Poetry in DC: Poetry Parade info

More Info	LOAF WITH US! INVITE YOUR SOUL! For a few brief hours on a sunny April Friday afternoon, escape your prosaic life and come celebrate poetry with us. Join Emerson Prep's students and faculty, with Honorary Grand Marshalls E. Ethelbert Miller & Andy Shallal for a true People's Parade celebrating poetry. We'll start at the school at around noon (1324 18th Street NW, corner of Mass and 18th streets). Then on to the "Poem Bench" and "Whitman Wall" at the Red Line Metro, Q Street entrance. And then on to the Circle itself for impromptu poems written on demand by our talented faculty and students. Parade time is approximate. Total estimated time from noon to 2 pm See below for more: ********************************************* Poet E. Ethelbert Miller, Entrepreneur Andy Shallal Lead “Poets’ Parade” to Dupont Circle April 22 Emerson Preparatory High School Celebrates DC Poets, Walt Whitman’s National Legacy for National Poetry Month The Dupont Circle-based private Emerson Preparatory School will host poet and activist E. Ethelbert Miller and Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal in an appearance and commemorative parade to Miller’s Poem Bench and the “Whitman Wall” at the Q Street exit of the Dupont Circle Metro at noon on Friday, April 22. Thereafter, the group will proceed to the fountain at the Circle to set up a picnic and Poets at Work station, where passerby can request poems written on the spot. The route and approximate times for the parade--the first event of its kind in for the school--are attached. Author of 11 books of poetry and editor of 4 anthologies, E. Ethelbert Miller is a literary activist with an abiding interest in social justice. He chairs the board of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). He is a board member of The Writer's Center and editor of Poet Lore magazine. Since 1974, he has been the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University. Mr. Miller is the former chair of the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C. and a former core faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars at Bennington College. He contributed his lines to the Poem Bench project, sponsored by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority. Also at the location are lines from Walt Whitman’s “The Dresser,” penned during his time volunteering with injured soldiers during the Civil War. Both poems are dedicated to the memory of those who have died of AIDS and the legacy of those who still live with the disease. “I hope this event is the beginning of a tradition,” said Miller. “The celebration of poetry should be public as well as private. Wow - a poetry parade! I can hear Whitman singing as we prepare to march.” Miller also commented on the special significance of the lines he wrote for the Poem Bench: “This will also be a day of remembrance for me. The poem I wrote that surrounds the poetry bench in DuPont Circle was inspired by the life and work of Chasen Gaver and Essex Hemphill. Two gifted poets who left us too soon.” Andy Shallal is an artist, restauranteur, and peace activist who has owned several successful Washington, D.C. businesses and currently heads the Busboys & Poets chain of restaurant/bookstores, as well as Eatonville, an upscale southern restaurant named in honor of writer Zora Neale Hurston. (Busboys & Poets is an allusion to the discovery of a young Langston Hughes while he was a busboy at the Wardman Park hotel). Shallal is a recipient of the United Nations Human Rights Community Award and has been named Man of the Year by the Washington Peace Center. In addition to the parade, other schoolwide events in April will highlight the relevance of poetry in all the major disciplines: The English department will feature units on Walt Whitman and on 20th Century American poets in the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat Generation, the Vietnam era, and beyond; Faculty member and poet Derrick Weston Brown will read from his new book Wisdom Teeth: The Media Studies class will document the April 22 event; The Mathematics department will teach the math behind metered poetry, and students will use Java programming to generate poems. The Social Science department will teach units in American History and American Government on the mid-19th century background for Walt Whitman’s essay “Democratic Vistas”; The Italian class will study the work of the early 19th-century Romantic poet Giacomo Leopardi, in both the original Italian and in translation; The Science department will use poetry forms such as haiku and blank verse to explore ambitious concepts in Physics and Astronomy. Established in 1852 and recently featured in Washingtonian magazine among six innovative schools in Washington, D.C., Emerson Preparatory School has been in its present location in a comfortable Dupont Circle rowhouse at 1324 18th Street, NW for approximately 45 years. The school’s 160th senior class will graduate in June 2012. “You couldn’t ask for a richer classroom than Dupont Circle, or a richer place of learning than Washington, D.C.“ said John Morris Glick, Head of School at Emerson. “This is just the kind of experience we encourage at Emerson. We want to connect what kids learn in the classroom with what’s important and alive in their neighborhoods.” # # # Text of E. Ethelbert Miller’s lines at the Poem Bench, Q Street Exit, WMATA Red Line WE FOUGHT THE INVISIBLE We LOOKED TO ONE ANOTHER FOR COMFORT We HELD HANDS OF FRIENDS AND LOVERS WE DID NOT TURN OUR BACKS WE EMBRACED E.ETHELBERT MILLER 2005 POETRY PARADE DAY SCHEDULE & ITINERARY, Friday, April 22 11:00 a.m. - visit to Emerson Preparatory School by E. Ethelbert Miller and Andy Shallal School Library, first floor, 1324 18th Street, NW 12:15 (approximate) - Students, faculty, and special guests parade to Poem Bench/”The Dresser” (Whitman Wall) - Connecticut and Q Streets, WMATA Red Line Q Street exit 12:30 (approximate) - Brief dedication of words in memory of those who died or who live with AIDS in the District 12:45 (approximate) - continue to Dupont Circle fountain 1:00 p.m. - 3 p.m. (approximate) - picnic and Poets at Work table. Passersby can ask Emerson faculty and students to write poems for them on the spot.

More Info

LOAF WITH US! INVITE YOUR SOUL!

For a few brief hours on a sunny April Friday afternoon, escape your prosaic life and come celebrate poetry with us.

Join Emerson Prep's students and faculty, with Honorary Grand Marshalls E. Ethelbert Miller & Andy Shallal for a true People's Parade celebrating poetry.

We'll start at the school at around noon (1324 18th Street NW, corner of Mass and 18th streets).

Then on to the "Poem Bench" and "Whitman Wall" at the Red Line Metro, Q Street entrance.

And then on to the Circle itself for impromptu poems written on demand by our talented faculty and students. Parade time is approximate. Total estimated time from noon to 2 pm

See below for more:

*********************************************

Poet E. Ethelbert Miller, Entrepreneur Andy Shallal Lead “Poets’ Parade” to Dupont Circle April 22

Emerson Preparatory High School Celebrates DC Poets,
Walt Whitman’s National Legacy for National Poetry Month

The Dupont Circle-based private Emerson Preparatory School will host poet and activist E. Ethelbert Miller and Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal in an appearance and commemorative parade to Miller’s Poem Bench and the “Whitman Wall” at the Q Street exit of the Dupont Circle Metro at noon on Friday, April 22. Thereafter, the group will proceed to the fountain at the Circle to set up a picnic and Poets at Work station, where passerby can request poems written on the spot. The route and approximate times for the parade--the first event of its kind in for the school--are attached.

Author of 11 books of poetry and editor of 4 anthologies, E. Ethelbert Miller is a literary activist with an abiding interest in social justice. He chairs the board of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). He is a board member of The Writer's Center and editor of Poet Lore magazine. Since 1974, he has been the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University. Mr. Miller is the former chair of the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C. and a former core faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars at Bennington College. He contributed his lines to the Poem Bench project, sponsored by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority. Also at the location are lines from Walt Whitman’s “The Dresser,” penned during his time volunteering with injured soldiers during the Civil War. Both poems are dedicated to the memory of those who have died of AIDS and the legacy of those who still live with the disease.

“I hope this event is the beginning of a tradition,” said Miller. “The celebration of poetry should be public as well as private. Wow - a poetry parade! I can hear Whitman singing as we prepare to march.” Miller also commented on the special significance of the lines he wrote for the Poem Bench: “This will also be a day of remembrance for me. The poem I wrote that surrounds the poetry bench in DuPont Circle was inspired by the life and work of Chasen Gaver and Essex Hemphill. Two gifted poets who left us too soon.”

Andy Shallal is an artist, restauranteur, and peace activist who has owned several successful Washington, D.C. businesses and currently heads the Busboys & Poets chain of restaurant/bookstores, as well as Eatonville, an upscale southern restaurant named in honor of writer Zora Neale Hurston. (Busboys & Poets is an allusion to the discovery of a young Langston Hughes while he was a busboy at the Wardman Park hotel). Shallal is a recipient of the United Nations Human Rights Community Award and has been named Man of the Year by the Washington Peace Center.

In addition to the parade, other schoolwide events in April will highlight the relevance of poetry in all the major disciplines:

The English department will feature units on Walt Whitman and on 20th Century American poets in the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat Generation, the Vietnam era, and beyond;

Faculty member and poet Derrick Weston Brown will read from his new book Wisdom Teeth:

The Media Studies class will document the April 22 event;

The Mathematics department will teach the math behind metered poetry, and students will use Java programming to generate poems.

The Social Science department will teach units in American History and American Government on the mid-19th century background for Walt Whitman’s essay “Democratic Vistas”;

The Italian class will study the work of the early 19th-century Romantic poet Giacomo Leopardi, in both the original Italian and in translation;

The Science department will use poetry forms such as haiku and blank verse to explore ambitious concepts in Physics and Astronomy.

Established in 1852 and recently featured in Washingtonian magazine among six innovative schools in Washington, D.C., Emerson Preparatory School has been in its present location in a comfortable Dupont Circle rowhouse at 1324 18th Street, NW for approximately 45 years. The school’s 160th senior class will graduate in June 2012.

“You couldn’t ask for a richer classroom than Dupont Circle, or a richer place of learning than Washington, D.C.“ said John Morris Glick, Head of School at Emerson. “This is just the kind of experience we encourage at Emerson. We want to connect what kids learn in the classroom with what’s important and alive in their neighborhoods.”

# # #

Text of E. Ethelbert Miller’s lines at the Poem Bench, Q Street Exit, WMATA Red Line

WE FOUGHT THE INVISIBLE
We LOOKED TO ONE ANOTHER FOR COMFORT
We HELD HANDS OF FRIENDS AND LOVERS
WE DID NOT TURN OUR BACKS
WE EMBRACED

E.ETHELBERT MILLER 2005

POETRY PARADE DAY SCHEDULE & ITINERARY, Friday, April 22
11:00 a.m. - visit to Emerson Preparatory School by E. Ethelbert Miller and Andy Shallal
School Library, first floor, 1324 18th Street, NW

12:15 (approximate) - Students, faculty, and special guests parade to Poem Bench/”The Dresser” (Whitman Wall) - Connecticut and Q Streets, WMATA Red Line Q Street exit

12:30 (approximate) - Brief dedication of words in memory of those who died or who live with AIDS in the District

12:45 (approximate) - continue to Dupont Circle fountain
1:00 p.m. - 3 p.m. (approximate) - picnic and Poets at Work table.

Passersby can ask Emerson faculty and students to write poems for them on the spot.