POETRY
MENTORING PROGRAM, 2007-2009
Coordinated
by Dr. David B. Axelrod,
Suffolk
County
Poet Laureate
Sponsored
by Writers Unlimited with funding from:
[You
as a contributor, your business or organization... Funding is now
actively sought!]
Our
program was supported by a number of donors!
A
grant
for a part of our costs from Wal-Mart
Good, Works Programs.
A "Founders Award" from America
the Beautiful Fund
of Washington, D.C.
A
generous donation from Anthony J. Botiglione, President of Anthony's
Roofing.
A
donation from Len Fulton of Dustbooks
to give each young poet a free subscription of the The
Small Press Review.
My
own 3WS, World-Wide
Writers Services, donated funds to my activities as
Poet Laureate and to the Young Poets program.
A
wonderful independent bookstore, Runaway
Bay Books Inc,
helped sponsor young poets before its closing in the winter of
2009.
The
North Sea Poetry Scene, directed by our new laureate,Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan,
made a generous donation.
One
of our mentors, Jeannette Klimzseski, gave us a fine donation.
THE
PREMISE FOR THE PROGRAM:
There is no greater contribution to any community or art than
assuring a rich resource of talented young participants.
Suffolk
County
has a wealth of
established and highly creative poets. It is proposed that forty
published poets and/or teachers take up the roll of mentor and
present forty young poets whose work they will encourage, help
revise, format and submit for publication. Thus, a larger
community of interest will be generated and an even larger
populous served, assuring the continued health and growth of the
art of poetry in
Suffolk
County
.
Long Island
's cultural heritage
is forever commingled with the personalities of such eminent
authors as Walt Whitman and John Hall Wheelock, or others less
known such as Bloodgood
Haviland Cutter: "
Long
Island
's
Farmer Poet,"
or John Howard Payne,
America
's
first actor to play Hamlet, who was also a poet.
Our premise begins with the idea that poetry is not an
isolated phenomenon but rather a lively, community activity which
is as at home in the outdoors as in any classroom. Activities that
will derive from the core program for young authors will go far
beyond just a literary activity. Events sited at such places as
the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Huntington,
at Guild Hall in Southampton,
at the Long Island Convention Center on the campus of
Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, will combine graphic arts,
music and of course poetry.
Schools, libraries, other public places and organizations
will be invited to participate in the project. The overall
program, when combined with website promotion and the print
publication of materials, should reach tens of thousands of people
of all ages. In short, this seems a worthy project for the
America
the
Beautiful Fund to support.
