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Dwell in Possibility! Donna Masini at Prismatic Park
Aug 29, 2017 | 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm
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Between August 29th and September 3rd, poet Donna Masini will be in Prismatic Park inviting you to write “postcard poems,” create a collaborative “Chain of Imagination,” participate in poetry readings, celebrate Labor Day.
Here are descriptions of what you can expect—but, above all, expect the unexpected:
(Check schedule below for exact times)
Chain of Imagination: Writing the World You Want To Live in
Participants will choose a “prompt” and write one or two line poems on strips of paper. These will be fastened and assembled to create a coiling ribbon of lines that will be added to and on display throughout the week, then displayed at Poets House as a piece of sculptural poetry.
Postcards Poems
As Blake says, “What is now Proved, was once only Imagined.” With the aid of surprise “prompts”, postcards, and the park, participants will have a chance to imagine on the page (postcard), then chose the addressee of their postcard poem (Congress? White House? Mayor? Friend? Themselves? A child? Sibling?). We’ll supply postage and send out the first 50 postcard poems. (With participant’s permission, poems will be photographed and posted on Instagram)
Spin and Read
Round and round she goes! Spin the Wheel, choose a poet, and participate in a reading of great poets, past and present: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Muriel Rukeyser, Langston Hughes, Adrienne Rich, Lucille Clifton, Elizabeth Bishop, Mahmoud Darwish, Yehudi Amichai, Gwendolyn Brooks, William Carlos Williams, June Jordan, Nazim Hikmet, Pablo Neruda, etc.
What Work Is
In honor of Labor Day, we’ll be writing–and reading–poems that celebrate work and the workers in our lives.
Schedule (See above for full descriptions)
Tuesday, August 29, 12-3pm
• 12-2pm CHAIN OF IMAGINATION (Help write a collaborative poetry sculpture that imagines the world we want to live in )
• 2-3pm POSTCARD POEMS (Choose a prompt, write a poem to go out into the world)
Wednesday, August 30, 12-5pm
• 12-2pm CHAIN OF IMAGINATION (Help write a collaborative poetry sculpture that imagines the world we want to live in)
• 2-4pm POSTCARD POEMS (Choose a prompt, write a poem to go out into the world)
• 4-5pm SPIN & READ (Spin the wheel, choose a poet—and join in a poetry reading)
Thursday, August 31, 5-7pm
• 5-6pm POSTCARD POEMS (Choose a prompt, write a poem to go out into the world)
• 6-7pm SPIN & READ (Spin the wheel, choose a poet—and join in a poetry reading)
Friday, September 1
Park Closed
Saturday, September 2, 12-5pm
• 12-2pm WHAT WORK IS (Choose a prompt and write a poem to celebrate work and the workers in our lives)
• 2-3pm CHAIN OF IMAGINATION (Help write a collaborative poetry sculpture that imagines the world we want to live in)
• 3-5pm SPIN & READ (What Work Is) We’ll be reading poems that honor and celebrate work and the workers in our lives.
Sunday, September 3, 12-5pm
• 12-2pm WHAT WORK IS (Choose a prompt and write a poem to celebrate work and the workers in our lives)
• 2-3pm CHAIN OF IMAGINATION (Help write a collaborative poetry sculpture that imagines the world we want to live in)
• 3-5pm SPIN & READ (What Work Is) We’ll be reading poems that honor and celebrate work and the workers in our lives.
Donna Masini’s third book of poems, 4:30 Movie, is forthcoming (W.W. Norton and Co., 2018). She is the author of Turning to Fiction (W.W. Norton 2004), That Kind of Danger (Beacon Press, 1994), and a novel, About Yvonne (W.W. Norton,1998). Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies including Poetry, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Open City, The Paris Review, Parnassus, Pushcart Prize, Brooklyn Poets, and Best American Poetry 2015. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, she is a Professor of English at Hunter College where she teaches both undergraduates and in the MFA Creative Writing program. She is at work on a novel, The Good Enough Mother. Please visit www.donnamasini.com.