Maine Poetry Express approaching the station in Dover-Foxcroft for Oct. 18
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Everyone is invited to hop aboard the Maine Poetry Express workshop and community reading at the Thompson Free Library. Maine Poetry Express is a program of the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine State Library to bring Maine poetry and poets to local libraries and their communities. Community members in Dover-Foxcroft will select Maine poems, learn to perform those poems in a workshop with Millinocket poet Paul Corrigan, and host a community poetry-reading event, where all are invited to come together to celebrate Maine poetry.
The event will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18 at the Thompson Free Library. All are welcome and no registration is necessary.
The Maine Poetry Express, originally designed by poet Wesley McNair during his time as the Maine State Poet Laureate, connects local poets in sharing Maine’s poetry with their community. “The landscape of Maine’s voices is varied and valuable, addressing so many aspects of what it can mean to experience life in this state. Part of the goal of the Poetry Express is to create a space for community members, local poets, and libraries to get together and share in that history, often surprising themselves,” Jan Bindas-Tenney, program officer at the Maine Humanities Council, said.
The Dover-Foxcroft event will explore themes important to the town: agriculture, community, and the natural world of the Dover-Foxcroft region. Corrigan will lead community participants in a poetry reading and performance workshop. Community members will perform selected Maine poems to an audience.
“Maine’s mostly rocky, glacial soil has nourished a surprising variety of poetic voices,” Corrigan said. “How fitting it is for a diverse gathering of community members from Dover-Foxcroft, Shiretown of Piscatiquis County, to celebrate that rich literary tradition as they lend their voices to bring the poetry of Maine’s past and present to life.”
“We welcome the opportunity to feature Maine poetry through the voices of our community. It’s exciting to discover poetry from the history of our region and also to hear from current poets. We’re pleased to collaborate with Paul Corrigan and the Maine Humanities Council and hope that this event brings together people not only from Dover-Foxcroft, but also from our wider community,” Greta Schroeder, director of the Thompson Free Library, said.
For the purpose of this program, the Maine State Library has provided specially curated resources, anthologies, and collections of Maine’s poetry — from the historical to the contemporary– for workshop participants to read and practice with and for the community to enjoy.
“The Maine State Library is thrilled to participate and overjoyed that our Maine Authors Collection, which captures the poetical literature of the Pine Tree State, from Maine’s native poets of 1854 to present day, will serve as a source of inspiration,” Alison Maxell, director of public services and outreach, research & innovation at the Maine State Library, said.