MCC to Host Award-Winning Poet and Alum

Middlesex Community College will welcome home poet and MCC alum Anthony Febo as part of its Visiting Writers Series. Febo will perform and discuss his art at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, March 30 in the Lowell Campus Federal Building, Assembly Room. The event is free and open to the public.

A spoken word/performance poet, artist, actor and arts educator, Febo is a dedicated supporter of the arts and youth education. For over a decade, he has worked with non-profits in the Lowell and Greater Boston areas, coaching youth slam teams and touring as a solo artist.

“I approach all coaching and teaching from a place of human development,” Febo said. “I often say to any group of people I’m working with that I am not here to talk ABOUT poetry, I’m here to talk about personal growth and healing – I just happen to do that with poetry.”

At MCC, Febo found family. Being part of productions at MCC taught him about collaboration and the performance process. He honed “the skills needed to feel validated in my work.”

His teachers not only understood how to teach the craft, but were active participants who helped him to “feel first-hand what can happen when teaching is approached with showing love first.”

The mentoring he received from Performing Arts Chair Karen Oster left a big impression on him. When he was opening his first play at MCC, Oster supported him through the grief of losing his grandmother by advising him to channel his emotions into performance. In 2018, she attended his wedding along with other Middlesex faculty.

“I feel as if now – more than ever ­– poetry is being used as a tool for self-exploration and discovery. It’s putting a megaphone to your heart and an audience to listen to it. It is connecting community ­– a thread that brings our experiences together,” he said.

When asked what inspires him, Febo offered his thoughts through poetry.

“This. You. Here. Breath. Gratitude. Humbling myself. Honoring those before me. Listening to those who came after. Love. Showing love. Choosing joy. Accepting. Adding. ‘Anding.’ Forgiving. Redefining. Standing in my own truth. Seeing you stand in yours.”

Febo works as a freelancer, artist and teaching artist in Cambridge. His teaching credits include Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion (IBA) in Boston’s South End, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and Powderhouse Studios in Somerville.

His new book “Tonight I Will Be An Island” – published by Game Over Books – will be released in the spring. As a poet, he has been featured at the Mass Poetry Festival, Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City – the birthplace of modern spoken poetry – and at cafes, theaters, schools and performing arts centers across the country.

He co-founded M.O.M.S. – an MCC and UMass Lowell college slam group – as well as Mill City Slam Slam at the Brew’d Awakening Coffeehause, and FreeVerse!, a spoken word youth organization in Lowell.

In 2019, Febo and his Adobo-Fish-Sauce partner Ricky Orng were awarded residencies at the Boston Center for the Arts, the National Teen Arts Convening at the ICA Boston, and the Strange Foundation in New York’s Catskill Mountains.

MCC’s Visiting Writers Series is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Office of Student Engagement. For more information, call 978-656-3363 or email StudentEngagement@middlesex.mass.edu.

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