April is when shy, bare legs reemerge into sun and fingers meet condensation on iced coffee drinks. April means new sunglasses, tulips, droplets, outdoor patios and shedding off layers of burdensome clothing.
Thus, in the midst of rejuvenation and childish delight at birdsong, it’s no surprise that April has been deemed National Poetry Month. For the entire month, poets engage in readings, book releases, and an overall celebration of the past and present of a rich cultural tradition, according to Poets.org.
DU students and faculty are participating in big and small ways to support and celebrate National Poetry Month on campus.
Founded in 2011, DU’s slam Poetry Club will be performing on campus Thursday, April 11 at Poetic Injustice, a slam event featuring spoken word artist and political activist Remi Kanazi. Kanazi is a New York City based spoken word artist, published poet and activist. This event, hosted by DU Students for Justice in Palestine, is at 7:00 p.m. in Craig Hall.
Performing on a regular basis at the Mercury Café as well as at Café Nuba and Crossroads Theatre, club president Jose Guerrero, a junior from Denver studying sociology, describes the goals of slam poetry.
“Slam poetry is a style of poetry where poets compete with each other for the highest scores,” Guerrero said. “We are a group of students seeking to provide DU students with a constant open mic where they can express themselves artistically in an environment where they feel safe.”
However, it’s not just students who are familiar with the value and art of poetry. Ranked number one among Creative Writing doctoral programs, DU’s PhD Creative Writing program is home to a plethora of celebrated poets including Bin Ramke, Eleni Sikelianos and Graham Foust, all of which have had their work published in the “New Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry,” and who will be doing readings throughout April.
“I think [Poetry Month] really does bring focus to poetry,” said Sikelianos, who has received numerous awards for her poetry including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship and residencies at multiple prestigious universities. “People remember that poetry has potency and is actually very meaningful in terms of how we live.”
Sikelianos’ new book, entitled “The Loving Detail of the Living & the Dead,” will be released this month, after which she and Ramke will be reading together at the Tattered Cover at 2526 E. Colfax Ave. on April 12 at 7:30 p.m. in honor of Poetry month. Ramke will read from and sign copies of his most recent poetry book, “Aerial.” Foust’s new poetry book “To Anacreon in Heaven and Other Poems” also came out April 1, in honor of Poetry month.
“Poetry helps us pay attention to the world as well as to the inner workings of the psyche and imagination. It is always about the play between the self and the world,” Sikelianos said.
Other events on campus in honor of Poetry month include poet and critic Rachel Blau DuPlessis who will be speaking on April 10 at 4 p.m. about her work “Drafts” in Sturm 281 and the medieval poetics scholar Zygmunt Baranski is giving a lecture called “Dante: Poetry and Reflection on Poetry” on April 15 and April 22 at 6:30 in Sturm 281.
Celebrate National Poetry Month at DU by attending poetry events on campus, distributing pocket poems to fellow students, waxing poetic under one of the many arboretum trees, or even venturing off campus to a reading at the Tattered Cover or Mercury Cafe.
Poets.org, a site hosted by the Academy of American Poets, offers suggestions of 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month. This can be viewed at http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/94.
