Restoring the Walt Whitman Neighborhood in New Jersey

Whitman's home is second from the left on the busy street now-named Martin Luther King Blvd.

I was glad to see a recent article about Walt Whitman's home (a National Historic Landmark) in Camden, New Jersey. It is still there, but the home and the surrounding neighborhood have needed some work.  A $895,730 contract for design work was awarded this month by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, which owns the structures, to upgrade this historical, literary, and architectural gem.

The Walt Whitman Association is an all-volunteer association that goes back to friends and fans who knew and supported Whitman and his work during his lifetime. The organization has encouraged Whitman studies and promoting the house for the past hundred years. The association diligently lobbied for the “Whitman’s neighborhood” project.

The new plans call for the exteriors of the three houses, including the former home of noted architect Stephen Decatur Button at #332, to be restored to their original appearance. The three interiors are to be re-purposed as exhibit areas and other facilities for visitor and educational programs, as well as association and state park offices.

Whitman bought the house in 1884 and lived there until his death in 1892.

Whitman's surprisingly grand tomb is also in Camden.

The Mickle Street home and its neighbors - other adjoining homes have since been demolished. Image Library of Congress, 1890

Camden & Mickle Street History

A Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Dodge Poetry Festival

The Warren County Community College in New Jersey presents "A Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Dodge Poetry Festival."

This free event will be on Saturday, October 21, 2017 at Warren County Community College (475 Route 57 West, Washington, NJ 07882)

Poets and panelists include Martin Farawell (Director of the Dodge Poetry Program), Laura Boss, Kenneth Hart, Susan Jackson, Charles H. Johnson, Tina Kelley, Diane Lockward, John McDermott, Peter E. Murphy, Khalil Murrell, Priscilla Orr, Joe Weil, Gretna Wilkinson and Sander Zulauf.

The program will run from 12 noon through 4:30 pm.

12 to 12:45     Panel Discussions
1:00 to 2:15    Poetry Sampler: The Dodge Festival Poets
2:30 to 3:00    Poems by Martin Farawell
3:00 to 3:45    Favorite Poems by Others, as read by Dodge Poets
4:00 to 4:30    Favorite Poems from the First 30 Years of the Dodge Main Stage, as read by Martin Farawell

For directions to the college: warren.edu
For information, please contact BJ Ward

8th Biennial Warren County Poetry Festival in New Jersey September 28

The 8th Biennial Warren County Poetry Festival is a free one day event that will be held September 28, 2013 with a theme of "Blues Poetics: Working-Class Roots and Rhythms in Poetry."

The Festival is held every two years, and has won two Citation of Excellence from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. It features workshops, panel discussions, book signings, and open mic sessions.

The festival is held on the campus of the Blair Academy, in Blairstown, NJ.

The 2013 Featured Poets are Roger Bonair-Agard, Nick Flynn and Joy Harjo.

Roger Bonair-Agard is a veteran of the spoken-word scene and a two-time National Poetry Slam Champion. He is the author of Tarnish and Masquerade, co-author of Burning Down the House, GULLY and Bury My Clothes. Roger moved to the United States from his native Trinidad and Tobago in 1987.
books by Roger Bonair-Agard 

  Nick Flynn has worked as a ship's captain, an electrician, and as a case-worker with homeless adults. He is also the award-winning author of Some Ether, Blind Huber, The Ticking is the Bomb and Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Award. His most recent book is The Reenactments. He divides his time between Texas, where he teaches at the University of Houston, and Brooklyn, New York.         books by Nick Flynn

Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. 

 Her seven books of poetry include How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, and She Had Some Horses. For A Girl Becoming, a young adult/coming of age book, was released in 2009. She has also released four award-winning CD's of original music and in 2009 won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year for Winding Through the Milky Way. She performs nationally and internationally with her band, the Arrow Dynamics. 
  books and music by Joy Harjo

Other poets reading and participating in the day's workshops and panel discussion include: James Arthur,  Laura Boss, Martin Farawell, Maria Mazziotti Gillan,  Jim Haba, Leslie Heywood and Joe Weil.

For the festival schedule, directions and more about the poets, see http://poetsonline.org/wcpf/

Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway 2013

 

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
and Murphy Writing Seminars Present
The 20th Annual WINTER POETRY & PROSE GETAWAY

January 18-21, 2013

With Special Guests Stephen Dunn & Dorianne Laux

Get away to write at the Stockton Seaview Hotel (Galloway, NJ) to advance your craft and energize your writing. Enjoy challenging and supportive sessions, insightful feedback, and an encouraging community. Choose from small, intensive workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and memoir.

Workshops include:
…Poetry Writing
…Advanced Poetry Writing
…Advanced Poetry Writing with Stephen Dunn
…Advanced Poetry Writing with Dorianne Laux
…Creative Writing Sampler (Fiction, Memoir, Poetry)
…Free-Writing Intensive: A Generative Workshop for All Genres
…Beginning Your Novel
…Finishing Your Novel
…Visions and Revision: Creative Nonfiction & Novel
…Writing and Publishing Your Fiction
…Writing and Publishing Your Fiction - Advanced
…Writing for the YA & Crossover Market
…The Art & Craft of Creative Nonfiction
…The Art & Craft of Creative Nonfiction - Advanced
…Turning Memory into Memoir
…What Matters is Not What Happened: Advanced Memoir
…Song Writing


In addition to your workshop, the weekend offers craft talks, one-on-one tutorials, a featured reading, open mics, yoga, and dancing at the Getaway Disco! Tuition and room packages include most meals.

Apply now for a Scholarship for first-time participants to the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway, January 18-21, 2013, at the Jersey Shore.

The Toni Brown Memorial Scholarship, sponsored by the Getaway faculty and staff, will offer places to two poets or writers age 31 and over. Deadline: Nov.18, 2012

The Jan-ai Scholarship Fund will sponsor two poets or writers between the ages of 18 - 30 who are residents of NJ, NY, or PA. Deadline: Nov. 30, 2012.

Recipients may choose from workshops in Beginning Your Novel, YA, Writing and Publishing Your Fiction, Memoir, Creative Nonfiction, Free-writing, Poetry, including special advanced sections with Stephen Dunn and Dorianne Laux, and more. The three-day conference also offers craft talks, one-on-one tutorials, a featured reading, open mics, yoga, and dancing at the Getaway Disco.

LEARN MORE AND APPLY TODAY - www.wintergetaway.com/scholarship.html

Visit www.wintergetaway.com for workshop descriptions, faculty bios, and registration information.

Follow Murphy Writing Seminars on Facebook

Poetry Heals

Poetry Heals is a program for New Jersey hospitals and healthcare workers across New Jersey to celebrate National Poetry Month in cooperation with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and CavanKerry Press.

Poetry has been shown to be an important tool for healing—both for patients and for caregivers. This new program will support the efforts of hospitals statewide to include poetry in their healing practice and to create new opportunities for healthcare workers and others to experience the power of poetry.

Poetry Heals Workshops will be lead by poets from CavanKerry Press. These workshops will give healthcare workers the chance to create their own poetry as a means of healing themselves and to consider how poetry can be a way to understand the experiences of others. These workshops will take place at Cooper University Hospital, Camden; Morristown Medical Center, Morristown; Newton Medical Center, Newton; Overlook Hospital, Summit; and, UMDNJ, Newark.

These events are being offered as part of Literature and Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care ® a national award-winning reading and discussion program for health care professionals that, as one participant writes, “renews the heart and soul of health care.” Discussions have helped health care professionals across the country improve their communication and interpersonal skills while increasing their cultural awareness, empathy for patients, and job satisfaction.

Afterwards, you feel a loss
like an amputee the morning after the operation
or a newly declawed cat discovering with horror
it can no longer climb trees.
The loss is not all bad. You know, of course,
that you are whole, you try to count
your blessings on your body: ten fingers,
two eyes, also two legs
and a functioning set of organ systems.
As if this should console you!
You preoccupy yourself with it, trying
to restore what is gone...

from "Manic Depressive" - We Mad Climb Shaky Ladders by Pamela Spiro Wagner

A Poetry Retreat Weekend

Join poets Laura Boss and Maria Mazzioti Gillan on Friday, June 8 through Sunday, June 10, 2012 (Friday dinner through Sunday lunch) at the St. Marguerite's Retreat House in Mendham, NJ for a poetry retreat that gives writers the space and time to focus totally on their own work in a serene and beautiful setting away from the pressures and distractions of daily life.

This writing intensive is open to all writers over the age of 18.

Saint Marguerite’s Retreat House is an English manor house situated on 93 acres of wooded land with pathways that lend themselves to the serene contemplation of nature and nurturing of your creative spirit. The Retreat House is located at the convent of Saint John the Baptist, 82 West Main Street, Mendham, NJ.

Participants arrive before 6 PM on Friday evening, have dinner, settle into their rooms, and begin to retreat from the distractions of the world.

That evening, participants will be led into creating new work. After each workshop, each participant will have the opportunity to read their work in the group.

After Saturday breakfast, participants will move into two groups for morning workshops, followed by free time for socializing and exploring the grounds.

After lunch, writing workshops will take place, followed by time to write. Each participant will have a chance to sign up in advance with Maria or Laura for one-on-one help with revision.

After dinner on Saturday evening, participants will be invited to read their poems to the groups, and the faculty will lead another workshop session on how to get published.

After Sunday breakfast, a final writing workshop and concluding reading by participants will serve as the “closing ceremony” to this inspiring and productive weekend. Lunch will provide a final opportunity for socializing.

The leaders envision this weekend as a retreat from the noise and bustle of daily life and see this retreat as a spiritual and creative break from our usual lives. The setting certainly allows us to take some time to look at life in a new light, to listen for our own voices, and to create in stillness, in quiet, and in community. These are times of contemplation and welcoming the muse.

The workshops will concentrate on "writing your way home" and the way writing can save us, save our stories and our lives. Participants should bring papers, pens, and the willingness to take some risks. Please also bring previously-written work for one-on-one sessions and for the readings.

The workshops, room, and meals are all included in the fee of $375.
Late registration will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Enrollment is limited.
NJ teachers may receive 15 professional development credits for attending.

For further information and to register, contact mariagillan@verizon.net or send SASE to Maria Mazziotti Gillan, 40 Post Ave., Hawthorne, NJ  07506 or call  973-684-6555.


Selected Books by the Poets

7th Biennial Warren County Poetry Festival This Weekend

The 7th Biennial Warren County Poetry Festival is a free event to be held on Saturday, September 24, 2011. The festival is held on the campus of the Blair Academy, in Blairstown, New Jersey.

Featured poets this year include: Toi Derricotte, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, Jim Haba, Sander Zulauf, Martin Farawell, Stanley Barkan, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Lyn Lifshin, Joe Weil, and Laura Boss, who is also the Festival Artistic Director.


The Festival will feature workshops, panel discussions, book signings, and open mic sessions.

Autumn Haiku Workshop (NJ)

We will be offering a another free haiku workshop next month in New Jersey. Our last workshop celebrated the start of summer and this next one will focus on autumn.

The autumn haiku workshop with Ken Ronkowitz is on both reading and writing haiku, that best known (and misunderstood?) form of Japanese verse. It will be held Saturday, October 8, 2011.

Though many Westerners associate haiku with early lessons on writing poetry as a child, the form dates back more than 300 years and is considered very serious poetry in the East.

Haiku consists of non-rhyming verses that frequently use nature and seasonal themes that aim to evoke vivid mental pictures and stir strong emotions in readers.

It is a form that has connections to other mediums of expression, aesthetics and Zen culture.

In the workshop, we will read and discuss the history of haiku, how it is composed in English and then compose and share our own haiku.


Our host location for this workshop is the Ringwood Public Library (New Jersey).

• The Essential Haiku
• The Sound of Water: Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Other Poets
• Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide
• The Haiku Handbook - How to Write, Teach, and Appreciate Haiku

Haiku Workshop in NJ June 25

Poets Online is sponsoring a free haiku workshop this Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 7:00pm in North Plainfield, New Jersey. This free workshop will be conducted by Ken Ronkowitz.

Though many Westerners associate haiku with early lessons on writing poetry as a child, the form dates back more than 300 years and is considered very serious poetry in the East. Haiku consists of non-rhyming verses that frequently use nature themes and aim to evoke vivid mental pictures and stir strong emotions in readers.

We will discuss what is haiku and how it is composed in English, look at related forms, and examine the connections to other mediums of expression, aesthetics and Zen culture.

The host, Organigaya Cafe, will serve organic Japanese fare prior to the workshop, so arrive early and enjoy a great meal before the workshop begins. Free cup of  House Green Tea to all attendees.

Organigaya Cafe, 478 Somerset Street, North Plainfield, New Jersey - organigaya.com 

Suggested Haiku Reading

• The Essential Haiku
• The Sound of Water: Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Other Poets
• Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide
• The Haiku Handbook -25th Anniversary Edition: How to Write, Teach, and Appreciate HaikuThe Haiku Handbook - How to Write, Teach, and Appreciate Haiku

Poets Online Haiku Workshop June 25

Poets Online will sponsor a Haiku Workshop on Saturday, June 25, at 7:00pm in North Plainfield, New Jersey.

This is a free workshop with Ken Ronkowitz on both reading and writing haiku, a form of Japanese verse.

Though many Westerners associate haiku with early lessons on writing poetry as a child, the form dates back more than 300 years and is considered very serious poetry in the East. Haiku consists of non-rhyming verses that frequently use nature themes and aim to evoke vivid mental pictures and stir strong emotions in readers.

We will discuss what is haiku and how it is composed in English, look at related forms, and examine the connections to other mediums of expression, aesthetics and Zen culture.


The host, Organigaya Cafe, will serve organic Japanese fare prior to the workshop, so arrive early and enjoy a great meal before the workshop begins. Free cup of House Green Tea to all attendees.

Organigaya Cafe

478 Somerset St

North Plainfield, New Jersey

information at http://organigaya.com

The event is also on Facebook.



The Essential Haiku


The Sound of Water: Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Other Poets


Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide