Saturday Sharing (My Finds Are Yours)

Art and poetry figure prominently in today's edition of Saturday Sharing. And, as you'll see when you visit two of the highlighted sites, Wick Poetry Center and Art From the Heart, art and poetry can, and do, transform lives.

✭ For poetry, postcard prose, and "vagabond" book reviews, make a pit stop at the Literary Bohemian. The writing staff, who recently posted their 11th issue, have put together a creative, intuitive site that promises you "first-class passage to all destinations". Be sure to check the archive and author index to access past content. And if you're on the road touring and find yourself in need of a bed, try the Lodging section for "writer friendly hostels".

Literary Bohemian on FaceBook and Twitter

✭ Dedicated to inspiring and promoting the reading and writing of contemporary poetry, The Poetry Project, based in New York City, offers live programming, including Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening reading series; writing workshops; special events such as the Annual New Year's Day Marathon Reading; audio, video, and photo archives; a quarterly newsletter; and The Recluse, an annual magazine. Also worth noting: The Project Papers, an archive of poems or documents relating to talks or readings between 1987 and 1990. The Featured Content section of the nonprofit's Website offers poems and reviews. The Resources section includes lists of books and chapbooks received, journals and periodicals, and recordings. Membership information is here.

The Poetry Project Blog

The Poetry Project on FaceBook and Twitter

✭ Poet, editor, and writing-workshop facilitator Maya Stein, who posts her new poems and photos here, has a new blog, this every moment. Stein also writes and distributes every Tuesday 10-line Tuesday poems.

✭ Kent State University's Wick Poetry Center, Kent, Ohio, is featuring Speak Peace: American Voices Respond to Vietnamese Children's Paintings, a collaborative international project between the center, Kent State's School of Art Galleries, and a veterans' return-and-healing organization, Soldier's Heart. On the gallery page for the project, you'll find a selection of the Vietnamese children's paintings and drawings with the poems they inspired. On the video gallery page, you'll find a hyperlinked list of videos of readings by Speak Peace poets — American children, veterans, and established poets — and paired with paintings or drawings. The project was conceived to foster "a creative dialogue between image and word" and to promote cross-cultural understanding, reconciliation, and global citizenship. 

Ta Thank Khue (Age 15), Together Protect Piece

Speak Peace Project, Wick Poetry Center, Kent State University 

Some 40-60 paintings and drawings and 20-40 text panels of poems and prose reflections are available to book as a traveling exhibition through September 2013. (The current schedule is here.)

The project invites submissions of original poetry responding to images of peace and war; for submissions guidelines, contact the center's director, David Hassler (dhassle1@kent.edu).

Sample Booklet of Poems and Artwork

Wick Poetry Center YouTube Channel

✭ Thanks to an American Red Cross-sponsored program, Art From the Heart, undertaken with the Army Wounded Warriors Program, 12 American soldiers at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, are learning from Zimbabwe war veteran and renowned wildlife artist Craig Bone how to prepare for a future outside the military. Bone, who discusses his work in the video below, plans to publish a book that will feature the artwork that each of his soldier-students produced.

Getting Out the Vote: I'm proud to be one of 69 nominees for the 2011 Art and Literature Prize at 3QuarksDaily. My poem "Consider the Pomegranate" is nominee #69 and is the last entry on the voting list, which is in alphabetical order by blog name. I would be honored to have your vote. The first round of voting ends March 10. Thank you!