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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

MCC Holds Week-Long Celebration of Poetry Month


MCC's English/Philosophy Department in collaboration with the Creative Arts Committee and Writers and Books’ Genesee Reading Series will hold a week-long Local Poetry Festival from Monday, April 3, through Friday, April 7. All events are free and open to the public. (Metered parking is available.)

 
Reading of White Tree Lake, a free verse play written by local poet-playwright Bruce Sweet
Tuesday, April 4, 7 p.m.
Black Box Theater, Building 4
 
White Tree Lake employs storytelling and lyricism to evoke the life of a family enduring the impact of World War II. Poet-playwright Bruce Sweet has published three volumes of poems, This Is a Good Thing (Pudding House), A Dream of Animals, and Archaeology (FootHills Publishing). Additionally, in 2005, What I Really Wanted: New and Selected Stories, Plays and Poems was published by FootHills Publishing. Sweet teaches writing at Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, NY. The reading will be directed by Jeffery Jones, will be assistant directed by Ann Tippett, and will feature Heather Fox, Matt Hachee, Jim McCusker, Chris Perri, and Melissa Farnand. Discussion will follow.

 

Reading/Discussion with Gail Gilberg, Robert Ricks, and Thom Ward
Co-Hosted with Writers and Books’ Genesee Reading Series
Thursday, April 6, 7 p.m.
Monroe A and B, Warshof Conference Center located in the R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center
 
This poetry reading and discussion will feature the work of local poets Gail Gilberg, Robert Ricks, and Thom Ward.
 
Gail Hosking Gilberg, author of the memoir Snake’s Daughter: The Roads in and out of War (University of Iowa Press), has published her poetry and essays in journals such as The Nimrod International Journal, Tar Hill Poetry, The Fourth Genre, and The Florida Review. Her pull in writing is toward the narrative using the “I” both as guide and bit player to present larger subjects. She is always searching for the story within the facts and trying to make the ordinary exra-ordinary. She has an MFA from Bennington College and is at work on another memoir—this one about her mother.

  Robert Ricks is the author of two books: a poetry and short story collection titled Down Here in the Dirt, and an urban novel just out from Black Pearl, titled Mastermind. Most of Mr. Ricks’ poetry is “Spoken Word” performance poetry in the rap tradition, with influence from his experience as an actor and director; he also writes performance ensembles for many voices.
 
Thom Ward is Editor at BOA Editions, Ltd., Rochester’s award-winning, not-for-profit publisher of American poetry and poetry in translation. His own poetry collections include Small Boat with Oars of Different Size and Various Orbits, both from Carnegie Mellon University Press. Ward teaches creative writing workshops in primary and secondary schools, and tutors individual students. He follows no predetermined strategy in writing his poems and brief fiction pieces, opting, rather, to move from surprise to surprise, allowing the language to lead him to where, he hopes, it will be both clear and mysterious for the reader.

   

Skunk Hour Featuring MCC Faculty Poets
Friday, April 7, 12 noon
Black Box Theater, Building 4
 
This lunch-time poetry reading will feature the work of MCC English Professors Jim Hancock, Lloyd Milburn, and Scott Rudd.
 
Jim Hancock recently retired as Professor of English after thirty-nine years of teaching. He’s fondly remembered in the department as a tireless advocate for the beauty of poetry and the importance of language. Hancock has been writing poetry his whole adult life; his latest passion is studying philosophy, specifically the philosophy of being.
 
Lloyd Milburn teaches composition and creative writing. In 2000, he earned his Master’s degree in English after completing a creative writing thesis under the advisement of poet William Heyen. He is currently nearing completion of his book entitled Ancestral Metals.
 
Scott Rudd recently joined the English/Philosophy faculty at our Damon City Campus.

 


Poetry Slam
Friday, April 7, 10 a.m. to 12 noon
North Atrium, Building 12, outside the Mercer Art Gallery
 
In honor of National Poetry Month, MCC will hold its annual Poetry Slam. For two hours, poetry will be read continuously. All members of the college community are invited to read a poem or two, to peruse the poetry books available, or to sit back and listen to the words of poets such as William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, William Butler Yeats, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver and more.

 
Cabbages and Kings
MCC’s Student Literary Publication  
With support from the Creative Arts Committee, Cabbages and Kings will launch two new publications this spring: a CD highlighting spoken-word poetry from Damon City Campus students, and a special volume of student poems produced during MCC’s Local Poetry Festival. Keep an eye out for these exciting additions to MCC’s well-established student literary magazine.

 
For more information about any of the upcoming events—including ideas for how to include an event in your curriculum—please contact Maria Brandt at 585-292-3394 or mbrandt@monroecc.edu.

Janet Ekis
College and Community Relations
03/15/2006