Earth Day Reading, April 22

Once again the Friends & Foundation of the Albany Public Library (FFAPL) held a reading by local writers & activists on eco-themes to mark Earth Day; this year it was held on a crisp & breezy, but sunny day, in Albany’s Washington Park, at the Robert Burns statue. It was organized by Amy Forando, & the host was Alexis Bhagat, Executive Director of FFAPL, who acknowledged the presence of the first people on this land, & our responsibility to blessing their memory. 

The readings were divided into 5 section/topics.

First Reading: A Reading for the Land and the City

The first reader was the Honorable Kathy Sheehan, the Mayor of Albany, who expressed an interest in introducing poetry to open official City of Albany events, appropriate to hear at the foot of a statue of Scots poet Robert Burns.

Poet Allie Middleton dramatically read a selection of her poems.

Second Reading: A Reading for the River and the Waters

Pippa Bartollotti read selections from her novel The Symmetries (Vanguard Press, 2022), the first novel of a “cli-fi” trilogy.

I read from my poems, one titled “Water” included in Ghost Fishing: an Eco-Justice Anthology (The University of Georgia Press, 2018) & ended with a performance of the late Albany poet & environmental activist Tom Nattell’s poem “Save It.”

Third Reading: A Reading for the People and the Animals

Sarah Giragosian read poems from her poetry collections Queer Fish (Dream Horse Press, 2017) & The Death Spiral (Black Lawrence Press, 2020).

Barbara Chepaitis brought in a moment of levity with “dog poems” written by her pet after it ate a book of poems.

Cara Benson read a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Dog,” from his legendary A Coney Island of the Mind (City Lights Books, 1955) & introduced us to the “Kindship” series by David Abram.

Albany Literary Legend Elisa Albert read “The Layer,” a poem by Stanley Kunitz.

Fourth Reading: A Reading for the Wind and the Air

Alexis Bhagat read from a series of poems, facts, & lectures.

Douglas Rothschild did a free-form ramble on wind & politics, & poems on “air” & “wind” without which we wouldn’t be able to hear him.

Fifth Reading: A Reading for the Future

Appropriately enough, the last reader was literally part of the future, Rose, a poised & confident 8th grade student who read poems by Mary Oliver & Jo Harjo. 

As we continue the fight against pollution & the corporate exploitation & degradation of the environment, resistance against which was waged by earlier generations of environmental activists, so we, the current activists, must mentor, encourage, & pass on the work to the next generation, but hand-in-hand for as long as we, the Elders, last.