| | Event: | Poetry Rocks Vernon | | Date: | February 18th, 2024.
| | Time: | 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM | | Location: | Arts Center East, 709 Hartford Turnpike, Vernon, CT 06066 | | Contact: | Pegi Deitz Shea, pegideitzshea@aol.com | | Website: | https://artscentereast.org | This quarterly reading series, now in its 8th year, celebrates Connecticut's diverse voices. We begin with a poet from Rockville High School's award-winning creative writing program, then feature published poets from around the state. The afternoon ends with an open mike, refreshments and book signing.
Featured poets: Nadia Sims of Manchester; Barb Jennes, Poet Laureate Emerita of Ridgefield; and Nzima Hutchings, Poet Laureate of Enfield, and Rockville High's Athena Lavigne.
Athena Lavigne, a junior at Rockville High School, was an apprentice at the Nook Farms Writing Collaborative, and a Fresh Voices finalist. She’s published in the Poetry Ourselves Anthology, and has a published platinum piece in the Connecticut Student Writer magazine. Athena also won a gold key in the Scholastic Art and Writing competition.
Nzima Sherylle Hutchings, Enfield’s new Poet Laureate, is CEO and organizer of the annual Hartford L.I.T. Festival, which draws hundreds of writers and readers. Her latest books are Belly Screams, Flowers and Holes, and a poetry/journal titled My Color Purple Voice. Hutchings is a Community Advisor for the Greater Hartford Family Advocacy Center, and a 2020 “100 Women of Color” honoree. She founded and runs the “Literary Wellness” company, Every Kinda Lady, to teach women how to use expressive writing to overcome challenges and trauma.
Go to: https://www.everykindalady.com.
B. Fulton Jennes is Poet Laureate Emerita of Ridgefield, and founder and director of the monthly reading series, Poems From CT’s Four Corners. Her collection Blinded Birds received the 2022 International Book Award for a poetry chapbook. Another chapbook, FLOWN—an elegy for her late sister—will be published by Porkbelly Press in 2024. Jennes is a multiple-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her poems have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies, including CALYX, Comstock Review, Rust and Moth, SWWIM, and Tupelo Quarterly. In 2022, Jennes’ poem “Glyphs of a Gentle Going” won the Lascaux Prize; another poem, “Father to Son,” won the 2023 New Millennium Award
Nadia Sims, Manchester’s new Poet Laureate, is the author of A Soft Place to Land and We Know the Dark. Her spoken word album, "The Weight of Grace," is available everywhere. The Princeton graduate is spreading her message of grace across CT, NY and MA, and on Instagram at tru_simszyyy.
Thank you to Rockville Public Library and private donors
for supporting our fabulous literary stars! And to Arts Center East for the beautiful reading space.
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