International Poetry Forum

Last updated

The International Poetry Forum (IPF) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1966 by Samuel John Hazo in Pittsburgh, PA. [1] Since its inception, the IPF has hosted poetry readings and educational programs by over 800 poets and performers from more than 50 countries at the Carnegie Lecture Hall, Carnegie Music Hall, Heinz Hall, and other venues in Pittsburgh. [2] The organization has also presented a series of performances at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. [3] [4] Alumni of the IPF include nine Nobel Prize laureates, 14 Academy Award winners, 28 U.S. Poet Laureates, 39 National Book Award winners, and 47 Pulitzer Prize winners. Often cited as one of the most significant poetry programs in the country, the IPF has received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian for its contributions to the arts. [5]

Contents

History

With initial funding from the Mellon Trust, the International Poetry Forum's inaugural reading featured Archibald MacLeish at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Lecture Hall on October 19, 1966. [6] Other poets to perform at the IPF have included W.H. Auden, Jorge Luis Borges, Seamus Heaney, Mary Oliver, Octavio Paz, Elizabeth Bishop, Czesław Miłosz, Robert Penn Warren, Derek Walcott, Gwendolyn Brooks, Adonis, Donald Hall, John Berryman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Merrill, Mary Karr, Dana Gioia, Richard Wilbur, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Robert Lowell, May Swenson, Adrienne Rich, Jan Beatty, W.S. Merwin, Joseph Brodsky, John Ashbery, Denise Levertov, Tomas Tranströmer, Billy Collins, Lucille Clifton, Paul Muldoon, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Joyce Carol Oates, and Terrance Hayes. [1] [7] [8]

Participating actors have included Anthony Hopkins, Gregory Peck, Brooke Shields, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Ellen Burstyn, José Ferrer, Danny Glover, and James Earl Jones. [1] [7] [9] The IPF has also featured novelists such as Kurt Vonnegut, Chinua Achebe, and Saul Bellow, playwrights such as Edward Albee and Tennessee Williams, musicians such as Judy Collins, Noel Harrison, and The Clancy Brothers, and public figures such as Queen Noor of Jordan and Princess Grace of Monaco. [1] [7] [10]

As a 501(c)(3) organization, [11] the IPF has subsisted on foundation grants and individual support. Citing Hazo's retirement and a scarcity of grant funding during the 2007-2008 financial crisis, the IPF paused its poetry readings in 2009. [12] During its initial run, the IPF hosted its own press and funded initiatives like the Poets-in-Person outreach program, which sent authors to speak at schools across Western Pennsylvania. [13]

In 2023, after a 14-year hiatus, Hazo announced the revival of the International Poetry Forum, naming local academic Jake Grefenstette as his successor. [14] Grefenstette has cited plans to relaunch poetry readings and educational outreach initiatives during the 2024-2025 academic year. [15]

Legacy

In 1967, the University of Pittsburgh Press launched the Pitt Poetry Series in collaboration with the International Poetry Forum as a platform for publishing winning manuscripts of the IPF's United States Award, which was awarded from 1967-1977. [16]

Samuel Hazo, IPF founder and director of 43 years, was named Pennsylvania’s first Poet Laureate in 1993, a position he served for a decade. [17] [18] For his work directing the IPF, Hazo received the Griffin Award and an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame, [19] the Hazlett Award for Excellence in Literature from the Pennsylvania Governor, and the Forbes Medal for Outstanding Cultural Contributions to Western Pennsylvania. [20] [21] [22]

In 2001, Hazo established the IPF archives at Carlow University. [23] Audio recordings for the 1966-2009 sessions have since been digitized and made available through the International Poetry Forum Collection at Carlow’s Grace Library. [1]

In 2022, the Carlow University Art Gallery opened an exhibition entitled “To Hear it With Our Eyes: Activist Voices in the International Poetry Forum (1966-1974),” which explored the writing and activism of IPF participants like Derek Walcott, Adonis, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Kurt Vonnegut. [24] [25]

In January 2023, in advance of the announcement of the IPF relaunch, Carlow University presented “The Power of Poetry: Celebrating the Legacy of the International Poetry Forum,” a public event featuring poetry readings by Samuel Hazo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Richard Blanco, and Tracy K. Smith. [26] [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Pittsburgh</span> State-related university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US

The University of Pittsburgh is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the university's central administration and around 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The 132-acre Pittsburgh campus includes various historic buildings that are part of the Schenley Farms Historic District, most notably its 42-story Gothic revival centerpiece, the Cathedral of Learning. Pitt is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is the second-largest non-government employer in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Stern</span> American poet, essayist, educator (1925–2022)

Gerald Daniel Stern was an American poet, essayist, and educator. The author of twenty collections of poetry and four books of essays, he taught literature and creative writing at Temple University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Raritan Valley Community College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. From 2009 until his death, he was a distinguished poet-in-residence and faculty member of Drew University's graduate program for a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rita Dove</span> American poet and author (born 1952)

Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 from the previous "consultant in poetry" position (1937–86). Dove also received an appointment as "special consultant in poetry" for the Library of Congress's bicentennial year from 1999 to 2000. Dove is the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1987, and she served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. Since 1989, she has been teaching at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she held the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English from 1993 to 2020; as of 2020, she holds the chair of Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Pittsburgh Press</span> American academic publisher

The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

The Pitt Poetry Series, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, is one of the largest and best known lists of contemporary American poetry.

Edwin Frank Ochester was an American poet and editor. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Cornell, Harvard, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Samuel Robert Hazo is an American composer, primarily of music for concert band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wesley W. Posvar Hall</span> Building at the University of Pittsburgh

Wesley W. Posvar Hall (WWPH), formerly known as Forbes Quadrangle, is a landmark building on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. At 744,695 square feet (69,184.4 m2) it is the largest academic-use building on campus, providing administrative offices, classrooms, lecture halls, a food court, and computer labs. The hall sits on the former site of Forbes Field and contains several artifacts, including the former stadium's home plate and one of two surviving Langley Aerodromes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joy Harjo</span> American Poet Laureate

Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.

Samuel John Hazo is a poet, playwright, fiction novelist, and the founder and director emeritus of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also McAnulty Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Duquesne University, where he taught for forty-three years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Beatty</span> American poet

Jan Beatty is an American poet. She is a recipient of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and the Creative Achievement Award in Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrance Hayes</span> American poet and educator

Terrance Hayes is an American poet and educator who has published seven poetry collections. His 2010 collection, Lighthead, won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2010. In September 2014, he was one of 21 recipients of a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, awarded to individuals who show outstanding creativity in their work.

Michael Simms is an American poet, novelist and literary publisher. His satiric novel Bicycles of the Gods: A Divine Comedy and his YA speculative fiction trilogy The Green Mage, Windkeep and The Blessed Isle were published by Madville Publishing, and his most recent poetry collections are American Ash (2020), Nightjar (2021) and Strange Meadowlark (2023) published by Ragged Sky Press. His poems and essays have been published in journals and magazines including Scientific American, Poetry Magazine, Black Warrior Review, Mid-American Review, Pittsburgh Quarterly, Southwest Review, Plume and West Branch. His poems have also appeared in Poem-a-Day published by the Academy of American Poets and been read by Garrison Keillor on the nationally syndicated radio show The Writer's Almanac. Simms's poems have been translated into Spanish, Russian and Arabic. In 2011, the Pennsylvania Legislature awarded Simms a Certificate of Recognition for his service to the arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice English</span> American poet and journalist (1909 –1983)

Maurice English was a poet, journalist, and author who is noted for having headed the presses of the University of Chicago, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Cooley</span> American poet and professor

Peter Cooley is an American poet and Professor of English in the Department of English at Tulane University. He also directs Tulane's Creative Writing Program. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he holds degrees from Shimer College, the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa. He is the father of poet Nicole Cooley.

Cave Canem Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of African-American poets in Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs and writing workshops across the United States. It is based in Brooklyn, New York.

<i>University Times</i> Newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

University Times is a bi-weekly, independent newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the University of Pittsburgh since 1968. It primarily serves as the faculty and staff newspaper of the university, but is also distributed at facilities of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Joseph Bathanti is an American poet, novelist and professor. He was named by Governor Bev Perdue as the seventh North Carolina Poet Laureate, 2012–2014.

Samuel Rosenberg (1896–1972) was an American artist and Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. He showed his work at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum in New York, the National Academy of Art in Washington, the Corcoran Gallery, and in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was a beloved art teacher, and some of his students were Mel Bochner, Philip Pearlstein and Andy Warhol.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "International Poetry Forum Collection". Digital Collections at Carlow University.
  2. ↑ "Sam Hazo, Pittsburgh's International Giant of Catholic Poetry". NCR. 19 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  3. ↑ Strickl, Rhonda. "Look at What They're Doing With Poetry". The Washington Post.
  4. ↑ Lembo, Elaine (1984-10-07). "Mixing the Mediums". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  5. ↑ "The James Smithson Bicentennial Medal". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  6. ↑ "IPF Recording October 19, 1966: Archibald MacLeish". Digital Collections at Carlow University.
  7. 1 2 3 "International Poetry Forum | Samuel John Hazo" . Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  8. ↑ International Poetry Forum Poets , retrieved 2023-01-18
  9. ↑ International Poetry Forum Actors , retrieved 2023-01-18
  10. ↑ "A Princess on the Bluff". Pittsburgh Quarterly. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  11. ↑ "INTERNATIONAL POETRY FORUM". ProPublica. 9 May 2013.
  12. ↑ "Pittsburgh's Poetry Forum to Close". Poets & Writers. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  13. ↑ "Poetry Forum utters its final verse". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  14. ↑ "The International Poetry Forum Is Making a Comeback". Pittsburgh Quarterly. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  15. ↑ "Pittsburgh's Acclaimed International Poetry Forum Returns". Pittsburgh Magazine. 2023-05-26. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  16. ↑ "Pitt Poetry Series". University of Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  17. ↑ Armenti, Peter. "Research Guides: U.S. State Poets Laureate: A Resource Guide: New Mexico-South Carolina". guides.loc.gov. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  18. ↑ "It's official: Every poet is a state poet". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  19. ↑ "The Griffin Award for Achievements in Writing - NDAA". myNotreDame. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  20. ↑ "Biography | Samuel John Hazo" . Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  21. ↑ "Hazo, Samuel (John) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  22. ↑ Foundation, Poetry (2023-01-18). "Samuel Hazo". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  23. ↑ "Poetry Forum's records find home at Carlow". old.post-gazette.com. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  24. ↑ "To Hear It With Our Eyes Exhibition - IPF Poet Videos". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  25. ↑ Chronicle, The Carlow (2022-10-29). "The International Poetry Forum- From Grant to Gallery". carlowchronicle.com. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  26. ↑ "The Power of Poetry". Carlow University. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  27. ↑ culturedesk (9 January 2023). "'Poetry is universal': Carlow Event honors Samuel Hazo, the International Poetry Forum - The Pitt News". pittnews.com. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.