Is Poetry Dead?

 

(Photo in the NY Times: Our NYS Poet Marie Howe at the Poetry in Motion Springfest at Grand Central Terminal)

Marie Howe, NYS Poet under the auspices of the NYS Writers Institute, appears in a New York Times feature article on poets laureate across the nation, Is Poetry Dead? Not if 45 Official Laureates are Any Indication...

"Other laureates have taken the tradition of occasional poetry in a more personalized direction. As part of the Poetry in Motion project’s Springfest, an event held in Grand Central Terminal in April, Marie Howe, the New York State laureate, organized The Poet Is In, a project inspired by Lucy Van Pelt’s advice booth in 'Peanuts.'”

“'The academic establishment, which I’m very much part of, has this idea of a poem as a monument, and I bow to that idea,' Ms. Howe said. 'But there are poems that are valuable without being monuments.'”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/arts/poet-laureates-multiply-but-job-requirements-vary-widely.html

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New York State sponsors Poetry Unites writing contest

The first New York State
"Poetry Unites" contest announced

Open to all New York State residents for the
best short essay about a favorite poem

After a successful six-year run in Europe, the Poetry Unites contest, inspired by Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem project, is coming to New York State.

Marie Howe, the New York State Poet under the sponsorship of the New York State Writers Institute, and Corinne Evens, a philanthropist, in co-ordination with the Academy of American Poets, the New York State Writers Institute, and the New York State Office of Cultural Education, are pleased to announce a contest for the best short essay about a favorite poem. The contest is open to all New York State residents.

More information:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/poetry_unites14.html

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Exterminating Angel: "Like rats in an overpopulation study"

Friday's film at Page Hall is Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel (1962)-- part of the Food, Crime and Justice film series, cosponsored by the School of Criminal Justice. William Kennedy, novelist, screenwriter and Institute Executive Director, and Donald Faulkner, Institute Director, will provide commentary after the film.

Here's a review and reassessment by the late Roger Ebert that appeared in May 1997:

The dinner guests arrive twice. They ascend the stairs and walk through the wide doorway, and then they arrive again--the same guests, seen from a higher camera angle. This is a joke and soon we will understand the punch line: The guests, having so thoroughly arrived, are incapable of leaving.

Luis Bunuel's "The Exterminating Angel" (1962) is a macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature that suggests we harbor savage instincts and unspeakable secrets. Take a group of prosperous dinner guests and pen them up long enough, he suggests, and they'll turn on one another like rats in an overpopulation study.

More: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-exterminating-angel-1962

More about the event:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#angel

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Profile of Luis Gutierrez in Rolling Stone

Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Latino civil rights leader who visits Albany tomorrow to talk about his new memoir, Still Dreaming, is profiled and interviewed by Ed Morales in a recent issue of Rolling Stone:

"I wish a had a nickel for every time I had to write 'I will not talk in class' on the blackboard in grade school," says Gutiérrez, 59, calling from his office in Washington. "Some people are born talkers, and I wrote this book as though you were having a conversation with me." Fully conversant in Spanglish, Gutiérrez switches from Chicago street mode to island Spanish easily because of his family's move back to Puerto Rico while he was still in high school. While the transition was a little awkward – island locals were quick to call him a "gringo" because of his imperfect Spanish – he learned something important about himself there.

More in Rolling Stone:  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/luis-gutierrez-congress-rebel-with-a-cause-20131010

More about Gutierrez's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/gutierrez_luis13.html

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The Bard of Brooklyn

TIME magazine proclaimed Jonathan Lethem "The Bard of Brooklyn" in a 2003 review of his acclaimed novel, The Fortress of Solitude.

"one of the richest, messiest, most ambitious, most interesting novels of the year."

Read more of Lev Grossman's review in TIME: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,483318,00.html

Lethem opens our Fall 2013 series Wednesday, 9/11:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/lethem_jonathan13.html

See the full series here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#lethem

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Gail Collins in the Times Union

Gail Collins, who visits UAlbany tomorrow, is interviewed and profiled by Leigh Hornbeck in the Times Union:

Early in her newspaper career, Collins founded the Connecticut State News Bureau, in 1972. It was around then she made a choice to write about her subject "in a way that wouldn't make readers want to shoot themselves." The result was a mix of insightful, wry commentary that might zing, but never crushes, its subjects. She seems fully aware of the absurdity of political scandal at the same time she observes how what happens among our elected representatives will ultimately affect ordinary folk. She frequently calls out to the reader directly with a "people," the literary equivalent of a lapel grab.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Political-observer-4463679.php#ixzz2RsuHySXz

More on Gail's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/collins_gail13.html

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Gail Collins on Political Corruption in New York

Gail Collins, New York Times columnist who visits this Tuesday, 4/30, writes about political corruption in New York.

"The charges involve politicians acting in such an insanely stupid way, it shatters our longstanding confidence that taking money was the one thing they know how to do well."

More:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/opinion/collins-a-new-era-in-political-corruption.html?_r=0

More about her visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/collins_gail13.html

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NYS Writers Institute and Governor Cuomo Announce...

Governor Cuomo Announces State Poet and Author

Albany, NY (August 29, 2012)

Governor Cuomo today announced the appointments of Marie Howe to serve as the 10th New York State Poet and Alison Lurie as the 10th New York State Author. Ms. Howe and Ms. Lurie will serve from 2012 to 2014.

"Marie and Alison represent the rich talent and diversity that New York has to offer," Governor Cuomo said. "Both of them have inspired New Yorkers all across the state, and their works are major assets to us all. They are truly deserving of this honor, and hopefully their great work will now reach a new and even wider audience."

Donald Faulkner, Director of the NYS Writers Institute, and ex-officio chair of the review committee for the Walt Whitman Award for State Poet of New York, said, "Seldom have I encountered a poet with such a sense of honesty, intimacy, and candor in her work. Marie Howe writes with refreshing openness about love, loss, and redemption. Hers is a voice that will continue to grow in its magic and sheer bravery."

William Kennedy, Executive Director of the NYS Writers Institute, and ex-officio chair of the review committee for the Edith Wharton Award for State Author of the State of New York, said, "Alison Lurie is a wise and masterful teller of tales that often center on marital strife, domestic disorder, and academic absurdity–comedies of manners of our time but with a deeply human strain. She is a superior prose stylist with a wickedly satirical talent."

For full press release go to  http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/08292012statepoetandauthor

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Poet Peg Boyers on "Outing on the Hudson"

Peg Boyers, who reads tomorrow in Saratoga, offers poetic commentary on the 1850 painting
"Outing on the Hudson" (pictured here) by an unknown artist.

"Hardly native and far from naked, these dignified
loungers by the Hudson stroll in their Sunday best,
white as the lilies in the foreground, white
as the sails on the little boats below
navigating the river, white as the scentless smoke
pluming up from the passing steamboat. In this Sunday idyll...."

Read more in Slate.

Hear Boyers read the poem at the Tang Museum in Saratoga here.

Boyers will share the stage with major American fiction writer Ann Beattie, tomorrow, Thursday, July 19th, 8PM, Davis Audiorium, Palamountain Hall, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga. Free.

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