Friday, April 24, 1998
Unbound Poetry
LITERATURE: National Poetry Month embarks on wide-scale agenda
of promoting literacy, passion for books
By Rachel Munoz
Daily Bruin Staff
April showers bring May flowers. But now April brings us
something else: National Poetry Month.
For poets, publishers, booksellers and poetry lovers everywhere,
April is a month of celebration. For 30 days, poets are more
recognized and often read their work in bookstores. Opportunists
revel in high hopes of selling many books and becoming more
known.
And yet there is another side of National Poetry Month. "Some
resent it," says Tom Bevan, the director of marketing for the
Academy of American Poets. "Some believe it ghettoizes poetry or
cheapens it."
But for the members at the Academy, the very institution that
inaugurated the month of April as National Poetry Month, Bevan
believes that the month helps poetry stay alive and in the minds of
people throughout the entire year.
"Some people are going back to it for the first time, or they
are going to it for the first time," he says. Overall he does feel
that it is a time of celebration.
The idea for National Poetry Month originated at a publisher’s
sales meeting, in April of 1995. It was wondered how more poetry
could be sold, and since history has proven that months are a good
way to promote a concept, April was settled on. The idea was put
forth to the Academy from which the idea was taken to as many
people possible in the public world.
Since its start in April of 1996, the meaning of the month has
certainly gone far beyond just selling poetry. At the tender age of
2, the month has gained a lot of momentum. In poster numbers alone,
the increase has jumped from 5,000 posters in 1996 to 80,000
posters distributed in 1997.
Booksellers, publishers, literary organizations, libraries,
schools and poets get together individually or in groups to
celebrate poetry throughout the month. The outcome usually produces
readings, festivals, book displays, and workshops ."It is an
opportunity to celebrate the thing they do," said Stephen Yenser,
the director of the creative writing program within the English
major and the coordinator of the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum Poetry
Reading Series.
In the celebration of poetry, the Academy finds that the month
helps to support poetry’s vital place in American culture.
"Poetry is often thought of as an epitome of communication to
the degree that it is thought of as heightened language," says
Yenser. "(Poetry) is a reminder of the intimate ways that we can be
connected through language."
Within poetry’s communication aspect, Yenser feels that poetry
is a means of communicating the past to the present. "Any good
contemporary poetry has deep roots," he said.
One of the nationwide events that has been occurring throughout
the month is the Great APLseed Giveaway. Co-sponsored by the
Academy of American Poets and by the American Poetry and Literacy
(APL) Project, Andrew Carroll of the APL Project has been
distributing poetry books all over the country.
The 28-year-old Washington, D.C. native hopes to pass out
100,000 copies of the poetry books, "101 Great American Poems" and
"African American Poetry." He has been targeting places such as
prisons, supermarkets, hotels, jury waiting rooms, highway rest
stops, Amtrak trains and other public places.
"We really wanted to reach people from all walks of life,"
Carroll told Frank Eltman, an associated press reporter for Fox
News.
Throughout his travels, Carroll truly has encountered all types
of people. In his trip across the desert from New Mexico to
Arizona, a journal entry speaks of one of these unique people.
"I did scatter some books along the way, and one of my favorite
recipients was a woman managing one of those lone gas stations far
removed from any major city," Carroll writes. "She had been reading
a romance novel titled, "Man In The Mist," so I offered her some
love poems. I love this kind of one-on-one encounter because it
enables me to find out how folks truly feel about poetry."
Carroll began his trip on April 1 in New York City and will
conclude his efforts on Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Festival of
Books, hosted by UCLA and the Los Angeles Times.
On Sunday at 11 a.m., The Center for the Books at the Library of
Congress and the Poet Laureate’s office will sponsor a poetry
reading as part of "The Favorite Poem Project." Readers include Los
Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, USC President Steven Sample, poet
Carol Muske, and former Poet Laureate Robert Hass.
The Festival of Books will designate a special area of the
campus, the area behind Powell Library, to be the Poetry Corner.
Attendants can expect to encounter authors such as Steven Yenser,
Charles Webb, Amy Uyematsu and Judith Hall.
According to Gloria Lopez of the Los Angeles Times, more than
300 popular authors are expected to participate in the Festival
events on a whole.
These authors include Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Arthur Golden,
Terry McMillan, Clive Barker, Angela Davis, Stanley Crouch, and
Barbara Taylor Bradford.
The Festival will provide space for over 300 exhibitor booths
which will feature booksellers, publishers, libraries and literacy
organizations. It will also hold 80 author panel discussions.