Neil Gaiman: why reading is fundamental

Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming
A lecture explaining why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens
by Neil Gaiman, The Guardian, October 15, 2013

Poetry matters: NPR talks with Nikky Finney

"And I have this - I have a friend Dorianne Laux - lives in North Carolina. And she's married to poet. And she tell me this great story at the Dodge Poetry Festival this year. She said they bought one of those real estate boxes that the agents put outside the house with the information about the house inside.

"So they put it outside their house. Their house was not for sale but they stuffed poems inside the box. And so people would stop and they thought they were taking out, you know, information that would give them the square footage about the house. And they would unfrill the paper and it would be, you know, the square footage of the human heart instead. And they would stand at the window, she said, and watch people reading the poems slowly and how slowly the car might take off. That's what we do as poets."

          --Nikky Finney

Nikky Finney Ponders Possibilities Of The Poetry Profession

Neal Conan, Talk of The Nation, NPR, June 20, 2013

"What to Read if You're Poor" benefits writing collective

The Wooster Group will host "What to Read if You're Poor"--a panel discussion on literacy and poverty to benefit the Brooklyn-based writing collective Still Waters in a Storm.

Saturday, September 11, 7pm

The Performance Garage

33 Wooster Street (between Grand and Broome Streets), Manhattan

Panelists include world-renowned authors Peter Carey (Parrot and Olivier in America), Peter Hedges (The Heights), Richard Price (Lush Life), Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (Random Family) and Russell Banks (The Reserve), and a young writer from the Brooklyn collective.

Moderator: Kate Valk of The Wooster Group

The panel will be followed by drinks and conversation.

Suggested donation: $20, but any amount will be gratefully accepted. All proceeds will benefit Still Waters in a Storm.

For more information, or to make reservations, call 646-579-5025, or email stephenhaff@gmail.com. Donations by cash or check will be accepted at the door.

Still Waters in a Storm is a grassroots, storefront reading and writing collective in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Still Waters brings together Bushwick neighborhood residents of all ages (presently ages 5 to 56) to read, write, and listen to each other in what Richard Price calls an atmosphere of "agendaless empathy².

The celebrated writers in "What to Read if You're Poor" have each traveled to Bushwick and participated in the main activities of Still Waters: taking turns composing, reading aloud, and responding to what they hear in specific but non-judgmental ways. Through this process, they have been able to guide and inspire the Bushwick writers, person by person. In advance of each visit, the group read at least one of the guest author's books, which are expert models for their own writing and opportunities to imagine other people's inner lives, an important exercise in the practice of compassion.

Still Waters also offers individual, remedial literacy instruction for all levels and ages. All activities and services are free. Still Waters now includes upwards of 50 people and has been growing weekly since moving into a new, permanent home in May, a sanctuary for thought and peaceful self-expression, right there on the street in Bushwick.