To visit the Helix Center run-down on the event, CLICK HERE
Stephen Massimilla directed a roundtable discussion entitled “American Poetry Today” with panelists Patricia Carlin, Anne-Marie Levine, Paolo Javier, and Amy Holman at the Helix Center of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and Society. Description of the event:
The American poet Ezra Pound proclaimed that “Poetry is news that stays news!” On a different note, his contemporary William Carlos Williams said that “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there.”
Do modernist maxims such as these also define the ever-expanding range and diversity of poetry today? Which poets (or groups) are doing interesting or important work? Who are the earlier poets that inspired them? And what is the nature, role, appeal and significance of contemporary poetry? When it comes to grasping experiences and communicating their meaning, what does this art form provide? What kinds of subjects do poetry journals and other publications focus on? How has the production, promotion, and reception of poetry changed in the Internet age?
In response to questions such as these, a roundtable of diverse and accomplished poets will discuss what is going on in the poetry world today. They will explore the allure and value of contemporary poetry through different lenses, ranging from the formal to the linguistic to the conceptual to the psychological. (The second part of the program will consist of a lively Q & A.)
The primary mission of The Helix Center is to draw together leaders from distinct spheres of knowledge in the arts, humanities, sciences, and technology for interdisciplinary roundtables, the unique format of which potentiates new ideas, new questions, and facilitates emergent creative qualities of mind less possible in conventional collaborations. Such a drawing together of leaders of various disciplines irrespective of their academic affiliation allows the Helix Center to function as a kind of university without walls.