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Veteran poets, new voices join for WCPA’s ‘A Walk in the Woo’ project

Victor D. Infante

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

One of the uniquities of poetry as an art form is that it must either, to paraphrase W.H. Auden, be appreciated or ignored. It can’t really be played as background music at a party, or hung on a wall as decoration. The reader must be either engaged with the art, or purposefully ignoring it. Perhaps it’s the ephemeral nature of poetry that makes the Worcester County Poetry Association’s “A Walk in the Woo” project so compelling.

The project – a celebration of the WCPA’s 50th anniversary – brought poems to the streets of 13 districts in Worcester. The poems were stenciled in chalk on the sidewalks, and only become visible in the rain. The poems are expected to remain for two or three months. The poems were picked by a judging panel that included Worcester poet laureate Juan Matos, and was helmed by poet Katherine Gregoire.

“We drafted this call for poems with an intention to appeal to Worcester’s broad diversity of voices,” said Gregoire, and Worcester returned in kind. Not only did established Worcester poets like Eve Rifkah and Stephen Siddle respond, but as-yet unpublished poets like artists D Worcester 31CarolineStreet PlantationStreetarea...BrandnewOne-bedroom apartment...includeswasher/dryer,storage,off-street parking,heatandh/w...Nosmoking,nopets. Worcester CenterHillApts 503-505MillSt....TheTatnuckarea’snewestapartment homes.large1&2BR,W/Dineachapt,storage,elevator, heat&hotwaterincluded.Nicewalkingarea.Nopets.

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Crews

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for the last several years. Malique McLaran, a set dresser working alongside Melendez on the set of “Salem’s Lot,” says the situation is particularly ironic, as the “new media” often has a larger budget than traditional films due to subscription revenue and is not reliant on box office reception.

Even as recently as four years ago, said McLaran, who also worked on the set of “Avengers: Endgame,” signing the new media agreement for “lower pay made sense, but now it’s clear Netflix is here to stay.” Four years is also the amount of time that he has been in the industry but it’s only his second with the union and he supports the strike, citing the unsustainable hours asked of crews. This overworking of the set crew is romanticized to a degree as part of the industry, so not enough people speak up because they’re just happy to be a part of it, he observed.

Melendez also pointed out how productions can often bring in workers not covered by the union to get around paying overtime — they have one to three union workers and hire the rest from outside.

“We’re forced to choose between the industry and our families,” said McLaran. In some cases, even between their work and their own health. Extreme fatigue from the short turnaround between shifts leads to accidents both on and off set. “I’ve definitely fallen asleep at the wheel a few times,” he said, and he knows of multiple cases of car accidents for this same reason. His point is simple: set dressers are some of the most creative and artistic people in the industry and they deserve to have a personal life.

Health of workers has taken on even more importance lately and when filming for the new Halle Berry Netflix film, “Mothership,” a positive COVID case was found on a day of shooting a school scene full of children. Production decided to move ahead with filming without informing the parents “because the show going on was more important,” said Melendez. The normal crew and actors being exposed is one thing, he said, but it “crosses a line” when it concerns 30 to 60 plus kids that are only there for the day. “If they don’t care about children’s safety and well being, I’m sure that gives you an idea of how little our safety and well being is [considered].”

A positive COVID test isn’t the only warning that was ignored on the set of “Mothership.” While Melendez could not disclose the location due to an NDA, he said that when working in an abandoned building in Central Massachusetts, a structural engineer was brought in to determine if it was safe to film. “There was a small area they decided they were going to use, even though they were told it was not safe,” according to Melendez. It was only by chance that no one was there when the roof collapsed, thanks to a schedule change forced by rainy weather. “Otherwise we would have been there that night,” he said.

The two set dressers agreed that there are good points in their jobs: There is good pay overall and everyone enjoys the creative process, along with camaraderie in the crew. “It’s like our second family, because we don’t see our families,” said Melendez. But set and film crews want fairness from employers who are making extreme profits, as well as a safe workplace and a reasonable amount of time off.

“They make enough to keep us happy and still be filthy rich, so it’s completely unnecessary to even be at this point,” he said.

Some may be reluctant to publicly speak out over concerns of losing the work, especially during the pandemic.

“I really hope my union holds out for how we should be treated well, in light of the overwhelming support of the strike authorization,” Melendez said. “I will be upset if they take a deal that is less than ideal.”

“You get some cool gigs,” said McLaran, who worked on the set of “Avengers: Endgame.”

VEER MUDAMBI

Poets

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Zeutas-Broer and Elijah Johnson and Rapper Danny Fantom as well.

Fantom – whose poem “Mi Pueblo” is stenciled at the Tacoma Street bus stop – says, “It was a huge honor to have my work chosen. As a ‘rapper’ sometimes there’s a stigma around my art, so to have it recognized, celebrated and physically displayed in Worcester means the world to me.”

For Marianna Islam, whose poem “My contributions are too heavy for me to carry/So let me gently rest them at our feet” appears at the Bell Pond bus stop, this project hit a deeply personal note. “It’s only been in the last two years that I have returned to poetry as a creative expression of my own healing journey. I have so many poems and through the pandemic I have leaned in to sharing some on my Instagram page as an offering. The words are meant to be read and felt by the reader in their own internal voice. I think ‘Walk in the Woo’ gave me an opportunity to share my work more broadly. I am happy it resonated and hope to share more of my work in the future.”

The placement of the poems – which was approved by the city – was a serious concern for the project. WCPA executive director Rodger Martin says that, “Too often rain poetry is more slogan than poetry. But these ‘Walk in the Woo’ pieces are different. They are poems and in all their myriad ways, they are love poems to this place called Worcester. One of the significances to me was that we could reach into those corners of Worcester defined not by their architecture or building stature, but by the location of their bus stops, places which Elizabeth Bishop eloquently immortalized in my favorite poem of hers, ‘The Filling Station.’”

In that poem, the iconic Worcester-born poet Bishop writes, “Somebody/arranges the rows of cans/so that they softly say:/Esso--so-so—so./to high-strung automobiles./ Somebody loves us.”

And the love for the city certainly shows. Veteran Worcester poet Paul Szlosek, whose poem “Miracles” appears at the Coes Pond Park bus stop, says, “Although I have had poems published both online and in print, and even some that placed or won poetry contests, being included the ‘A Walk in the Woo’ project is probably my favorite honor yet. The concept of having my lines of poetry physically becoming part (even though temporarily) of this city in which I have lived for the past 30 years and that has become such a vital part of me is mind-blowing. Plus, knowing that they most likely will be read, not by avid fans of poetry, but just ordinary people waiting for a bus in the rain thrills my poetic heart.”

Other poets included in the project are Vidya Prabhu, Brett Iarrobino, Linda McCarthy, Janet Shainheit, Jury Vybz and Mark A. Thomas aka Mumblez. For more information, including the locations of the poems, visit https://worcestercountypoetry.org/a-walk-in-thewoo/.

Elijah Johnson, left, and Danny Fantom display a stencil of Fantom’s poem for the WCPA’s “A Walk in the Woo” project.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY KATE GREGOIRE

Festival

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managing director of Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts; Jessica Roscio, director and curator at Danforth Art Museum, who has held positions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and renowned fine art portraiture photographer Al Weems, whose work is widely published and displayed.

The gallery will have expanded days and hours this year: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 16; noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 17; 4 to 7 p.m. Oct. 20, 21 and 22; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 23; and noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 24.

“The big difference is we expanded it to two weekend and three weekday evenings,” Wilson said.

“Our Web Gallery will be available with all submitted work after the opening on Oct. 15 at www.smallstonesfestival.org,” she said.

“People say, ‘We want you to stay open more,’ so we’ll see how it works out,” Frederico said.

The 2018 Small Stones Festival of the Arts also had a music program at the Great Hall with Apple Tree Arts’ faculty and friends who are professional musicians and students of the nonprofit community school of the arts.

For 2021, a music offering, “Mirror Images – Art and Music through The Periods,” will be held at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Congregational Church of Grafton, 25 Grafton Common, Grafton.

The concert features a historical retrospective of the musical arts through the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern (twentieth century) periods hosted by Paul Surapine, founding executive and artistic director of the Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra, and also features faculty members of Apple Tree Arts.

The Shakespeare Club of Grafton is planning a diverse selection of offerings at the newly renovated Grafton Public Library, 35 Grafton Common, Grafton. Details may be subject to change, so visit www.smallstonesfestival.org for up-to-date information. As things stand, the schedule includes:

A dramatic performance of “Spoon River Anthology” presented at 2 and 7 p.m. Oct. 16 at Grafton Public Library. Directed by Catherine Thornton, “Spoon River Anthology” is a production of Radio Active Theatre of the Audio Journal of Worcester and the Shakespeare Club of Grafton. Volunteer actors from each group will perform several excerpts from the acclaimed drama conceived and adapted by Charles Aidman based on poems by Edgar Lee Masters.

Oct. 22, 7: p.m., Grafton Public Library: Presentations by renowned local author Nicholas A. Basbanes and his newly published daughter, Barbara Basbanes Richter. Basbanes will be discussing his most recent book, “Cross of Snow, A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,” and Basbanes Richter will talk about her translation of Fanny Reybaud’s 19th-century French novel, “Mademoiselle de Malepeire.”

Oct. 23, 3 p.m., Grafton Public Library: Daniel Mahoney, political science professor at Assumption University, will use George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984” for a talk, “Orwell on Truth, Tyranny and Human Nature,” illuminating the totalitarian effect of the corruption and manipulation of language.

Back in the Great Hall, a popular component of the festival has been artist and juror talks which will return again this year and begin at 2 p.m. Oct. 17 and include a discussion by artists about their work and a presentation by jurors regarding their thoughts and perspectives about their favorite festival artwork.

Tom Saupe, a longtime art collector with over 300 pieces in his collection, will discuss the ins and outs of collecting art in his lecture, “Eclectic Eye: Collecting Art on a Limited Budget,” at 6 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Great Hall.

Many events will be recorded for web viewing later, Wilson said.

In 2020, the festival switched to Zoom and online and “was a huge success,” Frederico said.

“The pandemic talks were a huge hit. The camaraderie and the interest and the questions to the jurors was really great,” said Wilson.

With the expansion of inperson gallery hours and locations this year, the festival’s mission continues as “we want to make art more accessible to everybody,” Wilson said.

In terms of quality, “I think the standard has risen every year,” Frederico said. So much so in the fine art and photography categories that “I do think in some ways because our standard is going up, and up and up, next year we could provide categories for professionals and amateurs. It’s just my thought. It would nice if we had another section,” she said.

It’s all indicative of a festival that’s continued to catch on with people.

“I would say it’s very healthy. An organization, the Shakespeare Club of Grafton, asked to join. The Grafton Garden Club would like to join our show. We don’t know if that would happen yet,” Frederico said.

Organizers have been learning as they’ve been going along, said Wilson.

Groups approach the festival, and ‘”when we listened, we said ‘That’s interesting.’ It’s a lot of talented people. It’s amazing.”

In 2020 the festival became a nonprofit organization, Grafton Arts Inc., and “we worked on getting grants,” Wilson said. Sponsors have been generous.

The festival held an auction recently. “That was new this year, so we’re just really learning how to do it,” Wilson said.

The town of Grafton itself is conducive to having an arts festival, since it is a beautiful place, said Frederico, who has lived there most of her life.

“I’m very connected to Grafton,” she said. She has said that her designs are influenced “by the simple beauty of things around me. It might be a bird, bottle, shell, flowers, fruit, etc., shown either alone or in interesting combinations.”

“For a while professionally, I was a math teacher,” she said. “I always wanted to be a painter. I started taking more and more classes. It’s something I’ve loved since I was a young girl.”

Now Frederico teaches art classes, including at her home studio, The Sellar Shop.

At the Small Stones Art Festival, Grafton Common is also a star as the happenings are right there

“We have the beautiful Grafton Common with the gazebo. Everything is in walking distance around the common,” Frederico said.

Visitors at the opening of The Small Stones Festival of the Arts in the Great Hall in Grafton in

2019. PROVIDED PHOTO