October 6, 2010 | LaGuardia Community College
October 6, 2010—Dr. Kay Ryan, the Poet Laureate of the United States, will be delivering a poetry reading with commentary on October 27 at LaGuardia Community College during her New York visit. The event is free and open to the public.
The 50-minute reading, which begins at 2:15 p.m., will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A. The event will be held in the College’s Little Theatre at 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City. Those who are interested in attending are asked to RSVP by calling (718) 482-5058.
“While I was Poet Laureate of the United States, I made it my mission to advertise the vigor and quality of community colleges,” said Dr. Ryan. “As a proud community college graduate myself, and having spent over 30 years as a community college teacher, I felt I was in the perfect position to say that community colleges are life‑saving, life‑changing institutions whose students come from everywhere and go on to do everything you can think of‑‑ even become poet laureate. Never underestimate community colleges!”
“Dr. Ryan’s decision to make LaGuardia one of her few stops during her New York visit conveys a strong message that community colleges are serious institutions of liberal arts education,” said Dr. Peter Katopes, Interim President. “Her poems are a delight and her visit gives us an opportunity to celebrate her work and hear more about her life and creative process.”
In anticipation of Dr. Ryan’s visit, LaGuardia faculty had their students engage in a number of creative projects that were inspired by her work. Two English professors organized a series of events where students, the majority of whom are foreign born, translated Dr. Ryan’s poem “Say Uncle” into their native languages. The translated poems, bound in a book by LaGuardia’s own Student Poet Laureate, Greem Lee, will be presented to Dr. Ryan.
Professor Kristen Gallagher, one of the professors who helped organize the translation events, said, “Dr. Ryan’s choice of LaGuardia as the venue for her New York City reading gives our students a chance to show the nation how creative and diverse our student body is. We speak over 160 languages here, and we love literature, so this is a great time for us.”
Dr. Ryan was appointed by the United States Library of Congress in 2008 to be the sixteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress for a one-year term. In April of 2009, the Library announced a second one-year term extending through May 2010.
The role of the Poet Laureate, as described on the Library of Congress’s website, is to serve as the nation’s official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry.
The Library of Congress’s website explains that Dr. Ryan’s poems are “characterized by the deft use of unusual kinds of slant and internal rhyming—which she has referred to as “recombinant rhyme”—in combination with strong, exact rhymes and even puns. The poems are peppered with wit and philosophical questioning and rely on short lines, often no more than two or three words each.”
James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, said her work has “this quality of simplicity; it’s highly accessible poetry. She takes you through little images to see a very ordinary thing or ordinary sentiment in a more subtle and deeper way.”
Dr. Ryan has written seven books of poetry, a limited edition artist’s book and a number of essays. Her books are: “Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends” (1983), “Strangely Marked Metal” (1985), “Flamingo Watching” (1994), “Elephant Rocks” (Grove Press, 1996), “Say Uncle” (2000), “Believe It or Not!” (2002), “The Niagara River” (2005), and “The Best of It” (2010)
She has garnered a collection of awards, including the Gold Medal for poetry, 2005, from the San Francisco Commonwealth Club; the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from The Poetry Foundation in 2004; a Guggenheim fellowship the same year; a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship as well as the Maurice English Poetry Award in 2001; the Union League Poetry Prize in 2000; and an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award in 1995.
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Located in Long Island City, Queens in New York City, LaGuardia Community College, part of the City University of New York, is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges. Founded in 1971, the College is recognized as an innovator in educating students who are under prepared for college work and/or are not primary English speakers. A catalyst for development in western Queens and beyond, LaGuardia serves New Yorkers and immigrants from 153 countries through over 50 majors and certificate programs, enabling career advancement and transfer to four-year colleges at twice the national average. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.
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