July 2009******************************************
Friday, July 31st
Grolier Poetry Book Shop presents
TO BE HERE AGAIN
a Poetry Reading

by
ANNA FRAJLICH
and
JAMES MCCORKLE

an installation and discussion
by
artist, WLODZIMIERZ KSIAZEK

The Democracy Center,45 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge
7:00pm to 9:30pm
Reception and book signing
following the reading and discussion
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June 2009
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Saturday, June 13th
Reading and Book Signing

FRED MARCHANT
reading from his new book
The Looking House Poems

and

TERESA CADER
reading from her latest book
History of Hurricanes

sponsored by the Grolier Poetry Book Shop
held at the Pierre Menard Gallery
10 Arrow St.
Cambridge
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Reading Tuesday, June 9th

STEVEN RIEL
reading from his new book Post Card from P-Town

EDISON DUPREE
reading from his book Prosthesis

at Grolier Poetry Book Shop, 6 Plymptom St., Cambridge.
Harvard Square
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April/May, 2009
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May 8, Friday, 6:30pm
at The Grolier Poetry Book Shop,
6 Plympton St., Cambridge

READING

JUDITH VALENTE

readinig from her new book
DISCOVERING MOONS
“Judith Valente’s poems are deeply rooted in the everyday world, and yet transport us to a place in the soul, a place that C.S. Lewis once described as “the real, real world”. She is a poet concerned with those moments that telescope the sacred in the ordinary, offer a clarifying vision of what it means to be human, and remind us we are part of something larger than ourselves. These are love poems to life…”
also

CHARLES REYNARD

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Sat., May 9, at 9:00am there will be a day long

POETRY RETREAT
>”Lecto Divina: Discovering Signs of the Sacred in Everyday Life”

led by

JUDITH VALENTE
and
CHARLES REYNARD

sponsored by the CSPC committee of St. Paul Catholic Church. It will be held at Youville Hospital Cullinane Conference Center on Cambridge St. Space is limited to 60. For reservations call Andy at (617) 491-8400 or email Secretary@saint-paul-cspc.org
To defray the cost of food there is a $20 donation.
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April 2009 Poetry Month
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April 30, 2009, Thursday, 5pm

Harvard Arts Medal Ceremony honoring poet
JOHN ASHBERY

New College Theatre, 10-12 Holyoke St.
Harvard Square, Cambridge

Pultizer Prize-winning poet, John Ashbery, class of ‘49, is the fifteenth recipient of the Harvard Arts Medal which recognizes excellence in the arts by Harvard and Radcilffe graduates.

The medal will be presented by Drew Gilpin Faust, President , Harvard University. Host ed by actor John Lithgow ‘67, discussion moderated by Dan Chiasson GSAS ‘01, professor of English, Wellesley College.

Admission free, but tickets required; available through the Harvard Box Office beginning Tuesday, April 14.

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March 30, 2009,

“Reconfiguring Romanticism: A Reading and Discussion of Experimental Poetics”

Poets: Fanny Howe, Gerrit Lansing, Keith Waldrop,
Jerome Rothenberg, Jeffrey Robinson

Respondents: Sonia Hofkosh, Virginia Jackson

Monday , March 30, 7:00 pm
Thompson Room
Sponsored by:
The Woodberry Poetry Room, The English Dept.
& The Grolier Poetry Bookshop
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February 16, 2009

The Grolier Poetry Bookshop

and

RUTH LEPSON

invite you to a Book Launch

featuring

Live Jazz Music

in celebration of Ruth’s new book

I Went Looking for You

at the Democracy Center 2-5 pm

45 Mt Auburn St., Cambridge

Ruth Lepson is Poet-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has published several books of poetry and has appeared in numerous journals. In recent years Ruth has been exploring the meeting places of jazz and poetry, collaborating with jazz musicians and poetry group, Low Road. She will be reading with some jazz musicians from NEC at the Book Launch.

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January 2009 Happy New Year!
A New Year of Hope!
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January 20th, 2009 Inauguration Day

Come visit the Grolier Poetry Bookshop and see our

Inauguration Window

poems for the occasion

Excerpts from the Inaugural Poem

by Elizabeth Alexander

Praise Song for the Day

“Each day we go about our business,

walking past each other, catching each other’s

eyes or not,

about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is

noise and bramble, thorn and din, each

one of our ancestors on our tongues…

I know there’s something better down the road.

We need to find a place where we are safe.

We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.

Sing the names of the dead who brought us here

who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built

brick by brick the glittering edifices

they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.

Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,

the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables….

praise song for walking forward in that light.”

An excerpt from Forty Acres,

a poem for Barack Obama by Nobel winner Derek Walcott

“…beyond the moaning ground

the lynching tree,

the tornadoes

black vengeance,

and the young ploughman feels the

change in his veins,

heart, muscles, tendons

till the land lies open like a flag

as dawn’s sure light streaks the field

and furrows wait

for the sower.”

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Monday, January 19th, 2009

Martin Luther King Day

Gather at the Out of Town News kiosk in the middle of Harvard Square at 1pm for…

A reading of MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech by Cambridge police officer,

Carl Pilgrim

joined by four students

from Community Charter School of Cambridge

plus Ifeanyi Menkiti reading

“Middle Passage” by Robert Hayden

and “Before A Common Soil” by Menkiti

Officer Carl Pilgrim, the son of Barbara Pilgrim, memorized MLK’s speech when he was 9 years old.

Ifeanyi Menkiti is a poet and owner of the Grolier Poetry Bookshop and teaches philosophy at Wellesley College.

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December 2008

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Saturday, December 6, 2008

KATHLEEN SPIVACK Celebrates

her 30 years association with the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, and those who have shared in her literary journey, by giving back to the poetry community with a special birthday celebration.

Democracy Center, 45 Mt. Auburn St.

3-7pm

Party and open mike reading

and gift certificates

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November 2008

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November 21, 2008

Poetry Reading

Frederick Feirstein

a practicing psychoanalyst living in New York City has been a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry and Pulitzer Prize nominee twice. He will be reading from his eighth book of poems, Fallout.

and

Dennis Nurkse

the author of nine books of poetry, most recently The Border Kingdom, Burnt Island, and The Fall. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

The Democracy Center

7:00 pm

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June 2008

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

Vice Mayor Brian Murphy

and the Cambridge City Council

dedicate

LOUISA SOLANO SQUARE

Corner of Bow and Plympton Streets

11:00 a.m.

Congratulations, Louisa!

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April 2008

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

a reading and discussion

of the poetry of Dylan Thomas

featuring Welsh poets

Aeronwy Thomas

born in 1943, is the daughter of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. She has been the leading figure in the movement to honor the memory of Dylan Thomas. She is also well known for her translations of Italian poetry. Here first book published in America is Burning Bridges.

Peter Thabit Jones

is author of The Lizard Catchers. He wa born in Wales. He has received several awards and tutors Literature at the University of Wales, Swansea. He is the founder and editor of The Seventh Quarry, a poetry book and press based in Swansea, Wales. His latest book which he shares with American poet Vince Clemente is Bridging the Waters:Swansea to Sag Habor.

Adams House, 26 Plympton St., Cambridge

7:30 pm

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March 2008

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Thursday, March 6, at 7:30

“Theology on Tap”

presents

Ifeanyi Menkiti

Catholic Spirituality and Poetry: A Reading and Discussion

Tommy Doyle’s Restaurant

96 Winthrop Street

Harvard Square

sponsored by

Harvard Catholic Student Center

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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The Grolier Poetry Book Shop

and

The Harvard Advocate

invite you to

a reading and reception

featuring

Aidan Rooney

and

Mary O’donoghue

Aidan Rooney celebrates the publication of his second collection of poetry, Tightrope. Rooney has taught French and English for the past twenty years at Thayer Academy in Braintree. His work has been recognized by various awards and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Mary O’Donoghue has a second collection of poetry, Among These Winters. She has been recently included in the anthology, The New Irish Poets. She is an assistant professor of English at Babson College.

The poets will be introduced by Thomas O’Grady, professor of English and director of Irish Studies at th University of Massachusetts, Boston.

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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

7:30 pm

The Grolier Poetry Book Shop

and Harvard Advocate

invite you to

A Reading and Reception

Harvard Advocate Building

21 South Street, Cambridge

featuring

Kate Schapira Jennifer Karmin

Jaye Bartell Laura Sims

Adam Golaski John Cotter

Matthew Klane Deborah Poe

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November 10, 2007

Launching of:

Kathleen Spivack’s

Moments of Past Happiness

A collection of poems that forms a quilt of memories. Kathleen Spivack has five books to her credit both prose and poetry. She was nominated for the Pultizer Prize. Earthwinds Editions is proud to present this book length collection.

Ifeanyi Menkiti

will also be reading from his recent book

Before a Common Soil

Karyl Klopp is the Designer of both books

for Earthwinds Editions.

info@earthwindseditions.com

Democracy Center 45 Mt. Auburn St. Cambridge 2:30-5:30pm

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May 5, 2007

Book signing:

Charles Reynard and Judith Valente

Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul

Grolier Poetry Book Shop, Saturday, 2:00 pm

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May 4, 2007

7:30-9:00pm St. Paul Parish

29 Mt. Aubutn St., Cambridge, MA

“On Poetry and Spirituality”

a Panel Discussion

Ifeanyi Menkiti, poet/philosopher, Moderator

Judith Valente, poet/Journalist

Charles Reynard, poet/judge

sponsored by St. Paul’s Lay Committee on

Contemporary Spiritual & Public Concerns

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May 2007

Reading and Reception

The Democracy Center 45 Mt. Auburn Cambridge, Ma. 7:30pm

Denise Bergman

the author of

Seeing Annie Sullivan

poems based on the early life of Helen Keller’s teacher. The book has been translated into Braille and into a Talking Book. She was the editor of City River Voices and her poems are widely published. Denise has been the poetry editor of Sojourner, a Women’s Forum and hosted a cable TV series called “Women in the Arts”.

Majorie Agosin

is a renowned poet, fiction writer, memoirist, anthologist, professor and human rights activist. A descendant of European Jews who escaped the Holocaust and settled in Chile in 1939. She was born in Bethesda, Maryland and raised in Santiago, Chile. The family settled in Athens, Georgia after fleeing Chile following Pinochet’s rise to power. Agosin’s numerous literary awards include the Letras de Oro Prize, the Latina Literature Prize, and the Gabriela Mistral Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement. She teaches in the Latin American Studies Department of Wellesley College.

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April 24, 2007

The Grolier Poetry Book Shop

and

Perugia Press

featuring:

Frannie Lindsay Faye George

Janet Aalfs Carol Edelstein

Reading and Reception:

7:30 Grolier Poetry Book Shop

6 Plympton St.

Cambridge, MA

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February 5, 2007

Reading: 7:30pm The Democracy Center

45 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, MA.

Ander Monson

winner of the first Graywolf Nonfiction Prize for his collection of essays on poetry, Neck Deep and Other Predicaments. He is also author of the novel Other Electricities and the poetry collecion Vacationaland. He lives in Michigan and edits the magazine DIAGRAM and the New Michigan Press.

Joan Houlihan

is founder of the Concord Poetry Center and author of Hand-Held Executions:Poems & Essays and The Mending Worm, winner of the Green Rose Award from New Issues Press. She writes a series of essays on contemporary American poetry called The Boston Comment and is staff reviewer for the Contemporary PoetryReview.

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November 17, 2007

The Grolier Poetry Book Shop

and

The Greek Institute

present Book Readings and Signings

Lili Bita

Author and actress will read from her memoir, Sister of Darkness. It is the powerful story of a woman’s journey of self-discovery and personal liberation, describing her birth and childhood on an idyllic island, her escape from her traditional upbringing in Greece and her survival from domestic violence in America.

Robert Zaller

poet, critic and historian will read from his latest volume of poetry, Islands, inspired by his annual visits to Greece.

They will also read from their co-translation of Thirty Years in the Rain:The Selected Poetry of Nikiforos Vrettakos. Vrettakos is one of the outstanding Greek poets of the twentieth century.

For more information about these books please visit www.somersethallpress.com

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March 14, 2007

Reading and Reception: 7:30-9:00pm

The Democracy Center 45 Mt. Auburn St. Cambridge, MA

Ben Mazer

and

Stephen Sturgeon

introduced by Benjamin Paloff,

poetry editor, Boston Review

Ben Mazer’s poems have appeared in many international periodicals. Johanna Poems is his second collection. He is also the editor of Landis Everson’s Everything Preserved: Poems 1955-2005 (Graywolf Press), and is a contributing editor to Fulcrum.

Stephen Sturgeon’s poems have appeared in Fulcrum, Harvard Review, Jacket and Agenda. He is Associate Editor of Fulcrum and has recently completed a critical edition of Wyndham Lewis’ first novel, Tarr.

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March 28, 2007

7:30-9:00 at The Democracy Center,

45 Mt. Auburn St. Cambridge, MA

Reading and Reception

featuring

Susan Eisenberg

reading from her newest book, Blind Spot, published in 2006. Her poems are included in many anthologies, most recently Oxford University Press’ American Working-Class Literature. A pioneering tradeswoman licensed as a master electrician, she has addressed audiences in a wide range of venues from union halls to universities. She holds an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College and teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She is Visiting Research Associate at the women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis, developing Perpetual Care, a photo/poetry project on chronic illness.

Susan Donnelly

has two poetry collections Transit and Eve Names the Animals (the Samuel French Morse prize winner), as well as three chap books. Donnelly teaches poetry both in classes and individual consultatons from her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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November 2007

Grolier Poetry Book Shop

and Adams House

invite you

Poetry Reading with Musical Accompaniment: Adams House, 26 Plympton St., Cambridge, MA

F.D. Reeve

performing

“The Blue Cat Walks The Earth”

with musicians

Don Davis and Joe Deleault

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October 2007

Reading and Reception:

7:00-8:30 Grolier Poetry Book Shop,

6 Plympton St., Cambridge, MA

Roy Jacobstein

“A Form of Optimism”

and

Cammy Thomas

“Cathedral of Wish”

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October 6, 2007

A Celebration of “Allforme“

a collection of poems by Brian Sheridan

cosponsored by

The Grolier Poetry Book shop

and

The Sheridan Family

”…the thought was that the gift that he gave of his life and his words could be multiplied and sent forth–multiplied and sent forth to readers, some of whom knew him, but others that did not. But none of this would have been possible were it not for an older sister who believed strongly in her younger brother to want to do something about his writings.”

at the Democracy Center,45 Mt. Auburn St. Cambridge, MA 7pm

“Show me your light

the light which illuminates the apocalyptic sky

defeating the gods with your beauty

gracefully, invigorating

an angel so divine

peace of mind

Show me your light”

by Brian Sheridan

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September 2007

Democracy Center, 45 Mt. Auburn St. Cambridge 2:30pm

Reading and Reception:

featuring

Frannie Lindsay

is the author of Where She Always Was and Lamb which was chosen as a runner-up for the Laughlin Award. Her work has appeared in many journals. She has won numerous award for her poetry including the May Swenson Award, The Perugia Press Intro Award and an NEA Fellowship and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist’s Grant.

and

Lynne Thompson

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California by parents born in the Windward Island, West Indies, Lynne Thompson received her B.A. from Scripps College and a J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law. She currently serves as the Director of Employee and Labor Relations at the University of California, Los Angeles. An active member of the Los Angeles poetry scene and a 2007 Pushcart Prize nominee. She has published in many journals as well as anthologies.

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September 13, 2007

A Reading and Reception:

at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop 7:30

featuring

Carlos Martinez

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September 2007

Reading and Reception: 8:00-9:30 at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, 6 Plympton St., Cambridge.

Stewart Florsheim

“Short Fall From Grace”

and

Richard Michelson

“Battles and Lullabies”

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September 19-23, 2007

Christopher Okigbo

International Conference

a multidisciplinary Celebration

of Okigbo’s Poetry

hosted by: Harvard University, Boston University, Universityof Massachusetts, Wellesley College, in association with Christopher Okigbo Foundation, Brussels, Belgium and the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, Cambridge, MA.

poetry readings by: Dubem Okafor, Steven Vincent, Ijeoma Azuonye, Sly Cheney Coker, Con Burness, Michael Echeruo, Dennis Brutus, Ihechukwu Madubuike, Amatoritsero Ede, Ossie Onuora Enekwe, Esiaba Irobi, Olu Oguibe, Chimlum Nwankwo, Ije Okigbo, Tanure Ojaide, Sofiw Dati Okigbo, Rebecca Saunders, Obi Okigbo, Ifi Amadiume, Chinyere Okafor, Michael Odokara-Ikigbo, Obiora Udechukwu, Ifeanyi Menkiti, Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.

Christopher Okigbo was by far the greatest postcolonial, modern African poet of the twentieth-century. Born on August 16, 1932 to a prominent Igbo Roman Catholic family in Ojoto, Nigeria and educated at Government College Umuahia and later at the University College, Ibadan where he majored in Greek and Latin Classics. His earliest published poem was “Song of the Forest”. He died August 1967 while fighting as a field-commissioned Major on the Biafran side of the Nigerian-Biafran War. He established himself as a commanding force, not only in modern Africa poetics, but in world literature at large.

Okigbo’s greatness rests on his all-inclusive multicultural sensibility; his mythopoetic imagination;his infusion of ritual seriousness into the praxis of his poetyr; his masterly fusion of a wide diversity of poetic modes from traditions across the world;and above all, his all-encompassing vision of reality-the phenomenal and the imaginative–in the fortunes of his poet-hero, the Prodigal, through whose “burden” and “journey” of “several centuries” he has constructed a complex “fable of man’s perennial quest for fulfillment” in cycles of poems.

among the speakers are :

Chinua Achebe: “Christopher Okigbo and His Time”

Ifeanyi Menkiti: “A Comparative Examination of the poetry of Christopher Okigbo and Ezra Pound”

Wole Soyinka: “Soldiering on: Arms and the Poet”

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August 14, 2007

Reading and Reception 7:30 Grolier Poetry Book Shop

Muhammad Haji Salleh

reading from his original poems

Salleh is one of Malaysia’s leading poets and her best-known bi-lingual poet. Since 1978 he has been a professor in the Department of Malay Letters at the National University of Malaysia. Salleh attended University of Singapore to study with poet D.J. Enright. He earned his master’s degree on the strength of his thesis examining the history of modern Malay-Indonesian poetry. His PhD is from the University of Michigan in Southeast Asian Literature. He lives with his family near Kuala Lumpur. He was awarded the title of National Writer, Malaysia’s highest literary honor. He is finishing his year at Harvard University as a visiting scholar at the Yenching Institute.

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