Geraldine R Dodge Poets for the Art of Poetry

Arts | New Jersey

Poetry Takes the Stage, No Rehearsal Required

Credit... T Charles Erickson

• Oct. 10, 2014

There are no mirrors or microphones in the part of Brenda Shaughnessy, i of more 70 poets scheduled to read and discuss their piece of work at the 15th biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival when information technology convenes in downtown Newark from Oct. 23 through 26.

Ms. Shaughnessy, the author of three poetry collections and an banana professor in the main of fine arts in creative writing program at Rutgers University-Newark, is not fond of rehearsing. Simply in advance of Contrivance, the largest poetry festival in North America, she had been reflecting on what makes spoken word presentations succeed or fail.

"There'due south something called 'poetry vocalisation,' and information technology's so abrasive," she said. She and then mimicked the style: "It's reading in this way" — big pause — "that'southward go loathed" — interruption — "and is really wearisome."

Ms. Shaughnessy, 44, of Brooklyn, had been avoiding that blazon of commitment, also as what she called her "little-girl vox," since the 1990s, when she kickoff started to requite public readings regularly. "I owe information technology to people who come out to hear poetry to non be and so cocky-conscious," she said recently every bit she saturday at the paper-littered desk in her Newark part.

Ms. Shaughnessy's observations had at least role of their origin in the Dodge festival, which she began attending in 1994. Back so, the event was held at Waterloo Hamlet, the restored 19th-century canal village in Byram Township. In 2010 the festival moved to Newark, with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center equally its focal indicate. The Newark Museum, the New Jersey Historical Society and Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art are amongst the other sites set to host some of the 120 readings, panel discussions, Q. and A. sessions and special events on the festival's agenda.

"When you become to the Contrivance festival, you go the chance to see some of the greatest practitioners of the art form," Ms. Shaughnessy said. On this year'southward bill, for instance, are the former poet laureates Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky and Billy Collins. "Simply where it has completely blown me abroad is with its many unlike kinds of excellence. They always try to mix information technology upward, and so no one gets in a comfort zone," she said. "On the aforementioned day you encounter an emerging poet who is ridiculously talented, you lot tin encounter somebody similar Sharon Olds, who tin make you feel like a full fangirl."

The festival has been a literary bonanza since its debut in 1986, attracting audiences of upwardly to 19,000 people from around the world. This year'due south installment is to include a tribute to Amiri Baraka, with celebrations of the Newark writer's piece of work by poets like Ms. Dove and Yusef Komunyakaa. Also on the schedule: an event called "Another Kind of Backbone," which will invite war veterans who have participated in the programs Warrior Writers and the Gainsay Paper Project, to share their piece of work alongside known poets like Mr. Komunyakaa.

The veterans initiative is "an attempt to open up a dialogue betwixt veterans and civilians most the implications and repercussions of state of war," said Martin Farawell, the director of the Dodge Poetry Programme, which has its offices at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in Morristown. Amid the plan's goals is to give phonation to groups that may otherwise go unheard. That extends to a session for poets with disabilities called "Present Imperfect" as well as to one on how poetry has been influenced and shaped by the L.G.B.T. community, called "Poetry and Pride."

Mr. Farawell, 57, of Milford, Pa., acknowledged that the festival's own sense of community has been shifting since its move to Newark. "The footprint of the festival is actually smaller. Everything is within walking distance of N.J.P.A.C.," he said. "But the nature of the venue is dramatically different." The move could assist explain the pocket-sized dip in attendance in 2010 and 2012, he said. "But I besides experience there's a new kind of energy here, and people are discovering that."

Mr. Farawell said he expects this twelvemonth'due south lineup, the largest in festival history, to make a major impression. "Information technology's the most diverse lineup we've ever had," he said. "We take the slam champion Anis Mojgani, and so we have Robert Pinsky."

Like Ms. Shaughnessy, Mr. Pinsky is no stranger to the festival. He has attended "lots and lots of times," he said in an interview. This year will be his get-go in Newark, but he is more tuned in to the crowd than the scenery.

"One of the best things nigh this festival is the number of students they get to attend. Information technology'southward a thrill," said Mr. Pinsky, 72, the founder of the Favorite Poem Project, an initiative that invites Americans to gloat poetry. Oct. 24, the festival's annual Loftier School Student Day, will bring together close to 4,000 students from 230 schools and 12 states, Mr. Farawell said.

A Reading by Patrick Rosal

Mr. Rosal, the author of three books of poetry and an assistant professor at Rutgers Academy-Camden, reads "Kundiman on a Dance Floor Called Guernica."

"The way I see information technology, there are ii of import groups. Ane is the loftier school kids, and the other is the dead poets whose work I honey, and who I want those kids to see the fine art of," Mr. Pinsky said. "I desire to laissez passer on Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman and John Keats the way it was passed on to me."

In addition to interacting with students at two Loftier School Day sessions, Mr. Pinsky will collaborate with the Grammy Award-winning pianist Laurence Hobgood for "PoemJazz," a session that combines music with his poetry, on Oct. 25.

Mr. Pinsky is like Ms. Shaughnessy in another way: He has no plans to practice for the festival. "I was not a skilful student in school. I never did my homework and I don't prepare," he said. "What I effort to exercise is master the art of freshness, and not fall into 'poetry voice.' "

Despite his wish to ignite passion for his poetic forebears, it may be events like PoemJazz that prove most inspiring to ticketholders.

"What made Dodge an amazing experience for me was hearing the words of these poets all around me, their living voices," said Patrick Rosal, one of this year's featured poets. Mr. Rosal, 45, of Philadelphia, first attended the festival when he was in his 20s and discovering verse as a educatee at Bloomfield College; he is now the author of iii books of poetry and an assistant professor at the master of fine arts program at Rutgers University-Camden.

"The manner I was introduced to poetry in high schoolhouse, it seemed like it was all dead white men," he said. "I was turned off. It took the Dodge festival and hearing people like Philip Levine and Gerald Stern to go far a real, man feel. They brought the passion. I know what information technology'southward like to be converted at this festival."

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/nyregion/geraldine-r-dodge-poetry-festival-celebrates-the-art-of-verse.html

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