Poetry Workshops with Martín Espada & Chen Chen May 4

The Poetry Center offers poetry writing workshops in conjunction with the Distinguished Poets Reading Series. Over the years, distinguished poets have included poet laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Inaugural poets and others of national and international reputation, such as Allen Ginsberg, William Stafford, Amiri Baraka, Lucille Clifton, Stanley Kunitz, Billy Collins, Marge Piercy, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, Kim Addonizio, Billy Collins, Dorianne Laux, Robert Sward, Patricia Smith, Martín Espada, Toi Derricotte and Richard Blanco.

On Saturday, May 4, 2024, the Center is offering in-person workshops with Martín Espada and Chen Chen.

The workshops will be held at the Poetry Center in Paterson from 10 AM – 12  PM EST and will be followed by the poets reading at the Center at 1 PM EST. These in-person readings include an open reading opportunity for you after the featured poets.

Information and the registration form are available at poetrycenterpccc.com/workshops 

Maria Gillan: The Creation and Future of the Poetry Center at PCCC

"One of the things I was trying to do in starting a poetry center in Paterson was to involve as many people as possible in loving poetry the way I love poetry. I wanted them interested in poetry as readers, listeners and writers.

I’ve read my own poems in Italy and other countries, and I found that there are a lot of poetry communities all over the world. Why not in Paterson, New Jersey? It is where I grew up but it has a rich history including Allen Ginsberg and William Carlos Williams. 

I love conducting a poetry workshop in-person but after the COVID pandemic when we started doing readings and workshops virtually, I realized there were some advantages. We could reach an audience who would never come to Paterson either because it was at a distance or because they just were not comfortable going out to events. I have had people do a workshop with me in Italy and then because of that connection, they come to my workshops in the United States on Zoom.

The past year and this year we have split our reading series from the Poetry Center between in-person and virtual readings and workshops in the hope of offering something that suits different needs."

Maria with Allen Ginsberg at the Poetry Center

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

Poem: What I Didn't Learn in School

WHAT I DIDN’T LEARN IN SCHOOL

I didn’t learn geometry, except for the shortest distance

Between two points is a straight line. The rest was a blur

 

Through which I stumbled, confused and uncertain,

My mind tuning out when poor bald-headed Mr. McGinn

 

Tried to explain geometry to all the Alpha class

Math students who caught on right away.

 

Mr. McGinn was going to fail me that first semester.

I walked up to his desk, held out my report card,

 

The marks all written in neat black fountain-pen ink,

And his head snapped up in shock. On my report card

 

My marks, 95, 100, 95, 100, 100, 100. Is this your

report card? he asked, and I saw his pen hesitate

 

While he thought it over. Slowly, he wrote in a 75.

I went back to my desk, knowing I didn’t deserve to pass,

 

But knowing too that nothing would make me learn geometry,

Not Mr. McGinn with his big, shiny head, not the pity

 

In his blue eyes when he looked at me. He never called on me

Again. I did the homework each night, struggling to understand,

 

And for the first time, I knew what it was like for those kids

Who always had trouble in school. I was an Alpha kid.

 

We were the brightest kids in the school. Our classes were held

On the third floor, a symbol that we deserved the top.

 

How humiliating, then to watch the other Alpha kids learn

All those lines and angles without effort. I sat, still as a beaten dog,

 

Tears trembling in my eyes, while I tried to wrap my mind

Around theorems but always failed.

by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

originally appeared in Rattle

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

April 6 Poetry Prize Reading withTom Sleigh and Joshua Barrett

Joshua Bennett of Braintree, MA, and Tom Sleigh of Brooklyn, NY, won the 2023 Paterson Poetry Prize. Bennett won for The Study of Human Life (Penguin Books, New York, NY), and Sleigh won for The King’s Touch: Poems (Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, MN). They each received $1,000. 

Both poets will be featured readers at The Poetry Center on April 6, 2024. The reading is free and open to the public. Directions at poetrycenterpccc.com/directions

The annual award is given by The Poetry Center at PCCC for a poetry collection published in the previous year. 

Tom Sleigh

Joshua Bennett

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

Upcoming Readings and Workshops at the Poetry Center in Paterson

The Poetry Center at PCCC in Paterson, New Jersey offers poetry writing workshops in conjunction with the Distinguished Poets Reading Series. 

Poets will give a poetry reading following their workshop. The readings whether in-person or virtual are always free and open to the public.

Readings remaining in the 2023-2024 series:

4/6/2024  The 2023 Paterson Poetry Prize Winners Reading with Joshua Bennett & Tom Sleigh

5/4/2024  Martín Espada & Chen Chen 

5/18/2024  Jennifer Poteet  (virtual workshop & reading) 

For information on the readings and bios of the poets see poetrycenterpccc.com/readings 

Readings are also recorded and available on The Poetry Center's YouTube channel

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.