The Camden Public Library and the Stewardship Education Alliance (S.E.A.) are delighted to welcome Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum for an evening of poetry to kick off the two-week “Poetry on Windows” (POW!) celebration in downtown Camden. Kestenbaum will read selections of his work, discuss the creative process, and participate in a question and answer session with the audience. The presentation will take place on Zoom. Please email [email protected] to request a link to attend.
Stuart Kestenbaum is the author of six collections of poems, most recently Things Seemed to Be Breaking (Deerbrook Editions 2021), and a collection of essays The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press). He was the host of the Maine Public Radio program Poems from Here and the host/curator of the podcasts Make/Time and Voices of the Future. He was the director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 until 2015. More recently, working with the Libra Foundation, he has designed and implemented a residency program for artists and writers called Monson Arts. Kestenbaum has written and spoken widely on craft making and creativity, and his poems and writing have appeared in numerous small press publications and magazines including Tikkun, the Sun, the Beloit Poetry Journal, the New York Times Magazine, and on the Writer’s Almanac and American Life in Poetry. He served as Maine’s poet laureate from 2016-2021.
This will be S.E.A.’s second annual POW! event. It is a celebration of poetry and the environment. Students in participating schools write poems that talented scribes draw on shop windows. A scavenger hunt will help bring people to the stores to enjoy the poems. This year Maine poet Brian Evans-Jones will work with students in the 5th and 7th grades at Camden-Rockport Middle School in preparation for POW! To stay on top of all of the related events, visit: stewardshipeducationalliance.org
S.E.A. works to increase community awareness of ways to be better stewards of our local watersheds. The organization furthers its mission by awarding grants to teachers in public and private schools and after-school programs in Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport, and by hosting community events.