Westwood Poets Perform at the 2024 Cambridge Arts River Festival

Westwood Poet Laureate Lynne Viti, Youth Poet Laureate emerita Lucie Sechler, Westwood High '24 and current Youth poet Laureate Elizabeth Lowney, a rising junior at Westwood High, celebrated the art of poetry Saturday, June 15 with poets from Cambridge, Medford, Malden, Somerville, San Francisco, Lexington and Boston at the Cambridge Arts River Festival poetry stage. The festival took place last Saturday, June 15 on the banks of the Charles River along Memorial Drive.

Host of the festival’s Poetry Stage, Cambridge poet and community arts activist Jean Dany Joachim, invited Viti and Sechler to read at the River Arts Poetry stage after hearing them read at the Brockton Library Massachusetts Laureates panel in April. Westwood’s newest youth laureate Lowney was also invited to perform at the festival.

Over 40 poets joined the six-hour long poetry marathon, including Cambridge poet populists Toni Bee, Lo Galluccio and Peter Payack; Cambridge Sidewalk Poetry Contest winners Payack, Jean Dany and Lillian Hsu; poetry translators, New England Poetry Club contest winners, and city poet laureates Vijaya Sundaram (Medford) and CD Collins (Malden).

Viti performed two new poems, “I Dreamed I was Jennifer Lawrence,” and “Road Trip to Ocean City.” Sechler recited” June 21st” and “The Secret,” and Lowney read “Buckmaster Pond in June” and “Erosion.”

The 2024 River Festival featured six stages: the Folk/Roots Stage from Club Passim; World Music Stage from Global Arts live; Jazz stage from Cambridge Jazz Festival, Theater/Dance Stage from Central Square Theater, Dance Complex and Jean Appolon Expressions; Western Front Stage, Poetry Stage, and the Mermaid Promenade.

The Cambridge Arts Council, a city agency promoting community-based arts programs in Cambridge, was founded in 1974.