A Celebration of Great Women Poets and Benefit for the Women for Women Campaign, benefiting The Crisis Center, Saturday, April 30, 2005, 8 PM at Revelations upstairs with Barbara Dreier, Sharalyn Harris, Jannou W. Jaxtheimer (in absentia), Judy LaMar, Jennie Lee, Diana Quinlan, Christine Schrum and Freddy Niagara Fonseca.

At this event hosted by the Candlelight Reading Series, seven local women will be joining Freddy Niagara Fonseca to read poetry of famous and less famous women poets.

The legacy of excellent poems penned by female poets is greater than many of us are aware of. Some real poetic gems were written by women. Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Lucille Clifton, Sara Teasdale, Sharon Olds, Sylvia Plath, Mirabai, Sappho, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, May Sarton, Anne Sexton, and Maya Angelou come to mind to mention some of the more well-known ones. The variety of their output and intensity of feeling in their poetry are stunning, and many surprises will be revealed at the reading.

Admission is free. Donations will be accepted for the Women for Women Campaign benefiting the Crisis Center.

PROGRAM

Chorus—Sappho: Come, Holy Tortoise Shell

Diana—Maya Angelou: Phenomenal Woman

Diana—Maya Angelou: Woman Work

Sharalyn—Mira Bai: The Heat of Midnight Tears

Sharalyn—Mira Bai: In Front of His Wife

Judy—Naomi Shihab Nye: So Much Happiness

Judy—Frau Ava of Melk: I Am Yours

Freddy—Sharon Olds: Topography

Christine—Lucille Clifton: Poem in Praise of Menstruation

Christine—A Hispano-Arabic jarcha: I Will Make Love to You

Jennie—Jean Nordhaus: Posthumous

Jennie—Vicky Feaver: Coat

Barbara—Sara Teasdale: Those Who Love

Barbara—Kathleen Raine: Change

Sharalyn—St. Teresa of Avila: When the Holy Thaws

Sharalyn—Mira Bai: Is All This God Stuff Real?

Freddy—Edna St. Vincent Millay: I'll Put Chaos in Fourteen Lines

Diana—Marianne Stone: Loretta the Luminary

Judy—Mary Oliver: The Journey

Judy—May Sarton: Myself to Me

Jennie—Sharon Olds: I Go Back to May 1937

Jennie—Yü Ching-Tsêng: A Brush of Evening Clouds

Barbara—Elizabeth Barrett Browning: I Think of Thee, Sonnet XXIX

Barbara—Emily Dickinson: Hope is the Thing with Feathers

Freddy—Sylvia Plath: Mushrooms

Christine—Lucille Clifton: Homage To My Hips

Sharalyn—Rabia: It Acts Like Love

Sharalyn—Jenny Joseph: Warning

Diana—Katharyn Howd Machan: Black Swans: A Poem for Voices

Diana—Maya Angelou: Ain't That Bad?

Judy—Mary Oliver: The Ponds

Judy—Mira Bai: Mira Knows Why

Freddy—Julie Kane: Villanelle for Thel

Jennie—Edna St. Vincent Millay: Time Does Not Bring Relief

Jennie—Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill: Without Your Clothes

Christine—Mary Oliver: Wild Geese

Christine—Sharon Olds: The Connoisseuse of Slugs

Barbara—Emily Dickinson: A Little Madness in the Spring

Barbara—Barbara Dreier: Spring Rites All

Freddy—Louise Labé: We See Each Living Thing Finally Die

Christine—St. Teresa of Avila: The Sky's Sheets

Sharalyn—May Sarton: Evening Music

Jennie—Lena Lathrop: A Woman's Question

Barbara & Diana—Christina Rossetti: Uphill

Judy—Joni Mitchell: Woodstock

Diana—May Sarton: The Work of Happiness

Freddy—Helen Blackshear: House Proud

Chorus—Sappho: Someone, I Tell You, Will Remember Us

The 2005 Readings

Design and copyright 2009 Freddy Niagara Fonseca

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