College of Saint Elizabeth Hosts Poetry Reading Related to Water, Water, Anywhere Art Exhibition

The floor-to-ceiling windows in the upper lobby of the Annunciation Center formed the perfect backdrop for the first CSE poetry salon, July 14, 2011, organized by Lynne McEniry, CSE academic affairs division coordinator. As the summer sun set over the hills beyond, nine poets read their water-themed works to a crowd of approximately 65 people.

The event was part of a cultural program coinciding with the College’s current art exhibition, Water, Water, Anywhere, which opened June 23 and closes September 10. The exhibition, curated by Dr. Virginia Butera, chair of the CSE art and music departments, looks at H2O in all its states through a variety of paintings, sculptures, photographs, conceptual pieces, and mixed media art works. It is located in the CSE Therese A. Maloney Art Gallery, also in the Annunciation Center. The gallery is open Tuesday-Sunday, 4:30 to 8 p.m. and is closed Mondays and major holidays. For more information, contact CSE at 973-290-4315; www.maloneyartgallery.org.

In her welcoming remarks, Dr. Butera affirmed the College’s continuing commitment to the arts. Throughout the year, the College brings to the campus artists, musicians, dance troupes, poets, and writers for events often open to the public.

The connection between art and poetry was further illustrated through the works of one artist and two poets. Art faculty member Raul Villarreal, of Verona, N.J., was inspired in part to create his oil on canvas, Memories of a Voyage Never Taken, by a poem entitled it was written by McEniry, who recently was awarded Honorary Mention in the 2011 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards. Consequently, Villarreal’s painting inspired the poem The Pilar written by New York poet Yesenia Montilla, one of the co-founders of Poets for Ayiti, (Haiti), a collective of poets from diverse backgrounds committed to the power of poetry to transform and to educate. (See below for more details about Three Artists, One Inspiration.)

McEniry is one of three participating poets from the CSE community: Dr. Laura Winters teaches literature, writing and film at CSE; and Tyefah Byers-Smith, ’12, a CSE justice studies student, has been writing poetry for 10 years. The other five poets came with well established backgrounds. Alexis De Veaux, Buffalo, New York, is an internationally known poet and the author of a biography of the poet Audre Lorde. She is on the faculty of the University of Buffalo. Kathy Engel, Sagaponack, New York, is the founder of the international women’s human rights group, MADRE, and co-founder of Riptide Communications. She is the author of Ruth’s Skirts and co-editor of We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon. She is on the faculty of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

The works of Union, N.J., poet Roberto Garcia have appeared in the Istanbul Literary Review, Poets & Artists Magazine, and Fictionaut.com. Monica Hand, a New York City resident, is a book artist as well as a poet. Her work has appeared in numerous literary publications and her manuscript me and Nina received a 2010 Kinereth Gensler Award from Alice James Books. She is also a co-founder of Poets for Ayiti.
Heidi Sheridan, Toms River, N.J., is a published poet whose work has appeared in several literary publications. She teaches creative writing at Ocean County College in New Jersey. Marta Lucia Vargas, a resident of South Orange, N.J., is a poet, essayist and writing teacher.

The story of three artists, one inspiration

Poems can come from out-of-the-way places, which was the origin of one of McEniry’s works. As a cruise passenger, she witnessed 10 Cuban men being taken onboard during an effort to flee their country and who would be returned to their homeland once the ship docked in Miami. It inspired her to write it was, excerpted below:
it was

nothing

they said the grinding engines
the trembling chandeliers

it was nothing to disturb
Lobster Extravaganza
On the first night of this funship voyage

it was
A ten-foot wooden rowboat
Oar-less and bearing a hole

it was
ten men skin burnt
close to being swallowed by the sea


That poem provided some of the inspiration for Villarreal, the son of a Cuban immigrant, while he painted, Memories of a Voyage Never Taken. The artist is also the author of Hemingway’s Cuban Son, a memoir of his father’s relationship with the writer. In turn, Montilla wrote The Pilar, For Raul, excerpted here:

I know of a man whose father knew
Hemingway and I know that this man
Painted a boat, a row boat, simple
Like the strong back of man or the curve
Of his pipe, simple like Hemingway’s boat.

The story is an example of the power of the arts to touch lives and to inspire and to encourage creative expression. As the sun set in the surrounding hills, the audience sat intently listening to the words spoken from the podium in the Upper Lobby of Annunciation Center. They sat so silent and motionless, as if not wanting to miss a word, further testament to the power of the arts.