Poetry Readings

Hagerstown Community College, The Herald-Mail Co. and the Community Foundation of Washington County will sponsor the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Celebration on Monday, Jan. 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Athletic, Recreation and Community Center at HCC. The celebration will begin with interactive diversity workshops for elementary students, middle/high school students and college students/adults. Marvin Worthy, educational consultant and trainer, will deliver the keynote address, "Dr. King's Message in 2008.

Hagerstown Community College will sponsor its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Celebration on Monday, Jan. 19, from 1 to 3 p.m. in Kepler Theater at HCC. The celebration will begin with a musical performance by the Greater Campher Temple Gospel and conclude with a dramatic rendition of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, performed by the Rev. Darin Mency. The event will also include musical, dramatic and video performances, as well as poetry readings. Students, staff and faculty are involved in planning this event, which is free and open to the public.

Hagerstown Community College will hold “An Evening of Music and Poetry”  Saturday, Feb. 9, beginning at 7:30 p.m., at Kepler Center. Sponsored by a number of student clubs and the HCC music department, the event will feature classical compositions performed by HCC students and staff, as well as poetry readings. Readings will include work by well-known poets, as well as original pieces written by students, faculty and staff. Tickets cost $20 each and advance registration is required.

Hagerstown Community College will hold a launch party for the most recent publication of its literary arts magazine, the Hedge Apple, on Thursday, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Student Center. The reception will begin with prose and poetry readings by recent Hedge Apple contributors. Workshops on fiction, poetry and publishing also will be offered. The event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is not required. The Hedge Apple is published once a year by the students and faculty of HCC, and features poetry, short fiction and artwork by HCC students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Tonight The Orion Society will host a Mid-Summer's Day celebration at Antietam National Battlefield with music, luminaires, poetry and more. There will be a rededication by Barry Lopez, poetry readings by Pattiann Rogers and past Poet Laureate of the United States Robert Hass. Award-winning writer Terry Tempest Williams will introduce an open forum. The free program starts at 7:45 p.m. and is open to the public. The Orion Society is an environmental education organization that supports a network for grassroots environmental and community organizations across North America.

Military band concert Free Country, the U.S. Marine Band's contemporary country music ensemble, will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, on the lawn behind the Mather Training Center at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. See page B4. Sotto Voce Poetry Festival Poetry festival includes several free events Friday through Sunday in Shepherdstown, W.Va., including poetry readings. Check out the schedule at www.somondocopress.com/SottoVoce/schedule.htm . First Saturday in Frederick, Md. International music, dancers and activities from around the world in 15 downtown blocks.

Sitting beneath a canopy of aging oak trees, Christo Johnson shared his poetry about fathers, freedom and the challenges of youth. Johnson, an adjunct professor at Delaware State University, was among the participants Saturday at Art in the Park. The two-day event at the amphitheater at Doub's Woods Park is sponsored by the Contemporary School of the Arts and Gallery in Hagerstown. It will continue today from noon to 6 p.m. Johnson said he has read his poetry at many venues, but never outdoors.

bonnieb@herald-mail.com GREENCASTLE, Pa. - A dozen area residents gathered around for the love of poetry on a recent Friday evening. They listened to and discussed works by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Mary Oliver, as well as their own poetry, while sipping hot drinks at Cup O' Joe, a warm, homey coffee shop in Greencastle. With its sofa, ice cream parlor-style tables and chairs, hardwood floor and the aroma of specialty coffee, Cup O' Joe seems an ideal setting for the every-other-month gatherings.

There have been times when Benita Keller's photography has taken her beyond the edge of politics. As she waited to go through customs leaving Nigeria in 1989, the first of her international excursions, she realized that the armed guards were confiscating the film of the people in her group. "Can they do that?" she asked the airline representative. "They can do anything they want. They have machine guns," was her answer. She had 60 rolls of film she didn't want to lose. She asked for help, and the pilot smuggled it out in his luggage.

HAGERSTOWN -- Before beginning his annual rendition of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at Hagerstown Community College's Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Celebration Monday, the Rev. Darin Mency warned the audience he might get a little emotional. Knowing that the country was 24 hours away from swearing in its first black president gave King's words new meaning this year, Mency said after the program. "It made it hard to go forward because I was forward-thinking of different parts," he said.

Tears rolled down Maria Edmonds face as she read her original poem titled “After,” written as an outlet to her experiences as a victim of domestic abuse. The emotion on Edmonds' face, in her voice as she read - even in her breaths between words as she collected herself - was palpable. “I started writing out of desperation to heal,” said Edmonds, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) Club at Hagerstown Community College. “And I just felt like writing poetry was an appropriate vehicle to express emotions that I really have a hard time containing sometimes.” As a way to raise awareness about the topic, a group of about 30 people - including men and women of all ages - gathered inside HCC's student center Thursday night to celebrate V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women.

Hagerstown Community College will hold “An Evening of Music and Poetry”  Saturday, Feb. 9, beginning at 7:30 p.m., at Kepler Center. Sponsored by a number of student clubs and the HCC music department, the event will feature classical compositions performed by HCC students and staff, as well as poetry readings. Readings will include work by well-known poets, as well as original pieces written by students, faculty and staff. Tickets cost $20 each and advance registration is required.

Hagerstown Community College will hold a launch party for the most recent publication of its literary arts magazine, the Hedge Apple, on Thursday, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Student Center. The reception will begin with prose and poetry readings by recent Hedge Apple contributors. Workshops on fiction, poetry and publishing also will be offered. The event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is not required. The Hedge Apple is published once a year by the students and faculty of HCC, and features poetry, short fiction and artwork by HCC students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Brianne Wade loves the moment when she gets a "deep connection" with a piece of poetry she is reading on stage. The Boonsboro High School student apparently knows how to do it right, given her first-place finish in the Poetry Out Loud competition held Wednesday afternoon at the Central Office of Washington County Public Schools in Hagerstown. Eight students competed in the event. Two other top winners will join Wade in a regional competition at the Washington County Fine Arts Museum on Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. Joining Wade at the regional competition will be Bryce Boyd, who was the second-place winner, and third-place winner Kaleb Singleton.

HAGERSTOWN -- Before beginning his annual rendition of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at Hagerstown Community College's Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Celebration Monday, the Rev. Darin Mency warned the audience he might get a little emotional. Knowing that the country was 24 hours away from swearing in its first black president gave King's words new meaning this year, Mency said after the program. "It made it hard to go forward because I was forward-thinking of different parts," he said.

Hagerstown Community College will sponsor its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Celebration on Monday, Jan. 19, from 1 to 3 p.m. in Kepler Theater at HCC. The celebration will begin with a musical performance by the Greater Campher Temple Gospel and conclude with a dramatic rendition of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, performed by the Rev. Darin Mency. The event will also include musical, dramatic and video performances, as well as poetry readings. Students, staff and faculty are involved in planning this event, which is free and open to the public.

Military band concert Free Country, the U.S. Marine Band's contemporary country music ensemble, will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, on the lawn behind the Mather Training Center at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. See page B4. Sotto Voce Poetry Festival Poetry festival includes several free events Friday through Sunday in Shepherdstown, W.Va., including poetry readings. Check out the schedule at www.somondocopress.com/SottoVoce/schedule.htm . First Saturday in Frederick, Md. International music, dancers and activities from around the world in 15 downtown blocks.

Tom Donlon, Pepper Ballard, Ethan Fischer, Sonja James, Christo D. Johnson, Art Page, Ed Zahniser, Paul Grant, Miranda Brown and Tony Johns were at Contemporary School for the Arts and Gallery Inc. on April 5 for a free poetry reading event. Cellist Mia Hoover provided music. The gallery is at 4 W. Franklin St. in downtown Hagerstown.

HAGERSTOWN -- There was regret and resolve; faith and bafflement; derision and sanction. Ten area poets presented a gamut of themes and styles Saturday at a poetry reading at Contemporary School of the Arts and Gallery in Hagerstown. Several poets addressed humanitarian issues. Christo Johnson, 31, of Bowie, Md., earnestly spoke of mentoring and healing. "My motivation is to inspire," he said. Miranda Brown of Hagerstown read a similarly themed poem "Flight," which was injected with a grounded and playful humor.

For a moment, award-winning writer William Heath thought he was going to be the next Bob Cousy, the Boston Celtic's "Houdini of the Hardwood. " Two novels and more than one hundred poems later, Heath, 65, has just finished his third novel. His life experiences - basketball included - now provide ample material for his work. "My ambition has been to be a man of letters," said Heath, from his home in Frederick, Md. "I like the idea of being able to write in various forms. " An essayist, novelist and poet, Heath will join two other writers Sunday during a poetry and music program at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, the last set of readings in "A Change of Pace: Poetry & Music," a series that began in October 2007.