Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of the month at 11:00 a.m.
The Monday Group offers support and feedback for adult writers under 40 at the beginnings of their careers. Those interested should contact leader Blake Campbell (blakecampbell1919@gmail.com) to assess whether this group is right for you.
-POSTPONED-
Visitations: Stanley Kunitz’s Strange Guests
A poem-generating workshop inspired by the poetry of Stanley Kunitz.
J.D. Scrimgeour
Examining Stanley Kunitz’s “The Darned Man” and “The Wellfleet Whale,” and other poems, J.D. Scrimgeour will explore the idea of “visitation” in poetry and will help participants write their own poems of visitations. Why does one get visited? How does that visit alter a household or landscape? How might that visit connect us to history, personal and communal? Discussion will focus on both uninvited and surprising visits to generate poems about unforeseen arrivals of those lost, longed-for, and unexpected.
This is an online version of the monthly group that traditionally meets at the Salem Athenaeum on second Mondays. Please register in advance to receive the login information for the online ZOOM session.
The Monday Evening Conversations Group meets at 7:00 PM. All members and other interested parties are invited.
It may be of interest to know that the The Social Library, predecessor of the Salem Athenæum, was founded by a similar discussion group, called the Monday Evening Club. Edward Augustus Holyoke, Rev. Thomas Barnard, Rev. Thomas Gilchrist, Benjamin Lynde, Nathaniel Ropes and others were among the Monday Evening Club founders, who gathered to discuss current events and topics of mutual interest.
Topics for discussion are wide open, but must be amenable to good conversation. Examples include:
- The long ranging effects of the Civil War
- The courage to be vulnerable
- European architecture
- The importance/non importance of art
- Why have friends
Meetings will start with something to help frame the discussion for the evening, such as a:
- brief talk
- podcast
- video
- reading of prose or poetry
- music
We look forward to talking with you!