National Poetry Month at Western Connecticut State University

During the month of April, Western Connecticut State University will host several events to celebrate National Poetry Month.

Students and faculty have collaborated on new publications and events on campus and online, all open to the public. According to Dr. Brian Clements, chair of the WCSU Writing Department, these events are a celebration both of poetry and of the slow return to normalcy emerging from the pandemic.

“We know that writers and audiences are aching to congregate, to hear great writing, and simply to socialize in the presence of good company,” Clements said. “National Poetry Month is a great framework for folks around the greater Danbury area to come reacquaint themselves with the WCSU community and to hear and experience some fantastic writing.”

National Poetry Month events at WCSU will include:

April 4, 7 p.m.: The Connecticut Poetry Circuit visits WCSU in a virtual event. WCSU Writing major Michelle Rochniak will join fellow Poetry Circuit poets Brian Ataka from Quinnipiac University, Vaughn Goehrig from Yale University, and Colleen Goff from Eastern Connecticut State University, all reading from their own work. For a link to the event, email Dr. Brian Clements at clementsb@wcsu.edu.

April 15: The Breathing Space Broadsides Series, a collaboration of student poets and artists, will be released on the WCSU campus and online. The series will be displayed on various television screens and broadsides around the campus and will be published in the latest release of Black & White Literary Journal for the Arts, which will be released on April 22 and can be found at www.echowcsu.com.

April 21, 8 p.m.: Sam Cross will be the featured act for the Midtown Coffeehouse in the Colonial Corner (lower level) of the Midtown Student Center, 181 White St. in Danbury. Cross will share her work from her four years as a Writing major at WCSU following the open mic portion of the event.

April 22, 5 p.m.: Student Publications will celebrate the release of Volume 12 of Black & White Literary Journal for the Arts in the Midtown Student Center, Room 217. The digital journal can be found at www.echowcsu.com.

April 28, 7 to 9 p.m.: Poets and WCSU M.F.A. alumni Vincent Kmetz and Alexis Fedorjaczenko will present “A Novel Evening of What Has Been Called Poetry” in Room 218 of the Westside Classroom