "sing the body electric" as we celebrate the glorious human form and all its manifestations.
Please join Jackson Height Poetry Festival, host Richard Jeffrey Newman and our guest poet, January Gill O'Neil, for an afternoon of poetry about the body. During the first part of the salon, Ms. O'Neil will lead us through a workshop designed to help us examine the place of the body in our own poetry. During the second part, she will read and discuss poems from her book, Under-life, which was published in 2009 by CavanKerry Press.
Theme:Writing The Scary Stuff
Date: June 19, 2010
Moderator and Leader: Richard Jeffrey Newman (bio)
All writers face the problem of writing about what scares them. It might be frightening because it is embarrassing or shameful, because it feels too personal, because it might offend loved ones. It might be frightening because it violates religious or other moral/ethical taboos, because it humanizes or makes comprehensible that which many believe should remain beyond comprehension, because it gives voice to people or ideas that have been silenced. Whatever the source of the fear, we should not allow it to dictate what we can and cannot write. In this workshop, we will practice some strategies for dealing with material that frightens us.
Theme:Writing from the Gut
Date: March 7, 2010
Moderator: Richard Jeffrey Newman (bio)
Guest Panelist: Norman Stock (bio)
Writing should be spontaneous, with strong feeling and no holds barred. To create good poetry, the writing must be done with artistry, and revisions is part of the process as well - it's not that easy to get to the gut feelings, it takes practice. But the emotional force carrying the poem can not be stifled. We will be reading work by Ginsberg, Hopkins, and others, some of whom use complex forms but have gut-level poetry.
Theme: Poetry as naming
Date: December 6, 2009
Moderator: Richard Jeffrey Newman (bio)
Guest Panelist: Amy King
To name something for the first time is to make it visible and real. To name an experience is to be able to share it. To give something a new name is to change it irrevocably. To write a poem is to name a truth. All of these assertions apply to how naming works in our lives as individuals and in the life of a culture. Historically, poets have been the givers of names and, in so doing, they have often been the bringers of change. Guest poet Amy King will lead us in a workshop in the power of naming through poetry.
Theme:Political poetry
Date: September 27, 2009
Moderator: Richard Jeffrey Newman (bio)
Guest Panelist: Luis H. Francia (bio)
From the election of our first African-American president to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care crisis, the murder of Dr. Tiller, whether our roads are repaired and our schools function as they are supposed to, politics affects our lives every day in ways both big and small. What does it mean, then, to write political poetry? How does politics of a given time shape the poetry of that time? Is it possible to write a poem that is apolitical? Explore these and other questions with our guest poet Luis Francia.
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Schedule:
3:00-4:45: Workshops
4:45-5:00: Refreshments
5:00-6:00: Panel Discussion
Cost: Free!
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