Oh May. What a big month you are. And actually it is always in May that Poetica seems to find its centre. A deep dive into poetry, into the coming winter months, into darker nights and cooler mornings, and a celebration of the word and the song.

Let’s start with a writing workshop on May 2 – Poems as Prompts with Miriam Hechtman. The April workshop had to be postponed so it is happening on May 2. Book if you haven’t already. All details in this link: https://events.humanitix.com/poems-as-prompts-writing-workshop-5-rtfeetmf

Then, on May 7, we are ever so excited to have Pádraig Ó Tuama back in town for a night of poetry and conversation, songs with Huck Hastings, and a curated open mic. This event is in partnership with the very good people at Gertrude & Alice Bookstore. Book here: https://events.humanitix.com/padraig-o-tuama-returns-to-poetica

Poet and theologian, Pádraig Ó Tuama’s work centres around themes of language, power, conflict and religion. Working fluently on the page and in public, he is a compelling poet and skilled speaker, teacher and group worker. He presents Poetry Unbound with On Being Studios. From 2014-2019 he was the leader of the Corrymeela Community, Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation community. With undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in theology, multiple professional qualifications in conflict mediation (specialising in groups), he also holds a PhD (Poetry & Theology) from the University of Glasgow. For the Autumn terms of 2024-28, he is a visiting scholar at the centre for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University.

When BBC journalist William Crawley introduced Pádraig on the stage to deliver a TEDx talk on Story, Crawley said, “He’s probably the best public speaker I know.” Profiling Ó Tuama in The New Yorker, journalist and poet Eliza Grizwold wrote “Poetry, for him, is the language the heart speaks not when it reaches for some externalized divinity but when it seeks to understand itself.”

Then the following night on May 8 we welcome back Jessica Chapnik Kahn with her book of poetry MADRE, but this time she returns with composer Anna Hirst Friedman who has selected several poems from the book and put them to music. They will be performed by a six-piece vocal ensemble for the works’ debut performance of the poems as song. Jessica and Anna will also be in conversation with Miriam about the process of making these poems sing. Plus there’s the open mic on the theme of Mother. A big, beautiful night.
Book here.

HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!

Miriam