Breezeway weaving loom by Jim Davis / Murfreesboro Parks & Rec
April is National Poetry Month. From reading new work by local poets to attending a festival, there’s no shortage of local ways to mark this observance.
Discover a New Book by a Local Poet
Several poets with local connections as Murfreesboro residents or MTSU faculty have new books recently published. Gaylord Brewer, an MTSU English professor and likely our county’s most prolific poet, has recently published his tenth poetry collection, The Feral Condition, with Negative Capability Press.
Matthew Leavitt Brown, also with the MTSU English department and founder of several community writing projects for veterans, domestic violence survivors and immigrants, has published Thou Art That with Cherry Grove Collections. Brown talks about his new book in an interview on MTSU’s On the Record program.
Local poet Amie Whittemore continues the trend of making MTSU English proud; “Poem for My Former Niece,” a poem from her book Glass Harvest, was recently featured on The Writer’s Almanac, and her poem “Frail Migration” recently won a Reader’s Choice Award at Cold Mountain Review.
In the wider community, but still inside our city limits, Navita Gunter, a Poetry in the Boro regular and recent feature, has just released her new chapbook N2Words, and will be signing copies at Linebaugh Library on Saturday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. And newcomer Mike James, who had a poem featured in last month’s column, has a new book of prose poems released in March, Jumping Drawbridges in Technicolor from Blue Horse Press.
Google any of these authors or book titles to sample or buy their work from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or the publisher.
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Attend a Poetry Festival
On Sunday, April 14, Poetry in the Boro will forego its usual monthly event to participate in the Nashville Independent Poetry Festival, an event designed to “cultivate the intersections of poetry, our community, and each other.” Vendors will include Parnassus Books, McKays, Third Man Records and Books, The Porch Writers’ Collective, small presses, DIY book-makers and more. Numerous poets are performing, including Murfreesboro Poet Laureate Kory Wells. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Admission is free, but VIP ticket packages are available. Be sure to look for the tanka writing station offered by Poetry in the Boro. All this goodness takes place at the Bongo Eastside Lot (109 11th St. S., Nashville) from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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Go for a Walk
That’s right, go for a walk. Maybe you’ll write a poem in your head while you walk, as was Wordsworth’s habit. Or maybe you’ll happen on a short poem that tops the new interactive art installation—a weaving station—on the Breezeway Restorative Trail at Gateway Island. A collaboration involving the Better Boro Project, the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, and other Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation and Cultural Arts Murfreesboro staff, the station includes a poem by Murfreesboro Poet Laureate Kory Wells.
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Also in April:
Wells and actress/director Jamie Stevens are joining forces to offer the workshop “Staging the Page: Cultivating Your Poetic Voice” on Saturday, April 27, at Murfreesboro Little Theatre. A two-hour session from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. will help participants determine how they can make the most of a poem they submit on both the page and in spoken delivery. Optional activities include a group lunch break (separate cost) from 1 to 2:30 p.m. and rehearsal time with the workshop leaders from 2:30 to 4. A minimum $25 donation is requested and will benefit Poetry in the Boro and MLT. Check Facebook for more information, or email Poetry in the Boro at poetryintheboro@gmail.com.
