POETS TO DISCUSS INFLUENCE OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS ON MODERN WRITERS
—Series of readings to be held at Ben Shahn Galleries in conjunction with current exhibit based on Williams’ epic poem Paterson
Three contemporary poets will explore the various themes of Paterson, the epic poem by the modern American poet and Rutherford native William Carlos Williams, during a series of readings in the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University in Wayne during September and October.
The Fall Poetry Programs are offered in conjunction with the Ben Shahn Galleries exhibit, “Paterson: The Provence of the Poem/The City as Metaphor,” which features drawings, paintings, sculpture and photography by 14 artists who celebrate themes found in Williams’ five-volume modern masterpiece, which is considered a poetic monument to, and personification of, the city of Paterson.
David Shapiro, a poet and William Paterson professor of art, will give the first talk on Tuesday, September 29, at 11 a.m. August Kleinzahler, recipient of the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for his recent book Sleeping It Off in Rapid City, will speak on Tuesday, October 6, also at 11 a.m. Ron Padgett, a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and the recipient of numerous awards and grants, rounds out the series on Wednesday, October 14, at 2 p.m. All the programs are free and open to the public.
“William Carlos Williams was known as a keen observer of the everyday and of spoken language, and understood how the changing, fast-paced, modern world influenced people’s communication,” says Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the Ben Shahn Galleries, curator of the exhibit, and coordinator of the poetry series. “Each of these three poets will discuss the development of this particularly American approach to language, the fresh, raw idiom that has grown from the modern American culture, and the ways it is found in poetry today.”
Shapiro, who was born in Newark, joined the William Paterson faculty in 1981. The author of more than a dozen books of poetry, Shapiro also wrote the first monograph on John Ashbery, and books on Jim Dine’s paintings, Piet Mondrian’s flower studies, and Jasper Johns’ drawings. He has translated Rafael Alberti’s poems on Pablo Picasso, and the writings of Sonia and Robert Delaunay. Shapiro won National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and was nominated for a National Book Award.
Kleinzahler is the author of ten books of poetry including Sleeping It Off in Rapid City, which was awarded the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, and The Strange Hours Travelers Keep, winner of the 2004 International Griffin Poetry Prize. Born in Jersey City and raised in Fort Lee, Kleinzahler commuted to the Horace Mann School in the Bronx where William Carlos Williams had been a student some 60 years earlier. For many years, he has lived in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco but has retained strong ties to his old home base in New Jersey. Kleinzahler was named the first poet laureate of Fort Lee in 2005.
Padgett was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and graduated from Columbia University, where he studied under, among other poets, Kenneth Koch. He later spent a year in Paris on a Fulbright Fellowship where he studied French literature. His first collection of poems, Bean Spasms, written with Ted Berrigan, was published in 1967. He has since published several books of poetry, including How to Be Perfect and You Never Know, and was the editor-in-chief of World Poets, a three-volume reference book. The recipient of grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, Padgett served as the publications director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative for 20 years. He was elected as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2008.
This program is made possible in part by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a State partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Ben Shahn Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. For additional information, please call the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University, 973-720-2654. # # #
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September 22, 2009
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