Art and Poetry at the Hamilton Club in Paterson

Allen Ginsberg Award First Place Winner Jim Reese
and Poetry Center Director Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Winners of the Allen Ginsberg Award for poetry read their poems at an event on February 2, 2019. The reading was preceded by the opening reception for the gallery show, "Women Dreaming of Doors: Paintings and Prints" by Linda Hillringhouse. With both events being held in the Hamilton Club Gallery, a "full house" crowd generally came to not only view the paintings, but also to hear the poetry.

Readers included first prize winner Jim Reese (Yankton, SD), second prize winner Maria Fama (Philadelphia, PA) and third prize winner Lorraine Conlin (Wantagh, NY) . Also  reading were a number of Honorable Mention and Editor's Choice recipients.

Conjurer with Six Rings - Linda Hillringhouse

Linda Hillringhouse told northjersey.com that the show's title, "Women Dreaming of Doors," was inspired by her belief that "women in general, at least historically, have had doors shut in their faces and have had to find other doors, or backdoors. For me personally, I really spent a lifetime struggling to open internal doors to know myself and I was often surprised by what was behind them."

Hillringhouse's artwork is featured at The Museum of American Folk Art in New York City as part of the 20th Century Self-Taught Artists Archive Collection. Locally, her work has been featured at the Newark Museum, Paterson Museum, Belskie Museum and at universities, including William Paterson University’s Ben Shahn Center for Visual Arts, the Weinstein Gallery at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Yale School of Art.

Linda Hillringhouse discussing her paintings at the gallery show.

Linda is also a published poet with an MFA in poetry from Columbia University. She taught at Passaic County Community College for 25 years.

“I thought the connection between her as a poet and her as an artist was a very interesting connection,” said Maria Mazziotti Gillan, founder and executive director of the poetry center at Passaic County Community College. “Her paintings are so vibrant and alive, and she’s very much like that,” Gillan said.