Post by moira on Oct 18, 2008 16:31:14 GMT 2
The good news is that despite the loss of several originally
scheduled Wompos to family health and holiday issues, Claire
Keyes got two friends, Amy Dengler, of Gloucester, and Ruth
Maassen, Poet Laureate of Rockport, to join us. The two
women they looked over the anthology and read clearly and
passionately with us.
The reading was held during the Marblehead Festival of the
Arts (http://www.marbleheadfestival.org/) in the Cafe of the
Marblehead Unitarian Church, home of the 38-year old Me and
Thee Coffeehouse (http://www.meandthee.org/). Claire and I
introduced Wompo, the book, and the four readers, and then
we did a 40 minute reading of essays and poems from the book
and a few of our poems outside the book, followed by a
break, during which time we thought everyone might flee, but
most stayed on, and more joined them for a second 40-minute
set. In all, we had an audience of 25-30 (not counting the
people who filtered in to see the arts festival literary
contest results.) We read essays by Mendi Obadike, Ann
Fisher-Wirth, Helen Ruggieri, and Lois Roma-Deeley and poems
by Kathleen Flenniken, Lynnell Edwards, Annie Finch, Barbara
Crooker, Anne Deppe, Neile Graham, Eloise Klein Healy,
Arianne Kalfopoulou, Athena Kildegaard, and many many more,
but I forgot to take notes.
The Marblehead Arts committee gave us each a wine goblet
with the year's logo, a turquoise cormorant with the
festival date.They had a literary cafe set up with quotes on
the menus from Hemingway (A Moveable Feast), Edna St.
Vincent Millay ("Love is not all: It is not meat nor
drink"), cummings, and Dickinson ("would you like summer?
Taste of ours.") So we stayed on and tasted egg and chicken
salad sandwiches, then I left for home to liberate my dogs
and watched longingly as Claire, Amy, and Ann headed off for
a photgraphy exhibit. Later that afternoon, there would be a
play and the presentation of a booklet of the festival's
winning essays, poems, and stories by children and adults.
The bad news is that my camera wouldn't work, so I have no
photos to share. Also, despite Claire and my two-month
effort to get copies of the book, we could get none. So I
regret not having those lasting records for Wompos and
audience, but here is the written account of the event.
diane
Diane Kendig
scheduled Wompos to family health and holiday issues, Claire
Keyes got two friends, Amy Dengler, of Gloucester, and Ruth
Maassen, Poet Laureate of Rockport, to join us. The two
women they looked over the anthology and read clearly and
passionately with us.
The reading was held during the Marblehead Festival of the
Arts (http://www.marbleheadfestival.org/) in the Cafe of the
Marblehead Unitarian Church, home of the 38-year old Me and
Thee Coffeehouse (http://www.meandthee.org/). Claire and I
introduced Wompo, the book, and the four readers, and then
we did a 40 minute reading of essays and poems from the book
and a few of our poems outside the book, followed by a
break, during which time we thought everyone might flee, but
most stayed on, and more joined them for a second 40-minute
set. In all, we had an audience of 25-30 (not counting the
people who filtered in to see the arts festival literary
contest results.) We read essays by Mendi Obadike, Ann
Fisher-Wirth, Helen Ruggieri, and Lois Roma-Deeley and poems
by Kathleen Flenniken, Lynnell Edwards, Annie Finch, Barbara
Crooker, Anne Deppe, Neile Graham, Eloise Klein Healy,
Arianne Kalfopoulou, Athena Kildegaard, and many many more,
but I forgot to take notes.
The Marblehead Arts committee gave us each a wine goblet
with the year's logo, a turquoise cormorant with the
festival date.They had a literary cafe set up with quotes on
the menus from Hemingway (A Moveable Feast), Edna St.
Vincent Millay ("Love is not all: It is not meat nor
drink"), cummings, and Dickinson ("would you like summer?
Taste of ours.") So we stayed on and tasted egg and chicken
salad sandwiches, then I left for home to liberate my dogs
and watched longingly as Claire, Amy, and Ann headed off for
a photgraphy exhibit. Later that afternoon, there would be a
play and the presentation of a booklet of the festival's
winning essays, poems, and stories by children and adults.
The bad news is that my camera wouldn't work, so I have no
photos to share. Also, despite Claire and my two-month
effort to get copies of the book, we could get none. So I
regret not having those lasting records for Wompos and
audience, but here is the written account of the event.
diane
Diane Kendig