Celebration brings poetry lovers together in time of distance
The Illinois College community is celebrating the power of the written and spoken word during National Poetry Month in April.
The Academy of American Poets created virtual events and activities to make the 2020 National Poetry Month accessible amid social distancing. The annual event has grown since the organization started it in 1996. According to the organization, tens of millions of readers, students, teachers, librarians, publishers and others celebrate poetry’s cultural importance each April.
The Illinois College community is encouraged to reflect on their experience and share their work with the hashtag #ICPoetryMonth to celebrate poetry with other IC students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends.
Original, unpublished poetry can be submitted to IC’s biannual literary journal, Forte, through April 30.
Poetry can also be shared as part of an ongoing project to archive the stories of the Illinois College community during the coronavirus (COVID-19) global health crisis. The project, which is not limited to poetry, aims to unite the IC community through its collective experience and to collect individuals’ reflections on the crisis for future historians.
Members of the IC community can share their writings, essays, journal entries, photographs and other creative efforts documenting this unique time in history to be part of the project. The Khalaf Al Habtoor Archives and Office of Marketing will collaborate to collect, share and archive the stories of participants.
Anyone interested in participating or requesting more information can contact Archivist, Curator and Assistant Professor of History Samantha Sauer at 217.245.3595 or by email at samantha.sauer@ic.edu, or Assistant Director of Marketing and Communication Amy Jones at 217.245.3149 or by email at amy.jones@ic.edu.
For more information about National Poetry Month, visit the Academy of American Poets website, www.poets.org.