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The Calliope Poetry Series, in collaboration with the Featherstone Center for the Arts on Martha’s Vineyard and the Falmouth Artists Guild, will present Calliope Summer Readings on Sunday, August 19, from 3 to 5 PM, at the Falmouth Art Center, 137 Gifford Street in Falmouth.
The event brings together distinguished poets, musicians, and artists in an afternoon celebrating the arts.
Pulitzer Award-winning poet Jorie Graham and artist, poet, and novelist Lauren Wolk will read selections from their poetry. The Chappoquoit Cello Quartet will provide music, and the art center’s exhibit, “Artists’ Choice: Fresh and Favorites,” will feature works by local artists and poets.
The author of 12 collections of poetry, most recently “Place” (May 2012) and “Sea Change” (2008), Jorie Graham won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1996 for “The Dream of the Unified Field: Poems 1974-1994.” She is the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard University.
Ms. Graham has received high praise for her work and is considered one of the most important living North American poets, one who both redefines and revitalizes poetry.
In “Place,” Ms. Graham offers, in her words, “meditations written in an uneasy lull before an unknowable, potentially drastic change,” exploring the role of place and our role as humans. As in her previous collection, “Sea Change,” in which she addresses environmental themes, Graham writes about compelling real-world issues, and the ways in which human imagination, intuition, and experience offer some hope of a “more responsive and responsible” future.
“Sundown,” the opening poem in “Place” is a vision of Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 5, 2009, the day before the anniversary of D-Day. There are hints of the turmoil of the distant past or the near future. A horse and rider gallop down the beach, overtaking and passing the narrator, “gleaming—wet chest and upraised knees and light-struck hooves and thrust-out even breathing of the great beast.” It is “a place where no one again is suddenly killed—regardless of the ‘cause’—no one—just this galloping forward with force through the low waves.”
“You can rest in the beauty of the language,” said Alice Kociemba, organizer of the event and director of the Calliope Poetry Series. “Graham’s poetry creates a state of reverence.”
Opening for Graham is Lauren Wolk, associate director of the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, who describes her poetry as “personal, very accessible, but layered.”
Much of Ms. Wolk’s poetry, she says, is about “birds, things with wings.” Her fondness for birds is also displayed in her assemblage art birdhouses, which she exhibits at galleries throughout the Cape.
“A poem should be about more than one idea,” she said. “There should be layers and layers. That’s what I aim for, to be accessible with a lot going on under the surface.
Ms. Wolk is also the author of two novels, “Those Who Favor Fire,” published in 1999, and “Forgiving Billy,” which won the Hackney Literary Award in 2007. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications and she has presented her works at readings throughout the Cape. She is the founder of the annual Mutual Muses: A Marriage of Visual and Literary Art, which pairs the work of poets and visual artists inspired by each other.
The Chapoquoit Cello will play a variety of works both written for and arranged for cello quartet, including pieces by Palestrina, MacDowell, Critelli, Teleman, and Rabinowitz.
Members of the quartet are Emily Faris, 18, a graduate of Nauset High School who will be attending Ithaca College in the fall; Sofia Gabriel, 19, from Mattapoisett, who will be a sophomore at Swarthmore College in the fall; Kaylee Lino, 19, a graduate Falmouth High School, who enter Denver University in the fall; and Kurran Singh, 16, who will be a junior at Falmouth High School. All are cello students of Nikki Patton of West Falmouth.
Since their debut concert two years ago at the Cape Cod Wildlife Foundation, the quartet has performed at the Woods Hole Library, the Church of the Messiah, and at weddings.
Calliope Summer Readings is project of the Calliope Poetry Series at West Falmouth Library, which meets monthly from September through June. At each meeting, three featured poets read their works, followed by an open mike for local poets to share their poetry.
A psychotherapist by vocation, Ms. Kociemba began writing poetry about eight years ago and founded Calliope in January 2008 as a way of creating a sense of community for poets, aspiring poets, and people new to poetry. Calliope also offers a series of poetry craft workshops during the winter.
“Calliope gives poets and those who appreciate poetry an opportunity to listen to readings by fine poets throughout the region,” she said, “as well as provide a supportive environment for those who may not yet feel comfortable or confident about reading their poetry out loud. At Calliope, everyone can learn together, from the best to the newest poets. There are no critiques, no judgments.”
Ms. Kociemba believes poetry is healing, both for the poet and for the listener. “That’s why I do it,” she said. “I believe that all forms of creative expression are healing; it is not just about your woundedness—it is what takes you beyond.”
A book signing reception will follow the readings.
A donation of $20 is requested. Funds raised will be used to fund stipends for featured poets during Calliope’s regular season and its craft workshops. Calliope Summer Readings is funded in part by a grant from the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod.
Reservations are not required, but attendees are asked to RSVP to calliopepoetryreadings@verizon.net or 508-566-1090.
For more information on Calliope Poetry Readings, visit www.calliopepoetryseries.com.