More than 100 New Canaan High School students came to a poetry reading last year when Spoken Word poet Sarah Kay (see video below) came to town, English Department Chairperson Heidi D’Acosta says—a sure sign of the form’s popularity here.
At New Canaan Library Wednesday night, high school students will join members of the only known poetry group in town in an event that’s open to the public and led by the group’s director, a published poet who lives here.
“Celebrate National Poetry Month With Us” will kick off at 7 p.m. Wednesday, and will be moderated by Gwen North Reiss. It will include readings, discussion and a reception. Register here.
With help from library staff, NewCanaanite.com put some questions about poetry to both D’Acosta and North Reiss.
Asked about how poetry figures into the student curriculum in New Canaan, D’Acosta said “prominently.”
“Every level and year has a portion of the year devoted to reading and writing poetry,” she said in an email. “We study poetry for meaning and for language study. Its generally concise nature makes it possible to zero in on a writer’s choice of language and also study the relationship between form and meaning.”
She added: “In the senior year, we offer a poetry elective in which students study different kind of poetic form from the traditional ode or sonnet to the newer endeavors like Spoken Word poetry.”
That’s where Sarah Kay came in.
At Wednesday’s event, poets reading will include North Reiss, Dr. David Brown, Mary Anne Case, Elizabeth Thurber Massey, Mimi Haik, Suzie Wall, Martzi Eidelberg and New Canaan High School students.
North Reiss told us that the library has had many award-winning and nationally known poets come to town over the years.
She said she’s unsure of whether there are local poetry groups other than the one she runs—it meets at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (whose grounds, site of the cherished May Fair, are entirely pesticide-free).
“I applied to workshops at the 92nd Street Y because I was eager to work with other poets,” North Reiss said in an email. “This poetry reading at the Library on the 9th is a first, so I hope it will draw poets from New Canaan and perhaps surrounding towns. There hasn’t been a poetry scene here–poets tend to be somewhat solitary. It would be great if this event could help start something.”
Here’s some more information from the library’s press release:
“Suzie Wall will also read poems by Wislawa Szymborska. Martzi will read a poem called “The Child” by Ingrid Jonker in both English and in Afrikaans. It was a poem that was read by Nelson Mandela. Martzi, who is from South Africa, will say a few words about it. Martzi, Mimi, Suzie, Mary Anne, and Liz Massey are all from the St. Mark’s Poetry Group. Dr. Brown represents writers at New Canaan Inn.
“Gwen North Reiss is a freelance writer and poet who lives in New Canaan. A graduate of Yale College, she has published poems in the Connecticut Review, the Atlanta Review, Fairfield University’s Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, and the 92nd Street Y’s online literary magazine, Podium. She has new work appearing this spring in Rhino, a literary annual based in Evanston, Illinois. Her poem “Illuminated” won the 92nd Street Y’s Rachel Wetzsteon Prize in 2012. Her poetry manuscript-in-progress was a finalist for the Larry Levis Prize at Four Way Books in 2013.
“Gwen directs the Poetry Group at St. Marks’s. She also works part-time for the Glass House as a guide and occasional blogger, and served as moderator for the 2013 Conversations in Context program. Her interviews for the Glass House oral history program have won awards from the Connecticut Press Club.”