National Poetry Project launches with planning meeting Oct. 31-Nov.1 at KU

LAWRENCE -- Four members of the national advisory board for the Langston Hughes National Poetry Project will attend a two-day planning meeting at the University of Kansas Friday, Oct. 31, and Saturday, Nov. 1.

During a noon luncheon Oct. 31, members of the national advisory board for the federally funded project will meet with the project staff and with the men and women who will conduct poetry circles in 20 sites nationwide in 2004.

Maryemma Graham, project director, and Barbara Watkins, co-director, will review the scope of the project funded with a $224,959 National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Graham is a KU professor of English and Watkins is a continuing education program manager.

"Our goals with the national project include promoting the power of poetry and increasing public access to poetry through informal, focused discussions," Graham said. Hughes' poetry appeals to audiences of all generations, races and nations, and interest in his work cuts across socioeconomic lines, she added. Victor Bailey, director of KU's Hall Center for the Humanities, and Richard Hardin, chair of KU's English department, will introduce the advisory board for the project, officially titled "Speaking of Rivers: Taking Poetry to the People."

The national advisory board members attending this weekend's meeting are:

 • Mary Beth Blake, attorney, from Shook, Hardy and Bacon in Kansas City, Mo.
 • Sandra Gibbs, director of special programs for the National Council of Teachers of English in Urbana, Ill.
 • Nancy Hiebert, representing the Lawrence/Douglas County (Kan.) National Heritage Area committee
 • Jerry W. Ward Jr., poet and professor of English at Dillard University in New Orleans

The advisory board includes five more members:

 • Arnold Rampersad, Sarah Hart Kimball professor of English, Stanford University in California, and the official biographer for Langston Hughes and executor of the Hughes estate
 • Juanita Moore, executive director, American Jazz Museum, Kansas City, Mo.
 • Sheila Biddle, history professor, Columbia University in New York City, and a former program officer with the Ford Foundation
 • Charles Flowers, executive director, American Academy of Poets in New York City
 • Kevin Powell, poet, editor and cultural critic, New York City Biddle and Rampersad also serve as consulting advisers for the national poetry project.

The national project includes poetry circles at five sites in Lawrence; one each in Wichita and Kansas City, Mo.; two in Seattle and San Diego; and one each in nine more cities across the nation: Atlanta; Baltimore; Chicago; Colorado Springs; Corona, N.Y.; Jackson, Miss.; New Orleans; New York City; and Washington, D.C. In addition, the NEH grant supports a Web site permitting national access to discussions evolving from the poetry circles.

Dates for the poetry circles will be announced later through the facilitators attending the planning meeting. Poetry circles will include 20 to 25 people from all walks of life, particularly adults who have a passion for reading but have had few opportunities to meet poets and join poetry discussions.

The national project extends a public discussion of the legacy of the renowned American poet Langston Hughes that began in 2002 with a celebration in Lawrence of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Hughes (1902-1967) lived in Lawrence and Topeka during his childhood years.

Others making presentations at the planning meeting include:

From Springfield College campus in San Diego
Ross Talarico, associate professor and director of the writing program at Springfield College

From Kean University in Union, N.J.
Sarah Ducksworth, professor of English

From Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Md.
Reginald Harris, director of information technology support

From Firethorn Films in New York City
Madison Davis "Dave" Lacy, independent film producer and documentary producer who will be KU's Langston Hughes visiting professor in theatre and film and in African and African-American studies for spring 2004

From Johnson County Community College in Overland Park
Carmaletta Williams, professor of English

From Lawrence
Janet Campbell, director of Kansas Public Radio and Audio-Reader Network at KU
Brian Daldolph, KU assistant professor of English
Heather Hoy, development director, Van Go Mobile Arts Inc.
Kavya Koushik, Web manager for the national poetry project
Lynn Lipsey, KU Continuing Education
Joyce McCray Pearson, librarian, KU Wheat Law Library
Edgar Tidwell, KU associate professor of English
Alison Watkins, communication and outreach officer, KU Graduate School and Office of International Programs
Sandra Wiechert, retired, Lawrence Public Library
Doretha Williams, KU graduate student in American studies and manager for the national project