By Pheobe Zinman

We made it to April! That was an extremely long returning. Hope you are ready for some unabashed optimism in the following paragraphs.

Saturday, April 24th is BUSY

Independent Bookstore Day - April 24, 2021

Split Rock’s newsletter brings good news: “This year's independent bookstore day is extra special because it's the first Saturday we'll be open for walk-ins! We will also have exclusive indie-only items, a raffle for kids and adults, and more!” They also have a number of great book clubs in effect - “Fiction History Book Clubs” every other month; “Reading with Writers” twice monthly and a “Graphic Novel Book Club” each month.

Binnacle Books in Beacon is open for limited hours for walk-ins and by appointment. I am in love with the radical activist vibe in there. I got some great kids’ books out of their $1 bin the other day, including “The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story” which had been distributed by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Dolly! Free books and vaccines - we don’t deserve you!

It’s National Poetry Month!

On April 10th is the 10th Annual Westchester Poetry Festival. The festival is online and features none other than Reginald Dwayne Betts, whose book Felon we discussed in the last edition of Writerly Happenings.

One Poem A Day Won’t Kill You is a clever initiative to get you to listen to one recorded poem every day. It’s a joint initiative of the Highland Current and the Desmond Fish Public Library in Garrison. 

At the Howland Library in Beacon, they have an Amanda Gorman-inspired poetry & collage project with Compass Arts. On April 6th there’s an inclusive, neurodiverse event for Autism Awareness month (April is busy). 

Howland Public Library Board Elections

Howland Library Board elections are on April 29th! Voters will get to pick three candidates from the five on the ballot and the two who get the most votes will get the 5-year terms and the person who gets the third most will get the two-year term. Yours truly happens to be running, as is the wonderful Sam Anderson, a local famous writer, and previously funny person.

Other News

I heard the next Artichoke storytelling slam is May 8 – but their website can’t confirm. If you want to go see some of the best storytellers in the HV (Hudson Valley), keep an eye out and get tickets early, it always sells out.

Beacon’s own poet and teacher extraordinaire Ruth Danon is looking fierce on page 16 of the Highlands Current! 

Lots of great writing and discourse to be found on Bard’s website for the Written Arts.

Published by Beacon’s own Elizabeth Murphy, Grid's imprint, Off the Grid Press, sponsors an annual poetry contest for poets over sixty.  Submissions open May 1 and this year's judge is Jimmy Santiago Baca! His older poem Immigrants in Our Own Land is very worth reading. 

So what do you think? Feel the stirrings of hope within? Go brush off the cobwebs and listen to the poem the peepers are reading us, greet the birds with a sonnet about daffodils tomorrow morning. Some lovely things survived the winter.