Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center will be back in action with Poetry on the Spot at Saturday’s Mod Shop Handmade Market. Poets from MoSt will write you a poem right there on the spot using words you choose. We’ll be at Mistlin Gallery on J Street between 10th and 11th streets from 2:00 to 8:00 on Saturday, November 26.
Nov 21
MoSt’s Poetry Everywhere Initiative: Getting Poetry Books to Schoolkids
In the nearly ten-year history of the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center it has taken on few projects more ambitious than to donate sets of brand new poetry books to every public school in the county. But that’s exactly what MoSt adopted as a goal about five years ago and has been working to achieve ever since.
“As a small nonprofit, our Poetry Everywhere Initiative is a multi-year project, but so far we have donated books to 47 elementary schools and the library at juvenile hall,” explained MoSt board President Gillian Wegener.
The books chosen for the program offer a rich and diverse sampling of poetry for
younger readers.
“There are no strings attached to this donation,” Ms. Wegener continued. “We believe in the power of poetry to change lives, and we want to share that in all ways possible. By donating books to every school – beginning with elementary schools, we hope that poetry will reach even our youngest community members and help them see the joy and wonder alive in that art form.”
Although the pandemic necessitated an interruption in the program for two years, MoSt redoubled its efforts this year, donating poetry books to 8 schools in the spring, and another 10 schools in November. Altogether, MoSt donated 330 books through the Poetry Everywhere Initiative in 2022 alone.
Kiss Me Like You Voted: Election Night Open Mic
Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, wrote the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1821 in the essay, “A Defence of Poetry.” By this, he meant that poetry reflects the real world and that the poet’s imagination is the faculty which allows us to perceive beauty in the world–thereby helping create civilization itself. Poets are makers of civilization, no less–hence, poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
With this in mind, we invite you to the Election Day installment of the Second Tuesday Poetry series. The November 8 reading is a virtual open mic around the questions: How do we reckon the promise of this country with its violent past and present? How can we love when so much is on the line? How can we NOT love?
Open mic 15 poets max; 3 minutes per person–sign up to read at https://forms.gle/izdLKgzryo1uFzwLA
RSVP for Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYscOqhpjgrGNZ9calCIAyo_9KPb7XWmAy_
MoSt Poetry Book Club
Monday, November 21, 2022 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Stanislaus County Library Makerspace 1500 I Street, Modesto
The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón
Join host Gary Thomas for a discussion of The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón, the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Limón is also the host of the critically-acclaimed poetry podcast, The Slowdown. Her new book of poetry, The Hurting Kind, is out now from Milkweed Editions. She is the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States.
5 copies of the book are available (while they last) to check out at the Modesto Library (1500 I Street.).
An astonishing collection about interconnectedness—between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ourselves—from National Book Critics Circle Award winner, National Book Award finalist, and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.
“I have always been too sensitive, a weeper / from a long line of weepers,” writes Limón. “I am the hurting kind.” What does it mean to be the hurting kind? To be sensitive not only to the world’s pain and joys, but to the meanings that bend in the scrim between the natural world and the human world? To divine the relationships between us all? To perceive ourselves in other beings—and to know that those beings are resolutely their own, that they “do not / care to be seen as symbols”?
“Ada Limón’s sixth and latest collection is a testament to the power of sensitivity. As with her previous award-winning books, The Carrying and Bright Dead Things, these poems are acutely aware of the natural world. And Limón has a knack for acknowledging nature’s little mysteries in order to fully capture its history and abundance. For her, evidence of poetry is everywhere. She connects big ideas – fear, isolation, even death – with little details, like field sparrows, a box of matches or “the body moving / freely.” Above all, The Hurting Kind asks for our attention to stay tender.” NPR, Books We Love
“”Poetry readers have come to expect greatness from Limón, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for the National Book Award, and that is exactly what the author offers in The Hurting Kind. . . . My most brief statement on the quality of this collection is this: If you have space to teach just one book of poetry, make it The Hurting Kind. . . . What Limón manages with The Hurting Kind is rare; the poems are at once highly specific and yet broadly relatable, both technically masterful and easily comprehensible. In sum, this collection works equally well for both the avid poetry enthusiast and the reluctant reader. If I was going to try and convince someone that poetry is our most important verbal art, I would start with The Hurting Kind. . . . The Hurting Kind is a collection that begs to be shared, and one that will inevitably show signs of wear as readers carry it with them for weeks at a time.”—The Poetry Question
Carnegie Poetry on Saturday Series 2:00 p.m. November 19, 2022 featuring Bryan Medina & Linda Scheller
Please join us Saturday, November 19, 2022 at Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock, CA from 2:00-3:00 p.m. for a poetry reading by Bryan Medina and Linda Scheller with an open mic following the featured poets. This event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be provided.
S. Bryan Medina is a former student of U. S. poet laureate emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera, and his poetry has graced stages in the San Francisco Bay
Area, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Kansas City. He founded both the Inner Ear Open Mic and the Beat Down Slam as a way to free poetry from the confines of academic institutions, making it accessible to all. Medina, a long-time art activist, has been awarded two City of Fresno Commendations, including the 2014 Fresno Arts Council Horizon Award, for contributions to the rich artistic and cultural heritage in Fresno. He is the author of More than Soil, Less than Sand and his work has appeared in journals such as Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets, In the Grove, The San Joaquin Review, Jubilee, and Invisible Memoirs, among others. In 2017 Medina was named Fresno County’s third Poet Laureate, serving a distinguished two-year term reaching out to the community featuring readings, school and university visits, writing workshops, and meetings with business and political leaders throughout the state of California. Medina is a Desert Storm/Gulf War veteran and a graduate of Fresno Pacific University.
Area, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Kansas City. He founded both the Inner Ear Open Mic and the Beat Down Slam as a way to free poetry from the confines of academic institutions, making it accessible to all. Medina, a long-time art activist, has been awarded two City of Fresno Commendations, including the 2014 Fresno Arts Council Horizon Award, for contributions to the rich artistic and cultural heritage in Fresno. He is the author of More than Soil, Less than Sand and his work has appeared in journals such as Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets, In the Grove, The San Joaquin Review, Jubilee, and Invisible Memoirs, among others. In 2017 Medina was named Fresno County’s third Poet Laureate, serving a distinguished two-year term reaching out to the community featuring readings, school and university visits, writing workshops, and meetings with business and political leaders throughout the state of California. Medina is a Desert Storm/Gulf War veteran and a graduate of Fresno Pacific University. Linda Scheller is a retired public elementary school teacher and the author of two books of poetry, Fierce
Light (FutureCycle Press, 2017) and Wind & Children (Main Street Rag, 2022) as well as a chapbook, Halcyon. Her poetry, plays, and book reviews are widely published in journals and anthologies including Colorado Review, Arkana, Gyroscope Review, Plays, On the Seawall, Sugar House Review, Poetry East, and The Wild Word. She volunteers as a programmer for KCBP Community Radio, tutors adults in literacy and English language acquisition, and serves on the boards of MoSt Poetry and the Stanislaus County Arts Council. Ms. Scheller is a member of the Modesto Chapter of the National League of American Pen Women and sings with Modesto Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Her website is lindascheller.com.