You don’t have to be a member of the Boston Athenæum to enjoy some of its offerings. “Poetry at Noon” presents thirty-minute lunch-hour poetry readings on the first Wednesday of the month freely to the public.
February 3rd, Sam Cornish
Samuel James Cornish grew up in Baltimore, but has lived in Boston for much of his working life. He was a teacher at the Highland Park Community School in Roxbury, and was also active in the “Poetry in the Schools” program in Boston and Cambridge. In the early 1980s, he was the Literature Director of the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities and a Creative Writing Instructor at Emerson College. Among his many awards and achievements are grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Council on the Arts. The author of nine books of poetry and two children’s books, he has been published in many periodicals, including Essence, Ploughshares, the Harvard Review, and the Christian Science Monitor. In 2007 he was chosen to be the first Poet Laureate of Boston.
March 3rd, Robert Farnsworth
Robert Farnsworth has published two collections of poetry with Wesleyan University Press: Three or Four Hills and a Cloud (1982), and Honest Water (1989). His poems have appeared widely in periodicals across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. For seven years he edited poetry for The American Scholar. His most recent book, Rumored Islands, was released in January from Harbor Mountain Press. He was awarded a NEA Fellowship in poetry in 1990, a PEN Discovery citation in 2005, and the poet’s summer residency at the Frost Place in Franconia, NH in 2006. Farnsworth teaches at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he lives with his wife and two sons.
The Boston Athenæum presents Poetry at Noon, a series of readings on the first Wednesday of each month. Readings take place at the Boston Athenæum, 10 ½ Beacon Street on Beacon Hill near the State House. The 30 minute events begin at noon, and are free and open to the public. No reservations are required. For more information, visit bostonathenaeum.org or call (617) 227-0270.
The Athenæum’s first-floor exhibitions are always open to the public. Artist + Poet: George Nama & Charles Simic opens February 10th and runs through April 10th. Selections of Nama’s recent etchings, sculptures, gouaches, and artist’s books inspired by Simic’s poems will be on view.
George Nama. Study for Wonders of the Invisible World and Other Poems, by Charles Simic, 2005. Gouache with black chalk.
