Guadalupe Garcia McCall headlines COCC’s Poetry Month celebration

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Central Oregon Community College’s celebration of National Poetry Month in April continues its tradition of bringing notable poets and interactive poetry-themed workshops and events to the region.

This year’s schedule, with a theme of “connection,” will include activities in Bend, Redmond, Madras and Prineville and will feature award-winning poet and young adult author Guadalupe Garcia McCall for two in-person readings. Events are free and open to the public. Visit barber.cocc.edu/poetry to learn more.

“It’s electrifying to be back experiencing and creating poetry in person!” said Cat Finney, COCC collections development librarian, who founded COCC’s poetry month celebration in 2016.

McCall, a poet, author and educator, will be reading twice on Friday, April 22: from noon to 1 p.m. at the Redmond campus, RTEC 209, and from 6-8 p.m. at the Bend campus’s Coats Campus Center, with a livestream version at the Madras and Prineville campuses during the Bend portion. Light refreshments will be provided.

An assistant professor of English at George Fox University, McCall is best known for her young adult novels, notably “Under the Mesquite,” an autobiographical novel written in verse that received the prestigious Pura Belpré Award. McCall is also the recipient of the Lee Bennett Hopkins/International Literacy Promising Poet Award and was a finalist for the American Library Association’s William C. Morris Award. Her poems have appeared in “The Poetry Friday Anthology,” “World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art” and “I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage,” among other publications.

COCC faculty and staff members will facilitate a series of poem-writing workshops throughout the month of April. “Write Like a Wild Thing — Writing Nature Poetry with Kids” will be held from 4-5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5, in Prineville at the Crook County Library’s Broughton Meeting Room. A remote workshop titled “Auto-Connect — Creating Collaborative and Unique Works Using Lines From Known Poems” will be taught by local prize-winning poet Irene Cooper on Zoom from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13, with registration required.

Additional workshops that provide participants with prompts and inspiration for writing poems about connection will be offered from 3-4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12, at the Barber Library’s Children’s Literature & Equity Resource Center on the COCC Bend campus, and from 11 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, April 19, at the COCC Redmond campus’s Redmond Technology and Education Center, Room 136.

A screening of the film “Howl,” which chronicles Allen Ginsberg’s search for personal and creative expression while contending with an obscenity trial, will be shown from 5:30-8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, at the COCC Bend campus’s Hitchcock Auditorium. (Note: The film is rated R and may not be appropriate for all viewers.)

For more information about COCC’s poetry month, contact Kirsten Hostetler, outreach librarian, at khostetler@cocc.edu or 541-383-7563. In advance of college events, persons needing accommodation or transportation because of a physical or mobility disability should contact Caitlyn Gardner at 541-383-7237. For accommodation because of other disability, such as hearing impairment, contact disability services at 541-383-7583.