The New England Poetry Club’s new summer series is reframing Americana
Presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco joins We (too) The People, Longfellow House’s series where music and poetry reclaim the Constitution’s collective ‘We’ this Sunday
By Jeffrey KellyUpdated August 2, 2025, 12:00 a.m.
The New England Poetry Club’s summer poetry series reexamines the phrase "We the people" with guest readings and performances. Pictured: Mass. native Diannely
Antigua, who is the 13th poet laureate of Portsmouth, N.H., and was featured during the July 20, 2025 reading.PROVIDED
Despite July’s persistent heat and humidity, poetry enthusiasts gathered under the shade of a few linden trees on the Longfellow House’s lawn in Cambridge twice. The two well-attended meetups were the first of the New England Poetry Club’s We (too) The People, a summer series in collaboration with nonprofit Friends of Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters and the historic site it supports.
Consisting of eight bi-monthly Sunday readings — four this summer and four next summer — We (too) The People celebrates the diversity of contemporary poets’ voices and visions, leading up to the United States’ Semiquincentennial in July 2026. Each reading opens with a 30-minute musical performance followed by a 30-minute reading of verse from a contemporary poet. In addition to their own work, each musical guest performs a piece by another artist; a selection they believe reinterprets Americana. Steven Ratiner, the president of the New England Poetry Club, selects each program’s special guests.
This Sunday, Aug. 3, lovers of verse will return to Longfellow House for the third installment of the series with a reading from Richard Blanco, the fifth inaugural poet, who was selected by President Obama in 2013, and a performance by Venezuelan trombonist Angel Subero.
Ratiner said he had the idea for the series six months ago; it was a response to being “worried about the health and vitality of our democracy.”
“I wanted a program that would reaffirm the range of voices, backgrounds, histories that come into play in American society and American culture,” Ratiner said.
The series began July 6 with Robert Pinsky, a three-time poet laureate and Boston University professor emeritus, accompanied by Berklee associate professor and multi-instrumentalist Stan Strickland. It was followed by July 20 readings by poets Stephanie Burt and Diannely Antigua. Burt is a Harvard professor and Antigua is the 13th poet laureate of Portsmouth, N.H., and the University of New Hampshire’s inaugural Nossrat Yassini Poet in Residence. The musical guest was Todd Brunel, a critically acclaimed clarinetist and saxophone player.
Advertisement
Before Pinsky took the stage, Ratiner introduced the event as a “celebration of the big encompassing ‘We.’” He noted that the Constitution preamble’s use of “We” did not necessarily consider diverse voices. Still, he believed there was an aspiration from the Founding Fathers for a more inclusive “We” that has slowly developed in America.
“I believe that ‘we’ has to be the guiding spirit in this country, if we are to continue prospering,” Ratiner said in an interview with the Globe. “‘We’ makes a place for everyone, all our backgrounds, all our histories, and I believe poetry is very often the spearhead to doing that.”
Ratiner said each featured poet had agreed with this sentiment, which showcased to him “the same sort of urgency to affirm what is really important in American culture.”
Blanco said the series’ name struck him because it underscores that “we” means everybody, a through line also seen in his work as a poet. Through Blanco’s poetry, he states claim on his “Americanness as a gay Latino immigrant not only personally but for anyone who has felt marginalized and not fully included in the narrative of this country.”
In each reading, the poets relay what “We” means to them. Pinsky read his work as well as poetry by Allen Ginsberg before inviting Strickland up for an impromptu collaborative freestyle. Several dozen people sat in black folding chairs or on the grass while a second crowd watched the reading’s livestream. Each reading will be available for streaming and playback via the Somerville Media Center’s YouTube channel.
Advertisement
During the second event, Burt discussed Walter Mondale, Vermont, and Cambridge while reading from her 2022 collection, “We Are Mermaids,” and forthcoming collection “Read the Room” — while Antigua explored topics such as mental health and the American dream in her books “Ugly Music” and “Good Monster.” Antigua then invited Somerville’s poet laureate Lloyd Schwartz to read a poem named “The Gardner’s Song.”
This summer’s final event will feature award-winning poet and founder of UMass Boston’s creative writing MFA program Martha Collins on Aug. 10. The 2026 readers and performers will be announced at a later date.
For Blanco’s Sunday reading, he said he hopes listeners leave with a sense of faith and cautious optimism for the future.
Blanco said he thinks poetry helps us better understand issues that are “abstracted and distorted by news channels and social media.”
“Poetry gives these issues real stories — real faces, real names. In doing so, poetry grounds those issues in a way that helps us better understand them and deal with them,” Blanco said in an email statement. “But, besides that, in times like these, it’s even more important to gather in community so that we don’t feel as alone, frustrated, fearful, but rather more empowered, uplifted, rejuvenated.”
WE (TOO) THE PEOPLE
Sunday, Aug. 3, 3-4 p.m. Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters, 105 Brattle St., Cambridge. Free. nepoetryclub.org/we-too-the-people
No comments:
Post a Comment