4 poets laureate make 2023 a boom year for verse on LI
Lindamichelle Baron stood in front of a fifth-grade class at Powells Lane Elementary School in Westbury holding one of her jazz-influenced, word-play-filled poetry collections.
“We have quite a treat for you today,” Principal Claudia Germain told students as she introduced “the inaugural poet laureate.”
That was Baron’s cue to lead another of the live — and lively — poetry presentations she’s been taking on the road since her December appointment by the Town of Hempstead.
“I started writing when I was younger than you . . . when I was 5 or 6 years old,” Baron told the students. “Do you want to hear the first poem?” she asked. “You can’t laugh. Promise!”
Then she recited the childhood couplet her parents hung on the refrigerator: “I have a cousin named Gerard / I think his ears are very odd.”
Some of the students did join Baron’s laughter at her early effort, which she turned into a teachable moment, recalling how she went on to learn that poetry was not just about “rhyming words.”
“I started thinking, how can I use my words to share my feelings?” she said.
Soon the students were sharing their own feelings, drumming on their desks, snapping their fingers and participating in a call-and-response in rhythm to Baron’s verse.
Mateo Avelar, 10, enjoyed Baron’s reading of “Spelling Blues,” a poem about struggling with spelling. “It’s fun to listen to, and we got to interact with the person who wrote the poetry,” he said.
His classmate Jodian Ellison, also 10, said, “It was interesting because she told us a lot about poetry inspiring her, and she told us she was inspired by other people to write poetry.”
For Long Island’s poets laureate, April, aka National Poetry Month, is the coolest month, a time of readings and open mics, school and senior center appearances, and other poetry appreciation programs.
This year, more Long Islanders than ever hold the title. In addition to Baron, they include Nassau County Poet Laureate Paula Curci, Suffolk County Poet Laureate Richard Bronson and Suffolk Teen Poet Laureate Ella O’Connor.
“It is unusual and unprecedented to have four poets laureate on Long Island — double the number during last year’s National Poetry Month,” said Cynthia Shor, a poet who is executive director of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, the historic site in Huntington Station that aims to preserve the poet’s legacy. “This is an encouraging sign that local governments are recognizing and promoting local poets and advancing poetry appreciation.”
We asked the Island’s poets laureate to share their perspectives on poetry — and their plans for increasing poetry writing, reading and appreciation beyond National Poetry Month.
Hempstead Town poet laureate
Baron’s ready wit bubbles up not just in her poetry, but in her answers to simple questions, like, “Where did you grow up?”
“I never did,” Baron replied while driving to her poetry presentation in Westbury. Baron, 73, who worked as a New York City public school teacher before becoming a professor of teacher education at CUNY York College, where she’s also board chair of the Africana Studies Center, has published numerous books of poetry.
How are you fulfilling your role as the town’s first poet laureate? I’m invited to read or speak about poetry at ceremonial events throughout the town. But at this moment, it’s a pilot program. I’m developing what the poet laureate responsibilities will be, and the programs the poet laureate will engage in and develop, such as visiting libraries, schools and senior centers. I’m setting up a symposium for school superintendents to introduce programs I have available to engage their students, parents and their educators in poetry. We’ll eventually codify all of this for future poets laureate.
Why do you think it is important for young people to experience live poetry readings? When I was an elementary school teacher, I read poetry aloud to the class to introduce subjects, ideas and questions. Reading poetry helps students to understand themselves and each other. It’s also a way of tapping into students’ social and emotional selves. And it makes cultural connections, especially when it’s the kind of poetry that I write, which is written from a cultural perspective.
What is the cultural perspective that informs your poetry? I grew up in Springfield Gardens [Queens] in a neighborhood that was rapidly changing as white families moved out and Black families moved in. This was the age of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In college, much of my poetry was in tune with Harlem Renaissance poets, such as Langston Hughes, and the Black Arts Movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s.
How can parents encourage their children to read and write poetry? By adding poetry to their repertoire of bedtime readings. And by writing poems together. Listen together for the poetry in the lyrics of favorite songs. Even the jingles on commercials. Find the fun of poetry along with the depth of the writing and possibilities to explore your soul — and those of other people.
Follow Baron at mylinda michellebaron.com.
Bronson, 82, said he is completing his two-year term next month with a sense of accomplishment and a little regret.
“I feel wistful . . . because I couldn’t go out and spread the poetry in person,” said Bronson, of Lloyd Harbor, whose term overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic’s early restrictions on in-person gatherings.
As part of his official duties, Bronson, a doctor specializing in reproductive endocrinology at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine, read his poetry virtually for the county’s 9/11 ceremony in 2021 and at libraries and the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, where he’s a board member. He has published his poetry, which often reflects his experiences as a physician, in five collections including “Imperfect Knowledge” (Padishah Press, 2021).
How did you begin writing poetry? I wrote in high school in the creative writing club but nothing really in college; we were so wrapped up in the sciences. But when I joined Stony Brook, the first dean very much promoted the concept of the humanities. We had another wonderful dean who also believed in the medical humanities and the nonscience aspects of being a doctor. I joined a program called Medicine in Contemporary Society, and we started reading poems. I read William Carlos Williams and Chekhov and it got me back into the poetry mode. Thirty years ago I started writing again and never stopped.
What is Astonished Harvest, which you founded in 2009 with fellow Stony Brook poet-physicians Maria Basile and Jack Coulehan? It’s a poetry workshop with a twofold goal: to introduce poetry into the medical center and the school, and to invite anyone interested in coming together to write poetry and critique it. The name, Astonished Harvest, is taken from a poem, “Transplant,” by Dr. John Stone, a cardiologist [at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta] who was somewhat of a mentor to Jack and me. The name became more significant in representing the “astonished harvest” of poems written by the members of the workshop.
We felt that the writing of poetry was of value to students because skills of observation [are] also doctors’ skills. Ultimately, we opened Astonished Harvest to anyone who wanted to join us as a bridge between the medical center and the community. We have about 20 members meeting virtually. People who never read poetry before now are producing poems that are meaningful to them.
What are you looking forward to before your term ends? Hopefully, the [COVID-19] virus is under control, so I’m looking forward to doing one in-person reading before June. My next journey, which I may do in conjunction with [Teen Poet Laureate] Ella [O’Connor], or on my own, is to bring the excitement of poetry into the high schools.
Read more at bit.ly/Astonished Harvest.
O’Connor, 17, said she’s happy to be the youngest person in the room reading her poetry at senior centers, coffee houses and the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association.
O’Connor’s parents, Erica, 46, a second-grade teacher in the Harborfields School District, and Kevin, 49, an insurance company senior product development manager, said they nurtured Ella’s artistic development early on. “With all my kids I played ‘Mozart for Mothers-to-Be,’ ” Erica said of the series of recordings for parents and babies they also played for their son, now 13, and other daughter, who is now 9.
Ella O’Connor, an honor student whose extracurriculars include Moot Court and Model U.N., writes poetry on weekends in a journal she’s kept since ninth grade. Her favorite writing spot: a park overlooking Stony Brook Harbor.
What’s the hardest part about fulfilling your public duties? Making sure I’m taking care of my schoolwork and the other extracurriculars I’m passionate about. Tutoring Ukrainian students in English speaking for ENGin, an online program I’ve been involved in since ninth grade, inspired my poem “Palianytsia,” the Ukrainian word for bread. The student I was working with on the day Russia invaded Ukraine gave me her personal experience about what she saw. The poem is about her optimism, bravery and persistence in the face of one of the most terrible conflicts.
How has being teen poet laureate influenced your writing? I started thinking more deliberately about my writing because suddenly I was more aware of the audience I was writing for. I’m trying to build more confidence in myself and the words I choose to put on paper. The majority of my poems have a socially or environmentally conscious message that represents my beliefs.
As a junior at Ward Melville High School, in East Setauket, how are you bringing poetry to young people? I love the readings, but to me the position is more about trying to bring poetry to other youths. Very few of my peers read poetry. A program I’m organizing, Youth Speaks for Social Justice, at the Walt Whitman Birthplace on June 3, is for ninth- to 12th-grade students. It’s a spoken-word performance and competition. Students will perform original poems. The winner gets to select a social justice charity to donate the proceeds from the event to. I’m test-driving a program in my district’s elementary schools for youth empowerment through writing. I tell the students to try to write about a piece of their identity they are passionate about, or something they’ve seen in the world that they wish to change. The kids have been incredibly enthusiastic.
Follow O’Connor at ellaoconnorsctpl.wixsite.com/mysite.
“What poet doesn’t like a microphone?” Paula Curci said as she collected six citations at the Artists in Partnership Women in the Arts Awards and Recognition party on March 31 at Long Beach’s Allegria Hotel.
Instead of a thank-you speech, Curci read “Gotta Give Thanks,” which she composed the night before, declaiming to the audience of 250: “In this room there are no ‘nos,’ / there are no ‘can’ts,’ / there are no ‘shoulds,’ / cause girls, we got the goods.”
Curci, a self-described spoken-word poet, grew up in Brooklyn and credits her lawyer parents with teaching her oration skills, and journal writing for nurturing her poetic muse. During a 32-year career as a school counselor — she retired in 2018 from Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park — she considered poetry her “professional hobby.” Curci has published three chapbooks, small books of poetry, but her preferred medium is the microphone. She reaches her widest audience via “Calliope’s Corner — The Place Where Poets and Songwriters Meet,” which she hosts at 3 p.m. on Thursdays on Hofstra University’s 88.7 FM.
How do you approach your role as poet laureate? I’ve been focusing on things that develop community building and engagement. After I became poet laureate in June 2022, I established the weekly open mic at the Long Beach Public Library with the support of a handful of other Long Beach poets. It provides a safe space for our community to share our stories. I’ve also been going around to visit open mic programs to show that the work they are doing is very important for healing our communities. I received a New York State Council on the Arts grant through the Huntington Arts Council to develop a poetry festival in the fall.
What is your memoir project about? I’m doing this whole program on Poetry As Memoir at the Port Washington Library on April 28. I talk about the people in my life I call “word dancers.” They include my uncle Joe, who was a police-beat writer and wrote several short stories. He was the guy that really introduced me to the libraries. At the Long Beach library, the Shore Poets are participating in a micro-memoir anthology. They are prompted once a month to write about a recollection or a memory that will fit on a 5-by-8-inch index card.
How are you reaching an audience on streaming services? Streaming services are the way a majority of people now consume culture. I have three CD albums of poetry and spoken word, which I recorded at studios in Nassau County. I call my style, or aesthetic, Posics, a combination of poetry and music.
Follow Curci at paulacurci .com.
Lindamichelle Baron stood in front of a fifth-grade class at Powells Lane Elementary School in Westbury holding one of her jazz-influenced, word-play-filled poetry collections.
“We have quite a treat for you today,” Principal Claudia Germain told students as she introduced “the inaugural poet laureate.”
That was Baron’s cue to lead another of the live — and lively — poetry presentations she’s been taking on the road since her December appointment by the Town of Hempstead.
“I started writing when I was younger than you . . . when I was 5 or 6 years old,” Baron told the students. “Do you want to hear the first poem?” she asked. “You can’t laugh. Promise!”
Lindamichelle Baron visits a fifth-grade class at Powells Lane Elementary School in Westbury. The students are, from left, Romeo Euceda, Jodian Ellison and Jayden Hillary. Credit: Linda Rosier
Then she recited the childhood couplet her parents hung on the refrigerator: “I have a cousin named Gerard / I think his ears are very odd.”
Some of the students did join Baron’s laughter at her early effort, which she turned into a teachable moment, recalling how she went on to learn that poetry was not just about “rhyming words.”
“I started thinking, how can I use my words to share my feelings?” she said.
Soon the students were sharing their own feelings, drumming on their desks, snapping their fingers and participating in a call-and-response in rhythm to Baron’s verse.
Mateo Avelar, 10, enjoyed Baron’s reading of “Spelling Blues,” a poem about struggling with spelling. “It’s fun to listen to, and we got to interact with the person who wrote the poetry,” he said.
His classmate Jodian Ellison, also 10, said, “It was interesting because she told us a lot about poetry inspiring her, and she told us she was inspired by other people to write poetry.”
For Long Island’s poets laureate, April, aka National Poetry Month, is the coolest month, a time of readings and open mics, school and senior center appearances, and other poetry appreciation programs.
This year, more Long Islanders than ever hold the title. In addition to Baron, they include Nassau County Poet Laureate Paula Curci, Suffolk County Poet Laureate Richard Bronson and Suffolk Teen Poet Laureate Ella O’Connor.
“It is unusual and unprecedented to have four poets laureate on Long Island — double the number during last year’s National Poetry Month,” said Cynthia Shor, a poet who is executive director of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, the historic site in Huntington Station that aims to preserve the poet’s legacy. “This is an encouraging sign that local governments are recognizing and promoting local poets and advancing poetry appreciation.”
We asked the Island’s poets laureate to share their perspectives on poetry — and their plans for increasing poetry writing, reading and appreciation beyond National Poetry Month.
Lindamichelle Baron
Hempstead Town poet laureate
Baron had the students drumming on their desks, snapping their fingers and participating in a call-and-response during her visit to Powells Lane Elementary in Westbury. Here, fifth-graders Zunairah Bhatt and Romeo Euceda. Credit: Linda Rosier
Baron’s ready wit bubbles up not just in her poetry, but in her answers to simple questions, like, “Where did you grow up?”
“I never did,” Baron replied while driving to her poetry presentation in Westbury. Baron, 73, who worked as a New York City public school teacher before becoming a professor of teacher education at CUNY York College, where she’s also board chair of the Africana Studies Center, has published numerous books of poetry.
How are you fulfilling your role as the town’s first poet laureate? I’m invited to read or speak about poetry at ceremonial events throughout the town. But at this moment, it’s a pilot program. I’m developing what the poet laureate responsibilities will be, and the programs the poet laureate will engage in and develop, such as visiting libraries, schools and senior centers. I’m setting up a symposium for school superintendents to introduce programs I have available to engage their students, parents and their educators in poetry. We’ll eventually codify all of this for future poets laureate.
Why do you think it is important for young people to experience live poetry readings? When I was an elementary school teacher, I read poetry aloud to the class to introduce subjects, ideas and questions. Reading poetry helps students to understand themselves and each other. It’s also a way of tapping into students’ social and emotional selves. And it makes cultural connections, especially when it’s the kind of poetry that I write, which is written from a cultural perspective.
What is the cultural perspective that informs your poetry? I grew up in Springfield Gardens [Queens] in a neighborhood that was rapidly changing as white families moved out and Black families moved in. This was the age of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In college, much of my poetry was in tune with Harlem Renaissance poets, such as Langston Hughes, and the Black Arts Movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s.
How can parents encourage their children to read and write poetry? By adding poetry to their repertoire of bedtime readings. And by writing poems together. Listen together for the poetry in the lyrics of favorite songs. Even the jingles on commercials. Find the fun of poetry along with the depth of the writing and possibilities to explore your soul — and those of other people.
Follow Baron at mylinda michellebaron.com.
Dr. Richard Bronson
Suffolk County poet laureate
Dr. Richard Bronson and two other doctors founded a poetry workshop, Astonished Harvest, at the Setauket Neighborhood House, pictured. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Bronson, 82, said he is completing his two-year term next month with a sense of accomplishment and a little regret.
“I feel wistful . . . because I couldn’t go out and spread the poetry in person,” said Bronson, of Lloyd Harbor, whose term overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic’s early restrictions on in-person gatherings.
As part of his official duties, Bronson, a doctor specializing in reproductive endocrinology at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine, read his poetry virtually for the county’s 9/11 ceremony in 2021 and at libraries and the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, where he’s a board member. He has published his poetry, which often reflects his experiences as a physician, in five collections including “Imperfect Knowledge” (Padishah Press, 2021).
How did you begin writing poetry? I wrote in high school in the creative writing club but nothing really in college; we were so wrapped up in the sciences. But when I joined Stony Brook, the first dean very much promoted the concept of the humanities. We had another wonderful dean who also believed in the medical humanities and the nonscience aspects of being a doctor. I joined a program called Medicine in Contemporary Society, and we started reading poems. I read William Carlos Williams and Chekhov and it got me back into the poetry mode. Thirty years ago I started writing again and never stopped.
Richard Bronson has published five collections of poetry. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
What is Astonished Harvest, which you founded in 2009 with fellow Stony Brook poet-physicians Maria Basile and Jack Coulehan? It’s a poetry workshop with a twofold goal: to introduce poetry into the medical center and the school, and to invite anyone interested in coming together to write poetry and critique it. The name, Astonished Harvest, is taken from a poem, “Transplant,” by Dr. John Stone, a cardiologist [at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta] who was somewhat of a mentor to Jack and me. The name became more significant in representing the “astonished harvest” of poems written by the members of the workshop.
We felt that the writing of poetry was of value to students because skills of observation [are] also doctors’ skills. Ultimately, we opened Astonished Harvest to anyone who wanted to join us as a bridge between the medical center and the community. We have about 20 members meeting virtually. People who never read poetry before now are producing poems that are meaningful to them.
What are you looking forward to before your term ends? Hopefully, the [COVID-19] virus is under control, so I’m looking forward to doing one in-person reading before June. My next journey, which I may do in conjunction with [Teen Poet Laureate] Ella [O’Connor], or on my own, is to bring the excitement of poetry into the high schools.
Read more at bit.ly/Astonished Harvest.
Ella O’Connor
Suffolk County teen poet laureate
Ward Melville High School junior Ella O’Connor is Suffolk County’s first teen poet laureate. Credit: Morgan Campbell
O’Connor, 17, said she’s happy to be the youngest person in the room reading her poetry at senior centers, coffee houses and the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association.
O’Connor’s parents, Erica, 46, a second-grade teacher in the Harborfields School District, and Kevin, 49, an insurance company senior product development manager, said they nurtured Ella’s artistic development early on. “With all my kids I played ‘Mozart for Mothers-to-Be,’ ” Erica said of the series of recordings for parents and babies they also played for their son, now 13, and other daughter, who is now 9.
Ella O’Connor, an honor student whose extracurriculars include Moot Court and Model U.N., writes poetry on weekends in a journal she’s kept since ninth grade. Her favorite writing spot: a park overlooking Stony Brook Harbor.
What’s the hardest part about fulfilling your public duties? Making sure I’m taking care of my schoolwork and the other extracurriculars I’m passionate about. Tutoring Ukrainian students in English speaking for ENGin, an online program I’ve been involved in since ninth grade, inspired my poem “Palianytsia,” the Ukrainian word for bread. The student I was working with on the day Russia invaded Ukraine gave me her personal experience about what she saw. The poem is about her optimism, bravery and persistence in the face of one of the most terrible conflicts.
O'Connor walks with her parents, Erica and Kevin O'Connor, at Avalon Nature Preserve. Credit: Morgan Campbell
How has being teen poet laureate influenced your writing? I started thinking more deliberately about my writing because suddenly I was more aware of the audience I was writing for. I’m trying to build more confidence in myself and the words I choose to put on paper. The majority of my poems have a socially or environmentally conscious message that represents my beliefs.
As a junior at Ward Melville High School, in East Setauket, how are you bringing poetry to young people? I love the readings, but to me the position is more about trying to bring poetry to other youths. Very few of my peers read poetry. A program I’m organizing, Youth Speaks for Social Justice, at the Walt Whitman Birthplace on June 3, is for ninth- to 12th-grade students. It’s a spoken-word performance and competition. Students will perform original poems. The winner gets to select a social justice charity to donate the proceeds from the event to. I’m test-driving a program in my district’s elementary schools for youth empowerment through writing. I tell the students to try to write about a piece of their identity they are passionate about, or something they’ve seen in the world that they wish to change. The kids have been incredibly enthusiastic.
Follow O’Connor at ellaoconnorsctpl.wixsite.com/mysite.
Paula Curci
Nassau County poet laureate
Paula Curci reaches her widest audience as host of "Calliope’s Corner: The Place Where Poets and Songwriters Meet," a weekly show on Hofstra University’s WRHU (88.7 FM). Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
“What poet doesn’t like a microphone?” Paula Curci said as she collected six citations at the Artists in Partnership Women in the Arts Awards and Recognition party on March 31 at Long Beach’s Allegria Hotel.
Instead of a thank-you speech, Curci read “Gotta Give Thanks,” which she composed the night before, declaiming to the audience of 250: “In this room there are no ‘nos,’ / there are no ‘can’ts,’ / there are no ‘shoulds,’ / cause girls, we got the goods.”
Curci, a self-described spoken-word poet, grew up in Brooklyn and credits her lawyer parents with teaching her oration skills, and journal writing for nurturing her poetic muse. During a 32-year career as a school counselor — she retired in 2018 from Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park — she considered poetry her “professional hobby.” Curci has published three chapbooks, small books of poetry, but her preferred medium is the microphone. She reaches her widest audience via “Calliope’s Corner — The Place Where Poets and Songwriters Meet,” which she hosts at 3 p.m. on Thursdays on Hofstra University’s 88.7 FM.
Curci is a spoken-word poet, and she calls her aesthetic "Posics" -- a combination of poetry and music. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
How do you approach your role as poet laureate? I’ve been focusing on things that develop community building and engagement. After I became poet laureate in June 2022, I established the weekly open mic at the Long Beach Public Library with the support of a handful of other Long Beach poets. It provides a safe space for our community to share our stories. I’ve also been going around to visit open mic programs to show that the work they are doing is very important for healing our communities. I received a New York State Council on the Arts grant through the Huntington Arts Council to develop a poetry festival in the fall.
What is your memoir project about? I’m doing this whole program on Poetry As Memoir at the Port Washington Library on April 28. I talk about the people in my life I call “word dancers.” They include my uncle Joe, who was a police-beat writer and wrote several short stories. He was the guy that really introduced me to the libraries. At the Long Beach library, the Shore Poets are participating in a micro-memoir anthology. They are prompted once a month to write about a recollection or a memory that will fit on a 5-by-8-inch index card.
How are you reaching an audience on streaming services? Streaming services are the way a majority of people now consume culture. I have three CD albums of poetry and spoken word, which I recorded at studios in Nassau County. I call my style, or aesthetic, Posics, a combination of poetry and music.
Follow Curci at paulacurci .com.
Newsday Live Author Series: Bobby Flay Newsday Live and Long Island LitFest present a conversation with Emmy-winning host, professional chef, restaurateur and author Bobby Flay. Newsday food reporter and critic Erica Marcus hosts a discussion about the chef's life, four-decade career and new cookbook, "Bobby Flay: Chapter One."
