Poets read work to be displayed on Luzerne County buses in Wilkes-Barre on Aug. 11
From a press release:
Award-winning community program Poetry in Transit announced the 2017 contributing poets today whose work will be featured on Luzerne County Transportation Authority buses.
The poems stay up for one year, with a monthly rotation so that riders can see all poems over time. The theme for the 2017 program is “migration,” which is reflected in the selected poems.
Poetry in Transit will launch on Friday, Aug. 11 at 5 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble Wilkes-Kings Bookstore on Public Square in downtown Wilkes-Barre (7 S. Main St. #1, Wilkes-Barre). The public is welcome to come and celebrate as the 2017 contributing poets share their work.
Mischelle Anthony, Wilkes University associate professor of English, continues to coordinate the program, which began in 2007 and is now in its 11th year. Poetry in Transit was inspired by the rejuvenated Poetry in Motion program on New York’s Transit System and London’s Poems on the Underground. The Luzerne County project began in 2007 with 12 placards featuring the work of established and canonized poets such as William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost. The work of local poets was introduced to the project in 2008.
2017 contributing poets and their featured poems:
- Bob Quarteroni, Swoyersville – untitled poem
- Rob Burnside, Kingston – untitled poem
- James Hearne, Drums – “Strangers at a Wake”
- Barbara Crooker, Fogelsville – “The Map of the World, 1630”
- Tom Johnson-Medland, Mount Pocono – “The Basement of My Days”
- V. Irene Mike, Dallas – “Go Figure”
- JoAnn Wolinsky, Forty Fort – “Migration”
- J.P. Dubik, Beaumont – “The Shift Begins”
- Jon Lastovica, Plains Twp. – “You Can Count On Me”
- Sara Pisak, Sugarloaf – “Flight”
- Richard Aston, Wilkes-Barre – “Aloft with Simon”
- John Lemuel Woods, Plains Twp. – “On the Border”
- Brian Leemoon, Wilkes-Barre – “Who Am I?”
- Anne Aimetti Thomas, Plains Twp. – “The Poet’s Migration to Truth”
- Maria Jacketti, Hazleton – “The Great Migration”
Wilkes University is an independent institution of higher education dedicated to academic and intellectual excellence through mentoring in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional programs. Founded in 1933, the university is on a mission to create one of the great small universities, offering all of the programs, activities, and opportunities of a large, research university in the intimate, caring, and mentoring environment of a small liberal arts college, at a cost that is increasingly competitive with public universities. The Economist named Wilkes 25th in the nation for the value of its education for graduates.
In addition to 42 bachelor degree programs, Wilkes offers 25 master’s degree programs and four doctoral/terminal degree programs, including the doctor of nursing practice, doctor of education, doctor of pharmacy, and master of fine arts in creative writing.
See the list of 2016 poets and their poems here.
