BOA Editions Getting A New Home

Posted 23 April, 2007 in Literature, Random Musings, Rochester

BOA Editions, one of the brightest spots in Rochester’s cultural life, is moving to new digs. This is from this morning’s Democrat & Chronicle newspaper:

BOA Editions moving to North Goodman Street

Local publishing company BOA Editions will be moving to the Neighborhood of the Arts.

It is moving from 260 East Ave. to the Anderson Alley building, 250 N. Goodman St. The new address will be effective April 30.

Poet and editor Peter Conners from BOA Editions was a guest on The Jason Crane Show last year. You can check out that episode for an interview with Peter and poetry from a number of great poets.

Wisdom from Walden

Posted 7 June, 2006 in Literature, Politics & Activism, Random Musings

“As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.” – from Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Happy birthday, Walt!

Posted 31 May, 2006 in Literature

Walt Whitman was born on this day in 1819. For more information about Walt and his work, visit the Walt Whitman Archive.

Speaking of the Whitman Archive, the NEH has offered the Archive a $500,000 challenge grant. To help them meet the challenge, please donate some money to the Archive. Thanks!

Whitman on war

Posted 30 May, 2006 in Literature, Politics & Activism

John Nichols of The Nation has written a nice piece on Whitman and war. It includes a lovely funeral poem by Whitman. You can read it at thenation.com.

Whitman: the day after

Posted 22 May, 2006 in Literature, Rochester

It’s going to take me a long time — maybe forever — to really come to grips with what yesterday meant to me. When I hatched this crazy plan last year, I wasn’t even sure I could make it happen. Then Connie Bodner stepped in, and it suddenly became possible, if not probable.

Then it was yesterday. Months of planning, literally thousands of e-mail messages, hundreds of phone calls. Dozens of readers, dozens of dinner guests, dozens of staff members, one actor. Could we really expect it to come off well?

When I finally sit down and write the story of my life, 21 May 2006 will be one of the high points. It was better than I ever could have hoped. The diversity of voices. The passion of the readers. The flow of emotion throughout the afternoon. Hail. Rain. Wind. Sunshine. (In late May!)

Then came the end of the reading. Wade Norwood was the final reader. He finished the last line — I stop some where waiting for you — and started down the stairs from the lectern. As his foot hit the first step, a wave crashed through the church. The audience of readers and listeners erupted with cheers, applause, and more than a few moist eyes, including my own. This wave of sound and emotion and joy and completion just kept building and building. It was almost too much to believe. (My hands are shaking right now as I type this.)

We took no photos, made no recordings. The event passed into the air. The sound waves are even now heading out across the solar system as almost imperceptible disturbances of whatever it is that makes up the cosmos.

I’m still awestruck at the experience. I feel so lucky to have been there, and to have been surrounded by such wonderful people. I have a debt to that room that I can’t repay.

Whitman time!

Posted 20 May, 2006 in Literature, Rochester

It’s finally here! CELEBRATING WHITMAN: AMERICA’S POET, is today (Sunday) at 2 p.m. at Genesee Country Village & Museum. We begin by reading “Song of Myself” from 2-5 p.m., followed by a 19th century dinner at 5 p.m. and Will Stutts as Walt Whitman at 6 p.m. Please come to the reading and be part of this special event.

SHOW-ONLY TICKETS: The dinner is sold out, but you can get a show-only ticket for $20. Just come to the Education Center (next to the main entrance of Genesee Country Village) before 6 p.m. See you there!

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