Princeton Makes, a Princeton-based artist cooperative, and Ragged Sky Press, a local publisher focused on poetry, hosts a Second Sunday Poetry Reading on Sunday, November 10, 4 p.m. The reading takes place at the Princeton Makes store in the Princeton Shopping Center.
The November reading features music-themed poetry by Barbara H. Williams and Judy Rowe Michaels. Their readings will be followed by an open mic available to up to 10 audience members who would like to read their original poetry.
In her first book, “Continuo,” flutist Barbara H. Williams’ poems explore some of the many ways music has danced through her life. Williams was drawn to poetry while still an active professional flutist, enjoying a career as an orchestral, chamber and solo flutist, and teaching on the faculty of Westminster Conservatory in Princeton. She began to write in 2013, and co-founded a duo, AEOLUS, to further a dialogue between music and poetry. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and member of the DVP/US1 Poets collective, with work published in US1 Worksheets, Paterson Literary Review, and The Raven’s Perch.
Judy Rowe Michaels, a Geraldine R. Dodge poet and for many years a poet in residence and English teacher at Princeton Day School, has published five poetry collections, most recently “This Morning the Mountain” (Cherry Grove Collections, 2023) and three books on teaching writing. She has received residencies from MacDowell, Hedgebrook, and the Banff Centre for the Arts, and two fellowships from the New Jersey State Arts Council. She has given poetry workshops and readings for teachers around the country and served on the National Council of Teachers of English poetry committee.
A seven-time cancer patient, Michaels gives talks on ovarian cancer to New Jersey and New York City medical school classes for the national program Survivors Teaching Students. She is a founding member of the nine-woman poetry critique and performance group Cool Women. Judy lives on a ridge in the Sourland Mountains in New Jersey with her Maine Coon cat and for three months a year in her family’s cabin in Maine.
Princeton Makes is a cooperative comprised of 37 local artists who work across a range of artistic genres, including painting, drawing, stained glass, sculpture, textiles, and jewelry. Customers will be able to support local artists by shopping for a wide variety of art, including large paintings, prints, custom-made greeting cards, stained glass lamps and window hangings, jewelry in a variety of designs and patterns, and more.
Ragged Sky is a small, highly selective cooperative press. We work with our authors closely. Authors retain copyright and we use our experience and professional resources to support the author’s work through the editing, production, and design process. Ragged Sky Press has historically focused on mature voices, overlooked poets, and women’s perspectives.
Second Sunday Poetry Reading, Princeton Makes, Princeton Shopping Center, 301 North Harrison Street, Princeton. 4 p.m. Free. www.princetonmakes.com.
Judy Rowe Michaels,
