POETRY POTLUCK Verse in Good Taste
Celebrating 30 Years of Writers in the Schools

Friday, November 5, 2021
Virtual, Live-Streamed Program 7 p.m.

HoCoPoLitSo opens its 47th literary season November 5 with Poetry Potluck, a program to celebrate its 30th year of providing a writer-in-residence to the Howard County public high schools. As part of the 2021 Lucille Clifton Reading Series, Poetry Potluck celebrates the beloved Lucille Clifton, who served as HoCoPoLitSo’s first writer-in-residence, and as its longtime artistic director. With technical and artistic support by HCC’s Arts Collective, this year’s program features four local poets, each of whom served as HoCoPoLitSo’s literary ambassadors, reading and discussing their food-inspired poetry.

The program, beginning at 7 p.m., will be live-streamed from kitchens of poets and former writers-in-residence Sandra Beasley, Steven Leyva, Alan King, and this year’s poet Naomi Ayala.
The evening will also honor Howard County teachers with FREE admission* and a special message from poet Taylor Mali, author of “What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World.”

10 general admission*
Reservations required via HCC Box Office — Click here: to make your reservation: https://ci.ovationtix.com/32275/production/1080760

*Howard County teachers with a valid @hcpss.org email can request a complimentary ticket by emailing BoxOffice@howardcc.edu

HoCoPoLitSo Celebrates its 44th Annual Irish Evening with Former & Future Guests

Friday, February 11, 2022
Online, 7:30 p.m.

HoCoPoLitSo’s 44th annual Irish Evening of Music and Poetry on Friday, February 11, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. features an amazing roster of Irish writers sharing their memories of past visits. Colm Tóibín, Alice McDermott, Colum McCann, Mike McCormack, Vona Groarke, Theo Dorgan and Paula Meehan will virtually grace our stage, along with music by O’Malley’s March and step dancers from the Teelin Irish Dance Company. General admission is $20 and available at the Howard Community Box Office, https://ci.ovationtix.com/32275/production/1095249 or by calling 443.518.1500.

The evening program, co-chaired by Anne Reis and Ed Young and hosted on Zoom this year, begins with a pre-show at 7:20 p.m. and will pay tribute to Irish evenings of the past and introduce poet Mary Madec. The evening includes an introduction by Daniel Mulhall, Ireland’s Ambassador to the U.S, music by O’Malley’s March fronted by former MD. Governor Martin O’Malley, and award-winning dancers from the Teelin Irish Dance Company.

Six writers to have previously visited HoCoPoLitSo will share tributes to departing Irish chairperson, Catherine McLoughlin Hayes, and the founder of Irish eve, Padraic Kennedy, and read from their award-winning works. Vona Groarke, who visited in 2019, is the author of ten books of poetry and winner of numerous awards. Colum McCann, who visited both 1999 and 2013, received both the National Book Award and the Dublin Literary Award. His most recent book, Apeirogon, was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Poet and playwright Paula Meehan also visited twice, in 2000 and 2014. Theo Dorgan, who visited in 2014, is a poet, writer, lecturer, translator, and documentary screenwriter. Alice McDermott, who visited in 2020, was nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize and was a recipient of the National Book Award. Colm Tóibín visited in 1999 and again in 2011. A winner of the Dublin Literary Prize, Tóibín received the 2021 David Cohen Prize for Literature, a lifetime achievement award. Mike McCormack visited us in 2018 and his newest novel, Solar Bones, won the Dublin Literary Award. Newcomer Mary Madec’s third poetry collection is The Egret Lands with News From Other Parts (2019).

Blackbird Poetry Festival – Molly McCully Brown
Thursday, April 28th, 2022

On Campus at Howard Community College – A day full of student events
followed by an evening reading for the community.

In partnership with Howard Community College, the Blackbird Poetry Festival returns in-person this year with a day of events dedicated to Poetry for Every Body featuring Molly McCully Brown. Each year, the festival features poetry workshops, a free event open to the public called Sunbird, and an evening ticketed event called Nightbird.

Student events:

Poetry Police 10am-11:30am

To celebrate National Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 28th, we’re seeking a few volunteers for the Poetry Police Force. Poetry Police will roam the halls and outdoor spaces distributing rewards and (poetry) citations to encourage reading and sharing of poetry. Poetry Police receive an official festival t-shirt.  To volunteer for a shift or for more information, contact our Poetry Police Captain Rick Leith at rleith@howardcc.edu.

Morning Songs Workshop 11:00am-12:15pm in RCF 400

Featuring Molly McCully Brown (bio below)
Festival poet Molly McCully Brown will lead a workshop on The Uses of the Body: “In many ways, every story is about the body. No one lives apart from theirs, and so no writer, speaker or character exists fully removed from the simultaneously fragile and indispensable fact of a corporeal existence. Stories are lived in bodies and made in them; language itself is created in breathing and muscle, in gesture, contraction, release. But In this generative workshop we’ll take a look at the way several poets have explicitly conjured the physical reality(ies) of the body on the page, in health and illness, in youth and aging, in joy and in grief. Then, we’ll use these models as a jumping off point to write and share our own poems in, and of, the body.” – Molly McCully Brown

Participants should come prepared to write. For more information, contact Tara Hart (thart@howardcc.edu) or Brian Martin (bmartin@howardcc.edu). Diversity Index TBA

Sunbird Reading 2:30pm-4:00pm in RCF 400

Molly McCully Brown will be joined by students, faculty, staff, and community members for an afternoon of poetry. This event is free and open to the public. After the scheduled readings, there will be an opportunity to share your own poem during our ‘open mic’ session. For more information, contact Brian Martin (bmartin@howardcc.edu). Diversity Index TBA

Community Reading:

Nightbird Reading with Molly McCully Brown

Thursday April • 7:30 p.m.
Monteabaro Recital Hall
Howard Community College