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8th Annual Tennessee Poets Day
Celebrate the 8th Annual Tennessee Poets Day on April 27, 2024, with the Williamson County Public Library System.
(Franklin, TN) – Calling all poetry enthusiasts and aspiring poets! Join the fun at the 8th Annual Tennessee Poets Day event on April 27, 2024, organized by Poets from the Neighborhood (PFTN), and held at the Williamson County Public Library. This free, all-ages event is sure to inspire!
The event kicks off at 10 a.m. with a welcome from TN Poets Day founder, Dr. Veera Rajaratnam, followed by keynote speaker, Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson. Share your own poetic musings during open-mic sessions at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Hear lecturers: Tennessee Poet Laureate Margaret Vaughn, renowned poets Jeff Hardin, JoyPoet Veeraja R., David Harris, Annette Sisson, Henry L. Jones, and others. Enjoy song performances by award-winning singer and poet Kathryn Adams. The authors’ book signings at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. will be the perfect addition to your poetry experience.
Come by to gather inspiration, meet poets, and enjoy some literary entertainment!
The Williamson County Public Library System’s Main Library is located in downtown Franklin at 1314 Columbia Avenue. For more information about library programs or services, call (615) 595-1243 or visit wcpltn.org. Sign up to receive library events and announcements via email by visiting: https://bit.ly/WCPLSenews. The library can also be found on Facebook, Instagram, and X via @wcpltn.
📜Tennessee Poets Day at WCPL
Join the Poets from the Neighborhood for their Sixth Annual Tennessee Poets Day –
The onsite celebration will be on April 30, Saturday at the Williamson County Public Library (WCPL – Main Branch) in Franklin, TN. The event runs from 10a-3p in the meeting room on the first floor of the Library. This annual National Poetry Month Celebration features the PFTN Awards, open-mic poetry, keynote poetry by Jeff Hardin, authors’ books signings, plus poetry and songwriting with Tennessee Poet Laureate Margaret B. Vaughn. Please visit the PFTN site for detailed information; a schedule of events and speakers.
WCTV will be on-site to record the event.
All library programs are free and open to the public. Learn more about this event or other library programs and services by calling the library at 615-595-1243, extension 1, or by visiting the library’s website at http://wcpltn.org.
Please be aware that photos, screenshots, and videos may be taken at library events and activities for library use and publicity. Anyone not wanting to have their photo taken should notify library staff at the time of the event or activity.
Billy Collins, “the most popular poet in America”
by Chelsea Bennett, Reference Department
“Billy Collins” by Marcelo Noah, 2007
Whether you’re someone who reads a sonnet a day, or one who cringes even at a love poem from your sweetheart – what I mean is, whether you are someone who likes poetry or not –, I submit the works of poet Billy Collins for your consideration.
Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. An only child, he grew up with a mother who could recite poems for every situation, and a father born to immigrants from Ireland (that nation of poets, itself). He has spent his career in universities, on stage with popular artists such as Paul Simon and Aimee Mann, teaching workshops at home and abroad, and contributing to magazines and radio shows.
Collins served as US Poet Laureate from 2001 – 2003, and New York State Poet Laureate from 2004 – 2006. He has been continually recognized and awarded throughout his decades-long career. He gives sold-out poetry readings to crowds of people. In short, he is probably “the most popular poet in America,” as Bruce Weber wrote for The New York Times.
The words of his contemporaries help explain why Billy Collins’ poetry resonates with so many people. Poet and critic Michael Donaghy describes him as a “rare amalgam of accessibility and intelligence.” (Collins says of himself that he is “reader conscious,” and tries to “create a hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem.”) Of Collins, fellow poet John Taylor says: “Rarely has anyone written poems that appear so transparent on the surface yet become so ambiguous, thought-provoking, or simply wise once the reader has peered into the depths.” And poet Stephen Dunn elaborates: “We seem to always know where we are in a Billy Collins poem, but not necessarily where he is going. I love to arrive with him at his arrivals. He doesn’t hide things from us, as I think lesser poets do. He allows us to overhear, clearly, what he himself has discovered.”
But it’s best to discover how you feel about Collins’ poetry for yourself. Many of his poems are available online. Here are some I like:
- “Aimless Love” (2002) – https://gratefulness.org/resource/aimless-love/
- “Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant” (2007) – http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2007/08/471-old-man-eating-alone-in-chinese.html
- “The First Night” (2008) – https://poets.org/poem/first-night
- “Litany” (2002), recited beautifully by a three-year-old boy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVu4Me_n91Y
And, of course, we have several books of Billy Collins’ poetry available at the Williamson County Public Library. You can place a hold on one from within your library account (go to wcpltn.org and click on “My Account”), or just come browse the poetry section upstairs in the nonfiction stacks at the Main branch in Franklin.
Poetry collections by Billy Collins at the WCPL:
- Nine Horses: Poems (2002)
- The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems (2005)
- Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems (2011)
- Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (2013)
- The Rain in Portugal: Poems (2016)
- Whale Day: and Other Poems (2020)
References:
Spotlight on Poetry Month: Maya Angelou
Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928, Maya Angelou was one of America’s most famous and celebrated poets, an author and a civil rights activist. She was the Northern Coordinator for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Some may not know that she was also a San Francisco streetcar conductor, singer, dancer, actress, composer, playwright and director.
As a natural storyteller and performer, Angelou’s poetry benefited from her recitation of it. Her poetry focuses on personal narrative and themes such as hardship, oppression and loss, as well as the resiliency and beauty of African American women. “Once I got into it I realized I was following a tradition established by Frederick Douglass—the slave narrative—speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning ‘we.’” Angelou told George Plimpton in an interview.
She is the first woman to be featured on a series of quarters called the American Women Quarters Program issued by the U.S. Mint. She was awarded over 50 honorary degrees before her death in 2014 and was also awarded the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2010.
Some of Angelou’s most famous poems are: Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, Alone, and On the Pulse of Morning (which she wrote and then recited for the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993.) During her lifetime, Angelou published ten poetry collections, eight single poem publications, and a series of seven autobiographies (along with cookbooks, children’s books, and recitations of African literature). The Williamson County Public Library System holds many of these works along with several that have been adapted for children’s poetry collections. A few of the more popular are below:
By Holly, Reference Department
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou
https://poets.org/poet/maya-angelou
https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/american-women-quarters/maya-angelou
Spotlight on Poetry Month
Image provided by Joe Carlson – https://www.flickr.com/photos/vibc/35391745276/
Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet who was born in Punjab, India in 1992. Her family fled India when she was 3 years old because of the persecutions of Sikh men. Rupi was trained in the art of poetry and painting by her father and mother respectively. She began performing her poetry in 2009 at the young age of 17. She is a well-known “Instapoet,”a poet who has promoted themselves and gained their following on the social media platform, Instagram. Kaur is a pseudonym she adopted when she began distributing her poems anonymously in high school. She stated, “Kaur is the name of every Sikh woman – brought in to eradicate the caste system in India – and I thought, wouldn’t it be empowering if a young Kaur saw her name in a book store?” Her short poems explore her South Asian identity, relationships, immigration, and femininity.
WCPL has two of her published books of poetry, they are on a poetry display on the second floor. We are replacing her first publication, Milk and Honey (2015)
The Sun and Her Flowers (2017)
By Kathy, Reference Department
Black History Month: Spotlight on an American Poet
Have you heard of Emtithal Mahmoud?
Known as Emi, she is a World Poetry Slam Champion, a former refugee, and a UNHCR (the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees) Goodwill Ambassador.
Emi was born in Khartoum, Sudan. She grew up in Philadelphia, and attended Yale University, earning her bachelor’s of science in anthropology and molecular biology and then her Certificate in Global Health, also from Yale. It was during her senior year that she won the World Poetry Slam Championship in Washington D.C. In 2017, at 25 years old, she hosted the first fully inclusive civilian peace talks across Sudan. She walked 620 miles from Darfur to Khartoum, mobilizing people along the way as part of her One Girl Walk and Dreams for Peace Initiative. She has spoken before thousands around the world, worked with the Dalai Lama, President Obama, The Academy of Arts and Sciences, and several other Nobel Laureates, leaders, and organizations. She published her debut poetry collection, Sister’s Entrance, in 2018.
“I come from a place where the history is based on oral tradition, my tribal tongue isn’t written, everything is passed down from person to person,” Mahmoud has said. “While I could speak to people in a scientific way, or a political way, I choose poetry in the end because I think it’s the easiest way to reach people and have them respond with their humanity.”
To read a bit of her poetry, check out Ink Knows No Borders at the Main Branch of the Williamson County Library.
Kathy, Reference
📍Poetry Society of Tennessee’s 65th Annual Poetry Festival
Reminder!
Only a few days left to register for the Poetry Society of Tennessee’s (PST’s) 65th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held virtually (via Zoom) on Saturday, October 9, 2021, beginning at 1:00 pm Central Daylight Time (2:00 pm EDT). This virtual festival will be free, but registration is required. Jeff Hardin will be our workshop leader and will be presenting on apostrophe/address poems.
A link for registration, as well as additional information on our workshop leader, can be found on PST’s Festival page, https://www.poetrytennessee.org/annual-festival-and-contest.html. Any questions can be directed to us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
Thanks so much!
📚Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week (September 26 – October 2, 2021) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.
Banned Books Week took off in the 1980’s as a result of increased challenges and ultimately a Supreme Court case in 1982 that ruled school officials cannot ban library books based on content. The Banned Book Week initiative flourished, sparked by members of the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, and the National Association of College Stores and being picked up by major news outlets covering events. Also, it rose in popularity as public officials, such as governors and mayors affirmed the week.
Initiated by Judith Krug in 1982, as the Director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA) , Krug continued to lead the Banned Books Week efforts until her death in 2009.
The ALA is currently part of a national coalition to promote Banned Books Week as are 14 other contributors and sponsors. Today, Banned Books Week coverage by mainstream media reaches an estimated 2.8 billion readers, and more than 90,000 publishing industry and library subscribers.
Books are still being challenged (an attempt to remove or restrict material) and banned (the removal of those materials) based upon the objections of a person or group.
While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read.
Information from the ALA website
5th Annual TN Poets Day 2021
Virtually Celebrating National Poetry Month at the 5th Annual TN Poets Day on Saturday, April 24, 2021
EVENTS Include:
- Opening Speech by Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson
- Welcome & PFTN Awards Presentation by Founder /Organizer- Veera Dr. Rajaratnam S.
- Poets From The Neighborhood (PFTN) Monthly Featured Poets
- TN POETs Open Mic Poetry Readings
- Singer/Songwriter Kathryn Adams’ Songs Performance
- An Interview of ‘JOYPOET’ VeerajaR on PFTN’s Community Outreach Efforts & Poetry Events – by WCPL Director Dolores Greenwald
- TN POET Jeff Hardin’s Craft Talk****
- All EVENTs are RECORDED and Aired on WC-TV, TN /April 24th & LiveStream online via YouTube!
- Starts @ 9:00 AM CDT
Please check WC-TV, TN Link on April 24th:
https://tn-williamsoncounty4.civicplus.com/629/On-Demand
R.E.A.D.S. Records Shattered with Nearly Five Million Checkouts in 2020!
From the Rogerville Review, January 17, 2021:
The Tennessee Regional eBook and Audiobook Download System (R.E.A.D.S.) announced today that they achieved a record-breaking 4,957,038 digital e-book, audiobook, magazine and video checkouts in 2020.
The record number of checkouts is a milestone for the top five Tennessee libraries for digital checkouts through R.E.A.D.S.: Williamson County Public Library, Linebaugh Public Library in Rutherford County, Blount County Public Library, Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library and Johnson City Public Library, along with all of the Tennessee Regional Library System members across the state.
Tennessee R.E.A.D.S., using the Overdrive platform, and the Libby app (for mobile devices), is able to connect library users with content from R.E.A.D.S. catalog of e-books, audiobooks, and other digital materials.
Patrons with active library cards are able to browse, borrow, and use the digital collection, available items can be downloaded or streamed instantly; and are automatically expired at the end of the loan period.
The top five e-books read through R.E.A.D.S. in 2020:
1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (5476 checkouts)
2. Educated, a memoir by Tara Westover (3295)
3. Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks (3202)
4. The Reckoning by John Grisham (3027)
5. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (2802)
The top five audiobooks borrowed in 2020:
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling (6531 checkouts)
2. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (4392)
3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (4111)
4. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (3881)
5. The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter (3662)
To learn more about Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. visit reads.overdrive.com or call us at 615.595.1243. Our eLibrary Books and More page has information about R.E.A.D.S. and other digital content databases.
Dori
wcpltn.wordpress.com 
