For 25 years April has been recognized as National Poetry Month. This year the Charles H. Stone Memorial Library will be joining the celebration by hosting a month filled with events and activities designed to increase awareness of and show appreciation for poetry.
Plans for the month have spread beyond the library walls and will involve the town, its businesses and residents.
At the March Town of Pilot Mountain board meeting, Mayor Evan Cockerham signed a proclamation acknowledging the town’s recognition of April as National Poetry Month.
A large contingent of businesses has joined to help in hosting a poetry contest open to all residents. Each business will collect original poems through April 15 and will select one favorite from all entries to submit for the library contest. Residents may enter as many poems at as many businesses as they wish, thereby increasing their chance to have an entry reach final judging at the library.
Participating businesses will include but are not limited to the following: All 4 Love Thrift, The Art of Massage and Wellness, Blue Mountain Herbs and Supplements, Foxy Blue Boutique, Grace and Sparrow, Elite Discount, Elliott’s Therapeutic Massage, The Hair Cottage, Indulge Soapery, Mount Pilot Antiques, Taylor 2 Designs, West End Art Market and Head Shoppe Plus and Yadkin Valley Tea Trade.
“This has been well received by our businesses,” said Charles Stone Library Program Assistant Diane Palmieri. “Our participating businesses are all excited and on board with this. It’s open to all businesses and others are welcomed to join in.”
Many businesses will be featuring special promotions and activities related to the contest and promoting the submission of poems.
The contest will be a featured event for the month-long celebration, with the eventual winner to receive a prize of cash and merchandise as the guest of honor at an outdoor library reception to be held in May.
Another featured event will be a Storywalk based on the book, Poetree, by Shauna LaVoy Reynolds. The half-mile walk will begin at the library and will follow a path through downtown Pilot Mountain. Storywalk will be available April 3-18, including hours when the library is closed.
Using a concept developed by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vermont, that has spread across the nation, the library has sponsored several periodic Storywalks in recent years. The free community program invites families to pick up outside the library a map showing a path along which pages of a selected book have been posted. Participants will be able to read the book and take in its pictures by following the map, discussing the book’s storyline along the way.
The “Poetree” theme will be expanded by library staff, who will decorate prominent trees throughout the community by hanging laminated portions of classic poems from branches. Residents are encouraged to be on the lookout for Poetrees throughout the month and to sample their poetry.
Poetic decorations or “poetry bombing” will also be featured sporadically on downtown sidewalks, featuring colorful chalk art.
Other events will include Book Club Outside at the Library, to be held at 11 a.m. on April 22. The featured selection will be The Poet X, a novel by Elizabeth Acevedo. The book is a winner of the National Book Award, the Michael L. Printz Award and the Pura Belpre Award.
Keeping with the poetic theme, a “Poetry in Motion” all levels yoga class will be held each Friday at 10 a.m. from April 23-May 28. Held on the library lawn, the free Vinyasa flow class will focus on mindfulness and movement.
Also recognized will be the life and accomplishments of the late Pearl Council Hiatt, an award-winning poet and Pilot Mountain resident. She was the wife of Charles E. Hiatt.
Pearl Council Hiatt (Nov. 19, 1892 – Feb. 19, 1956), a NC Poetry Society Member, was awarded the Halstead Cup from the NC Poetry Society as well as the Separk Poetry Cup and the Albert Berry Cup from the NC Federation of Woman’s Clubs.
“This month filled with activities will be a good way for our community to come together,” Palmieri said. “This fits well with our ‘Go for Life’ initiative to promote literacy and healthy lifestyles. I can envision this continuing and growing in the future.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com