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Photo by Marie Elizabeth, Westwood Media Center. Poet Henrietta "Queen" Hodge shared some poetry at Westwood's Third Annual Town-Wide Poetry Reading and Open Mic earlier this week.
4-05-2024 11:10pm
Third Annual Town-Wide Poetry Reading and Open Mic Draws a Crowd
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Thanks to Dr. Lynne Viti for sharing this news with Westwood Minute.
April is National Poetry Month, and in celebration of the poetic art, Westwood area poets, their friends and family and library visitors gathered on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, to hear what local poets have been creating all year. Westwood’s Poet Laureate Lynne Viti emceed, began the evening by reciting “A Good Divorce, ”her original poem commemorating the 127th anniversary of the founding of the Town of Westwood.
Featured guest Heather Corbally Bryant, author of eleven books of poetry, started the evening off with poems from her two most recent collections, The Coffin Makers (2023) and Orchard Days (2021). Westwood Youth Poet Laureate Lucie Sechler, Westwood High School class of 2024, also read two new original poems.
Photo by Marie Elizabeth, Westwood Media Center. Tuesday Evening Poet Sherri Stapakoff participated in Westwood's Town-Wide Poetry Reading and Open Mic.Poets from the Westwood Library’s Tuesday Evening Poetry Workshop read, each one explaining the inspiration for the poem, either a prompt assigned in the workshop, a beloved family member who passed away, a closely observed event in the natural world, or a chance encounter at a Dunkin Donuts. Readers were Marilyn Gove, Shari Stepakoff, Debra David, Brian Mich, Johanna Herren, Debra David and Avi Glaser.
Two alumnae of the Tuesday Evening Workshop also stepped up for the Open Mic segment: Jan Brogan, a former Westwood resident, national known as a journalist and author of mystery novels and a true-crime account, Murder in the Combat Zone (2021), and Michelle Thomas, author published children’s books. Also reading at the open mic segment were poets Jane Hart, Queen Hodge, Michael McAfee, Jonathan, Meg Lindsay, Jessica and Z Mahmood.
Photo by Marie Elizabeth, Westwood Media Center. Tuesday Evening Poet Brian Mich takes a turn at the podium.Participating poet Debra David later reflected on the event, saying, “The town of Westwood’s poet laureate contributed a beautifully organized, elegantly run showcase to National Poetry Month. The event does honor to the community wise enough to have selected her, the public library designed to nurture and host, and the crew, the lucky crew of Tuesday evening poets.” The Tuesday Evening Poets Workshop began in January 2022, and has met biweekly since then, with time off for July and August. The group’s first anthology was published in October 2023, and is available to borrow as part of the Westwood Public Library’s circulating collection.
