15th Annual Poets House Showcase:
March 31—April 30

An exhibit of all U.S. poetry books published in a single year offers dazzling overview of contemporary literary zeitgeist

March 2007—The only event of its kind, the 2007 Poets House Showcase is a free exhibit featuring all of the new poetry books and poetry-related texts published in the United States since January 2006. The Showcase provides visitors with a fascinating vantage point from which to compare cover designs, title trends, and linguistic, aesthetic and philosophical shifts. With over 2,000 titles on view (including volumes by individual authors, anthologies, biographies, critical studies, CDs and DVDs), the 2007 Showcase will be the largest showcase to date, providing palpable evidence of what Executive Director Lee Briccetti has called our "golden age of poetry production."

The grand opening of the Showcase will take place at Poets House, 72 Spring Street, 2nd Floor, on Saturday, March 31st with a Public Reception from 5:00-7:00pm. The festive reception will give poets, publishers, and bibliophiles a chance to peruse the Showcase's "museum of poetry" and chat with fellow wordsmiths about the latest innovations in verse. A comprehensive catalog of all of the books appearing in the 2007 Showcase will be made available free of charge. The Showcase is on view through April 30th during regular Poets House hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11:00am-7:00pm and Saturday, 1:00-6:00pm. Free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Showcase Coordinator Michael Romanos at (212) 431-7920 x2219, mike@poetshouse.org.

Poetry Steps Up To The Plate:
—The Staten Island Yankees and Poets House Have a Field Day for Literature

August 3, 2006—This summer, the Staten Island Yankees and Poets House are teaming up to show kids that poetry isn't just confined to the classroom, that language and literacy are at home in the batting cage and in the dugout alike. For the second year in a row, the two organizations have sponsored a Youth Baseball Poem Contest for Staten Island children. This year's three winners (from different age-categories) will read their poems to cheering crowds during the S.I. Yankees Pre-game Show on Saturday, August 19th at 6:15 p.m. at Richmond County Bank Ballpark (adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal). One hundred free anthologies, featuring the winning poems and many of the entries, will also be distributed at the event. There's a long-standing tradition of poets filling stadiums: 14,000 fans once crowded into an arena to hear T.S. Eliot read, and the August 19th pre-game show promises to follow in this great tradition of bringing down the house.

Children from all over Staten Island were invited to send their baseball-themed poems to Poets House by July 15, 2006. The following winners (one in each age-group) were announced at the end of July: Avery Poerio-Tripodi (4 ½ years old), Josh Bence (9 years old), and Teresa Konopka (14 years old). From acrostic poems to action-packed baseball couplets, the aesthetic and imaginative range of all of the poems was quite breathtaking. In one stanza, Josh Bence writes:

Shortstop Jake the Snake scoops and throws it like a pea

to Yankeeboy Josh at 1st, that’s me.

The runner’s almost safe when I catch the ball,

but it’s Jake to Josh and that’s all.

In another winning poem, Teresa Konopka observes

They say diamonds

Are a girl’s best

Friend.

[….]

They say bats

Are a baseball’s best

Enemy.

Support for this innovative program (which is a part of Poets House’s Poetry in The Branches programming on Staten Island) was provided by Independence Community Foundation and S.I. Bank & Trust Foundation. In addition to the contest, Poets House sponsored a Baseball Poetry Workshop (on April 29, 2006) for kids of all ages at the Port Richmond Branch Library, and a recitation of Casey at the Bat at the Staten Island Museum’s Baseball Card Exhibit on March 23, 2006.

While Casey at the Bat has won the hearts of millions of readers, it is just one example of the rich and storied relationship between poetry and baseball. “Writing is exciting,” wrote Marianne Moore, “and baseball is like writing. / You can never tell with either / how it will go…” A great fan of professional baseball, Moore was just one of a remarkable camp of renowned poets whose love of the word was matched by their love of the game. Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Robert Creeley, Donald Hall and Lawrence Ferlinghetti all incorporated America’s favorite pastime into their writing, resulting in such works as Ferlinghetti’s Baseball Canto, Moore’s Baseball and Writing, and Robert Frost’s proclamation that, “Nothing flatters me more than to have it assumed that I could write prose—unless it be to have it assumed that I once pitched a baseball with distinction.”

Poets Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge

Eleventh Annual Bridge Walk to Benefit Poets House
Monday, June 12, 2006 @ 6:30pm

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Poets House
and Honoring Timothy S. Carey & Richard J. Schwartz

An event that may make you fall in love with New York City all over again —Time Out New York

Join poets Billy Collins, Toi Derricotte, Galway Kinnell & Philip Levine in our 11th annual salute to poetry inspired by New York City. This movable feast of poetry readings begins near City Hall, continues under the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge, and winds up at Brooklyn’s historic Fulton Ferry Landing. The evening concludes with a festive dinner and more poems, read by special guest Bill Murray.

The event will begin at 6:30 with a reading at the Municipal Building Park and continue across the Bridge to Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn. After the reading at the Landing, celebrants will head to St. Ann’s Warehouse for dinner, music and more poetry. Tickets for the event begin at $225 for Poets House Members and $250 for non-members. Space is limited and pre-registration is a must.

All proceeds go to Poets House, a not-for-profit literary organization that houses one of the country’s most comprehensive libraries of poetry – more inclusive than the collection at the Library of Congress. Free and open to the public, Poets House offers a range of poetry-related programs, classes and workshops. Held at Poets House, at libraries throughout the City, and aimed toward both children and adults, these events include the People’s Poetry Gathering, a three day festival that includes more than 100 events around Manhattan that celebrate the oral traditions in both folklore and poetry.

For more information or to purchase tickets for the Poetry Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge, or to find out more about programs and services at Poets House, please call (212) 431-7920

The Art of the Game

May 2006—This spring, Poets House will once again be batting around baseballs and words on Staten Island, as part of its ongoing Poetry in The Branches-Staten Island initiative, generously suported by Independence Community Foundation and the Staten Island Bank & Trust Foundations. Teaming up with the with Staten Island Yankees and 18 cultural organizations Island-wide as part of Art of the Game, Poets House is hitting it out of the park this season with the following programs:

Kids, get your pens ready: we want your original baseball poems! The 2nd Annual Staten Island Youth Baseball Poem Contest opens to Staten Island residents ages 18 and under on April 1! The contest runs through June 30th, 2006.— so get your entry form now!

Need help writing a baseball poem? Come to a special single-session baseball poetry workshop for kids of all ages on April 29, 2pm at the Port Richmond Branch Library. Poet Dave Johnson will lead workshop participants in fun writing exercises to get their own baseball poems ready for the contest!

Also, keep your eyes on the Staten Island Advance for a special insert about The Art of the Game, an Island-wide program during the month of April, chock full of arts and sports events including Dave Johnson reading Casey at the Bat at the Staten Island Museum's Baseball Card Exhibit Opening on March 23. Visit www.artofthegamesi.org for a full schedule of events.

Poets House Receives $800,000 from LMDC
—Campaign Reaches $5.8 Million

Poets House received a grant of $800,000 from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), bringing total gifts and pledges to The Campaign for Poets House to $5.8 million.

The Campaign for Poets House was launched in anticipation of our relocation to a permanent home in Battery Park City, with the goal of raising $6.5 million. Tremendous support from both the public and private sectors are bringing us swiftly toward that goal. Funds will be used to complete interior construction of the new facility and to establish reserve and endowment funds that will ensure its long-term maintenance and fuel programmatic growth. We expect to open the new space in 2008.

Poets House was among 63 Lower Manhattan arts organizations and projects selected to receive support from the Cultural Enhancement Fund, established by LMDC through a grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The grants, which were announced on March 8, total $27.4 million and reflect the commitment of the city and state to making the arts an integral part of the revitalization of downtown. Poets House is very proud to have been selected to receive this grant, and thrilled to be a part of the new downtown.

Read more about The Campaign for Poets House and our future home in Battery Park City. (Adobe Acrobat Required)

Poets Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge
In Tenth Annual Bridge Walk to Benefit Poets House
Monday, June 6, 2005 @ 6:30pm
Celebrating Stanley Kunitz's 100th Birthday

An event that may make you fall in love with New York City all over again. —Time Out New York

Join poets Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins, Galway Kinnell & Jean Valentine in our 10th annual salute to poetry inspired by New York City. The Poetry Walk features readings near City Hall, at the apex of the Brooklyn Bridge, and at Fulton Ferry Landing. The evening continues with a festive dinner to benefit Poets House. This year we'll also raise a glass to Poets House co-founder Stanley Kunitz on his 100th Birthday!

The event will begin at 6:30 with a reading at the Municipal Building Park and continue across the Bridge to Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn. After the reading at the Landing, celebrants will head to St. Ann’s Warehouse for dinner, music and more poetry. Tickets for the event begin at $225 for Poets House Members and $250 for non-members. Space is limited and pre-registration is a must.

All proceeds go to Poets House, a not-for-profit literary organization that houses one of the country’s most comprehensive libraries of poetry – more inclusive than the collection at the Library of Congress. Free and open to the public, Poets House offers a range of poetry-related programs, classes and workshops. Held at Poets House, at libraries throughout the City, and aimed toward both children and adults, these events include the People’s Poetry Gathering, a three day festival that includes more than 100 events around Manhattan that celebrate the oral traditions in both folklore and poetry.

Play Ball! And Grab That Pen!
STATEN ISLAND YANKEES & POETS HOUSE Score Home Run

This summer, Staten Islanders will be batting around rhymes as well as baseballs. In partnership with the Staten Island Yankees, Poets House brings award-winning poet Quincy Troupe—whose father, Quincy Trouppe, was a Negro Leagues all-star—to read Casey at the Bat at the June 30th home game.

The partners are also teaming up to sponsor a borough-wide youth baseball poem contest, whose winners will be invited to read their winning poems at the home game of Saturday, August 27.  

These special initiatives are in support of Poetry in The Branches on Staten Island which, with the support of Independence Community Foundation and SI Bank & Trust Foundation, brings an intensive focus on poetry to Staten Island branches of The New York Public Library. The two-year program features a stellar cast of poets who will read their work or teach writing workshops for teens and adults. As part of their support of this program, Staten Island Yankee players will pay several visits to the writing workshops, to cheer the young writers on.

There is a long and storied relationship between poetry and baseball. “Writing is exciting,” wrote Marianne Moore, “and baseball is like writing. / You can never tell with either / how it will go…” A great fan of professional baseball, Moore was just one of a remarkable camp of renowned poets whose love of the word was matched by their love of the game. Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Robert Creeley, Donald Hall and Lawrence Ferlinghetti all incorporated America's favorite pastime into their writing, resulting in such works as Ferlinghetti's Baseball Canto, Moore's Baseball and Writing, and Robert Frost's proclamation that, “Nothing flatters me more than to have it assumed that I could write prose—unless it be to have it assumed that I once pitched a baseball with distinction.”

The roster of events will include:

• Acclaimed poet Quincy Troupe—son of Quincy Trouppe, a heralded catcher, outfielder, and manager in baseball's Negro Leagues, prior to the game's integration in 1947—reading Casey at the Bat at the June 30th home game

• Staten Island youth poetry contest (open for submissions May 15-July 30), to insure the continued tradition of baseball poetry as well as foster a love of poetry in Staten Island youth

• Presentation of baseball poem contest winners, who will read their winning poems at the August 27th home game

• Player visits to selected Staten Island Poetry in The Branches young adult workshops.

More information about special events, community partnerships, and Poetry in The Branches on Staten Island poetry readings and writing workshops is available on the Poets House website. See the Staten Island Yankees for ticket and schedule information, and learn how you can root, root, root for the home team this summer while hitting a home run for education!

Literary Animals on View at the Zoo

Forty fragments of poetry have been permanently installed at the Central Park Zoo, creating a complete poetry environment just steps from Fifth Avenue. Poets House teamed up with the Central Park Zoo in an effort to bring poetry into the daily lives of New Yorkers—an integral part of the mission of Poets House—and at the same time develop a new language through which the Wildlife Conservation Society's message could be conveyed. With Sandra Alcosser acting as Poet in Residence of the project, the poets selected for inclusion in the exhibit range from ancient Japanese, Mexican, Afghani, and Greek writers to icons such as Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and Rainer Maria Rilke. The poems themselves have been inventively placed throughout the Central Park Zoo grounds—on railings, rafters, benches, glass partitions, garden bricks, and walls. Take a poetry treasure hunt through the zoo to find them all!

"Amidst the screeches and the roars," says Lee Briccetti, Executive Director of Poets House, "poetry is one of the great possibilities of our own species—the best in language. It can bring us closer to an understanding of animals and nature, and illuminate our experience of the wide and wild world."

Briccetti and Dan Wharton, Executive Director of the Central Park Zoo, came together with a shared sense of poetry's power to illuminate…any topic. And indeed, an independent evaluation of the project has found that not only do at least 70% of zoo visitors read and respond viscerally to the poetry (many even demonstrating the ability to quote from exhibited passages!), but that awareness of vital conservation issues rose 21% after viewing the installation. Poetry, a universal language of sorts, can help readers approach complex issues in unexpected ways, and Literary Animals as a case in point has shown poetry's power to pave the way towards a fresh perspective and understanding.

But don't take our word for it…visit Literary Animals for yourself and let us know what you think! The Central Park Zoo is located just steps from 5th Avenue at 64th Street, and is open 365 days a year: weekdays from 10am-5pm, weekends from 10-5:30. And then visit Poets House to learn more about the poets you see on exhibit, and to discover poetry's own brand of wildness, among the stacks!

Stanley's Century

Poets House celebrates the 100th birthday of its co-founder Stanley Kunitz, twice Poet Laureate of the United States, Pulitzer Prize winner, and beloved teacher & poet. . .

A Tribute to Stanley Kunitz on His 100th Birthday
Thursday, May 19th, 7pm

. . . featuring Lucie Brock-Broido, Olga Broumas, Mark Doty, Nick Flynn, Edward Hirsch, Marie Howe, Major Jackson, Galway Kinnell, Karl Kirchwey, Cleopatra Mathis, Gail Mazur, Michael Mazur, Marie Ponsot, Gerald Stern, & Nancy Willard

New York, April 2005 —Poets House, the lively literary center, Reading Room, and poetry archive located in Soho, presents Stanley's Century on Thursday, May 19 th, 7pm, at Tribeca Performing Arts Center. In tribute to Poets House founder and former Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz, more than a dozen poets and artists gather to commemorate the impact Kunitz has had on them: as poet, editor, teacher, activist, community leader, collaborator, and friend. Their readings and remarks about his life and work will offer a unique glimpse at this legendary figure of twentieth-century American letters as well as the literary community he helped to shape through his commitment to the arts, as he celebrates his 100 th birthday.

Stanley Kunitz was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1905. His many books of poetry include The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz (W. W. Norton, 2000); Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected (1995), which won the National Book Award; Next-to-Last Things: New Poems and Essays (1985); The Poems of Stanley Kunitz, 1928-1978 , which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Passport to the War (1940) ; Selected Poems, 1928-1958 , which won the Pulitzer Prize ; The Testing-Tree (1971); and Intellectual Things (1930). He also co-translated Orchard Lamps by Ivan Drach (1978), Story Under Full Sail by Andrei Voznesensky (1974), and Poems of Akhmatova (1973), and edited The Essential Blake (1987), Poems of John Keats (1964), and The Yale Series of Younger Poets (1969-77).

Kunitz's honors include the Bollingen Prize, a Ford Foundation grant, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, Harvard's Centennial Medal, the Levinson Prize, the Harriet Monroe Poetry Award, a senior fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Medal of the Arts, and the Shelley Memorial Award. He served for two years as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, was designated State Poet of New York, and is a Chancellor Emeritus of The Academy of American Poets. In 2000 he was named United States Poet Laureate. A founder of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and Poets House in New York City, he taught for many years in the graduate writing program at Columbia University. He lives in New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Organized in partnership with The Academy of American Poets, Cave Canem, Fine Arts Work Center, The New York Times, Poetry Society of America, Poets & Writers, and the Unterberg Poetry Center, and with support from LMCC and Teachers & Writers.

Two Pre-eminent Poetry Organizations Collaborate
to Take Poetry to the Streets & Libraries of Five Cities Nationwide

National Endowment for the Humanities Makes Possible the Expansion of An Innovative and Multi-Part Program To Fresno, Houston, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and New Orleans

New York, NY—November 15, 2004—Poets House and the Poetry Society of America, two of America's pre-eminent poetry organizations, announce the receipt of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities which will bring a new program, Branching Out: Poetry for the 21 st Century, to five American cities: Fresno, Houston, Milwaukee, New Orleans, and Kansas City (MO). NEH awards are the result of a rigorous, highly competitive review process. In the current round, Branching Out is one of only five projects to receive awards in the library program implementation category.

Between Spring 2005 and Spring 2006, public libraries in the host cities will present accessible, engaging talks by distinguished poet/scholars about celebrated contemporary and classic poets. The presenters will include former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, Pulitzer-Prize-winner Paul Muldoon, MacArthur Fellow Susan Stewart, and the much-lauded Elizabeth Alexander, Eavan Boland, Eamon Grennan, Martín Espada, Edward Hirsch, Carl Phillips, Vijay Seshadri, Mary Jo Salter, and Adam Zagajewski.

The subjects of these presentations are Yehuda Amichai, Robert Frost, Anna Akhmatova, Gwendolyn Brooks, W.B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Federico Garcia Lorca, Wislawa Szymborska, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Pablo Neruda, and Walt Whitman. The idea of opening this poetry conversation is to generate audience interest in the work of particular poets and to help audience members feel inspired to explore the work of others.

The combined strengths of Poets House, the Poetry Society of America, a stellar cast of speakers and subjects, and an enthusiastic group of public libraries and librarians bring to mind the words of one librarian who has worked on an earlier Poets House initiative: “I can hear the poetry books opening at libraries all over the country.”

Supporting and enhancing the programs will be the Poetry Society's hugely successful Poetry In Motion® program. Each host city will display the well-loved poetry placards throughout their transportation systems. These will feature poems and excerpts from the works of both presenting and presented poets.

Both partnering organizations, Poets House and the Poetry Society of America, have a distinguished record of presenting innovative and exciting poetry lectures and readings. Branching Out develops from Poets House's initiative “Poetry in The Branches,” which pioneered a model for working with poetry in community library settings. Through the use of the PITB model, Poets House has trained librarians throughout the United States in poetry collection development, display, and programming.

To kick off the Branching Out initiative, librarians from the host cities took part in the third annual Poetry in The Branches National Institute at Poets House, October 22-25, a conference consistently rated, “the best training conference I have ever attended!”

“This program will add vitality to our libraries, help reach people on a deeper and delight-filled level, and develop new poetry audiences,” said one of the participating librarians of the conference. Said another, “It will cause poetry to take wing and drop feathers for years to come.”

Looking forward to the Branching Out project, Andrea Lapsley of the Houston Public Library said, “a library's collection of diverse materials and programs can open minds to new ideas, skills, and opportunities. We are thrilled about the opportunities for partnership and programming excellence…This dynamic collaboration will create opportunities for broader citywide exchange about the art form. That's exciting!”

The poet/scholars, too, have displayed a high degree of enthusiasm for this program. Paul Muldoon: “These are two great institutions, for which I've read and lectured on many occasions, and I'd be honored to have the opportunity to branch out with you in Branching Out .” Eavan Boland: “This new program is consistent with the unique and innovative leadership both organizations provide in the field of contemporary poetry. I'm always struck by the combination of intellectual rigor in both, coupled with a generous determination to involve the community in the rewards and discoveries of poetry.” Robert Pinsky: “I also feel it's an excellent idea to bring the kind of poetry programming that's in such abundance in New York and Boston to places that generally have so little of it. And I'm glad to be included in the impressive list of poet/scholars these organizations have assembled.”

In their award letter, the NEH deemed Branching Out “to be an imaginative and intellectually stimulating project, one that promises to bring poetry alive for broad public audiences. The list of poets whose work will be examined is outstanding, and the participating poets and poetry scholars are among the finest in the nation. . . . The proposed programs will enrich the public's understanding of poetry as an art form and offer them new tools for appreciating individual poets, their lives, and the influences on their work.”

Ninth Annual Bridge Walk
A Poets House Benefit
Monday, June 14, 2004, 6:30pm

Robert Bly to receive the Elizabeth Kray Award for Service to Poetry

Join Sandra Alcosser, Galway Kinnell, Tracie Morris, Marie Ponsot, and others as we celebrate poetry and New York City. The Walk features poetry readings in Manhattan, on the Brooklyn Bridge, and at Brooklyn's Fulton Ferry Landing. The evening concludes with a festive dinner to benefit Poets House.

In honor of Poets House co-founder Elizabeth Kray, the Elizabeth Kray Award for Service to Poetry, “the Betty,” is presented every other year to someone who has made an extraordinary contribution to the field. This year, we are delighted to recognize Robert Bly for his role in opening American letters to voices from around the world.

Sandra Alcosser Named First Poet-in-Residence at the Central Park Zoo

Poets House and the Central Park Zoo present Sandra Alcosser as the Poet-in-Residence of a groundbreaking collaborative project that aims to bring together poetry and the wildlife experience at the Zoo. Alcosser will consult on the integration of poetry into the Zoo’s exhibitions in hopes of raising awareness about endangered wildlife as well as the powerful connections between poetic language and human communion with nature.

Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Poets House Unveils The Children's Room

Poets House unveils a rare gift for young readers and poets-to-be: the Poets House Children’s Room. Designed for ages four to ten, this intimate reading room features poetry books for children and a whimsically-designed setting in which to read them. The room is at Poets House, 72 Spring Street, on the second floor (elevator access), open every Saturday, 11am-1pm.

A sky-blue ceiling strung with 1,000 paper cranes reflects the contemplative but buoyant mood of the new Poets House Children’s Room, which was designed by New-York-based architect Louise Braverman.

Kid-sized stools and bookshelves, plush carpeting and pillows provide a comfortable space where youngsters can make themselves at home among words. The Children’s Room’s collection, containing work by the world’s most renowned writers, is open to all children accompanied by an adult on Saturdays, 11am-1pm. The beloved Annie Wright, former elementary school teacher and widow of the poet James Wright, will be present during open hours and available to assist young readers. In addition, children-oriented poetry programs, from readings to writing workshops, will be held throughout the year.