By Tom Hodgkin

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
—T. S. Eliot

Echoing T. S. Eliot’s claims, April may be the cruelest month—the month of promising rain and sudden snow, of spring warmth and winter cold, of hopeful flowers and disappointing frosts. But in a nice touch of irony it is also, since 1996, celebrated as National Poetry Month in the United States and Canada. And, since 1996, that designation has been celebrated at Northwestern Connecticut Community College in the form of the Mad River Literary Festival.

The brainchild of several members of the NCCC English Department—most particularly Professor Jessica Treat and now-retired Professor Patricia Owen—the Mad River Literary Festival was designed to support the ideals laid out in the proclamation signed by President Bill Clinton that first year: “To celebrate not only the unsurpassed body of literature produced by our poets in the past, but also the vitality and diversity of voices reflected in the works of today’s American poetry.”

To those ends, the festival has followed a format that offers students and community members a voice, as well as exposing them to work being produced by published contemporary poets. The first evening is always an open reading, with students, faculty members and community members sharing an original poem or two. Students often read a selection from their work published in the student literary magazine, The Mad River Anthology. Emcees and coordinators for the event are volunteers from one of the college’s public speaking classes. Local poets such as Jean Sands, Jim Kelleher, Katieri Kosek and Norfolk’s own Susannah Lawrence have read over the years.

The second evening is given over to presentations by significantly published contemporary poets. The goal of these readings is more explicitly to expose students to unfamiliar poetry, to foster an appreciation of the art, and to introduce them to poets as individuals working to capture experience in words. Importantly, each reading is followed by a question-and-answer session where students are encouraged to probe further into how these poets work at writing, what themes are central to their work, and even what particular lines of their poems might mean.

Since one of the ambitions of the NCCC English Department is to expose students to unfamiliar lives and experiences, the organizers consciously search for diversity in invited writers. Over the past 22 years, writers such as Martin Espada, Crystal Williams, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Jan Beatty and Bessy Reyna have opened up windows into Hispanic, African American, hip-hop and feminist experience. In turn, these writers have encouraged students to explore their own lives and culture. In response, students have often discovered the power of poetry to express revelation, understanding and self-empowerment. This year, Dijana Vajushi, who is of Albanian descent, read from her poem “Use Your Power,” which concluded:

You are a powerful being
Don’t just be a part of the world
Be part of making it better.
Use your power.

 This year’s Mad River Literary Festival took place on April 10 and 11. Fourteen students and community members read on Tuesday night to a crowded auditorium. Poets Margot Schilpp and Daniel Donaghy presented on Wednesday. Schilpp, who teaches at Southern Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac University, has published four books of poetry. Donaghy, the current poet laureate of Windham County and a professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University, has published three books.

For more information about the Mad River Literary Festival, contact Professor Treat (JTreat@commnet.edu)—or wait until next April.