The twentieth annual Plunkett Maine Poetry Competition on the College of Maine at Augusta is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, April 29, on the Susan and Barry Farber Discussion board, 46 College Drive. Doorways open at 6:30 p.m.
The occasion options Reginald Dwayne Betts, the 2021 MacArthur Fellow and an award-winning writer, poet, lawyer and outspoken advocate for legal justice reform as its keynote poet.
The participation of Betts, in addition to different pageant programming, will join the Plunkett poetry pageant to UMA’s educational theme, Race and Social Justice. This occasion is free and open to the general public, however registration is required at uma.edu.
The pageant additionally will supply a poetry workshop on Friday, April 8, a panel dialogue on Friday, April 22, and an in-person keynote tackle by Betts on April 29.
Betts’ most up-to-date work is essentially involved with results of incarceration, together with homelessness, drug abuse and home violence, in addition to fatherhood and the chances of grace and love. As a person who skilled the legal justice system as an adolescent and remodeled his life upon his launch, Betts has lived a life that speaks to redemption, attending regulation faculty and dealing in public protection and advocacy, in keeping with a information launch from the college.
A poetry workshop with Maine Poet Laureate Julia Bouwsma is about for 4-5:30 p.m. April 8 through Zoom. This occasion might be restricted to fifteen members. These involved in taking part within the workshop can e mail Ellen Taylor at [email protected] for particulars.
Bouwsma is the sixth Poet Laureate of Maine and an off-the-grid homesteader, poet, librarian, editor and trainer. Bouwsma is the writer of two poetry collections, “Midden” and “Work by Bloodlight.” Honors she has obtained embody the 2019 and 2018 Maine Literary Awards for Poetry E-book, the 2016-17 Poets Out Loud Prize, and the 2015 Cider Press Evaluation E-book Award. She is director of Webster Library in Kingfield, and teaches within the artistic writing division on the College of Maine at Farmington.
A panel dialogue on Literature and Social Justice will is scheduled from 4 to five:30 p.m. Friday, April 22. Panelists embody Bouwsma; Samaa Abdurraqib, poet and Maine Humanities Council educator; Jaed Coffin, memoirist and essayist; and Joseph Jackson, poet and director of Maine Prisoners Advocacy Coalition.
This occasion might be held through Zoom. These involved in attending ought to register to obtain the webinar hyperlink at uma.edu.
In accordance with College of Maine System COVID-19 protocols in place at the moment, face coverings are required for anybody attending occasions in UMS services.
For extra data, contact Taylor at [email protected] or 207-621-3114.
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