Poetry and Community
This panel will explore the many relationships possible between poets and the wider community. Among the issues considered will be how poets and poetry can reach the ordinary citizen and to what end. The following are examples of the kinds of questions panelists will consider: How does poetry help define or redefine"community" itself, a term that has lost meaning and significance by virtue of its overuse? Can poetry transform suffering; can it be useful in creating unity; does it have value as a tool for change? How has poetry influenced various kinds of communities—the disabled, the oppressed, the incarcerated, the gifted, the professional, and the cleric—by way of insight, balm, or transcendence? What role does poetry play in defining identities and concerns of ethnic groups within a given community? How do poets help to make silent voices heard, and what other opportunities do we have to bring poetry to the public?
Marie Harris, our own poet laureate of New Hampshire, has written a beautiful poem that has been sandblasted into granite by Emil Birch, one of New Hampshire’s most illustrious public art sculptors. This poem sits at the base of Mt. Sunapee, viewed by thousands of people each year. But there are far too few poems in public places. How do we create more places and spaces for poetry? How can poets laureate, politicians, educators, and lovers of poetry collaborate to build poetry into the landscape, as well as into the nation of the mind and the mind of the nation?
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the panelists
• Edda S. Cantor is the executive director of Leadership New Hampshire. She earned her BS degree in sociology from American University in Washington, DC and a M.Ed. in counseling from Antioch/New England Graduate School in Keene, NH. In January of 2001 she retired as the assistant commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Corrections where she was responsible for operations within each of the prison facilities and the division of field services. She served as the first warden of the women's prison for five years.
• Grace S. Mattern is the executive director of the NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Her publications include professional articles in the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Voice, NH Bar Journal and Common Ground as wells as poetry and short fiction published in literary journals including Chomo-Uri, Calyx, Spectrum, Poetry Miscellany, Hanging Loose and Granite Review. In 1998, Mattern was the recipient of the Women's Recognition Award from the NH Commission on the Status of Women. In 1995 she received the NH State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in Poetry.
• Maren C. Tirabassi is a poet, liturgical writer, and a pastor of Northwood Congregational Church, U.C.C., in New Hampshire. As well as being poet laureate of Portsmouth, NH, she is the editor of Portsmouth: Unabridged, New Poems for an Old City. She teaches poetry and memoir in schools and prisons and is a respected retreat facilitator and conference and seminar leader helping clergy and laity shape worship in many settings. Her volumes of poetry include, The Depth of Wells and Blessing New Voices: Prayer by Young People and Worship Resources for Youth Ministry.
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