Our spotlight is on The Loom! Rebecca Kaiser Gibson is founder of “The Loom, Poetry in Harrisville,” which is bringing contemporary poets, their poetry and the local audience into a vibrant relationship. The Loom presents accomplished, published poets to the community at special events throughout the year. They also sponsor a Favorite Poem Reading event by the community. Learn more about this great project from Rebecca:
Once I stopped teaching at Tufts University and moved full time to Marlborough, my desire to bring the poets and poetry I’ve encountered in other places to the extraordinary Monadnock area, dovetailed with a vision Historic Harrisville has, about lively and enriched community life.
The chance to offer a poetry reading series in the former Catholic Church, St. Denis, next to the Harrisville General Store, made both visions realites. St Denis Hall is a charming space with unpretentious stained glass windows and a golden-wood glow. The Loom, Poetry in Harrisville currently hosts two poetry readings in the two seasons that are the least festooned with other events: mid-November, after the flurry of peak fall, and April, which is of course, “poetry month.” Then, in March “mud-season,” when travel is compromised, we conduct a Favorite Poem Event, during which local residents submit a Favorite Poem and some of the ways it matters to them. We select a number who then present to the community. (This event is based on the Favorite Poem Project my teacher the former two-time US Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky devised with poet Maggie Dietz.)
Each poem spoken in public shuttles through our individual and collective consciousness, enriching the fabric that connects us, especially in Harrisville. - Rebecca Kaiser Gibson
Image from The Loom’s Favorite Poem Event!
For me, it all started with a wish to bring accomplished poets to people, right to their neighborhoods – a way of undercutting the sense that complex poetry is somehow off-limits. With the help of grants, we intend to give each reader an honorarium while insuring that the events are free to the public.
Another priority of The Loom has been to create informative and attractive programs for each event, listing the readers and including a poem. We’ve also donated a book by each poet to The Harrisville Library, available for interlibrary loan. The events are free, but we do put out a basket for voluntary donations.
In so many ways, starting a poetry series in the Monadnock area has demonstrated the particular enthusiasm of individuals and local organizations around here. The Peterborough Toadstool has partnered with us to obtain books by the poets for sale at our events. The local libraries, The Frost Free, in Marlborough, the Harrisville Library, Nelson’s Olivia Rodman Library, the Hancock Library and the Keene Public Library have announced and supported our events. The Dublin Advocate and the Monadnock Ledger as well as Harrisville’s Commonthreads newsletter have written about The Loom. There’s a wonderful sense that people notice and appreciate what we are bringing to them. Our audiences have arrived bearing gifts of refreshments, flowers, and donations.
Long term, I hope to form collaborations with some local schools - possibly starting with student participation in the Favorite Poem Event. In addition to fostering conversations with the poets during and after their readings, I foresee a time when there is a regular opportunity for audience members to talk about their own experience with poems, in an atmosphere that is both supportive of individual responses, and rigorous in attention to the poem at hand.
Our website, www.theloompoetry.com talks about current and former readers. Upcoming this November are Ellen Doré Watson, previous director of The Poetry Center at Smith College, a feisty smart poet, and George Kalogeris, whose work’s been described as “boisterous, ironic and tender.” In April we will host Didi and Major Jackson each with a brand new book.
Our facebook page is Facebook.com/TheLoomPoetry.
Of course, we seek funding. The Loom, Poetry in Harrisville is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposed of Thee Loom, Poetry in Harrisville must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.