The Room to Write

The Arts Collaborative of Wakefield  and The Room to Write teamed up again for ACW's October Art Exhibit & Sale which took place at the  Albion Cultural Exchange  in Wakefield. The theme was Elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire.  A collaboration exhibit between artists and writers paired a short piece of writing or poem with original art. Ten artists and writers were featured and several of the writers read their featured pieces aloud at the closing reception on October 25th.  Special thanks to TRtW board member and participating writer, Kerri Bonner Leonard, for being the MC of the readings and book raffle. The ten writers' and artists' paired work will be spotlighted in TRtW's North of Boston Writers Blog in the coming months.  Thank you to the ten writers who took part in this wonderful exhibit: PJ Carmichael,  Sally Chetwynd, Jennifer Revill, Susan Jepson, Cate Daniels, Kerri Leonard, Ariane Faro, Elayne Neal, ...

We are always glad when Mother Nature cooperates (mostly:) and we are all able to enjoy a beautiful day by Lake Q for the annual Festival by the Lake, which took place on Saturday, June 8th this year!  With five local authors, three typewriters and two guest poets under our tent, there was something for everybody. Our guest authors were Susan Sabbatelli, Regina Mouradian, Sally Chetwynd, Karin Gertsch, and Christine Ricci-McNamee. Three children's authors and three adult authors (only possible with five authors because the talented Karin Gertsch writes for kids and adults!  A new feature at our tent this year was  the very popular and really fun poetry on demand fundraiser where passersby were able to talk briefly with our Poet for Hire.  Colleen Getty kicked it off at the beginning of the day, but the real stars waxing poetic for most of the day were Paul Angelosanto and Kerri Bonner Leonard pictured below. Our poets raised just over $100 for TRtW's programming...

Wow--April sure did keep us busy in all the best ways! We were invited to collaborate with the Arts Collaborative of Wakefield for their April Art Exhibit and Sale at the Albion Cultural Exchange and we committed fully to the collaboration! The theme of the exhibit and sale was "Tell Me a Story" and so we participated in three ways with an added bonus Writers and Illustrators Meet & Greet to boot!  1. An exhibit pairing 13 written pieces with 13 pieces of art. 2. Local Author Table featuring authors living all around us. 3. 3 Family Friendly Storytime Art Hours featuring 6 local authors. Writers who participated in the Artist/Writer collaborative exhibit were: Marilyn Lamkin, Cate Daniels, Susan Jepson, Sally Chetwynd, Eddie Brophy, Jennifer Revill, Kerri Leonard, Linda Malcolm, Sara Desmond, Eileen Worthley, PJ Carmichael, Janie Smith, & Alice Getty. You can see an example of their work on our North of Boston Writers Network blog with more to follow:  Shoes by Alice...

 As part of The Room to Write's Senior and Veterans programming , we have writing days that are more casual and unstructured. We call those writing days: Gather & Write . It's a way to make time for writing during the week that is less structured. An instructor shows up and offers a writing prompt or two or whatever to the group--something to get the wheels turning and the pen writing. Being the only "poet" in the group has propelled me to utilize the time I am at the writing prompt helm to offer up something poetic. Not everybody in the group that gathers is necessarily interested in writing poetry--per se--but, really, poems are simply words that sometimes appear in a flowing sundress, sometimes in a polo shirt, and other times squeezed into a tuxedo and bowtie.  For Valentine's Day, I decided to give the group a glimpse of a well-dressed poem. What form stood out to me as appropriate for the special day? The Sonnet, of course. When you think Sonnet, you oft...