In the News: Ryan Martin selected 'Celtics Junior Broadcaster'; Grave search for America's first published poet

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

Ryan Martin selected 'Celtics Junior Broadcaster'

"Like many 14-year-old boys, Ryan Martin enjoys playing baseball and basketball. But unlike some of his peers, he already knows what he wants to do when he can’t play sports anymore. 

Ryan aspires to be a sports broadcaster, and earlier this month he got a taste of what his adult working life might look like. He was selected as a “Celtics Junior Broadcaster” after submitting a short video of himself to the NBA team, and his reward was to join the radio and TV crews for a March 14 Celtics game against the Sacramento Kings at TD Garden. 

Ryan was interviewed on air by NBC Sports Boston anchor/reporter Kyle Draper. He also joined Celtics commentator Sean Grande of 98.5 The Sports Hub for the radio station’s halftime show. 

“That night was truly unbelievable,” Ryan told the Daily News last week. “Just seeing the Celtics shooting around and being three inches away from (players) Al Horford and Aron Baynes. It was really a great experience.”

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20190328/franklins-ryan-martin-14-joins-celtics-as-junior-broadcaster

Grave search for America's first published poet

"Anne Bradstreet was the North American continent’s first published poet, yet her legacy has largely been lost to time. 

Now, professors and students at Merrimack College in Massachusetts are trying to pinpoint her burial site while at the same time restoring her legacy and what they say is her rightful place in the pantheon of Western literature. 

“Even though we don’t know much about her, she was a household name in the 17th century, both here and in England,” said Christy Pottroff, an assistant professor of English at Merrimack. 

Bradstreet’s 1650 book of poetry, “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America,” was a sensation both in the Colonies and in her native England, where people were fascinated by her accounts of everyday life in the New World."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20190327/search-on-for-burial-site-of-americas-first-published-poet

The Poetry Foundation has additional material on Anne and her poetry
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-bradstreet

Poetry Foundation photo of Anne Bradstreet

Mass Poetry: Poetry for a New Year

View this email in your browser Dear Friend of Mass Poetry – New Year's Resolutions come in many stripes; here at Mass Poetry we're resolved to double our reach in 2019. But to do that, we need your help. In 2018, we put poetry in front of more New Englanders than ever before: ·      With our "Poetry on the T" program, tens of thousands of Bostonians encountered a poem on their commute, while riding the T; ·      More than 4,000 middle school and high school students across the state of Massachusetts participated in one of our "Student Day of Poetry" events – for many of those students it was their first encounter with poetry; ·      "Raining Poetry" (if you haven't watched the video – more than 24 million views! – watch it now) surprised people all over the Boston metro area by revealing poetry on the sidewalk – but only when it rains; https://www.facebook.com/NewYorkMag/videos/10154210845129826/ ·      Thousands of people from across New England attended our Poetry Festival this past year in Salem; ·      Hundreds of classrooms and book groups used our Common Threads poetry guide to celebrate National Poetry Month; ·      Our Spring Showers poetry installation at the Prudential Center in Boston brought poetry to a whole new audience. But our aspirations for 2019 are even greater. Why? Because words matter. In our increasingly connected-but-distant world, poetry captures a kind of magic that makes the moment sing. Bringing poetry to all kinds of communities around Massachusetts is the purpose of Mass Poetry – and your contribution, no matter how modest, makes a difference. With your help, we can double our reach in 2019. Please give today. Thank you for everything you do for poetry – Nicco Mele P.S. Please give – every dollar counts If you love the work we do to support poets and spread the power of poetry to students, T riders, and more, please consider supporting us with a recurring monthly donation. Donate Now Copyright © *2017* *Mass Poetry*, All rights reserved.

Library of Congress: Poet Laureate Launches "The Slowdown"

U.S. Poet Laureate Brings Poetry to Podcast and Radio with 'The Slowdown' U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will soon bring the power of poetry to listeners across the globe as host of a weekday podcast and radio feature titled "The Slowdown." "The show will debut on podcast platforms in November; it will be made available to public radio stations nationwide early next year." Click here for more information https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-18-126/?loclr=ealn.

Join us at the 10th Mass Poetry Festival

View this email in your browser It's Time to Plan Your Festival Weekend! Make a schedule. Buy buttons. Join our Headline Poets Sonia Sanchez · Kaveh Akbar · Duy Doan  Jeffrey Harrison · Dorianne Laux · Erika Meitner Carl Phillips · Nicole Sealey Sean Thomas Dougherty · Rhina P. Espaillat A Letter from the Festival Director Has it been 10 years, already? Yes, it has -- and the Massachusetts Poetry Festival is back again with 10 nationally recognized, and award-winning poets headlining three days and nearly 100 different programs, including poetry readings, workshops, music, and more. Meet with poets, writers, and publishers at our small press and literary fair, or engage them in conversation at one of many sessions held throughout the weekend. Surround yourself with what's good—you may be surprised, and you may surprise yourself. Please join us for this special 10th year. Are you a first timer? Never been to Salem? Watch this video to see why Salem loves the Mass Poetry Festival! Raining Poetry for the 2017 Mass Poetry Festival Salamander 25th Anniversary Reading Saturday May 5, 2:00pm-3:00pm, The Bridge at 211 Join Ben Berman, Danielle Legros Georges, and Kelle Groom as they commemorate SALAMANDER's 25th anniversary. Poets on Autism: Hope in the Helicopter Rain Saturday May 5, 12:15pm-1:15pm, PEM Connect BLDG Sean Thomas Dougherty · Kamilah Aisha Moon · Oliver de la Paz As poets, we face the double danger of the sentimental and the exoticization of their disability. This panel will address how do poets negotiate the topic and portraiture of autism. Each panelist will read a small selection of poems that they have written about their own autistic children or siblings, and speak to the difficulties of writing these poems. How do we speak our joys, fears, love in language whose intent is to nurture, to elevate, to challenge, and to sing. Workshops are still available! Be inspired. Try something new. Surprise yourself. We have space available in a variety of workshops. You can generate new work, talk about craft with poets and poetry lovers, or ask that question about poetry you've always wanted to ask.  If you love the work we do to support poets and spread the power of poetry to students, T riders, and more, please consider supporting us with a recurring monthly donation. Donate Now Copyright © *2017* *Mass Poetry*, All rights reserved.

Updated: Readers for "A Favorite Poem Project" - Oct 25

FIVE MORE DAYS! In five more days, on October 25, 2017, My Favorite Poem Project will happen. 

Here's the line-up of readers. 
The order is alphabetical according to the poet.

• A Brave and Startling Truth by Maya Angelou, read by Dr. Dawn Poirier, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Dean College 
• Caged Bird by Maya Angelou, read by students in Horace Mann's sixth grade 
• The Lanyard by Billy Collins, read by Franklin Library Director, Dr. Felicia Oti 
• Poem 341 Hope Is A Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson, read by Horance Mann teacher, Noreen Langmeyer 
• The Calf Path by Sam Foss, read by our Town Administrator, Jeff Nutting 
• Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, read by Franklin Cable TV, Ken Norman 
• The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, read by Jeffrey Roy our State Representative 
• Democracy by Langston Hughes, read by Horace Mann teacher, Joe Corey 
• Go Down Death, by James Weldon Johnson, read by Senior Scribbler, Clarice Cargill
  Untitled—by Barbara Karmelin, read by Senior Scribbler, Barbara Karmelin 
• If, by Rudyard Kipling, read by Jean Burke of the Norfolk Quill Writers' Group 
• Mother Earth's Hair by Charmagne Laprise, read by Senior Scribbler, Charmagne Laprise 
• If Only We Were Taller by Ray Bradbury, read by the Editor for the Country Gazette and Wicked Local Franklin, Heather Swails-McCarron 
• Mr. Macklin's Jack O'Lantern by David McCord, read by Faith Flaherty 
• Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver, read by Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Sara Ahern 
• The Story of the Christmas Guest by Helen Steiner Rice, read by the President of Franklin Interfaith Council, Georgia Sander 
• Sick by Shel Silverstein, read by Franklin High School Principal, Paul Peri 
• I Am by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, read by Horace Mann Principal, Rebecca Motte

A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

If you have a poem you would like to read, please contact Faith Flaherty at faithflaherty@verizon.net

For more information on the Favorite Poem Project  http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html

This was originally posted a while ago

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2017/10/a-favorite-poem-project-oct-25.html

A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

The Franklin Senior Scribblers' Writers' Group is hosting A Favorite Poem Project. It is scheduled for October 25 at 10:00 AM at the Franklin Senior Center.

My Favorite Poem Project is dedicated to celebrating and encouraging poetry's role in the lives of Americans. Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, started the project in 1997. 

He believed that poetry needs to be read aloud. "Reading a poem silently is like staring at a sheet of music." The reader of the poem does not need to be the poet or a skilled performer. "One of the beautiful things about poetry," says Pinsky, "is that the medium is a voice, not necessarily the poet's voice. When you read a poem by Shakespeare, Dickinson or Langston Hughes, your voice is the artist's medium."

Robert Pinsky believed that contrary to stereotype, Americans do read poetry; that the audience for poetry is not limited to professors and college students; and that there are many people for whom particular poems have found profound, personal meaning. This project seeks to give voice to American poetry lovers.

In April 1998, the My Favorite Poem Project was launched with a series of public poetry readings. In Boston, twenty-five Bostonians read their favorite poem. The readers included the President of the Massachusetts State Senate, a homeless Boston resident and a third grader. The audience was packed into the Boston Public Library. The Library President dressed as a cowboy to read a cowboy poem. Some readers recited poems in Spanish, Vietnamese and American Sign Language. As you see, Americans do read poetry.

A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

If you have a poem you would like to read, please contact Faith Flaherty at faithflaherty@verizon.net

For more information on the Favorite Poem Project  http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html

Reminder: A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

The Franklin Senior Scribblers' Writers' Group is hosting A Favorite Poem Project. It is scheduled for October 25 at 10:00 AM at the Franklin Senior Center.

My Favorite Poem Project is dedicated to celebrating and encouraging poetry's role in the lives of Americans. Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, started the project in 1997. 

He believed that poetry needs to be read aloud. "Reading a poem silently is like staring at a sheet of music." The reader of the poem does not need to be the poet or a skilled performer. "One of the beautiful things about poetry," says Pinsky, "is that the medium is a voice, not necessarily the poet's voice. When you read a poem by Shakespeare, Dickinson or Langston Hughes, your voice is the artist's medium."

Robert Pinsky believed that contrary to stereotype, Americans do read poetry; that the audience for poetry is not limited to professors and college students; and that there are many people for whom particular poems have found profound, personal meaning. This project seeks to give voice to American poetry lovers.

In April 1998, the My Favorite Poem Project was launched with a series of public poetry readings. In Boston, twenty-five Bostonians read their favorite poem. The readers included the President of the Massachusetts State Senate, a homeless Boston resident and a third grader. The audience was packed into the Boston Public Library. The Library President dressed as a cowboy to read a cowboy poem. Some readers recited poems in Spanish, Vietnamese and American Sign Language. As you see, Americans do read poetry.

A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

For more information on the Favorite Poem Project  http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html

A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

The Franklin Senior Scribblers' Writers' Group is hosting A Favorite Poem Project. It is scheduled for October 25 at 10:00 AM at the Franklin Senior Center.

My Favorite Poem Project is dedicated to celebrating and encouraging poetry's role in the lives of Americans. Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, started the project in 1997. 

He believed that poetry needs to be read aloud. "Reading a poem silently is like staring at a sheet of music." The reader of the poem does not need to be the poet or a skilled performer. "One of the beautiful things about poetry," says Pinsky, "is that the medium is a voice, not necessarily the poet's voice. When you read a poem by Shakespeare, Dickinson or Langston Hughes, your voice is the artist's medium."

Robert Pinsky believed that contrary to stereotype, Americans do read poetry; that the audience for poetry is not limited to professors and college students; and that there are many people for whom particular poems have found profound, personal meaning. This project seeks to give voice to American poetry lovers.

In April 1998, the My Favorite Poem Project was launched with a series of public poetry readings. In Boston, twenty-five Bostonians read their favorite poem. The readers included the President of the Massachusetts State Senate, a homeless Boston resident and a third grader. The audience was packed into the Boston Public Library. The Library President dressed as a cowboy to read a cowboy poem. Some readers recited poems in Spanish, Vietnamese and American Sign Language. As you see, Americans do read poetry.

A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

If you have a poem you would like to read, please contact Faith Flaherty at faithflaherty@verizon.net

For more information on the Favorite Poem Project  http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html

A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

The Franklin Senior Scribblers' Writers' Group is hosting A Favorite Poem Project. It is scheduled for October 25 at 10:00 AM at the Franklin Senior Center.

My Favorite Poem Project is dedicated to celebrating and encouraging poetry's role in the lives of Americans. Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, started the project in 1997. 

He believed that poetry needs to be read aloud. "Reading a poem silently is like staring at a sheet of music." The reader of the poem does not need to be the poet or a skilled performer. "One of the beautiful things about poetry," says Pinsky, "is that the medium is a voice, not necessarily the poet's voice. When you read a poem by Shakespeare, Dickinson or Langston Hughes, your voice is the artist's medium."

Robert Pinsky believed that contrary to stereotype, Americans do read poetry; that the audience for poetry is not limited to professors and college students; and that there are many people for whom particular poems have found profound, personal meaning. This project seeks to give voice to American poetry lovers.

In April 1998, the My Favorite Poem Project was launched with a series of public poetry readings. In Boston, twenty-five Bostonians read their favorite poem. The readers included the President of the Massachusetts State Senate, a homeless Boston resident and a third grader. The audience was packed into the Boston Public Library. The Library President dressed as a cowboy to read a cowboy poem. Some readers recited poems in Spanish, Vietnamese and American Sign Language. As you see, Americans do read poetry.

A Favorite Poem Project - Oct 25

If you have a poem you would like to read, please contact Faith Flaherty at faithflaherty@verizon.net

For more information on the Favorite Poem Project  http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html