HENNING TO PRESENT COLLEGE OF POETRY WORKSHOP
Saturday, December 6, 1:00pm
In Seligmann's Studio (Upper Level of Barn)
In Seligmann's Studio (Upper Level of Barn)
The Seligmann Center, 23 White Oak Drive, Chester, NY 10918

Thirty Miles to Rosebud (BlazeVOX, 2009).
FINAL POETRY ON THE LOOSE READING FEATURES
FOUNDER WILLIAM SEATON
Saturday, December 6, 3:30pm
In Seligmann's Studio (Upper Level of Barn)
The Seligmann Center, 23 White Oak Drive, Chester, NY 1091
to the first reading.
That night he greeted the audience, saying, “Welcome to Poetry on the Loose. This is poetry off the printed page, out of the library and the classroom, poetry in the air.” Anecdotes of that early period are posted on his blog at http://williamseaton.blogspot.com/2011/09/poetry-on-loose.html. Since then the readings have moved several times, for several years to Warwick and then to the Seligmann Center in Sugar Loaf.
The original concept was to emphasize multi-media, experimental, and performance-based work, and indeed, poets have included dance, music, and theatrical elements with their words, though readers have frequently presented their work conventionally from behind a lectern. Over the years a great many local poets have been featured as well as visiting writers from across the country and abroad. In accordance with the series slogan “The door is open wide,” readers have included men and women, gay and straight, old and young, dropouts and university professors, composers of free verse and of sonnets.
In Seaton’s words, “A reading offers an opportunity for neighbors to share their visions, wit, rants, and lyric moments face to face in an uncommodified setting. The excitement, refreshment, and enlightenment audiences experience is a far cry from the robotized sensation that arises after watching television. I don’t mind ending the series now because there are dozens of other poetry venues all through the Hudson Valley. As I said in the introduction to our short-lived journal The Wawayanda Review, ‘May the rose bloom and the thistle and the orchid and the dandelion, too!’”
Seaton intends to read at other sites and continues to work with the Seligmann Center where he will offer his fifth Surreal Cabaret (co-produced with Steve Roe), an evening of performance art, on January 3. He maintains a blog at williamseaton.blogspot.com.
PLEASE NOTE: Wednesday, December 3rd Potluck is cancelled.