Multitalented, well-known poets to read March 5
By DOROTHY DERIFIELD February 21, 2008
Courtesy Photo Poet and Publisher Gloria Mindock.
Three significant Boston-area poets—Afaa Michael Weaver, Gloria Mindock and Judy Katz-Levine—will read as part of the Chapter and Verse literary series on Wed., March 5. The reading will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Loring-Greenough House at 12 South St. across from the Monument.
Afaa Michael Weaver—poet, playwright, short fiction writer and translator—is the author of 10 books of poetry, including “Talisman” (Northwestern, 2000), “The Ten Lights of God” (Bucknell, 2000) and his most recent collection, “The Plum Flower Dance, Poems 1985-2005,” published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in November 2007. Weaver is a man of many accomplishments. During the past year his poems have been featured prominently in the much-respected “Poetry” and “American Poetry Review”; his picture has appeared on the cover of “Poets & Writers” magazine to accompany an article inside; and he was the subject of a recent in-depth feature article in the Boston Globe. Far from being an overnight success, he has worked and struggled for years to reach his present position of eminence in the poetry world.
The poet, originally named Michael Shan Weaver, was born in Baltimore, the son of a beautician and steelworker who urged him to excel academically. He did, graduating from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and heading to the University of Maryland, where he intended to study science. However, that turned out to be the beginning of an odyssey that took him through his discovery of himself as a poet and several years working on the floor at Bethlehem Steel and Proctor & Gamble to receiving a master of arts from Brown University and teaching jobs at various colleges. Along the way, he wrote, edited journals and learned Chinese, which led to a Fulbright Scholarship and a year of teaching at the National Taiwan University in Taipei. In 2004, Weaver founded the International Chinese Poetry Conference at Simmons College, where he is professor of English and director of the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Center.
Gloria Mindock is a woman who wears many hats well. She is an accomplished writer and poet whose new poetry collection “Blood Soaked Dresses” was recently published by Ibbetson St. Press. The book grew out of interviews with refugees from El Salvador and is written in memory of one of them, Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the massacre of her village El Mazote. In an article about her work in the Boston Globe by Ellen Steinbaum, Gloria Mindock said she wants to bear witness to this tragedy and to keep its memory alive as artists have always done.
Mindock is the author of two previous chapbooks, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Mindock is also the editor and publisher of the Cervena Barva Press and the “Istanbul Literary Review,” an online journal. She edited the “Boston Literary Review” from 1984 to 1994 and was cofounder of Theatre S & S Press. She has an extensive background in theatre and has written and performed numerous plays and musicals. Mindock also conducts writing workshops and edits manuscripts. She has two books forthcoming called “Nothing Divine Here” and “Whiteness of Bone.”
Judy Katz-Levine’s most recent book of poems is “Ocarina” (Tarsier/Saru, 2007). She is also the author of “When the Arms of Our Dreams Embrace, Collected Poems” (Saru, 1991). Katz-Levine was the recipient of a grant in poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and her poem “What I Didn’t Know” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poems have been published in many journals and anthologies in England, Israel and Japan in addition to the US. One of her poems was included in “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” an anthology on baseball and women from Faber and Faber. Katz-Levine is also an accomplished musician who plays jazz flute and sings in a local choral group.
Chapter and Verse has a suggested donation of $5, and free refreshments are served after the readings. In April, readers will be Martha Collins, Alice Kociemba and L.R. Berger. For more information, e-mail dorothy.derifield@gmail.com or wileysister@yahoo.com or call 325-8388.
The writer is the director of Chapter and Verse.