March

Poetry brings people together and lets our hearts swell and words flow. From the birth of a child to retirement from a decades- long career to the afternoon light on a river, poems can capture the essence of the moments large and seemingly small that define us. But what makes a poem poetry? How does it speak in ways that are unique to the art form? This two-week forum presented by published poet and Assistant Professor of English, Creative Writing and Communication Studies Margaret LeMay will introduce audiences to the beauty, craft and relatability of poetry. In the first session, we will discuss foundational elements of poetry composed in English, explain how those work in a selection of poems and introduce various poetic forms. We will experience the words of Shakespeare, Elizabeth Bishop, Mary Oliver, Ada Limόn, Jorie Graham and Billy Collins among others, and poetic forms from free verse to sonnets to sestinas. Participants will also have the option to compose a poem of their own. In week two, we will turn to hearing and collectively partaking in poetry. Professor LeMay will read a selection of her work; participants can share their newly composed poems; and Coe student poets will join us for an intergenerational discussion about poetry’s role in our lives. Throughout, the series will illuminate poetry’s power to distill experience and emotion, connect us in our specific and common experiences and elevate the voices of those who came before or follow us.

Trends in Americans’ reading habits suggest there is both a need and an opportunity to “turn the page” when it comes to developing lifelong pleasure in reading. Book clubs remain popular and sales show upticks in adult and adolescent interest in fiction. But data also shows that people less often read for fun, with children across ages and skill levels in a particular slump. This one-week forum presented by Assistant Professor of Education Stacy Haynes-Moore will explain how people develop as lifelong readers by cultivating joy in learning to read and reading to learn. The session will explain readers’ educational and developmental processes and how people develop senses of themselves as readers. As an audience, we will consider how we read, what we enjoy about reading, what we remember about learning to read and which reading experiences shaped us. We will then examine changes and continuities in approaches to reading to better understand what today’s school-aged children and teens read (or don’t). We will address some of today’s challenges for educators and students, including the evolution of digital technologies, uses of scripted curriculum, and issues of literature censorship, and what we as individuals and a society can do to cultivate a joy of reading.