February Meeting: Poetry in Community

Poetry in Community’s Doug Mowbray & Christophe Casamassima

Thanks to all of you who made it to our Moon Madness meeting. It was very well attended, and we heard a lot of wonderful work. I’m sure our VeeP and moon workshop leader, Shirley Brewer, inspired lots of good work we didn’t get to hear. Yet.

We have a special treat planned for our upcoming chapter meeting, with two special guests and a special location. February takes us into Baltimore City to host Doug Mowbray and Christophe Casamassima, founders of Poetry in Community (PiC), a wonderful group whose mission is to “advocate for creative literacy (using poetry as a means to discover and explore the world and oneself, in the individual’s terms, as a “way of knowing”) and to act as a locus for community sustainability, in which the discoveries posited via poetry writing and reading are used to formulate healthy relationships between citizens, students, artists, businesses and professionals, and, ultimately, their environment and government.”  While that may sound lofty, I assure you that the projects they initiate are grounded and actually easy to implement.

PiC has organized events such as Poem Walks, Poetrees, local 100 Thousand Poets for Change events, & writing workshops. One such workshop is currently led by Shirley Brewer and your Prez, Fernand0 Quijano III, with middle schoolers at the Village Learning Place. Chris & Doug will be discussing what they do, in more detail, as well as upcoming events, and how you too can give back.

The Baltimore Chapter will also be welcoming students from the University of Baltimore’s English program, who will be attending our meeting as their class for the evening. It should be a great night! Please join us.

“Start where you are. Distant fields always look greener, but opportunity lies right where you are. Take advantage of every opportunity of service.” — Robert J. Collier

DETAILS: MWA Baltimore Chapter Meeting, Monday, February 25, 2013, 7PM-9PM, The Village Learning Place, 2521 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218

Douglas William Garcia Mowbray was born in Baltimore, late 70’s. Too young for disco. Too old for New Kids on the Block. Early influences include: digging four-feet-deep holes in the beach, 2 Live Crew, and Rickey Henderson. Traded baseball players for poets, mid-90’s. Current influences: Emerson (son of Nayeli and Douglas); Emerson, Ralph Waldo; Emerson (local craft beer) fridge. He is the proprietor of twentythreebooks (www.twentythreebooks.com), editor of the Free Poetry For chapbook series (freepoetryfor.blogspot.com/), and co-founder, Poetry in Community  (www.facebook.com/groups/poetryincommunity).   DWG Mowbray is also a social and environmental activist and is a Board Member of the Waverly Improvement Association.

Christophe Casamassima is a co-founder of Poetry in Community and the editor/publisher of Furniture Press Books and teaches Film Studies at Towson University. He is the author of the Proteus Cycle (The Proteus, 2008; Joys: A Catalogue of Disappointments, 2009; Ore, 2010), Three Suite (2010) and Untilted (2011).